by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
With plans already in motion for new offices near the fairgrounds, Clerk of the Courts Jim Fuller said it only made sense to outsource the remaining files currently stored at a warehouse on Martin Luther King Parkway. The courts are currently one-third of the way through a 90-day trial period with Filing Source, a storage company located on the Southside.
“It’s going really great,” said Fuller. “We’ve always tried to concentrate on how we can serve our customers — attorneys and judges and the public — more quickly so that they are happy. From there, we try figure out how we can do that with the lowest cost.”
Though other factors were involved, Fuller said the money needed to manage and maintain the MLK Parkway warehouse was the primary impetus behind the move.
“The traffic division employees that are there now are going over to the new building off of A. Philip Randolph Boulevard when it is finished by the end of the year so that was leaving some empty space over there,” said Fuller. “But even from a cost standpoint we knew that it would be best to store the records somewhere else. The maintenance fees alone on such an old building are very expensive. We started looking at our options in December and we finally realized that it would be smarter to let someone else take care of them.”
Following a short meeting with Filing Source — whose services are also used by the City and the State Attorney’s Office — Fuller was presented with an offer.
“We talked and I told them what we wanted and how much we were willing to pay,” he said. “They said no problem and came back with a formal proposal that I was very pleased with.”
Fuller estimated that he will save over $100,000 in maintenance and salary costs by the end of the year.
The courts and Filing Source communicate via computer. All Fuller has to do is let the storage company know which files he wants and they are delivered the next morning.
“We’re the first stop on their list,” said Fuller. “It’s very easy and we’re very pleased so far. It’s so easy.”
With respect to the employees working in the warehouse, Fuller said he would like to find work for them at the county court, but that would be contingent on their qualifications and what they would like to do.
“We’ll review on an individual basis,” he said. “We haven’t really decided where they’ll go when we are completely out of that building by the end of the year, but I’d like to find something for them to do if I can.”