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Wilson Says She Brings 'A Vision For The Future' To Clerk's Office

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2008

Mary E. Wilson, 36, the director of compliance and internal audits with the clerk of courts office, was born in Avon Park and raised in Sebring. She led the audits of the Highlands County library system, the 911 system, the three budget office employees fired because of e-mails and gasoline stolen from county pumps.

Wilson has degrees from South Florida Community College and Webber University, which include a master's of business administration. She has 10 years of state and local government experience, and is trained in fraud and financial examinations, crime intelligence, ethics and records management.

She is active in her church, likes fishing, the outdoors and reading.

Q: Why should the voters select you for clerk of courts?

The most important role I will have as clerk of courts is essentially being the Chief Financial Officer of the county, the guardian or watchdog over taxpayer funds. Almost 75 percent of what the clerk's office does is financial in nature, handling over $200 million a year, all of the accounting, finance, payroll, accounts payable and receivables for the county. Having someone with a financial education and experience is very important in tough economic times with more looming budget cuts.

I bring a fresh new approach, a vision for the future. My combination of education and experience gives the taxpayers an advantage my opponent can't offer. It would be unrealistic to think that we can continue to operate the way we have when the economy was good. We simply can't!

Q: Describe your management style and what kind of changes would you make to the office as it's currently operated?

My management style is proactive. I believe that policies and procedures can be put into place to prevent problems before they happen. Changes I would like to make are:

Reduce the clerk's budget by implementing internal audits at the clerk's office, review staffing level to streamline duties, promote teamwork and collaboration among agencies.

Improve efficiency of clerk departments; upgrade technology sooner, integrate legislative mandates quicker, ongoing monitoring to gauge the effectiveness of operations to reduce the burden on taxpayers.

Enhance customer service with fraud, waste and abuse hotlines. Implement in-house training for customer service and sexual harassment policies and procedures. Provide a system of customer comment cards/surveys to see where improvements can be made, review customer self-help options.

Q: What can the clerk of courts office do better, and what does it do well now?

I feel that the clerk's office is behind on technology and that better technology could be implemented quicker. There are trust funds set up with the state of Florida for Court Technology Modernization and Public Records Modernization, the burden of upgrades would not fall back on the taxpayers. I want to make a push for Highlands County in Tallahassee regarding the statewide e-filing portal and other Senate bills that affect the clerk of courts operations. I want to review the needs of the citizens as well as the judiciary and governing boards to ensure all needs are being met with enhanced efficiency and effectiveness of services. Currently the clerk's office does a great job with the Teen Court, recently credit card payments have been implemented and the digital imaging of court documents has begun.

Q: Will citizens notice a difference in the clerk of courts office under your direction?

Absolutely, I bring a fresh approach, a vision of change for the future of our clerk of courts office. The clerk's office has an excellent staff and we can become better with training, an open door policy and a greater presence by the clerk in all areas of operation. Customer service must improve; fraud, waste and abuse hotlines will be implemented to give the taxpayers and staff a way to voice their concerns without fear of intimidation. We must improve the ease of technology for everyday users of the court system.

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