Johnson explains role of automation, document and storage fees

<span>CHESTER -- The Randolph County Board of Commissioners approved increases to automation and document storage fees at its March 27 meeting and Circuit Clerk Sherry Johnson recently further explained the role of those two funds.</span>

<span>"The court automation fund purchases all my computer equipment," Johnson said. "Copiers, printers, software, the Judici program, everything automated in this office gets spent out of court automation and zero of that gets refunded by the county general fund."</span>

<span>Johnson said total clerk fees brought in $158,156.71 in fiscal year 2014, which ran from December 2013 to November 2014. Automation fees amounted to $35,627.91 and document storage accounted for $35,528.50.</span>

<span>"The clerk fee goes 100 percent to the general fund to help operate the courthouse," Johnson said. "Automation and document storage go into separate funds."</span>

<span>Things paid for out of the document storage fund include file folders, file cabinets and the salaries of personnel who work in maintaining those documents.</span>

<span>"Money for that comes directly out of document storage fees and is not refundable by the county," Johnson said.</span>

<span>Additionally, according to Johnson, the Board of Commissioners annually withdraws $40,000 each from both the automation and document storage funds to help pay the salaries of workers in the Circuit Clerk's office.</span>

<span>Johnson said the Board cannot withdraw funds from the automation account without an agreement from the circuit judge and circuit clerk. The Board must also have an agreement from the clerk to withdraw funds from the document storage account.</span>

<span>In last week's meeting, the Board approved a resolution and two ordinances brought forward by Johnson.</span>

<span>The two ordinances increased the fee for court automation from $5 to $25 and increased the document storage fee by the same amount.</span>

<span>Exceptions are traffic/conservation/local ordinance ($15), small claims ($10), adoptions ($5) and cases with a statutory exemption from fees. The fee increases are the maximum allowable under state statute and began taking effect today.</span>

<span>Randolph County Treasurer Justin Jeffers is retaining the funds in their specific accounts. Of the $328,735.70 that was dispersed to the circuit clerk's office in fiscal year 2014, only $82,017.99 was used from the general fund.</span>

<span>"I do want the public to know the monies collected are used to sustain the office with the least amount as possible coming from the general fund," Johnson said. "The request for the increase in the fees is to rebuild the balances."</span>