Clerk of Courts candidates
Mary Swain
, incumbent
Age: 56
Residence: Madison Twp.
Occupation: Butler County Clerk of Courts. Former common pleas court judicial assistant and manger of court administration for 8 years.
Years in Office: 1 year
Key accomplishments: Refunding $1 million from the title fund to the county's general fund, reducing costs with a new postage system, initiated meetings with judges and the county bar association to talk about service in the office, aligning email with the countywide system.
Jeff Wyrick
Age
: 43
Residence: Fairfield
Occupation: Former interim county clerk of courts, served as deputy clerk and worked in the clerk's office for 10 years, previously probation officer in Hamilton, Clermont counties. Currently information technology consultant and teacher of criminal justice classes.
Key accomplishments: As former deputy chief, managed 80 employees in four locations performing than 750,000 transactions per year. Also project manager for web-based imagining of court records, title records and e-title of vehicles and the Butler County Criminal Justice Integration Project for easier access to criminal records.
Butler County Clerk of Courts Mary Swain is being challenged in the March Republican primary by a former deputy clerk in the office who she fired just weeks after receiving the GOP’s appointment to the post.
Swain, 56, of Madison Twp. and Jeff Wyrick, 43, of Fairfield are both seeking election to the office that was left empty when long-time clerk Cindy Carpenter was elected county commissioner in November 2010.
The two face each other in the March 6 Republican primary.
Wyrick, deputy clerk of the office for Carpenter, was appointed by county commissioners to fill the office for 25 days until the Butler County GOP appointed Swain in 2011.
Less than a month later, Swain realigned the department after discovering 12 employees were being paid from the title division fund who were not working 100 percent for that division. She terminated five positions, which included Wyrick’s job, and began paying the remainder of the employees from both the title and legal division, depending on their job responsibilities.
Wyrick points to an audit by the state auditor’s office that said there was nothing criminal in the way clerk’s office employees were paid from a different fund. The state recommended the county adopt a formal administrative procedure of payroll allocations and maintain documentation to support the payroll allocations to the various funds.
Swain said she never indicated there was any criminal wrongdoing, but added she felt the practice was improper.
Wyrick said after working for 10 years in the department, he knows all aspects of the clerk of courts office.
“I have the ability to analyze the processes and systems in the office; that makes me the better candidate,” Wyrick said.
The restructuring of the office, Swain said, has helped make the department more efficient and resulted in $1 million from title funds being refunded to the county’s general fund last year.
Ohio law does not require Swain to return surplus money, but she said, “it is the right thing to do.”
Wyrick said $900,000 of the $1 million returned by Swain to the general fund was in the coffers when she took office. He questions why she took so long to return the funds.
“It’s OK to protect a nest egg, but not politically exploit it,” Wyrick said.
According to documentation provided by Swain’s department, the balance was about $784,000.
Swain has 22 years of court experience, serving as judicial assistant to two Butler County common pleas judges and working for eight years as manager of court administration.
Wyrick said his knowledge of IT work and criminal justice, with degrees in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati and Thomas More College, more than qualify him for the job.
“My synergy has been criminal justice and IT,” Wyrick said. “I can sit down and explain the system to judges and still know what is needed from the IT side.”
He has also worked as a probation officer and later worked as a project manager and trainer for the Courtview program in four states, which is the program Butler County uses today. That program, Wyrick said. maximizes efficiencies by computerizing court records.
When Swain saw an opportunity to become clerk, she took it.
“After years of working daily with the Butler County vommon pleas judges, I understood the needs of the judicial system and the staff and I understood the changes that needed to be made,” Swain said.
Swain said the computer system has been updated in the clerk’s office and now she claims it has less technical support costs and is faster to users with its broadband connection.
Other updates and streamlining measures includes a new postage system, an email system that is now aligned with the countywide system, overhaul of the website and meetings with judges and the county bar association to discuss the office.
“I am thrilled at the opportunity to let voters in this county know what we have done to fix this office,” Swain said.
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