In a cost-cutting move expected to save $200,000 toward its 2013 budget, the Butler County Common Pleas Court has terminated its court reporter program, leaving four employees without jobs.

Court Administrator Gary Yates said the decision was made Wednesday during a meeting with the court’s seven judges. The court, which has approximately 100 employees, was asked by county commissioners to cut five percent out its proposed $4 million general fund budget.

“It is difficult,” Yates said. “The judges and everyone realize this decision will create a hardship with people losing their jobs.”

With the elimination of court reporters, effective Dec. 31, court proceedings will be documented by the court recording system and transcripts produced by non-county employees, Yates said.

The court reporting system was debated in 2005 when some judges favored eliminating the program as a cost savings. At that time, Judge Michael Sage strongly opposed removing court reporters from courtrooms.

The court reporter system was a pilot program that had been initiated in 2001 to allay concerns about inaccuracies in court transcripts. In 2001, secretaries and other office staff, not professional transcriptionists, were typing transcripts.

One of the employees laid off Wednesday was Jennifer Olivier who filed a complaint against Judge Michael Sage earlier this year claiming retaliation after their 9-year affair ended. Olivier said Sage pursued a personal relationship with her in 2003, a year after she became a court reporter, and that relationship ended last December, according to her complaint.

She claimed after the breakup that Sage’s employees were rude to her and that Yates and other court administrators treated her unfairly, specifically by implementing a plan to rotate court reporters. A three-month probe by the county concluded Olivier was creating a hostile work environment, but recommended no discipline for her or Sage, who did not deny the affair.

Olivier declined to comment about losing her job when contacted by the JournalNews.