AREAS OF CONCERN 1: ATTENDANCE

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, the EASTER WEEKEND SPECIAL! ! Two articles for the price of one! !

Even though this was listed as number 1 in the “Areas of Concern,” we wanted to wait and see how the attendance would be over a several month period before we wrote an article about it.

Before the November 2008 election, Barbara Johnson was RARELY in the office. In my 20 years of being in that office several times a week (and while she was clerk), I rarely saw her in the office. Whenever I would ask her staff where Johnson was or when she would be in, and most of the time they would shrug their shoulders and say, “I don’t know.” She was like former Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul that I talked about in these two articles.

So, not only was she not in the office, she didn’t bother telling anyone where she was or when she would be in. Wow! That’s good communication. But that is what she is known for….NOT communicating.

So here we are as Erie County tax payers, paying her for a job and she isn’t even in the office! DOUBLE WOW! ! ! ! What a waste of our money! ! ! !

Well, since the election her attendance has gone up substantially! ! ! ! ! GREAT! ! I have a couple ways of knowing when she is and is not in the office; even on days when I do not go into the COC office. Since the election, she was sporadic at first, but is more and more on a consistent basis in the office. One would think, “YEAH! ! This is good! !”

Well, think again ladies and gentlemen. If you look at her recent Quarterly Report Card, NOTHING is getting done in that office……well…..ok……..She now has a dollar amount on getting court records on line AND she did go to a meeting to try to get more staff hired (but she came to the meeting completely unprepared…but she did actual show up to it)……so we’ll change it from nothing to…….VERY, VERY LITTLE. I have noticed (by being in the office several times a week and other ways) that she is in the office almost everyday! This should be a good thing. However, as I said, NOTHING……um….I mean…VERY, VERY LITTLE is getting done.

After 5 months (since the November 2008 election) the records STILL are not on line. And I am willing to bet my first born male child that they will not get on line while she is the clerk (even though she now has a dollar figure to get the job done – see the article here).

Also, NOTHING (and here I really do mean NOTHING) has been done in any of the other 4 “Areas of Concern” that we have covered so far: 1) SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS & FINANCIAL ACCOUNT NUMBERS REMOVED FROM CASE FILES; 2) COLLECTION ON ESTIMATED $700,000 IN OUTSTANDING COURT COSTS & FINES: 3) ADDRESSING OFFICE UNDERSTAFFING; 4) MICROFILIMG CLOSED CASES

And you will soon see that nothing is being done in the other “Areas of Concerns” that we will be covering here in the future:
1) IMPROVE CUSTOMER RELATION SKILLS OF THE STAFF: 2) AUTOMATED PHONE SYSTEM; 3) MONITORING PROGRAM TO KEEP CASES FROM BEING ILLEGALLY REMOVED FROM THE OFFICE: 4) HAVE CASE FILES PROPERLY FILED AWAY: 5) SEND STAFF (OR INFORM STAFF) TO CONTINUING ED WORKSHOPS TO KEEP THEM ON TOP OF OHIO REVISED CODE CHANGES.

So really, what has changed? NOTHING…..oops….I mean….VERY, VERY LITTLE! She is in the office everyday – BIG DEAL, but VERY, VERY LITTLE is getting done. So, as a blogger on the SR web site put it during the campaign, she still continues to steal from the tax payers because she is getting paid for a job that she is not doing! Who among us could hold down a job like that?

As I said in this article, we the citizens and tax payers of this county would like to see some actual work and achievements come from her during this term because there hasn't been ANY achievements in her prior 5 terms (more on this in a future article). For all the money we are paying her to do this job that is not too much of us to expect from her. Otherwise she should retire and let someone else put that office into the 21st century.

To you the voter I ask: Does this look like she is doing the job that she was elected by YOU THE VOTERS AND TAX PAYERS of Erie County to do?