NATCHEZ — Joe Murray likes finding and fixing things.

“A lot of people are status quo people, they think, ‘Oh, this has worked,’ and they don’t want to open a can of worms, but I can’t do that,” he said. “If something needs to be fixed, I fix it, because it gives you a sense of satisfaction when you can do something like that that no one else wanted to do.”

Murray is one of two candidates in Tuesday’s Democratic primary runoff for Adams County Chancery Clerk. In the four-candidate field for the Aug. 4 primary, Murray led the field with challenger Brandi Lewis taking the second slot, though neither took the majority of the vote.

The winner of the run-off will be the clerk because they have no Republican or independent challengers.

The chancery clerk serves as the official recorder of minutes for the county board of supervisors, prepares the claims docket and all county payrolls and ultimately signs all checks and payments the county makes.

The clerk is also the keeper of records for the county, including deeds, mortgages, liens, notices of lawsuits and military discharges. The office also stores land rolls, tax receipts and other county records in the long term.

As clerk for the chancery court, the office also handles matters of estate, guardianships, conservatorships, divorces, child custody, adoption, property disputes and other matters of equity.

Murray began his career at and then spent more than 19 years working for the Mississippi Tax Commission, now the Department of Revenue. He started as a revenue agent, but by the time he left the job he managed the Brookhaven district, a 13-county area.

Since 2011, he has served as Adams County’s county administrator, during which time he has been able to shave approximately $1.5 million out of the county’s budget, he said. As the person responsible for the day-to-day operations of the county, Murray is also responsible for the ultimate oversight of 235 county employees.

Knowledge of the county budget is a key aspect of the chancery clerk’s office because the clerk serves as the treasurer for the county, Murray said.

“For the past three years I have been directly involved with the county audits, with the bank, the bonds and the bookkeeping department,” he said. “For the last four years, I have asked (current clerk) Tommy O’Beirne to let me do more of it.”

His work as the county administrator has also prepared him to serve as clerk of the board of supervisors, Murray said.

“With being the clerk for the board, you have to be at every meeting, know what is going on with the supervisors, with your debt and with your industrial issues,” he said. “I am already at every board of supervisors meeting, the minutes are already sent to me for review — as they are to Mr. O’Beirne — before they are approved.”

As county administrator, Murray is already “neck deep” in work with preserving the county’s records, as does the chancery clerk, he said.

“I have been working with the Department of Archives and History in regard to the retention, protection and management of those records,” Murray said. “Look at Webster County — their courthouse burned down. You need to make sure those records are protected.”

But the main focus of the chancery clerk should be financial, he said.

“I know there are people who have said you need an attorney in that position, that (O’Beirne) is an attorney and he has been there 25 years, but the board of supervisors appoints an attorney to handle all of the legal issues in the county, including in the chancery clerk’s office,” Murray said.

“There are only three of 82 clerks in Mississippi who are attorneys. But that office is fee-driven, and you have to give an accounting of those fees, of how they are distributed to that office, to the county or to the state.

“The clerk is the treasurer for the county, and I like to say that the county goes as the finances go. If the county is in dire financial straits, it will not operate well. It’s like if you have a car with no gas — it won’t go anywhere.”

Murray said he would make sure the office is brought as up-to-date as possible technologically, and he would have an open-door policy.

“I want to make sure things are as assessable and as user friendly as possible, because that courthouse is everybody’s courthouse,” Murray said.

“I have always believed that you do everything you can to help other people, and you treat other people right. I used to have a boss who told me, ‘Joe, you are holding these people’s hands too much, you have got to make it painful for them,’ but I strongly disagree with that. Helping is not holding a hand.

“Your sole purpose as an elected official or county employee any place is to serve the people, and I have done that for the last 24 years.”