Douglas County courts ask for larger budgets, citing low pay for court‑appointed counsel and growing workloads

Douglas County judicial offices told the Board of Commissioners on May 20 they will seek higher budgets for fiscal 2025–26 to cover increased court-appointed attorney fees, courtroom outfitting and administrative responsibilities the county is absorbing from other offices.

County Court: Pam Cardenas, Judicial Administrator, and Judge Marcela Kime, Presiding County Court Judge, asked the board to fund a County Court request of $1,146,500, up from a target of $896,981. County Court staff said the principal drivers are increased court‑appointed attorney fees and relocation costs for the Civil Division. Cardenas said raising the criminal court hourly rate from $65 to $80 and probate from $85 to $100 would add roughly $198,138 to the county’s expense. Judge Kime said Douglas County currently "pay[s] the lowest in the entire state" for court-appointed criminal counsel and urged the board to help attract qualified attorneys.

District Court: Sherry Larson, District Court Administrator for the Fourth Judicial District, asked for $7,380,000 (about 9.1% over the $6.7 million target). Larson said a major share covers finishing and furnishing two new courtrooms (AV ~$315,000; furniture/fixtures ~$147,000) so judges will have jury-ready courtrooms. She also cited rising costs from court-appointed felony and homicide cases, appeals and expert witness fees; homicide cases were noted as particularly costly. The District Court also requested funding related to the Board of Mental Health’s administrative support, which would move tasks and meeting expenses to the court’s budget.

Clerk of District Court: Crystal Rhodes explained staffing additions and corrective work in the clerk’s office after years of backlog and equipment limitations. Rhodes said 40% of district-court documents still arrive on paper and that the state case-management software (Justice) is an antiquated green-screen system requiring labor-intensive processing. The clerk’s office reported hiring additional staff to manage the evidence room and scanning backlog, and described cost-savings steps such as eliminating microfilm and reducing printing; Rhodes said a change of banks could yield roughly $191,000 a year in additional revenue.

Why this matters: Commissioners said adequate pay for court-appointed attorneys is essential to ensure counsel for indigent defendants and to maintain qualified lists of Guardian ad Litem appointees for sensitive probate and juvenile matters. Commissioners and court leaders discussed the trade‑offs of incremental fee increases versus a larger jump toward rates paid in other Nebraska counties.

What board members said: Commissioner Cavanaugh praised the courts’ cost controls but said increasing court‑appointed fees to match the majority of Nebraska counties "is something that we can talk about going forward." Commissioner Friend pressed court leaders on the operational impacts of low pay, asking whether poor compensation reduces the pool of available counsel; Judge Kime said the courts have already seen reduced volunteer interest and that training requirements and unpaid CLEs make recruitment difficult.

Next steps: The presentations were part of the budget discussion; no final county budget vote occurred at the meeting.