After just one month in office, he’s questioning whether state money was spent in the right way.

Duval County Clerk of Courts Ronnie Fussell says an early audit has found about $386,000 in money that should not have been spent from the Clerk of Courts budget by former Clerk Jim Fuller.

About $200,000 comes from pay raises for 30 employees which Fuller authorized in December.

“Whether it was illegal, I doubt it.  Inappropriate? Yes. Unethical? Yes,” Fussell says.

He thinks he should have been involved in that decision.  He also questions whether the raises were done properly, because there was just one reason given for all 30 raises- which span from about $3,000 to up to $20,000.

“They deserved it, they’re way underpaid,” Fuller says.

Fuller says it’s his discretion what to do with the money, and he could make that decision until he left office.

“So if I’d given raises three months prior, that would have been alright? When is it OK for me to give a raise to someone?” Fuller says.

Fussell pulled the raises, which most employees weren’t actually aware they were getting until it showed up on their paychecks.  That’s not the only action he has taken on spending.  Fussell says Fuller spent about $140,000 on his last day in office on items needed for the courthouse.  He’s not questioning the items, but rather the process.

“They weren’t appropriate on the last day you were leaving office,” he says.

He admits many of those items purchased are things he will be looking in to soon, but he wants to have the control on how much is spent.

The final concern is money spent on legal fees.  While Fuller was challenging term limits in court, he used Clerk of Courts money to pay the legal fees, which Fussell says adds to about $46,000.

“He was instructed from her [Jacksonville General Counsel Cindy Laquidara] and from City Council not to expend Clerk funds for legal fees,” he says.

Fuller was running for another term as Clerk of Courts when a Supreme Court ruling put city-voted term limits back in to effect.  Fuller challenged the ruling, saying he was a different type of constitutional officer than what’s covered in the ruling. The court eventually ruled against that claim and Fuller withdrew from the race.

He says as the legal battle moved forward, however, he was pressing for answers as the Clerk rather than as a candidate.

“The Clerk of Court hired an attorney for a constitutional issue,” he says.

Fussell referred those bills to Jacksonville’s Office of the General Counsel for further judgment.

And to prevent these questions from surfacing in the future, Fussell wants long-term action.

“I think somewhere there ought to be a statute, ordinance or something that an outgoing constitutional officer or whoever it is, within 30-60 days, shouldn’t be allowed to do things without that conversation,” he says.

While he doesn’t think there can be any change in the near future, he plans to talk with local and state lawmakers to talk about permanent change in the future.