Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Court Records topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Court administrator reports $12,359 possibly owed in old bonds; trustees conditionally remove records custodian
Summary
Former court administrator Ramona Molina told trustees she reduced a decades-long list of held court bonds to six cases potentially owing $12,359; trustees approved a condition to remove Molina from her records-custodian role and asked staff to reconcile the bond account with state auditors.
Ramona Molina (court administrator) presented a multi-year reconciliation of municipal court bond holdings at the June 8 meeting, saying she reduced a 42-page list to six cases that may still be owed a total of $12,359.
Molina explained the court historically held bond amounts in a system that did not consistently flow to finance, creating mismatches between checks shown as deposited and system entries. She said some bonds date as far back as 1996 and that records are incomplete for older cases. Trustees and staff said the court account currently has about $44,000 in held bond funds; Molina reported $12,359 as potentially outstanding after her review and said the town will keep those amounts on a five-year retention list so people can claim refunds.
Staff and trustees said they will consult with the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), the state auditor and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to reconcile historic entries and determine whether additional refunds are owed. Trustees asked staff to produce a clear reconciliation and pledged to issue refunds where records show money is due.
On a related agenda item, trustees approved a conditioned motion to remove Ramona Molina from the public safety clerk/records custodian contract; the roll call vote approved the condition and then approved the underlying motion with that condition. Molina said she did not want to sign a memo that would attach liability for errors that predated her tenure but agreed to continue helping reconcile the records.
Next steps: staff to coordinate with DFA/state auditors/AOC for formal reconciliation, issue refunds where supported by records, and return with a reconciliation report.
