Maggie
Brooks was appointed county clerk by Governor George Pataki in April 1997. She
won a full four-year term later that year and was reelected in 2001.
           As county clerk, Brooks oversees a
$54 million a year operation that includes the county’s downtown lands records
office, which handles legal recordings and filings, along with licensing and
permits, and passports. In addition, Brooks is an agent for the State of New
York, running the three Monroe County Auto License Bureaus and the Monroe
County Mobile Motor Vehicle Office.
           During her tenure as clerk, Brooks
has provided instant online records access and document retrieval over the
Internet. The Monroe County Clerk’s Office was also the first in the state
equipped to handle a fully electronic, digitally transmitted mortgage closing.
           In 2001, Pataki appointed Brooks to
the Task Force on Election Modernization, a seven-member panel charged with
making recommendations to improve the state’s election process.
           Pataki also appointed Brooks to his
Task Force on Local Government Reform in 2002. The task force was asked to
recommend reforms that would help local governments become more efficient and
cost-effective. She was the only member appointed from Monroe County and the
only county clerk on the 22-member statewide panel.
           Prior to her appointment as Monroe
County clerk, Brooks represented the 17th District in the Monroe County
Legislature. She is a former reporter for WHAM radio and a former
reporter-anchor at WHEC-TV. She was vice president of programming for Companion
Radio, overseeing programming for four radio stations serving senior citizens.
           Brooks serves on the boards of
Alternatives for Battered Women, Lifespan, Puerto Rican Youth Development, the
Society for the Protection and Care of Children, and United Way of Greater
Rochester. She is also on the advisory board of the Junior League of Rochester.
           Brooks was voted Woman of the Year
by Muscular Dystrophy of Rochester in 1993 and was winner of the 2002 Roger J.
Robach Conservative of the Year award.
           A graduate of Ithaca College with a
bachelor’s degree in political science, Brooks lives in Webster. She is married
and has two children.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2003.
