Who will be the next Ontario County clerk? Two candidates make their case.

CANANDAIGUA, NY – The death earlier in the year of the Ontario County clerk sets up a contested battle for the seat in November.

Former Ontario County Clerk Matthew Hoose, a Republican who held the job for 11 years, died unexpectedly earlier in the year with his term of office scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

Canandaigua Town Clerk Jean Chrisman, who is running on the Republican and Conservative lines, will face Elizabeth “Liz” Yockel, who in June won a primary election for the Democratic Party line.

The position of county clerk carries a four-year term.

The candidates were provided two questions, answers to which follow. They have been edited slightly.

Q: How does your background prepare you for the job of Ontario County Clerk?

Jean Chrisman: The county clerk position is not a policy-making position. It is a position that interprets the law and helps residents and business owners understand procedures. During my 26 years working in local government, I have shown my dedication to the public, worked closely with my peers assisting residents through permitting processes, obtaining licenses, and protecting confidential information. I have learned the importance of submitting monthly and annual reports to local and state agencies in required time frames, listening to the needs of my residents, and what it takes to be part of a teamwork environment to get the job done.

I have learned the importance of networking with my fellow town clerks locally and across New York state to learn all the aspects of the elected position. These skills will help foster a strong working relationship with county clerks across New York state.

As a town clerk who is called upon for advice by fellow clerks, it shows that I have strong leadership skills and the willingness to help others, all traits that are necessary for a competent county clerk. I will use those skills along with my excellent communication skills to work with my staff to guide them and support them. It takes a team to make an office run efficiently, and I will use these skills to create that team environment.

The county clerk needs to be someone who understands the operation and processes of local government and should have experience reading and interpreting rules and regulations that govern a clerk's office. I have the experience of not only reading, interpreting, and explaining local rules and regulations, I also have the understanding of what it takes to understand and enforce New York state rules and regulations.

Liz Yockel: I was born and raised in Ontario County and graduated from Marcus Whitman. After leaving the area to attend Johns Hopkins University and Vermont Law School, I settled in Honeoye in 2011. I am familiar with the needs of urban and rural residents and am ready to ensure their needs are met.

While at Johns Hopkins, I joined AmeriCorps and worked in the Baltimore city schools as a school-community partnership coordinator. It was my job to network and build partnerships to meet the needs of the community. I wrote grants, digitized a school library, recruited, trained, and managed dozens of volunteers and staff, and turned an asphalt courtyard into a diverse garden that we used as a teaching tool. Working alongside teachers, administrators, students, and the larger community taught me how to listen to a wide variety of interests and create solutions that benefited all stakeholders.

My legal education included working in the Vermont State Legislature, researching constituent needs and legal issues for lawmakers, and helping to craft policy and law. I later worked as a legal editor in Rochester, working to create books that assisted practicing attorneys. I refined my attention to detail and exactness in these jobs and I will use these skills to ensure the office is compliant.

I also have extensive experience working with nonprofit boards and was elected to the Richmond Town Board. In every case, I came into those situations to solve a problem – helping with legal compliance, grant writing, organizational issues, developing processes, creating programming, researching technology to make an organization more efficient and accessible, etc. I am ready to bring my past problem solving to the county clerk’s office to ensure we have an efficient office ready to serve the entire county.

Q: What are your plans for the office if elected?

Chrisman: When elected, I will:

With the help of my staff, develop a strategic plan addressing the office's daily challenges to streamline the services of both offices.

Invest in my staff by promoting ongoing training to strengthen their skills and knowledge. This will only enhance the excellent customer service the staff is providing today.

With the support of the county administration and Board of Supervisors, I will conduct a feasibility study for expanding Department of Motor Vehicle and county clerk services throughout Ontario County. This could include expanded hours in Canandaigua, installing secure drop-boxes in our rural communities, reopening the DMV office in Geneva, and/or opening a satellite office in the Victor area. These expanded services can be accomplished by having flexible staff schedules with minimal impact on the fiscal budget.

Meet all deadlines for the submission of financial reports to state and local agencies. Re-establish the processing of passports in the county clerk's office. Implement the ability for customers to use a debit/credit card in the county clerk's office.

Continue the tradition of opening the doors of the DMV office on an autumn Saturday in support of our local veterans, which allows them the ability to process their license renewals, obtain non-driver IDs, and vehicle registrations in coordination with representatives from the VA and OC Veterans Agency.

Make records more accessible to the public by first implementing tools to ensure that information cannot be compromised or used fraudulently.

Yockel: Accessibility is my top priority.

We have a clerk’s office and DMV that are centralized in the city of Canandaigua, which is not convenient for many in our county. I want to partner with local communities, so no one has to leave Ontario County, or even their town, in search of services. Setting up services in local municipal offices and libraries is a low-cost option for better reaching people.

Customer service is a priority for public-facing offices such as the clerk’s office and the DMV. As someone who has run a retail business for almost a decade, I am well-versed in ensuring customer satisfaction and want to ensure people have a great experience when conducting their business in both the clerk’s office and the DMV. Listening to customers about their experiences and working with the employees who are the front lines in these offices to give them the resources they need to do their jobs is another of my priorities.

Another priority is to ensure we are using new technology so employees can complete their work efficiently, digitizing files so that public records are more easily accessed by people and businesses who need to research them, and ensuring we are running an efficient office that works with people instead of being an obstacle to them by allowing electronic filings instead of requiring antiquated in-person, hard-copy filings.

Finally, I think restoring the public’s trust in this elected office is important. I will run this office with integrity, a focus on compliance, and a daily goal of meeting the needs of constituents. I will relentlessly advocate for the needs of people in Ontario County.

Getting to know Jean Chrisman

Jean Chrisman, 55, and husband Jerry have been married for 29 years; they have a daughter Heather. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, bicycling, and participating in 5Ks and half-marathons.

Her professional career began in healthcare working in administrative and executive offices. Twenty-six years ago, her career in public service started at the town of Canandaigua as zoning officer. In November 2013, she was elected town clerk. In addition to administering and providing access to public records as the town's records management officer, she serves as the receiver of taxes, registrar of vital statistics, clerk to the Town Board, and supervisor of three professional full-time deputy clerks. She is treasurer of the Ontario County Municipal Clerks Association and president of the Ontario County Tax Collectors Association.

Getting to know Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Yockel

Liz Yockel, 42, is a self-employed small business owner in Honeoye who is about to celebrate 10 years of owning and operating The Fuzzy Bunny, which is a yarn/craft shop with a classroom and studio where she makes soap, dye yarn, and teaches people how to knit and spin.

Her partner, Devan Bissonette, is a history professor, and her mother, Michele Fernaays, is a retired art teacher at Bloomfield Central School. Her father, John Yockel, is a retired long-haul truck driver.

Yockel’s hobbies include fiber arts (knitting, dyeing, felting, weaving), gardening, cooking, volunteering with community groups, and renovating her 1850s farmhouse.

When to vote

Early voting starts 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, and continues 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30; noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31; noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3; and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Ontario County Board of Elections Office, 74 Ontario St., Canandaigua; Victor Town Hall, 85 E. Main St., Victor; and Geneva Housing Authority Office, 41 Lewis St., Geneva.

The general election is 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Mike Murphy covers Canandaigua and other communities in Ontario County and writes the Eat, Drink and Be Murphy food and drink column. Follow him on X at @MPN_MikeMurphy. 

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: Who is running for Ontario County NY clerk? What to know