Angela Vick Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Report

Fiscal Year 2020

Budget Report

Presented to the Citizens of Citrus County, Florida October 1, 2019

Angela Vick

Welcome to the 2020 edition of the Clerk’s Budget Book. I have developed this booklet to provide greater transparency of my office and explain the often complicated nature of the Clerk’s Office budget.

The Clerk is funded from three main sources:







I work closely with the County Administrator and Budget Director to develop a budget for the Board funded portion that will allow me to fulfill my role as the Chief Financial Officer, Accountant, Auditor, Recorder, and ex-officio Clerk to the Board efficiently and effectively in the coming year and years ahead. That budget is then vetted in public budget hearings and eventually approved in some form by the Board of County Commissioners.

The Court funding portion of the budget is subject to budget hearings as well, but at the state level as discussed later. Court funding is derived from local collections, as well as $72,564 of state money this year to assist with jury expenses. Court collections and state funding for courts are restricted for use in fulfilling the Clerk’s court duties.

Recording fees are generated when citizens record deeds, mortgages, liens and other documents in the public records. While a great deal of the recording fees collected are disbursed to other agencies by law, a portion is retained to help offset the cost of operating the Clerk’s office.

One last source of revenue is the Modernization Trust Fund. This is a special revenue fund split into two sections, which are restricted to technology improvements.

I welcome your questions and comments and look forward to the year ahead.

Serving Together... Dedicated to Excellence!

Organization of this Document

S

ERVING OUR

C

ITIZENS

S

ERVING OUR

C

OUNTY

G

OVERNMENT

S

ERVING OUR

J

UDICIARY

S

AFEGUARDING

A

SSETS

Serving our Citizens

Online

_O

_{save citizens}

valuable time and money by

providing efficient, convenient

options for accessing public

information or making

payments to the court.

O

FTE’

and 10 volunteers are

dedicated to excellence in serving you, whether at

one of our Inverness locations, over the

telephone, or at a community outreach event.

128,142

?

Payments Receipted

www.citrusclerk.org

D

C

receive

extensive training in

customer service and

the Clerk’s operations.

31,229

Recording Services to the Community

5,919

M

ORTGAGES

documents were recorded into the Official Records in Fiscal

Year 2019. They are scanned and indexed with an image of the document

available for public viewing within 24 hours of being recorded.

72% of our documents are submitted through an electronic portal.

67,179

13,437

D

EEDS

831

L

IENS

Additional Services to the Community

M

ARRIAGE

L

ICENSES

P

ASSPORTS

T

AX

D

EED

S

ALES

813

1,543

592

The Clerk conducts tax deed sales via an online auction which allows bidders to

deposit funds in an escrow account and bid from remote locations, rather than the

courthouse steps of the past. This increases the potential pool of bidders and the

likelihood of a better sales price.

Serving the County Government

TOTAL BOARD FUNDING FY 2020 $2,876,917

Revenues

...

$208M

Expenditures

...

$201M

Treasury Management

Investment Earnings

...

$3.9M

Financial Statement Preparation

Grant Reporting & Compliance

Payroll Services for 820 Employees

Board, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk, and Property Appraiser



Awarded the GFOA Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting for

the 21

consecutive year



Awarded the GFOA Award for Outstanding Achievement in

Popular Annual Financial Reporting for the 4

year

A

CCOUNTING

S

ERVICES

:

Board Recording Services

M

EETINGS

and

O

FFICIAL

M

INUTES

24 regular Board of County Commission meetings

4 Value Adjustment Board meetings

16 Special meetings or workshops

H

EARINGS

258 Value Adjustment Petitions processed

88 Value Adjustment hearings

O

FFICIAL

D

OCUMENTS

P

ROCESSED



Certified Internal Auditor



Certified Information Systems Auditor



Certified Fraud Examiner



Certification in Risk Management Assurance



Certified Internal Controls Auditor

I

NTERNAL

A

UDITS

and

I

NVESTIGATIVE

P

ROJECTS

10 Audits completed

100% of Red Flag fraud hotline reports addressed within 24 hours

463 Guardianship financial reports audited

O

UTREACH

_and

T

RAINING

104 employees and volunteers received comprehensive ethics training and

internal controls training.

Internal Audit Services

E

DUCATION

_and

P

ROFICIENCY

In addition to the necessity of safeguarding the records themselves, it is imperative that we safeguard against unauthorized access to the protected data within those records. Identity theft is a thriving criminal enterprise and the Clerk works diligently to redact private information from public records.

An official record can be defined as an official copy or original record having the legally recognized and enforceable quality of establishing a fact. In times of upheaval or natural disaster the official record is the document that determines legal ownership or other rights and claims. For this reason, it is paramount that these records are safeguarded against loss, theft, tampering, or destruction. The Clerk maintains redundant systems to house this data electronically, as well as storing copies offsite in a secure underground facility.

Recording Activity Notification – This free service will notify you when a document is recorded specifically naming you or your business entity. Notifications are generated within 24 hours of

Safeguarding

I

M

D

S

The Clerk serves 4 circuit judges and 2 county judges, 1

magistrate and 2 hearing officers. During FY 2019 the Court

Department processed 382,497 documents (1,300,165 pages)

and entered 769,932 docket items.

Services to the Judiciary

The Court-related portion of the Clerk’s budget is reviewed and approved by the Florida Clerks of Court

Operations Corporation (CCOC),

consistent with Revision 7 of Article V of the Florida Constitution. After suffering

a decade of declines in funding, Clerk revenues are finally beginning to recover. Clerks continue to work with the

legislature to develop a sustainable funding solution.

Funding for the Court-related budget comes from several sources: collections of fines, fees, court costs and service

charges, as well as forfeitures and some interest earnings. Some of the cost is offset by federal reimbursement for

work performed on qualifying child support cases. Other funding comes from a special revenue fund restricted for

Court technology. Unspent money in this fund rolls forward each year and has typically been used for large

projects like software implementations.

24,497

cases to court

7,675

jurors summoned

COURT COLLECTIONS

$2,540,870

STATE FUNDING FOR COURTS

436,901

FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT

184,000

STATE FUNDING FOR JURY COSTS

72,564

TOTAL COURT FUNDING FY 2020

$3,234,335

Services to the Judiciary

Court Services to the Citizens

PAYMENT PLANS

ORDERS FOR PROTECTION

AMNESTY DAYS

O

NLINE

C

OURT

R

ECORDS

Citizens have access to a tremendous amount of court services via the Clerk’s website: court

General Fund Budget Summary

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Budget FY 2020 Budget FUNDING FROM OPERATIONS

Application Fees - Operations 25,820 $ 26,000 $ 29,935 Charges for Services - Operations 886,676 927,092 883,000 Interest 18,754 10,000 30,000 Miscellaneous Revenue 13,284 22,000 17,326 Federal Reimbursement 283,526 247,145 184,000 Other Financing Source-Capital Lease - 97,500 -LOCAL FUNDING

Citrus County Board of County Commissioners 2,582,160 2,666,024 2,876,917 FUNDING FROM COURTS

Modernization Trust Fund Budget Summary

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Budget FY 2020 Budget REVENUES

EXPENDITURES

_{While the funding sources for the Clerk’s office are varied, the vast majority of expenditures are related to personnel}

costs. The investment in our deputy clerks is our single most important dollar spent, as they are the people ensuring that your experience with this office is handled professionally, accurately, legally, and with the utmost respect for our citizens, and to our sworn duties under the Constitutions of the State of Florida and the United States.