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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Ind. Courts - More on: "Delays hurt plan to link state courts: Millions spent, progress scant, and legislators growing weary"

This ILB entry from July 14th quoted from an article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Repeating some of the points in the story:

Plans to computerize records and link more than 400 civil and criminal courts around Indiana started in 2002. But after spending millions of dollars, only a few dozen courts in nine counties have hooked on.

“That’s not a very high-performance level,” said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, an attorney and chairman of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee. “I think we need to re-evaluate the project as far as where we are going and what we are going to do.

“Right now it’s kind of stagnant.” * * *

In fact, during the regular legislative session, a provision was inserted into a version of the budget that failed that would have moved the project to the State Budget Agency.

Currently, it is handled within the Indiana Supreme Court’s Judicial Technology and Automation Committee, known as JTAC. * * *

“We are making decisions one piece at a time instead of an overall look at the cost,” Kenley said. “Let’s institutionalize it so it’s a performing asset. Now that we are past the development stage and it’s operational, we need to be more standardized in operation.” * * *

Mary DePrez, director and counsel of trial court technology for JTAC, said it’s difficult to determine a timeline to deploy Odyssey to all 92 counties because of problems encountered with the quality of data contained in the existing systems. Given that, she estimated it could take five or six years to complete a statewide rollout of Odyssey.

She notes that regardless of the goals for the primary case management system, the committee has worked on some other smaller but important projects for the judicial system, such as a protection order registry and electronic ticketing application.

A July 18th AP story, which was carried in this (South Bend Tribune version) and shorter versions in several state papers, included these quotes:
Supporters say the task is overwhelming and progress has been made despite a five-year false start. But at least one key lawmaker believes it's time to re-evaluate the project, which has cost the state about $20 million so far.

"That's not a very high performance level," Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne. "I think we need to re-evaluate the project as far as where we are going and what we are going to do." * * *

The project is handled by the Indiana Supreme Court's Judicial Technology and Automation Committee, but Kenley would like to see that change. During the regular legislative session, he wrote a provision into a failed version of the state budget that would have moved the project to the State Budget Agency.

State. Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, doesn't think that's necessary.

"I think we're doing a good job given the vast extent of it and the complexity of it," he said. "We should not slow down."

Mary DePrez, director of the Supreme Court technology committee, said that in 2002 the committee projected that implementing a statewide case management system could cost between $73 million and $113 million. She estimated the statewide rollout of the Odyssey system that debuted in 2007 could take five or six years. * * *

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathryn Dolan said the project is complex, in part because the vendors must ensure that the statewide system and the local systems can communicate.

"These are smart people who are figuring it out, but it takes a little bit of time," she said.

Kenley was critical of the piecemeal approach to the rollout.

"We are making decisions one piece at a time instead of an overall look at the cost," Kenley said. "Let's institutionalize it so it's a performing asset."

Though only a handful of counties so far are on Odyssey, Dolan and Moses pointed to progress made on related computerization projects. Those include an electronic ticketing system used by most Indiana police, court access to Bureau of Motor Vehicle traffic infraction records and police access to domestic violence protection orders statewide.

"They're big projects that fit into a bigger part of the puzzle," Dolan said.

Two NE Indiana legislators, Rep. Win Moses and Sen. Dennis Kruse, sent a letter that was published in the Journal Gazette Saturday. It basically says that they are behind the Court's system and are pleased with the progress being made. The second half of the letter is devoted to lauding the ancillary projects.

What to make of all this? It is hard for anyone to be against the project goals:

[T]o equip all the state's courts and clerks with a computer system to manage cases, connect court systems with each other, police and state agencies and make records available on the Internet.
But to repeat Senator Kenley:
“We are making decisions one piece at a time instead of an overall look at the cost,” Kenley said. “Let’s institutionalize it so it’s a performing asset. Now that we are past the development stage and it’s operational, we need to be more standardized in operation.”
Currently it appears that JTAC's focus may have shifted to the ancillary projects because of slow going implementing the Odyssey case management system in the counties. Stepping back and assessing the overall project, its priorities and goals, its funding, its ultimate state and local costs, as Sen. Kenley recommends, seems a reasonable suggestion before raising court fees once again.

The $7.00 (per civil, criminal, infraction, and ordinance violation action) JTAC automated recordkeeping fee, collected at the county level, goes to the state, regardless of whether a county has elected to participate in the Odyessy system. JTAC's proposal this year to raise the fee to $10 was rejected by the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Kenley. (See this Feb. 21, 2009 ILB entry for details.)

Many massive state computerization projects have bogged down and needed reappraisal. The BMV project and the FSSA project come immediately to mind. Also, the first iteration of the "plan to link the 400 Indiana courts."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 19, 2009 04:29 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts