Two district court officials have recently gained statewide recognition for their efficiency and superior work with both people and district funds.

Steve Brittain, the chief probation officer for district courts in Cortez and Durango, was selected for the Colorado Judicial Branch’s Employee of the Year Award, while Merry McCallum, a collections investigator in Cortez, was a finalist for a Distinguished Special Achievement Award.

McCallum, who works for the 22nd Judicial District, which includes Montezuma and Dolores counties, has gained a reputation for tenacity after just three years on the job.

Because of programs that McCallum introduced, the district had a 35-percent increase in restitution payments over the last year.

McCallum’s job is not easy. She sets up payment schedules and collects fines from convicted defendants who can’t pay at sentencing.

She says her favorite part of the job is playing detective and finding people who have tried to avoid making payments.

Before coming to the district court, McCallum worked for a nationwide check collection company and specialized in military payments. She said working for the courts is much easier than the private sector because she has a "stick" to arrest people if they avoid payments.

McCallum says that most people eventually pay their fines because they get tired of seeing her.

"I’ll work with them so long as they are straight with me, but if they dog me or lie to me I’ll tell them, ‘Hey - I’m like a tick on a dog, I just won’t go away,’" she said.

One of her favorite stories is when a man walked into her office and said he was told to come and see her. She asked him why, and he said his friends in jail told him that if he didn’t, he would be back in jail soon.

But McCallum refuses to take all of the credit for her success. This past year she worked with Radonna Vinger, the district fraud investigator for social services, to initiate a program in which social services and the court work more closely together on fraud payments. McCallum said other state districts are now using this model.

However, it took her two years to implement one of her most successful programs. After working with the manager at the Ute Mountain Casino, McCallum is now able to start collecting restitution by direct deposit from casino employees’ pay checks.

Chief District Judge Sharon Hansen is impressed with McCallum’s professionalism and dedication, but said she is most impressed by her sensitivity.

"What I’m most impressed about is that in a job that could cause a lot of hard feelings, she is able to maintain a good working relationship with her clients," Hansen said.

Hansen also officially nominated Brittain for employee of the year.

Brittain, who juggles work for district courts in Cortez and Durango that’s normally reserved for three people, hesitates to say how many hours he works for fear of sounding self-glorifying. But his staff is so happy with his work that workers in his Cortez probation department nominated him for employee of the year for the entire Colorado Judicial Branch – 2,600 employees – and he won.

He received the award at the branch’s annual Employee Recognition Incentive Program on May 19 in Denver.

Tom Cole, a probation officer in Cortez who has worked with Brittain for 10 years, said Brittain is fair, approachable, and works hard for his employees.

Cole said Marilyn Williams, the supervising probation officer in Cortez, came up with the idea to nominate Brittain, and those who work with Brittain wrote the letters.

"His supervisory style is such that he doesn’t smother us, but he allows us to go sometimes, so we feel more like co-workers and less like a chief and front line," Cole said. "It’s a good feeling to know that what you think counts and matters and he’s going to ask us for feedback."

Brittain, 46, is a graduate of Bayfield High School and a 1979 graduate of Fort Lewis College, where he received a degree in psychology. He received his master’s degree in agency counseling and guidance from the University of Northern Colorado, and began work as a probation officer in Durango in 1980.

In 1989, Brittain became the chief probation officer for the district courts in Durango and Cortez. In 1994, he took on the additional job of district administrator in Durango on a trial basis. It worked, and he continues with all three jobs today – an unheard of combination in other districts.

Brittain said he is both honored and surprised by the award, and he immediately gave credit to his staff.

"It’s really nice to be recognized; I don’t deal with it well," Brittain said. "I really think that the true measure of me is the people I have around me, and I’ve got a great staff."

But he also said part of his success is due to his involvement on the state level with a myriad of probation and court committees where he hears about grants early and constantly learns new ways to find resources for the $1.9 million probation-office budget and $1.3 million court budget he oversees.

He is chairman of research and planning for the Probation Administration Council, on the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Council and sits on various other boards.