Vallie Bowman-English was elected Clerk of the Toledo Municipal Court in November of 2003. She is the first African-American and first attorney to be elected to the position.

As Clerk, Vallie has worked to make the office more efficient and better serve the public. She has collected over $2 million in delinquent accounts owed to Toledo Municipal Court through a collection program. Implemented in August 2005, unpaid court fines and costs are sent to a collection agency at no cost to the taxpayers. A thirty percent collection fee is added to the amount the defendant owes Toledo Municipal Court. This amount is paid to the collection agency only after the Court is paid in full.

Additionally, Vallie has placed deputy clerks in three high volume courtrooms to record entries as the Judge or Magistrate is ruling on the case(s). This allows the public and other Departments to have immediate access to the information, instead of hours to days after the fact.

Vallie has also increased the public’s access to the Court’s records by placing case information online on the Clerk of Court’s website. Prior to this, the public had to call or come to the Clerk’s office to inquire about case information. This meant spending time on hold or driving downtown to find out an answer to a simple question. This enhancement allows anyone to go online to review court proceedings.

Currently, Vallie is working to further automate the Court through imaging. In 2006, hand written protection orders were replaced with electronically produced forms. This helped streamline the protection order process in every courtroom and allows instant transmission of necessary data to the Police Department for entry into the Statewide Computer System.

In 2007, Vallie will begin to implement imaging technology in the Civil Division of the office. Time intensive work, such as Judgment Entries, will begin to be scanned into the Clerk’s computer system instead of being re-typed by staff. This will allow the office to process the same amount of Judgment Entries in one day as were processed in one week when they were re-typed.

Vallie is a member of the Ohio Association of Municipal / County Clerks, and serves as the organization’s auditor. She is also the vice-chair of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and is a member of the COMPASS (Comprehensive Addiction Services System) board.

In addition, Vallie is a member of the Toledo, Lucas County, Thurgood Marshall and Women’s Bar Associations. She is a member of the Lucas County Democratic Party and the Perry Burroughs Democratic Women’s Club.

Prior to her election as Clerk, Vallie was an Assistant Lucas County Prosecutor under the leadership of Julia R. Bates. During her employment, Vallie was responsible for the convictions of many offenders charged with crimes such as aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, rape, felonious assault, drug possession and trafficking, forgery, escape, and grand theft.

Vallie was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. She is a graduate of Jesup W. Scott High School, and received her Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the University of Toledo in 1992. Vallie received her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the Ohio Northern University College of Law in 1995.

Vallie lives in Toledo with her husband Ian and their son.