The Starkville Rotary Club heard from one of the integral and often misunderstood political offices at its meeting Monday.
Oktibbeha County Chancery Clark Sharon Livingston spoke to the club, explaining her department’s role and discussing the upcoming chancery judge election, with all three current chancellors retiring from the bench. Livingston was elected chancery clerk in November 2017, following a period as interim clerk after the death of longtime clerk Monica Banks in 2016. She discussed some of her accomplishments since being elected.
“The Chancery does hold a lot of responsibility for Oktibbeha County,” Livingston said. “Since I’ve been elected, we’ve gone completely paperless, which is a good thing. All of our court systems are handled through our computers. The second thing I was able todo is we are now accepting credit cards and all that when you have your deed recorded, or come to pay your land taxes.”
She said she was also working toward putting real estate records online, making them more accessible to those who need them. She hopes to have the service available by New Year’s Day.
She discussed the Chancery Court and the upcoming election for all three districts. She encouraged voters to check which district they lived in with the Circuit Clerk’s office prior to the November election.
“This is a very important race that we’ve got, and all of our opponents that are coming out, they’re all good,” Livingston said. “Like I said, I highly encourage you to go and see your circuit clerk to know what district that you are in.”
The court handles cases dealing with power of attorney, conservatorships, estates and other family law matters. As chancery clerk, Livingston also oversees the Oktibbeha County Youth Court and mental and drug commitments.
She acknowledged Community Counseling Services as one of the most important community entities to her office.
“If it wasn’t for (Community Counseling Administrator Lori Latham), we would be lost,” Livingston said. “She has really gone beyond her call of duty to help our office.”
She emphasized that both youth court and commitments were highly confidential, with records not open to the public.
“A lot of people are ashamed of when they do have to come to us,” Livingston said. “The things that are going on in this day and time, you don’t know when you’re going to be in a crisis and you need something.”
She also emphasized the need to give youth in the county more options, citing the tripling of youth court cases in the summer and over the holidays. She said there was often a particularly large influx of burglaries.
“If we could just find something for these children to do to keep them off the streets, that’s very sentimental to my heart,” Livingston said.