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Health & Fitness

4 Questions for Republican Clerk Candidates on the Court Management System

The race for clerk of the courts in Kane County will be decided in the primary as no Democrats are running. Here is a summary of the candidates' position on the Court Management System.

The March 20 primary will decide the Circuit Clerk of Kane County position, as no Democrats are running.

Arguably, the most important issue facing voters regarding the Clerk’s Office is the need to replace the existing Court Management System software application which has a $12 million price tag.

This CMS solution supports the recording of court actions and assists the judiciary with intelligence about workloads, work flow and compliance. During the last six months, it has come to light that the current implementation of CMS is not meeting the needs of the judiciary. 

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The three candidates for the office; Cathy Hulburt, Karin Herwick and Thomas Hartwell have all been gracious enough to provide us with information about how they would address the existing issues.

How best can the Court Management System issues be resolved? There are four areas of opinion:

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  1. Determine if the existing system is salvageable or at least could be improved to better meet the needs of the judiciary short-term.

Cathy Hulburt — “I have spent a lot of time with the IT Department and the members of the Judicial Technology Committee discussing the pluses and minuses of the current system. I have absolutely concluded that the cost to fix, maintain and then add the remaining offices to the existing JANO system is not feasible.”

Karin Herwick — “According to the report by the consultant hired by the county to make a recommendation on the need to replace the CMS, it found that the circuit clerk's system should be replaced in the next several years.” 

Thomas Hartwell — “We do not want to "throw good money after bad" or make changes for the sake of changes. In the long term, I believe that a new CMS will provide better court services and cost efficiencies. We must look at both replacing the current system and at the same time find ways to keep the current system
working—maybe find some short term improvements.”

 

2. Replace the existing system with a new system based on the selection process specified by the settlement agreement.

Cathy Hulburt — “The Judicial Technology Committee had already been meeting for over a year and had set these basic parameters. I have been involved with that committee and the process since its inception. I absolutely agree that all members of the judicial/public safety system must participate and be in agreement on the system because it is an integrated system between all of these officials and departments.”

Karin Herwick — “The settlement agreement provides a means to bring forth the process to follow to seek the new system. It does not provide a guarantee that a system will be voted by the board to make such a purchase.  If the board votes to pass the commissions recommended budget it should not occur without a complete business plan that will be a solid and lasting investment for the citizens of Kane County.  At some point it is going to be necessary to purchase a new system.”

Thomas Hartwell — “The County has only begun the RFP procedure for a new IT system. As Circuit Clerk, I would do “research by RFP.” I would take advantage of what the computer industry calls “consultative selling.” Vendors have pre-sales consultants who, free of charge, will analyze research the solution and offer best practice suggestions. They will identify business process improvements, plan efficient staged deployments, and calculate return on investment. All
this free of charge—in hopes of getting the business.”


3. Move the management of the IT infrastructure for CMS from the Clerk’s Office to the county IT Department.

Cathy Hulburt — “ I will transfer the operations of the Judicial CMS systems to the IT Department. I have spoken with the IT director about the transfer of personnel (and the employee salaries and benefits) to the IT Department, leaving an onsite IT director within the Circuit Clerk's Office. This would be for lack of a better term a "win-win" for the county and the Circuit Clerk's Office, saving both time and money.”

Karin Herwick — “Why? The current CMS runs on an AS400 and does not
require a great deal of resource time.  In fact, the time that circuit clerk’s IT staff spend maintaining the server is minimal and equates to no more than a few hours per month. The system hardware of a future CMS could reside with the County ITD as long as the software is maintained by the user. There must be assurances that the integrity and security of the record is at all times protected so that the circuit clerk can uphold recordkeeping responsibilities as the custodian of the record.”

Thomas Hartwell — Mr. Hartwell did not respond to this question specifically.


4. What did we learn from the failure of the existing system?

Cathy Hulburt — “The current CMS system was provided by a small company that was limited in its resources. Going forward we need a vendor that is familiar with county court requirements and has the financial backing necessary to deliver successfully.”

Karin Herwick — “In my opinion the existing system has not been a failure. It has provided efficiencies over the years and has been instrumental in helping to manage the data entry of high volume court calls and other recordkeeping responsibilities. It is becoming outdated and its usefulness is not what it was in the past.”

Thomas Hartwell — “I believe that it is clear that significant changes must occur in regards to the CMS. By law the state of Illinois is responsible for part of the costs incurred by Kane for probation cases. Chief Judge Spence just informed me that the current system undercounted the number of probation cases in the county. Consequently, the county failed to request reimbursement from the state totaling some $500,000. The status quo is no longer tolerable.”


Summary

Cathy Hulburt believes that the management of the CMS system should be with the county IT department. The existing systems needs replacement and would not invest more money in it.

Karin Herwick feels that the existing system was not a failure but that the county has begun to out grown it. Karin does not see advantage in consolidating her IT staff with the county IT Department.

Thomas Hartwell believes that there may be some short-term gains by fixing existing problems. He believes he can save money by having vendors demonstrate best practice and learning from them.

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