In a week’s time, the Santa Rosa County Clerk of Court will no longer be performing marriages, according to SRC’s Clerk Donald Spencer. A dwindling budget led to the need to make a cut. Spencer said, “We charge $30 for a wedding ceremony. We did about 225 last year. That’s about $6,500. It’s not a whole lot of money. It doesn’t pay for itself right now. With everything else going on, it doesn’t cover itself.”
The clerk of court’s office handles the official records for the county, Spencer said, such as mortgages, titles, deeds, passports, as well as marriage licenses, and makes its money by processing them. “That’s the recording office that does this. They’re self funded,” he said.
“We collect doc stamps when somebody sells a house or refinances a house. We get half a cent, which isn’t very much,” Spencer said. The clerk’s office can’t increase fees, according to Spencer. He said, “We can’t by statute. They’re set by statute on what we can charge.” Spencer gave the courthouse as an example saying a suggestion surfaced to charge anyone who used the courthouse to help fund a new one, but by statute, he said he was unable to do so.
Anyone may still use the courthouse, according to Spencer. He said, “We’ll still have a wedding arbor in the recording office. If they have a notary or a preacher or somebody that marries them there, they can record it there.”
While the clerk’s office has received calls on this matter, according to Spencer, he did not say the cut would be a permanent one and marriages may return to the clerk’s office if the budget improves.
According to the Clerk of Court’s website, the following may perform marriage ceremonies:
· A regularly ordained minister or other ordained clergy;
· Elders in communion with some church;
· All judicial officers (judges) of the State of Florida;
· Clerks of Circuit Court and their deputies of the State of Florida; and
· Notaries Public of the State of Florida.
· In addition, the law provides that marriages may be performed among “Quakers” or “Friends,” in the manner and form used or practiced in their societies.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: County clerk no longer performing marriages