Justice: At what cost?

Look for one taped on the locked clerk of court's door, below a holiday wreath, at the Clay County Courthouse.

"Iowa Court Offices Closed," it said, on the first of 10 days targeted by the judicial branch for a cost-saving shutdown.

"In addition, beginning on Dec. 15, 2009, the clerk offices will be closed from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday."

The state has asked its judicial branch to absorb an $11.4 million reduction in operating expenses due to plummeting state revenues. Court employees aren't paid on days like Friday, Dec. 4, when the clerk of court offices in all 99 counties were darkened.

Justice comes at a cost, and lost access isn't the only price to pay.

Joann Kinnetz, the Buena Vista County Clerk of Court, had to eliminate two full-time positions at the courthouse in Storm Lake.

"One person is taking retirement, one person is going down to halftime, and another person that I had working part time is no longer going to be here," she said. "We are going to be absorbing all of their work and doing it in less time. It's going to be a struggle, there's no doubt about it. We're all going to have more pressure on us to get our work done still in a timely manner, but with less resources to do it in."

Marcia Eckerman, the Dickinson County Clerk of Court experienced a similar cutback.

"We haven't had anybody retire, so we haven't had any openings that weren't filled for several years," she said. "Just a couple of weeks ago, I had to lay off two people and it is very difficult to keep up with the work."

One of the people laid off in Spirit Lake had 12 years of experience. Another had four years of experience at the clerk of court's office.

In Spencer, Jane Hussey quietly retired this summer -- no farewell coffee after 37 years as the Clay County Clerk of Court. The judicial branch will use her retirement to absorb a position.

"She is not replaced, we have an 'acting' clerk of court and we're going to have to decide what we're going to do about that. 'Acting' is a temporary thing," said Leesa McNeil.

As the District 3 Court Administrator, McNeil handles scheduling and staffing levels for 16 counties in a sprawling court district. The territory covers all of northwest Iowa from Algona to the east to Denison in the south.

Each of her courthouses operates on a formula, based on the caseloads typically generated in the jurisdiction.

"All of our cuts ended up taking people below the formulas that we calculate that they need," McNeil said. "We're below formula in every component. We don't have enough court attendants, we don't have enough clerk staff, we don't have enough juvenile court officers, we don't have enough court administration staff, and with judicial vacancies being kept vacant when they become open to retirements or resignations, they are not filling those at this time. There is not one component of the court system that is staffed for the workload that we currently have."

Morale is "terrible" in most places, according to McNeil.

THE HUMAN COST

"They work hard, they do their best, they deal with the piles and nobody's exceptionally happy to be in the court system," the court administrator said. "These aren't always easy jobs to be having in terms of the situations that we frequently have to work in."

McNeil is aware of employees with 10-20 years of experience who lost their jobs solely because new court budgets simply do not have the room. Personnel expenses make up 95 percent of the judicial branch's costs in Iowa.

"The work is still here to do -- watching those people walk out is very demoralizing for everyone," McNeil said. "Because our offices are typically small -- we're not huge gigantic corporate organizations -- most of our clerk offices have between two and five people in them ... People know each other and it's part of a family. You work together, you celebrate each other's family events, when a tragedy occurs the family gathers around and helps each other. Watching friends and family members, if you will, get jobs taken away from them, get hours reduced, that's very hard."

"The two people I lost were very good workers," Eckerman said. "But, the work doesn't stop."

SETTING PRIORITIES

McNeil's comments came on a day when the Iowa Supreme Court issued an order directing the county-by-county court system to prioritize casework -- emergency matters involving mental health, substance abuse or domestic violence and other criminal warrants involving serious offenses are moved to the top of the pile.

Foreclosures, divorces not involving children, civil lawsuits and small claims are processed with less urgency.

Marsha Ternus, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, said the supervisory order was necessary because the judicial branch workforce is 11 percent less than it was in April and 16 percent less than it was in 2002. "Even the most productive person can only do so much in a day," she said in her order.

"In the past, Iowa has had an excellent reputation about how fast we process cases," McNeil said. "Now, it may take some time for some judges to get rulings out, but in terms of getting cases heard, Iowa has historically been recognized in the nation as being a 'timely' state -- especially when you compare us to other states."

She expects that to change in the coming months, saying: "What we might have set in one or two months, now it might be three to four months."

"There's going to be less down time for getting rulings out," McNeil explained. "People are going to be busier. It might be harder to get in touch with judges. Hopefully, from a public safety side, the court's prioritizing work to ensure that those critical public safety features do get addressed. But, if a defendant's not in custody, and we don't have enough court time, a case might take longer."

BACKLOGGED WORK

In Clay County, the first furlough date landed on a day when juvenile court cases are typically heard. Court administrators began a shuffle that moved juvenile court to Tuesday, Dec. 1. But, that day was set aside for a jury trial. The trial was delayed until the next day.

"We're scrambling to reschedule juvenile court and we're scrambling to find judges to fill in because of the shuffling that is going on," Clay County Attorney Michael Houchins said.

"It's caused some problems for us in scheduling things," he continued. "We're missing some juvenile days and some things are getting set out later than we would really like. I think justice is still getting delivered to people, but it's not as timely as it was before."

Most of the furlough days are not on scheduled court days for Buena Vista County.

"Buena Vista happens to have a lot of foot traffic as far as people coming in and paying fines," Kinnetz said. "Generally that happens on Fridays because that's payday for most people. So, when we're not here on a Friday, they'll be coming in on a Monday. That's when we have court and that makes it more difficult to deal with."

Houchins said he hasn't noticed a slowdown of the paperwork at the Clay County Courthouse as of yet.

Juvenile proceedings and probation checks are a concern for the county attorney. McNeil said District 3 had to eliminate 5 of 23 juvenile court officers.

"My understanding is, we're going to keep most of our local people," Houchins said. "That may be just a temporary matter and they may have to make some further cuts down the road, but I think it's very important for public safety reasons, that there not be any major cutbacks with regard to probation officers and juvenile court officers. Those people are working hard. They have good case loads right now and I think if you start cutting back in those areas, from a public policy standpoint, that would not be right."

McNeil said the court system is trying to find ways to be more efficient. Meanwhile, Eckerman is seeing an increase in criminal charges in the Iowa Great Lakes.

"We're trying to work with the attorneys and county attorney in ways that we could save some steps in doing our work and still get the work out," she said. "We're trying now to do more of the orders electronically to the attorneys."

LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS

Many clerk offices have only two staff members, so it's not unusual for a clerk of court employee to commute to a neighboring county to cover a shift.

"On the one hand, everybody recognizes that this economic crisis is everybody's problem," McNeil said. "We need to step up and do our share and do what we can."

The court system is trying to become more conscientious about solutions, including drug courts and other preventative programs. The payoff of a specialized process comes "when you don't have defendants or juveniles cycling back, or families cycling back through a system because they can't get on top of their addiction issues," McNeil said.

The results for the drug court system and other preventative programs are longer term, however.

The court system is trying to find other cost-saving measures including conference calls, Web-based seminars, collaborative meetings and information sharing as a way to identify best practices among state agencies.

THE 'BIGGER STORY'

"I think there's a bigger story here that people are missing," McNeil said in an interview to address the budget cuts. "We're supposed to be three equal branches of government. People take our liberties and our freedoms for granted. When one branch of government is squeezed to the point of having to shut down -- I can't believe there isn't public outrage about that."

Many institutions of government can make a case for why their work is important to Iowans, Chief Justice Ternus said. But, she asked, how many can claim their work is indispensable to the function of governing?

"The court system exists to protect people's freedom from the abuses the other branches of government might inflict," McNeil said. "There is no balance when we are closed. That larger, symbolic access issue of being a viable branch of government is totally missed in a lot of the press coverage that I read about the budget cuts."

McNeil also said the court system always seems disproportionately impacted.

"Other state employees are taking five furlough days," she said. "The judicial branch employees are taking 10. We've laid off over 100 people. With the recent deal that the executive branch reached -- they avoided laying off 400 people."

The final tally, according to a report from Iowa's judicial branch: A 9.3 percent reduction in workforce, 73 vacant positions eliminated, 10 days of court closures and unpaid leave and a $700,000 reduction in expenses not related to personnel.

"We hear Fiscal Year 2011 is going to be even worse than this current, Fiscal Year 2010," McNeil said.

Next in the Series: The Department of Human Services