The Decatur County Council met on Tuesday.
Dorene Greiwe came to the board requesting permission to supplement the offices certification pay for levels 2 and 3. This is the only office that is required to have a certification and they take a lot of time to get and maintain. This would be an extra $9,000 total being supplemented and it is in their budget. The was approved for 2020 and 2021.
Judge Bailey and Judge Day came to the board to discuss a jury administrator position. On November 9, they received an email from the clerk saying that her office would no longer be responsible for jury pull. This took them by surprise considering the clerk, both current and all previous, had always done the jury administrator job despite it not being formally written down. The clerk was brought to the meeting to be asked why the sudden refusal. The clerks response was that it wasnt their responsibility and that jury pull takes up their time. The clerk also stated that since $10,000 from postage had been cut from their budget they didnt feel properly funded to continue jury pull. This is an extremely urgent matter as prisoners have a right to a jury trial and there are timelines before a case gets automatically dismissed. The new jury administrator position would be for both courts and they would also serve as a bailiff when needed. This would be a full time job. The Judges need to advertise this and they will be back at the next meeting for further discussion.
All transfers were approved. All additionals were approved.
Morgan Schofield
WTRE News
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