Sun Archives
- Blunders yield bonanza (5-15-2008)
- Big stink at justice center a mystery, but real enough to sicken workers (3-19-2008)
Beyond the Sun
Relations between the office of the county clerk and District Court have been chilly, stemming from the court’s January 2007 takeover of a trust fund. Now, they’ve turned arctic.
As the Sun reported in mid-May, the fund was mismanaged for at least 15 years, predating the decadelong tenure of County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre. Civil attorneys were required to pay deposits for jury fees upon filing suits, but with most cases not proceeding to trial, the money had to be reimbursed. In many cases, however, months or years passed before the money was returned.
The trust fund reaped millions in interest, though it’s unclear how much was linked to unreturned deposits.
Parraguirre doesn’t dispute any of this, though she contends her office strove to remedy the problem. She also notes that whenever attorneys requested their money back, her office always obliged.
But she took considerable umbrage at the court’s providing a few details to the Sun, and the court now acknowledges two of them were wrong.
“The court, in my opinion, is trying to find a good reason for taking over the clerk of the court function,” she said.
Officials told the Sun they’d found 74 deposit cards in an evidence vault months after they’d assumed control of the account. Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle also reported that in a legal publication.
“I believe they made it up,” Parraguirre said last week.
The cards actually were found in the clerk’s finance office — where Parraguirre says they should have been.
Court Administrator Chuck Short disputes that: “The cards were missing. They weren’t where they were supposed to be.”
Also, the court reported that Parraguirre’s office had duplicated repayments totaling almost $800,000. But the actual figure was $595,250, Short said.
Parraguirre has yet to confirm the revised total because she says she hasn’t seen the proof.
“If there was an error, I’d be the first one to go to the newspaper and say it,” she said.
Short, however, says the records were disclosed to the state Supreme Court, making them public documents.
In interviews before the May 15 Sun article, Parraguirre was not exactly coy about the wedge between her office and Short’s, but she avoided discussing the disdain she felt over the divorce.
No longer.
“Do I feel vindicated? No, I’m just more livid,” she said last week.
Short downplayed the matter, saying everyone involved should be pleased his office addressed most of the “irregularities.”
“There’s no issue between my office and theirs personally and professionally,” he said. “We’ve moved on.”
The court still has to reconcile several hundred deposits, though Short is confident most will be resolved in the coming months.
Then there’s the matter of future deposits. To save Short’s office time while the trust fund is sorted out, the Supreme Court agreed to waive the deposit requirement temporarily.
Now Short is pushing to eliminate it. His argument: About 200 of 4,000 civil suits actually make it to trial annually, so why create a bureaucratic headache requiring deposits that probably will need to be returned? If a case reaches trial, Short reasons, the judge will mandate the jury fees be paid.
On June 2, the justices held a 10-minute session on the matter. Short was there; Parraguirre was not but submitted a written statement.
It’s unclear when the justices will make a decision.
“It’s such a unique kind of issue,” Supreme Court spokesman Bill Gang said. “It’s an administrative matter, and I don’t know how far along they are on this.”
•••
County officials believe they may have finally identified the source of the stench that forced some employees from the lower level of the Regional Justice Center to temporary digs across the street. The culprit is believed to have been hairline cracks in plumbing.
“I won’t say it’s solved, but we haven’t had any (lingering) smells in a week, except for brief, possibly normal whiffs,” said Michael Green, assistant director of the county’s Real Property Management Department.
Piping has been replaced, connections have been tightened and the bathrooms on the lower level have been repaired, courthouse building manager Frank Wheat Jr. said.
The county spent more than $100,000 for outside help to fix the problem, Green said. That figure does not include hundreds of staff hours and the cost of maintenance supplies.
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