Payne County Departments and Government Working for You
Payne County Clerk
Glenna Craig (Stillwater/Republican)
“Welcome to the Payne County Clerk's website. I, as well as my staff, strive to be a public service driven office. I hope that you find the website informative and helpful.” -Glenna Craig
Payne County Clerk Glenna Craig, has experience in county government which spans more than 35 years of public service, including service as secretary of elections and chief deputy assessor.
Under Craig’s leadership, the County Clerk’s office has increased transparency and ease of access to public records. She implemented a free online land record search website for the public as promised during her campaign. This website includes a variety of county information not previously available to the public online. Users can find land records, board minutes, board meeting recordings, the county budget, county policies, county bids, land record forms, state audit reports, as well as other helpful public information and public reviews. Craig and her team of professionals have made professionalism and customer service the hallmarks of their office.
As The Payne County Clerk, Craig is the principal record keeper for the county and preserves all legal instruments filed by private citizens and public officials within the County Clerk’s office. She also maintains an accurate and current record of legal instruments including deeds, mortgages, plat maps, oil, gas, and mineral leases, liens, and military discharge papers. The County Clerk’s office records over 17,644 land record documents a year, and processes more than 10,000 purchase orders a year, and issues over 10,814 warrants for payments a year. The clerk’s office also processes payroll and employee insurance benefits for more than 200 county employees.
The county clerk also tracks the county 1/8th, 1/4th, 3/8th and 1/16th sales tax and reports those collections and expenditures, along with administering the calculation, distribution, and collections to the various departments that receive funding from the sales tax.
Craig serves as secretary to several county boards, including the Board of County Commissioners, Budget Board, County Excise-Equalization Board, Tax Roll Corrections, Payne County Economic Development, and Payne County Facility Authority. She prepares and posts the agenda, notices, and minutes for the majority of these meetings, creates audio recordings of the proceedings, and files all pertinent documents.
The county clerk is also responsible for recording all appropriations and expenditures in more than 100 financial accounts for each county office and department monthly. When preparing the annual budget, she processes the estimate of needs for the county and other governmental entities. Craig assists the county certified public accountant in preparing and presenting the county budget, which exceeds $39 million.
In addition, Craig is administrator of the Purchasing Agent for the County. The Purchasing Agent handles the paperwork for purchases, rentals, lease-purchase agreements and advertises sealed bids for the Board of County Commissioners to make sure that public tax dollars are being spent appropriately. She ensures that all the transactions of the county comply with state law and serve the public interest.
Craig has completed all required courses for County Clerk basic certification, advanced one certification, and advanced two certifications. Craig is also accredited advanced in the county Assessor training as well. In addition, Craig has completed preservation of old land records, maps, and school records. Craig initiated an over-the-counter return of documents policy, added five additional public terminals for the public to access records, removed records in the Kansas salt mines and initiated a secure cyber backup system, upgraded internet security firewalls for integrity of documents, removed Social Security numbers from public online documents, tracked federal grant money, upgraded office software for efficiency and free online access of records to the public, created a double accountability system in the financial department, relocated confidential records to a secure location, reinstated fundamental filing regulations of instrument practices, instituted exceptional customer service practices and policies, upgraded purchasing systems and procedures, streamlined inventory processes and upgraded software to track county property, reinstated staff training for certification of all staff members.
County Clerk Duties & Responsibilities
