Monday, September 24, 2012

UPDATE: 09/24/2012 - (HEIMBAUGH REACTS TO REINBOLD'S RESPONSE) CLERK OF COURTS NANCY REINBOLD'S BIO & RESPONSE TO CHALLENGER HEIMBAUGH'S CRITICISMS



UPDATE:  09/24/2012 - CANDIDATE JEFF HEIMBAUGH'S REJOINDER TO CLERK REINBOLD'S RESPONSE TO HEIMBAUGH'S POINTS MADE ON VIDEO.


Marty,

I read with interest my opponent’s response.

Switching between my video and her written response makes it difficult for your readers to follow our debate and the various numbers.

I would like to provide your reader’s one place view all the figures.

Let the readers of the SCPR make their own decision.

In this email I will address the budget. This issue has to do with the Clerk in 2011 through August 2012 closing her office until 10:30am each day and employee’s taking a 20% cut in pay. ( Massillon Ind. 12/8/10)

“Reinbold, who noted that her $1.3 million budget is 11.5 percent lower than what she received in 2011, said she also reduced her expenses this year by moving some employees in the legal division, which is paid by the taxpayer-supported general fund, to the auto title division, which relies on fee revenue” (Cantonrep 8/2/12)

Beginning 2011 balance in title fee funds $973,687.83 (1)
Ending 2011 balance in title fee funds $1,781,601.28 (1)
  1. Why couldn’t the clerk have moved these same employees to the auto title division in 2011?
  2. Why couldn’t the Clerk have moved these same employees to auto title division in Feb, 2012     when her budget was approved? (Cantonrep 2/15/12).
  3. Did politics finally drive her to make this decision just a few months before the election?
In addition, the Clerk has what is basically a rainy day account called the “special projects fund”. At the end of 2011 the balance in this fund was $477,988.32 (1).  

1)     How can you [referring to Clerk Reinbold] tell your employees that on one hand you didn’t have the money and then impose a 20% pay cut, but on the other hand spent $58,939 (1) out of this fund to hire temporary employees?

2)     You spent $77,000 (1) to cover the payroll for four of your employees. How much more was needed to restore normal office hours??

3)  Adding what the Clerk spent for temps and 4 employees the total of this fund at the end of 2011 would have been $613,927. This represents a 42% of what you actually spent ($1,450,262 (1)) in 2011. How much in salary did you trnasfer to the Title bureau to be able to both reinstate the 20% pay cut and the 11.5% cut in your budget?

Whether it’s transfering the payroll cost to the title division, or using the surplus in the special project fund, or a combination of both, it is very apparent that the employees and persons who depend on the services of the Clerk suffered unnecessarily.

(1) Figures provided by the Stark County Auditor through an open records request

ORIGINAL BLOG

LINK to Jeff Heimbaugh blog which has the SCPR abbreviated version interview of Heimbaugh conducted this past Wednesday (September 19, 2012).

Clerk Reinbold chose to respond in writing rather than appear on the SCPR camera.

First up is the biography she submitted.

At the end of the biography is her response to the video of Heimbaugh posted on Thursday morning.

To skip the biography click here:   REINBOLD RESPONSE

NANCY S. REINBOLD
4633 KINGSROW AVE NW
CANTON, OH  44709
(330) 499-9750
nancyr50@live.com

EXPERIENCE

Stark County Clerk of Courts

August 1, 2007 – Present:    Clerk of Courts
●   The Stark County Clerk of Courts Office is comprised of the legal and title divisions.
●    The legal division includes the criminal, civil, domestic relations, juvenile, financial departments and also the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
●    The automobile and watercraft title division is comprised of four separate offices throughout Stark County; Alliance, Canton, Massillon, and most recently North Canton.
●    2010 became a Limited Authority Deputy Registrar (LADR) - main title office in downtown Canton.
●    Working with Judge Heath and local attorneys to implement an e-filing system.
●    Contracted with Ohio Attorney General’s Office for collection purposes.

Stark County Clerk of Courts Office

January, 1993 to July, 2007:  Chief Deputy Clerk of Courts/Division Manager/ Adm. Assistant
●    Managed employees in all departments of the clerk's office.
●    Managed the daily functions of the auto title and legal departments.
●    Processed payroll, purchase orders, and paid invoices.
●    Responsible for preparing, submitting and monitoring the budget for both divisions.
●    Grant Administrator of the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) grants.

Canton Municipal Court

January, 1988 to December, 1992: Administrative Assistant
●    Scheduled hearings, trials, etc for Judge William B. Hoffman and the Judge Mary A. Falvey.
●    Prepared the judge's monthly Supreme Court statistical reports.
●    Prepared and filed legal pleadings and correspondence.

Stark County Prosecutor, Robert D. Horowitz

May, 1985 to December,1987:  Administrative Assistant/Supervisor Criminal Support Staff
●    Prepared and filed legal pleadings in both the civil and criminal divisions.
●    Prepared appellate briefs and monitored the statutory time for filing appellate documents.
●    Assisted public and victims with questions.

Attorney Sam Ferruccio – August, 1984 to May, 1985 and
Attorney Nicholas G. Caplea – December, 1975 to July, 1984
●    Legal Secretary
●    Prepared and filed legal documents in civil, criminal, and domestic relations matters.
●    Prepared and filed estates and guardianships.
●    Searched and prepared abstracts and handled real estate closings.
●    Maintained daily calendar of appointments, hearings, and trials.

EDUCATION

Timken Vocational High School
●    1976 graduate in Secretarial Science
●    Basic accounting
●    Business machines
●    National Honor Society

AFFILIATIONS

●    Chairperson of the Stark County Data Processing Board
●    Treasurer of the Stark County Elected Officials Committee
●    Secretary of the Stark County Investment Committee
●    Member of the Stark County Records Commission
●    Vice-Chair of the Stark County Microfilm Board
●    Member of the Stark County Community Corrections Planning Board
●    Member of the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association

●    Member of the Board of Trustees of the Stark County Humane Society (1999 to present)
●    Past President of the Board of the Stark County Humane Society (March 2007 to March 2012)
●    Member of Westbrook Park United Methodist Church 

REINBOLD RESPONSE

RESPONSE TO JEFF HEIMBAUGH VIDEO CRITICISM OF CLERK OF COURTS OPERATIONS

The following is my response to your interview with Mr. Heimbaugh:
History reflects that passage of an additional sales tax typically takes more than one election cycle to be successful; therefore, not conserving the special projects fund if passage in November of 2011 failed would be fiscally irresponsible. My objective was to keep the office operational should the criminal justice tax fail. If it had, we were facing an additional 40% budget reduction from the 2011 budget. Even with the passage of the sales tax, our 2012 operating budget was reduced by 11.5% which required use of special project funds until July when sales tax revenue became available.

The Stark County’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) was developed by local programmers and funded by several grants. The CJIS programmer was a former clerk’s employee/programmer who was later hired to host the CJIS site. The cost is shared by the Alliance, Massillon, Canton, and Stark County Clerk of Courts. Because of the collaboration of these four entities our systems all work together to streamline many procedures at a cost much less than if we purchased a case management system. CJIS has been the model for the state of Ohio and receives thousands of hits a day. It is the official warrant data base for 20-plus law enforcement agencies and it monitors jail overcrowding daily. To purchase a commercial case management program would cost anywhere from $600,000 to 1,400.000 with annual maintenance and upgrade costs starting at $56,000, and would not provide the functionality of our case management system. Stark County is more efficient and cost effective with its current system.

Fortunately, the clerk’s office has been successful in processing the same case load, collect and disburse fines and costs in spite of the reduction in the clerk’s general fund operating budget and staffing. We have a collections officer in place to invoice, set up payment plans, garnish accounts, and work with probation to collect fines and costs. We have also contracted with the Ohio Attorney General to assist in collections. Several years ago 182 cases were sent to collections and 7 were paid in full. To date we haven’t received anything further on those cases. Approximately 80% of all criminal offenders are indigent and represented by a public defender. If they can’t afford an attorney, they likely can’t afford to pay their fines and costs. Cost collections are a statewide issue. Currently there isn’t a mechanism in place to “write-off” bad debt; however, there is a bill pending that would allow the court to suspend costs after five years.

No comments:

Post a Comment