By Christina M. Wright
The Herald Bulletin
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ANDERSON — Madison County Judge Fredrick Spencer left behind a goose-egg of a fund that has allowed the courthouse to upgrade and renovate in an environment of continual budget cuts across the county and nation.
“One of the pleasant surprises we had when I came into the Circuit Court was that Judge Spencer had left behind a sizable fund saved up from probation user fees,” said Judge Rudolph Pyle. “They have to be used to improve the courts.”
Pyle said the fund, in excess of $200,000, has been used to install wireless on the third and fourth floors of the courthouse, install needed carpeting and a plasma screen in his courtroom, and turn the library into a problem-solving courtroom to help with the grant.
The fund, Pyle said, is a sum of fees that offenders on probation must pay to the courts.
Spencer said he had rarely used the fund over the years, supplementing a probation officer’s salary once. He didn’t comment on how it’s been spent since he left the bench.
“I intentionally didn’t spend money I didn’t need to spend,” he said. “I’m a frugal guy.”
After a dissection of the wordy Indiana statute, Board of Accounts deputy state examiner Paul Joyce agreed that the probation fees could be used for courthouse renovations. However, a technical word — “supplement” — in the statute may cause a slight problem, he said.
“It’s not there to replace,” Joyce said of the fund. “It’s to supplement. It should already be a line-item thing; it shouldn’t be something new.”
The renovated problem-solving court is part of an initiative to combine three separate probationary courts — drug, mental health and re-entry — into one umbrella program. The county courts received a nearly $1 million federal stimulus grant for the initiative.
“When we went after that grant, we told Paul Wilson and the commissioners that in exchange for them backing us, we would find a way to things ourselves,” said Superior Court Judge Dennis Carroll. “And we have. We have not had to ask for a single dollar from the county.”
From Joyce’s analysis of the state statute, though, the county would have needed to set up a line item for the courts — even if only for $25 — before the probation fees could be used to “supplement” the renovation project.
Line items for the wireless, and Circuit Court carpeting and plasma screen, which Pyle says is a presentation tool for lawyers, also need to be present beforehand, Joyce said.
Pyle and Carroll, who had previously corrected two of Joyce’s misinterpretations of the statute, did not return calls Saturday asking their opinion on Joyce’s interpretation of “supplement.”
Both judges earlier this week touted their ability to find a way to improve the courts without costing taxpayers anything.
“The positive news is we did a bunch of stuff that didn’t cost taxpayers any money,” Carroll said.
Pyle said the newest addition, wireless Internet, would help attorneys research while in court or waiting for court.
He also said it would ensure a better usage of the new Odyssey court database after Indiana Supreme Court Judicial Technology and Automation Committee finishes converting Madison County to the system.
Pyle explained that, as soon as a Madison County court record is entered into the court’s system, it will automatically be logged into the Odyssey program. Combined with the wireless, that means anyone on the third and fourth floors could access those files immediately, he said.
“It’s going to maximize our efficiency,” Pyle said.
Contact Christina M. Wright, 640-4883, christina.wright@heraldbulletin.com.
