May 21, 2021 4 min read

The Washington County commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to transfer the workers who collect court payments at the clerk of courts office to serve under adult probation, a decision that outraged Brenda Davis, who is concerned about losing several staff members from her office.

The commissioners agreed to transfer the collections coordinator, two collections officers and a bookkeeper to adult probation, while eliminating those same positions from under the direction of the clerk of courts row office that Davis manages.

The changes will go into effect on or before June 1, meaning people who need to pay restitution, reparations, fees, costs, fines and penalties will go to the probation office located inside the Family Court Center annex attached to the courthouse starting next month.

That decision irked Davis, who has served as the clerk of courts since winning election in 2019. She claimed the workers were being terminated, although the commissioners said they were merely being transferred to a different department inside the courthouse.

“I’m not sure why this is coming about,” Davis said. “I’m not sure if there is planning involved.”

“I can assure the staff no one is being terminated,” commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan said after Davis finished addressing the board. “No one is being terminated.”

“That’s the first time that they’ve told me that,” Davis responded.

Before the vote on the resolution to make the change, Commissioner Nick Sherman addressed several workers from the clerk of courts office who were sitting next to Davis in the first row of the meeting room.

“Your jobs are safe. There’s no termination, there’s no cancellation,” Sherman said. “I can see the anxiety in every single one of you, and for whatever misinformation was given to you, I apologize. But that was never the intention for anyone to lose their job with this. You are safe and you will still be county employees.”

The changes are in response to former Clerk of Court Frank Scandale stealing $96,716 from the office in 2018 and 2019. He pleaded guilty last year, and is working to repay the money.

Davis said she has been taking a “proactive approach” to make changes since assuming management of the office, while an audit by the state auditor general is expected to be released soon. Davis called the changes a “hasty approach” to the problem, but President Judge John DiSalle said discussions have been in the works since when Scandale was managing the clerk of courts office. DiSalle issued an order May 7 stopping payments for DUI safety classes and various other fees from being made to the clerk of courts after some people accidentally made double payments in recent weeks.

During a subsequent salary board meeting Thursday morning, the commissioners, along with DiSalle and county Controller Mike Namie, voted to hire the four positions for adult probation. A second vote to eliminate those same positions from the clerk of courts prompted Davis to speak up again before she voted against it, although it still passed 4-1.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been met with roadblocks,” Davis said about her efforts to update the office.

DiSalle and his staff are now in charge of making the logistical moves to help the workers relocate to adult probation in less than two weeks. DiSalle said the timeline should be able to happen without any issues, and added that adult probation is where payments are made in many counties across the state. Adult probation used to collect the payments in Washington County until the mid-1990s, when the clerk of courts assumed the role, officials said.

County Human Resources Director Shelli Arnold spoke with the clerk of court office workers after the commissioners meeting and explained the changes while trying to reassure them that their position, salary and county benefits would remain the same. She did not know when exactly they would be moved.