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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Ind. Courts - Yet more on: Judicial mandate mentioned in Carroll County
Updating this ILB entry from April 16th (and this list of earlier entries), Debbie Lowe reports today in the Carroll County Comet:
Things were looking up for Carroll County Council through most of its Tuesday morning meeting. It seemed the latest communication with the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) would solidify the 2008 budget after making drastic reductions for the past several months in the first draft. However, council members learned at the very end of the meeting that Carroll Superior Judge Jeffrey Smith and Carroll Circuit Court Judge Donald Currie would issue a mandate to reinstate the latest budget reductions for their courts and the joint courts.Council reduced the three courts' budgets by $90,000 earlier in the year. Salaries for the chief probation officer and the probation secretary were transferred from the general fund to the probation account. Using figures from budget worksheets prepared during the reductions session, the cost of the mandate to county general could be at least $143,130.86.
"Judge Currie and I will be proceeding as indicated," Smith told council members from the back of the commissioners meeting room at the end of the meeting. "We will all incur attorney fees." * * *
Smith said in a follow-up interview Tuesday afternoon he and Currie intended to "make sure the courts will have what they needed to function." Smith would not state when the judges intended to file the petition and refused to comment further about the matter.
"I'm terribly disappointed with the judges," Abbott said Tuesday afternoon. (He was not present in the meeting when Smith announced the intention to file a mandate.) "For them to exercise the right to mandate just because they can doesn't make it right. I know it's not a perfect system, but at this time they should work with us."
"They get to hide behind their pow- ers to mandate and that's wrong," he continued. "Mike Durr (EMS director) and Tony Burns both worked with us. I wish the judges had the same attitude. We looked at every office for cuts and sacrifices. What does this say to the other offices and department heads that don't have the same power? It's been a hard time for the county employees."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 1, 2008 08:13 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts