Drivers used to a slow-moving DeKalb County traffic court system might need to watch out as Recorders Court accelerates its efforts to clear its backlog.
The turnaround of the court, which also handles misdemeanors and code violations, next moves to a onetime file room in the basement of the crowded concrete building that serves as the courthouse.
Chief Recorders Court Judge Nelly Withers and a deputy clerk recently volunteered a Saturday to paint the room as part of its makeover into a temporary courtroom expected to be ready by September.
The fourth courtroom should help ease a space crunch that has helped generate a backlog of at least 40,000 trials -- trials that could bring in $4 million to $6 million once resolved.
“I think this is what we were asked to do,” Withers said of finding ways to increase efficiency at a time of staff and budget cuts. “Our overriding goal is to be an asset to DeKalb County and its citizens.”
The court’s efforts have some county leaders calling the department a model for how structural changes can help the county save money at a time when it’s facing a $40 million budget shortfall.
Yet the idea that Recorders Court could serve as inspiration for change would have been laughable even two years ago.
In January 2010, Withers took over a court where 11 workers had been indicted in a ticket-fixing scheme and a grand jury report found that the court didn’t collect millions in fines.
Giving drivers slack on unpaid citations had created a backlog of 500,000 outstanding tickets. The court, the largest in Georgia in terms of volume, handles about 234,000 citations every year.
Withers resolved that backlog by hiring 17 temporary workers to input information into the computer system. The court has 31 full-time employees, including Withers.
"You really feel like things are being done," deputy clerk Derrick Wright said of the effort, which also has improved staff morale. "You can see a difference."
Still, the court has not been immune to countywide budget cuts, even with the dwindling backlog and smaller lines and crowds at the courthouse. It laid off seven temps and froze five vacant jobs in February after losing $358,440, or 9 percent of its budget.
“If we saw this kind of action in every department, I don’t think we’d have as many budget questions,” said Commissioner Jeff Rader.
The action has so impressed commissioners, the board is even considering restoring some of the court’s staff. The new courtroom, which will focus on the trial backlog, is designed to handle up to 500 trials a week. It will need to add a part-time judge and two records clerks to operate.
Upstairs, three courtrooms will continue to run daily. The courthouse can handle about 1,500 arraignments a day and sets aside Wednesdays for trials in the third-floor rooms. The three courtrooms handle a total of about 250 trials a week.
The new courtroom will operate while the county lays out plans for a $4.1 million overhaul of the courthouse. Federal stimulus money is funding the project, which could break ground by this fall.
"I think the word is out there, that we are no longer playing," Withers said. "We know what we're doing, and we're doing it."
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