Aug 20, 2022 4 min read

Until her release Thursday morning, an elected official in Washington County was sitting in the Washington County jail while you were still paying her $93,000 annual salary.

Republican Clerk of Courts Brenda Davis was held in criminal contempt of court Aug. 4 and sentenced to a minimum of 15 days to six months in jail. The court found that Davis committed official misconduct by not following a court order and obstructed the process of the court.

This is not the beginning and likely not the end of issues surrounding the Clerk of Courts. The headlines from this newspaper speak for themselves:

• ”Clerk of Courts Davis held in contempt, sentenced to jail,” August 5, 2022;
• ”Attorney General investigating Clerk of Court Davis,” May 25, 2022;
• ”Deputies handcuff Davis after refusing court order transferring juvenile filing,” Nov. 24, 2021;
• ”Clerk of court waives numerous row office duties,” Sept. 21, 2021;
• ”President Judge threatens to hold clerk of court in contempt,” July 7, 2021.

Over a year ago, Davis refused to follow a court order and the court had threatened to hold her in contempt. Last year, she filed a waiver notifying the court that she would no longer perform many of the duties of the Clerk of Courts’ office. In November, Davis again refused to comply with a court order to transfer juvenile case files from her office and did so in an hours-long, drama-filled scene that played out throughout the courthouse. The judge called it the “most undignified display of behavior he has ever witnessed.” Over two months ago, news broke that Davis was under investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, accused of manipulating her employees’ timecards to pay them for hours they did not work and were not in the office. The search warrant issued to Davis documents more than 400 instances in which she was accused of changing time sheets, adding thousands of dollars to employees’ pay.

Up until Thursday, Washington County taxpayers were paying Davis for a job she could not do because she was sitting in jail. Washington County taxpayers are paying some of her office employees for work that they are alleged to have not done. Washington County taxpayers are also footing the bill for countless hours spent by other government offices dealing with Davis’ actions. During her sentencing, the judge specifically noted the time and resources that multiple county offices had wasted dealing with her actions.

Davis has wasted enough taxpayer money, and she has demonstrated she has no intention of doing the job she was elected to do. Now that she is out of jail, Davis should resign immediately as Clerk of Courts.

If she refuses, the only way to end this embarrassing and costly debacle is to vote her out of office in 2023. Next year, a number of row offices will be on the ballot including the Clerk of Courts, Register of Wills and Prothonotary, to name the offices that have been most fraught with issues. None of these row offices are political in nature; they are elected managers of county administrative offices. They make no policy decisions and their positions on any number of political hot topics is utterly irrelevant to their job. These positions in no way act as “checks and balances” against other elected officials; they are simply administrative positions that maintain the records of the court.

The taxpayers of Washington County deserve to have qualified, competent, and professional administrators in these positions, something we are desperately lacking. If you possess the skills and professionalism to run any of these row offices, please step forward to run for office. These are important and well-compensated jobs, and Washington County taxpayers deserve better.

Christina Proctor is chair of the Washington County Democratic Committee.