Saturday, September 24, 2011

A special judge is expected to soon rule on whether the McCracken Fiscal Court is within its legal rights to require more fiscal transparency from the county clerk's office.

Retired Davies County Judge Thomas O. Castlen heard legal arguments Friday on both sides of a lawsuit asking to declare illegal an ordinance requiring the county clerk to operate under a fee pool instead of a fee system, under which it now works.

Fiscal Court commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance June 13. It forces County Clerk Jeff Jerrell to turn the excess fees from his office over to the county treasurer each month and run expenses through the Fiscal Court, a practice that is not required now and has not been in recent memory.

Louisville attorney Kent Wicker filed the lawsuit on Jerrell's behalf June 20. In it he says the ordinance is illegal and unconstitutional.

Paducah attorney Stacey Blankenship, who is representing the Fiscal Court, filed motions asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

Wicker argued Friday that state statute does not allow for the Fiscal Court to take away all financial powers of the County Clerk. "It cannot micromanage the financial affairs of another financial office," he said.

He pointed out that the Fiscal Court approves Jerrell's budget every year with no concern. He said the duties of the clerk include managing his own checkbook. Because the clerk collects fees and operates off of those fees, Wicker said he does not need, nor is he legally required, to turn his budgetary expenses over to the Fiscal Court.

Blankenship argued that the Fiscal Court has a statutory requirement to respect the taxpayers' money, ensure efficient government is being run and see to it that adequate services are provided. By not seeing the clerk's budgetary expenses, she said, the commissioners are not privy to how the money is spent, thus they are not fulfilling their duties as good stewards to the taxpayers' money.

"That's the purpose of this ordinance, so the Fiscal Court can be sure that the fiscal affairs are being taken care of and being spent appropriately,"Blankenship said.

The clerk is the only elected official who does not operate under a fee pool within the county. He is also the only elected official that collects enough money to operate without a county subsidy.

However Blankenship pointed out that the Fiscal Court has been called to subsidize the clerk's budget above the excess fees turned in every year but one since 2004, which began Jerrell's tenure.

Wicker argued that the money that Jerrell asked the Fiscal Court for in addition to the budgeted expenses was for Social Security and retirement, which are not budget items, thus the funds technically cannot be considered a subsidy.

Castlen said both sides presented persuasive arguments, and he asked both counsels to prepare proposed orders with findings of fact on their cases within seven days. He said he will return a final ruling in a couple of weeks.

As printed in The Paducan Sun, Saturday, September 24, 2011.