County hires first courts administrator

Jerry Moyer starts July 1, according to a county news release.

Moyer will manage the courts’ daily operations, including security and bailiffs, human resources, fiscal management, information technology and record management. He also will provide coordination between the county sheriff, jail, juvenile office, prosecuting attorney, pre-trial services and circuit clerk, as well as the state public defender’s office, office of the state courts administrator and other agencies, the release said.

Those responsibilities previously were left to the county’s 14 judges and jury commissioners. The courts administrator position was recommended in a 2003 Kalmanoff Study of Greene County’s criminal justice system.

“The timeline couldn’t be better for hiring a courts administrator, because our needs now are greater than they’ve ever been,” said Judge Dan Conklin, 31st Circuit Court, Division 3 and Greene County presiding judge, in the release. “Administration of the court is very difficult for judges to accomplish when they have full caseloads.”

An October 2007 Missouri Judicial Weighted Workload Study determined that Greene County had the highest caseload docket in the state, the release said.

Moyer’s salary is $72,509 and is funded by revenues once dedicated to Springfield-Greene County Emergency-911 Services that were freed up by the 1/8-cent 911 sales tax approved in April 2007.

Moyer previously spent 24 years as Barton County circuit clerk, an elected office he held for six terms before retiring in 2006. Since then, he has assisted Missouri courts with implementing the Judicial Information System, a statewide digital filing system. He spent the earlier part of his career as a police officer, a sheriff’s deputy and a deputy juvenile officer.