CLEARFIELD – Clearfield County’s two judges made a successful case Tuesday for a higher starting salary for the county’s new law clerk.
The salary increase was requested by President Judge Fredric Ammerman and Judge Paul Cherry at Tuesday’s Salary Board meeting.
Ammerman said the court has had a lot of difficulties trying to find and keep a law clerk in recent years, and judges throughout central and northcentral Pennsylvania are having the same difficulties.
“… We hardly get any applicants anymore,” Ammerman said, noting that the county’s last law clerk abruptly resigned at the beginning of October 2019.
“The last three or four years, some … just have not been good hires, have not panned out because the job market has changed …”
He said now law school graduates and younger attorneys have significant student loan debt, and can’t afford to accept a low-paid position.
For example, he said, Huntingdon County paid its law clerk a starting salary of $38,500, and was unable to find anyone.
That salary was recently raised to $50,000 per year, the position was filled and the clerk is now expected to stay for several years.
Ammerman said Clinton County’s starting salary was $40,000, and neither judge could find a law clerk. He said the two positions were recently collapsed into one clerk for both judges, and one was hired at a salary of $55,000.
He said the court is fortunate now to have found a new law clerk, Amy Glantz, effective Aug. 7, who graduated from Widener University in 2014 and who has four years of experience as a public defender in Huntingdon County.
Ammerman said he and Cherry have had to operate with one law clerk since about 2004-05, and by law, each judge is entitled to have a separate clerk.
He said over 15 or 16 years, they have saved the county almost $750,000 in salaries and benefits by sharing a clerk and another $30,000 with the position having been vacant since October 2019.
In 2019, he said the court imposed new costs in criminal cases, generating $34,077.86 through June 3, some of which will be earmarked for the increase in the law clerk’s salary.
Ammerman said he and Cherry have also saved the county money in terms of costs related to inmate medical care and overpopulation at the county jail.
Cherry concurred and with that, Ammerman motioned for the board to set Glantz’s salary at $45,500 per year, effective Aug. 7. It subsequently passed with unanimous approval.
In other business, the board:
- approved a request from the controller to set the salary of the deputy controller at $35,000/year, effective Aug. 24.
- approved the salary of Adult Probation Officer/Mike Cook at $29,414/year, effective Aug. 3.
- approved the minutes from the Aug. 4 meeting.