Gig Harbor Municipal Court forced to delay some cases after two clerks quit over pay

Gig Harbor’s municipal court has been forced to delay cases because both of the court’s two full-time clerks quit after a pay dispute with the city, the court administrator has confirmed.

“I am left with one part-time court clerk, and that makes it difficult to work through our backlog,” court administrator Stacy Colberg told The Gateway last week. “We are definitely going to have to slow down how many cases we can process.”

Colberg said she was unable to discuss the two particular cases because of privacy issues and a union grievance.

But a City Council member who asked to be unnamed said the two women quit after being denied a promised upgrade in their pay classifications, and, in one case, a performance review by the city administrator that the clerk considered demeaning.

City Administrator Bob Larson did not reply to requests for comment. A representative for Teamsters Local 117, which represents the women, did return messages. Municipal Court Judge Zenon Olberz did not respond to a request for comment. Two two clerks, Tracie Graves and Tressa Smith, could not be reached.

The Municipal Court handles mostly traffic and misdemeanor cases. Normally, Colberg said, the court handles 40 to 50 cases a day — these days, because of the pandemic, largely by mail or by “Zoom court.” Jury trials have been suspended, and criminal misdemeanor cases — petty theft, trespass, vandalism and the like — have been continued beyond January.

The shortage of clerks has made it hard to process paperwork and the many traffic and parking-infraction cases being handled by mail, Colbert said.

“I have already started interviewing” for new clerks, she said, “But it takes some time.”

Judge Olbertz is “concerned,” she said, as “he is responsible for the administrative functions of the court.”

She and the judge at one point considered drafting the court bailiff, a police officer, as a temporary clerk, but that idea proved impractical.

“We’ve reached out to consider all options,” she said.

A point of contention between the court and the city, the council member said, is which of them has the authority to classify an employee’s pay grade. State law gives judges administrative authority over their courts, but is ambiguous about whether that covers pay.

People who have cases that have been continued — that is, delayed to a later date — should make certain the court has their most current mailing address, Colbert said. Notices will be mailed when new court dates are set.

Litigants can also check their court dates online at https://dw.courts.wa.gov`

The union grievance filed in the case is one of several involving pay disputes with city employees. Employees who have been recommended for a council-approved 3.5 percent cost-of-living increase by their supervisors have complained they are routinely docked half a percent by city administration, without explanation.

City administrator Larson has denied that there is any policy of routinely lowering pay increases. He told The Gateway in September that pay recommendations are adjusted by the administration based on the employee’s past performance and other factors.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 10:13 PM.