CLEARFIELD – A shortage of court reporters has created a dilemma for Clearfield County, according to President Judge Fredric Ammerman and Court Administrator F. Cortez “Chip” Bell.
The judges used to be served by three, full-time court reporters. However, two have left and the court is now down to one, explained Ammerman at Monday’s salary board meeting.
He said there are two reasons that the county hasn’t been able to replace the two court reporters who left. First, he noted there is currently a shortage of court reporters across the commonwealth.
Secondly, he said is the county’s type of pay in its current advertisement for court reporters. He said it is for 32.5 hours per week starting at $14.62 per hour, or $24,802.83, plus per order/transcript fee.
However, Human Resources Coordinator Marianne Sankey said the hourly pay rate went up for the county’s court reporters in 2016. Bottom line, Ammerman said, was the court has been utilizing freelance court reporters.
According to him, the average rate for a freelance court reporter is $326.63 per day. Since June 4, 2015, he said the county has spent $22,754.60 on freelance court reporters and $1,538.35 for overtime to county court reporter, Tom Snyder.
Ammerman pointed out that there are 261 work days in 2016. He said when you do the math it will cost the county $85,250.43 for one freelance court reporter; and on some limited occasions this year, he said the court will need two court reporters per day.
He said Snyder’s gross salary was $34,492.90 for 2015, plus per order/transcript fee. Snyder, he said, has served as court reporter for the county for 18 years.
Ammerman said he’d obtained salary information for the court reporters in Clinton County. There, he said they start out at $42,018, and the court reporter who has been there for 17 years is currently making $54,183.29; another who has been with Clinton County since 2013 is currently making $44,576.81.
He said the county’s budget for the current-year has funds for three full-time court reporters. He said the court has been utilizing a freelance court reporter who lives in Warren and who is interested in moving to Clearfield County but would like to start at $42,000 per year.
As a result, Ammerman proposed that the salary board use the funds available to raise the starting salary to $42,000 per year, plus per order/transcript fee.
Because this would be more than Snyder’s salary, he proposed raising Snyder’s salary to $55,000 per year, plus per order/transcript fee. He said he wanted to retain the third court reporter position to see if it might be filled at some point.
When asked by Commissioner Mark B. McCracken, Ammerman indicated the interested court reporter was not just starting out and had about 17 years of experience.
Ammerman said based on the information he gathered with Bell, it appears to them that it’s going to be cheaper to raise the starting salary for the court reporter and that of Snyder.
Bell said Ammerman has been trying to keep costs down by scheduling clusters of hearings at a time. However, Bell said when he’s trying to schedule freelance court reporters he is competing against Elk, Jefferson and Centre counties for the few that are out there.
Bell said he could think of at least two occasions in which the court had to reschedule hearings because he couldn’t find a freelance court reporter to come in. “It’s just been a nightmare trying to get these freelancers,” he said.
Commissioner John A. Sobel said he’s found the same problems with finding court reporters available, which he believed was not just a Pennsylvania problem. He asked if the court officials had looked into an electronic recording system.
Ammerman said they have been looking into it and had one company want to do it by telephone. He said they didn’t find this methodology acceptable. Ammerman said they’d obtained information from another company, which Bell added would cost $21,000 to set up and then require the hiring of someone to run it and then to do the transcriptions.
Ammerman said he wanted to see the system set up and talk to people about how it works. However, he said the closest system to observe is in Philadelphia and so he’s asked Bell to contact the company to see if they would be able to come to Clearfield County and offer a demonstration.
McCracken said Ammerman was making a request to raise the starting salary for the court reporter. He asked Sankey if perhaps they should approach the union by presenting the position and recognizing the candidate has 17 years of experience.
Sankey said historically years of experience have not been reflected in the starting salaries for both salaried and non-salaried positions. As well, she said the county has a shortage in its caseworker unit, and has not addressed that salary.
“It’s something you want to consider when you’re cherry-picking positions and dealing with the same union,” Sankey said. “You don’t want to set precedence for asking for certain positions. You can have an unfair labor practice brought against the county … if not looking at the same variables for other shortages within the county.”
Ammerman said the board should take into account they were also asking for an increase for Snyder. He said Snyder and the interested court reporter candidate have approximately the same number of years of experience. “I can’t hire someone at $42,000 without a significant pay increase for the guy who was been with us for 18 years,” Ammerman said.
McCracken asked if Ammerman had to have the figure of $55,000 for Snyder. In response Ammerman said they sought that figure based upon information gathered from Clinton County and their pay for its longest-serving court reporter.
Sankey asked what the work week was for Clinton County, and it was noted that it was a 37.5-hour work week there. Sankey said when they are comparing salaries, she wants them to compare apples-to-apples, because the court reporter works 32.5 hours here and overtime factors in over that.
Ammerman said it was a difficult situation and if the county wanted to go along with it that was fine, but if it didn’t the court will continue to spend more money and use freelance court reporters.
Sobel said he understood the court needed to effectuate justice and they had to provide court reporters. At the same time, he said when the county picks someone and does a significant raise it creates a morale problem among the employees.
He said the county’s employees watch each other’s salaries, and if a raise is believed to be unfair, people can be resentful. He said the board at times has had department heads and elected officials down their throats for months demanding the equivalent.
Sobel said although Ammerman made very reasonable requests, the board had more to factor into the decision. “With a raise of this size, there is going to be a ripple effect with the county’s personnel,” added Sobel. Ammerman said he understood where the board was coming from and was only looking to save taxpayers’ dollars.
Ammerman said he also recognized the salary board was new and had just started the New Year. He said he didn’t have any problem with the board tabling his court reporter proposals.
Sobel said he was struggling with the idea of significant raises and perhaps they could increase Snyder’s hours to give him more time and income. McCracken said they must also consider that it will be competitive to hire a court reporter, and they don’t want to lose out.
Ammerman said if approved, the interested court reporter would start in April. McCracken said if tabled, the county could gather more information and engage in discussion with the union.
At the conclusion of discussion, the salary board decided to table Ammerman’s requests until the February meeting.