Marcia Johnson seeks reelection as clerk

Marcia M. Johnson filed her letter of intent Thursday to seek reelection to the office of Clerk of Courts.

Johnson,.55, 5 Ellis Van Vleet Street, Apalachicola, filed as a Democrat. She now is legally entitled to begin the process of getting petitions signed, with signatures due to the Supervisor of Elections office by May 7. Johnson would then be on the Aug. 14 primary ballot, provided she officially qualifies during this June 4 to 8 qualifying period.

In the event that only Democrats filed for this office, or any of the county offices, Republicans and those without party affiliation would be able to vote in any race that has candidates from only one political party, known as a “universal” race.

The following is a statement issued by the candidate:

Marcia M. Johnson has held the office for eight years, having been elected in 2004 and re-elected without opposition in 2008. As Clerk of the Court, Mrs. Johnson serves three primary functions: 1) chief administrator of daily court operations, 2) county recorder and 3) finance officer for the county. According to Mrs. Johnson, in 1998, Florida voters approved an amendment to Article V of the Florida Constitution which shifted the majority of funding of court responsibilities from local county government to the State of Florida although the county must provide office and meeting facilities, security, utilities, and the costs of communications services. The clerk’s office operates on two distinct budgets and fiscal years (state and county) and is subject to many financial and operational audits.

Mrs. Johnson identified some of her reasons for seeking another term. First, she said she still enjoys the job. Secondly, she has some big projects in the works that she would like to see through. Her office is beginning the process of accepting electronic filings in the court division. This could help eventually make more types of court records available to the public online and is a step toward directives to become “paperless.” She is in the process of updating her case management software to a new system called CLERICUS that will provide a state-of-art upgrade to the existing case maintenance applications and will streamline the clerk’s processes. Third, Clerk Johnson stressed there can be no disputing the importance of experience as it relates to her constitutional duties. Her career in the clerk’s office spans over a period of 37 years.

Mrs. Johnson said she is proud of the achievements accomplished during her tenure including efforts to scan and digitize older paper records including marriage licenses, probate, plats, county commission minutes and ordinances, official property records, and some court records. The protection of the official records was the driving factor, she said. She has installed a data protection system allowing for storage and back-up of records and network-based disaster recovery off-site. She also expressed pride regarding the records that she has made available for public access and improvements to her website, www.franklinclerk.com. She reported she accepted the challenge to keep up with modern technology and changing legislation. She has put a program in place that provides the audio of the county commission meetings immediately following the meetings, and she writes her own monthly column for the paper to keep her constituents informed of clerk-related procedures..

When it comes to her office, Mrs. Johnson stated she knows she has used transparency, accountability and strong fiscal leadership as her guide. “I maintain an open door policy, and I’m always available to anyone who walks into my office,” she added. “When I first ran for election, I emphasized what mattered to me was that people received the help they needed from the clerk, and I can always be found at my office, and I have given that help.”

Johnson has served on various committees with the Florida Association of Court Clerks and the Clerks of Courts Operations Corporation. She is serving her third year as chair of the Best Practices committee of the association which is geared toward helping clerks improve efficiency and performance while reporting reliable data and meeting statutory requirements as well as increasing standardization between clerks’ offices statewide.

She is active in her community as well as a member of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and the Philaco Woman’s Club. She has been married for 37 years to her husband, Robbie. They have three sons and five grandchildren which she said completes her time when she’s not working.