Franklin County: More Cases, Less Employees

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By Lena Vargas

Summary

The Franklin County Clerk’s Office has a growing caseload and a shrinking staff.

Story Published: Oct 21, 2009 at 5:26 PM PST

Franklin County: More Cases, Less Employees
FRANKLIN COUNTY— The Franklin County Clerk’s Office has more cases, but not more employees.

In fact, it lost a position during last year’s budget crunch. Franklin County Clerk, Michael Killian says Commissioners reinstated the position, but are now asking him to cut his budget by $54,000. He says that’s equivalent to a position and a half.

All this is happening just as the amount criminal, juvenile and civil cases have increased 10 to 25 percent, depending on the category.

As it is, the clerk's office is already relying on outside help that is not funded by the county and high school interns. AARP pays for one of those employees and Goodwill pays for the other.

Plus, two of his employees share a position.

But Killian says the extra help and creative staffing is not enough to offset the growing number of cases and the need.

"They can't make up for it, because they can't do computer data entry and they can't go into court because they're not actually a deputy clerk of mine,” said Killian.

The added financial pressure is not just from the county.
Killian says two new bills by the state have transferred about 400 parole or “supervision” cases from the Department of Corrections to Franklin County. He says so far this week he’s gotten 16 more cases from the state.