Why outgoing Shawnee County Clerk Cyndi Beck takes so much pride in her office

Whenever she ran for re-election, Shawnee County Clerk Cyndi Beck found herself dealing with the theft of her campaign signs by fans of the rock singer Beck.

Those signs featured the word "Beck" in big red letters against a white background. Fans of the singer and his band would simply cut off the bottom and top, giving them a ready-made Beck sign, Cyndi Beck said this past week.

She recalled how one fan, who was perhaps 12 or 13 years old, saw her out wearing one of her campaign T-shirts and said: "Whoa! You're Beck! I've got your sign on my bedroom wall!"

Cyndi Beck said she replied: 'You put that sign back where it belongs until after the November election! And then you can have it.'"

But Cyndi Beck's signs won't be getting stolen anymore.

She has decided not to seek re-election this year and will leave office after her seventh four-year term as clerk ends next January, Beck told The Capital-Journal.

What does the Shawnee County county clerk do?

Beck's seven continual terms and more than 27 years in office are the most among any current county elected official.

The county's records, of nine terms and 36 years, are held by Bill Gregg, who was county surveyor from 1961 to 1997. The surveyor's job then became an appointed position in 1999.

The county clerk has 10 employees.

The county clerk's duties include reviewing budgets for all county taxing entities, being responsible for central accounts payable to all county offices, setting and certifying all property tax mill levies, serving as the county's Freedom of Information officer and being secretary for the county commission, says the website for Beck's office.

"The Shawnee County Clerk's Office is dedicated to the taxpayers of Shawnee County," says that office's website. "We strive to fulfill the statutory duties of the office in a prompt and effective manner; and we continue to make customer service, accuracy and transparency our top priorities."

"We help people," Beck said of those in her office.

She voiced pride in her workers' integrity and the knowledge they possess, not only about their office, but about county operations in general.

When the county courthouse formerly employed a telephone operator, that person — in situations where he or she couldn't figure out how to help a caller — would simply transfer the call to the clerk's office and let employees there figure it out, Beck said proudly.

Is anyone running for the clerk's office?

Republican Lisa Schmitt, a member of the Board of Education for Topeka USD 501, is the only person to have filed so far this year to run for the clerk's office.

It appears Schmitt is legally entitled to hold a USD 501 board seat and serve as county clerk, said Shawnee County counselor Rich Eckert.

Beck hasn't commented publicly on Schmitt's candidacy.

'It blew my mind'

Items posted on the door to Beck's office at the Shawnee County Courthouse include an article by The Capital-Journal reporting upon the ceremony held when she and other county elected officials took office in January 1997.

Beck, a Republican, and her husband, the late Mark Beck, had moved to Topeka less than two years earlier, in March 1995, when then-Gov. Bill Graves hired him as director of property valuation for the Kansas Department of Revenue.

Beck, now 74, said she had previously worked in Michigan and Nebraska at governmental and private-sector jobs that required knowledge and skills similar to those used at the Shawnee County Clerk's Office.

She recalled how in 1995 she created a resume, took it to local title insurance and abstract companies and got an interview with Hayden St. John, co-founder of Lawyer's Title of Topeka Inc.

St. John didn't have any job openings, Beck learned. He had simply read her resume and wanted to meet her.

Soon afterward, she got a job elsewhere.

Meanwhile, St. John had spoken positively about Beck to incumbent Shawnee County Clerk Pat McDonald, who didn't plan to run for re-election in 1996.

McDonald didn't know Beck. Still, she called Beck and asked her to run for county clerk.

"It blew my mind," Beck said.

'Great things going on'

Still, Beck ran and won. She got 56% of the vote in November 1996 to defeat Democrat Jim Sovanski.

Beck then gained even higher percentages of the vote in winning re-election by beating Democratic challengers in 2000, 2004 and 2012.

She ran unopposed in 2008, 2016 and 2020.

Beck recalled proudly how — once, at an event where a voter asked her opponent what the county clerk does — he told the voter to ask Beck that question instead, because she would be able to answer it better than he would.

Beck added that she's happy about the progress she's seen here during her time in Shawnee County.

She voiced pride in particular about the creation of Wheatfield Village at the northwest corner of S.W. 29th and Fairlawn Road, and about Topeka's having become the site of a Mars plant and a Target Distribution Center.

"There are great things going on in this community," she said.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Cyndi Beck leaving Shawnee County Clerk's office she's had since 1997