The state officials charged with reforming the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court saw leadership and training as the keys to success. They threw people at the problem — too many people, some say.

In early 2008, the officials charged with oversight hired a new chief clerk, Michelle Portillo, a one-time supervisor at state District Court in Santa Fe. Then they brought in clerks from around the state and a retired magistrate judge from Las Cruces, and started retraining and cross-training clerks.

By August 2009, Arthur Pepin, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, wasn't satisfied with the pace of progress. "But with the (employee) training issues that exist," he said, "it might not have been fair to expect better progress."

Progress was slow partly, Pepin said, because clerks got instructions from too many people.

In response, the Supreme Court's order specified the appointment of a leader for the court-improvement team, Pepin said. That leader, Bernice Ramos, proved at Doña Ana County Magistrate Court that she could run a busy court, Pepin said.

Training took time, especially because of high turnover, Portillo said. Another major problem has been too few clerks to do the work, according to nearly everyone interviewed for this story. However, with state budget cuts in effect, Pepin said he knows he won't get money for more clerks, so the problem must be solved with existing staff.

"The problem is we're being pushed to do quantity not quality," a current employee said, meaning the clerk's office often does work only half-way.

One former employee complained that clerks routinely misplaced files and that electronic files and paper files rarely matched because clerks failed to enter the information into the complicated computer system. Today, it is still a daily occurrence that somebody can't find a file, an employee said.

Portillo said when she arrived at the court 21 months ago, she was shocked. She said she wasn't familiar with court operations and didn't know just how much paperwork must flow in and out of the court daily.

On top of that, she faced thousands of backlogged cases that had to be audited and properly closed, too few clerks to do the job and lots of people telling her how to get it all done.

"It's a very big job," she said. "And it's challenging."