Nov 24, 2025 By Mike Jones 2 min read

The Fayette County commissioners have terminated their longtime chief clerk, but not before she criticized them and questioned their decision during public comment at Thursday’s voting meeting.

Amy Liston, who served as the county’s chief clerk for more than 13 years, said two workers from human resources and a sheriff’s deputy visited her office Oct. 28, handed her a termination letter signed by all three commissioners, and escorted her from the building.

“I would say it wasn’t my job performance,” Liston said during public comment. “It was politics and personality.”

Liston said she worked in her office inside the courthouse every day during the COVID-19 pandemic and even attended Zoom meetings from home when she was sick with the virus.

She added that her job performance was mentioned in her letter, but it gave no examples of any discipline or poor job reviews.

“I was told once I was too frank. So apparently frankness, or honesty, is not valued by these commissioners,” Liston said.

Later in the meeting, Commissioners Scott Dunn, Harry Dutch Kaufman and Vince Vicites voted unanimously to approve the “separation” with Liston as chief clerk. Dunn said he could not comment on the matter because it involved a personnel decision, but acknowledged that other employees are currently handling typical duties of the chief clerk.

“Her duties have been distributed to other people temporarily, and we have not hired anyone to replace her,” Dunn said.

The chief clerk assists the commissioners, helps develop the budget, prepares the meeting agendas and handles open records requests from the public, among several other duties. A job posting for the chief clerk position was uploaded to the county’s website Nov. 14 and expired just before midnight Friday.

Liston previously worked as a reporter at the Observer-Reporter and Herald-Standard newspapers before being hired as chief clerk for Fayette County in April 2012.