Fulton County Chief Magistrate Cassandra Kirk (left) and Superior Court Clerk Cathelene “Tina” Robinson. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

A fight is brewing over control of the Fulton County Magistrate Court clerk and the funding that goes with it.

Fulton County Chief Magistrate Cassandra Kirk has requested that Superior Court Clerk Catheline “Tina” Robinson relinquish her role as clerk of the Magistrate Court and to return all staff and resources associated with that court to the office of the State Court clerk. The Superior Court clerk picked up the magistrate duties and its $2.3 million budget in 2016.

In an April 16 letter obtained by the Daily Report, Kirk asked Robinson to return “all Magistrate court clerk functions and designated employees” to the Magistrate Court, along with a dozen other requests including the creation of “deputy clerk teams that align with the functions of the Magistrate Court judge tracks.”

Kirk's letter noted that she requested the Magistrate Court clerk's duties be transferred to Robinson in 2016 and that state law gave her the authority to appoint her court's clerk.

“My request is not intended to encroach upon your status as elected Clerk of Superior Court and, instead, is narrowly tailored to the authority and oversight conferred to me as Chief Magistrate,” the letter said.

Kirk also sought and obtained permission from the County Commission in early April to hire outside legal counsel. The reason for that request was discussed in executive session.

Kirk told the Daily Report she wanted the legal help to assist with the “Magistrate Court's consistent issue of being underfunded and short staffed.”

“I sought permission for outside counsel to explore my options,” she said.

Kirk did not specify whether litigation was being considered, but a source familiar with the issue said Kirk is apparently seeking legal assistance in preparation to sue the Board of Commissioners for more money.

Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt confirmed that Kirk sought outside counsel to deal with a dispute with Robinson.

In an email, Kirk told the Daily Report she had worked to resolve “organizational divisions between administrative and clerk functions” that “created ambiguous centers of authority.”

But, she said, “changes continued to occur without my knowledge or consent, further hindering collaborative efforts.”

Kirk said she had sought to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Robinson last year “to resolve any underlying ambiguities and performance gaps between the two offices” but that Robinson refused.

Robinson, who was out last week to attend a conference, said she was working on a response to Kirk's letter and was “very disappointed over the judge's characterization of the organizational transition of the Magistrate Court Clerk merger with my office over the past three years.”

“I agreed to take on the Magistrate Court Clerk functions because I believed that I could add value to a court that primarily serves pro se litigants and affects so many lives of the underserved and disenfranchised,” Robinson said via email.

“While I understand and empathize with Judge Kirk's need for additional funding for Magistrate Court administration, I disagree with any attempt to circumvent the budget process and undermine the trust and will of the Board of Commissioners by reallocating much-needed Clerk resources to fund her deficits,” Robinson said.

“I have never operated at the direction of Judge Cassandra Kirk, I operated at my own direction in setting up the Magistrate Court Clerk's office, procuring staffing and implementing e-filing and other initiatives, as an experienced, elected Clerk for the people and not at the behest of Judge Kirk as she asserts,” Robinson said.

Robinson has also sought outside counsel. Her attorney, George Lawson, was more forceful in his response.

Lawson noted that it was only in 2014 that legislation passed making the chief magistrate an elected position.

“How Judge Kirk has concluded that she can now sit on her throne and pontificate to the Clerk of the Superior Court of Fulton County that she, as the Chief Magistrate, can dictate to Ms. Robinson what her duties are is nonsensical,” Lawson wrote. “Such is not the state of the law in Georgia and is not and was not the intent of the county ordinance that authorized the appointment of Ms. Robinson” to be Magistrate Court clerk.

Robinson “holds no animosity against Judge Kirk” and “will cooperate with and work with Judge Clerk to make sure that the Fulton County Magistrate's Clerk's office operates efficiently and within its budget,” Lawson said.

“However, she does not and will not take directions, assignments and orders from Chief Judge Kirk,” Lawson said. Regarding her correspondence with his client, “the substance and tenor of the letter was demeaning, insulting and offensive to Ms. Robinson.”

Late Thursday, Robinson sent a reply to Kirk saying she was “perplexed by both the tone and content of your letter given that I have made several attempts to meet with you to collaborate regarding operational matters and other project initiatives.

“Moreover, we had just attended a mediation wherein we agreed to communicate openly and collaborate on matters of mutual concern as it pertains to overlapping functions of Magistrate Court administration and the Office of the Clerk,” Robinson wrote, acknowledging an “apparent conflict between our perceptions of my role as Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Court.”

“Regardless of the differences in how we each perceive” that role, Robinson wrote, “I still believe that we can continue to productively work together as partners on initiatives that will create efficiencies that benefit the citizens of Fulton County and promote the efficient administration of justice.”

Kirk was appointed to her position by Gov. Nathan Deal and has served as chief magistrate since 2015. She was reelected to the office last year.

Her call to have Robinson move the Magistrate Court clerk comes a little more than three years after the two announced that the Superior Court clerk was assuming the lower court's clerical duties.

At the time, Kirk said the change represented a move toward a “more transparent, accountable and efficient court.”

But Kirk has decried what she sees as a lack of appropriate funding and last year unsuccessfully sought to have the County Commission raise her 2019 budget from $2.7 million to $4.1 million.

She said her letter to Robinson was a response to budgetary and administrative concerns.

Kirk said she wrote Robinson in “the interest of eliminating confusion, streamlining clerical functions and exerting statutory authority and control over the Magistrate Court as a whole.”

“I look forward to a resolution that will allow me to exercise the full constitutional authority of my office and its apportioned budget,” Kirk said. “My objective is for Magistrate Court to continue to serve the citizens of Fulton County in our current fashion; whether we are able to do so depends wholly on the Clerk's response to the action items posited.”

Asked whether she intends for the State Court clerk to once again serve her court, Kirk said “no formal request to separate the Magistrate Court clerk's office has been made at this time nor request to move Magistrate Court clerk functions to the State Court clerk's office.”

State Court Administrator and Clerk LeNora Ponzo she said was unaware of any discussions regarding the return of the Magistrate Court clerk's duties to her office.