Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Clerk Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District clerk requests full‑time financial clerk and new file cabinets amid $12 million receivership workload
Summary
District Clerk Sherry Griffiths asked commissioners for a new full‑time financial clerk to manage complex receivership accounts she said total over $12,000,000; she also presented bids for rolling file cabinets (five‑cabinet bid at about $70,000) and proposed using preservation funds to offset costs.
District Clerk Sherry Griffiths told the commissioners her office's budget is mostly unchanged but highlighted two issues: staffing for receivership work and failing rolling file cabinets.
"Our receivership account now is over $12,000,000," Griffiths said, describing increasing division orders and buyouts related to oil‑and‑gas activity. She asked the court to approve a new full‑time financial clerk to handle receivership accounts and the associated tax payments and accounting. Griffiths said the salary increase would be about $34,005.48 and that benefits would raise the total cost; she said her part‑time employee would remain in a reduced role handling minor trust and restitution accounts.
On records storage, Griffiths reported a vendor bid to replace five rolling cabinet units with tracks at roughly $70,000, and said she had asked for a revised bid for three cabinets to reduce costs. Griffiths proposed using $45,000 from her records preservation account (previously used for restoration work) to cover part of the purchase and defer preservation projects this year.
Griffiths also requested $7,500 for records automation work, a replacement copier for jury summons (her office prints about 1,900 summons per month), and three HP Jet Pro printers for staff workstations. She reminded the court that jury fees and the law‑library fee (cited as a $35 maximum per case) must be approved as part of the budget process.
Griffiths urged consideration of county salary increases to retain staff, noting many employees are single parents and that pay improvements help morale and retention. Commissioners asked whether the cabinet purchase would require going out to bid and discussed in‑house installation versus vendor installation; Griffiths said the vendor would install and guarantee maintenance.
No formal vote was recorded during the presentation; Griffiths said she would email bids and supporting detail to clerks and commissioners for inclusion in the budget books.
