Continuing with my series of Q&A's with local county and judicial candidates, today I bring you Veronica Torres, who is running for District Clerk in Fort Bend County.
1. Who are you and what are you running for?I am Veronica Torres and I am running for Fort Bend County District Clerk.
2. What are the responsibilities of the office of District Clerk?The District Clerk performs the constitutional duties of registrar, recorder, and custodian of all records of the District Courts. The District Clerk's office is the nerve center of our court system, the link between the courts and the people.
3. What are your professional qualifications for the job?I bring more than nine years of experience in county government as a lead legal process specialist in the County Clerk's office. I have learned the qualities and procedures of an outstanding Clerk's office.
4. The incumbent, Glory Hopkins, is not on the ballot because she failed to file for the GOP primary in proper fashion. What effect does that have on this race?
The biggest effect is the race is an open seat. Instead of running against someone with twenty years' experience as the District Clerk, my opponent has no experience in a clerk's office and no managerial or leadership experience.
5. What are your priorities for this job if you are elected?My priorities include imaging of all documents, reorganizing the personnel in the office to operate more efficiently, and will make myself accessible to the public and my employees.
6. According to the District Clerk website, "future plans to improve service delivery" include "Remote online access to district court records" and "Posting weekly and daily court schedules on the Internet". These sound like items that should have already been implemented. What are your plans to actually deliver these services and to keep the District Clerk's office on top of current technologies?Remote online access to the district court records has already been implemented, and posting the court schedules to the internet will not be a hard task to accomplish. Using the latest technology, I plan to bring the District Clerk's office into the 21st century.
7. Fort Bend County Commissioners' Court recently approved a new software system for the entire county judicial system. District Clerk Hopkins does not support this new software. (See here
for details.) What is your opinion of this?I am for using the latest and greatest technology to improve efficiency in the District Clerk's office. Ms. Hopkins had concerns about digitizing records and putting them online. I want to find the balance between making the records accessible and protecting people's identities and will consult with legal experts to make this happen.
8. Fort Bend currently has no elected Democrats in countywide offices. Why do you believe you can overcome that?The voters in Fort Bend County are no different than the voters in mainstream America. Right now the approval rating of the President and the Republican Congress are at all time lows. And after Tom DeLay abandoned us and left us without representation, people here have had enough. They want change at every level of government. This year Fort Bend will vote Democratic.
9. What else do we need to know?Por favor de votar por Veronica Torres para Oficinista del Districto de Fort Bend el dia siete de Noviembre. Gracias por su apoyo.
Richard Garcia - Interview
Leora T. Kahn - Interview
Chuck Silverman - Interview
Bill Connolly - Interview
James Goodwille Pierre - Interview
Albert Hollan - Interview
Neeta Sane - Interview
Rudy Velasquez - Interview