The County Commission is to consider a resolution next Wednesday that would have county finance each year furnish two clerk offices with enough funds to cover their salary requirements.
In the past the clerks have not gotten those allotments and at times have come up short and had to make mid-year requests.
Commissioner Tim Boyd said he welcomes the move, saying clerks sometimes asked for hundreds of thousands of dollars in mid-budget.
Both Circuit Court Clerk Larry Henry and Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean defended how they have been controlling costs in their office.
Clerk Henry said he put in a Case Finder system that eliminated the need for two positions. He said those employees were given other roles as others retired.
He said the system cost $6,700 and brought $57,125 in employee savings.
Clerk Dean said when he took office in 2014 that salaries in the office were $2,724,195. He said that, through efficiencies, this year they will come in at $2,448,932.
He said over the five-year period that employees have gotten raises totaling $281,862. Counting that, he said the total savings is at $557,125.
Clerk Dean said the cost of operations has also been cut, going from $189,795 to $113,885 in five years.
He said he learned at a conference that in 2012 the Legislature had passed a law allowing clerks to eliminate the need for keeping paper minute books. He said, "One wall of my office is covered with them just from last year."
He said the office soon will drop the keeping of such paper minutes books and rely on electronic records.