It’s election year and Connie Taylor, who is Cobb County’s Superior Court Clerk, should be worried. She was investigated by the GBI after allegedly ordering an employee to destroy records that made her look bad.
And the state Attorney General’s office is considering that GBI report.
And she pocketed money she shouldn’t have taken.
And her office is a train wreck.
In 2022, it came out she had personally pocketed $425,000 in passport application fees during her first two years in office. Nothing illegal, mind you, but certainly unseemly. It’s a flaw in state law that allows county court clerks to receive fees generated when people apply for passports.
That’s right, money taken in from work performed by county employees. On county time. In a county office. Paid for by county taxpayers. She’s not the only clerk in Georgia enriching herself (or himself) in this manner. Just perhaps the most audacious.
But that’s not all! Taylor also kept $84,000 in “expedited shipping fees” paid by applicants who wanted their passports more quickly. It was supposed to go to FedEx, not her purse. Originally, she said “Whoops,” called it an error and promised to repay it — the $84,000, not the $425,000.
She still hasn’t, the county says.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
This came out after the AJC asked for the records. An in-house whistleblower said Taylor got irritable about disclosing the passport records, because it was “her money” after all.
Talk about public service.
On top of all that, Taylor has made a shambles of a once-capable office, according to four lawyers and a judge I spoke with and according to an emergency order from the Superior Court’s Chief Judge.
Last week, Judge Gregory Poole filed what’s been called an “extraordinary” notice declaring a “judicial emergency” to suspend court deadlines because Taylor’s mess.
An unsuccessful software conversion attempted by her office in late June created havoc in the courthouse, an environment that lives on deadlines, scheduling and time-stamped documents. But that smooth flow of information vital to the justice system — notices, filings, documents, mailings to defendants, etc., are now all uncertain.
The judge’s order said the clerk’s office told him some documents won’t show up for up to 35 business days. Defendants could have court dates and never receive a notice, placing them in danger of arrest. So, deadlines have been postponed, effectively knee-capping the court system.
The problems did not start with the software screwup; it’s only the latest chapter of ineptitude, said Carlos Rodriguez, past president of the Cobb Bar.
“It’s just gotten worse since then,” he said. ”The office had a reputation for efficiency, organization and ease-of-use which she has squandered. She has run off most of the competent civil servants there.”
Rodriguez noted lawyers get irked at Taylor “making money on passports while not doing her job. ... But that’s not what gets me worked up. This is interfering with people’s constitutional rights.”
Attorney Ashleigh Merchant said the “mayhem” can affect prisoners getting bond or domestic violence victims getting protective orders.
“She’s not a leader, she barely goes to the office,” Merchant said. “That is a culture issue. If the leader’s not leading, the others won’t work as hard.”
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, tried to stop clerks from pocketing passport fees after hearing about Taylor’s situation in 2022. She sought to have clerks turn the fees over to county coffers.
“The whole thing is a crooked side hustle in my opinion,” she told me. “Just because something is legal, doesn’t mean it’s right.”
During a 2023 Senate committee hearing, Kirkpatrick told her colleagues that in 2021, the Fulton County clerk pulled in $362,635 and DeKalb’s clerk got $209,860. Also, Gwinnett’s clerk got $96,695 in a nine-month period. She didn’t mention Taylor.
DeKalb Superior Court Clerk Debra DeBerry told the panel that clerks’ offices are performing a service by processing passport applications, an extra job for their offices.
“I believe (the bill) was racially, gender and politically driven,” she said, noting the Gwinnett, DeKalb and Fulton clerks are Black women. So is Taylor.
Kirkpatrick told me, “the only color I was considering was green.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Oddly, court clerks hold sway over legislators and Kirkpatrick’s bill was ultimately gutted. It simply tells clerks to disclose to their counties how much they rake in.
As to Taylor, she’s not talking. An AJC reporter went to her office and I called. Nothing.
It follows a pattern. Justin O’Dell, a Cobb lawyer, said “multiple people (including judges) have tried to talk with her but she’s either unwilling or unable to listen.”
In April, before the primary elections, Taylor’s three Democratic opponents griped about her blowing off a debate.
Not to worry, she won the primary without a runoff.
And now Taylor faces Deborah Dance, who was Cobb’s county attorney and did a competent job.
Unfortunately, Dance will have an “R” after her name on the ballots in a county that now swings “D.”
It’s a position where political affiliation doesn’t matter. It’s just about doing a job.
And Taylor’s not doing it.
