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Martinsville council holds public hearing on adding full-time city court clerk; vote on emergency passage fails
Summary
The council heard testimony supporting a new full-time City Court clerk paid up to $27 per hour to complete a mandated transition to the Odyssey cloud case-management system; council did not unanimously suspend rules, so the ordinance moves to a second reading.
During a July 14 public hearing, the Martinsville Common Council heard a proposal to add a full-time City Court clerk position and to expand the salary range to permit pay up to $27 per hour. Grace Terrell, permanent pro tem of Martinsville City Court, told council members the office is behind on records and must transition from an aging, paper-based case-management system to Odyssey, a state-supported cloud system, before December.
Terrell said the court needs a single experienced, Odyssey-trained full-time clerk to bring the office into compliance and to handle docket prep, records retention, payments and legal research. “We need to go paperless. We need to get on a cloud based system that's in compliance with state standards,” she said. Terrell said three qualified candidates with court or paralegal experience applied and the court recommended hiring one candidate who is already Odyssey-trained.
City counsel Dale Coffey explained the public hearing and first-reading process; councilors discussed job title, pay scale, whether an administrative or executive assistant title would be more accurate, and whether to require raises only at budget time. Several council members urged adding a part-time backup clerk, though Terrell said retaining a part-time person is budget-dependent.
Councilor(s) moved to suspend the rules and approve the amended salary ordinance at the first reading to expedite hiring, but the suspension motion requires unanimous consent and did not pass. The council recorded non-unanimous votes on the rule suspension, so the measure will return for a second reading at the council’s next meeting. No final hiring occurred at the July 14 meeting.
Terrell requested the council authorize a salary range with a $27 hourly top rate to allow the court to hire and retain an experienced clerk; the council will consider amendments and the ordinance on the second reading. The council and staff discussed using an interim county-trained clerk to assist if needed while the court completes its transition.
