Scott County circuit clerk's office dealing with too few staff members

BENTON, Mo. -- If you haven't been getting as quick of a response from the Scott County circuit clerk's office that you are used to, it isn't because they aren't trying.

"We're asking for patience from everyone as we diligently explore every opportunity to improve our services while absorbing ever-increasing limitations," Circuit Clerk Christy Hency said. "We are no longer able to make entries or update files as quickly as we used to."

Hency said the office is doing the best it can with the staff it has.

"The state of Missouri's judiciary branch is currently under a hiring freeze. It went into effect Oct. 1," she said. "Since the official announcement we have lost three clerks that we have not been able to replace. Two resigned; one retired."

The office was already short-handed before losing those three to bring the staff down to 14, two of whom are part time.

"According to the latest clerical weighted workload study, we should have 20.1 clerks," Hency said.

Hency said the clerical weighted workload study is an independent time study through the Office of State Courts Administrator.

"Its basic purpose is to determine how many clerks are needed to process the business of the court on a county-by-county basis," she said. "Not every county participates in that study: they take a variety of small, medium and large courts and then they use the test groups' average across the state."

Hency said she and her supervisors can work extra hours -- and have been -- but "the deputy clerks are not allowed to work overtime."

Still, Hency said, her office has fallen behind on court processing "and it doesn't look like that is going to change anytime soon."

It is now a matter of "what do we have to get done first?" she said, with the top priority being updating judgments.

But every day, the office gets numerous calls asking what happened in court that day.

"We used to be able to satisfy caller inquiries," Hency said. "We're at the point now we tell them they just have to wait and that as soon as it's processed, it will be on Case.net."

Staff are also doing their best to handle other requests they get on a regular basis such as providing a copy of divorce papers.

"It used to be we could get a copy request or a search request out within a couple of days," Hency said. "The reality now is probably 10 days if not more."