Cleveland Clerk of Courts Earle Turner hired 127 clerks without giving civil service test

Cleveland Municipal Clerk of Courts Earle Turner has hired 127 clerks since taking office in 1996, but none of them have taken a civil service test.

Turner, like his predecessors, got around the test by designating them as "chief deputy" clerks. The title exempts them under state law from having to take a civil service test, an exam developed to take politics out of the hiring process.

Clerks for the municipal courts in Akron, Toledo, Dayton and Columbus each have one to four chief deputy clerks, officials said. Cleveland has 166.

The employees -- from Turner's chief of staff through rank-and-file secretaries -- earn $10 to $38 an hour. None took an entrance examination.