BISBEE — Long lines at the windows of the Superior Court’s clerk office don’t just reflect procrastinators in need of passports; they also reflect the customer wait time from a staff shortage due to budget constraints.
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Each county department head has been tasked with reducing costs by 11.5 percent overall by the supervisors, Ortega said. To hold expenses down, many open positions in the county will remain unfilled through the next fiscal year. That has created a heavier workload and a longer customer wait time for many departments in the county.
For Lundin, the staff reductions have created 10- to 20-minute waits for customers coming to the office for services, such as marriage licenses, notary public duties or payment of fines. Her office maintains all civil, domestic, criminal, juvenile and probate records. Lundin’s staff issues writs and warrants and takes and transcribes all court minutes for all court proceedings. Her office also handles jurors from initial contact through the trials and forwards appeals to the appropriate courts. Money from all fees and fines also are collected by the clerk of court’s office.
Part of the clerk’s $1.7 million budget comes under the general fund. Revenues totaling $272,500 are not enough to cover expenditures of $1.6 million. Under the line item special revenue funds, $148,982 in revenue zeros out with the same figure in expenses.
Superior Court Judge Wallace Hoggatt, who oversees the superior court, states in a letter, “We all have to tighten our belts, yet at the same time we must continue to provide services that we are required by law to perform and which members of the public have every right to expect ... the judicial branch has worked hard and continue to develop ways to work smarter and more efficiently to ensure we don’t jeopardize our vital and constitutional duties to the citizens of the county.”
To keep quality of service for the county’s customers, Supervisor Pat Call suggested shifting funds from departments that are managing to meet customer expectations to the clerk of the court’s office.
“Employees also need help to prevent burn-out from being overworked. We should be as responsive as possible,” added Call. “People shouldn’t have to wait any longer than they have to.”
Supervisor Ann English said, “A 30-minute wait is not bad. You have to wait everywhere you go.”
The six justice courts in the county collectively will produce revenues around $2.754 million in the next fiscal year with expenses totaling around $2.408 million, noted Coakley. Almost all of the Justices of the Peace balked at staff reductions and noted in cover letters of their budgets that the justice courts continue to fight an uphill battle to keep up with current case loads.
The justice courts have reached the requested 10 percent reduction in personnel costs through use of furloughs or attrition, said Coakley.
“However, it is anticipated that there will be a significant impact on court services due to staff shortages and the resulting reduction in morale as employees are expected to increase their workloads. This may result in the courts providing those essential services such as processing current cases and assisting the public. Any non-essential tasks such as processing delinquent cases and issuing warrants and suspensions will result in reduced revenues,” Coakley added.
Court Enhancement funds could be used to pay for some of the items that can’t be funded through county general fund money due to an across-the-board revenue shortage. Bond cards (distributed with traffic tickets that show how much money is owed for the offense), courtroom remodeling, new courtroom chairs and even software to make the entry of ticket data into a system that uploads to the Sheriff’s Office could be purchased with these funds, as requested by the justices.
Court Enhancement funds are maintained by fines and fees set by the justice courts and the superior court judges, said Ferrara.
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