After 38 years in the Daviess County Attorney’s office, Claud Porter will soon be signing off as the County Attorney, saying said it’ll be hard to adjust to his new normal.
“It’s been a long time. I’ve been doing this for 38 years, dealing with the Fiscal Court for 16, but I hope I’m going to enjoy what I do for the next 40 years as much as I’ve enjoyed these last 40 years,” Porter said.
Porter served as Assistant Daviess County Attorney from 1984 through 2006, when he was elected to his current role.
During his time in the County Attorney’s office, Porter has been instrumental in implementing various programs including the Juvenile Drug Court, Mental Health Court, Domestic Violence Prevention Program, and other major projects for the community.
Under Porter’s leadership, Mental Health Court was able to help more than 500 individuals in the court system during this past summer.
“I think those are all really good programs. I hope that those programs will be around for a while. I think the people who are working in them are able to do that and know that they’re interested in it and passionate about it,” Porter said.
Porter said he feels like the outgoing Fiscal Court members and the attorney’s office have both built a strong foundation for the next group of county government leaders to build upon. He said his and the retiring Fiscal Court members’ combined time showcases a lot of progress in the community.
While he said he will miss the impact he had working with the community, Porter said he’ll miss the people he’s worked alongside the most.
“I’ll miss the people, all of them. That’s been the highlight of what I’ve been doing the last 40 years,” he said. “The people who work there, every one of them was wonderful, from the people that were formerly with me, on Fiscal Court, and the other court system, all of those.”
For his immediate future, Porter said he is simply looking forward to taking some time off and enjoying family time. He plans to do a bit of reading and traveling, and then after four months he’ll approach the idea of what to do next.
