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ble to the public. Many of these duties
should be placed in another office. The
court clerk is an administrator. I think he
should be appointed by the court and re-
sponsible to the courts.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Darby.
DELEGATE DARBY: You are saying
you will set up two different types of
clerks?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany.
DELEGATE DULANY: As far as the
courts are concerned, only one. I think it
would be advisable to have an official, I
suggest an elected one, who would be the
highest elected resident official in that
county, who could handle the recording, the
marriages and the selling of licenses and
many things that have been put on the
court clerk, because there was no one else
to do them.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Churchill
Murray.
DELEGATE E. C. MURRAY: Delegate
Dulany, I understand that it is your pro-
posal that there be —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Murray,
we cannot hear you.
DELEGATE E. C. MURRAY: Do I un-
derstand that it is your proposal that there
be two employees, one who is truly a clerk
of the court and the other who will assume
those duties which have gradually been
put into the hands of someone who is now
known as the clerk of the court?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany.
DELEGATE DULANY: That is correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate C. Murray.
DELEGATE E. C. MURRAY: And
there are endless duties that that person
performs as you enumerated.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you asking a
question now, Delegate Murray?
DELEGATE E. C. MURRAY: I am try-
ing to formulate it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Key.
DELEGATE KEY: Delegate Dulany, I
would like to know since we have gone
into a merit system for appointing judges
if it is not possible that the legislature
might choose a merit system of appointing
the clerk rather than the elected system as
you assume.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany.
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DELEGATE DULANY: I think the
merit system could very well be applied to
the court clerk's office.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any fur-
ther questions of the minority spokesman?
Delegate Needle?
DELEGATE NEEDLE: I am inclined
to support the minority spokesman's posi-
tion here but you alluded to differences be-
tween elected clerks and judges. Could you
elaborate briefly on matters in which elected
clerks could obstruct justice?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany.
DELEGATE DULANY: When you have
an employee who is working for you who
is chosen by someone else who works as
closely as a court clerk does with a judge
and there are personality differences, I can
attest to this on several occasions where I
know this has occurred.
The judge has to live with the elected
clerk until the next election, whereas if he
has a clerk that he has appointed he can
select someone who he feels better quali-
fied perhaps or not, or at least someone
with whom he can work in an easy manner.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: Have you given
any consideration to the amount of time
that the present clerks of the court attend
to court work and the amount of time that
they devote to the other work of their
office?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany.
DELEGATE DULANY: Judge, I made
no study of it, but I do know from personal
observation that in some courts the elected
clerks do very little with respect to the
court administration and in other courts
they do a lot.
In our county, I believe our elected clerk
does very little in connection with the court
work. As I recall the testimony, the smallest
clerk's office in the state has three or four
employees in addition to the clerk himself.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: So that your pro-
vision would provide that where there is
one clerk now doing all the work, a small
portion of which is connected with court
work, it would provide for two clerks, one
to do the court work and the other to do
the recording and the issuance of licenses
and so forth?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany.
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