SR GOES AFTER JOHNSON. . . AGAIN !

Kudos to The Sandusky Register for again going after Barb Johnson and exposed a little more of her incompetence. This time it was in regards to the “Court Records a Wreck.”

Of course we already covered that here Part 8 in the 11 Areas of Concern.

Allow us to comment on a few things from the article.



1) “An online blog is devoted to discussing her job performance and was recently updated with an evaluation giving her an overall grade of “D.”

Actually, in the Quarterly Report Card: Fall 2009, we gave her a “D-” (D-Minus), one step away from total and complete failure which she just might achieve for the Winter Quarter Report Card!

It would have been nice if the SR actually recognized us by name along with the web address for those that might want to read more about this travesty!



2) Johnson said, “We do what we have to do…”

That’s right Barb. Doing “NOTHING” is all you are capable of doing! ! ! If you had been at your job back 5-7 years ago when the county was planning on moving the COC office and had actually DONE YOUR JOB, perhaps you wouldn’t be in this mess now! ! Instead, your lack of leadership and management has caused the COC office to be moved from small office space on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the court house to a SMALLER space on the first floor! ! What WERE you thinking! ? ! ? ! ?



3) “The records include civil, criminal and domestic case files dating back to the 1960’s, though most are from the ‘70s to the late ‘90s. Most stored in cardboard boxes – thousands of boxes containing tens of thousands of records.”

As we mentioned earlier, we covered this here back in August of 2009:




4) “In her 20 years as the county’s clerk of courts, Johnson said she’s never had the man – power to clean up the stacks of records.”

It is her JOB and RESPONSIBILITY to come up with a plan and execute that plan, instead of doing “NOTHING” which is what she does about everything! Oh sure, blame it on lack of man-power. However, as we mentioned in March of 2009 here the lack of manpower is YOUR own doing. Also, we have learned that you have permission to hire 3 more people and so far you have hired ONE! How’s that working out for you Barb?




5) “Few, if any, of the records have been archived or scanned into microfilm. In most cases, the paper records are the county’s only copy.”

We also covered this in March of 2009 here

A fire in the Hedges Building would destroy ALL of those records! That is pathetic and unexcusable! !



6) “Johnson said this has been her only option for records storage in recent years.”

Yes, if you can’t think OUTSIDE the box. . . or maybe if you are so incompetent that you can’t even think INSIDE the box. . . or perhaps she doesn’t even know how to think, period! ! ! ! THINK BARBARA, THINK! ! ! ! ! You can do it, I know you can! You have it in you SOMEWHERE. . . .well. . . . . . . . . . .maybe not. . . . . . . . . . .



7) Johnson said, “It’d be better to have everything in one place.” That’s a given. But this is the next best thing.”

No Barbara, having a clerk who gets paid $54,000 a year AND DOES THEIR JOB, is the best thing we the tax payers (and payers of YOUR salary) should have! ! ! ! There should be no “next best thing!”


Back on October 29, 2008, the SR had an online “Q&A Live: Clerk of Courts candidates answer your questions” and it was published here.

The first question was: What exactly does a Clerk of Court do?

Johnson answered: “The office is called Clerk of Courts. We are the record keepers for the court. In Common Pleas, Civil, Domestic, and Criminal Cases; file liens, receive passport applications, file notary commission . . .”

“We are the record keepers for the court.” That is what she said. And now you know how well she keeps those records!

The second question asked that night was: Can you name 4 qualifications that you have to be the Clerk of Courts?

Johnson answered, “I have worked in all areas of the office; started with titles, legal department, bookkeeper, and became Chief Deputy and Clerk of Courts. I have actually (sic) performed jobs in every area of the Clerks office. This is a job where experience matters, and my background allows me to lead with confidence and the needed expertise.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I see NO experience with Johnson at the helm of that office. I see NO such leading with confidence, and I absolutely see NO expertise coming from her. She has proven this time after time after time. I don’t know how much more obvious she can make it that she is neither qualified, has no experience, and has no leadership or managerial skills needed to do this job!

As a matter of fact, the incompetence of this woman is absolutely mind-boggling! !

COMING SOON! !

Coming Soon! Reaction to the recent Sandusky Register article, "Court Records a Wreck."

Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, this will be good! !

SR GOES AFTER JOHNSON

Well, it looks as if the Sandusky Register has gone after Johnson about her lack of response on the SR's records request. Check out the SR article here. We already covered this topic in this article where we stated,

"Notice to the Sandusky Register: Do not expect to receive that public records request - EVER. Why? The answer is simple: our "NOTHING" clerk will NEVER, EVER get around to getting that information to you because she is way too busy doing. . . . . . well . . . . . NOTHING . . . . . . . . . . "

Again, our "NOTHING" clerk, who get's paid $54,000 a year to do "NOTHING," is doing "NOTHING." The evidence is just sooooo glaring!

This current act of not doing her job should surprise no one as it has been going on for the past 20+ years. The SR should not sit back and wait for these records to come forth because, like everything else in that office, it just won't happen.

Barb should stop prolonging the agony and just retire IMMEDIATELY! ! Within the past 2 years, there have been a few of her best employees retire. Instead, it should have been Johnson that retired leaving her best employees and a newly appointed COC to clean up her mess!

QUARTERLY REPORT CARD: FALL 2009

Below you will find Barb Johnson's grade card for her job performance for the period of October - December 2009.


ITEM GRADE
1. Attendance 9
2. Records on line 0
3. SSN & financial account numbers removed from hard copy case files 0
4. Collection on estimated $700.000 in outstanding court costs and fines 0
5. Address office understaffing 4
6. Microfilming closed cases 0
7. Improve customer relation skills of the staff 0
8. Have case files properly filed away 0
9. Monitoring program to keep cases from being illegally removed from the office 0
10. Send staff to continuing Ed workshops to keep them on top of ORC changes 0
11. Automated Phone System 0
12. Over all Grade 1

Grade scale: 12=A+; 11=A; 10=A-; 9=B+; 8=B; 7=B-; 6=C+; 5=C; 4=C-
3=D+; 2=D; 1=D-; 0=F



As you can see, compared with the previous summer quarter, she has stayed the same. Last quarter, her overall grade was a D-. This quarter's overall grade is also a D-. She did have improvement in one area: We gave her a C- in addressing office understaffing because she did hire someone to replace Sandra Brown in the Title Dept. She hired someone with no experience and sent them to another county (we think it was Lorain County) for an extended period of time to be trained. Our question is, who is paying this person while they are being trained in Lorain County? Erie County or Lorain County? Another question is when is she going to hire someone to replace Judy (who retired in Spring of 2008), Yvette (who left in August 2009) and Anita (who retired December 2009)?

However, even though there was one small improvement in one area, and stayed the same with her attendance, there is nothing new in the other areas where she received "0." It just goes to show you that our "NOTHING" clerk is, for the most part, still doing "NOTHING" and getting paid by us, the tax payers for doing "NOTHING." I just wish we could get more work out of her for what we are paying her - you know, that $54,000 per year salary.

Now come on, really, would you expect anything more from our “NOTHING” clerk?

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.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?

FALL QUARTERLY REPORT CARD COMING IN 1 WEEK

Barb Johnson's fall quarterly report card will be out in 1 week! Has Johnson's job performanced improved? If so, by how much?

Log in next week and find out.

Developing. . . . . . . . . . .

JOHNSON MENTIONED IN SR ARTICLE

In this past Wednesday's (Dec. 23) Sandusky Register (page A-2), there was an article titled, "State Has Issues With Erie County Auditing." There really wasn't anything damning in that article. In a nutshell, the article was about how an Ohio Auditor report shows many problems with certain monetary procedures used by certain county departments including Clerk of Courts (Johnson), Treasurer (JoDee Fantozz), and Auditor (Tom Paul) offices.

The state auditor is just trying to prevent anything from happening like what happened in the Clyde-Green Springs schools where the former superintendent stole $300,000 from the school district.

However, there was one interesting sentence in the article, "Johnson has still not responded to a public records request a Register reporter submitted weeks ago. The information being sought: the clerk of court's bank statements, information the county auditor doesn't even have."

Could the Sandusky Register be investigating the estimated $700,000 in outstanding court costs and fines? We here at Clerk of Court Watch think that amount is on the low side. We are willing to bet that the cost is at around $2 million or even more.

Notice to the Sandusky Register: Do not expect to receive that public records request - EVER. Why? The answer is simple: our "NOTHING" clerk will NEVER, EVER get around to getting that information to you because she is way too busy doing. . . . . . well . . . . . NOTHING . . . . . . . . . .

FALL QUARTERLY REPORT CARD COMING IN 4 WEEKS

The Fall 2009 Quarterly report card is coming in 4 weeks! Be sure to check in to see if Barb Johnson has improved in doing her job as Erie County Clerk of Courts, or is it still the same ole' same ole'.

Be sure to check the side bar under "Quarterly Report Cards" for the Winter 2009, Spring 2009, and Summer 2009 Quarterly Report Cards to compare and see if Johnson is improving in her duties and work ethics to us the tax payers (her employers), or if she continues to go down in a flaming ball of fire!

What will the Fall Quarterly Report Card bring? And yes, we continue to keep a "watchful eye" on her work even though we (for now) are not publishing weekly articles. Is it the same "Nothingness" or is she improving?

Stay tuned!

Developing . . . . . . . . .

THE LAST OF THE WEEKLY ARTICLES

The article below (“Automated Phone System”) is the last of our weekly articles.

This is our 64th article since January 31, 2009. With about one article per week for the past 10 months, I think we have laid out very well why Barb Johnson is incompetent to have this position, especially for the past 20-plus years. As a matter of fact, we here at COC Watch have done more work in the past 10 months than Barb has done in the past 20-plus years. If Barb should choose to run again in 2012, there is enough factual evidence and information here for the voters to read and understand why she should not be re-elected for a 7th term in office. Enough is enough. Stop wasting our tax dollars and get someone in that office that knows what the hell they are doing. Get us someone in that office who can actually LEAD, WORK, and EARN their $54,000 a year!

This is not to say that we will no longer post any further articles. We will continue to post articles, just not on a weekly basis. We will continue to post her quarterly report card, and anytime something new comes up, we will post that as well. So continue to check back 2-3 times a month to see if there is anything new to read.

We WILL be posting again weekly (if not daily) during the 2012 campaign. THAT should be REALLY interesting.

But maybe we will be lucky, and Barb Johnson will retire soon. . . . .hopefully VERY soon; that would be a GREAT next article to have on this site.

AREAS OF CONCERN 11: AUTOMATED PHONE SYSTEM

This is the last in the series of “Areas of Concern” which were brought to the fore-front in the November 2008 campaign / election.

The girls that work in the two front desks are overwhelmed by the phone, the public coming in, and doing their other daily tasks. They really don’t get any of their “other daily tasks” done when working at the front desk because the phone rings almost non-stop.

From what I have overheard while in the office, it sounds like MANY of those phone calls could be avoided; it’s just an ill-informed public that calls the COC office because they don’t know who else to call. And many of those calls are for the same thing: 1) Traffic violations for Sandusky Municipal Court; 2) Traffic violations for County Court (in Avery); 3) requests to look up service; 4) requests to look up status on a case; 5) requests to do criminal checks or searches (which the COC does not do anyway); 6) transfers to the appeals division, foreclosure division, criminal division and civil divisions.

An automated phone system would eliminate numbers 1-5 above and automatically transfer the calls to the correct personnel in number 6. This would free up 2 personnel to take care of other tasks in the COC office that need attention. An automated phone system does not cost that much money to implement; it is cheap to do and would save THOUSANDS of hours every year for COC personnel to take care of other things. In an office that is so strapped for personnel, this seems to be a no-brainer.

So what has Barb Johnson done about this since it was brought up during the campaign in 2008 (a year later). . . . . . . . . . . absolutely NOTHING!

Now come on, really, would you expect anything more from our “NOTHING” clerk?

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.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?

AREAS OF CONCERN 10: SEND STAFF (OR INFORM STAFF) TO CONTINUING ED WORKSHOPS TO KEEP THEM ON TOP OF OHIO REVISED CODE CHANGES

Under previous Clerks (Mary Eloise Evans and Collette Crouch) the staff in the COC office would occasionally go to workshops where they would be updated in particular laws and procedures pertaining to the COC office. The clerk would also receive information from the State of Ohio that she would pass along to her staff to keep them informed and up to date in said laws and procedures.

Under the “leadership” (cough-cough) of Barb Johnson, this has not taken place. One of Barb Johnson’s greatest gifts (besides being the “NOTHING” clerk) is being the “Non-Communicator.” Well, I guess that goes along with doing “NOTHING.” It has been “years,” as one employee told me about a year ago, since they have been to any workshop or Barb has told them of any communication she has received from the State of Ohio.

Well, when you think about it, for her first 20 years in office, she was rarely in the office, so how could she send her staff to any workshop or forward any other communication that she had received. Now that she is in the office almost daily, she still isn’t doing this. I guess old habits are just hard to break aren’t they Mrs. Johnson.

Don’t you wonder how much back in the 20th century these girls are working? Having not received any of this information from the State of Ohio for years, it makes one wonder how many things they are doing that are either: 1) not necessary, 2) not according to procedure, or 3) not lawful. It isn’t the staff’s fault; they are just going by the information they last learned or received (which was back in the days of Evans and Couch).

Well, if we, the citizens of Erie County are lucky, maybe Johnson too will see the tremendous amount of damage she has done over the past 20-plus years and retire….SOON. We can only hope and pray.

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.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?

A VETERAN IS RETIRING

COC Watch found out last week that veteran office worker Anita is retiring at the end of December 2009.

This comes as a stunning blow because Anita has been there for 30 plus years, working in the trenches day in and day out and knows that office inside and out. If anyone has experience in that office it is Anita and not Barb Johnson.

Anita is the supervisor in the Court Dept of the Clerk’s office, but according to a former employee, she must be in title only with absolutely no decision making power what so ever.

Apparently, Johnson has known about Anita’s pending retirement since September. Will she hire someone to take her place soon enough for Anita to train this new person, or will she wait until 6 months, a year, or longer to hire a replacement? Since it has been over 5 months since Title Office Supervisor Sandra Brown abruptly quit and Johnson has not yet replaced Sandra, we here at COC Watch are wagering that it will be AT LEAST 1 YEAR before Johnson replaces Anita.

Perhaps by then the County Commissioners will tell her that she can not hire any replacements because it took her so long to ask for the hiring, so it’s obvious that she doesn’t need that extra worker in the office. This in turn will just add MORE STRESS to the already overworked and overstressed office staff to try and pick up the pieces! ! But do you think that Johnson will get “in the trenches” and help her workers out? HELL NO! ! She is known for her creating havoc and chaos, then leaving the office for her staff to fend for themselves.

Speaking of Sandra Brown’s replacement, COC Watch has received information from an anonymous source that Barb does have resumes from people who have applied for that position. The question we have is, why would Johnson hire someone off the street who doesn’t know the job to be the supervisor of the Title Department? According to our source, there is an employee in the title office now named Peggy who knows that office and how it should be run. Why doesn’t Johnson make Peggy the new supervisor? Why hire someone off the street who doesn’t know how the Title Office works, or operates to be the supervisor?

(Sigh)….It’s just another example of Johnson’s incompetence as Erie County’s Clerk of Courts.

Well we at COC Watch wish Anita a happy retirement; Lord knows she has more than earned it working in those conditions.

Just when you think, “It can’t POSSIBLY get any worse! !” Then it does!

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?

COC WATCH IN SANDUSKY REGISTER FORUMS

There was a blogger on the Sandusky Register Forum site that criticized this website and the Firelands 411 website. The Forum thread titled “Firelands411 and the ‘Remove Johnson’ blogs” where the creator of the thread, Oliver Hardy, states On September 27, 2009, that both this blog, and Firelands411 are “dead.” He feels that he was mistreated on the 411 blog, and upset with this blog for not providing more information on “threatening emails” by Elsabeth Baumgartner (which we had eluded to briefly in a previous comment).


His first comment was in reference to the COC article “Areas of Concern 8: Have Case Files Properly Filed Away”
Mr. Hardy’s August 19, 2009 comment was:
“Anonymous said... To ‘The Editor’
I am commenting for the first time here. I am researching the Elsebeth Baumgartner case and other cases. Please provide examples of "threatening emails" to Markus.
Oliver Hardy”



To which COC Watch replied on August 20, 2009:
THE EDITOR said...
Mr. Hardy –

I want to keep this blog on topic. Since this blog is about Barbara Johnson and not Elsebeth Baumgartner I do not want to get into a discussion about Baumgartner. I would love to discuss anything about Johnson. If you are doing research on EB, then I suggest that you google "Elsebeth Baumgartner threatening emails" and I'm sure you'll get a list of what you need there for your research.

If you have any comments and/or questions about Barbara Johnson and the Erie County Clerk of Courts Office, I would be more than happy to address those issues.”



A couple of days later (9/29/09), Mr. Hardy states on the same SR Forum thread:
“I recently checked out the "Remove Johnson" blog and saw four entries by the "Editor" of the blog with no responses from the readers. Nada, zilch, zero responses in almost a month.”



October 6, 2009, we responded to Mr. Hardy’s comments on the SR Forum:
“First, I did not create COC blog necessarily for people to have a discussion on (however if they want to and stay on topic, that is fine). I created the blog to educate the voters of Erie County on how Barb Johnson is not doing her job and needs to be voted out in the next election. It was created to be an information blog, not a discussion blog.

Secondly, the COC blog is far from being "Dead." I judge the success of the blog not by how many people comment on it, but rather how many people log on and read it. According to the "website hit tracker" that I use, July had 575 hits, August had 640 and September 595. That's an average of 602 hits per month and an average of 150 hits per week. That is all with no advertisement of any kind, just word of mouth. To me, that shows a pretty good success and that the blog is not dead, nor even dying.

I would expect (and hope) that the hits will increase overtime (as they continue to do) especially as we near the 2012 election.”




As the editor of this site, I stand by our policy that this sight is about Barb Johnson and is not meant to be a forum for Elsabeth Baumgartner or anyone else. It is about Barb Johnson, period.

I also stand by the fact that this is an “INFORMATIONAL” site, and NOT a “discussion” site. If people want to discuss Johnson and the COC, great, but that is not what is expected. INFORMATION is the purpose of this site; getting the public educated on how the current Erie County COC is being run so that Johnson does not get re-elected for a 7th term in office.

So there it is folks; the hits are high and climbing. If you want to comment, keep it on topic (Erie County COC and Barb Johnson).

Next week’s article will be about personnel changing in the office.

NEW ARTICLE NEXT WEEK

Due to circumstances beyond our control, there will be no new article this week. Please check back next week for a new article.

QUARTERLY REPORT CARD: SUMMER 2009

Here is Erie County Clerk of Courts Barbara Johnson's “Report Card” which covers July - September 2009.


QUARTER: Summer 2009
ITEM GRADE
1. Attendance = 9

2. Records on line = 0

3. SSN & financial account numbers removed from hard copy case files = 0

4. Collection on estimated $700.000 in outstanding court costs and fines = 0

5. Address office understaffing = 2

6. Microfilming closed cases = 0

7. Improve customer relation skills of the staff = 0

8. Have case files properly filed away = 0

9. Monitoring program to keep cases from being illegally removed from the office=0

10. Send staff to continuing Ed workshops to keep them on top of ORC changes = 0

11. Automated Phone System = 0

12. Over all Grade = 1


Grade scale: 12=A+; 11=A; 10=A-; 9=B+; 8=B; 7=B-; 6=C+; 5=C; 4=C-
3=D+; 2=D; 1=D-; 0=F

Well, slight improvement in some areas (attendance and addressing office understaffing), but nothing to brag about. She went from an F the previous 2 quarters to a D- this quarter; 11 months after being reelected. When it comes right down to it, "NOTHING" is still being done in that office as this (and previous) report cards show. Her attendance has improved dramatically, but is she doing with her time? Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money continues to pay her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?

A FORMER EMPLOYEE SPEAKS OUT: PART 2

This is a continuation of last weeks article.

"6) The office was extremely understaffed. After hearing about the people that left and/or retired recently I can’t imagine the stress those girls are under now. Anyway, several years ago (before the current budget cuts) she received the OK from the County Commissioners to hire 4 more people for her office. She never hired a single person. She would continually take people from the Title Dept (which is technically run and paid for by the State of Ohio) and put them into the Court Office.

7) In all my years in that office, I think I can count on one hand the number of times she attended the Clerk of Courts Association (CCA) meetings. She rarely attended them and when she did, she did not pass the information on to her employees. Even when she received notices from the CCA about changes in the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) or other information that her office staff needed to be made aware of, she did not pass that information on to us.

8) Along the same lines, she never sent any of her staff to continuing Ed workshops (usually put on by the CCA). As a result, we were “behind the times” when it came to Clerk of Court procedures.

9) She seemed to pride herself in being “fiscally responsible.” Every year she would turn money back into the commissioners that she never used. Yet getting her to buy us basic office supplies that we needed was worse than pulling teeth. A few examples: 1) We would continually run out of Stationary, or legal forms, because she would not re-order them (and she would never let her supervisors order them either); 2) We would get a lot of paper coming into that office, and a lot of paper for one court case. We would need a special stapler that could staple a 100 (or so) pages together for a single case. We had just one of those staplers for the entire office (and this was the entire North side of the Court House) so if we needed the stapler, we would have to run around the entire office to see who had it so we could use it. I checked into the price of those staplers, and if I recall correctly, they were around $60.00 a piece. She refused to order another 1 or 2 of those for the office. Likewise, the scanner for the computer (one for the entire office) was antiquated and she would not order a new one or one for the 3 sections of the office. Knowing how Barb operates, I doubt they have a new scanner or 2 or 3 to date.

10) She would never, ever show appreciation for her employees or back them up. If someone came into the office to complain about how something was done, instead of explaining why it was done that way (according to the ORC or local rules) she would try to appease the person by doing it the way the person wanted. Most of the time, she did this because she herself did not know the ORC or the local rules well enough, and she certainly would never ask her staff because that would have made her look stupid. So she would make things up as she went along. She would rarely take any advice from any of her staff who were the ones there everyday and knew their jobs and what they were doing; at least as far as we knew with the very limited information she would give us.

11) Her supervisors are supervisors in name only. She never gave them any responsibility or authority to do anything. Her supervisors hold no more authority than any other girl in that office. She was the only person allowed to make any decisions in the office. The only problem was, she had an extremely difficult time making any kind of decision about anything and she was never in the office to know what was going on or what to decisions needed to be made. And the few times that her supervisor made a decision, she would over rule it and do the complete opposite and sometimes even reprimand the supervisor for doing what they did. I felt sorry for the supervisors because it was a lose-lose situation for the them. I was so glad that I was not in their shoes!

Anyway, like I said before, there is life after the COC office, and I hope that those girls either retire, or find another job because the job in that office is really “hell on earth” which is too bad because it doesn’t need to be that way. As I said before, there is life after the Clerk of Courts office.

These are just a few of my thoughts. I will email you any other memories or thoughts that come to mind.”

(signed)

A former Erie County Clerk of Court Employee

(and glad to be former)”

To reiterate what I wrote previously, this really backs up much of what we have said in the past…and much more!

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?

A FORMER EMPLOYEE SPEAKS OUT: PART 1

We at Clerk of Court Watch, received the following email from a former employee of that office. This really backs up much of what we have said in the past…and much more! This article stems from a comment left by this former employee in this article, and the request I made to this person here. This email really speaks for itself:

“I worked in the Erie County Clerk of Courts office for many years. I left the office before the 2008 election. During that time, I continually witnessed the office spiral out of control due to Barb Johnson’s lack of caring, lack of motivation, and lack of experience. I would like to make the following points about the COC office and how it is run under Barb Johnson:

1) According to State Law, a public official only needs to be in their office 1 day out of 90. Barb Johnson is paid $55,000 a year, and she was hardly ever in her office. There were many, many times where she would call the office shortly after we opened for the day and say that she would be in around 10:00, or 11:00 and wouldn’t come in until 3:30 or even 3:50 just so she could say she was in that day (Editors Note: the office closes at 4:00). She was hardly ever in the office. I realize that during a portion of that time that she was the sole care-giver of her ailing dad, and husband. I heard her say numerous times something to the effect, “I’m so glad I have this job that allows me to stay at home and care for him,” which I wanted to respond, “Yeah, would you allow any of us girls to do the same? I don’t think so!” As you have mentioned on your web site in the past, she has robbed the tax payers, because who among us could work so little and still get paid their full salary? Why is it OK for her to do that and still receive a full salary, but not OK for any of the other office workers? My feeling was, if she needed to stay at home and take care of her ailing father and husband, she should have retired to do so – she definitely had the years in to retire. According to your website, she is in almost everyday, but not getting any work done (why doesn’t that surprise me).

2) It also seems from your web site that her attendance record is much improved, yet she still is not doing anything to “manage or lead” (as you have stated in the past) the office. This sounds like Johnson, because she was out of the office so much, when she was there, she had no idea what to do about anything. Due to her poor attendance record, she did not run the office very effectively and with virtually no supervision, leaving her staff to fend on their own. She did not even have a Chief Deputy Clerk position authorized in her staffing to manage and supervise her office. She did have a supervisor and an assistant supervisor in the office, but they were there in name only because they had absolutely no power to do anything. There were a few times where I saw that she had reprimanded a supervisor over something that the supervisor had handled correctly, but it seems that Barb wanted to exert her “power” and belittle the supervisor. As a result, the supervisor eventually stopped supervising because she never knew when she would be reprimanded for doing something correctly.

3) Because of her poor attendance record, she never got things done, nor did she follow through with things that were strongly encouraged by commissioners or her staff such as: 1) automated phone system; 2) employees sick and vacation time; 3) hiring more help or replacing help that has left; 4) reconciling the checking account with outstanding cases; 5) collect court costs that are owed (estimated to be at $750,000 or more); 6) ordering basic supplies for the office; 7) getting the dockets on-line (she’s been talking about doing this since 2000); 8) getting old records/cases either scanned into the office computers, or microfilmed). 9) Better security measures for the office. I believe that some of these have already been covered on your website.

4) She had a problem keeping accurate records of her employees sick and vacation time. When I left the office a couple of years ago, none of her employees knew how much sick and vacation time they had. As a result, some of her employees had taken more sick and vacation time than they were allowed possibly costing the tax payers thousands of dollars.

5) She usually showed up to county meetings late (if at all), and when she did show up, she sat in the back of the room and usually did not participate in the meetings.”


This article will be continued next week.

AREAS OF CONCERN 9: MONITORING PROGRAM TO KEEP CASES FROM BEING ILLEGALLY REMOVED FROM THE OFFICE

One of the 11 Areas of Concern that were brought up in the Fall 2008 campaign for the Erie County Clerk of Courts was the fact that there is no monitoring system in place to keep cases from being illegally removed from the office. This simply is a case of putting in place a system similar to what public libraries, stores, or movie rental places have in place to keep books, movies, or unpaid store merchandise from leaving the premises without first proper checking out and / or paying for said goods.

There have been numerous times over the years where there have been files that have come up missing. Most of the time (but not all of the time) the files have been found either in the Judge’s office, or Mrs. Johnson’s home (Tsk, Tsk, Barbara, you know those files are suppose to stay in the Court House). I have heard over the years that there were a few files that (last I heard) were never found. Right now, it is very easy to walk into that office, find the file that one wants, slip it into their brief case and walk out with no one having any knowledge to what just happened. Not only is it bad policy to let files out of that office, it is against the law; with the exception of Judges who are allowed to have them in their office.

If a monitoring system was put in place, this would never be a problem again; even the Judges offices would have to “sign out” files. But then why would you expect our “NOTHING” clerk to do anything about this problem? After all, over the past 20 years, she has done “NOTHING” about everything.

She either has no clue as to what to do, or where to begin, or she is just completely overwhelmed by how bad that office has gotten over the past 20 years that she has been in charge, and she really doesn’t know where to start or how to begin cleaning up her own mess.

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?



Next week’s article will be about another possible devastating blow to that office. Stay tuned folks; it just keeps getting worse and worse.

NEW ARTICLE NEXT WEEK

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the next article for this site will appear next Saturday, September 19.

Feel free to comment on any of the MANY already existing articles. After all, over the past 7 months, we have done more work on this web site, than our "NOTHING" clerk has done over the past 20 years in office.

DOWN THREE PERSONNEL AND COUNTING

There have been numerous times over the past several months of this blog site’s existence that we have mentioned how over – worked and understaffed the COC office has been over the past several years. Let’s fast forward to 2008.

In the first half of 2008 there were 3 employees in the Clerk of Courts office who retired. Now when one retires, a good leader would hire someone 2-3 weeks BEFORE the person retires so that the retiree can train the rookie.

Not in the COC office.

Three employees retired in the first half of 2008, and Johnson hired 2 people to replace the retirees a few months AFTER the retirees retired. The third employee to have retired has never been replaced.

So that puts the office staff down by one.

Then, as was mentioned in this article, the supervisor of the Title Dept., Sandra Brown, abruptly quits sometime in May 2009. As of the end of August 2009, there has been no replacement for Mrs. Brown.

That puts the office staff down by two.

The past several weeks I have noticed that another employee has not been in the office. I was told that she too has resigned from her position with no one hired to replace her.

That puts the office staff down by three.

So here we are down three with no replacements. They are dropping like flies in that office! ! ! Now the question is whether she has not replaced these employees because the commissioners won’t allow her to do so due to budget cuts, or she has not replaced these employees because she has never gotten “around to it” or (as the age old joke states) “a round Tuit.” Knowing her “NOTHING” attitude, I’m willing to bet that it’s the latter.

IF Barb Johnson had been a good manager/leader and in the office everyday for the past 20 years and learned the ins-and-outs of the office, she would have known how to handle situations like this. This is just proof how she has absolutely NO EXPERIENCE what-so-ever in managing that office even though she has been placed in charge of that office by the voters for the past 20 years! !

Well, now the overworked and stressed office is already down by three with no relief in sight. There are 2-3 girls in that office that are surely eligible for retirement (one in particular who has been there for over 30 years). The question is: will Johnson hire some new faces or wait until well after these 2 or 3 girls retire to let the office staff drop to 5-6 before she begins to even think about what is best for the office. With Johnson seemingly being disinterested in hiring replacements, that sends a message to the County Commissioners that she really doesn’t need the help, so why should they give her the green light to hire replacements? After all, there is a budget to cut and she brings the “perception” that she can do with less help.

This drop in office staff personnel, along with records not being on line, is a cause for great concern for Erie County tax payers who pay her salary. She is NOT doing her job, and yet she still gets paid……for doing “NOTHING.” How many of us can do that at our jobs?

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?

LEADERSHIP: DOES JOHNSON HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

Anyone in an elected position is suppose to be a leader. From the President of the United States all the way down to a city council member or a city commission member. This is also true of our county elected officials. So that puts Barbara Johnson in this category since she is an elected official. Barbara Johnson – leader. She leads the Clerk of Courts office.

What is a definition of a leader? According to Mr. Webster, a leader is “a guide, a commander. Someone who shows the way; to direct; to persuade; to tend to….”

The February 2009 Reader’s Digest (pg. 180) has some excellent quotes on LEADERSHIP. Some of them are:



Doris Kearns Goodwim: “Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.”

Well, Barbara Johnson is surrounded by people with diverse perspectives. Can they disagree with her without fear of retaliation? Or does she just not listen to them?




Rev. Theodore Hesburgh: “You have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”

From what I’ve seen, Johnson has no vision. If she does, she obviously does not articulate it clearly and forcefully. She is blowing an uncertain trumpet.



Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (Michigan): “Sometimes leadership is planting trees under whose shade you’ll never sit.”

Forget about Barb planting trees….or planting ANYTHING for that matter. Remember, she is our “NOTHING” clerk because in the past 20 years, she has (and continues to do) “NOTHING!”



Gen. Bruce Clarke: “When things go wrong in your command, start searching for the reason in increasingly large circles around your own two feet.”

Well, Johnson doesn’t have to look at increasingly large circles around her own two feet; she just needs to look at her own two feet! !



H. Ross Perot: “Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.”

It is obvious that Johnson has no idea how to lead. That office is like a ship without a captain / an army without a general: there is absolutely NO leadership in that office whatsoever. One would think that one of the supervisors would at least step up to the plate and lead, but that has not happened. Why? It must be for one of two reasons: either they are not able (which I find hard to believe) or they are not allowed (which I would suspect to be the case).

If she were a true leader, she would have put one of her seasoned veteran employee into a position to “Manage the office,” so that she could actually then have the time to “Lead” the office. But anyone who is in that office on a regular basis will see that is not the case. She has proven over the past 20-plus years that she doesn’t lead, and she has no idea how to lead. After all, why would the “NOTHING” clerk want to do anything about anything, especially leading a county office that she was elected to be in charge of.

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?

STOP THE TRAIN ! ! WE NEED TO CHAT ! !

To the person who left the comment below from last week’s article:




“As a former employee in the COC office, I can say that the information on this website is not only accurate, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. I will write more at a later date because I don't have the time right now. All I can say is that life is much better since I left that place. There is life outside of the COC office! I urge the girls in there to either retire or find another job because when you do, your life will be so much better and stress free! !

Former COC employee”




Please email me at votejohnson.out12@yahoo.com because we need to chat! !

OPEN THREAD

I thought it would be good to have an open thread where you can comment on anything pertaining to this web site, or Barbara Johnson and her work as Erie County Clerk of Courts. After just under 7 months time, there has been A TON of information posted on this site (and more to come!). I think that after 7 months time, I have done more work on this site than Johnson has done in her 20+ years as Clerk! I will respond to comments within a week or so.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with the information on this site? Do you disagree with it? Why do you agree or disagree? Do you think Johnson is doing a great job, a good job, an ok job, bad job, or not doing her job at all, and why. Especially for you Johnson supporters, let's hear from you. Here's another chance for you to take the floor. I know there are other "Watchdogs" out there as well (people who know Johnson and do not like how the office has fallen apart over the past 20 years). This is your time to talk about your experiences with that office.

So let's hear it. Your thoughts please………………………………….

AREAS OF CONCERN 8: HAVE CASE FILES PROPERLY FILED AWAY

I hate to sound like a broken record, however, it looks like our “Nothing” Clerk, Barbara Johnson continues to do “Nothing” about everything including having case files properly filed away. Our “Nothing” Clerk, Barbara Johnson, has done “Nothing” about this because “Everything” is the same.

How’s this for starters. If you are going to the COC office to look up a particular case, there are three different locations in which to do your “hunt.”

First, start in the main COC office. If it’s a more “current” case, you can check where the files are kept in the office. If you have no luck there, check the many, many boxes filled with case files sitting all over the office. If THAT doesn’t work, then ask one of her staff; perhaps one of them have it on their desks. You can also have one of her already overworked staff call around to the judges offices to see if any of them have it. Though this was very common when former Judge Anne Maschari was in office (she had case files in her chambers dating back to 1979), this is not so common any more.

Still no luck?

Well, never fear, because if it is an older case, the case file you are looking for could be over in the Hedges Building on Columbus Ave., across the street from the library. Just ask one of the already over worked staff to take you across the street to help you search for it. Hey, maybe you’ll be lucky and the weather will be nice for your little jaunt to the Hedges Building. If not….Oh well…..It sucks to be you I guess.

Now if you’re looking for a REALLY, REALLY old case (for historical research), just ask one of the already over worked staff to take you up to the 3rd floor of the Court House to the offices of Judge Tone (which was the former COC office).

Speaking of former and current COC office, why would Barbara Johnson (our COC who is soooo qualified to have this job) sign off (basically saying it’s OK) to move her office from the 3rd floor (where they were bursting - at - the – seams for space) to a SMALLER office space on the 1st floor without having a sensible plan for ALL the case files? If she had any experience, listened to others, or even asked other COC in other counties, she could push for a “Records Retention Center.” But no, it’s just easier to have the citizens (which she prides herself on her “customer relations”) go chasing around on a wild treasure hunt.

WAIT! ! THAT’S IT! ! While searching for a particular case file, if you think of the entire experience as a “Treasure Hunt,” then this could actually be a really fun experience! And just think how good you would actually feel about yourself once you found your “treasure! !” See it could be a “feel – good – about – yourself” exercise. And these days, everyone needs to have those!

Seriously, she has had about 4 years since the move from the 3rd floor to the 1st floor and since the Nov. 2008 election (where she was called out on this) to correct this problem. Unfortunately, our “NOTHING” clerk has failed at doing her job yet again.

Too bad, and so sad; especially since OUR tax money is paying her to do “NOTHING” about everything.

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?

COMMENTS ON COMMENTS: 5

Before we get to a comment that someone left, I would like to point out that after a week, not one Johnson supporter left a comment after last week's article. Why? Could it be that they could not find any facts or evidence to back up what they say? Or, could it be that they have come to their senses and realize how bad the COC office is and that it is all Johnson's fault?.....................NAW, I think it's the former. At any rate, it's interesting that not one supporter commented (not even Johnson herself disguised as a supporter).

Now, onto this very interesting comment that an anonymous poster left in last weeks article:

August 1, 2009, 11:48 PM:
"I found this site while trying to find a link to online records for the Erie County Clerk of Court. There are no online records for the Erie County Clerk of Court's office!! WOW! Even in Stark County, where the unemployment rate is 12.1% and we're losing large businesses left and right, we STILL found the money to put our records online and our Clerk of Court Nancy Reinbold does a fantastic job in keeping with the duties of her office. Wouldn't it be fantastic if some Clerks of Court from other counties were required to form a peer review board in order to evaluate their counterparts in other counties? I think that is an idea worth pursuing. Good luck with this! Something in Erie County is certainly fishy with regards to this office."

The first line that jumped out at me was: "Even in Stark County, where the unemployment rate is 12.1% and we're losing large businesses left and right, we STILL found the money to put our records online and our Clerk of Court Nancy Reinbold does a fantastic job in keeping with the duties of her office." Yes, Erie County's unemployment is right up there as well. The BIG difference is that Stark County clerk Nancy Reinbold does the job that she was elected to do, and she no doubt knows how to manage and lead her office. She does what ever it takes to acquire the funds needed to get the records on line.

Whereas Johnson does not have a clue how to manage or run her office. She has proved that time and time again over the past 20-plus years. If she did know what she was doing, that office would not be in the chaotic mess that it is in today. Johnson would have investigated in how to acquire the funding needed to put records on line by talking to other COC in the state; but no. Perhaps she thinks that if she did that, she would appear to her piers as being weak and not knowing her job which would not be the case at all; it would simply prove that she is investigating her options. It would also show that she is truly working towards the goal of getting records on line. She would be actually doing some "INVESTIGATIVE WORK" to obtain much needed information.

That information certainly won't come to her in the middle of the night in a dream.............well, OK, MAYBE it will, but I seriously doubt it. But then....she and her other supporters claim that she is a "Good Christian Woman," so who knows, perhaps God will speak to her in a dream and give her all the information she needs to get the job done. I mean, maybe, just maybe she's been waiting for an answer from God for the past 20-plus years! ! ! Maybe we just need a little more time! ? ! ?

Then the commenter goes on to say, "Wouldn't it be fantastic if some Clerks of Court from other counties were required to form a peer review board in order to evaluate their counterparts in other counties? I think that is an idea worth pursuing." Now that is one of the best ideas I've heard in a LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG time! ! ! Can you imagine the pressure Johnson would come under if she was reviewed by her own peers? And then that information can be made public at election time! ! ! GAWD, I LOVE THIS IDEA! ! ! !

Now Johnson supporters, it's not too late to leave your comments. Actually, you can leave your comments anytime. I really look forward to reading them.

CALLING ALL JOHNSON SUPPORTERS

Over the course of this website (the past 6 months) we have had a few Johnson supporters leave comments. Some of the articles which they have left comments are: "Web Traffic Increase," "Open Thread," and "Quarterly Report Card: Winter 2009" just to name a few.

I am opening this up to any and all Johnson supporters. This is YOUR chance to voice your opinion. Leave a comment as to what we have put up on this site that is wrong...but be prepared to back your statements up with facts!

Some Johnson supporters in the past have said that everything on this site is a lie. Well, explain why (supported of course by evidence to the contrary). There are 48 articles so far on this site. Let's here from you, Johnson supporters. Show your true support for Barbara Johnson and state your case in the comment section at the end of this article. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! !

I know you are out there and log on this site; now speak up and be heard! !