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Committee of 70 wants Quarter Session $ withheld

The Committee of Seventy government watchdog group yesterday called on City Council to withhold funding for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions office in the next fiscal year until it can be shown that the money will be used efficiently.

The Committee of Seventy government watchdog group yesterday called on City Council to withhold funding for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions office in the next fiscal year until it can be shown that the money will be used efficiently.

"Don't give them the money . . . until you're sure they're going to spend it well," Zack Stalberg, the group's president, said yesterday.

Stalberg spoke in advance of City Council's hearing next Tuesday on the clerk's office's budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The clerk's office, under the supervision of elected clerk Vivian Miller, had been criticized for shoddy record-keeping, which is said to have contributed to the office's failure to collect $1 billion in bail money.

Miller, 74, retired March 31, after the state Supreme Court chief justice ordered that the duties of the clerk's office, which handles the record-keeping of the city's criminal cases, be absorbed into the First Judicial District, or the city's court system. Prothonotary Joseph Evers, who oversees the record-keeping of the city's civil cases, was then tapped to also supervise the clerk's office.

In addition to the $1 billion in bail money, Stalberg also pointed to a recent audit that found that the clerk's office has $55 million in its bank accounts as another example of the office's poor money-management practices.

Common Pleas President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe revealed the audit results last week in an e-mail to court personnel. Of the $55 million, at "least $4 Million dollars of that is interest . . . which should have been immediately turned over to the cash starved City," Dembe wrote in the e-mail.

Court officials expressed surprise as to how much money is in those accounts, which include bail money, fines and costs paid by defendants, which in turn, at some point, are mostly paid out to the city or the state.

These accounts are separate from the clerk's office's budget, which is a proposed $4.9 million for FY2011, and which covers salaries and office expenditures.

Stalberg said that he is urging Council to ask hard questions of First Judicial District supervisors on Tuesday to make sure a plan is in place to improve services and save money. Dembe said yesterday that the district has already been working on improving services and cost efficiencies in the clerk's office.

Stalberg yesterday also reiterated his group's call for the mayor and Council to abolish the elected clerk of quarter sessions post. Doug Oliver, a mayoral spokesman, said yesterday that an ordinance to abolish the office is expected to be introduced "soon," after issues such as the civil-service benefits of clerk employees are resolved. The employees cannot retain their civil-service status when they become First Judicial District employees.

One person who plans to leave the clerk's office is Robin Jones, Miller's daughter, who was her mother's first deputy. Oliver said that Jones "will transition out of" the office, but added that it's "too early to say" if she will work in another city department.