Weblog JOU 4181

The visit to the Clerk of The Court’s office may not have had the sense of…let’s say “adventure” that the visit to the Orient Road Jail did, but it was still very interesting, and most likely will be far more useful. As both the Comptroller and the Clerk of the Court, Ms. Pat Frank was a gracious and well-informed host.

Comptroller
The duties of the Comptroller are mostly to monitor the budget of the Board of County Commissioners. It verifies that the expenditures are authorized. Ms. Frank characterized the Comptroller as an independent body that serves as a watchdog. It also monitors “parked” (unspent) money, and where it’s invested. Ms. Frank discussed three considerations the Comptroller’s office makes when planning how to invest “parked” funds: Security, liquidity, and rate of return. A low return in a secure investment is more likely than a high return risky investment.
Ms. Frank also discussed how the county earns revenue by generating official records, and how the economy affects the government. Not only do homeowners lose the actual building, but they are also unable to pay for the property it is on, therefore a bailout/”rescue” would also help government.
Clerk
The Clerk of The Court is perhaps the most important office people know the least about. Some of their duties include: Keeping records of all court events, sending out jury summons, collecting child support payments, collecting court costs, and recently started processing passport applications, and processing marriages and divorces.
In part because of Ms. Frank’s efforts, a lot of what the Clerk does is online. Court Dockets can be found online. Traffic citations can be paid online. Referencing last week’s trip to the Jail, video courts can now be used for first appearance. They are moving to a system where one can get excused from their jury summons in advance. Electronic imaging is underway to preserve the documents that have been compiled over the past century and a half. Budgeting for this must get state legislature approval. There are savings for this, however. E-records can help reduce the county’s $86,000 postage budget.
However, sometimes technology progresses faster than the County’s ability to implement it. The Clerk is trying to get running a system that allows a court clerk to enter information into the system as it’s happening. Currently, three people do this job. One records the events of the court, one transcribes it, and one files it.

A Complex Budget
The Comptroller is allowed to return unused surplus to the Board of County Commissioners. (The “parking” of it in secure investments). However, the Clerk’s Office revenue is controlled by the state, so excess from counties such as Hillsborough is often redistributed into other counties that may not have excess or even deficits. Ms. Frank wondered whether the distribution was fair, and said careful monitoring was needed to make sure counties were not “fudging” their numbers to get this money.

Marriage
One of the more common functions of the Clerk of the Court is marriages. This is where you would go to get your marriage license, they have an area where they conduct actual marriage ceremonies upon request, and it is also where couples go to obtain divorces. A marriage license costs $93.50, but if couples take an approved “Pre-Marital Preparation” course, they can get that reduced to $60. The cost just to file for divorce is $408.

Overall, the visit was packed full of useful information. It was almost too much to take in one visit. It will be interesting to dive in and explore all the various types of public records the Clerk’s Office can turn up.

Meet you further up the road,
Brentin

Read Pat Frank’s Blog, “Frank Talk”
Learn more about Pre-Marital Prep Courses

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