Court Clerk candidates share thoughts on position

By Jacob Sturm
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With elections of June 18 right around the corner, candidates for the Court Clerk position in Canadian County have been on the campaign trail.

With that being the case, here’s what to know about each candidate vying for the position ahead of the vote.

Holly Eaton, who currently serves as the Chief Deputy the Canadian County Court Clerk, has been working with the county for just under 15 years.

As part of her responsibilities, Eaton works with payroll, timecards, time adjustments, works out front when the county staff is short-handed and has experience working with departing Canadian County Court Clerk Marie Hirst on multiple budgets.

“I’ve been working on old cases recently, whenever I am not needed out front or whenever Marie is not in need of me,” Eaton said. “I do all of the ordering, the supply ordering. I take care of all six of the judges, all six of the bailiffs and all of the court reporters with anything that they need.”

Eaton said part of what piqued her interest in the Canadian County Court Clerk position was the amount of history and research that comes with the position.

She said she also has been interested in learning about the laws and statutes, and how they work and how the county can apply them.

“Whenever I first started here, I started in small claims and then I moved over to civil and then I started helping in Criminal,” Eaton said. “I’ve worked all 12 areas of the office, and whenever I was put into the Chief Deputy role, it kind of just added to it. I was able to go out and help and
everything. And Marie decided that she was going to retire, and I knew I needed to step up. I have done all of the work, and I’ve been here. I’ve watched and I’ve learned. To be able to know statutes and know laws and how to make policy and procedure and do budget and all of that is very vital in the Court Clerk role.”

Eaton spoke highly of Hirst’s knowledge of the position.

She also stated the importance of finding the best avenue that will work for the customers, the judges, the district attorney and the public. Eaton does have goals to accomplish if she is elected into the position.

“The Supreme Court uses counties to pilot programs, and they’re piloting E-filing right now,” Eaton said. “The federal court does E-filing. We are actually in line to be one of the next counties to pilot the E-filing program, which is going to save tremendous amounts of paper, time for people to come over here. So, my end goal is to be more efficient for everyone,
whether it be somebody who can’t drive or can’t make it in here in time. They can just E-file that to us and it still gets filed in a timely manner according to the rules and statutes of the courts.”

“And then also to preserve our records,” Eaton said. “We’ve done a very good job over the last few years. We’re one of the only court clerk’s offices in the state that is almost completely preserved and digitized to where we have easier access to those records that are pre-statehood.”

Those records have been in a non-climate-controlled basement, and the work has gotten those records into the system to where they are legible and accessible copies are possible.

Eaton currently lives in El Reno, but grew up in Mustang. She has lived in Canadian County her entire life. She graduated high school in 2000 and worked at a hospital before applying for the county position.

She is Court Clerk certified, and has done over 130 hours of training for the benefit of the office and the community.

Mark Pendergraft, who lives in Yukon, is also running for the position.

He graduated from Yukon High School in 1992 and had already signed up for the United States Navy in 1991 under the delayed entry program. He would serve for eight years before leaving the military and going to Southwestern Oklahoma State University where he received a degree
in Criminal Justice.

Pendergraft had also made it a point to get a degree due to his time working as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children immediately after leaving the Navy. He said he had done that job for 10 years.

“That’s what got me interested into the Court system and all the interworking’s of it and everything because representing the foster kids, and you work with judges, court clerks, the district attorneys, court advocates, different lawyers,” Pendergraft said. “So, you see how the interworking’s work… That’s what ultimately inspired me to go ahead and run.”

As a CASA member, Pendergraft was shifted around through multiple counties to help represent the children who were abused or neglected in cases considered shocking or heinous.

He said one thing he took pride in through his work was the detail that went into his reports, and credits that work for helping the children not to have to go through the trauma again due to that attention to detail and reputation in those cases.

When it became clear that Hirst was retiring as Canadian County Court Clerk, Pendergraft was made aware of the situation through contacts at the county.

He reiterated the need for the programs to be taken care of at the county level, and spoke highly of his ability to manage people and utilize a business approach to streamline things at the courthouse.

“We’re going to take a customer approach, running it like a business to where we just look at these, instead of people coming through the door just like ‘well, they have to be here’, we look at them and treat them as customers because that way they’re being treated better,” Pendergraft said. “And it’s a better experience for them and a better experience all the way
around for everyone.”

Pendergraft doesn’t anticipate making a whole lot of changes at first if he is elected into the Court Clerk position. Instead, he will be talking to the employees who know what is working and what is not.

He claims to be self-financing his campaign, and indicated he wanted to show people he was serious about what he is doing and has skin in the game.

If elected, Pendergraft has goals to save taxpayer dollars, treat people with respect and improve services.