Three in race for Clark County clerkSubscriber Exclusive

Incumbent Clark County Clerk Scott Weber faces two challengers in the Aug. 4 primary election who argue the nonpartisan role is best handled by someone with legal experience.

Attorney and mediation business owner Rachel Shapiro and former U.S. Navy JAG officer Gerald Gray hope to unseat Weber, who has served as county clerk for 16 years.

When he initially ran for the office in 2010, he sought to eliminate the position or change it into one that was appointed not elected. He has since come to defend the importance of the clerk’s office.

The candidates disagree whether the county clerk should function strictly as an independent records watchdog or actively expand public legal assistance programs, all while navigating a lean $5.8 million annual budget and a staff of 50.

The county clerk serves as the financial and administrative backbone of the Superior Court, processing court documents, entering judgments and managing court-ordered fines.

Weber, 54, touted his modernization of the office, noting that 40 percent of filings are now electronic. He said an independent clerk is a vital buffer against the judiciary, noting “the bench can be overbearing.” He said one of his earliest successes was taking the office mostly paperless, although he noted it was a struggle getting judges to use computer monitors instead of paper files.

“We’ve come so far now where we have e-filing on the docket and so the documents and certain case types are available before I even leave the courtroom,” Weber said.

Weber said his office’s strict document control serves as a crucial firewall, pointing to a recent case where tracking systems caught a local defense attorney forging a judge’s signature and the clerk’s electronic stamp.

Shapiro, 63, compared the security of the electronic stamp to a doctor’s prescription pad, warning that such tools must be securely locked up.

Shapiro said her campaign is driven by her own traumatic experience navigating a divorce from her husband, whom she married when she was 19. She had no financial means to retain an attorney. She said her experience navigating the legal system on her own is what drove her to become an attorney. It’s also what motivates her desire to establish self-help centers and promote out-of-court mediation to ease the burden on an overwhelmed court system.

“The courthouse hasn’t been run like a business, and you need to run the courthouse like a business,” Shapiro said. “You need to meet the people where they are.”

Gray, 68, agreed the office requires a leader with formal legal training but favored a more cautious approach to systemic changes. He said it’s important to take any role in the court seriously, whether it’s managing legal files or overseeing a death sentence as he did with a man accused of killing someone overseas during his time as a JAG officer.

Weber, who was a manufacturing engineering technician when he first ran for clerk, didn’t argue about having legal experience for the role. He pointed to the state law that bars county clerks from practicing law: “Each clerk of a court is prohibited during his or her continuance in office from acting, or having a partner who acts, as an attorney of the court of which he or she is clerk.”

The top two vote-getters in the primary will advance to the Nov. 3 election.