Embattled Juvenile Court Clerk Vic Lineweaver was pressed very little by Metro Council members at his office’s budget and finance committee meeting Thursday — except for answering questions on the possible implementation of a new bar code filing system.
Lineweaver was asked why the bar code system was necessary when no other Metro departments, or court offices, use such a system.
Such a system would come out of the Metro capital budget and not the juvenile court clerk’s operating budget, which was what was supposed to be discussed at Thursday’s meeting.
“In the last three budget cycles we’ve asked for the bar coding,” Lineweaver said in response to a question from at-large Councilman Charlie Tygard. “It’s only as good its user, but it will let us know where the file last was.”
Lineweaver said the other juvenile court clerk system he was aware used a bar code filing system is in Shelby County. His office is in charge of documents related to juvenile court, in particular child support records.
In his budget proposal with Mayor Karl Dean earlier this year, Lineweaver had asked for a car for an obscure in-school docket program that wasn’t even used last year. Dean turned down the request for a car and proceeded to cut the juvenile court clerk’s budget by 11 percent.
Lineweaver said Thursday that budget cut would mean layoffs from among the juvenile court clerk’s staff of 35.
“We’re going to continue on, even though we’re going to be cut [11 percent],” he said. “However this will involve the elimination of at least four positions within the agency. The current level of service we are providing will not suffer because we will have increased our cross-training efforts and work some on the weekends, as we’re currently doing now.”
Lineweaver, who has said he will run for re-election this fall, was arrested last year on contempt of court charges after he failed to produce critical court documents for the juvenile court.
Earlier this year, a local Channel 4 report showed Lineweaver at his home in his bathrobe during regular work hours.