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Debbie Munson is the Republican candidate running for Lansing Town Clerk.  After a few years as Deputy Town Clerk, she was appointed by the Town Board to fill Debbie Crandall's remaining term after Crandall retired last April.  Munson holds an accounting degree, and has been a bookkeeper throughout her career, including at Transonic Systems.

She has lived in Lansing 40 years, and has three grown sons with her husband Miles.

  Lansing Star: Why did you decide to run for Town Clerk?

 Debbie Munson: It's my current job.  I was hired as Deputy Town Clerk in November of 2014.  When I was hired the Town Clerk at the time, Debbie Crandall, was planning on retiring soon.  I was told I would be filling those shoes.  So it's my job.  At this point I have been doing it for almost two years.

I like the job.  I like seeing the people.   I like helping the residents.  I want to keep m job, and I want to continue to help the residents.

What will you bring to the Clerk’s office that your opponent would not bring?

'm already doing the job here as the Town Clerk, so I am already familiar with all the activities that go on in the Town Clerk's office.  As the licensing officer for dogs and marriage, and conservation I am already familiar with the rules, the regulations, and laws that govern that and know how to take care of those.

I have been in Lansing for over 40 years.  I've been involved in community activities here.  I know quite a few people in the Town of Lansing and they know me.  Some people have said to me that they're happy that I'm running for Town Clerk because they already know me and they already trust me and they want to continue to do business with me.

My children went to school here, so we've been through the education system.  I feel like I'm a community-minded person that is already established here, and ready to continue serving the community.

You and your opponent have both listed experience on your campaign materials as a reason to elect you.  How is your experience uniquely suited to the Lansing Clerk’s Office?

I am the Town Clerk and I'm there, and I've learned specifically what the Town Clerk does in the Town of Lansing.  I also have a degree in accounting.  There are a lot of financial aspects to this job, many financial aspects.  I believe my accounting degree does help with that.

Every so often you hear in the news about a municipal clerk who refuses to issue a license or permit based on his or her personal beliefs, in opposition to the law.  Some examples are same-sex marriage licenses or concealed-carry gun permits.  Are there any licenses or permits you would feel uncomfortable issuing or refuse to issue?

Absolutely not.  No, absolutely not.  Everybody should have equal opportunities to receive any license they are allowed to receive within the law.

Has there been a time when your ethics was tested in your role as a clerk?  How did you deal with it?

I can't think of anything that had anything to do with my ethics at this point.

How do you view the role of the Town Web site or other technology, or social media in the Clerk’s Office business?

On the Web site we have our agendas, minutes... working documents are posted by the Town Clerk's office.  Some of those prior to the meeting for the public to see, some after the meetings.  We have public hearing notices posted.

Do you think that's an import adjunct to the other ways of distributing that information?

I think it is important.  A lot of people use computers now.  I think it's a very easy way, a convenient way for people to communicate with each other.


County Clerk Maureen Reynolds has been a leader in digital storage and cloud access of municipal records.  Do you believe this is a good idea?  What has been your involvement with digital storage, and what would you like to do with digitizing Lansing’s records (past and future)?

Maureen Reynolds has done an excellent job of digitizing records.  Both she and her deputy, Alanna Congdon, has worked with the Town of Lansing.  I believe all of our minutes from way back have been stored.  Before I came to work there their office came and took all of our minutes books.  They are continually working with us.  If we have any questions we give them a call.  I think it's  great idea.

We are obviously still keeping the minutes books.  But through their laser fiche, which is their storage method, they can do a lot of different things.  I have been working with Alanna to come up with some other forms for us to make it easier for us to do things.  I am planning to continue to work with them to streamline our tasks more.

What is your procedure on FOIL (Freedom Of Information Law) requests?  Do you prefer a FOIL request or an informal request for information (and why)?

The FOIL requests generally come in through the Town Clerk's office.  We have a form on our Web site for people to fill out.  They don't have to fill out that form in order to receive the information that they want.  I've taken several that have just been sent in an email.

if it's going to cause harm to someone you have to think about things like that.  Or if it's a grey area I think it's best to check with the town attorney to make sure that you don't give out information that you shouldn't.

Most things are there and the public can request them.  If they want to come look at a record -- and they don't have to give their name, and they don't have to give their address -- they can call on the phone to ask about the information.  If we have it readily available we can give it to them right away.  They don't have to identify themselves, and we don't ask.

If they want to come in and look through the information they can do that.  There's no charge for that.  If they want to have copies, then we do charge for paper copies.  If we can just scan the document and email it to them, we do not charge for that.  We recently had a person bring in their own scanner and scanned the documents.  So there was no charge for that.

This election has generated an unexpected amount of heat, judging by things I have heard people say and the vandalism and theft of campaign signs.  Surprising, because the Clerk position is probably the least political of all elected positions.  Why do you think that is happening here now?

I really don't have an answer for you on that.  I was very shocked and disappointed about the sign issue.  Unfortunately I did have a couple more signs taken after you wrote the article about it.  As you said, there is no politics in the Town Clerk's office.  We serve everyone.  We totally keep politics out of the office.

You can't take a side or a stand on something.  That just isn;t the way it works.  I'm there for all of the town residents and it doesn't matter what anyone's political background is, or anyone's political beliefs -- that makes no difference to me whatsoever.  You serve everybody the same.

So why there's all this nonsense, really, for a town clerk election is actually baffling to me.

What should people know about your candidacy that we haven’t covered?

One of the things we haven't talked about is how I recently implemented credit card payments in the Town Clerk's office.  I felt it was something that was a bit overdue.  people had been asking about paying by credit card.  They would call up and ask what they could do about making their payment.  The options weren't very good -- they couldn't do anything over the phone.  We now can take credit cards in the office for water payments, marriage licenses... we have done several marriage transcripts.  People will call up from out of the area to get a certified marriage transcript, and we've been able to take their credit card information over the phone.  They've been very happy with that.  The past alternative was that they would have to send us a check.  Once we received the check, then we would mail it out.  So they're very happy about that.

Some people have paid by credit card even for a $15 dog license.  And they have used credit cards for hunting licenses.  Now people can pay their water and sewer bills either with a credit card or e-check from the convenience of their home or mobile phone.  there's a link right on our Web site.  We've had a lot of people do that recently and I think they will do it more, because in this day and age people are really tuned into paying their bills online.  We should have that set up for people to pay online by January for tax season.

I am going to work with Maureen Reynolds a lot more on laser fiche (records storage), and as things come along in the office I am also reviewing procedures and laws that may be outdated.  I looked at one from 1966 and brought it to the attention of the Town Board.

Current Lansing Town Supervisor, Ed LaVigne, past Lansing Town Supervisors Kathy Miller and Jeannine Kirby, and Planning Board Member Lin Davidson all support me.  Lots of Democrats have told me they are voting for me.  Town Clerk is not a political position.  And I'm hoping everyone will vote for me.

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