Candice Adams: 2024 candidate for DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk

Bio

Party: Democrat

Office Sought: DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk

City: Lisle

Age: 41

Occupation: DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk

Previous offices held: None

Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election for the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you? If so, what?

I am running for re-election because I still have so many things that I want to accomplish as the Circuit Court Clerk. For staff, I want to continue to make the office a place where they want to work by developing policies and salaries that create a good work/life balance. I want to continue our focus of hiring a diverse team, which allows us to better help those who enter our doors. For our court users and filing community, I want to continue to improve resource and document availability. I would like to spend more time with our community partners disseminating information about how our court system works and where people can go to look for help with court questions. Finally, I want to continue our work with stakeholders to modernize the forms we use and to make them easier to understand for all. For our taxpayers, I want to continue to figure out novel ideas for office management that will lead to even more cost saving.

If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Tell us of any important initiatives you've led. If you are a challenger, what would you bring to the board and what would your priority be?

Since taking office, among other items, my team and I have:

- raised the start wage from $32,500 to $40,000

- enacted the first Parental Leave Policy for any County department -for all four years, hosted the DuPage County Expungement Clinic

-hosted Amnesty Weeks that allowed individuals to pay their outstanding court balances without also have to pay the collection fees. This initiative has brought in over $100,000 to date

- established a court date reminder text messaging system -implemented an inventory tracking system to better manage our IT equipment quantities at great cost savings -developed the first e-citation program hosted by a circuit court clerk's office in State, saving the County and many law enforcement agencies millions of dollars over the next few years

- worked with the Illinois State Archives to better preserve old records, including immigration documents, at zero cost to taxpayers -purchased and began implementation of a new evidence tracking system

Describe your position regarding the allocation of resources in the clerk of the circuit court's office. Are personnel allocated as they should be? Are there capital expense or other budgetary items that the office must address, and, if so, how do you propose to address them?

Personnel is our most valuable resource. Since election, I reorganized the office physically. Previously, it was organized by case types. It was immediately clear to me we needed to be organized by job type. This change allowed for more cross training and flexibility with staffing needs. It made it possible to increase the starting wage without a significant increase to our budget.

Yearly, we review our budget line by line to ensure it matches our needs. In 2024, we anticipated a decrease in revenue. We made the necessary cuts, developed programs internally that saved us hundreds of thousands, and complies with the Safe-T Act without needing additional funding or personnel.

We make budget requests from the County when appropriate, however. This year we are building a new evidence room and have asked for our own security as the need has increased. I am an advocate for the Office. Our budget year after year has supported that while still keeping the taxpayer in mind.

Name one concrete program you’ll create or personnel move you’ll make to improve efficiency in the office or make it more successful. Explain how it will be funded and how you will overcome any obstacles to initiating it.

Helping court users understand our court system and what is required of them is of great importance to me. My team and I are researching new ways to help better connect court users with the resources we offer. One new project we are working on building is offering help to our customers through Zoom. This project would allow court users to ask questions in a Zoom session and would allow Circuit Court Clerk staff to answer the questions and share their screen when needed. For this project, no additional funding will be needed, as we have the budget needed to support a staff member for this position.

Describe your position on transparency in the office and the ease of access to records by the public. If you believe improvements are needed, what are they and how would you go about achieving them?

The rules for access to public records are created either by statute or by the Illinois Supreme Court. My team and I work diligently to ensure that we are compliant with all mandates for record protection and for public viewing. I advocate for necessary changes to these policies in my work with the AOIC and lawmakers.