Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown appeared to discuss the proposed budget which has a $370,000 decrease from 2009 in the Corporate Fund, but increases of $193,720 in the Document Storage Fund and of $440,974 in the Administrative Fund, as well as $4.3 million in the Automation Fund (all 3 are special purpose funds). Overall, the Clerk is seeking an increase of 9 FTEs (full time equivalents) over those authorized in the 2009 budget. The Clerk said that she expects that the costs for overtime will be reduced considerably because she is now in the process of posting positions that would have a Wed.-Sun. workweek so that weekend courts will no longer be staffed by employees being paid overtime. The Clerk’s office rolled out E-filings (Electronic filings) for some of the court divisions and hopes to expand to all the other divisions over the next 18 months. The Clerk hopes to have a computer available for each judge’s use at the bench so the judge can access all these electronically filed “documents.” However, the Illinois Supreme Court still requires that there be a paper copy of all these electronic filings, which means the Clerk’s employees must print these out. Commissioner Peraica complimented the Clerk for making electronic filing available, but expressed concern that this automation hasn’t resulted in a significant reduction in FTEs, and thus hasn’t significantly reduced the costs of this office.
