AREAS OF CONCERN 2: GETTING RECORDS ON LINE: PART 1

Here at RBJFO, we have no idea who will run against Mrs. Johnson in 2012. After all, that's 4 years away. However, during the 2008 campaign, some very serious "Areas of Concern" were brought to the forefront by Johnson's opponent, Steve Schaeffer. If nothing gets done in these areas, it will give Mrs. Johnson's opponent a TON of ammunition to use against her when they run against her in 2012. This includes any democrat that may run against her in the primary!

We will take each of the “Area of Concerns” and analyze them for the public to better understand each area and what has or has not been done about these 11 “Areas of Concern.” These "Areas of Concern" are all part of Johnson's quarterly Report Card that we are putting together and will begin to appear every quarter beginning the beginning of April.

The first area of concern is her attendance which we are covering every month in her monthly attendance record. So far, she has shown an improved attendance, but as we mentioned in an earlier article, it may be to the dismay of her staff. Does her office staff like the fact that she is there this much? After all, they are the ones that are there at the job day after day after day / day in and day out. Her staff know that office inside and out, forwards and backwards. And even though Barb knows little about the job (even though she has been clerk for 20 years, but she was RARELY in the office before the 2008 election, therefore, she can't know a whole lot about the office or how it operates) is she more of a hindrance because she is now there everyday?

The Second area that we would like to look at more closely is getting the "Records on Line." This is one of the BIGGEST Areas of Concerns, so we will lay this out in the next 3 parts of our multi-part series. Mrs. Johnson has had 9 years this April to get this accomplished (the COC got computers in April 2000). That is over 2 terms (9 years) to get the job done and she hasn't done it yet.

How much more time does she need?

As we all know, her attendance record in her first 20 years as clerk was dismal at best. She just wasn't in the office enough to get ANYTHING done! That explains why she hadn't accomplished that task sooner. Well, her attendance since the election has improved, so we'll see what happens.

Let's go back to 2008 election campaign and what she said about this Area of Concern(AC).

In the Sandusky Register's (SR) weekly candidates blog on October 14, 2008, they posed the following question to both candidates:

"What is the most important challenge the clerk's office faces at this time and specifically what steps would you take to address it?"

Mrs. Johnson answer to that question was this:

"The most important challenge the clerk's office faces is GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. Good customer service includes knowing the job and doing it right. The Clerk of Courts is the "Keeper of the Records". Those records must be correctly created and made available to the public. HOW?? Although, you have been led to believe that this Clerk of Courts is not interested in "advancing" the office, I advise you of just the opposite!! WEB SERVICE - court records on line, is one of our biggest goals. Just stop and think: This is not only a giant step for the public, but an assist to the office - will allow the clerk to handle many more duties mandated by law. Who would not continue to work toward this goal!"

Find her entire blog here.

OK, Mrs. Johnson, while the first part of your answer is "flowery - powder puff, non-commital junk," you finally did say that this is "one of our biggest goals." So we assume that this is at the TOP of your list to get things done! Mrs. Johnson you are correct again in saying that, "this is not only a giant step for the public, but assist to the office - will allow the clerk to handle many more duties mandated by law. Who would not continue to work toward this goal!"

Well, Mrs. Johnson, you've had over 4 months since the election to get this job done, and so far it looks like NOTHING has been done. If this is one of your "Biggest Goals," why has nothing been done about this to date?

To you the voter I ask: Does this look like she is doing the job that she was elected by YOU THE VOTERS AND TAX PAYERS of Erie County to do?

Part 2 in this series will be what she said during the SR on line Question & Answer session. Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, this gets even better.