(Stillwater, Okla.) — Payne County Court Clerk Lisa Lambert, who’s retiring on Dec. 31 from the elective office she’s held for 21 years, attributes her strong work ethic to her late parents, Frank and Lucy Schroeder.
“My dad was a farmer,” Lambert said smiling – pointing out that farmers do their job every day.
“Mom was a school teacher,” added Lambert, 58, of Stillwater, who grew up in Yale as one of seven children.
While many people wouldn’t miss staying at their desk in the courthouse late at night while a jury is deliberating, Lambert said she actually will when she’s retired.
“I will miss being in the courtroom at 10 p.m., 2 a.m., 4 a.m. when the verdict comes in.
“I sincerely love working with our citizens who are willing to serve as jurors.
“I really do respect the jury system. They take it seriously. They care.
“I’ll miss that,” Lambert admitted in an interview Friday.
“Yesterday I received an email from a juror who had just completed jury duty.
“She thanked us for being so courteous, the clerk’s office, the judges. I’m honored by that.
“We hear from our customers, ‘You’re so helpful.’
“That’s not Lisa Lambert. That’s 18 people who work in the Court Clerk’s office,” she emphasized.
Asked what she’s most proud of as court clerk, Lambert readily replied, “our accomplishments with computerization,” which began in January 1994, a year after she took office.
“We’ve gone from being a completely on-paper office to having the ability to provide most records electronically.
“I’m very proud we have electronically imaged 80 per cent of the documents filed in this office from the late 1890s to this date.
“In Stillwater, we probably have four storerooms, that are the size of this courtroom, full of court paper — three in the courthouse, one at a local storage facility.
“When I get an email from a military officer in Italy who needs his marriage license, I can email it back to him in minutes.
“Everyone who asks for information we can respond via email – it’s so efficient.
“We are a public records office,” maintaining documents of court proceedings in Payne County, she noted.
Payne County was one of the first five counties in the state to put documents on line available to the public on the Internet, she said.
Payne and Logan counties, which are part of the same judicial district, have almost everything available on www.oscn.net, she noted.
“If it’s a juvenile, mental health or adoption case, the law says it can’t be on oscn. And the law says that documents about sex crimes are not available on oscn,” she said.
But so much is available.
“Our office is complimented time and again by the public, agencies, by members of the Oklahoma Bar Association. They sincerely appreciate the access,” she said.
Even criminal defendants have expressed gratitude that her office could help by providing requested documents, she said.
“I’ve had letters from prison, nice ones, thanking us for sending documents,” she said.
But she admitted that while serving as court clerk, “I’ve been yelled at, cussed at,” by some people, too.
In announcing her retirement last week, Lambert asked the Payne County Commission to name Lori Allen as her replacement to serve the balance of her two-year unexpired term.
Allen, who was unanimously appointed on Nov. 17 to succeed Lambert on Jan. 2, “has been our cost administrator for over 10 years. That is a critical function of our office.
“We are a collection agency for state and local government to a large extent. That is our primary role,” Lambert emphasized, along with maintaining public records.
Her office collects in various costs and fees about $5 million, $4.5 million of which is forwarded to 30 different county and state agencies, with the balance paying employee salaries and maintaining the Payne County Court Clerk’s Office, Lambert said.
Lambert, who comes from a large family, considers her staff part of her family.
“Some of the people in here have been here most of the 21 years,” that Lambert has been in office.
“We’ve raised our children together. We’re shared our lives together.”
Her retirement comes exactly one year after her husband, Mike, retired from Oklahoma State University long-range facility planning after being with Lambert Construction, which his father and grandfather started, she said.
“I’ve been married to him for 32 years – I like retired Mike best of all,” she said smiling.
“He’s taken to retirement in a very good way.
“Mike’s parents traveled extensively worldwide. They enjoyed it.
“Mike and I intend to travel more. We have a trip to Ireland already booked for the spring.
“Our daughter, Lucy, is a construction engineer just like her dad. She was the first female in the family to go into construction.
“Our son, Skip, is in Florida in the Navy. He’ll deploy next fall. He’s a helicopter pilot. We plan on visiting him. He’s 27.
“Mike’s daughter, Heather, is a teacher in the Oklahoma City system. We have two grandsons, Tom and John.
“It’s good to be in the Lambert home for Thanksgiving,” she said with a huge smile.
Lambert went to work for now-retired District Judge Donald Worthington in his law office in June of 1978, six weeks after she graduated from OSU with a degree in business administration and stayed there for nine years until serving as his court bailiff for six years, prior to being elected court clerk.
“My children think of Judge Worthington as their grandfather – he is family. I have lunch with him every Tuesday,” she said.
“My family is the most important thing in my life,” she emphasized.
“Mike’s dad, Clarence, loved OSU. Mike is an OSU graduate.
“Both of our daughters are OSU graduates.
“Our son did his freshman year at OSU, then graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
“We’ve had OSU football season tickets for 30 years, season tickets for OSU men’s basketball for 25 years, season tickets for OSU women’s basketball for three years.
“We attended both of the Final Fours for OSU, 1995 and 2004, and most of the OSU football bowl games.
“We are both OSU orange!”
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