Stephanie Gerlach has lived her entire life in Madison County and her life revolves around being the mom of her 16-year-old and nine-year-old kids but, this month, she said she has gained a new baby. Gerlach was hired as Gluckstadt’s Municipal Court Clerk and started her role building out this branch of the city on September 12.
“I am taking this as my baby, and I’m extremely excited to watch it grow,” Gerlach said.
Gerlach graduated from Madison Central High School in 2000 and continued her education at Hinds Community College on a full ride scholarship for softball where she studied sports training. Her husband, Donovan, is a master sergeant on the evening shift for the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, and other than her family’s ties to law enforcement, she had no knowledge of the legal system before taking her first role at the Justice Court.
“When I was the assistant manager at Buckle at Northpark, my best friend asked me about an opening at Justice Court he knew about and had me set up for an interview,” Gerlach said. “I was pregnant at the time with my little girl, but the ladies there and I instantly clicked. They said it was sort of rare to hire a pregnant lady, but they wanted me to join their team and that is how I got started.”
She worked at Justice Court for ten years before taking her new role in Gluckstadt. She said it was this job that has prepared her more than anything for the building of Gluckstadt’s Municipal Court System.
“I can’t tell you how much knowledge I got from being there,” Gerlach said. “Those ladies I worked with were tremendous, and I got so much experience from all of the people I worked with there.”
Additionally, Gerlach said Madison’s Court Clerk Penny McElroy has been a huge resource for her.
“Miss Penny has been an angel,” Gerlach said. “There is a difference between municipal courts and justice courts. Sometimes, I’ll get lost in the difference and will ask her the difference between this and that. She will explain it just as clear as clear can be, so she has definitely been a big help.”
Gerlach said her top priorities in her job are to get the court system organized, have great communication with Gluckstadt’s citizens and be a helpful resource with the city. From the moment Gerlach got her computer, she said she began pushing the court dates from October 5 to November 12 for everyone who had gotten a ticket to remain fair to everybody. However, in order to make sure everyone got the message and didn’t waste their time coming to court in October, she sent out a letter to each individual sharing this information along with her contact information.
“They can have an open line of communication,” Gerlach said. “That was my first priority. I’m here to help. I want them to know I am willing to work with them. I am here and, if I can do anything to help, I will.”
Her goal is to make sure everything is organized within Gluckstadt’s court systems after seeing this wasn’t always the case with our municipalities during her time at justice court. She would often see other municipalities hand off cases to other courts and wants to prevent that in Gluckstadt.
“We are going to handle the stuff that happens in our city,” Gerlach said. “If it happens here, we are going to handle it here. That is my priority. I don’t want to give our citizens in Gluckstadt the run around. We are going to handle our business here and that is my priority.”
Gerlach said it is also very important for her to stay up to date with changing laws, as well as knowing what is required by the state guidelines as far as ticket and fine prices.
“I feel like I am studying for law school – I’m not going to lie,” Gerlach said. “I have read every municipal court manual and I can’t tell you how many law books. It’s my second week, and I’m already in the municipal court clerk conference because they have so many resources that they put in those meetings. You have to consider the changing laws and really stay on top of everything because you don’t want the general public to come in and get the wrong advice. It is their livelihood. You don’t want us to do something wrong, and it penalizes them. You have to stay on top of everything.”
Gerlach said it is so important for a city to have their own municipal court system because the city’s officers have to be able to bring their tickets and affidavits back to the city and keep it local.
“It is our jurisdiction and our agency, and we have to be able to handle it here,” Gerlach said. “It is keeping it within the city and keeping the burden off the taxpayers for people that come here and break the law in our city. If they are doing right, it isn’t fair to them to have to deal with people that come here in our city and break the law.”
Gerlach said the court system is currently up and running even if they have to do it old school while they wait on their computer software to be completed.
“We are doing a lot of paper stuff because we are in training for our computer system,” Gerlach said. “That is not stopping us. We are doing it the old school way with pen and paper, but I definitely have a system going and I have track of everything.”
Gerlach said people are paying tickets and she is writing receipts.
“If they want to pay it, they are more than welcome to – we just don’t have a credit card machine yet,” Gerlach said. “We are working on the credit card machine and will hopefully have one within the next month. Currently, we can do money orders, cashier’s checks and cash.”
Gerlach said she is excited for the future as they wait for a new building in the next year or two and continue to grow their municipal court.
“The team here at Gluckstadt is absolutely amazing and I don’t know what I would do without them,” Gerlach said. “The support system is just amazing, and it is great to know I can go to someone if I don’t have the answers and they will always help me.”
Gerlach said her favorite part of the job is never knowing what she may be dealing with on a daily basis and that things are always unexpected.
“I also enjoy working with the public and meeting new people and, yes, even though most of the time those that I may come into contact with aren’t very happy because they have either been arrested or received a traffic violation, it still gives me the opportunity to try and help them to the best of my ability and try to make it the best I can,” Gerlach said.
She said she also enjoys working with the law enforcement officers because she admires what they do and loves being able to assist them.
“It is just absolutely amazing to have something I can call mine and build it from the ground up and do it how I want to do it,” Gerlach said. “I am making history and that is the best part of it.”
