Clerk paints a dire picture

Data entry is labor intensive, and court filings continue to increase.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A high crime rate and a startling increase in civil litigation in the last five years "has placed a great deal of stress on the court," Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Tony Vivo says, adding that his department can't take any more.
"We are truly the poster child for this whole crime mess," Vivo said Wednesday during his 2006 budget presentation to Mahoning County commissioners.
His situation is putting more pressure on Mahoning County commissioners to fairly fund all departments while they address a looming $9 million deficit.
Vivo "has a very compelling case for his budget," said Commissioner John McNally IV, who also is an attorney.
Vivo's $1.9 million budget request for 2006 includes salaries and benefits for 10 additional employees in the legal department at a cumulative cost of nearly $412,000. The department has 26 workers, most of whom perform "labor intensive" data entry, he said.
Twenty-nine people worked in the clerk of courts office at the start of this year, but three people took other jobs and there was no money to replace them, Vivo said.
Statistics given
Vivo's report to commissioners included these statistics:
UThe department receives an average of 250 civil and criminal entries a day. Almost all of them, by law, should be mailed to respective parties within three days. The department is about two weeks behind in issuing civil-case entries.
UPosting civil and criminal entries on dockets takes about two and a half months.
UServing new complaints takes about six weeks; there is one employee to issue about 50,000 summonses annually.
UPosting daily pleadings on dockets takes about three weeks.
UOrder of sales in foreclosure cases take about 90 days to get to the sheriff's department.
Overall, the year-end projection for cases in Mahoning County Court is 13,669. That's an increase of 24 percent over 1999, when 11,005 cases were handled. The increases are in criminal cases (12 percent), judgment liens (20 percent), domestic violence (more than 16 percent) and civil cases (55 percent). Declines are being noted in divorce cases (15 percent) and appeals (27 percent).
More foreclosure filings
Foreclosure filings have increased, from 658 in 1999 to about 1,700 this year. About 300 of this year's foreclosures are the result of Mahoning County Treasurer John Reardon's negotiated tax lien sales, said Kathi McNabb-Welsh, chief deputy clerk of courts. The remainder are the result of current economic conditions and a "tragic and difficult" increase in civil litigation, she said, noting that Ohio leads the nation in the number of foreclosure filings.
Vivo and Reardon are discussing hiring temporary employees to help with filings that are tied to the treasurer's twice-annual tax lien sales, using fees the treasurer collects from those sales, McNabb-Welsh said.
Also adding to the workload is an increase in civil-protection orders, which are up from 258 in 2000 to 665 this year.
Vivo praised the department's employees for working under a contract extension for the last three years and carrying a huge workload, which has affected morale, he said.
He said he has restructured positions in area courts, used a 30-day transfer clause in his unionized employees' contracts to shift them to where they are needed, cross-trained employees and standardized filing codes in order to work more efficiently. The only solution he sees is to hire, even if he has to sue the commissioners to get the funding he needs. He refrained from filing suit in the past because other county employees were being laid off, and he didn't want to take money from other departments, he said.
"It's almost incumbent upon me to sue," Vivo said after his hearing. "I guess I'm through worrying about everybody else."
Vivo's situation is "more dire than the presentation he gave last year," McNally said.
shaulis@vindy.com