Mittie Chappell, Division Director

The Human Resources Division of the Administrative Office of Courts provides a full range of human resources services to the judicial branch of government. Direct support is provided to approximately 2,447 Unified Judicial System (UJS) officials and employees. As of December 2007, included are 163 appellate judges and employees, 1,978 trial court officials and employees, 10 Judicial Sentencing Commission employees, and 96 Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) staff.

Vonda Sanders, Assistant Director

The operations section of the division processes all personnel actions. Last year more than 6,984 separate actions were processed manually, including appointments, separations, promotions, leave without pays, reclassifications; three and six month probationary paperwork, annual probationary raises, and longevity bonuses, as well as other miscellaneous actions such as tax, address, and name changes. The operations section maintains all employee personnel records and position control for the offices of more than 340 appointing authorities, using an automated information system and periodic reports. This section also audits all UJS payrolls and certifies state service for the annual longevity bonus.

The payroll section of Human Resources process daily data entry; timesheets; one-time pays; supplemental pay; restitution checks weekly; mail outs of payroll warrants; tracks payroll warrants, etc., Title IV information; duplicate/cancelled warrants; county supplement; FICA cut offs; W-2 requests throughout the year; court referral officer transactions; JPO fund changes/updates; insurance reimbursement for separated/terminated/retired employees; longevity bonuses; deferred compensation (PEBSCO, RSA-1, United Way); funding source/organization code changes; unemployment compensation; insurance billing; direct deposits; employment verifications; retirement contributions and miscellaneous deduction.

The Human Resources Division is responsible for monitoring a leave program (HRDesktop) for approximately 2,194 leave-earning employees and AOC staff. Because leave represents a potential debt of the UJS, the Human Resources Division audits leave accounts annually. The AOC and trial courts total leave liability exceeded $15,691,839.00 in 2007.

For fiscal year 2006-2007, 977 applicants had taken the written court specialist examinations. In addition to maintaining the open and promotional court specialist registers, the division issued numerous special job announcements for positions at the AOC, trial courts, and in the appellate courts.

As of January 1, 2008, there were 413 minorities employed in the UJS. This included 32 elected officials as well as 17 appellate, 330 trial court, and 34 AOC employees. This is 16.9 percent of the total Unified Judicial System work force.