Jennifer Haigler is a candidate for Blaine County Clerk. She has lived here her entire life and is a graduate of Canton High School.
Haigler is the incumbent and has been the county clerk since 2016. She began working in the office part time in 2010.
Haigler gave her reason for running again as wanting to do more. “I want to do more for my county and my coworkers. I am good at my job and enjoy being in service to my community.”
She has been in the office for 71/2 years and completed many trainings on various duties like estimate of needs, the budgeting process, and audits. In the most recent audit, the county was making the suggested changes in policies and procedures while the auditors were in the office.
With that said, Haigler agrees there are efficiencies that should be implemented in the clerk’s office. Those include more segregation of duties. And the office will add summer help to eliminate the backlog in land records. Haigler feels the handwritten indexes should be maintained although some other candidates want to eliminate them.
“I have considered copy and return of land records, but some are one page, and some are 700 pages. And some documents, if copied, could have errors in them. Then we would have to search and find the original to get it corrected.”
The cost of copying is also a consideration, she added.
In checking with other counties, Haigler said Major and Dewey both retain the original land record until it is indexed.
There have been several updates and improvements in the office during her tenure, Haigler said. Those include adding legal descriptions of land records into a searchable database. Thus far, records from 1998 to the present have been added. A new Kelpro Kelli system was added in the land records office in November and all employees in that office have trained with it. Haigler is also working to streamline the mailing process for land records so they are returned to the appropriate party in a timely manner.
As far as paying the bills for various county departments, Haigler said that has changed recently so that they are sent out every week, once the paperwork is completed. That paperwork has to be in the clerk’s office five days before the payment is processed, a statutory mandate for all counties in Oklahoma.
Haigler said she is open to changing to twice a month payroll for county employees, if it is something the commissioners endorse and the employees want.
“Mostly I want the people to know we strive to deliver top notch customer service,” Haigler said.
Disclaimer: Occasionally, the editor’s spouse is employed at the Blaine County Courthouse and is paid through the county clerk’s office.