Tim Baker, County Clerk – Manager of Elections and Head County Cheerleader

By Pauline Masson

Heading into his fifth year as Franklin County Clerk, manager of elections, Franklin County Clerk Tim Baker says knowing how government works might be as beneficial to citizens as the right to vote. 

As head of the department that manages County elections, Baker comes across as the County’s head cheerleader.

Understanding how government works, he says, is as simple as ABC. Citizens should start young. To illustrate his point, Baker and his staff of eight have put together a book to prove it.

Baker was privileged to enjoy a promising background for elected office and/or county government. He was the son of Lloyd and Mary Ellen Baker, founders of Baker Ice, which grew to be the largest ice producing plant in seven states and which served customers in a 150 square mile region.

Young Baker’s first job was working in the ice plant for his father, an outspoken community leader who combined an attention for detail with a view of a larger future. He could be over-powering. Like the old commercials that said,“When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen,” the elder Baker commanded attention. Lloyd Baker died in 2002 and Tim ran the business until 2012 when it was sold.

For family and community observers, it was always obvious that Tim was not as volatile as his outspoken father.

“He was more quite than his dad,” Ed Hillhouse, former school superintendent and county commissioner who saw the younger Baker grow up. “I thought he would lead a quieter life. But as he stepped into areas of leadership it was clear he had the same forward thinking, that same steel backbone, that his father had. He just showed it in a different way.”

His father’s penchant for looking beyond the family business to the enitre community was his role model, Baker said. The need to “lift all boats,” took him to leadership roles in the Pacific Area Chamber of Commerce, Pacific Tourism Commission and the Tri-County Community Senior Center.

These civic venues provided a platform for his most consistent thesis, that the Pacific community actually flowed into the boundaries of the Meramec Valley  R-III school district. Or, those communities flowed into Pacific. His middle school and Pacific High School classmates, like him, attended classrooms in the City of Pacific. Many came into town for their first jobs in fast food restaurants, became teachers and returned to MVR-III for teaching careers or worked in Pacific’s industrial plants.

When his Chamber of Commerce board wanted to hold a job fair, Baker asked the school distict for permission to hold it at Pacific High School. He asked every industrial plant in Pacific to set up dislays to woo local students to work for them and encouraged every PHS junior and senior to walk through the rows of tables set up in the gym to see jobs that would be available in their home town.

Always looking forward, in 2012 he decided to run for county office. He would be first to say that he was not a one-man-show. His wife Debbie, and four daughters, Trish, Page, Gabby and Maddie were the road crew in every public event.

“You have to have back-up.” A gentle laugh accompanies his recounting his entry into county politics. “You couldn’t lose three times and then stand for one more run without support.”

 Debbie and the girls said yes to every campaign and accompanied the candidate to parades, country picnics and political rallies across the county. By the time he was elected County Clerk, the entire family had expanded their vision of home.

“We were all County residents by then,” Baker said.

He is unabashedly enthralled by the workings of county government, calling his office, “the best job anyone could have.”

After winning the office in 2018 he met with retiring Clerk Debbie Door who graciously allowed him to shadow her for months before taking office. 

Officials could allow the newly elected to come into the office or not,” he said. “Debbie graciously not only allowed me to shadow her, she let me sit in at every desk in the department. And she allowed me to observe the office during the November election, which helped me to be ready for the following April when I had to run myself.

He was an eager fixture in the office before taking the helm, which gave the staff a preview of his appreciation of their roles.

The task of paying the County’s bill opened an interest in the work that was done in each department. That led to a written description of County leaders at work and a tour of the County to promote Franklin County Government.

In 2020, one year in the job, Baker asked his staff to help author a book that offered a description of County government so simple that anyone would understand.

Titled, “Let’s Learn About Franklin County,” the colorful 26-page booklet notes that their are 74 cities, towns and villages in the County, which is managed by a baker’s dozen (no pun intended) of elected officials and 300 emlployees, working in eleven separate departments.

Interesting tidbits about the County’s namesake Benjamin Fanklin, County statistics, the people who live here, neighboring counties and how Frankin County taxes work are interspersed among descriptions of each County department.

The booklet was written for 8-10-year-olds. Baker and his staff members visit every elementary school – 30 in all, both public and parochial – to introduce their book to third and fourth graders and encourage youngsters to know how county government works.

“The whole thing has been great fun,” Baker said. “Maybe our book can inspire other counties, or even cities, to educate citizens about the everyday lives of people in government.”

Let’s Learn about Franklin County, he said, was tribute to all the elected officials and employees of Franklin County.