MINUTES
Supreme Court, Bismarck
August 17, 2012
9:15am
Members Participating:
Hon. Dale Sandstrom, Supreme Court Justice, Chair
Hon. Joel Medd, Judge - Northeast Judicial District
Hon. Frank Racek, Judge - East Central Judicial District
Donna Wunderlich, District Court Administrator - Unit 3
Hon. William Herauf, Judge - Southwest Judicial District
Hon. Doug Mattson, Judge - Northwest Judicial District
Hon. Daniel Narum, Judge - Southeast Judicial District
Becky Absey, Clerk of District Court - Grand Forks County
Penny Miller, Clerk of Supreme Court
Lee Ann Barnhardt, Director of Education & Communication
Members Absent:
Sally Holewa, State Court Administrator
Guests:
Chris Iverson, Trial Court Manager - Unit 2
Ronnie Everett, Tyler Technologies
Staff: Larry Zubke, Director of Technology Cammie Schock, Business Analyst
The meeting was called to order by Chair Sandstrom.
Approval of Minutes from June 8, 2012 Meeting
Judge Medd moved to approve the June 8, 2012 meeting minutes. Judge Herauf seconded the motion and the motion carried.
Odyssey User Group update
Chris stated they have formed a workgroup to focus on criminal projects. The first project is combining the past due financials and unsatisfied conditions for the order to show cause process. The first meeting is September 12th. She also reported the group is working on finalizing the event user guide for File & Serve, trying to make the proposed document procedure more uniform and are also working on coming up with an electronic process to file stamp documents generated in the clerk's office rather than printing, stamping and then scanning them in. Also on the radar are questions regarding the authorization process of judge's e-signatures.
Odyssey Updates
Nicholas Thornton request
Larry explained Mr. Thornton's concern for cases that begin as a felony but are later reduced to a misdemeanor. Currently the case still displays as a felony on public access rather than a misdemeanor case type. Larry stated we are unable to hide the case type without paying for a programming change from Tyler. A disclaimer was placed on the internet stating users should look closely at the actual disposition of the case for this very reason. However, it seems people are not reading it. He also stated that we would be able to highlight the disposition to draw attention to the fact that it is a misdemeanor. Justice Sandstrom explained that if we change the case type from a felony to a misdemeanor it affects case statistics. Judge Mattson stated he has had complaints from individuals not being able to get on the air force base due to the felony showing. Ronnie stated Tyler could also put a disclaimer on the initial page of the public access site. Larry said if we choose to change the case type in Odyssey, we would still be able to report that it was initially a felony for the weighted case load study. Judge Racek expressed concern that this would require more decisions and case updates to be made manually by the clerks and would increase the potential for errors. The group then agreed to check vendor pricing to remove the case type field from public access. Larry will request an estimate from Tyler Technologies.
Statewide IVR status
Larry reported that two weeks ago we received a version of IVR which now only has one central phone number rather than 53. Larry has requested a documented flow of all of the options from Tyler so we can identify additional changes. Larry stated he would like to be able to test the IVR system in Burleigh within a month and a half.
File and Serve version 3.4 update status
Larry reported we had a few setbacks with taking File & Serve 3.4. We lost a week in June due to testing patch .45 for Odyssey. We then lost time due to ITD being short staffed and unable to do the VPN tunneling. The connection was finally made this week. We now are able to begin testing and should be able to move forward fairly quickly. Judge Racek requested to have a timeline by the next meeting for training and a cutover date.
2011.6.45 patch installation
Larry reported the installation was completed August 3rd and went very well. It fixed waived fees in session works, calendar resources and e-citation error reporting. Judge Racek stated the session works fix seems to be working fine. Larry also stated there is a patch coming out this week that should resolve the issue with charges appearing on the web in cases that have multiple counts and where one charge is a satisfied deferred imposition.
Other
The group discussed the ITD network upgrade and the problems it caused for the Courts. Judge Mattson questioned why it affected parts of the state differently. Larry explained the network is not all state owned and the configuration can be quite different at each location. Judge Mattson also questioned the administrative procedure for an event such as this. LeeAnn explained that Marilyn and Sally had stated this was an instance where the calling tree should have been activated and discussed adding that as part of our process. Judge Medd stated there is a lack of communication when an event such as this happens. Justice Sandstrom suggested putting a notice out to the news media as well.
2013-2015 ITD Agency Operations Plan
Larry explained what the ITD Agency Operations Plan consists of. He submitted the plan to ITD in August to meet the deadline. Larry stated there is one project dealing with the CJIS broker that exceeds $100,000. Judge Racek expressed concerns about the CJIS project. He said the language in the document should not state that receiving the data in this electronic format is optional. He also understands the project works with data fields and not free text and scanned images. His concern is that the recipients are looking for information that is actually in the body of a document that is scanned in or free text that may be in the case notes. This information would not get transferred through CJIS and we would continue to pass the information as we do today. He stated it is a large IT project and feels that it may have limited benefits for the Courts. Larry said we have been working with clerks to find what data elements need to be sent and this will be taken into consideration. Judge Racek believes this to be a larger project than we envision and may need to be rethought.
Mobile device management and acceptable use standard
Larry explained the industry as a whole is starting to see a shift towards using more mobile devices. He stated there are security concerns with using them. Many of the concerns are addressed in the draft Remote Access Device Acceptable Use Standard document that was distributed. Justice Sandstrom asked if the group was ready to act on the draft acceptable use standard document. Penny suggested sending it out for comment to the users and discuss further at the next meeting. Larry will distribute the draft document.
Larry then asked if we should allow users to sync their personal phones, ipads, android type tablets, etc. to the state network to access documents, emails and so forth. Pending approval of the afore mentioned draft acceptable use standard, the group agreed to allow it for those users who travel frequently, obtain necessary approvals, and agree with all Court policies and acceptable use standards.
Larry has received requests to update current Blackberry's to an Android type phone and asked the group if we should allow users to replace their Blackberry's if it can be done at no cost. Larry said since we have upgraded the Exchange Server to 2010, we now have the ability to sync directly to our email server. The group agreed to allow users to do so if there is no charge.
Judge Mattson questioned if you access business email from a personal phone, if everything on your personal phone would then be open to public record. Justice Sandstrom stated it would need to be researched further.
For the Good of the Order
Judge Medd reported he and several other judges had conference calls with judges from Minnesota who are currently using Session Works Judge Edition. Judge Medd stated the judges thought in general it is beneficial but could use some tweaking. Larry stated the judges who are currently using this tool do not have experience with using Odyssey so couldn't compare the features of Judge's Edition to using Odyssey in the courtroom. Larry contacted Kyle Snowden to obtain a 30 day trial version of the product.
The meeting was adjourned by Justice Sandstrom. The next meeting is scheduled for October 19, 2012.