HOW WE SEE IT: Change The Law On Clerk’s Foreclosure Fees

— When the Razorbacks take the fi eld Saturday to pound Alabama - see, hope and change is alive and well - we’ll see the traditional escort of the head coach by Arkansas state troopers.

These are the same Arkansas state troopers who put their lives on the line in the name of enforcing the law and protecting Arkansans from all walks of life. Did you know when they are protecting the head coach, they can’t accept as much as a Hogs T-shirt or jacket as a gift without putting their jobs in jeopardy?

And so it should be. They don’t need to be lavished with gifts simply for performing functions that, except for their jobs as troopers, they wouldn’t be in a position to receive.

So explain, if you can, how it’s defensible a circuitclerk making $80,000 a year in a public, elected offce can earn even more than her annual salary through serving as a court-appointed commissioner for foreclosure sales?

Yes, circuit clerks,who are in offce only by virtue of the votes of the Arkansas public, can according to state law parlay that position into quite the fi nancial windfall.

And they don’t think it’s a big deal. Washington County Circuit Clerk Bette Stamps, who leaves offce at the end of this year, doesn’t even think it’s the public’s business. It’s what her predecessors have done, so what’s the big deal, right?

This scenario has existed for years because judicial appointment of circuit clerks to handle foreclosure sales typically didn’t amount to much money. But Stamps’ payday one year exceeded $104,000 in commissioner’s fees. And that’s on top of her circuit clerk salary.

Let’s see. The average Arkansan has an income of $21,274, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Median household income between 2006 and 2010 was $39,267. One has to wonder how those folks, especially the ones who have gone through foreclosures, feel about circuit clerks personally collecting such sums.

The state’s circuit clerks say they’re just doing what’s allowed by state statutes, and the attorney general agrees they’re not breaking any laws.

Isn’t it worth noting, however, the circuit clerk’s association worked against a change in the law in recent years? Let no one kid you: the clerks want this money.

Except for Dennis Milligan, the circuit clerk in Saline County just west of Little Rock. He recognized it’s only because he’s the elected circuit clerk that the courts ask him to be the commissioner on foreclosure sales. He says the process may be legal, but it’s not morally right.

It’s safe to say Milligan can forget an invitation as a featured speaker at the next meeting of the Arkansas Circuit Clerks Association.

Circuit clerks are appointed simply because of the proximity to courts and convenience, and that exists solely because of the public off ce they hold.

State law should be changed to make this function a duty of the offce when the clerk is appointed, and the money made oft foreclosure sales should be returned to the general benefit of the citizens the circuit clerk was elected to serve.

We hope the Arkansas Legislature can get behind the concept and help circuit clerks understand the salary paid for the position they seek should be, and is, enough.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/13/2012

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