Tyack touts experience as clerk of court
ELECTIONS
After serving nearly 12 years as clerk of the Franklin County Municipal Court, Lori M. Tyack is being challenged by a political newcomer in her bid for a third term.
Aaron Schlabach, a 25-year-old baker, says he can bring “fresh eyes, fresh perspective and a youthful energy” to the job.
Tyack, who turns 54 on Tuesday, was a paralegal who worked for private law firms
and as a bailiff in the Common Pleas court before winning her first term as Municipal Court clerk in 2005. She was reelected in 2011.
“I have 34 years of experience, half of it in the private sector and half of it in the public sector,” she said.
The winner of the November election will get a six-year term at an annual salary of $94,090.
The clerk’s office is responsible for maintaining the records of all cases filed in Municipal Court and collects and distributes about $40 million in court costs and fines a year. The office has more than 160 employees and a $12.1 million budget.
Tyack, a Democrat who lives on the Northeast Side, said her years in office have been marked by upgrades in technology and improved efficiencies.
Schlabach, a Republican who lives on the Far West Side, said he can handle the duties of the clerk’s office despite a background in restaurant kitchens. He spent two years at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. “Being in the culinary field requires an attention to detail that’s necessary for this office,” said Schlabach, a baker at the Blackwell Inn at Ohio State University.
He said he feels a calling to public service and became interested in the office because of complaints he’s heard from his mother, a legal secretary. In particular, he believes the office has been slow in developing a system of electronic filing for all documents.
The lack of such technology, known as e-filing, was an issue in Tyack’s last run for reelection. She said strides have been made in that area this year with the launching of pilot programs. They include allowing electronic filing of tax-related complaints by the Columbus city attorney’s office, various cases in environmental court and traffic tickets by the State Highway Patrol and other lawenforcement agencies.
Tyack and Schlabach both are lifelong central Ohioans. Tyack attended Whitehall City Schools and earned an associate degree as a legal assistant from Columbus State Community College and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ohio Dominican University.
Schlabach attended SouthWestern City Schools and has taken business classes at Columbus State.