Sources indicate that Law Director Joe Jarret sent a letter to Commissioners this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. indicating that CTAS (County Technical Assistance Services) has researched further the issue of the fee office budgets being incorporated into the county budget. Based on that additional information, the merger of the Circuit Court Clerk, Criminal Court Clerk and the Clerk and Master’s budgets could lead to a legal challenge. However, Circuit Court Clerk Cathy Quist has already endorsed the proposal so it will mean that the Criminal Court Clerk and Clerk and Master budgets will likely retain their independent budgets.
Sources indicate that the Register of Deeds and other county fee office budgets are still permitted to be combined. So, Joy McCroskey Criminal Court Clerk will have to defend in the next election why she fails to collect 89% of the fees accessed to her to collect by the Criminal Court Judges.
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