Court of Appeals: Creatively Saving Taxpayer Dollars

Many departments worked hard last year to save money in a challenging time.

I want to highlight one example of creatively doing so.

In the middle of last year, Appeals Court Judge Patrick Dinkelacker and I met, and he and his staff proposed a creative idea. Instead of having the County pay for County lawyers (prosecutors, clerks, etc.) to take private Continuing Legal Education Courses (all lawyers must take 24 hours of CLE courses over two years), why not have the County host an in-house set of classes for which our employees get some of the credits they need?

Well, we worked together, scheduled a morning in December at Paul Brown Stadium, and Judge Dinkelacker applied for and received the needed Supreme Court accreditation for the courses. Ultimately, 83 full-time County employees attended for several hours of courses, despite a snow storm that morning. 23 other attorneys also attended.

Total estimated savings: $11,205.

The best part is that this is just the start: we can repeated the idea in 2009 and beyond, expand the number and scope of the courses that are taught, and generate even more savings.

Thanks to Judge Dinkelacker and his hard-working staff for thinking of and implementing this cost-saving idea.