Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis has never been afraid to call people out when mistakes are made. Now, critics are calling Ellis out, saying his own "house isn't order."

The former county commissioner and engineer at Harris Corp. is responsible for the court system's paperwork -- real and virtual. It's his responsibility to make sure every document -- be it a traffic ticket, an arrest form, a judge's order of innocence, or a million-dollar jury verdict -- ends up where it belongs.

But for Ellis, it has been much harder to move that paperwork. He inherited a glitchy computer system when he was elected in 2000 that was supposed to be faster, better and Y2K compliant.

Instead, the inability of the system to distribute traffic-fine money and tell judges how many cases they've handled and closed -- its two main functions -- has county commissioners grumbling and at least one attorney calling for Ellis' job.

The result:

The county still faces millions of dollars in uncollected traffic fines.

Keeping statistics on cases is critical for judges whose caseloads have swelled and need documentation to make their case to the legislature for more judges.

Critics say Ellis gets too involved in political hot potatoes outside his jurisdiction. And they say he isn't being straightforward with county commissioners about the likelihood of the computer system reaching its potential.

Ellis said much of the mud thrown his way are scare tactics and a "fabricated assault on the operations of the courts and the integrity of its employees," he said.

"I have indeed taken an oath to do this job to the best of my ability, and I shall not betray the public trust by subverting our function to political blackmail."

Meanwhile, a number of judges say there are bright spots.

Several judges said Ellis has made the court filing system more reliable, shortened the time it takes for documents to be filed and improved employee morale.

"Scott has done a tremendous job for the court clerks," said Chief Circuit Judge Bruce Jacobus. "Before, they were miserable."

Employee treatment was one of Ellis' political planks, saying former Clerk Sandy Crawford had too many "silly rules." Such unwritten rules called for no calendars, no family pictures on tables and cleanliness both on top and inside of employees' desks.

Jacobus said he remembered a time that courtroom clerks were asked to vacuum the courtrooms.

Such an atmosphere at work was compounded in November 1999 when Crawford installed a new computer system. The upgrade was expected to improve efficiency and prevent expected Y2K problems at an initial cost of $750,000. Subsequent fixes pushed that figure to $925,000.

The software company that installed the system, Progressive Software Innovations, went bankrupt. Another computer company, Tiburon, had to fix the 91 problems its workers found in the system.

All the while, court staff had to input 6,000 docket items a day by hand and manually go through boxes of traffic tickets stacked in the Viera courthouse. Criminal cases were given the highest priority; smaller offenses, such as traffic tickets, temporarily were put on the back burner. Clerks worked weekends of mandatory overtime.

Meanwhile, offenders who hadn't paid fines or still were driving with suspended licenses were getting away without punishment because the court system wasn't aware of their situations.

Where Ellis says he still is stuck technologically in sending the names of some residents who owe payments to the courts to a collection agency.

The clerk's office sent its collection agency -- ACS State and Local Services -- a batch of data. But the company had a problem with the fees public defenders charge for handling a case.

Unlike most court-related charges, the fees accrue interest if not paid on time. ACS had never dealt with a collection calculated with interest and couldn't handle the complication.

Still, the problems now are much milder than what they were before, Ellis said.

Jacobus said he sympathizes about the computer issues at the clerk's office.

"It's slowly getting better," he said. "But it's still not able to tell us our statistics, cases filed in a particular division, and how many cases we have cleared."

Ellis said the computer system now can do what the judges want. The problem is getting his staff to write programs to retrieve the data.

His staff currently is working on a pay-or-appear program that would let county court judges target offenders who haven't paid fines and court costs. Judges would be able to get them back into court and threaten them with jail.

"We just can't write all the programs at the same time," Ellis said.

But some county officials think Ellis has attacked more than his own software difficulties -- and unrightfully so. For example:

Ellis publicly criticized a county land purchase that skipped several steps -- possibly costing Brevard taxpayers millions of dollars in the process.

He also weighed in on a recent budget battle over a tax rate cap that could have put the county $7 million in the red. Now, Michael Fitzgerald, a local attorney and human resources director in the county's solid waste department, wants an outside investigation into the clerk's office.

Fitzgerald wrote to the County Commission, urging it to request a Judicial Ethics Advisory Commission investigation into the use of court personnel. Fitzgerald thinks staff was used "outside of the purview" of the clerk's jurisdiction.

Fitzgerald didn't specifically say what court personnel were doing but hinted that because Ellis is involved in so many issues, and his staff can't get its "house in order," they must be doing things that aren't court-related.

He said Ellis not only can't do the "job for which he was elected" but also badgers other county agencies and gets involved in politics with which he has no business.

"The office he was elected to run cannot get statistics to our judges on the number of cases they have so they can prepare their dockets in an efficient manner," he wrote. "It cannot provide the Supreme Court in Tallahassee with pertinent information they need to project future needs for our courts."

He added Ellis' office couldn't get delinquent fees that would be vital to fund county services like police and fire-rescue.

Ellis said his involvement was not politically motivated and didn't take away from his court responsibilities.

"County finance comes under clerk of court's as we are the financial watchdog of the county," Ellis said. "It's the county's job to defend the charter.

Ellis denied the mixing of politics and work.

"I don't run any political campaigns when I am at work," he said. "What I do on my own time is up to me."

Jacobus agreed a civil servant at work still is a free man at home.

"Scott has a right to do that," he said. "He means well. He doesn't do that to the extent it affects his job."

But Commissioner Sue Carlson is losing patience.

"Obviously, Scott was left with a huge problem, but with that I expected a plan," she said. "I haven't really seen a plan. As a commissioner, when do you stop giving him money based on a plan that will work? I don't know if what he is doing is working."

Carlson said the issue is a financial one that affects every taxpayer, primarily because of the roughly $3 million in uncollected fine money.

"I am concerned that what we have been seeing is the increase in budgets without the positive results in revenue generation."

Stockton Whitten, assistant county manager, said the numbers paint a clear picture of the problem.

In fiscal year 1998, collections of traffic fines for the county were $1.36 million. In 1999, it went up to $1.56 million.

But in 2000 -- the year the new system was implemented -- fine money only totaled $749,000. In 2001, fines collected rose to $1.26 million. But the projected $1.33 million for 2002 is still down from four years ago.

"In four years, traffic fines are actually less," Whitten said. "They are not increasing and barely getting back to what they were. With development and population, new drivers on the road you would expect those revenues would increase."

Circuit Judge Vincent Torpy Jr. said he has noticed a difference since Ellis took over.

Torpy, appointed in 1999, said he started at the Titusville courthouse and the files were in a "deplorable condition," he said. "The filing was way behind. The pleadings hadn't made it to the file. It was very difficult for you to address the pending motions when they hadn't even put in the file yet."

Now, he said, the "condition has improved 199 percent. The files are generally up to date and in good condition."

Still, Torpy said he would like to have monthly reports detailing how many cases are coming in and how many cases he is closing.

It's analogous to business, Torpy said.

"I know how much money I am getting in, but I don't know how much money I am spending," he said. "It's hard to tell whether you're taking a sizeable bite out of your caseload or if you are getting further behind."

Such information is essential to good case management, Judge Griesbaum said.

"Seeing how many cases I resolve each month lets me know if I am being productive or spinning the wheels," he said. "Or maybe I need to go in another direction management wise."

Attorneys who practice in front of Brevard's judges said problems during the past few years on their end have been minimal.

"I haven't had to try a case or attend a hearing and files were missing or not ready," defense attorney Harley Gutin said. "The biggest problem is the Internet access to the clerk's Web site. I wish they would speed it up. Sometimes it takes a whole day to get on."

Defense attorney Michael Bross said he has practiced before every judge in the county and dealt with a bevy of courtroom clerks.

"The clerks are always ready," he said. "They are properly skilled and polite. I have never had a problem since Ellis took over."

Geoffrey Golub, who has been practicing criminal defense in Brevard since 1993, doesn't mind Ellis' sideline political foibles.

"He's not afraid to say what he wants," Golub said. "That's refreshing actually."

florida today

-- Anonymous, October 14, 2002

Answers

VIERA -- Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday not to investigate Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis for possible ethics violations after a county employee publicly stated he was using the clerks in his office to further his own political agenda.

Michael Fitzgerald, a local attorney and member of the county's Public Waste Department, urged the commission to request the Judicial Ethics Advisory Commission to investigate how Ellis uses his personnel. Fitzgerald said staff was used "outside of the purview" of the clerk's jurisdiction.

Fitzgerald didn't specifically say what court personnel were doing, but suggested that because Ellis is involved in so many issues, and his staff is still struggling with data issues, they must be doing things that aren't court-related.

In a letter to Florida Today and in a memo asking the commission to hear the issue, Fitzgerald said Ellis isn't doing thc "job for which he was elected" and instead is badgering other county agencies and getting involved in politics with which "he has no business."

Commissioners didn't agree.

"This particular commission doesn't think there is anything we need to do with the clerk's office," Commissioner Truman Scarborough said.

Commissioner Sue Carlson, a vocal critic of the clerk's computer woes, agreed.

"All I have ever asked for is a plan," she said. "And if that plan doesn't work, what next?"

As an example of Ellis' alleged ineffectiveness, Fitzgerald cited a glitch-plagued computer system installed under former Clerk of Courts Sandy Crawford in 1999. The system had several problems and the company that created the software went under shortly after.

Since he was elected two years ago, Ellis has been trying to fix the computer system, which was supposed to allay any Y2K problems, be faster, more reliable and Internet ready.

Instead, Fitzgerald alleges, many people who police wrote tickets for were given a free ride, and those who paid sometimes didn't get the money matched to the ticket. Millions of dollars were put in a suspense account and Ellis used clerks working weekends and night shifts to match money to the corresponding tickets and fix technical problems encountered along the way.

Fitzgerald also said Ellis got involved in two issues he shouldn't have related to a county land purchase near the Sarno Road Landfill and a recent budget battle over a 1996 county charter amendment to cap any tax increases at three percent.

Critics said the landfill purchase skipped several steps, possibly costing the county nearly $6 million. The budget battle ended when a judge said the county could ignore the tax cap and use money from previous years for the next year's budget.

"I have never seen a clerk of court have this much power," Fitzgerald said. "If he has nothing to hide, he has nothing to worry about."

Ellis countered the accusations by saying progress has been made on the computer system and only minor tweaks are needed to get the information needed that will allow judges to gauge their caseload for the county and the state.

Further, Ellis said his courtroom clerks are happier and more productive.

"I have not been brought before this commission because our office is a failure," he said. "I have been brought here because our office is a success."

He added it is his job to be a financial watchdog for the county, that it was the commission's job to defend the charter and that he has never done any political posturing on the job.

Still, he said he could do whatever he wanted -- including campaigning for someone -- after he leaves the office.

Several residents said they appreciate Ellis' efforts to uncover possibly unscrupulous doings. Melbourne resident Florence Paton, however, said the Brevard Court system is in ruin, and she had to wait seven months to get a hearing for a divorce.

Afterward, Ellis said he wasn't worried about what the commission would do because he believed he never did anything wrong.

florida today

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2002