Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello and welcome to First Friday. I'm Jackie Broach and thank you for being with us. Our first guest today is Lieutenant Jim Ketchum.
I have to tease you every time because how with the last name like that did you would. You had to go into law enforcement.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:00:22] Speaker C: I was destined for it anyway.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Sorry.
So you are here to talk about the Polar Plunge, which is coming up this month. And it's one of the probably most anticipated events of the year for people who enjoy a good time and don't mind a little bit of chill, because if this weather keeps up, you guys are truly going to have a polar plunge.
So tell us a little bit about the event, why it's important and how people can get involved.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: So Polar Plunge raises money for the Special Olympics.
One thing good about the way that the law enforcement torture has it set up is 100% of the money that's raised goes towards athletes in this state. There's 30 plus thousand athletes in South Carolina and this is a large fundraising effort for them to support them so they can go to the Olympic Games. It also provides medical treatment for them, dentist appointments and basically just general health and safety for them so they can participate in these events.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: That's great. And you guys usually raise up a pretty penny with these events.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: How much did you raise last year?
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Last year was $45,000. We obviously want to raise the most amount as possible, but since the law enforcement torture and started in 1981, to date we've raised over $1 billion throughout the world that goes towards Special Olympics.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: And what is the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office's goal for this year?
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Well, we set our goal every year. 78, $75,000. We haven't quite met that goal last couple of years, but we're, we're hoping we can get close to it.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: You set your sights high, though. I admire that.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I have high expectations.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Great. How is fundraising going so far this year?
[00:02:05] Speaker C: As I checked, as I checked it last week, we were at $16,000. So we got quite a ways to go to get that money up to our goal.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Tell us when the polar plunges and just give us a little more information about exactly what it is. For people who have not experienced the.
[00:02:19] Speaker C: Polar plunge is on February 7th, the registration opens at 7 or 10am we'll do a costume contest at 11 and then we'll plunge at 11:30. So basically everybody will line up and then we'll, everybody will run into the ocean and get wet and support our athletes.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: How many years have y' all been doing this.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: This is my fourth year running it, but we've been doing it for six.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Years, so I'm willing to bet that some years are more painful than others.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: What are your expectations for this year?
[00:02:52] Speaker C: I haven't really watched the weather that far out yet, but I'm expecting it to be a little chilly.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: How do you prepare yourself for that?
[00:03:00] Speaker C: You really don't. You just kind of just do it.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Just do it.
Oh, so for people who have maybe not done this before, it's a little last minute. The event is tomorrow, but, you know, it's not too late. You can still come out, register on site, make a donation, and join in the fun. What advice do you have to get yourself ready for this event?
[00:03:18] Speaker C: So just come on out. We doing a costume contest. They can bring their. Their best costume and plunge in their costume. You bring $50 and that's what we need to have you participate in the plunge. Obviously you can bring more money if you'd like. Bring your friends. Family definitely bring friends to, to raise money for this great cause.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've seen all kinds of costumes.
Forest the squirrel was there one year. I've seen polar bears. I saw Chewbacca from Star Wars. What are some of the costumes you've seen over the years?
[00:03:51] Speaker C: My favorite was the. The Chewbacca one. That's just. He did a really great job of doing that costume.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: That just did not seem comfortable going into the ocean.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: No, but it might have insulated them to keep them warm.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Oh, good point.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: Okay, so there might be a strategy to that.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: So what is your strategy for. For going in. You said you just do it, but is there any prep? Do you.
[00:04:10] Speaker C: No, I just. I'm involved with setting everything up and keeping it running and then just run down in the water, jump in, get wet, and come on out and start finishing up the. The event. So everybody has a good time.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: You should challenge yourself. Stay a little longer in the water every year.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Well, since I'm the coordinator of. I got to get back out and help get everything finalized.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: And a good excuse.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: Hey, everybody's got one.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: How many people normally show up for this event? The ones I remember. I mean, it's been a really good crowd. And this is, of course, at the Litchfield Inn.
[00:04:44] Speaker C: Exact numbers. I don't know the exact numbers. We've had quite a. Quite a large sum of people.
Obviously, every year we want to grow it more. I'd love to get several hundred people to do it and, and increase our fundraising event, get more people involved.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Well, it is always a good time, always a great party. If you want a challenge and are not afraid of a little bit of cold, come on out, join.
Do you have people who go out and enjoy the party but don't necessarily plunge in?
[00:05:10] Speaker C: Yes, we do have some people that don't plunge, but they still raise money to, to support the athletes. And we, we need people to cheer the people, run into the water, keep motivated, so everybody helps.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: So if you, you really don't like the cold, you can still go have a good time. But I, I think that you should obviously jump in and, and enjoy that part.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: Everybody should experience the shock of at least once.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:05:31] Speaker D: All right.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Well, Jim, anything else you can think of to tell us?
[00:05:34] Speaker C: No, just come on out and support our local athletes. There's 30 plus thousand athletes in the state. We got unified schools that we support here in Georgetown county and it'd be great to raise money to support their efforts.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: And can people make donations online if maybe they can't make the event?
[00:05:49] Speaker C: There's a classy page.
You can go to the South Carolina Special Olympics page and there's a link on there that brings you to all the plunges in the state. And you can select Georgetown county and make a donation, support our local athletes.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: But if you can make it, I would certainly encourage you to do that. Bring your friends and look for lots of great pictures on the sheriff's office Facebook page after the event. It's always a good time. Jim, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:06:15] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: I appreciate.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Good luck with the Plunge tomorrow.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: Yes, ma'.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Am.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Our next guest is very special because I believe she has achieved something. As far as I know, nobody else ever has.
This is Ms. Susan Edwards and she is our longest term employee, as far as I know, the longest term employee that Georgetown county has ever had. She is celebrating.
Well, you'll be recognized for 55 years this month.
Really? You celebrated that anniversary last year because we always recognize people right after the calendar year ends. But 55 years, did you start when you were four?
[00:06:55] Speaker D: I wish, I wish I did, but no, but I've enjoyed every bit of, every minute of it. I could promise you that.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: I really have. I mean, that's an achievement. There are, there are very few things that anybody does for 55 years.
[00:07:10] Speaker D: I know.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: So tell me about some of the things that you've seen in all that time. I mean, I'm just trying to imagine all the changes that have taken place in Georgetown County.
[00:07:22] Speaker D: Well, when I first came to work, well, Sunday co came and offered Me the job in his office because he was the assessor and the auditor together.
And we started out, we had to write our own tax. We wrote our own tax books.
We wrote them up. The tag. Individual tags came in from the highway department. We had to put values on those for vehicles.
And then we had to write up the tax rules and from there we had to type the notices, the tax bills.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Did the county have any computers at that point? Was that even a thing?
[00:07:58] Speaker D: No, we had a huge.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: What year would this have been when you started?
[00:08:02] Speaker D: We started that in 71.
So we had to. We had a huge, huge, big machine and one of the. Where the actually where the compute. The servers are right now.
And we had a big machine back there and we took turns. We worked two hours at a time, came in at seven and worked two hours. The end typed up the bills themselves.
Then they went into another office, went back into the auditor's office and we had two ladies in there checking them for mistakes and they had to correct them. Whatever mistakes had to be done. And they were all done and all in duplicate too. So they had to correct all those before they were mailed out.
But everybody had to make a return back then.
And besides us doing all of that, we still had to wait on the counter.
So that was way back then. Back in 74 to 75 is when the offices split and I was the head clerk and so was Ruth Hodge and Sonny Co couldn't have but one.
So I went with the assessor and Tommy Lane was the first assessor.
And everything started changing then and we still didn't have computers. We only had one. One appraiser at that time. That was Lester Johnson and he went out and measured all the houses and everything else in the county.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Wow. One person for all of that. Of course I. I'm imagining the county was probably a lot.
Not geographically, but population smaller back it.
[00:09:38] Speaker D: Was and I was trying to think. I think there was like 25, 26, 000 maybe parcels back then we had. Or something like that.
So. And we still had to do all the transfers and everything. And then I'm trying to remember when we got it was we still were still doing everything manually when Tommy was there. And then Mike Openshawn came and that's when we started with computers. And I'm not exactly sure the date of that, but that's when we had these huge big old computers on our desk and he wrote the program for us to give our software for appraising real estate.
Wow.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: So just for comparison, how many Appraisers do we have today?
[00:10:23] Speaker D: We have, let's see, 1, 2, 3.
We have seven.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: And you were the tax assessor. You held that position for a very long time. And I think you have officially retired and come back, is that right?
[00:10:40] Speaker D: Well, yes, I did.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: And you came back as deputy assessor to kind of give somebody else a chance.
[00:10:45] Speaker D: Well, what I did, no, I didn't actually retire then. I did the assessor's job for 22 years.
And then in. Then we decided, well, I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do, so whether I was going to retire or what I was going to do. And of course, then my husband passed away, so I ended up coming back, just said, well, I was going to stay, but I talked with Tim Holt and decided that perhaps we would switch positions so he could learn the other side, the administrative side. And so we went with talk to Walt and we got all that in place and did all that.
So I became the deputy and then he became the assessor.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And Walt used to be our HR director. He has now moved on to be county administrator at another county.
But I'm still just trying to wrap my brain around doing anything for 55 years.
[00:11:38] Speaker D: I know just the only thing. And I, like I said, I really. And truthfully, I've enjoyed everything I've done.
There have been times, it has been really.
Some days have been really tedious with some of the taxpayers because of the laws change so much and they just don't understand.
And if you could get them on a page where they could understand, usually they're all right. But we still have some that have really been pretty bad, but we've worked through it and we really. And we really.
I personally think we've done really, really well because we really haven't had that many appeals and we've only had like three, I think, to ever go before the board, to go before the administrative law judge in the whole years that I've been there, that I know of.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: What would you say is your favorite part about, you know, the job that you do? Why.
[00:12:31] Speaker D: Why do you stay working with the citizens?
[00:12:34] Speaker A: And I, I thought that's what you were going to say, because I will say I have never hesitated to send a resident to you, whatever their concern is, because you will be backward to find them the answer they're looking for and make sure that they are. Are helped. So I.
[00:12:48] Speaker D: We.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: We are very lucky that you have decided to stay with us for this long.
[00:12:52] Speaker D: Well, the only thing is, though, Jackie, and when some like you And Ollie send things sometimes to me. And the only thing is, though, I started at the bottom, so I know a lot of stuff from the bottom up, so I know kind of where to go and, you know, and what to do and where I could go to help them.
So. And I think that's really our main objective is to try to help the taxpayers because they don't understand the laws.
And so I think that's. That's just the main thing. I just enjoy trying to do that, to try to help, see what we could do to help them.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: So, I mean, you just have so much institutional knowledge and memory. You've seen how many county administrators? Probably countless county council members.
[00:13:36] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Really?
[00:13:37] Speaker D: Yeah, we've seen quite a few. Gordon Hardwick. Well, Alfred Schuler, then Gordon Hardwick, Tommy. Tommy Edwards and sale.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: And now Ms. Christian.
[00:13:50] Speaker D: Yeah, and Ms. Christian. So it's kind of like. Yeah, we have. We've gone through a good many, and I.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: You've seen the creation of departments.
[00:13:58] Speaker D: Right.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: So I'm just. There's so much. And the courthouse. You've been in the courthouse the entire time?
[00:14:04] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: You're seeing renovations to that building, Right?
[00:14:07] Speaker D: And we had. That's where they used to hold the whole court upstairs on the second and third floor.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Ms. Alma is the next guest. She's coming in to talk with us about court. And I'm sure that that's something she's probably going to touch on, too.
[00:14:18] Speaker D: Yeah. Because they were on the second and third floor and there was, I mean, almost every department.
Clemson Extension was in there, too, so a lot of the judges, they were there. So of course, every. There was a lot of them, you know, in that.
Down there in the courthouse. That's all we had at that time.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: I can't imagine there being room for that based on just, you know, the space that there is now.
[00:14:45] Speaker D: Well, everything was so much smaller on a smaller scale.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: How many employees did we have back when you started? Do you have any guests?
[00:14:53] Speaker D: No, I sure don't. I really don't.
I think in Sonny's office, there was, let's see, there was a mapper and then an appraiser, and there was.
We didn't have it about six people at that time when I started.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Ms. Susan, what else can you think of to tell us about the things that you have seen and done over all these years?
[00:15:20] Speaker D: Well, the mapping, that was another thing. The mapping. We started out with mapping. We had mapping in our. In that office then, and it went from there to. Now it's gone to gis.
So we were responsible. The assessor's office was responsible for the mapping. And then Gordon changed that, so it got changed to GIS and didn't fall under us anymore.
And so the mapping, the maps are really, really important to get that get done.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:50] Speaker D: And because the public looks at that so much. And then we have another software, which is Q Public, and it's amazing how everybody, really. The public looks at that a lot.
And so the things.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: I assume that once you'd have had to go into the courthouse and actually look at, like, physical documents.
[00:16:11] Speaker D: Correct. And then when Sal was there, the guy from Q Public came, and we worked out what he wanted because he wanted it to show the taxes also.
And so now we've kind of pulled away from that now. But we do show all the values and what the taxable value is and things like that. So.
And that's been a. That's been a very big help to us because people can now go online and look at all this rather than coming in.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Yep. That frees up your staff and saves people a trip to the courthouse.
[00:16:43] Speaker D: Correct.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: And having to find a parking spot and all that.
[00:16:46] Speaker D: And so. That's correct.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Well, Susan, I hope that you will be here for many more years.
Thank you so much for your service to the county, and congratulations on your. Your work anniversary.
[00:16:58] Speaker D: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Our next guest is a great friend of mine. Her name is Alma White, and if y' all don't know her, you're missing out. She's a wonderful lady. She is our longtime Georgetown County Clerk of Court.
And thank you for being here today.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: My pleasure.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: One of the things that we like to do on this podcast is just kind of talk about our various departments sometimes and the things that, you know, we do that a lot of people may not know happen or, you know, may not understand.
So, Ms. Alma, tell us a little bit about what all goes on in your office. Y' all have a pretty extensive operation over there.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: We do. And it's amazing in this sense when. When people ask me specifically about my duties and responsibility, it's challenging because you're doing so many different things at different times, but it does fall under, or at least on my shoulders, the Clerk of court office serve as the administrative arm of the court system, of the state court system.
Every county in South Carolina has a clerk of court, and the clerk of court is elected by the people of the county to help manage the court system at the circuit court level.
There are three different local levels of courts in each county.
You Have a municipal court if you got a city.
So the city of Georgetown has its own court system.
The town of Andrews has its court.
And then of course you have the magistrate level court, summary court.
It is referred to a lot. And I think we've got six magistrate judges in Georgetown County.
I have nothing to do with those courts. That does not.
Those courts do not fall under my purview per se in terms of managing the court system.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: So you're the local arm of state.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Court, the state circuit court and under the umbrella of the circuit court. And I will say this for some of the listeners, because people who come into South Carolina from another state, what we refer to as circuit court in South Carolina, most of the other states in the union refer to it as superior court.
Yeah. Okay.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: And solicitor may also be a term I think a lot of people don't use in other states.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: That is correct. And many times when, you know, I'm talking to jurors, people who come in for jury duty, I try to give them a little brief summit summary of what I'm telling you to make sure they understand.
And I let them know that I know if you relocated to South Carolina from another state, the prosecuting attorney that we refer to as the solicitor in almost all the other states in the union, they refer to as the da, the district attorney. So that's, that's the equivalent there.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: The term most of us know from all those law shows that we like to watch.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: And so under the umbrella of the circuit court, I really have, there are two courts under that umbrella.
Those two courts are general sessions court. That is the formal name for criminal court.
And then we have common pleas court.
That is the formal name for civil court.
And then the third court that I'm responsible for administratively would be family court.
And we like saying among ourselves clerks in the court system that's, you know, family court is a monster of a court for many reasons. You got domestic related things, a lot of difficult things.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: That.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Difficult things. Those courtrooms and then that child support operation.
That.
That's an operation really unto itself. Yeah.
And.
And then the other component that I have to help manage administratively is the jury system.
Because when people think of courts, they think of what you see on tv, Law and Order and any of the other ones where they got a jury, those kind of things. Well, if we got, we need a jury when we do trials.
But not the court schedule is not always dedicated to trials, but when we have trials on the schedule, I know that the clerk of court office responsibility is.
We see the date or the term of court that the trial is set.
My office responsibility is to make sure that I summons enough jury, enough people in this county to come in to potentially serve jury duty that week.
And my job is to make sure.
And we normally send out like 250 summons.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: I keep waiting to actually get picked. You haven't picked me up.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Well, I don't know whether you like that, that you hadn't gotten picked, or whether you really desire to.
Interestingly, that you said that there are people out there who would love to serve and they never get called.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: I think it sounds interesting.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: And then there are many who come, and they come sometimes grudgingly. They don't want to be bothered with the system. But when I get an opportunity to talk with them, just like I'm talking to you right now, one I remind them it's really not the worst thing in the world. I said this helps you experience some of the things that you learned in the civic class, probably when you were in the 8th, 9th grade, something like that.
That really didn't mean anything to you except we received the information from the teacher and then we retained it for a little while and regurgitated back on paper so we could pass the test.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: And then you forget about it once.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: The test is over, and then you forget about it once the test is over. But you get to actually live and be a part of some of this, since the court system is one of the three branches of government.
And so.
But to get back to these different components of the court system that we have to deal with, you know, with family court, well, first of all, in all of the courts administratively, we work very closely with the judges.
You know, it's a lot of conversations back and forth.
There's a lot of emailing back and forth because, just because you have things planned and just because the South Carolina court administration does all of the scheduling for the circuit court, things change, sometimes change on the dime.
But you may have been scheduled for a trial at a certain week, but attorneys are always talking to each other. Attorneys on both sides, and especially attorneys.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Do love to talk.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Yes, they do. And especially on the.
On the civil side, commonplace, you know, the goal is to resolve a civil matter.
And when they could continue to communicate, and each of them communicate with their clients, if they reach a settlement. Yeah, then we don't. We don't need a trial.
But.
And I'm, you know, I mean, you have major cases. Some of them could be medical malpractice. You know, some of them could be, you know, property Dispute. You got your, you know, you. Over my property.
You know, termite cases.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: You know, you got.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: I bet you've seen a lot.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: Well, I used to see a lot, but what I, what I do now, I try to make sure that my staff. I got different court clerks to be in that courtroom.
They my deputy clerks. Because we've got five courtrooms over there, actually six, but five that I use for family court and these other matters. And no one clerk could be in every courtroom. So the longer I kind of serve and more I let a staff member work that courtroom with the judge, it makes my office stronger because they get to learn.
Not at the point they pretty much know more than me because they in the courtroom more than I am. But I'm moving around a lot because I want to make sure as the clerk of court that everything is running smoothly in that building. You know, you got judges that come over for family court.
You got DSS that's very well connected to family court.
You got other agencies that come in to help with that family court system.
People taking swab tests for, you know, trying to figure out, you know.
Yeah. DNA, you know, and, and of course, attorneys. That's the attorney's office away from the office.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: You know.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: So how many staff members do you have who help you manage all of this?
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Well, including myself, there's.
There's 15 of us when, when we moved into that new Courthouse building in 2009, and that's the one over on.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Cleveland street beside the library. Used to be packed into the old historic courthouse with the other county operations.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Yes. And I, I thank God for the, the county leadership team at that time that was willing to take that.
That leap of, of getting the county a new.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: So to say.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Because it helps us a lot. What we needed, we couldn't get in the historic courthouse. We could not get the technology that we needed, mainly because of those thick cinder block walls in terms of trying to run at that time, Cat 5 cables and anything else they had to do, we couldn't get any more space. We just had that one main courtroom that council now uses as chambers and that we didn't have any attorney conference rooms. We didn't have any waiting rooms.
We didn't have a jury assembly room.
I mean, you get roll call. A solicitor was trying to do roll call, and people would just be hanging out on the sidewalk, on the walkway under the trees, waiting, you know, and most importantly of all, and I thank all of my county colleagues who still have their offices in the old courthouse building.
They probably celebrated when we moved because parking was a challenge on that corner of Scriven and Prince Street.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: I can only imagine it's still a challenge some days.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: So, you know, when you summons the jury to come in, I mean, people were parking all on Front Street. You know, the solicitor office was on the corner up front and Queen, and they would have to roll their files across the parking lots to get to the courthouse. They did have a little office space in there, but it was a challenge. So I'm grateful for the leadership team back there when that was done. I think Tommy Edwards was the administrator then, and thank Johnny Morant, council chair for the chair. Yeah. And so we've been in that building. But what I was getting ready to tell you, when we went over there, there were 25 employees because we.
All we could do is anticipate running more than one court at the same time. Since we know there were six courtrooms in the new building, five that we use, we allow the probate judge and the mass inequity to share one of those courtrooms.
So technology has made it possible that through attrition, we're down to 15.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: And the technology. Let's talk about civil court.
If an attorney is filing a lawsuit in civil court, nobody comes to the office to file a lawsuit. It's e filing.
Everything is coming through that that system.
E filing has.
I mean, for civil court back then, that we used to have to do everything manually when dockets. I can remember attorneys coming by the office at the old courthouse just to pick up a docket, to do whatever. But I had six people helping to make common police court run.
I remember, God bless her soul, Wanda Cribb, who was running I'll come and please court. But, you know, now with technology, you give me two good women or two good men, and we're good to go.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: That's a big change.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: It is. Because, I mean, when they file, not only do we see stuff on the outside, the judges are seeing it.
The it runs through the system.
And that works well even with.
Well, General Sessions. Court is different because I'm sitting here talking to you now.
I'm sure there's a blue light someplace or somebody trying to serve a warrant somewhere.
And so that's the nature of what we deal with in criminal court. And warrants are being served. Those warrants are generated by the magistrate court.
You know, they do all of the bond hearing stuff at the detention center.
When warrants need to be issued, it comes through the magistrate court. Not unless the circle Judge orders it from the bench or something like that.
And when we get that information from these municipal courts or the match records, they transmit that information to us. They have about 15 days according to statute to get it to the clerk's office.
And when it gets to the clerk's office, the clerk's office has two days by statue to process that warrant and pass it on to the solicitor's office.
That's why a lot of times people get arrested and sadly for you know, first time offenders, because they don't, they don't know the system. And when they're young people, young adults, when parents or spouses, they always call in the clerk's office because they're trying to see, you know, when is he going to court or whatever. We have none of those answers.
We direct them to the solicitor's office because in the end those cases are not going to come before the judge for resolution or for disposal until the solicitor puts it on the schedule.
They dictate along with the judge, but mostly them what cases will be brought in this term of court, rather it's a term of court in February, March, April, whenever. And you know, I tell people I have no idea.
My job is to court schedule.
We make sure that we have files that they need, any indictments from the grand jury that, and they will tell us which ones they need before we go to court.
And my job as a clerk is to show up in the courtroom and do what the clerks do.
But I don't, you know, we all got a role to play and I mean it's, it's, it's what I call teamwork.
I mean because we all on the same system, we in the same environment in terms of moving the cases through the system. Yeah. And there's just so many moving parts and a lot of different stakeholders and.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: It can be intimidating for somebody who's going to, to your, your facility for the first time, be it for jury duty. We hope that's why most people end up there. What advice do you have for people who are going into the judicial center?
[00:36:58] Speaker B: I think and everybody has tried to be helpful starting from the time you enter the building. Those security officers, they do a great job of helping to direct people and where they need to go.
Folks call the clerk of court office for a lot of things. And my instructions to my staff, you know, where they supposed to go. I said even if you know the answer to a question, if that's something that falls under the purview of the public defender, the solicitor or whoever, just simply direct them there. You know, we, we do what we do. We don't want to cross over into anybody's lane.
Everybody got to stay in their lane when it comes to the docket, scheduling, whatever we got. We could share that. But when they want to know more specific things, well, I can't get in touch with my attorney. I keep calling him and they never return the call. I would just tell them, keep trying, you have an attorney of record.
And first of all, the court system admonishes clerk of courts across the state and its staff.
We are not attorneys and we are not to try to give legal advice.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Of course not.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: And you know, and it sounds, I don't want to say unkind because that's, you know, people are trying to find answers. But we always tell them if you don't have an attorney, you really need to get an attorney.
If it's a criminal matter, you can't afford one, we let them know. But right down the hall and around the corner there's a public defender office there and they will help to because it can be a frightening experience, especially for people who are, I mean, law abiding citizens.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: You certainly wouldn't want to do more harm than good by accidentally giving the wrong advice.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: That is correct.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Your staff has been nothing but kind and courteous and great with instructions and good at putting people at ease. So I thank you for that and for your service.
And Ms. White, thank you so much for coming in today and for what you do for Georgetown County.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Well, I'm glad I had this opportunity to share this time with you. Thank you. Appreciate you.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: That's it for this month's first Friday with Georgetown County. Thanks so much for joining us. As always, I'd like to bring you a list of important events to note coming up this month.
First, as Lieutenant Ketchum mentioned earlier, don't miss the Polar Plunge tomorrow morning at the Oceanfront Litchfield Inn. Registration begins at 10am and the plunge is scheduled to begin at 11:30am you must donate a minimum of $50 to take part in the plunge.
Georgetown County Council meets twice this month on Tuesday, February 10 and Tuesday, February 24.
Both meetings are scheduled for 5:30pm in County Council chambers.
The Planning Commission will meet on Thursday, February 19, also at 5:30pm in council chambers.
The Board of Elections and Voters Voter Registration will meet at 5:30pm on Wednesday, February 11th at the Office of Elections and Voter Registration.
SC Works and Georgetown county are collaborating to hold the third annual Georgetown County Job Fair on Thursday, February 12th from 3pm to 6pm at the Howard center in Georgetown.
Lastly, county offices, the landfill and recycling centers will be closed on Monday, Monday, February 16, in observance of Presidents Day. For more events, please Visit our website gtcounty.org and join us next month for another First Friday with Georgetown County.
