Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Courts Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District attorney and clerk present modest staffing and witness-fee requests; child support remains grant-funded
Summary
The district attorney requested an additional legal secretary to help manage growing digital discovery workloads; the clerk of courts proposed increasing witness fees to better match juror pay and reported a roughly $50,000 annual boost to court support payments. Child support operations are primarily grant-funded and unchanged.
Officials from the Adams County district attorney’s office and clerk of courts presented budget requests that focus on staff capacity and witness compensation.
District attorney request: the district attorney told the committee she will request one additional legal secretary (entry-level) to help with significant growth in digital discovery production and handling. She said digital discovery requests have increased and currently fall on a single staff member; the extra legal secretary would help process copies and prepare discovery for defense counsel and reduce workload pressures while ensuring timely compliance with defense review requests.
Clerk of courts: Miranda, the clerk of courts, asked the committee to increase the witness-fee line item from $700 to $1,400 to bring witness compensation more in line with juror pay. Miranda explained current witness compensation was 20¢ per mile and $16 per day; jurors receive around 51¢ per mile and $20–$25 per day. She gave the example of subpoenaed witnesses driving 300 miles who currently receive only a few dollars and said the increase is to treat witnesses more equitably.
Court support payment: Miranda and committee member Marie reported receiving a notice from the state court director indicating Adams County’s court support payment will increase by approximately $50,000 per year; the clerk said this will be reflected in the upcoming budget cycle.
Child support: staff said the child support office’s budget is primarily grant-funded and therefore does not use the tax levy; budget items were largely unchanged aside from wage adjustments and reallocations to cover rising process-server fees.
Context and next steps: County staff said wages and benefits across departments include a 2.4% cost-of-living adjustment and an estimated 9–9.5% health insurance increase in the proposed budgets. Department-specific requests will be finalized in meetings between department heads and finance before presentation to the administration and finance committee.
