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 Penny Miller, Clerk of Supreme Court Sally Holewa, State Court Administrator Lee Ann Barnhardt, Director of Education & Communication
Members Absent: Hon. Daniel Narum, Judge – Southeast Judicial District Becky Absey, Clerk of District Court - Grand Forks County
Guests: Chris Iverson, Trial Court Manager - Unit 2 Pam Kuster, Deputy Clerk of Court – Grand Forks County Samantha Martin, Tyler Technologies Ronnie Everett, Tyler Technologies Don Wolf, Director of Finance
Staff: Larry Zubke, Director of Technology Cammie Schock, Business Analyst
The meeting was called to order by Chair Sandstrom.
Approval of Minutes from April 27, 2012 Meeting
Judge Herauf moved to approve the April 27, 2012 meeting minutes. Judge
Mattson seconded the motion and the motion carried.
Odyssey User Group update Chris stated both the user group and clerk’s subgroup continue to meet regularly. The
clerk’s group has completed an event guide to assist attorneys when e-filing. She
reported the group will begin working on an event guide for clerks which will include
specific behavior tied to the events. She said they have also been working on a
process to restrict restraining orders that have been dismissed without a hearing.
Cammie has been working on a project that will identify cases nightly that may need
restricting. Chris explained an issue where municipal traffic cases are being moved to
district court and are then given a criminal case number. The current proposed solution
is to develop a new case type.
2013-2015 IT Budget Larry moved on to discuss a summary of the IT budget. Overall there is a 19% increase
from what was submitted last biennium. The group discussed possible areas for
reduction.
iPad Survey Larry put together a summary on the iPad survey he conducted. The overall cost
estimate for the biennium came in at $65,000 to provide iPad’s to 40 users. Larry
suggested doing a pilot with just a few users.
Donna explained she has many judges requesting iPad’s. She stated if we don’t put
them in this biennium we will be falling behind the curve. She believes we will also be
able to better manage email with iPad’s.
Larry reported several agencies now utilizing iPad’s including the Department of
Transportation which replaced some smart phones with iPad’s. The legislative council
and the Public Service Commission have also decided to start using them. The general
consensus was to leave the full $65,000 in the budget.
Session Works-Judges Edition Larry stated the cost for each license per courtroom is $5000. If the judge also wants it
in their chambers it would be an additional $1000. Larry stated he did not add money in
the budget for monitors with the assumption they would replace something at those
locations. Judge Medd is interested in doing a pilot in Grand Forks and has asked for
two courtroom licenses and one for his chambers. Judge Mattson has also requested
to do a pilot and has requested three courtroom licenses and one for his chambers.
The group agreed to budget for these 2 pilot locations.
Other Larry stated the budget for IVN is at $172,000. The request was for one system for
Grand Forks, three for unit two and one for unit four. Williams County is also asking for
a multipoint license which is an additional $3000. Each system is roughly $32,000-$35,000. Larry reported there are portable systems that cost $6000-$8000. With the
portable units you have to pay for network capabilities in each room you would want to
utilize the system in. Sally stated it would be beneficial to explore other options. The
general consensus of the group was to reduce the number of systems requested from
unit two down to one which will reduce the budget to reflect only three systems and a
multipoint license.
Supreme Court video is another large item Larry has in the budget and asked if it should
be included this biennium. Justice Sandstrom stated it is a large project and is going to
confirm with the court to hold off this biennium.
The group discussed the budget for printers statewide and did agree the requested
printers for the courtrooms are needed for efficiency purposes. It was requested to get
additional information on the need for additional color printers.
The group agreed the $95,000 budgeted for an information technology disaster
recovery study is a high priority that needs to remain in the budget.
Also in the budget is $90,000 for a juvenile case management system replacement
study.
It was suggested to take out the requested $6,500 for an evidence system in New
Rockford. The committee suggested they seek funds through a facility grant.
Larry stated he would revise the budget with the agreed upon changes and submit to
the group via email for comment.
Other Odyssey Updates Justice Sandstrom stated the recommendation the Court Technology Committee made
to the Supreme Court, in regards to mandatory subsequent e-filing, is now out for
comment. Donna Wunderlich stated most attorneys have been expecting it since the
federal system is also mandating e-filing and she has not received any negative
feedback. Larry had a complaint that not all attorneys have their email addresses listed
with the Bar Board which makes it difficult for electronic service. As a result, Larry
contacted those attorneys and had them update their email address. Larry moved on to discuss Enterprise Custom Reporting. He said some of his staff
received three days of training delivered by Paul Crompton with Tyler Technologies.
Paul spent an additional two days with the IT staff looking into data backups, redundant
databases and how to eliminate orphaned files. Larry then reported we are progressing
on upgrading File and Serve to version 3.4. He is hoping to have it installed in a test
system later this month. He stated with the install of 3.4 we will be moving to newer
technology within Tyler. He also said we are adding a second integration server for File
& Serve redundancy purposes. He then reported the testing of patch 45 in Odyssey is
about complete. This patch will provide a fix for waived fees in session works as well as
a fix for the e-citation error report. Cammie stated there is also a fix to the issue where
resources have to be deleted then re-added in order to populate the specific resource
on the calendar. Larry also stated they have been working with Cass County on
configuration changes for Session Works. Larry reported that Tyler Technologies
continues to work on a solution for having only one IVR phone number for the entire
state where citations can be paid. Lee Ann Barnhardt reported that the first clerk GoToTraining session will take place on
June 21st and 22nd and will happen every month thereafter. She said there are a few
tutorials that have also been recorded but she would like to wait on posting them until
she has a good catalog to choose from. She has also begun her initial inquiries for
items to include in the judge’s training curriculum. Judge Racek submitted a document to the committee titled, “Court Technology Priorities
for 2013-2015”. The committee discussed several of these priorities. He listed a stable
IT workforce as an employment priority and expressed concern over spreading the IT
staff too thin. He also listed six high yield IT projects including E-filing and expansion of
e-citations, which Larry explained both have little impact on the IT staff. Judge Mattson
stated he would work with Larry to do some additional research and put together a
standard list of the requirements including costs and what they need to do to proceed.
The project list also included CJIS integration which Larry reported will have a major
impact on the IT staff as far as workload. Making Session Works more efficient and
effective, e-signatures on outside documents and criminal case initiation solutions
completed the project list. Larry stated the latter would have a big impact on his staff,
but that he would follow up on Minnesota’s solution for electronic filing to initiate criminal
cases. Also listed on the priorities document was important accuracy upgrades which included
proper restriction of files when some counts are deferred and others are not. Tyler
Technologies is currently looking into a solution for this. Accuracy of the level of offense
was listed which is being worked on within the User Group. The fourth topic on the list was Priority Studies. Included was continuation of court if
Odyssey was unusable. Larry reported there is $95,000 in the budget for a business
continuity study. A new juvenile case management system was listed and Larry stated
there is $90,000 in the budget for the National Center to help with a study. High Yield Legislation was the fifth topic on the document and involved three potential
legislative change requests. The first included bail being considered the property of the
defendant which would reduce clerk workload by ending the requirement for tracking
bond remitter files. The second suggested consolidation of the current seven fees into
just one fee and setting a percentage for each remitter to receive from the single fee.
The last, suggested consolidating the non-criminal traffic processing into one location
which would reduce equipment and training costs as well as provide a single location to
resolve all issues. The final topic listed was Education and Advancement. This included expanding clerk
and judge training which is currently in progress as Lee Ann reported earlier as well as
exploring a compact with other Odyssey states for future system improvements.
For the Good of the Order
The meeting was adjourned by Justice Sandstrom. The next meeting is scheduled for
August 17, 2012.