Letter: Staff turnover not the fault of county clerk

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Editor,

This is the second election in a row that I have heard candidates talk about staff turnover in the Island County Clerk’s Office and subsequently try to lay the blame on the former elected clerk, Ms. Debra Van Pelt. I worked in the Clerk’s Office for four years. I am now retired. Candidates saying they can fix the staffing issues with compassion and understanding towards the staff have a lot to learn.

Yes, there is considerable turnover in the Clerk’s Office. There are many reasons for this. Many new staff members used the Clerk’s Office to get their foot in the door and then moved on to other jobs within the county structure. Others faced different challenges.

The Clerk’s Office is a very high-paced and stressful job. Short of weekends and holidays, there are no breaks, no light days. The office is always running. That is the easy part. The harder part is taking care of customers. Many of those customers are coming to the counter or going into the courtroom on some of the worst days of their lives. The staff, under the steady hand of Ms. Van Pelt, always rose to the challenge of taking care of the customers. But this constant interaction takes a toll on people and some staff eventually move on to less emotional work opportunities.

Lastly, probably the hardest hurdle for many people is working in the courtroom. The courtroom presents a number of challenges all on its own. The staff member assigned to courtroom duties has to ensure all the files are ready for the judge, keep track of the files as they move through the courtroom, keep the minutes of the hearings, and also stoically deal with a myriad of cases from criminal acts, domestic violence, divorce, parentage and sometimes cases involving mistreatment of children. All of this can create an emotional overload, and some new staff members choose to leave rather than face this onslaught day in and day out.

Ms. Van Pelt was an amazing manager. She knew the court system and clerk’s responsibilities inside and out. Anytime a staff member struggled, she stepped in and helped. She also came in on weekends and caught up staff members’ work when they fell behind so the court schedule would not suffer any delays. To say she was not compassionate or understanding of the staff’s needs, and that this was the underlying cause of the turnover, is disingenuous at best. When Ms. Van Pelt retired, an encyclopedia of knowledge retired with her. I hope the candidate we elect to fill her shoes can get the job done.

Ronnie Brown

Freeland