I love serving the people of Hood County. During my short time in office, we've worked on so much good for our citizens. Here's a list of what's being done to help you and protect you.

• The books were not balanced when I took office, so after balancing them, we implemented Quickbooks to keep up with technology as another check and balance.


• We installed a computer in our front office for the public to use to access documents that they need.


• We simplified jury management and assigned numbers and seating charts to make the process easier for our Judges and attorneys.


• We help update the voter rolls by sending a list of individuals who have permanent exemptions or disqualifications for jury to the elections administrator every month. This assists election integrity efforts.


• We are ordered by the court to get the highest interest rates for our trusts and CD's, so we took appropriate action to give your taxpayer dollars a rate of return of 4.4% or more.


• Soon, we will move to become paperless, which saves money. I work with the Texas Library of Archives to go over retention time periods and we're archiving old paperwork no longer needed in our office.


• Management of legal records were not being handled correctly within the law, so we've addressed that so that our office would not be subject to legal penalty if not done in a prescribed time limit. We started with them as soon as I took office, and our office is now current on all expungements.


• Our clerks had never attended formal training. I changed that, and now all of our clerks but two have attended training. Those two will be going next month. Going forward, all of our clerks will continue training annually.


• The district clerk's office had no office policies. I implemented office policies for all clerks to sign and keep on file. Likewise, there were never staff meetings. We now do staff meetings monthly, always including other offices. This builds relationships and helps us to work together well.


• The office walls looked dull and drab, so with a few others, my husband and I worked off-hours on Sunday afternoons to paint the entire office. We have also decorated it to make it pleasant for our clerks and the public.


• We are currently working on defendant access, which will give the public the ability to pay fees and fines online. This makes it easier for the public and helps to cut down on foot traffic.


• Although not a requirement, this spring I returned to Weatherford College where I completed my paralegal certification. This better helps me serve the public with a clearer understanding of the legal system.

This reflects my dedication and passion for serving you. This is Hood County and you deserve to treated well with respect. That is always my goal.

Future enhancements include:

• Efficiency and modernization of online services to reduce paperwork by moving more processes to digital filing.


• We want to ensure our jury software is upgraded and backup all digital records.


• Update the jury plan for efficiency.