Rucker, J.
This is a mandate action involving a dispute between the Center Township of Marion County Small Claims Court and the Center Township Trustee and Advisory Board over court renovations, additional staff, increase in salaries, and the location of the court. As explained below we approve the renovations, additional staff, and the mandate prohibiting the relocation of the court. We disapprove the mandated salary increases.
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In this case the Township expressly does not contest that portion of the special judge’s decree directing that the Court – without the intervention of the Trustee – shall control the supervising, hiring, and firing of court staff; or ordering the Trustee to relinquish control over the Small Claims Court’s financial operations. See Br. of Appellants at 40. This is of course as it should be. See Bd. of Comm’rs of Crawford Cnty. v. Riddle, 493 N.E.2d 461, 463 (Ind. 1986) (declaring a court “cannot be controlled, directed, or impeded in its functions by any other department of government”). Also, the Township does not object to allocating funds for two additional full-time staff members for the court. Instead, the Township complains only about that portion of the decree concerning the court’s location and the award of attorney fees.
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In sum, we conclude the record is replete with probative evidence that moving the Center Township Small Claims Court away from its present location poses a clear and present danger to access to justice for the litigants it serves, and that maintaining and upgrading the Court in its present location is reasonably necessary to preserve that access. And although the Township does not object to other components of the special judge’s decree, see Br. of Appellants at 40, we think it bears emphasizing that we specifically affirm the special judge’s order that the Township shall allocate funds to hire two additional Court employees, that the Trustee shall relinquish control over Court functions, and that authority over its employees and its financial operations shall be vested solely in the Court. See supra n. 6; see also Task Force Report at 19, 24, 25 (concluding that township courts must have sole authority over their employees and their financial operations).
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Dickson, C.J., and David, Massa and Rush, JJ., concur.