 Howdy, Fort Worth. My name is William Rimley. I'm the Fort Worth Municipal Court Director, and today we're going to spend a few minutes to learn about the Clerk of the Court Division and in particular as well, the Clerk of the Court, Juan Paredes. So, just want to start off first, Juan, will you introduce yourself? Hello, my name is Juan Paredes. I'm the Clerk of the Court. I've been with the City of Fort Worth for 15 years now and serving as Clerk of the Court for almost two years. Excellent. So, let's start off, first of all, with what is the Clerk of the Court Division and what function does that take related to municipal court? So, the Clerk of the Court is really the administrative arm of the judiciary here in the City of Fort Worth Municipal Court, and that covers a wide range of responsibilities. So, that includes accepting case filings from our issuing departments like police, fire code. That includes receding payments for anybody that is assessed, fines, and fees as part of a judgment. We schedule cases. We take questions from the public and respond to those. We do a lot of follow-up based on courtroom activity. We summon jurors to come and take part of that very important civil service. A lot of the case management that goes on behind the scenes, usually you don't see that in the courtroom. That's what our clerks do. Excellent. Well, thank you for that information. So, what does it take to be a municipal court clerk? So, to be a municipal court clerk, I mean, we're under a really cool program right now, which is the automatic reclass program, and there's three levels to our municipal court clerk job designation. And at the level one, you really don't have to have a whole lot of experience. We provide all of that in-house. So, if you have some level of customer service is always helpful, you know, you'd have to have a high school diploma or GED, and that's really all it takes, right? And there are structured trainings that we provide. There are promotional opportunities once you become a certified court clerk. That's something that we provide all our clerks. And that's a program that was established through the Texas Municipal Court Education Center and Texas State University. So, it's a very structured program. It's highly professional. You know, what we do is very important, and it can impact people's lives. So, we want to make sure that the staff that is brought on board is properly trained and really understands what it is that they're doing. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that information. So, what are maybe some unique things that the municipal court clerks do that maybe everybody would not be aware of? Okay. Well, municipal court clerks, like I mentioned before, they provide a wide range of services. We have clerks that serve, you know, as our call center. They take general public calls. They also web chat with you. If you have any questions and you're on a mobile device and need some quick information, you can, you know, connect with them there. We're in the public often. So, there's community engagement events that we do. You know, we'll go out and speak in schools just to let people know what clerks do. Not everybody's very familiar with that profession, right? It's kind of a hidden gem. If you don't know about it, you know, it's not publicly talked about often. You know, you hear about attorneys and prosecutors and what they do in the courtroom, but the clerk position really helps all of those functions take place during the court proceeding. So, you know, we also provide interpreting services. We'll go into the courtroom, you know, on very specific occasions to help, you know, our non-English speaking defendants in the courtrooms will, you know, give you information if you have questions. Obviously, we can't provide legal advice. We're not certified attorneys or licensed attorneys, so we can't do that. But we try to provide the public with as much information in order for them to make an informed decision. And obviously, our judges and prosecutors are available or somebody can hire a licensed attorney if they have any questions as well. Thank you for that information. I think that's helpful for the community to understand kind of what's happening. And, you know, I know that part of the court clerk's function is to help guide folks in understanding the process. Again, not giving legal advice, but information. And so, as well as supporting judiciary and the other services within the department. So, let's turn for a moment and just talk about you for a moment related to the as the clerk of the court. What is your function and responsibilities and maybe go into a little bit of just day to day what's it like to be the clerk of court? Okay. So, some of my major responsibilities overarching general are one of the things I mentioned is making sure that we have the proper staff and train, right? So, whenever somebody is requesting services, you want to have somebody that is knowledgeable and able to guide you on the other end. So, that's a major component of it. The other thing is making sure since we're the administrative side of the judiciary that we're following all of the, you know, state, local mandates legislation that is out there. There are reporting requirements that we have to abide by for the Office of Court Administration and I'm responsible for making sure that that's done on a regular basis. I'm really service analysis, right? How well are we providing service to the public? Not just to the general public, but also to all of the players in the judiciary, which includes our judges or prosecutors, officers that are issuing citations, you know, we want to make sure that that process is as smooth as possible. And that takes a lot of collaboration. We have several different divisions here in the Municipal Court and I make sure that we're working well together. Everybody has different needs. Same thing, you know, as our clerks do, we want to make sure that in my responsibility is that that communication is open and there's dialogue and that we're removing barriers. I'm removing barriers for anything that may come up. And, you know, a lot of that includes future planning, you know, something that we do as a finally misdemeanor court is making sure that the public has a forum for justice and access to justice. Being a fine only court, a punishment is the fine, right? Somebody has to pay if they're not ordered to anything else. And we are responsible for projecting, you know, what those collections could be. And our city really plans on how that can be best used. But, you know, we provide that information working with our budget office, Treasury and, you know, our legal department just kind of project how criminal justice and public safety is really going for the city, right? We're a branch of that. You know, we don't do the enforcement like our police officers do, but we do play a role. So I know that there's hundreds of municipal courts across the state. And I believe you are a member of one of the associations. So what is your current role and how does that help support what you do in your old clerk of court and this court? Right. So I'm currently serving as the North Texas chapter, Texas Court Clerk Association President. And what really the association does is provide a lot of education to our members and bring awareness to the profession, try to promote, you know, what it is that the clerk does. It's very specialized. Like I mentioned before, there is a certification process, right? It's not just anybody can go and do it. There is some education that has to be there in order to provide the service and know what you're doing and do it well. So the association is a major component of that, you know, it's a professional organization. I'm ensuring that as the role evolves that we're staying current and knowledgeable and able to perform those duties, you know, throughout history, the judiciary has changed and the clerk profession has changed as well. And we're trying to make sure that we're keeping up with those changes. The association meets regularly, you know, we're keeping informed on changes with legislation and how that would impact not just the clerks, but the judiciary. And you know, referencing one of the questions you had earlier about my responsibility, if there are any legislative changes, I need to make sure that we're prepared to follow those regulations and reporting if there's anything that's tied to it and making the analysis related to how that's going to impact not just our court, but the city in general. So kind of, I guess in closing, going back to employees and stuff. I know right now we have an active recruitment. So would you say somebody if about, hey, if they'd be interested in this, how do they how do they go about applying become a clerk, a court clerk? We are currently looking for, you know, talent. And if you're interested in finding out what the municipal court does, you can go to the city of Fort Worth recruitment page and submit your application. Like I mentioned, at our level one clerk, you don't have to have a whole lot of background in municipal court, or criminal justice, you know, we provide a lot of that training. So if you have any interest in it, I encourage you to apply and possibly interview with us. We'll let you know what, you know, the position is about and the expectations. And if you find that this is something for you, you know, there's growth opportunity within the municipal court clerk job description. Those job descriptions are also available through our human resources city page portal. So it'll give you a brief description. You know, some of the responsibilities, you would be responsible for carrying out and going back to what I covered initially about, you know, things that we do to help support the judiciary. We have a lot of people from a wide background, right? Some some people had criminal justice going to school for criminal justice. Others, you know, were working in customer service in a completely unrelated field, and they've come to municipal court and and had a loved and, you know, have been here for a very long time. Well, and thank you for spending a few minutes to help kind of describe what you do on a daily basis, your role in the clerk of the court division, staff and appreciate your time today. All right, thank you.