GREENFIELD — Debra Carnes spent much of the morning of her first day as Hancock County auditor on Wednesday entering county meeting dates in her 2019 calendar and organizing a box of supplies for Thursday’s commissioners meeting.
Fortunately for her, she said, her new staff started the first day of the new year “business as usual.”
“They’re not missing a beat, and that’s very helpful for me,” Carnes said.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryShe’s one of four officeholders adjusting to new positions in Hancock County government as the county courthouse and annex building this week opened for business for 2019. Many have spent the holiday-shortened week unpacking boxes and getting familiar with their new surroundings.
For Carnes, it was a short trip: She previously was the county recorder and worked down the hall. The former auditor, Robin Lowder, met with Carnes on Monday and gave her some reminders before she left.
“She was really good at providing some great notes for me and providing a lot of direction,” she said.
Carnes said she’ll spend most of her first days in office putting stamping her name on documents, turning in the annual financial report to the state and preparing for eight January county meetings.
While Carnes left the recorder’s office, Marcia Moore, who previously served as county clerk for eight years, moved in. Moore said she spent Tuesday “cleaning kitchen” and organizing her new office.
Moore joked with her new staff on Wednesday, saying the first two priorities in the office is choosing a radio station and decorating the blank walls in the room, saying it’s a “clean slate.”
“When you’ve been doing something for a long time, you kind of get into a rut,” Moore said. “But it was really exciting today to come in and go, oh, I can learn something new today.”
First, Moore plans to learn how to officially record county documents. She had to file court documents as clerk, so she hopes to use that past experience in her transition to recorder.
“I just want to continue to serve to the best of my ability like I have been serving,” she said, “so I don’t know if anything’s really new in that aspect.”
Lisa Lofgreen, a newcomer to county government, will take over for Moore as clerk. The former legal assistant for the Pritzke & Davis law firm started working as a part-time employee in the clerk’s office early last month, so Moore could start training Lofgreen sooner.
“It was nice to have some time to get into the office before taking office,” Lofgreen said. “It makes that transition go much more smoothly.”
Lofgreen said she focused on housekeeping duties on Wednesday, making sure her username and passwords worked for software programs and submitting claims by the end of the day. Lofgreen still hasn’t found the time to unpack a box of her belongings, she added, while she marveled at the copper trim, marble window sills and tall ceilings in her courthouse office.
“I love this historical building,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”
Lofgreen said she plans to next meet with the election office staff and also talk to the county judges and prosecutor’s office to see how to better streamline court document filing.
Katie Molinder, now the Hancock County assessor, is another new face in the annex building. She started meeting one-on-one with her 11-person staff on Wednesday.
“I’m not sure I ate today, but it’s going well,” she said with a laugh.
Molinder had previously worked for the Hancock County prosecutor’s office and more recently as the chief deputy assessor in Tippecanoe County. Now, as the elected officeholder, her role has shifted from being a person whose “neck’s not on the line” as just an employee of a government office.
“So now it’s all on my shoulders, and I’m responsible for all of the deadlines, everything that’s going on,” she said.
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Hancock County Sheriff Brad Burkhart has taken office and has chosen his command team. In a story in the Weekend edition, find out who has filled the top jobs and read about their plans for the sheriff’s department.
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