“My parents always considered themselves blessed to be able to come to America from the Caribbean to make a better life for themselves. They spent more than half of their lives as a nurse and a pastor giving back and advocating for all no matter who they were. At a very young age I was taught that I must do the same. I am so grateful to receive the endorsement of Second Generation. With their help I will be able to carry on my parent’s legacy of helping others." - Debbie Bookman
ENDORSED FOR CHESTER COUNTY PROTHONOTARY
Debbie is a daughter of Caribbean immigrants, a wife, a mother of two daughters, a community leader, and a domestic abuse survivor.
Debbie Bookman is currently running for re-election as Chester County’s Prothonotary. Over the past four years, Debbie has worked to modernize the Office of the Prothonotary by digitizing almost sixty years of paper and microfilm filings, as well as upgrading their system to be more efficient. Since taking office, Debbie has extended passport services to evening hours and has expanded bilingual services and increased diversity from 4% to 18%.
A former member of the Coatesville City Council, Debbie was elected as a write-in candidate by the people of Coatesville and became a persistent advocate for making government more transparent, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of marginalized communities. In this role, Debbie worked with Coatesville’s administration in providing support with implementing effective internal processes for day-to-day operations. She also assisted the finance department in balancing a 10 million-dollar budget, and helped to adopt a budget with no tax increase by identifying areas of savings.
Debbie began serving her community in 1999 in New York Assemblyman Roger Green’s office. Since moving to Coatesville, her community involvement has included:
Member of many parent-driven committees in the Coatesville Area School District
Member of Coatesville’s Parks and Recreation Commission
Vice-President and Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Community Youth and Women Alliance, where she worked with families and women dealing with homelessness and drug addiction
Council representative on Western Chester County Council of Governments
As a domestic survivor, Debbie will bring a different viewpoint to the office. She understands first-hand what means to be a victim of circumstances and will work diligently to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and efficiently.
Her goals as Prothonotary are to:
Uphold the mission of the Prothonotary office to pursue excellence through exceptional customer service, transparency, accountability and innovation
Maintain full compliance with all fiduciary guidelines
Explore new innovative strategies to move the office forward in adherence with the proposed strategic goals as outlined by the County
Ensure that staff receive training and are cross-trained to be prepared for staff transitions
Debbie has vastly improved the office of the prothonotary during her first term, and we believe she is best candidate to continue this important work.
Visit friendsofdebbiebookman.org for more info.