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Candidate Bio
I live in Denton, and I’m currently a County Commissioner. I'm the owner of Delaware Auction Center LLC in Clayton, Delaware. I've got 30 years supervisor and management experience, with 23 years of appraisal and estate services, helping families settle estates. I currently serve on the Midshore Regional Council, Upper Shore Aging and County Commissioner representative on the LOSAP board.
Throughout the years, I’ve always donated my (auctioneering) services to help raise money for numerous charities. It's just part of giving back to the community.
How does the office that you are seeking serve citizens in Caroline County?
The Register of Wills handles the probate process. When someone passes away, they have an estate. The state of Maryland has a code, which is in the estates and trust code in the Annotate Code of Maryland. The Register of Wills has to follow it for every estate, so it serves constituents because it makes sure that (heirs) get what's coming to them through the estate process.
When you're dealing with people with estates, you have to have compassion, empathy and understanding, and that's something that evolved with me for the last 23 years. I always say that you're representing the people that passed away and making sure you're protecting the inheritance to pass along to the rightful heirs.
So you have to have a deep, deep compassion for helping people and be very empathetic to what their situation is, because they're coming to you at a time when they just lost their loved ones. They don't know what to do; they don't have an attorney. They just don't have the first inclination what to do. So you have to guide them in the right direction and do your due diligence without giving legal advice. That's one thing the Register of Wills cannot do, is give legal advice. You can only follow the probate rules and regulations.
If your office budget has significant budget cuts, how do you imagine you will handle this?
Well, you have to have a Register of Wills office to serve the constituents, and most Register of Wills offices operate in the red to begin with. They're not generating enough revenue to offset their expenses. They only handle estate tax and some probate fees set forth by the state, and they're very minimum. Every estate is different, but the process is the same.
I would not change any staff. The staff does a great job there, and I would continue to support the current staff if I'm elected.
I would create a pamphlet, if there's not already one there, that says what you have to do to open up an estate and answer questions about the Register of Wills. I would establish a free outreach program, maybe quarterly or twice a year, to educate the citizens about the office of the Register of Wills and the probate process. I would partner with CPAs, financial advisors, attorneys, funeral homes, churches and civic groups so they can answer any other questions.
Your office is a state office serving Caroline County residents. How will you manage local needs with state requirements?
You are there to protect the constituents of Caroline County, to make sure that they get what's owed to them, so you're working on their behalf as well, making sure they don't have to pay any undue inheritance taxes that they don't have to by doing your due diligence. So you work for the state, but you're protecting your constituents. You have the entering process, the documentation process, the accounting and the audit. The audit is where it gets very tricky, and you have to know what you're doing.
You have to follow the estates and trust and the probate rules that are set forth by the state of Maryland, because at the end of the day, the money goes to the state of Maryland; it doesn't go to Caroline County. So you're elected because you're serving the people of Caroline County. I feel that if you're an elected official, you have to be out and about, even when it's not an election year, because you have to be there to answer people's questions. They voted for you, and you're their representative. You don't just represent them in the Register of Wills office. You represent them out in the public all the time.
I’m definitely doing my homework, and I'm committed to doing this. With my own auction business, I would either shut it down or sign myself off where I'm not involved in the day-to-day operations.
