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Willard Helander reminisces about time as Lake County Clerk

When Willard Helander decided to run for Lake County Clerk 20 years ago, she did not set out to be the one to help lead the county into the realm of 21st-century technology.

Turning typewriter expertise into an automated system of preparing marriage licenses is one of the stories Helander told a gathering of more than 80 people who came to honor her service Saturday, Dec. 6, at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park.

“We used Microsoft Word to design a program to prepare marriage licenses,” Helander said of her early days in office. “They used to do it by typewriter and it took an hour. Now it takes 12 minutes.”

Marriage licenses were not the only thing Helander adjusted for late 20th-century technology to make her office run more smoothly. Besides dealing with records, the clerk’s office oversees all elections in Lake County.

Not having the latest computer programs available early in her tenure, she used the Lotus spreadsheet system to develop a system to assign election judges to polling places. She converted the work of six people into the task of two. Then she caught flack.

“When we brought (the county administrator) down here to show him what we had done, he said, ‘you were only supposed to use this to write letters.'” The technology stayed and Helander was reelected four times.

When Helander took the reins in 1994, she decided she wanted to operate the office like a business, emphasizing customer service. What she found was not to her liking.

“If we had been a private business we would have gone out of business,” Helander said. “I told (my staff) no one should be waiting for service. We wanted the office to be like a business that wants every customer to return.”

One person who felt that way is Mark Shaw of Lake Forest. The 10th Congressional District state central committeeman and West Deerfield Township Republican chairman, Shaw has plenty of reason to utilize the clerk’s services. Since the 10th District encompasses parts of Lake and Cook counties, he has had the opportunity to compare both clerks’ offices.

“She has an open-door policy,” Shaw said. “When I go in there, people look at me and say ‘what can I do for you.’ They don’t know I’m an elected official or anything else about me. She runs the office like a business that knows what it means to never lose a customer.”

Though Shaw was not critical of Cook County Clerk David Orr, he lauded Helander’s use of her official website to assist voters and candidates.

“She was the first to go interactive,” Shaw said. “Everything you need is there and you can link to other counties’ websites.”

Helander credits the implementation of technology with enabling her office to maintain its level of service and number of employees while the election laws became more complex. She was critical of both the motor-voter law as well as same-day registration, which was implemented this year.

“Technology has helped us keep up with the laws,” Helander said. She also believes that will be her legacy to Carla Wyckoff of Lake Forest, who succeeded her this month.

Wyckoff already knows people working in the office. As an assistant Lake County state’s attorney for 20 years, Wyckoff spent 16 of them in the civil division representing the clerk’s office.

“I’m comfortable with the office and the people,” Wyckoff said. “She (Helander) has already done a good job with the web providing good service.” She does not see immediate changes.

There are some things Helander will not miss. She had to develop thick skin over the years to live with the things political opponents said about her.

“There are people who will lie and say anything to get elected,” Helander said. “If I believed what was said, I would be the kind of person who would eat my own children for breakfast.”

Helander plans to spend time volunteering, particularly with the CS Lewis Institute. There will also be plenty of time left over for travel as well as visits with children and grandchildren.

“I’m going to do something that is positive,” Helander said.