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Sandra Kurt appointed Summit County Clerk of Courts
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: February 4, 2016
New Summit County Clerk of Courts Sandra Kurt said that she would bring her small-town Midwestern values and emphasis on customer service, along with her experience holding public office, to her new position.
And when she says “small town values,” she means it. “Akron is the largest city I have ever lived in,” she said.
Kurt was appointed by the Summit County Democratic Party to take the unexpired term of former Clerk Daniel Horrigan who was elected as the mayor of Akron in November. Horrigan took office on Jan 1 and Kurt was appointed on Jan 14.
Summit County Council President Ilene Shapiro said that Kurt will “bring all of her expertise, work ethic and county understanding to the office of the clerk of courts [as soon as] she walks in that door.”
Kurt brings both private- and public-sector experience to her new role.
Kurt originally hails from DeWitt, Iowa, a town of a little over 5,000 people near the state’s Mississippi River border with Illinois. She received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University where she was “hired into Goodyear right out of college.”
She said Goodyear gave her a whirlwind tour of several factory operations in Oklahoma and Alabama for a couple of years before she was permanently transferred to Akron.
It was here where she said she “heard my first traffic report.” She said she had made the big time.
During her 30-year career at Goodyear, Kurt gradually became involved in local politics, becoming a community advocate, running for office and volunteering for the Democratic Party.
With her engineering background, Kurt never really expected a second career in public service.
“If you would have told me 15 years ago that I would be running for my third public office I would have said, “you have the wrong person’,” she said.
First serving on Akron city council, she was elected to county council, where she served as vice president. While serving as interim chair of the Summit County Democratic Party, the party then unanimously appointed her to the clerk’s position.
While on county council, Kurt chaired the public works committee and served as vice-chair of the finance committee.
“Sandra and I have worked together on county council for the last five years,” said Shapiro. “She’s been my vice president for the last two years. I never doubt[ed] that when she is called upon to act, it will be done and done right.”
Working with the finance and public works committee on county council gives Kurt valuable experience, said Shapiro.
“Sandra chaired public works or several years,” Shapiro said. “With her background as an engineer we have come to count on and respect her knowledge and judgment as we make decisions relating to storm water, roads and bridges.
“As vice chair of finance, she understands our large and complex budget,” said Shapiro. “Moreover, she understands how county government works, which gives her a real leg up as she takes the reins of the clerk’s office.”
Kurt said that she became interested in the clerk’s position because she thought that it would be the best way for her to use her experience and skill set to help her community.
“I honestly feel that the clerk’s office is to use all of my skills to serve the people,” she said.
Referring to her predecessor, she said that “I’m doing this because I care about the office. I want to keep a good thing going, make improvements, and keep the office strong going forward.”
As an engineer, she is as technologically-oriented as her predecessor and said that she will continue Horrigan’s technological modernization of the office. Next up for a technological boost is the criminal division, she said.
“We are serving the public and we give them good service through technology,” she said. “People expect that. In fact, they take it for granted now. We need to keep developing it or we are not doing our job.”
She said that the title office in particular is customer-service oriented and often the public’s entrance to the services that the office provides.
Kurt has a particular interest in expanding the passport division of the clerk’s office which is located in the title office. As it is, the clerk’s passport division is the only U.S. passport office in Summit County that accepts walk-in applicants. Kurt wants to expand that business as much as possible.
“I want to go to out to businesses and to the rest of the community to offer passport services,” she said, adding that perhaps even putting together a travelling office to take those services out to the public.
Kurt said that she knows that she is inheriting a dedicated and professional staff that is highly cross-trained.
“Coming from a manufacturing background, I know that cross-training is a very good thing,” she said. “It is the way to go.”
After a day or two of setting up her office, Kurt expects to be able to connect with her employees in very short order.
“Everyone in the clerk’s office who I have connected to is very enthusiastic about my coming in,” she said.
Kurt will have to run for the clerk’s seat in the upcoming election season, with the primaries scheduled for March and the general election in November.