Charlene Jacobs always liked working with numbers.

It’s served her well in a career throughout government, first on the state level and for the last 13 years in Clark County.

For the last decade, Jacobs has been the office manager for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, overseeing the financial aspects including collecting the county’s property taxes.

Jacobs, a native of Olive Hill in Carter County, said she moved to Winchester in 1979 after graduating from college. She had just started working for a bank in Lexington when the state called with a job offer to become a field agent for the state revenue cabinet. There, she was working with taxpayers with a number of issues, including sales tax withholding and being late on payments.

That was followed by a stint in the state auditor’s office performing audits of local governments, circuit clerk’s offices and anyone the auditor requested, she said.

In 2003, she retired from the state attorney general’s office, where she was part of the public corruption unit.

“That was something different every day,” she said. “The cases we got were wide and varied.”

At one point, she was part of the investigation into the Woodford County Hospital and its financial woes. On any given day, Jacobs could be working a case involving state employees misusing credit cards to conservators or guardians not acting in a person’s best interest, she said.

Around 2006, she started as the finance officer and later treasurer for Clark County, and started at the sheriff’s office in 2009.

As office manager, Jacobs said she is responsible for paying the department’s bills, preparing the daily, monthly and annual reports, preparing for audits and managing the department’s accounts.

Much of her job revolves around county taxes.

In Kentucky, the sheriff’s office is responsible for collecting property taxes in each county. In 2017, the county collected about $28 million in taxes, she said.

Jacobs keeps those records, makes the payments to the various taxing districts, such as the county schools, and prepares the department’s records for the annual audits.

“(Tax collection) is the main duty of the sheriff’s office,” she said. “Most people think it’s law enforcement but it’s not.”

Jacobs said taxes consume much of her time throughout the year, whether it’s collecting the information for the bills to be printed or gearing up for the audits.

Jacobs said she is expecting auditors to arrive later this week to audit the sheriff’s fee account, which is the operational fund for the department.

“In July and August, we’re not doing much with the taxes,” she said. “Most of the rest of the year, we’re doing something.”

Part of the satisfaction in her work, she said, is always knowing whether things are done correctly.

“I like working with numbers. I always have. They balance. I just like the order of it.”