Cowlitz County District Court officials told commissioners they will not fill a recently vacated part-time clerk position for at least the coming budget cycle and that the office is preparing for a June 2026 transition to a state case-management system.

Why it matters: The shift to a modern, statewide case-management system — the district-court version of the Odyssey platform used by superior courts — is a major operational change expected to alter workflows, job duties and how court offices allocate staff time. The court’s short-term staffing choices affect service levels and can affect whether the county needs to request budget changes later.

Molly, who presented the district court budget, said a longtime part-time clerk retired in August and the court will leave the slot vacant while staff evaluate how duties are redistributed once the new system is in place. “Everything’s electronic. There’s not the same things for a part time person to do that there used to be,” Molly said.

The court also plans to seek guidance at the personnel workshop about a supervisory position that sometimes falls in and out of exempt status due to changes in salary thresholds; the court seeks to avoid a situation where a supervisor’s classification would flip between exempt and hourly. Molly said she will present that item at the personnel workshop.

Molly described other budget considerations: she recommended maintaining a prudently sized pro tem (temporary judge) budget because statutory rules control how long judges can be absent and have to be covered, and interpreter reimbursement and therapeutic court grant pass-throughs create variable intergovernmental lines. She said the county will sign as needed for a therapeutic court grant awarded to the City of Longview that would be administered through the Administrative Office of the Courts and passed through to the city if used.

No formal changes were adopted during the presentation. The court asked commissioners to consider keeping travel and training funds adequate for continuing-education requirements and to await further analysis of staffing needs after the new case-management system is implemented in mid-2026.