As we all know, the State of Missouri is facing a budget crisis.  In an effort to make the justice system more cost effective the Missouri Supreme Court issued an Order requiring each judicial circuit (the City of St. Louis is the 22^nd Judicial Circuit) to consolidate the court clerks under one “appointing authority”.  The “appointing authority” is the person designated to hire and fire employees. This system had been tried in other counties and resulted in significant savings.  All circuits were ordered to submit a plan to the Court.  If the circuit couldn’t agree on a plan, the Court would chose between the plans submitted.  Our circuit couldn’t agree on a plan.  So after reviewing the plans submitted, the Court decided to make the presiding judge (not the clerk) the “appointing authority” for the 22^nd Judicial Circuit.

The judges in our circuit unanimously agreed with making the presiding judge the appointing authority.  Two judges did not participate because they are on the budget committee and thought it inappropriate to be involved with this decision. 

 Some of the reasons given for making the presiding judge the appointing authority were:

•  -the presiding judge is already the appointing authority for most of the court personnel

•  -the current Clerk’s belief that he is independent of the Court

•  -the difficult working relationship between the Clerk and the Court

•  -the fact that the presiding judge had to ORDER the Clerk to use the computer system which allowed our circuit to be a part of the statewide justice information system

•  -the fact that the Clerk had not complied with the Court’s requests for an accounting of the funds from the Registry of the Court

•  -the fact that the Clerk had to be ORDERED to maintain the accuracy of the court’s records.

 The current Clerk filed a lawsuit claiming that the Missouri Supreme Court did not have the constitutional authority to make these changes.   The current Clerk’s lawsuit was tried and he lost. 

 The Missouri Constitution provides that the Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court supervises the administration of the courts of this State.  The Clerk relies on a 1976 amendment to the Constitution which has to do with the elimination of the magistrate court.  He claims that this provision trumps the authority of the Supreme Court to administer the courts.  He is appealing this loss to the Court of Appeals.

 If I had been clerk, would I have filed this lawsuit?

 No.  Here’s why. 

 I believe that it is the function of the Clerk of the Circuit Court to work WITH the judges, not independently of them.  We are part of the same team.  How can our court system  efficiently and economically serve the public if the team members are not working together?  Remember that this Order applied to ALL of the circuits in the State, but our current Clerk was the only one who filed a lawsuit.

 It is clear that there are duplications of functions in the system. There are savings to be had by eliminating these duplications. This was the whole point of the Supreme Court’s order requiring the circuits to chose one appointing authority. We are in the midst of a serious financial downturn and it is up to all of us to make the justice system function efficiently and economically.

 The Circuit Clerk’s job is to serve the court system for the citizens.  As Circuit Clerk, I guarantee that I will place the needs of the court system and the citizens of this City ahead of political concerns and will strive to make your clerk’s office as efficient as possible.