Mary Jo Hawkins
MOUNT VERNON — With appreciation and fond farewells expressed Tuesday, Knox County Commissioners accepted the retirement letter of Mary Jo Hawkins, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, who has served in that position since 1999.
Hawkins’ effective retirement date will be Aug. 31. She requested that commissioners appoint Christy Milligan Staton, chief deputy for the clerk’s office, as acting clerk until the Knox County Republican Party has had time to fill Hawkins’ unexpired term. Commissioners approved the request. Hawkin’s term runs through Dec. 31, 2020, and she said Staton will seek the position.
Hawkins said she has full confidence in Staton, who has worked in the clerk of courts office for 21 years and has been a bookkeeper for both the clerk’s legal office and its title office. Staton has an associate’s degree in bookkeeping.
“I’ve never seen the girl raise her voice,” Hawkins said of Staton. “She just very calmly resolves the issue.”
In addition to serving 20 years as clerk of courts for common pleas, Hawkins has enjoyed an overall 49-year career with Knox County, starting as a common pleas court employee in 1970. That span of time has involved working with four different common pleas judges and an equal number of county sheriffs, she said.
The path before Staton is not an easy one but will be well served by getting comfortable with the duties of clerk of courts as soon as possible, she said. “Christy’s name will need to be printed on the Auto Titles, effective September 1, and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles needs her signature to prepare to enter into the computer system,” Hawkins wrote in her retirement letter. “This requires a certain amount of time to get ready.”
Commissioners asked Hawkins if she had considered working one more year to achieve an even 50 with the county. Hawkins said she had thought about it, but a little less than a year ago, the need to be with her family, including a daughter and two granddaughters ages 12 and 13, outweighed other considerations.
The position of clerk of courts has followed an overall trend in county government that has seen more tasks become digitized and centralized, she said. As one example, the state of Ohio has taken over the Notary Public system from local control and will go into effect next month on Sept. 20, she said. Some notary work, like real estate, will be done online. Those who want to be a notary public under the state system will have to meet state requirements that include taking a three-hour class.
Hawkins said the cost of having a notarized document is sure to go up with the change to state control. Penny Doyle, administrative assistant/clerk to county commissioners, said she is a notary public and receives so many requests for notarization that it requires keeping a log book. She charges up to $2 for the service.
A story in Wednesday’s News, “Clerk of Courts Hawkins to Retire,” incorrectly stated that Penny Doyle, Knox County administrative assistant/clerk, charges $2 for Notary Public services. Doyle does not charge for her notary services but is allowed to charge up to $2. The News regrets the error.
