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City court seeks extra clerk as caseload climbs; billing office reports wide monthly citizen contact
Summary
Christine said City Court is requesting one full-time deputy court clerk after staff reported a 45% increase in activity over the last two years and a projected 12% increase this year.
Christine (assistant city administrator, presenting on behalf of absent directors) told the Budget & Finance Committee that City Court is requesting one full-time deputy court clerk after city-court staff reported a 45% increase in activity over the last two years and an on-track 12% increase in the current year.
Christine said city court operations currently run with 2.5 full-time equivalent positions supporting three court sessions per month; staff reported the workload is “maxed” and that walk-up customers, phone inquiries and in-court work often occur simultaneously. The city previously delayed a staffing request to monitor whether increased caseloads were a sustained trend; staff now report a three-year upward trend and are requesting one full-time deputy clerk to improve service levels.
On software, Christine said the board previously approved a software enhancement for city court; a contract has been executed but implementation is delayed because the vendor asked to postpone configuration work until the vendor’s earlier customers are completed. Implementation is expected to resume in May with deployment later in the year; Christine said the new system will provide modern online-payment options.
Separately, the billing and licensing division (director Jessica Davey was absent; Tabitha Byram and Christine spoke for the office) reported it handles roughly 30,000 utility accounts and an estimated 35,000 phone calls annually. The department does not request program enhancements for FY26 but asked the committee to note a proposed accounting change: to consolidate general-fund utilities and insurance allocations into the facilities fund to reduce repetitive ledger entries. The office also emphasized the customer-service role billing staff perform for residents facing hardship.
Ending: City court staff said the additional deputy clerk position would allow the office to serve an expanding caseload more effectively, while billing and licensing asked that the committee consider the proposed fund-consolidation approach as part of FY26 budgeting.
