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What Kelsie Adams Says She’d Change at the Coffee County Clerk’s Office on Day One

Episode

What Kelsie Adams Says She’d Change at the Coffee County Clerk’s Office on Day One

The Circuit Court Clerk’s office handles the paperwork and records that keep the local court system moving, but most voters only notice it when something goes wrong. In this episode, Kelsie Adams explains what the office does, why recent staff turnover matters, and the specific promises she’s making before Coffee County gets out to vote

The full exchange behind the answer, the argument, or the public line, with the context shorter cuts leave behind.

Published episode April 28, 2026

Episode

Why the full exchange matters

This episode is about an office most voters rarely think about until they need it. The Coffee County Circuit Court Clerk’s office handles filings, petitions, orders, dockets, traffic tickets, court costs and fees, and traffic class arrangements — work that shapes how smoothly ordinary people move through the court system. Kelsie Adams, Republican candidate for Circuit Court Clerk and a Child Support Enforcement Officer in the Coffee County District Attorney’s Office, argues that the job is not just administrative. In her framing, the clerk is the custodian of the record and one of the most public-facing parts of the court system, often dealing with people on some of the hardest days of their lives. Adams ties that argument to her own background. She grew up in Hillsborough, graduated from Coffee County High School in 2002, earned a social work degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 2007, and has spent 18 years working in the local court system. Her career began in juvenile probation at the Youth Service Office, and for the last 11 years she has worked in the DA’s child support office, where she says she manages roughly 800 active cases. The heart of the conversation is the recent turnover inside the clerk’s office. Adams avoids speculating about why individual employees left, but she is clear about the public cost when experienced staff walk out in waves: longer wait times, lost institutional knowledge, and slower service in an office that depends on process and experience. She says that if she had been in charge, she would have called in CTAS immediately, used in-house training to stabilize the office, and worked to stop the loss of experience before it deepened. The episode closes on specific, public commitments. Adams says that on day one, she would arrive before 8 a.m. and speak individually with every staff member. She also says she would make sure a clerk is present at every Family Treatment Court session and that she would attend every Family Treatment Court graduation. Those are measurable promises in a race with no challenger, where the May 5 primary is effectively Coffee County’s only vote on who will run this office. For voters trying to decide whether Adams’ 18 years in the system amount to a real management plan, this conversation gives the clearest version of her case.