The Pulaski County Council will consider extra funding to cover overtime costs for Circuit Court staff tonight. Judge Michael Shurn is asking for permission to spend another $10,000 for employee overtime. Several cases have been transferred to Circuit Court from Superior Court, following Crystal Brucker Kocher’s appointment as Superior Court judge this past summer. There are many cases she’s not allowed to hear because she worked on them when she was chief deputy prosecutor.
Prosecutor Dan Murphy had made a similar request for $9,400, but he told the county commissioners last week that money may not be needed, after all. “I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” he said. “This was originally when Judge Shurn was trying to deal with this influx of cases. In the past, we’ve done an occasional hearing before 8:00 or after 4:00, as necessary, but it’s only been, like, once every four or five months. When he decided that he was going to start putting in routine hearings starting at 7:00 in the morning, I was looking at how my office is going to deal with that.”
But now, Murphy says, that pace has slowed down a bit. “He’s now changed his position or backed off on it. He doesn’t think that that’s going to be necessary, and we’re not really setting any – I think we’ve set one more case that starts at 4:00. So at this particular point in time, although you’ve advertised it, it don’t think that that’s going to be necessary, unless we start dealing more and more with more and more hearings before of after the normal business hours.”
The issue has led to some confusion over the past month or so, as Judge Shurn temporarily changed the court’s official hours to 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but then changed them back to 8:00 to 4:00.
In other business tonight, the Pulaski County Council is also expected to consider a $35,000 additional appropriation for the county’s IT Department. Funding arrangements for a couple updates to the courthouse are also expected to be discussed, including a new elevator and a proposed security checkpoint.
Tonight’s Pulaski County Council meeting starts at 7:00 EST at the Pulaski County Courthouse.
