"I come from a proud family that has been involved in public service for as long as I can remember. I want to continue my work for you as your Prothonotary and continue making improvements to the office. In 2020 when I took office, I found an office operating in the 1980’s. They were typing on typewriters, staff did not have phones, there was no email or Outlook, and nearly every process was manual. After assessing the issues, I began instituting changes and improvements.
Some of the first changes turned out to be VITAL to be able to operate during the Covid period. Changes were:
Put out to the public the ability to see document images remotely/outside of the courthouse. Prior to this, you had to come to the courthouse to see your documents. Next we created digital ‘Counter Pads’ which are up to the minute records of what is filed in our office every day. These are accessed on our County Courts website via ERS.
We purchased laptops just prior to COVID which made remote work possible .We developed a hybrid E-Filing system for our attorney users during the COVID Emergency time. We created filing instruction packets which are very helpful to those filing without an attorney. We re-designed the docketing and imaging process reducing turnaround time from 6-8 weeks to 24-48 hours.
Initiated the study for the new case management system and then worked closely with the courts as we have moved getting closer to our Go Live date which is scheduled this month.
We brought the Clerk of Court fee backlog of nearly $100K which was behind several years to being timely within a few months. My staff and I have organized and boxed 15 years of files which is approximately 450 boxes per year, 9 of these years were sent to storage. Digital headsets were provided to my staff to be more efficient as they worked. Staff were provided phones and email to be able to directly communicate with our many customers.