New Clerk Orientation Budgeting and Spending Session

1. New Clerk OrientationBudgeting and Spending Session December 6, 2012 1:15 -2:30 pm Stacy Butterfield, Clerk-Elect Polk County Hon. Jeff Smith, Indian River County Clerk

2. County Funded Activities • Comptroller Function For Board of County Commissioners (Funded by General Fund of BCC) • Fla. Statutes 28.12 & 125.17 – set the Clerk as Accountant • Financial Reporting • A/P • A/R • Payroll • Treasury and Investments • Grant Accounting • External Auditors • Fixed Asset Accounting/Annual Inventories

3. County Funded Activities (Cont’d) • Clerk To The Board Function (Funded by General Fund of BCC) • Fla. Statutes 28.12 & 125.17 – Clerk of Court shall be Clerk and Accountant to the BCC • Record and produce BCC minutes • Provide Public Access to BCC actions • Produce minutes of public hearings and workshops • Clerk to Value Adjustment Board • Custodian of all BCC executed contracts

4. County Funded Activities (Cont’d) • County Internal Audit Function (if funded by General Fund of BCC) • Powers Case & Brock Case • Audit Operations under BCC • Assist County Officers with Financials • Institute and Evaluate Internal Controls • Review Financial Information of Recipients of County Funds

5. Clerk of Court Funded Activities • County Recording Function • Fla. Statutes 28.222- authority for Clerks to be the Official Recorder of Public Records • Record, archive and index land ownership records and court documents • Fla. Statutes 28.24 – sets the fees charged for recording services • Subsection 12 - $5.00 1st page & $4.00 per additional page • Subsection 12(d) – Additional S/C $1.00 per page ($.50 per additional page) • Subsection 12 (e) – Additional S/C of $4.00 per page

6. Clerk of Court Funded Activities (cont’d) • Subsection 12(d) amount ($1.00/$.50) to go into Public Records Modernization Trust Fund to be used exclusively for equipment and maintenance of equipment, personnel training and technical assistance in modernizing the public records system of the office • $1.90 of Subsection 12(e) amount go into Clerk’s Public Record Modernization Trust Fund to be used exclusively for funding court-related technology needs of the Clerk.

7. Clerk of Court Funded Activities (cont’d) • Passport Fees - $25.00 per passport if authorized by US Dept of State as a Passport Acceptance Agent • Marriage Licenses - Fla. Statute 28.24 (23 & 24) • Application - $30.00 • Solemnizing Matrimony - $30.00 • Tax Deeds – Fla. Statute 28.24(21) • Application - $60.00 • Disbursement of Excess Fees - $10.00 • Other miscellaneous services and related fees

8. State Funded(Court Related) • Fla. Statutes 28.36 – Establishes budget procedure for Florida Clerks to follow for the court-related functions • Law requires that proposed budgets from all 67 Clerks be prepared, summarized and submitted to the Clerk of Court Operations Corporation (set up in Section 23 of Ch. 2004-265)

9. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • Court Related functions are divided into 10 core service groups • Circuit Criminal (Felony) • County Criminal(Misdemeanor) • Circuit Civil • County Civil • Probate • Criminal Traffic • Civil Traffic • Juvenile Dependency • Juvenile Delinquency • Family

10. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • Each Clerk shall include in the budget request the number of FTE’s (full-time equivalents personnel) and the proposed budget for each of the 10 categories • The budget must identify the service units to be provided within each core group • Currently the CCOC has identified the service units as consisting of (1)prior year activity(cases opened in prior year not closed) (2) new cases and (3) reopens (cases formerly closed, reopened)

11. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • The budget must propose a unit cost for each service unit • The budget must also include a projection of the amount of court-related fees, service charges and any other court-related clerk fees which are projected to be collected during the proposed budget period

12. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • The budgets must be submitted to the CCOC by October 1st of each year • The budgets cover the period of July 1st thru June 30. • The CCOC reviews the budget requests and compares each individual clerk’s prior-year expenditures, projected revenue, proposed unit costs and the proposed budget by core group

13. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • The CCOC also compares each clerk’s prior-year expenditures and unit costs for the 10 core groups with a peer group of clerks’ offices having a population of a similar size and a similar number of case filings. • If the CCOC finds that the expenditures, unit costs or proposed budget is significantly higher than others in that clerk’s peer group, they shall require the clerk to submit documentation to justify the difference.

14. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • If the expenditures and unit costs are not justified then the CCOC shall recommend a reduction in the funding for that service category. • The Legislature shall appropriate the total amount for the budgets for the clerks in the General Appropriations Act. The Legislature may reject or modify any or all of the unit costs recommended by the CCOC. If they do not specify the unit costs, then the recommendations from the CCOC become official.

15. State Funded(Court Related) (cont’d) • Clerks are to electronically transfer all court-related revenue collected monthly to the State Clerks Trust Fund. • The Trust Fund then electronically distributes to each Clerk their proportionate share of their approved appropriation quarterly. (currently is being done bi-weekly or sometimes weekly)

16. Excess Funds • At June 30th of each year, the Clerk shall transfer any unspent court-related budget appropriation to the State Clerk’s Trust Fund • At September 30th of each year, the Clerk shall turn over to their BCC, any excess fees from unspent BCC funds for the Comptroller, Clerk to the Board and Internal Audit functions; and any excess fees from non-court related revenue.