Two Vie for Clerk of Court

Two Republican candidates are vying for the office of Door County Clerk of Courts in the Tuesday, Aug. 12, election.

Connie Defere

Connie DeFere, 46, Sturgeon Bay, has served for the past 10 years as the clerk at the Door County Jail. She attended grade school at Sts. Peter & Paul and Sevastopol High School; she has an Associate Degree in Interior Design from Fox Valley Technical College, as well as Accounting, Business and Excel classes at Northwest Wisconsin Technical College. She also has experience as a business owner/office management, waitress, and has volunteered and held leadership rolls with 4-H, Girl Scouts, Church and School committees.

Q:  What separates you from the other Republican candidate in the primary election, and why do you want to be Clerk of Court of Door County?

A:  My past experiences will give me a diverse array of qualifications to deal with the various requirements and challenges of the clerk of court office. I would like to become the next Clerk of Court to enhance myself professionally and to better serve my community.

Q:  What do you think is the most important mission of the elected position you are seeking?

A:  When the public comes in contact with the Clerk of Courts office it is usually in connection with a stressful situation. I feel our most important mission is to compassionately help them with understanding the paperwork and process that they are facing. Some examples would be offering a brochure listing all the services in the community available for the public as well as to simplify by adding e-payments to our system.

Q:  What is the value of a partisan election for Clerk of Court?

A:  It gives the voters an option as to what set of values they would like in that position. I feel the value in holding this local office would be in positively influencing the upper management in the courts system.

Q:  If elected what do you expect to be the biggest challenge of the office?

A:  I am really excited to manage a great group of hardworking individuals and discover their strengths as well as reinforce the connection with the other county offices. As we all know, when working with multiple factions conflict may arise and I am confident that I will be able to resolve any issues.  

Q:  If you had to pick a campaign theme song, what would it be?

A:  “Let’s Work Together” by Canned Heat.

Laurie Babler Schlaefer

Laurie Babler Schlaefer, 50, has been a deputy clerk in the Door County Clerk of Courts office for 16 years. Before that she worked as a member of the office staff at Algoma Hardwoods for four years and spent 11 years at Peterson Builders, Inc.

Q:  What separates you from the other Republican candidate in the primary election, and why do you want to be Clerk of Court of Door County?

A:  I have been working in the Clerk of Courts office for almost 16 years. I’m looking for a new challenge after working as a criminal clerk for my entire career within the office. I understand how the office works and feel I can offer new ideas and leadership to help improve the efficiency of the office.

Q:  What do you think is the most important mission of the elected position you are seeking?

A:  First, we are looking at becoming more user friendly for the public by providing services such as paying fines online and e-filing of documents. We are open to having the public stop in with any questions they may have. We at the Clerk of Courts are not allowed to give legal advice but we can try to steer the person in the direction of someone that may be able to answer their questions. Second, collection of fines. We need to look at the process currently in place and see what we can do to improve upon it to help collect both past due and present fines owed to Door County.

Q:  What is the value of a partisan election for Clerk of Court?

A:  The Clerk of Court cannot set political policy but can help bring out votes for State and Federal offices.

Q:  If elected, what do you expect to be the biggest challenge of the office?

A:  Again, collection of fines is one of the biggest challenges. A few other things we will be looking into in the near future are e-filing and going paperless. Both methods will save time and space and reduce our cost for file folders and labels.

Q:  If you had to pick a campaign theme song, what would it be?

A:  “We’ve Only Just Begun” by The Carpenters. The beginning of new leadership, changes, challenges, friendships, etc.