Del. Landes outlines goals if elected to clerk of court

On Tuesday, Delegate Steve Landes announced his goals for the clerk of court position that he's been campaigning for. He hopes to work on introducing them if he is elected in November.

Landes outlined nine goals in three different categories: innovating and working for all, preserving and promoting history, and seeking input and advice.

As part of the first set of goals, Landes said he wants to serve as a "working clerk of circuit court" to carry out the hundreds of duties of the office. He said learning that role is his most important priority, and he wants to shadow each person on staff.

"To really learn what the job is, and how to work in that job, and also, more importantly, what the staff does and their jobs. I think the only way to do that is to shadow," Landes said.

Landes said he also wants to look at adding technology to help assist the clerk staff with the workload, consider offering passports at the office again and look at the possibility of offering plastic concealed weapon permit cards.

To continue preserving and promoting history, Landes said he would continue to obtain grants for preserving Augusta County records, work with local schools to provide educational opportunities, and continue digitizing the county records to make them electronically available.

Landes said he also wants to gather input from the county by creating an advisory committee. He said it would be made up of county residents from the Bar Association, Association of Realtors, the historical society and the genealogical society. He also plans to attend civic clubs and organizations to talk about the role of clerk of court.

Landes did recognize that all of these goals could change.

"All of these things have to be done in conjunction with working with the staff, making sure from a workload standpoint and a cost standpoint, these things can be accomplished," Landes said.

He added that he does believe these are all things that can be accomplished.

Landes announced he would not seek re-election in the House of Delegates

, instead announcing he would run for clerk of court. County supervisor Carolyn Bragg, former supervisor Tracy Pyles, Lauren Griffin and Miles Bobbitt are all also running for the highly sought-after position.