South Central Reporter

Macoupin County Board Courts Committee met July 22.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Members Present: Kristi Dunnagan, Ryan Kilduff, Holly Klausing, John Blank, Molly Rosentreter, and Aaron Stayton

Members Absent: Jon Payne

Officials and Department Heads Present: Amy Ashby, Tom Denby, and Jordan Garrison and Pete Duncan

1. Call to Order

1.1 Roll Call

There were 6 members present and 1 member absent with Blank remote.

2. Agenda Items

2.1 Staffing Updates From Probation Department Denby was there as Briscoe had another commitment. The Probation Department had two vacancies for officers since the beginning of the year. After posting them for a significant period of time, they had hired one officer out of Staunton. The only other qualified individual they had who had applied so far was a resident of Montgomery County. She had worked for our Public Health department recently and has probation experience. They were looking for guidance from the committee on if they could hire someone from out of county. The committee felt that they could. 

2.2 Updates/Concerns from Circuit Clerk's Office Ashby said she had also had someone leave her office for another office in the Courthouse and she had had some people apply but had not been able to really start interviews until recently due to the three week trial going on. She also discussed that her office was currently doing the typing for Judge Denby and she was wondering if there was a way to change that by getting a court reporter or court specialist for him. There was a discussion about funding for the court system as a whole and the areas where more funding would be helpful. The idea of using electronic dictation with AI transcription was recommended by the committee to help out the situation. 

2.3 Updates from Judge Denby Denby discussed his first few months. He believed everyone in the system was working well together. He did have some concerns about budgeting items with his budget, in particular the zeroing out of the jury line items that had previously been paid for with ARPA funds the last few years. With those funds gone if there are significant juries, the budget will be wiped out in no time. He also expressed that he thought he might be necessary to spend more on salaries in order to attract attorneys to work in the area and hopefully bring another attorney into the State's Attorney's office. 

3. Adjournment 

3.1 Adjourn Meeting 

The meeting adjourned at 7:07 pm. 

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