No extra fees from Knox Co Circuit Court Clerk four years running

The Knox County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office has again failed to turn over any money to the county’s coffers – for the fourth year in a row and the fifth time in the past six years.

In fact, the county – as it closes its financial books on the recently wrapped-up fiscal year – even had to underwrite the overall operation for 2016 to the tune of almost $80,000.

That’s because the juvenile court, which is under the Circuit Court clerk’s purview, spent more than the office brought in.

Now, top county leaders say they are troubled about the office’s lack of finances, but question whether they can step in.

“There’s always a concern, absolutely,” said Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett. “If they don’t collect it, then the deficit is going to come from somewhere else. Either you raise taxes or you raise the base.
We’re kind of limited in local government. At some point it’s going to come from the taxpayers . . . it’s not going to magically appear.”

Knox County Commission Vice Chairman Randy Smith agreed, saying he, too, is “very concerned.”

“They need to look at aligning their staffing with the revenue streams,” Smith told WBIR 10News. “This is supposed to be at least a break-even entity.”

The Circuit Court Clerk’s Office is one of five county fee offices. These departments are run by elected leaders and are supposed to be self-funded from the fees they collect. But, they also are expected to contribute to the county’s overall bottom line.

For example, whenever someone files a lawsuit in the circuit court, the plaintiff has to pay an upfront fee of $186.50. An adoption carries a $252 fee and name change runs $186.50.

Those monies first go to covering the salaries in the office and any excess revenue is turned over to the county.

That doesn’t happen often in the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office.

But, the office’s spokesman, Randy Kenner, said officials in the department are doing everything they can.

“I think the office is pretty well run,” he said. “I don’t think we have a lot of collections out there. We’re collecting the fees we’re supposed to collect . . . (but) there’s just not as much money as there once was.”

Rest of story RIGHT HERE.

Circuit Court clerk to make records available online by early next year

Remember how awhile back we broke the news that the Knox County Criminal Court Clerk’s Office has never bothered to draw down any of the coin from its $130,000 technology fund?

If you don’t, well, right smack here for the story.

Anyhoo, I was talking to Circuit Court Clerk Cathy Shanks (formerly Quist) and her right hand agent, Randy Kenner, about whether they’re using the money. (Circuit Court is kind of like the yin to Criminal Court’s yang.)

Here’s what I was told:

Last year the office kicked off the bidding process to get an electronic management system that would include an online component. Nine companies were interested and Databank IMX out of Monroe, Louisiana got the contract. (This was approved by the County Commission earlier this year.)

Overall, the plan is to use a scanning system that will allow “for the efficient electronic storage, retrieval and transmission of court records.”

The public, attorneys, media, etc. will then be able to access circuit, civil sessions and juvenile courts’ stuff online for a monthly fee, which will be used to keep the operation up and running. 

Randy told me the numbers but, quite frankly, I forgot. I do remember that he said they’d probably need about 100 clients to break even.

(Nashville has a similar program and it’s actually turned into its own revenue stream.)

Randy said officials hope to have enough content available early next year. At that point they’ll begin offering online access.

They’ll use the technology fund to get the operation going. The money comes from a $2 computer and technology fee that state law requires as part of the filing fee for new cases.