Carbon clerk clears $200K backlog; Office gradually getting through multiyear mess

Carbon County’s clerk of courts office moved over $200,000 in March that had been sitting in escrow waiting to be assessed, officials said.

On Thursday, Clerk of Courts Francine Heaney updated the county commissioners on the progress her office is making on getting through the multiyear backlog that had plagued that office under the former clerk of courts’ supervision.

Heaney commended her staff, as well as the five additional court administration members who have been helping file the cases in the office, saying the extra hours the commissioners have approved have made the difference in being able to catch up with the files that were waiting to be processed.

The commissioners approved an additional hour daily, as well as five hours on Saturdays for the staff to be able to use to focus on the backlog dating back to 2016.

Heaney said that after the county brought the assessments back into the courthouse on March 1, her staff has been doing the assessment of costs and fines and brought in over $200,000 that had been waiting in escrow for the assessments to be completed. This is in addition to the $342,666.47 in court fees assessed between January and February.

Carbon County had contracted with Lehigh County late last year to help complete the assessments until Heaney and the office staff were able to learn the process. Assessments were brought back into Carbon’s operations on March 1.

Heaney also said that 80 past judgments that dated to 2016 have been filed with 2017 and 2018 judgments to be filed next.

In addition, Heaney will be implementing an electronic process beginning in July where attorneys can file paperwork without having to come to the courthouse.

“It’s streamlining the process,” she said, noting that it will be less paperwork and will be easier to send between her office, court administration and the judge.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the office is doing a good job catching up considering their regular 40-hour workweek is filled by the increasing caseload moving through the courthouse. That’s why the county didn’t have a problem agreeing to the extra hours for the staff.

“We’re keeping up with the daily work with our regular hours,” Heaney said, adding that the additional hours are what is making the difference. “Those are what we dedicate to the backlog.”

Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said that originally the county didn’t want to approve Saturday hours because of costs, but the fact that there had been positions left unfilled for upward of five years, that helped cover the costs.

Commissioner William O’Gurek also weighed in, saying, “The important thing the public needs to know is when Fran took over that office, the work was backed up to 2016. The people working with her are now processing (that) work. It’s an enormous amount of work.”

Nothstein said that everyone in the office is now cross-trained for all operations that the clerk of courts handles.

“That was the problem before,” he said, noting that under former Clerk of Courts William McGinley, one person was only trained in a task so if that person wasn’t there or didn’t feel like doing it, the work didn’t get done.

He also spoke about the huge turnover rate that office had because of the work environment.

“It was outrageous,” Nothstein said.

Heaney was confirmed as the new clerk of courts by Gov. Tom Wolf and the Senate in October and was sworn in by Senior District Judge Edward Lewis on Oct. 22.

She replaced McGinley, who retired abruptly after 28 years in the position last May and has since been charged by the state Attorney General’s office with taking nearly $45,000 in bail money and prison booking/fingerprint fees.

In July, the county commissioners aired their frustrations with how the office was being handled, calling it “a mess.”

That same month, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office began an investigation into McGinley and the office’s operations and the county’s insurance carrier, the Pennsylvania Counties Risk Pool, conducted an audit of the office.