Maxheimer points to qualifications for circuit clerk post

[December 01, 2009]  Suzann Maxheimer, who is currently serving as circuit court clerk in Logan County, is a candidate for that office in the spring primary. She was appointed by the Logan County Board to serve as circuit clerk beginning Oct. 1 to complete Carla Bender's term after Bender accepted a state appellate court clerk position

In a prepared statement, Maxheimer said:

I am proud to announce my candidacy for the Republican nomination for the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Logan County in the primary election on February 2, 2010.

I have been serving the citizens of Logan County as the Circuit Clerk since October 1, 2009 after being appointed by the Logan County Board.

My husband Mark and I have been married for twenty-two years and we have two children. Mark is employed at Elkhart Grain Company as the operations manager. Jessica is a junior at ISU majoring in history and Garret is a freshman at MPHS.

We live in rural Elkhart on our small grain and livestock farm. Mark and I share in the responsibilities of maintaining our agri-business. His knowledge of machinery and my instinct for cattle have been a successful combination through the years. I believe that Logan County agriculture has been and always will be the backbone of our society and I will continue to be a proud supporter.

My experience in the circuit clerk's office dates back more than a decade. I was first trained with the general knowledge and duties of the office and then soon became an assistant to the felony clerk. I worked hard and learned quickly and in 2001 I moved into the position of felony clerk. I clerked for Judge David Coogan until his retirement and now clerk for Judge Harris.

My responsibilities as felony clerk have been to report all criminal dispositions to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Court, prepare penitentiary documents to the Illinois Department of Corrections, monitor the daily computer system back-ups and troubleshoot any computer malfunction with our technicians. My experience has been to accurately assess costs, fines, restitution amounts, drug fines and mandatory assessments to all types of criminal cases and to help the court stay abreast of the collections of those amounts.

My current duties as Clerk of the Circuit Court have been to manage a staff of ten, oversee collections in excess of one million dollars, prepare and submit payroll and to negotiate terms with vendors to make sure that the county tax dollars are wisely being spent.

I've had the great pleasure to meet other circuit clerks and I am looking forward to meeting many more. I have met with the resident Circuit and Associate Judges and other county department heads on issues regarding maintaining operations during the transition and with developing new policy.

My continued goals for the circuit clerk's office are to collaborate with the county board, work with all other department heads and their offices to maximize efficiency and maintain collection efforts to continue generating revenue for our county.

I intend to provide the best possible customer service to the public and will continue being a strong administrative arm of the court system. I will keep the office as technologically advanced as possible.

My years of clerking in the courtroom and my experience serving as Circuit Clerk make me uniquely qualified as the best choice for the office of Circuit Clerk. I believe that my abilities to organize, my attention to detail and my strong desire to excel and go after solutions that are in the best interests of all concerned are reasons whv I seek the opportunity to serve as your Circuit Clerk.

With support of my friends and family, I have established a wonderful campaign committee, "Friends for Maxheimer." Don Peasley has graciously accepted the position of being my campaign manager and Marsha Humphres-Doerr's financial expertise will be utilized as my campaign treasurer. I have been actively meeting constituents of Logan County since my appointment in October 2009 and I look forward to a positive campaign.

[Text from file received from Suzann Maxheimer; LDN]