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Clerk of Court highlights expungement outreach, warns House Bill 29 could reduce collections tools
Summary
Clerk Earl B. Turner told the Finance Committee the Clerk’s Office expanded expungement clinics and neighborhood outreach in 2024 but warned recent state legislation (House Bill 29) may remove vehicle registration holds that are central to the court’s collections strategy.
Cleveland — Earl B. Turner, Clerk of the Cleveland Municipal Court, told the council’s finance committee the Clerk’s Office stepped up neighborhood outreach and expungement clinics in 2024 while warning that state House Bill 29 could reduce an important collections tool.
Turner said the Clerk’s Office partnered on “in the neighborhood” events (eight in 2024) and numerous expungement clinics with nonprofit LegalWorks and suburban partners, and that 2024 saw substantial activity resolving past-due parking and traffic tickets and assisting people to avoid tow actions. “When people come to our in the neighborhood events, they often tell us they appreciate new ways of notifying them about outstanding fines,” Turner said.
The Clerk’s Office reported that expungements and sealing increased: the court and clerk staff assisted many people through local events and the clerk’s outreach; the clerk’s office also cited the rise in electronic filing and the expansion of mediation (245 mediated small-claims resolutions in 2024, compared with 59 in 2023).
Kim Bates, the Clerk’s chief of staff, explained a specific operational concern for collections: House Bill 29, which changes driver-license suspension rules, also removed (in its present drafting and implementation) the clerk’s ability to place vehicle registration holds on people with unpaid parking tickets or fines — a step that had been described by clerk staff as a primary lever to motivate payments. “House Bill 29 took that away from us, meaning we could no longer put vehicle registration holds on defendants who had not paid,” Bates said, adding that vehicle-registration holds were historically used to prompt people to resolve outstanding fines at court.
Parking-ticket revenue and collection data were discussed: the Clerk’s Office reported parking ticket collections fell from about $3.3 million to $2.8 million in 2024; staff attributed part of the decline to changes in attorney-general collection arrangements and a 10% downturn in ticket issuance tied to a new city parking meter rollout that initially generated disputes. John Galick, director of parking violations, said a large increase in disputes (about 4,000 challenges after new meter zones were installed) depressed collections in 2024.
The clerk’s staff also noted workforce changes and succession planning: the office reported 133 full-time employees as of early 2025 and described retirement risk and stepped-up training efforts. Mariceli Rivera, the Clerk’s HR director, described hiring and retention efforts and the office’s use of student seasonal hires to build a recruiting pipeline.
Council members asked for follow-up detail and asked the Clerk’s Office to provide pay-band charts and additional documentation about collections and the likely fiscal impact of the state driver-license changes. The Clerk’s Office said it would provide that information to the committee.
