Panel looks at the roles of the courts and the clerks; Pariente says the clerks spend more on keeping the courts' records than the state spends on the entire court system.

A Florida House committee is exploring the removal of court supporting functions from county clerks of courts and putting them directly under the court system.

"It seems to me this system is designed for failure. It's not an attack on the integrity or importance of the clerks," said Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, R-Cape Coral, chair of the Judiciary Appropriations brought the issue before the panel. "To me, it is how do we best administer the court system while honoring this separate entity, the constitutional [court] clerk?"

In an interview after the meeting, Kottkamp said he may introduce a committee bill to "clearly establish the lines of responsibility for the benefit of both [clerks and courts].

"Somebody needs to step in and try to clarify this for the benefit of both," he added.

He also said he's been concerned about the state system since he was a law clerk for two years in the federal court system, where the clerks report to the judiciary.

The committee heard from Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Pariente and Eighth Circuit Judge Stan Morris, chair of the Trial Court Budget Commission. They said while the courts work well with the court clerks, having 67 different clerks being responsible for taking in cases and keeping records makes managing the court system difficult.

But clerks and Tallahassee attorney Fred Baggett, who represents the Florida Association of Court Clerks, said clerks are responsive to their local voters, including the lawyers and litigants who use the court system, as well as those who need access to court records.

The setting was the committee's hearings on February 14-15 where court-related entities laid out their budget requests and priorities for the 2006-07 fiscal year that begins July 1.

Pariente noted that the clerks spend $424 million on the "ministerial" function of keeping the courts' records, which is more than the state spends on the entire court system: about $405 million for the 2005-06 fiscal year.

"From my point of view, to have a clerk of court who is not directly accountable or under the control of the judicial branch is no way to run a modern court system," she said. "The Supreme Court has said when clerks act as court record-keepers, they are an arm of the court. The reality is quite different."

Pariente also posed this question to committee members: "Would you like to have your records of the House under the control of someone who is not directly controlled by you?"

From a budget standpoint, she said...