- December 16, 2025
Gail Wadwroth, Flagler County’s clerk of court, penned a letter last week to state legislators, opposing a proposed 7% budget cut to court operations.
“Clerks across state receiving a 7% budget cut … means we will lose up to three more people. At one point we had 31 clerks in court services; should this happen, we may be down to 15.5. Judge Atack says we are ‘skeletal’ today — tomorrow we may lose a leg. “
Her letter is as follows:
Dear Senator,
I have learned the Senate Conference night before last proposed a cut to Clerks of Court of 7%.
An additional 7% would result in a 39% staff decrease since the 2007-2008 court year.
With these cuts, our employees will be handling 42% more cases than their counterparts in 2007-2008.
I don’t know that this can be done — I do know it cannot be sustained. So, what will happen here is we will only handle criminals as those cases are prioritized by law. Our remaining resources, if any, will handle domestic, repeat and sexual violence. With that, there will be nothing left; thus, open access to the courts will be a non-sequitur.
Please support a return for the Clerks budget to the amount provided in Senate Bill 2000, the Senate Appropriations bill as passed, and avoid a disastrous 7% cut to the Clerks.
Cordially,
Gail Wadsworth
