If you win, what happens to the people who currently work in the Clerk's office?

I am going to fight hard to make sure we retain all our positions.

The people who work in this office are extremely good at their jobs. I work alongside them every day. They know the systems, they know the caseload, they know the residents who come through the door repeatedly. That institutional knowledge doesn't get replaced -- it gets built on.

What changes under my leadership isn't the team. It's the direction. I'll bring a different set of questions to operational decisions. A different standard for how we communicate with the public. A different expectation around transparency and accountability. But those changes come from the top, not from swapping out the people doing the work.

There's also a practical reality worth naming. The county is in a hiring freeze. There's a projected $9.8 million countywide budget shortfall for 2027 alone. The conversation I'm going to be having from day one isn't "who do I bring in" -- it's "how do we protect every position we have while finding every dollar of savings we can." Protecting jobs means running the office efficiently. That's exactly the kind of problem I've spent my career solving.

The team this office has deserves a leader who shows up for them. That's what I intend to be.