Quarter-Sessions workers to get new boss
Employees who work for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, the independent city office that has come under fire for alleged mismanagement of the city's criminal-court records, are getting a new boss.
Employees who work for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, the independent city office that has come under fire for alleged mismanagement of the city's criminal-court records, are getting a new boss.
On April 1, clerks will become employees of the First Judicial District, or the city's court system, Common Pleas President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe said yesterday.
Prothonotary Joseph Evers, who oversees the record-keeping in civil cases, will now also supervise the clerks who work on criminal cases, Dembe said.
A week ago, Clerk of Quarter Sessions Vivian Miller, 74, the top clerk in the office, announced that she would retire March 31. Miller, whose elected term would have ended January 2012, had been criticized in the past year by watchdog groups, judges and the media for improper record-keeping and inefficiencies in her office.
Dembe, who has criticized Miller in the past, did not extend the critique to the office's employees.
"There's an awful lot of expertise and institutional knowledge in there," Dembe said.
She said that no one would be losing his or her job. "We're not planning to fire anybody," she said, but added that there "may be some people who will decide they don't want to stay."
Dembe said yesterday that it would be the "most sensible thing" for City Council to abolish Miller's elected position.
Tony Radwanski, spokesman for Council President Anna Verna, said yesterday that no legislation has been presented on this issue. He said Mayor Nutter was taking the lead on this issue.
Doug Oliver, Nutter's spokesman, said by e-mail that the administration would not "articulate our position on the future of that Office" until after Miller retires.
Dembe said she and her administrative team were considering naming the criminal-records office the "Clerk of Courts" - the name in the state's other judicial districts.
She also said she would like to see clerks cross-trained "so people know how to function on both the civil and the criminal side."
Dembe said that if a Clerk of Courts office is created, a person the "equivalent of Mrs. Miller" will not be appointed. Rather, there would likely be a deputy reporting to Evers.
With Miller's early retirement, her benefits under the Deferred Retirement Option Plan will decrease from $286,287.50 (what she would have gotten if she stayed until the end of her term) to $154,889.01, according to Mayor Nutter's press office.
Staff writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.