City Court Clerk Retires After 21 Years

After 21 years serving Fredericksburg, Circuit Court Clerk Sharron Mitchell is retiring. For the last two decades, she oversaw the flow of documents into and out of the historic Renwick Circuit Court building on downtown Princess Anne Street. Today is her last day as an elected official. With the turn of the new year,

Mitchell was born in 1950 in Kentucky. She has lived in Virginia since she was eight years old. She got her Bachelor's Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and earned her law degree from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.

Mitchell, who can still practice law in Virginia, never went for the lawyer's life. She said she turned in a perhaps more lucrative paycheck for a greater variety of work inside the courthouses themselves. Her career has been rewarding, she said, because it frequently provided novel challenges.

Mitchell's early career was spent as a deputy court clerk in Newport News and Stafford County.

Mitchell first moved to the city when her husband Blair took a job in Stafford County in 1984. She has grown fond of her adopted town.

"In a way, it reminds me of New York City," said Mitchell, laughing at the thought. "It has sort of what you need, but you kind of don't necessarily have to know everybody to enjoy it."

Like other long time residents, Mitchell has noticed the growth of the area away from its rural roots.

"Fredericksburg has gotten away from being the small town where everybody new everybody," said Mitchell.

Mitchell became Fredericksburg's Circuit Court Clerk in January 1991 when she was appointed to fill the seat held then by Georgia Sutton. Sutton resigned the office, which comes with an eight year term, to pursue a new career. Mitchell kept her seat after running unopposed in the following November 1991 special election to fill out the remainder of Sutton's eight year term. Mitchell ran unopposed again in 1995.

Mitchell's first real campaign came in 2003 when she went up against attorney Nicholas Pappas. She defeated him handily, winning 75 percent of the vote. Having to go against an opponent, said Mitchell, was a bit trying.

"I have definitely intended to keep everything positive, and I don't like negative campaigns. That doesn't get anybody anywhere, and I think I accomplished that," said Mitchell.

Now, eight years later and at the sunset of her career Mitchell said she's retiring for the sake of retirement.

Looking back, Mitchell said she will always remember her time working with her colleagues. She said it is her interactions with others in city staff that she will miss the most.

Budgets are another matter, though.

"Having to ask for what you need and knowing that you're not going to get it," was how Mitchell summarized the process.

Mitchell said she will be slightly remiss that she won't have an opportunity to work in the new court facility which is being developed to replace the Renwick Circuit Court building.

"I've been discussing space issues for the last 20 years, anyway, with the city, and security issues of course," said Mitchell. "I realized about 15 years ago that I wasn't go to see anything. There's talk and talk and talk."

Even now, with the contracts for a new court facility signed and in effect, Mitchell wonders if the project will be carried through.

"The saying around here is most of us don't expect to live to see it," said Mitchell, cracking a wry smile as if she uttered a taboo. "Some of us might."

Mitchell's career could be broadly framed against a backdrop of tremendous technological changes in the way court documents are handled.

When Mitchell first started out in Newport News, she used a wide carriage typewriter to hammer out deed indexes onto long adhesive strips to be stuck into a deed index book. That was then carbon copied and sent off to a company to be filed and archived.

"Some of the girls kind of laugh," said Mitchell. "The younger ones can't even imagine doing that."

Fredericksburg's court system wasn't quite that advanced back then. Mitchell said that older city land records from the mid 20th century were merely typewritten pages.

"If you look in the older indices, you can tell they just took it out and put it straight in the typewriter," said Mitchell.

By the time she got to Fredericksburg in 1991, the city court clerk's office had a single computer. Slowly, the department built up it's digital infrastructure. Now, almost all of the major public records held by the court clerk–marriage licenses, deeds, land records and the like–dating back to 2001 have been digitally indexed.

State auditors have been critical of Mitchell's A Social Security number is required to access the system. Mitchell said that this requirement is an illegal invasion of privacy. The Virginia Department of Taxation said that the Circuit Court Clerk's office is hampering their ability to collect the fees,
Mitchell stands by her protest, saying it was a principled one.

"I am not the only one in the state who has made that decision," said Mitchell. "Hopefully as it moves along they can get legisaltion to convince the Department of Taxation that that's an unnecessary violation of our privacy."

Her successor, , promised to register for the program .

Mitchell and Small have met a number of times since his election this past November to show him the ropes.

"I think he'll do fine," said Mitchell of Small. "It can be a daunting experience. It was for me too…there are so many little things that you aren't really aware of until somebody points them out."