ORDER NO. 31299 AMENDMENT TO KERR COUNTY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY Came to be heard this the 11th day of May, 2009, with a motion made by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioners WilliamsBaldwin,the Court unanimously approved by a vote of 4-0-0 to: Approve Amendment to Kerr County Information Technology Policy as follows: Delete the sentence under paragraph 3.5 and move to anew paragraph 3.9 All Kerr County employees and/or representatives have the obligation to report suspected violations of this policy to their elected official, department head, or in the alternative Commissioners Court. Add paragraph 3.9 to read as follows: 3.9 Reporting Violations All Kerr County employees and/or representatives have the obligation to report suspected violations of this policy to their elected official, department head, Information Technology, or in the alternative Commissioners Court. Change paragraph 3.8 to read as follows, addition in italics. 3.8 Confidential Data Information technology staff shall be responsible for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of information viewed during troubleshooting and monitoring of the county's network. Information Technology staff will adhere to the strictest standards, including all statutory requirements, of confidentiality. All county records, including electronic records with the exception of judicial records, are subject to the Public Information Act. 4.3 Software Purchases Only copyrighted software, authorized for use and/or purchased in compliance with Kerr County's software procurement policies, will be eligible for payment. Only original manufacturer's copyrighted software will be eligible for purchase and payment. The Kerr County Information Technology Department is responsible for safekeeping of all software purchased including licenses and media. License agreements will be kept as the property of Kerr County. A copy of the license agreement may be kept by an elected official or department head. Core software system purchases are to be approved by the commissioners' court in accordance with all statutory requirements and Kerr County policy. New Paragraph: 4.7 Kerr County Electronic In formation Systems IAW LGC 191.008 The commissioners' court has provided the following systems; Financial and Human Resources; In code Integrated Criminal Justice Information Systems; Odyssey Law Enforcement, Jail, Case Manager, and Prosecutor. Vital and Land Records; Edoc Suite Commissioners Court records, County and District clerk records, and general imaging; Laserfiche and Papervision 1,i3 ~/a 9 9 COMMISSIONERS' COURT AGENDA REQUEST PLEASE FURNISH ONE ORIGINAL AND TEN COPIES OF THIS REQUEST AND DOCUMENTS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE COURT. MADE BY: John D. Trolinger Office: Information Technology MEETING DATE: May 1 1, 2009 TIME PREFERRED: 10:30 SUBJECT: (Please Be Specific) Consider discuss and take appropriate action to modify the Kerr County Information Technology policy court order #28680 Dated June 14, 2004. EXECUTIVE SESSION REQUESTED: (PLEASE STATE REASON): NAME OF PERSON ADDRESSING COURT: John D. Trolinger ESTIMATED LENGTH OF PRESENTATION: 4 minutes IF PERSONNEL MATTER -NAME OF EMPLOYEE c Time for submitting this request for Court to assure that the matter is posted in accordance with Title 5, Chapter 551 and 552, Government Code, is as follows: Meeting schedule for Mondays: 5:00 P.M. previous Tuesday THIS REQUEST RECEIVED BY: THIS REQUEST RECEIVED ON: All Agenda Requests will be screened by the County Judge's Office to determine if adequate information has been prepared for the Court's formal consideration and action at time of Court Meetings. Your cooperation will be appreciated and contribute towards your request being addressed at the earliest opportunity. See Agenda Request Rules Adopted by Commissioners' Court, Court Order No. 25722. Make sure any and all back up material is attached to this form. May 1 1, 2009 IT Policy Change Agenda backup information Delete the sentence under paragraph 3.5 and move to a new paragraph 3.9 All Kerr County employees and/or representatives have the obligation to report suspected violations of this policy to their elected official, department head, or in the alternative Commissioners Court. Add paragraph 3.9 to read as follows: 3.9 Reporting Violations All Kerr County employees and/or representatives have the obligation to report suspected violations of this policy to their elected official, department head, Information Technology, or in the alternative Commissioners Court. Change paragraph 3.8 to read as follows, addition in italics. 3.8 Confidential Data Information technology staff shall be responsible for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of information viewed during troubleshooting and monitoring of the county's network. Information Technology staff will adhere to the strictest standards, including all statutory requirements, of confidentiality. All county records, including electronic records with the exception of judicial records, are subject to the Public Information Act. May 11, 2009 IT Policy Change Agenda backup information Paragraph change for discussion. 4.3 Software Purchases Only copyrighted software, authorized for use and/or purchased in compliance with Kerr County's software procurement policies, will be eligible for payment. Only original manufacturer's copyrighted software will be eligible for purchase and payment. The Kerr County Information Technology Department is responsible for safekeeping of all software purchased including licenses and media. License agreements will be kept as the property of Kerr County. A copy of the license agreement may be kept by an elected official or department head. Core software system purchases are to be approved by the commissioners court i.a.w all pertinent laws and Kerr County policies and standards. New Paragraph: 4.7 Kerr Covnty Electronic Information Systems IAW LGC 191.008 The commissioners court has provided the following systems; Financial and Human Resources; In code Integrated Criminal Justice Information Systems; Odyssey Law Enforcement, Jail, Case Manager, and Prosecutor. Vital and Land Records; Edoc Suite Commissioners Court records, County and District clerk records, and general imaging; Laserfiche and Papervision References: Commissioners Court Order 28680 AG Opinion JM-1224 Local Government Code 191.008 Technology Workshop January 28, 2002 May 11, 2009 IT Policy Change Agenda backup information Court order http: /!~n~ww.co.kerr.tx__.us/commcrt,/minuses/200i`20-`202010/2004/s12~0~ tx'- Scanned original image is at http:%/ti~tivw.co.kerr.tx.us/itlpolicy/Kerr%20County%20Information%20Techuolo~y%20Policy ~df ORDER 28680 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY Came to be heard this the 14th day of June 2004 with a motion made by Commissioner Williams, Seconded by Commissioner Letz, the Court unanimously approved by a vote of 4-0-0, the Kerr County Information/Technology Policies. COMMISSIONERS' COURT AGENDA REQUEST PLEASE FURNISH ONE ORIGINAL AND NINE COPIES OF THIS REQUEST AND DOCUMENTS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE COURT. MADE BY: William H. Williams OFFICE: Commissioner, Pct. 2 MEETING DATE: June 14, 2004 TIME PREFERRED: SUBJECT: (Please be specific) Consider, discuss and take appropriate action on final draft of Ken County Information/Technology Policies. EXECUTIVE SESSION REQUESTED: NAME OF PERSON(S) ADDRESSING THE COURT: Commissioner Williams. ESTIMATED LENGTH OF PRESENTATION: 5 Minutes IF PERSONNEL MATTER-NAME OF EMPLOYEE: Time for submitting this request for Court to assure that the matter is posted in accordance with Title 5, Chapter 551 and 552, Government Code, is as follows: Meeting scheduled for Mondays: 5:00 P.M. previous Tuesday THIS REQUEST RECEIVED BY: THIS REQUEST RECEIVED ON: All Agenda Requests will be screened by the County Judge's Office to determine if adequate information has been prepared for the Court's formal consideration and action at time of Court meetings. Your cooperation is appreciated and contributes toward your request being addressed at the earliest opportunity. See Agenda Request Rule adopted by Commissioners Court. May 11, 2009 IT Policy Change Agenda backup information For action today is the final draft of the Kerr County Information/Technology Policy. We have incorporated all suggested changes proffered by Kerr County Elected Officials and Department Heads with the exception of those contained in the undated letter from JP 4 Ragsdale. I personally believe most of Mr. Ragsdale's comments/objections have been discussed and addressed, if deemed important during the revision process. Attached is copy of an a-mail you should have received from District Court Clerk Linda Decker. While her frame of reference seems to 'young and not so young children," it seems to me she underscores the need to put this policy into effect immediately. WHW " age o:- '. Bill Williams From: "linda uecker" To: "Nadine ALFORD" ; "Cindy Nix" ; "HELENA HANNA" ; "HCADRC" ; "JACQUI MAGENHEIMER" ; "OLGA OZUNA" ; "NONA" ; "Mary Bergmann" ; "Annabeth" ; "Diane Bolin" ; "PAULA RECTOR" ; "MINDY WILLIAMS" ; "Tommy Tomlinson" ; "PIEPER, JANNETT Kerr" ; "KARI ODELL" ; "barbara Nemec" ; "DAVID MOTLEY" ; "BARBARA HOLMES" ; "Becky HENDERSON" ; "Brad Alford" ; "Will Brown" ; "SHAUN BRANHAM" ; "VANCE ELLIOTT" ; "Kathy MitchelP' ; "BUSTER BALDWIN" ; "DAVE NICHOLSON" ; "JONATHAN LETZ" ; "BILL WILLIAMS" ; "DAWN WRIGHT" ; "ROBBiN BURLEW" ; "CARRIE WHITT" ; "KATHY TAULBEE" ; "TAMMY MARQUART" ; "NELLIE LIMON" ; "SIMONA GARZA" ; "BOBBIE GARCIA" ; "JEANNE EVANS" Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 12:03 PM Subject: law library Some of you have young and not so young children that must spend time after school in the office and in the past some have used the computers in the law library. THAT WILL NO LONGER BE PERMITTED. The computers have been abused by the downloading and games, porn etc., and none of them are working at this time. Effective soon, the law library doors will be locked and entry may only be gained with the district clerks office assistance. Kerr County spends a lot of money to maintain a law library that we can be proud of and that can be used by the attorneys and citizens that pay taxes to make this happen. Please pass this on to anyone in your office to whom this may apply. If this does not apply to you, please disregard and accept my thanks. Linda Uecker, Law Librarian 6/7/04 D RAFT... D RAFT... D RAFT Kerr County 1 reformation/Technology Policies Adopted by Kerr County Commissioners Court 2004 Table of Contents 1. Policy ......................................................................... 2. Terminology ............................................................... 2.1 Chain Letter ...................................................... 2.2 Client ................................................................. 2.3 Computing Ethics .............................................. 2.4 E-Mail ................................................................. 2.5 Hack .................................................................. 2.6 Internet ............................................................. 2.7 Hoax Message .................................................. 2.8 Home Page ....................................................... 2.9 Intellectual Property ........................................ 2.10 Network ............................................................ 2.11 Processes ......................................................... 2.12 Server ................................................................ 2.13 Shareware ......................................................... 2.14 Software License Agreement ........................... 2.15 Software Piracy ................................................. 2.16 Unauthorized Copying ...................................... 2.17 Unauthorized Copying ....................................... 2.18 World Wide Web ~www or the Web) .................. 2.19 Web Page ........................................................... 2.20 Worm .................................................................. 3. Use of Kerr County Information Technology ............. 3.1 Authorization ...................................................... 3.2 Electronic Mail and Internet Use ....................... 3.3 Network Operability ........................................... 3.4 Personal Use ...................................................... 3.5 Right to Privacy .................................................. 3.6 Broadcast Messages .......................................... 3.7 Disciplinary Action ............................................. 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 4. Software ...................................................................... 7 4.1 Copyrighted Software ........................................ 7 4.2 Software Approval ............................................. 7 4.3 Software Purchases .......................................... 7 4.4 Unauthorized Purchases .................................... 8 4.5 Damaged Software ............................................. 8 4.6 Software Accounting .......................................... 8 4.7 Software Documentation/Record Keeping ......... 8 5. Kerr County's Home Page ............................................. 9 6. Computer Ethics ............................................................ 9 7. Et1Cil]ette 9 9. E-mail Guidelines ........................................................... 9 1. Policy It is the policy of Kerr County to provide an atmosphere that encourages the free exchange of ideas and sharing of information to benefit the conduct of official Kerr County business. Access to this environment and Kerr County's information technology resources is a privilege and must be treated with the highest standard of ethics. Kerr County expects all individuals to use the computing and information technology resources in a legal, ethical, and responsible manner; respecting the public trust through which these resources have been provided, the rights and privacy of others, the integrity of facilities and controls, and all pertinent laws and Kerr County policies and standards. Electronic mail and Internet access is provided to Kerr County representatives such as elected -officials, department heads, employees, interns, temporary agency employees and volunteers as business communications tools. Kerr County representatives may have access to one or more forms of electronic media and services (computers, a-mail, telephones, voice mail, fax machines, copying machines, external electronic bulletin boards, wire services, on-line services, the Internet and the World Wide Web). The following procedures apply to all electronic media and services, which are: • Accessed on or from Kerr County premises; • Accessed using Kerr County computer or other equipment, or via • Kerr County-paid access methods, and/or used in a manner which identifies the individual with Kerr County. By using or accessing any such electronic media in the manner described, the employee shall be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these procedures. 2. Terminology 2.1 Chain Letter A letter sent to a number of people asking each recipient to send copies with the same request to a specified number of others. The circulation of a chain letter increases in geometrical progression as long as the instructions are followed by all recipients. 2.2 Client Is one end of a network protocol that provides a user interface to the server. 2.3 Computing Ethics A set of accepted manners to be observed while using information technology resources. 2.4 E-Mail Electronic mail is a means of sending messages between computers using a computer network or over a modem connected to a telephone line. 2.5 Hack An individual who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a computer network or file. 2.6 Internet The Internet is a network of computer networks through which information or electronic mail may travel. Computer users can use the Internet like a telephone or fax to exclianye information quickly and efficiently. 2.7 Hoax Message Any message used to deceive by a story or a trick, for sport or mischief. 2.8 Home Page The starting point for most organizations to place links to other parts of the web. 2.9 Intellectual Property An original computer program is regarded by law as the intellectual property of the person or company which created the work. Computer programs are protected under copyright law, which provides that any unauthorized copying of such works is illegal. 2.10 Network A collection of two or more computers and associated devices that are linked together with communications equipment. 2.11 Processes A part of a running software program or other computing operation that does a single task. 2.12 Server A computer that provides information or programs to client computers on a network, whether it be an in-house server or an Internet server. 2 2.13 Shareware Software available on the Internet for downloading so you can try it before buying it. This software is copyrighted and distributed on a "free-will donation" basis, either via the Internet or by being passed along by satisfied customers. Users who continue to use the program after a trial period are expected to pay a registration fee. In return, they get documentation, technical support, and access to updated versions. 2.14 Software License Agreement: A software license agreement states the terms of usage, as permitted by the copyright owner, for the specific software product to which it pertains. The license agreement accompanying software is stated explicitly in the software documentation or on the computer screen when the program is started. The price of software c~ver~s the legal acquisition of the software license and binds the purchaser to use the software only according to the terms and agreements stated in the license. 2.15 Software Piracy Software piracy is the term used to describe the unauthorized copying or use of a computer program in any mariner other than what is permitted by copyright law or by the author as stated in the software licensing agreement. Any person who engages in software piracy commits an illegal act under general copyright law. 2.16 Unauthorized Copying The manufacturer's license agreement should be followed when making back up copies of the software. Unless otherwise stated, the purchase of a software license allows the purchaser to make a "back-up" copy, to be used in case the original software disk malfunctions or is destroyed. 2.17 Virus A computer program that replicates on computer systems by incorporating itself into shared programs. 2.18 World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) The part of the Internet which provides a way for organizations or individuals to publish information which is then available to a world wide audience. The World Wide Web currently uses an Internet protocol called HTTP or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and sends files written in a language called HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language. An HTTP server provides Web pages to client programs called browsers which retrieve and display the information stored on the Web server. 2.19 Web Page A single page displayed by a Web browser. 2.20 Worm Known primarily as a virus, it is a computer program that can replicate itself. 3. Use of Kerr County Information Technology 3.1 Prohibited actions include but are not limited to: a. Personal use, except as provided by Sec.3.2 b. Use of unauthorized resources; c. Accessing applications, files, data or processes without appropriate authorization. d. Intent to research or exploit security flaws to gain system or data access; e. Connecting any hardware to the network or YC without prior approval from the Information Technology Department. f. Altering or destroying information with the intent to cause harm or injury to Kerr County or an employee of Kerr County. g. Attempting to deliberately degrade performance or deny service. h. Installation of any software without prior approval of the Information Technology Department. i. Sending bomb threats or "hoax" messages. j. Use of computing or network resources for advertising or commercial purposes. 3.2 Electronic Mail and Internet Use Kerr County elected officials, department heads and employees shall not knowingly send, receive, store, or access sites that are deemed by Kerr County to promote, encourage, or endorse discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, sex, political affiliation, religion, disability, or sexual orientation; Electronic media may not be used for knowingly transmitting, retrieving or storage of any communications including but not limited to: a. Those of a discriminatory or harassing nature; b. Those that are derogatory to any individual or group c. Those that are obscene or of a pornographic nature; d. Those that are of a defamatory or threatening nature; e. Chain letters; f. Bomb threats or "hoax messages;" g. E-mail bombs that may cause network problems and disrupt service for other users; h. Those which attempt to hide the identity of the sender, or represent the sender as someone else or from another source; 4 i. Those for advertising or other commercial purposes; or j. Those intended for any other purpose which is illegal or against Kerr County policy or contrary to Kerr County's interest. Supervisors may authorize limited use of electronic mail for personal purposes so long as productivity is not adversely impacted. 3.3 Network Operability Kerr County employees and/or representatives may not attempt to read, "hack" into other systems or other people's logins, or "crack" passwords, breach computer or network security measures, or monitor electronic files or communications of other employees or third parties except by explicit direction of the department head. Kerr County employees and/or representatives may not share user logon and passwords, access or copy another user's electronic mail, data, programs, or other file(s) without prior approval of the elected official or department head for whom the employee directly works. Electronic media and services should not be used in a manner that will likely cause network congestion or significantly hamper the ability of other people to access and use the system, such as distributing computer worms or viruses. Kerr County employees and/or representatives may not alter or destroy information with the intent to cause harm or injury to Kerr County or any other employee or Kerr County. Kerr County employees and/or representatives may not tap a phone line or run a network sniffer without authorization. 3.4 Personal Use Electronic media and services are exclusively for Kerr County business use. Limited, occasional or incidental use of electronic media (sending or receiving) for personal, non-business purposes may be authorized by a supervisor. The use of streaming audio or video for personal use is prohibited. 3.5 Right to Privacy Kerr County reserves the right for elected officers and/or department heads to monitor, access, review, copy or delete each employee's access or use of the Internet and electronic mail including but not limited to a-mail, word processing, utility programs, spreadsheets, voicemail, telephones, 5 Internet/BBS access, and to block access to areas of the Internet which have no value to Kerr County. Kerr County employees and/or representatives have no legitimate expectation of privacy in their use of the Internet or Electronic Mail. Use of Kerr County's systems and hardware constitutes consent to having Internet and electronic mail usage monitored. All documents are the property of Kerr County, and are not to be removed from Kerr County premises or copied to removable media without the approval of the elected official and/or the department head. Kerr County reserves the right to purge electronic message(s) and/or documents, attachments older than four (4) months. Messages and/or documents including attachments sent and/or received via electronic mail which must be retained for greater than four (4) months must be filed in "My Documents" on the user's hard drive or on a network shared drive where applicable. 3.6 Broadcast Messages Permission for county-wide broadcasting of messages must be obtained from either the elected official or department head for which the employee and/or representative works. 3.7 Disciplinary Action Any employee found to be abusing the privilege of Kerr County-facilitated access to electronic media or services will be subject to disciplinary action by the elected official or department head including termination of employment and/or risk having the privilege removed him/herself and 6 4. Software 4.1 Copyrighted Software Kerr County elected officials, department heads, employees and/or representatives obtaining electronic access to other companies or individuals' materials must respect all copyrights and may not copy, retrieve, modify, or forward copyrighted materials except as permitted by the copyright owner. Kerr County employees and/or representatives shall abide by applicable laws and Kerr County policies and. respect the copyrights and intellectual property laws of others, including the legal use of copyrighted software. Use of unauthorized software copies are a violation of the law and unauthorized copying of software will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Kerr County employees and/or representatives must comply with all license or purchase terms regulating the use of software. 4.2 Software Approval Approval must be obtained from the Kerr County Information Technology Department prior to using any publicly available software package, download of demo software, or software on preview. (A software approval form is available for this purpose). Software that may be marked as "free," "public domain," and "public use" may be free for personal use but not corporate and/or governmental use. In downloading software from the Internet, use of this software can violate copyright or licensing requirements, thus subject Kerr County to unnecessary and expensive litigation. 4.3 Software Purchases Only copyrighted software, authorized for use and/or purchased in compliance with Kerr County's software procurement policies, will be eligible for payment. Only original manufacturer's copyrighted software will be eligible for purchase and payment. The Kerr County Information Technology Department is responsible for safekeeping of all software purchased including licenses and media. License agreements will be kept as the property of Kerr County. A copy of the license agreement may be kept by an elected official or department head. 7 4.4 Unauthorized Purchases All software purchased must have prior approval. Any software purchased without an approved request and purchase order issued by the information technology department will be considered an unauthorized purchase and will become the financial responsibility of the employee who made the purchase. "Shareware" is not eligible for purchase and any "shareware" purchased will become the financial responsibility of the employee making the purchase. The use of software, free or otherwise not authorized or purchased by Kerr County is prohibited. Employees not adhering to this policy may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. 4.5 Damaged Software It is the responsibility of the Information Technology Department to return any damaged software to the vendor and seek the appropriate credit or refund, if paid. 4.6 Software Accounting Kerr County Information Technology Department will take inventory of each desktop or laptop computer's software on a periodic basis. Departments must allow access to all directories, software disks, and documentation upon request by ITD personnel. 4.7 Software Documentation/Record Keeping All copyrighted software must include proper documentation (license agreement). Only under the following circumstances may Kerr County employees/representatives copy software: a. Prior authorization must be obtained from the information technology department. b. Back-up copies will be permitted if allowed in the software license agreement. c. Back-up copies are labeled as such and become the property of Kerr County. 5. Kerr County's Home Page Kerr County's Home Page will contain the official county seal, information about county activities, meetings, and public hearings. Likewise, information on how to contact all elected officials or departments by e-mail, by regular mail, or by fax or telephone will be included. Confidential information shall not be released via the Internet. Release of information that might compromise public safety should be avoided at all times. Kerr County's Home Page will be coordinated and produced by the information technology department. No modifications or additions including links to other sites can be made to Kerr County's Home Page without prior approval of the information technology department 6. Computer Ethics Kerr County is a political subdivision of the State of Texas. Elected officials, employees and/or representatives of Kerr County have a responsibility to conduct themselves in an ethical manner. Electronic mail should be treated as privileged in the same manner as first class U.S. mail. Any system weaknesses should be reported to the Information Technology Department immediately. Data obtained inappropriately (i.e., proprietary) should not be used. 7. Etiquette Each network system (e.g., Law Enforcement, District Clerk, County Clerk, Auditing, Treasurer, Tax Assessor, etc.) has its own set of policies, practices and procedures. Actions which are routinely allowed on one network or system may be controlled or even forbidden on other networks or systems. It is the user's responsibility to abide by the policies, practices and procedures of all networks or systems with which they may communicate. 8. Policy Each department head or elected official shall develop and implement written guidelines and/or policies for county owned computer usage in each office. 9 Reference: Local Government Code 191.008 Sec. 191.008. AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH COMPUTERIZED ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SYSTEM. (a) The commissioners court of a county by order may provide for the establishment and operation of a computerized electronic information system through which it may provide on a contractual basis direct access to information that relates to all or some county and precinct records and records of the district courts and courts of appeals having jurisdiction in the county, that is public information, and that is stored or processed in the system. The commissioners court may make records available through the system only if the custodian of the records agrees in writing to allow public access under this section to the records. (b) The commissioners court may: (1) provide procedures for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of the information system; (2) establish eligibility criteria for users; (3) delineate the public information to be available through the system; (4) set a reasonable fee, charged under a contract, for use of the system; and (5) consolidate billing and collection of fees and payments under one county department or office. (c) The commissioners court may contract with a person or other governmental agency for the development, acquisition, maintenance, or operation of: (1) the information system or any component of the information system, including telecommunication services necessary for access to the system; and (2) billing and collection services for the system. Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 86, Sec. 1, eff. may 1~, 1991. http://w~~~~.oa~.state.tx.us/opinions/opinions/47mattox/opi 1990~'htm/jm12~4 htm .~~tl~ F)' ~:c. ,~~ .J• ;. ~ ~" ~' ~~.'a :{ Office of the Attorney General State of Texa s September 17, 1990 Honorable Mike Driscoll Harris County Attorney 1001 Preston Suite 634 Houston, Texas 77002 Dear Mr. Driscoll: Opinion l~lo. JM-1224 Re: Whether information relating to criminal cases is subject to disclosure and related questions (RQ-1482) You ask nine questions regarding the operation of the Harris County computer system and the authority of a board created by the Harris County Commissioners Court to manage the system. The questions stem from disagreements over the control of and access to information stored in the computer. Before considering your questions, we will briefly review the factual information supplied by your office and others. In October of 1977 the commissioners court created a county department called the Justice Information Management System (JIMS), evidently for the purpose of operating and maintaining the county's central computer system. FN1 The duties of the department include, among other things, the programming of the central computer to meet the needs of those county offices with authorized access to the system, the training of county officials and employees in the use of the computer, and the assignment of passwords and transaction codes to control access to information stored in the computer. Some of these tasks are performed in conjunction with the county data processing department. Your request for this opinion is prompted by the use of the county computer to collect and maintain information regarding pending and closed criminal cases. You inform us that the district clerk, the district attorney, the county sheriff, the county criminal courts, the county pre-trial services agency, the county adult probation department and juvenile probation department, justices of the peace, and county constables all store information concerning criminal cases in the computer. Though controls are programmed into the system by DIMS and the data processing department, information originally collected and entered into the computer by one agency may later be retrieved and updated by other agencies or be integrated with information collected by other agencies. These conditions have raised questions concerning the "custody" and control of criminal case information stored in the county computer. The commissioners court appointed an executive board to oversee the operation of JIMS and the computer system. The board was specifically empowered to "establish and audit security codes" and to "authorize data elements to be entered and to whom they shall be distributed." The board's membership is composed of the administrative judge of the district courts trying criminal cases, the presiding judge of the county criminal courts at law, a judge of one of the family district courts, a judge of one of the juvenile district courts, a justice of the peace, the district attorney, the district clerk, the county sheriff, and a county constable. In 1985 the DIMS executive board executed an agreement with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) regarding access to the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications Systems (TLETS), a statewide clearinghouse for information collected and exchanged between law enforcement agencies throughout the state. The system, managed and operated by the DPS, provides local law enforcement agencies access to the resources of the National Crime Information Center, the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, the Texas Crime Information Center, the vehicle registration files of the Motor Vehicle Division of the Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation, and the driver's license files of the DPS. Among other things, the agreement between the JIMS board and the DPS requires JIMS to abide by all applicable state and federal laws, as well as any policies and procedures adopted by the administrators of the information systems that comprise the network. Though the agreement is silent on the matter, the JIMS board apparently interpreted the agreement to also impose on it the duty to ensure compliance by all users of the system. Violation of applicable policies may result in an immediate suspension of service. FN2 Security breaches at the county level prompted the JIMS board to adopt security policies and procedures governing access to the computer system and retrieval of information collected in criminal proceedings. The board now requires all persons with access to the system to execute a form acknowledging that they understand the security policies and that violation of the policies and procedures may result in termination of their employment. The board also has instituted a policy of unilaterally terminating access to the computer system by persons, offices, or departments deemed in noncompliance with the security policies. In 1986, this policy was invoked against the office of the district clerk for its refusal to execute the security forms. With these facts in mind, we now proceed to your first set of questions 1. If the district clerk enters information contained in instruments, pleadings, orders, and documents in criminal cases in the county's computer to produce indices, registers and dockets, are such electronic/computer records public? Does such information constitute exempt criminal justice information? 2. Are such computer records part of the district clerk's 'official records'? These questions relate to the status of information collected by the district clerk from court documents and transmitted to the county computer. The information the district clerk transfers to the computer includes basic data such as the defendant's name and date of birth, the name of his attorney, and other information reflecting progress of the defendant's case through the court system. The district clerk maintains the original documents from which the information was obtained, a microfilm or microfiche copy of the document, or both. With this information the district clerk creates a number of separate documents including indices, case summaries, case status reports, calendars, and other documents relating to pending or closed criminal cases. You have informed us of a case filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that deals with issues similar to the ones you pose. It is styled Houston Chronicle Publishing Co. v. The Honorable Charles Hearn, District Judge, 263rd District Court, Harris County, Texas, No. 20,998-01 (filed Nov. 22, 1989). At issue was an order of the administrative judge of the district courts of Harris County that forbids the district clerk and county sheriff from disclosing the street addresses or telephone numbers of any defendant in any criminal case in the district courts until an attorney is hired or appointed to represent the defendant. A newspaper publisher and a reporter contested the order. They attacked it as an infringement of their right of access to court files under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, sections 8, 10, and 13, of the Texas Constitution. They filed a motion before the Court of Criminal Appeals for leave to file application for writs of mandamus and prohibition. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied the motion without written order on March 7, 1990. As a result of this ruling, the order of the district judge prohibiting the district clerk and sheriff from releasing the specified information remains in effect. It is inappropriate in an opinion of the attorney general to review or interpret the orders of the courts mandating that certain information be kept confidential. See, e.g., Open Records Decision No. 560 (1990). And in light of the possibility of further litigation on this matter, we will defer answering your questions as they relate to records in the custody of the district clerk until the matter is finally resolved. If, following resolution of this matter, you still require an opinion on the status of the records of the district clerk, please resubmit your questions at that time. 3. What criminal history information, if any, which is maintained or which may be accessed through the county's computer may be disclosed by the district clerk and other county officials? We assume that by use of the term "criminal history information" you refer to information relating to criminal cases, the disclosure of which may be governed by state or federal law and regulations. Federal law and regulations govern the dissemination of criminal history record information by agencies that collect, maintain, and exchange such information with support provided by the federal government for such purposes. See 42 U.S.C. s 3789g(c); 28 C.F.R. s 20.21(b). Criminal history record information is defined as information collected by criminal justice agencies on individuals consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, or other formal criminal charges, and any disposition arising therefrom, sentencing, correctional supervision, and release. 28 C.F.R. s 20.3(b). The federal regulations are intended to protect individual privacy and to insure that criminal history information, wherever it appears, is collected, stored, and disseminated in a manner that insures its completeness, accuracy, and security. Id. s 20.1. State and local agencies maintaining and disseminating criminal history information with federal assistance are subject to certain restrictions on dissemination set forth in the federal regulations. See id. ss 20.20--20.25. These restrictions do not apply to criminal history information contained in court records of public judicial proceedings. Id. s 20.20(b)(3). Thus, federal regulations have no bearing on the disclosure of criminal history information in records of public judicial proceedings that are in the custody of the district clerk. There remains, however, the issue of the disclosure of information from court records under state law, an issue left unresolved by the Houston Chronicle v. Hearn case. For this reason, we are unable to answer your third question as it relates to the district clerk at this time. We can answer the question as it applies to other county and district offices. The federal regulations described here affect two categories of criminal history information: (1) information collected, stored, and disseminated by state or local agencies, and (2) information obtained from any United States Department of Justice criminal history record information system. The regulations affecting state and local operations do not purport to make any criminal history information confidential, but authorize the states and local governments to determine the purposes for which criminal history record information may be disseminated pursuant to state law, executive order, local ordinance, or a rule, decision, or order of a court. Id. s 20.21(c)(3). The regulations do not limit dissemination by a state or local agency of criminal history information that originates from the agency itself. See Open Records Decision No. 144 (1976). One regulation allows dissemination to "individuals and agencies for any purpose authorized by statute ... as construed by appropriate state or local officials or agencies." Id. s 20.21(b)(2). These provisions require consultation of the Open Records Act, V.T.C.S. article 6252- 17a, and interpretations of the act by the courts and this office. The availability of information relating to arrests under section 3(a)(8) of the Open Records Act was determined in Houston Chronicle Publishing Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex.Civ.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ refd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex.1976), and summarized in Open Records Decision No. 127 (1976). The holding in that case prohibits the disclosure to the public of the chronological history of an individual's arrests and their disposition. 531 S.W.2d at 187- 88. The federal regulations referenced here also address the dissemination of criminal history information contained in any United States Department of Justice criminal history information system, including NCIC. See 28 C.F.R. ss 20.30--20.38. Dissemination of criminal history information contained in any such system is authorized in four instances. See id. s 20.33. In addition, the subjects of criminal history information are allowed access to their own criminal histories. Id. s 20.34; see Open Records Decision No. 565 (1990). These regulations are not germane to the office of district clerk, since it does not have access to Department of Justice criminal history information systems. County offices that have access to such systems must, of course, abide by federal regulations and policies in order to receive assistance from the information systems. See 28 C.F.R. s 20.36. Consequently, county officials are not required to disclose to the public criminal history information maintained on the Harris County computer system that is collected by a county or district office, even if acquired without the assistance of any Department of Justice criminal history information system. Information obtained from these federal sources may be disseminated in accordance with federal regulations. State law also addresses the collection and dissemination of criminal history information by criminal justice agencies. Chapter 60 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, articles 60.01 through 60.09, was enacted by the 71st Legislature and became effective on September 1, 1989. Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 785, s 6.01 at 3548. It delegates to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) the responsibility of establishing a data base for a centralized criminal history record information system. Code Crim.Proc. art. 60.02(a). The DPS is given the duty of maintaining a data base for a computerized criminal history information system that serves as a "record creation point" for criminal history information maintained by the state. Id. art. 60.02(b). Under chapter 60, criminal justice agencies are expected to maintain and report to the TDCJ and the DPS specified information relating to criminal cases, with certain exceptions. See id. arts. 60.05, 60.06(a). Criminal justice agencies must also provide other criminal justice agencies with access to their own criminal. history information systems. The duties imposed on criminal justice agencies by article 60.06 are also imposed on the clerks of the district and county courts. Id. art. 60.06(e). Information on an individual collected by the TDCJ and the DPS from criminal justice agencies and stored in a central location that consists of an identifiable description and notation of an arrest, detention, indictment, information, or other formal criminal charge and a disposition of the charge including sentencing, correctional supervision, and release ... is not subject to public disclosure except as authorized by federal or state law or regulation. F[ N31 Id. art. 60.06(b). This limitation does not apply to a document of a criminal justice agency that is the source of information collected by the TDCJ. Id. art. 60.06(c). Similarly, an individual's criminal history record may not be disclosed to the public by either a criminal justice agency or the Criminal Justice Policy Council if the record is protected by state or federal law or regulation. Id. art. 60.03(b). Chapter 60 thus requires an examination of other state and federal laws governing disclosure of criminal history information. See generally Open Records Decision No. 565 (1990). 4. Who is the 'custodian' of all or portions of the records contained in the county's computer? This question is prompted by general concerns over the control and "custody" of information stored in the county computer. The JIMS board, you advise, contends it is the custodian of all information housed in the county computer and is thereby authorized to determine who may have access to that information. You emphasize that the question of control is significant because computer programming allows a county office to manipulate information in the computer files of other offices simply by updating information in its own computerized records. The example you give is a notation in the records of a court that a defendant in a criminal case is released on personal recognizance. Once this information is entered into the court's or the district clerk's computer files, the computer system automatically updates the information in computer files created for the same case by other county offices (e.g., the county sheriff or district attorney). You acknowledge that this may be an efficient use of the county computer, but you believe that it improperly wrests control from the hands of county officers who may have a legal duty to retain control over such information. You argue that county officers, designated the custodians of records of their respective offices by the Open Records Act, should retain control of information maintained by their offices, including information housed in the county computer. We agree with your conclusion, but note that the issue of control is resolved by recent legislation. Prior to 1989, there was little law expresslygoverning...the establishment ox operation of a computerized recordkeeping system for the use of county or district officers. See, e.g., Code Crim.Proc. art. 2:26 (repealed in 1989, provided that commissioners court could authorize, among other thins, the electronic entry, storage, az~d retrieval of records which the Code of Criminal. Procedure requires county' oi~icers to keep); Gov't Code ss 51.801--51.807 (authorizing the electronic filing of certain documents in district and county courts, subjeetto rules and procedures adopted by the Supreme Court of Texas). Authority for the establishment of a computer system by a commissioners court is now expressly recognized in the Local Government Code. Subtitle C of Title 6 of the Local Government Code was amended during the 71st Legislative Session and designated the Local Government Records Act. Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 1248, at 4996. Section 205.002 of the Local Government Code, enacted as part of the Local Government Records Act, provides that "[a]ny local government record data may be stored electronically in addition to or instead of source documents in paper or other media," subject to the provisions of chapter 205 of the Local Government Code and rules adopted under it. This provision authorizes the storage of information on computer. Local Gov't Codes 205.001(1) (definition of "electronic storage"). "Local government record data" is defined simply as any information that comprises a local government record under law, regulation, rule of court, ordinance, or administrative procedure. Id. s 205.001(2). With exceptions not applicable here, "local government record data" is defined to mean any document, paper, letter, book, map, photograph, sound or video recording, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic medium, or other information recording medium, regardless of physical form or characteristic and regardless of whether public access to it is open or restricted under the laws of the state, created or received by a local government or any of its officers or employees pursuant to law, including an ordinance, or in the transaction of public business. (Emphasis added.) Id. s 201.003(8). The.term "local government" includes, among other entities, a.county, "including all district and precinct offices of a county." Id. s 20 i .003(7). District and precinct offices such as the offices of district. attorney, district clerk, justice of the peace, and constable are. classif ed as county officesfor the purposes of the act. The subject of control and custody of information collected by county officers and stored electronically in a computer is addressed by the Local Government Records Act. The act identifies three agents of county government-- the commissioners court, "records management officers," and "custodians"--and prescribes in careful detail their duties regarding the management and preservation of county records. See id. ss 203.001-203.003, 203.021-203.023. The "records management officer" is either an elected county officer or a person, office, or position designated by the governing body to serve in that capacity. See id. ss 201.003(14), 203.001, 203.025. The duties of the records management officer vary, depending on whether the particular county office or department is elective or nonelective, but in either case the officer is made chiefly responsible for the administration of a records management program and the protection and preservation of the records of county offices. See id. ss 203.002, 203.023. The "custodian" of records is the appointed or elected public officer who under state constitution, state law, ordinance, or administrative policy is in charge of an office that creates or receives local government records. Id. s 201.003(2). A significant feature of the Local Government Records Act is its allocation of authority to develop and implement a records management program--i.e., the policies, methods, and procedures for the management and preservation of county records. See id. ss 203.005, 203.026. It is this aspect of the act that settles the general question of control and custody of information stored by computer. The commissioners court is responsible for establishing a records management program for nonelective county offices. See id. ss 203.021, 203.026. Elected county officers are designated the "records management officers" for their respective offices and are delegated preeminent authority to develop and administer the records. management program for their offices. In addition, elected county officers are chiefly responsible for adopting records control schedules, preparing electronic storage authorization requests and records destruction requests, and preserving and protecting certain records of their offices. Id. s 203.002. The elected county officer is given discretion to adopt specific records management procedures and techniques. so long as they are consistent with regulations. promulgated by~the .State Library and Archives Commission. Sae id. ss'201.003'(1 j,203.002, 203.005(b). The comzxiission is required to adopt standards'and issue regulations for the microfilming of local government records and the electronic storage of local government record .data of permanent value. (FN4] Id. ss 204.004, 205.003. It has discretion to adopt standards for the electronic storage of records with a retention period of at least ten. years. Id, s 205.003. These provisions specifically address certain kinds of records and limit the discretion of elected county officers to adopt management procedures for those records. We believe elected county officers have complete discretion in adopting records management procedures for computerized records or information not covered by these provisions-- i.e., any computerized record or information that does not have a retention period prescribed by law or that has a retention period of less than ten years. If the State Library and Archives Commission elects not to adopt standards for the electronic storage of records with retention periods often years or longer, we think elected county officers would have authority to adopt reasonable standards for those records as well. Moreover, we think elected county officers have the implied authority to prescribe reasonable security and control measures for any information received by their offices and stored electronically, even those records covered by the commission's rules. Cf. Bullock v. Calvert, 480 S.W.2d 367 (Tex.1972) (public officers have implied power to achieve power or object expressly granted); V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17a, s 5(a) (described below). The Local Government Records Act anticipates that elected county officers will establish an independent records management program for their offices, but allows elected officers to delegate the administration of the program to the office established by the commissioners court for nonelective county offices. Id. s 203.005(g). Elected county officers may also delegate their responsibilities to the records management officer for nonelective offices in lieu of adopting an independent program. Id. Applied to Harris County, these provisions mean elected county officers may delegate the performance of their duties under the Local Government Records Act to JIMS if it is designated the records management officer for nonelective offices in Harris County. In the absence of such a delegationof authority by elected county officers, the role of the commissioners court in the management of the records of elected county officials is largely supportive.'Id. s 203 -003 commissioners-court shall "promote," "support," and "facilitate" the eff dent and economical creation, maintenance, management, and preservation of the records of elective county offices). The primacy of elected county officers over the control and preservation of the records of their offices is also acknowledged in the Open Records Act. Section 5 of that act was amended by the bill enacting the Local Government Records Act to designate an elected county officer the "officer for public records" of the office. V.T.C.S. art. 6252- 17a, s 5(a). The officer for public records is responsible under section 5 for ensuring the accessibility, protection, and preservation of public records, including records stored on computer. See, e.g., Attorney General Opinion JM-672 (1987). These provisions clearly establish that control of information created or received by elected county officers (FN51 pursuant to law or in the transaction of public business remains with the elected officers even when the information is stored in a computer system that serves all county offices. These provisions do not depart from established law, but merely reflect principles that are firmly entrenched in the law of this state. See Familias Unidas v. Briscoe, 619 F.2d 391, 404 j5th Cir.1980) (elected county officials in Texas hold "virtually absolute sway over the particular tasks or areas of responsibility entrusted to [them] by state statute"). Where the duties of county officers are clearly delegated by statute, the commissioners court has no power to displace the authority of such officers by the creation of an agency to perform such duties. See Aldrich v. Dallas County, 167 S.W.2d 560 (Tex.Civ.App.--Dallas 1942, writ dism'd); Navarro County v. Tullos, 237 S.W. 982 (Tex.Civ.App.--Dallas 1922, writ refd); Attorney General Opinion JM-1074 (1989). The commissioners court may not, moreover, confer on an agent or other officer authority the court may itself not exercise. Jones v. Veltmann, 171 S.W. 287 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1914, writ refd). An elected county officer's assumption of the powers and duties conferred by the Local Government Records Act effectively bars the commissioners court or its agent from displacing the county officer from this position of responsibility. See, e.g., Attorney General Opinion JM-1074 (1989). Accordingly, in answer to your fourth question we conclude that elected county officers in Harris County are charged by statute with the control, management, and preservation of information created or received by their offices pursuant to law or in the transaction of public business, including information that is stored in the Harris County computer system. V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17a; Local Gov't Code ss 203.002, 203.005, 205.002. Neither the commissioners court nor the agency created by it to manage the county computer system may deprive elected county, district, and precinct officers of this authority. Elected county officers may delegate certain of these duties to the office created by the commissioners court to manage the records of nonelective county offices. Id. s 203.005(g). FN6 5. What authority does the executive board of the Justice Information Management System (JIMS) or the commissioners court have to enforce any state and/or federal statutes relating to the improper dissemination of criminal justice information and to require other county departments and/or officials to adhere to security and privacy guidelines promulgated by the executive board and/or commissioners court? This question presumably relates to the security policies adopted by the JIMS board described earlier in this opinion. As the discussion of the preceding question made clear, the primary responsibility to manage and control information received by elective county offices is with elected county officers and, for nonelective offices, with the commissioners court. Likewise, we think the duty to observe and comply with relevant laws governing access and dissemination of criminal justice information rests with elected county officers for their respective offices and with the commissioners court for nonelective offices. We have located no authority, including chapter 60 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that would generally designate the commissioners court as the agency responsible for the enforcement of state or federal laws governing access to criminal justice information stored in the county's computer system. Ifis not inconceivable, however; that the commissioners court could, with the cooperation. of elected county officers, promulgate effective security policies that preserve the power of elected county officers to manage and control the information collected and generated by their offices. F1~7 6. What liability may the DIMS executive board incur if information which is contained in a computer system owned by Harris County and which is used j ointly by the Harris County Sheriff, the Harris County District Clerk, the Adult Probation Department, the Harris County Data Processing Department, and JIMS and other county departments for the functions of said respective departments and offices and JIMS is disseminated contrary to the security and privacy guidelines promulgated by the executive board, the commissioners court and/or other state and federal agencies? This question is not one that can properly be answered by this office. Its speculative and fact-bound nature makes it appropriate for your office to advise its clients upon the development of appropriate facts in particular cases. See Gov't Codes 45.201. 7. Does the JIMS executive board and/or commissioners court have the authority to execute an agreement with the Texas Department of Public Safety regarding access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Texas Crime Information Center (TCIC) operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety on behalf of Harris County and other local law enforcement agencies that have access to Harris County's computer? This question relates to the agreement executed by the DIMS board with the DPS described at the fore of this opinion. Assuming the DPS acted within its authority in selecting the Harris County computer as the county's link with the TLETS system, we think the commissioners court had the implied authority to execute the agreement in question. See generally, 35 D. Brooks, County and Special District Laws 5.13 (Texas Practice 1989). We also think the JIMS board was authorized to execute the agreement on behalf of the commissioners court, assuming the board was appointed its agent for that purpose pursuant to section 262.001(a)(3) of the Local Government Code. See generally, Jackson- Foxworth Lumber Co. v. Hutchinson County, 88 S.W. 412 (Tex.Civ.App. 1905, no writ). 8. May the county enter into agreements with public and non-public users for dial-up, direct computer access to records contained in the county's computer without the consent of the 'custodian/s' of the original paper or microfilm/microfiche of said records? 9. If the answer to question 8 is yes, is the 'custodian' responsible and liable for fees which may be due for such services? Who is liable if the fees are not collected for access to and/or copies of such records? These questions are in reference to a program authorized by the commissioners court under which private parties, typically law firms, are allowed direct access to the county computer. The firms are granted access to information maintained by the district clerk on civil and family law cases in the district courts. Access to criminal and juvenile case information is not authorized. The private users receive access essentially on a subscription basis, paying the county fees for the training of the users' employees, the assignment of sign-on codes, and the amount of time logged on the county system. The users supply their own equipment and dedicated telephone lines. You note the apparent absence of law expressly authorizing the program you inquire about. FN8 In addition "dial-up" systems are particularly vulnerable to entry and manipulation by computer hackers and require additional security controls. See Agranoff, Curb on Technology: Liability'for Failure to Protect Computerized Data Against iJTlauthorized Access, S Santa Ciara Computer & High Technology Law Journal at 263, 28086 (I989). We have previously determined that elected county, district, and precinct officers, rather than the commissioners court or the JIMS department, are given the duty to manage and control the information received and generated by their offices and stored on computer. In the absence of statutory authority, the commissioners court is not, in our opinion, authorized to grant members of the public access to the computerized records of elective county, district, or precinct offices. FN9 In light of our answer to your eighth question, it is unnecessary to answer your final question. SUMMARY Elected county, district, and precinct officers in Harris County are charged by statute with the control, management, and preservation of information created or received by their offices pursuant to law or in the transaction of public business, including information that is stored in the Harris County computer. V.T.C.S. art. 6252-17a; Local Gov't Code ss 203.002, 203.005, 205.002. Neither the commissioners court nor an agency created by it to manage the county's computer system may deprive elected county, district, and precinct officers of such statutory authority. Elected county officers may delegate certain of these statutory duties to the office created by the commissioners court to manage the records of nonelective county offices. Local Gov't Code s 203.005(g). Neither the commissioners court nor the agency created by it to manage the county computer system is generally authorized to enforce state or federal laws concerning the dissemination of criminal history information. The commissioners court has the implied authority to contract on heha~f of the. county with the hepartrnent of Public Safety to receive access to the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. The commissioners court may not authorize private users to obtain "dial-up" access to the records of elected county, district, or precinct officers that are stored on the county computer system. Very truly yours, J:~ Jim Mattox Attorney General of Texas Mary Keller First Assistant Attorney General Lou McCreary Executive Assistant Attorney General Judge Zollie Steakley Special Assistant Attorney General Renea Hicks Special Assistant Attorney General Rick Gilpin Chairman Opinion Committee Prepared by Steve Aragon Assistant Attorney General Footnotes FN1. As we understand it, the central computer is the only electronic data processing resource available to most county offices. FN2. We are informed that the DPS, in the exercise of its discretion, designated the Harris County central computer system as the sole link to the TLETS network in Harris County. All local law enforcement agencies in Harris County that receive TLETS, including those not affiliated with the county government, must obtain access to the system through the Harris County computer. FN3. This language parallels the definition of "criminal history record information" found at title 28, section 20.3, of the Code of Federal Regulations and quoted in a preceding paragraph. FN4. A "record of permanent value" is one for which the retention period issued by the commission (the time during which the record may not be destroyed) is given as permanent. Local Gov't Codes 201.003(10). FNS. By its terms, the Local Government Records Act designates elected "county" officers as records management officers for their respective offices, omitting any reference to elected district and precinct officers. As we noted earlier, however, district and precinct offices of a county axe treated as part of a county under the act. Id. s 201.003(7). By extension, when the act speaks of elective "county" offices, the legislature presumably intended to address elective district and precinct offices as well, at least where these offices store information on a computer system shared with county offices. FN6. It should be noted that article 60.09 of the Code of Criminal Procedure authorizes the commissioners court to appoint a "local data advisory board" to assist and advise the court on matters relating to the collection and transfer of criminal history information at the county level. The membership of the board parallels the membership of DIMS. See Code Crim.Proc. art. 60.09(b). Because the greater burden of compliance with chapter 60 falls on those officers eligible for appointment to the advisory board, we do not believe the authority to appoint advisory boards under article 60.09 constitutes supervening authority to manage the computerized records of all county offices. It is therefore unnecessary to consider the effect of the possible appointment of the JIMS board as the local data advisory board under this provision. FN7. You have identified an obvious solution to the dilemma facing the county-- i.e., the installation of separate computer systems for each county office. Alternatively, the county might consider creating a separate computer system solely for the purpose of receiving and distributing criminal history information and information from the TLETS and NCIC networks that is accessible only by the law enforcement agencies entitled to participate in the networks. The efficacy of a particular proposal, however, is a matter for the discretion of the commissioners court and is beyond the province of this office to decide. FN8. Sections 51.801 through 51.807 of the Government Code authorize and govern the electronic filing of certain documents in the office of the district clerk, but we are unaware of any law that authorizes the electronic retrieval by private persons of information contained in documents filed with the district clerk. FN9. You suggest that "dial-up" access to the records of county offices may be permissible if consent is given by the county officers whose records are affected and provided no confidential information is made available to the subscribers. It is unnecessary to decide this issue at this time, since your question refers to the "county" (which we interpret to mean the commissioners court) and the facts you stipulate refer to actions taken by the commissioners court rather than a specific county officer. Texas OAG home~aae ~ Opinions & Open Government May 11, 2009 IT Policy Change Agenda backup information 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Technology Workshop Monday, January 28, 2002 1:30 p.m. Commissioners' Courtroom Kerr County Courthouse Kerrville, Texas PRESENT: FREDERICK L. HENNEKE, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 LARRY GRIFFIN, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 On Monday, January 28, 2002, at 1:30 p.m., a workshop of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: P R O C E E D I N G S JUDGE HENNEKE: It is 1:30 on January 28th, Year 2002. We'll call to order this workshop. The topic of discussion today is county technology issues, and I'm going to turn it over, with that, to Commissioner Griffin. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yes. Thanks for coming and thanks for the good turnouts of elected officials and department heads and public and everybody else. The agenda today is a very open one, because, as I said in the memo that -- that I put out to everybody, this is sort of a kickoff meeting, if you will. I would suspect that for this to really pay off, we'll probably have to do this again maybe six months from now, certainly within 12 calendar months, and that will be just about the gap it takes for the technology to have changed to so much we'll all be behind. So, as everybody knows who's in the information business, the technology is exploding, absolutely exploding. One of the pitfalls of that exploding technology is -- is that you can have great capability already in hand and not know it, because you're always looking for the next version. You're always looking for the next capability. And that's the 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 nature of the high-tech business, not just in information. It's the nature of any high-tech development operations. So, what the purpose -- real purpose of this meeting is, is to exchange some ideas, talk about where we are, where we think we want to go, because we probably don't really have a pat answer on where we want to go yet, but we've got some great expert help here that I'll be introducing in a minute, and let me just say that even information on information technology is exploding. You can't pick up an issue of County Issues, or County Magazine, or any of the publications that we get -- and there's some great handouts that will come across your desk like this one, which I'm sure we're going to talk more about later. It is -- just keeping up with this end of where are we and where do we think we want to go is very difficult to do, and I would recommend to each of the department heads and -- and actually all of our employees, but our department heads and elected officials in particular, to read these articles very closely when you find one, 'cause there will be a little gem in there probably that affects you, or could affect you directly. And it may be as close as a click on the -- a URL away from being able to add some capability to what you do. And also, in this discussion, I don't want to get -- if we can -- and, obviously, we're going to concentrate on what's available online, where do we want -- 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 what do we want to have available online and so on, but at the same time, information technology is not just computers and Internet access and e-mail and that sort of thing. What about our phone system? Where do we want to be with our phone system? What's out there that maybe -- I'm sure I'm going to stump some of you with this one, but that's just an example. It might be nothing more than phone system. It may be how we distribute literature, or how we don't. It could be we're distributing some literature now that we could just as easily distribute online. And maybe that's a savings to you in office time, and perhaps it could be a savings in direct dollars as well. And, lastly, there are some things -- there are some areas, and Linda Decker has given me a couple of good references, both to this kind of a program, this judicial committee on information technology, which we'll hear more about, but there are all sort of things in various areas, and you folks are the source of getting to Shaun Branham and to the Court with what it is you think you can do and what it is you think we ought to want to do. And this will be a dialogue. It's going to be continuing. Perhaps, before I introduce Stan Reid and introduce the folks with him, I'd like to hear from any other Commissioners and any ideas and ways to sort of guide this discussion. Very informal. We're not trying to decide 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 anything today. We want to know sort of where should we be headed with this. COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got an open mind, ready to listen. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've got a couple of questions. There kind of seem to be hurdles that I hear about from talking to most of the other elected officials; one of them is The Software Group. While everyone acknowledges it's a great -- I mean, we want to continue using them; at the same time, there's a lot of constraints they impose by having to use their proprietary machines, hardware, software, everything that goes with that, and then being able to use that information back and forth, or, you know, just the whole issue of -- of working with them. And I'm sure it comes across in many other counties as well. The other thing is, it seems that every time we -- you know, we go down this technology road, we quickly run out of space in our computer. And, you know, somewhere, someone needs to, I guess, educate me or keep track of -- I don't know that I really need to know the detail of it, but when we talk about these new things, what's that going to do with that magic space that we just spent I don't know how many thousand dollars doing a bunch of upgrade to it -- what, last year, Tommy, I think? And, I mean -- 6 I COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: How long is that going 2 to last? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, how long is it 4 going to last, and what's this new stuff we're talking about 5 going to do to that, and what's this next bunch of memory we 6 need going to cost? So, those kind of things that I wonder 7 about. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: I look at it to a large 9 extent from a budget point of view. Right now, out of our 10 almost $17 million, we spent about 34 percent of that budget 11 on personnel -- personnel costs, personnel issues. The more 12 people we add, the higher that goes. If we can buy a piece 13 of computer technology or a machine for $5,000, even if it 14 has an annual price tag of $1,200, and defer having to add 15 another staff member because of additional capability in one 16 of the departments, then the taxpayers are ahead and we're 17 money ahead here too, because we don't have to worry about 18 space and the other requirements that come with personnel. 19 So I think that, to me, technology is -- it seems expensive 20 --on the front end, but it's really a ~aay to'manage the ~1 overall budget process in order to provide the best servico 2'2 to the citizens of Kerr County that we can within the 23 limited funds that ''are made available to us by the taxes. 24 So, that's the reason I'm excited the about the whole 25 concept of looking ahead and trying to see what's coming and 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 where we're headed. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thank you. I'd like to introduce Stan Reid now, who's the director of the -- of CIRA, County Information -- I want to make sure I get this right -- County Information Resources Agency. And Stan's got some very talented folks with him that can join into our discussion a little bit later. MR. REID: Yeah, thanks. I'm Stan Reid. Some of you know me. A little bit about the County Information Resources Agency. So you'11 understand, I work for the Texas Association of Counties, and until about May, I was just pretty much only the Director of the County Information Project, which was online resources and databases where you can get information about your population and GIS layers and whatever you need in the data area, is what we were focused on. Our past Board president, Mickey West from Palo Pinto County, decided that as his presidential initiative, we wanted TAC to do what it could to support counties in helping them acquire and use technology. So, the first thing we did was we got representatives from each of the elected officials' organizations; the Clerks, the Sheriffs, everybody, and we met five, six times over a period of about a year or two years, and came up with some ideas, a strategic plan. And 8 1 one of those was that what we needed was, we needed an 2 entity that could be a central coordinating entity between 3 the state, the feds, the counties, and it could provide the 4 service and would be someone that could contract with the 5 State directly without having to jump through a bunch of 6 hoops. So, based on that, we created the County Information 7 Resources Agency. The first two counties were Palo Pinto 8 and Coke. We're up to 18 or 19 counties so far. We have a 9 goal of getting all 254 on by November, and I'll tell you 10 the importance of that in a minute. 11 We're headed -- we diverted down here at 12 Commissioner Griffin's insistence -- request. We're headed 13 out to west Texas right now to look at six or seven counties 14 out there as a pilot to start testing some of these ideas 15 that we had. Now, I'll talk more about that in a second. 16 The first problem that we saw, we started thinking about how 17 to help you. We started thinking about applications, the 18 software, what kind of things could you use? Because, 19 remember, technology is just a tool, okay? It's not an end 20 in and of itself. It's not a talisman. It is just a tool. 21 Do you want a $500 hammer or a $5 hammer, is really a lot of 22 it. What do you need done from a technology standpoint? 23 And then look at the technology that you need to do that, 24 rather than buy a Cadillac when you just need a Volkswagen. 25 I think that's part of what you were getting to. 9 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's right. 2 MR. REID: Some of those solutions are 3 dependent upon your ability to access the Internet and how 4 well your connection to the Internet is. For example, it's 5 possible for several small counties to share the same 6 application, okay? So imagine that maybe Kerr County is the 7 hub for the little counties west of you, and your I.T. 8 department maintains an accounting program that all the 9 little counties can use. Maybe -- you know, maybe Tommy 10 does the accounting -- or he's doing the accounting for 11 Bandera. What if you had one piece of software that -- that 12 you accessed over the Internet, and that piece of software 13 was updated all the time by the people that manage the 14 server, so you didn't have to buy updates all the time; it 15 was done automatically. So, we started looking at that. 16 What we found was, is that any -- just about 17 any courthouse in the state, you're going to find anywhere 18 from five to ten separate circuits coming in. You've got 19 RTS. Child support is probably either a dial-up connection, 20 or they've done something to help you get a T-1 access. 21 You've got TLETS. You may or may not -- Adult Probation 22 probably uses the DPS's Internet connection. Juvenile 23 Probation has computers and Internet connections that have 24 been paid for over the last few years. Secretary of State's 25 office is requiring now weekly electronic updates of the 10 1 voter registration records, and they're talking about, you 2 know, how much money they're going to put in using Chapter 3 19 funds. So, in essence, what you have is, yoghave about 4' 10,'`15 different dirt roads -- single-lane dirt roads 5 running parallel to each other. Now, wouldn't it be - 6 wouldn't it be grand if we could combine all that, aggregates 7 that bandwidth, with the big pipe coming into the '8 courthouse? And if you use something like Texon, they don't 9 care who's on there as long as it's government. 10 What if, then, the City shared the cost of 11 that pipe with you? Now, Kerrville is advanced enough that 12 the telecommunications -- that may not be the best economic 13 solution, but the idea being that the courthouse now becomes 14 that -- that hub for all the local governments to come into. 15 And when you do that, what you've done is you've created the 16 possibility for a wide area network of just -- of 17 government. So, you and the City could share applications. 18 If you got a prisoner in the jail, the City would know, I9 'cause it would have access to the -- to part of that 20 database that you're -- that you're viewing. You could go 21 on and on and on about all the pieces. So, what we're doing 22 is, we're working with the state agencies at the strategic 23 planning level, trying to convince them that we need to do 24 some of these things. We need to aggregate bandwidth, we 25 need to share the cost. Why force the counties to pay -- to 11 1 spend this money when, first of all, you're already spending 2 the money for the bandwidth, and you're the one that wants 3 the data, not us. Why don't you help us out here? And I 4 think they're -- I think they're moving that direction. The 5 other thing that CIRA does is what Commissioner Griffin 6 pointed out to you. We have a web page where we try to put 7 up resources to help you with your questions. And, every 8 other County Magazine, we're going to have this "County 9 News," and if y'all like it, then that will grow to be a 10 more common way of getting to you. 11 The main thing about -- of CIRA is that, by 12 working together, all of us, the state, the counties, but 13 primarily the counties coming together, we have a lot more 14 bargaining power. We have a lot more leverage. And if we 15 -- if we are successful with these pilots out in west Texas, 16 at least identifying the barriers, the legal and financial 17 barriers, and if we can get all the counties in the state 18 into CIRA by November 1, before the Legislature starts, get 19 the state agencies on board with us, which they pretty much 20 are, then going into the session, we'll be in pretty good 21 shape to try to build some things that you can build on and 22 use. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Question. What is 24 the -- in essence, the membership in CIRA, is that just to 25 sign on by resolution? And -- 12 1 MR. REID: Interlocal agreement. It's an 2 interlocal entity -- or it's an entity -- interlocal entity, 3 so you just pass the interlocal agreement, the bylaws. It 4 doesn't cost anything. You can get out any time you want 5 to, but it gives us the ability to do some things. Now, 6 right now, we're in a coordination. We're working at a high 7 level to try to coordinate, to get some of these things 8 available to you, but we're also on the ground working with 9 a couple of counties as experiments to try to see what works 10 and what doesn't. And it may be that, down the line, we 11 want to do that as a service. The other thing we've done 12 with -- Office of Court Administration gave us $25,000, a 13 couple of servers, to give free e-mail to all the County 14 Judges and Justices of the Peace, and I think court clerks 15 to be in that group, County Clerks and District Clerks. 16 We've just got that up, and that's one of the things we're 17 going to do out in west Texas, is sign them up to their 18 e-mails, get their e-mail accounts. If that's successful, 19 then I think we can make that service available to virtually 20 all the County employees, if the Commissioners Court wants. 21 And that's free. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Next thing, would you 23 introduce the other folks who are with you? 24 MR. REID: I'm sorry. 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Then we'd like to 13 1 start getting some input from some of our elected officials 2 and department heads. 3 MR. REID: Karen Norris is the Assistant 4 Director -- Executive Director of Texas Association of 5 Counties, and she's going with us on the trip. Gail Smith 6 is the LIRA Coordinator; she works with me directly. Gail, 7 raise your right hand so everybody can see you. Raoul 8 Delagarza is with Geo Partners; he's our main technical 9 consultant. And Mike Griffith is with the Office of Court 10 Administration, and I know Mike has some specific things for 11 you, to tell you about, and he's already talked with Rusty a 12 little bit. It's important to remember that probably about 13 60 to 70 percent of what we do in terms of expenditures is 14 justice related, whether it's courts, court personnel, jail, 15 law enforcement. And that -- there's a strategic initiative 16 atthe state level to integrate all these justice systems, 17 'cause a lot of times the City doesn't know who the Cour_ty's 1~ arrested, or -- or whether they're on a terrorist watch 19 group. Theresa-breakdown in communicationbetween these 20 Antities and there's a state-level initiative to try to 21 integrate, which we're going to participate in. So -- 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. Well, thanks, 23 Stan. That's a good rundown, and I'm sure we'll -- and even 24 after our workshop today, we probably want to maybe talk 25 with you; some of the folks may want to talk with you 14 1 one-on-one about some of the things -- kind of things that 2 CIRA might be able to weigh in with us in the future, and 3 particularly Shaun Branham, our I.T. guy, would probably -- 4 I would hope would want to spend a few minutes with you just 5 to get to know you, and so we can establish that line of 6 communication. I think, at this point, I would really like 7 to hear from some of the department heads and elected 8 officials on sort of where -- where you think you are now 9 and what are some of the initiatives you know of in your 10 area that are going on, and what your thoughts are about all 11 this. Rusty? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, might as well 13 start it off, since I probably -- one of the main things 14 that -- excuse me for just a minute. One of the main things 15 we had, at least the Sheriff's Office-wise, when, i6 unfortunately, the Sheriff's Office went way from Software 17 Group and they then came back to it. In coming back to it, 18 we didn't get -- you might say we're almost five years 19 behind now on -- on where the Sheriff's Office probably 20 should be, information-wise. Our biggest needs are one 21 we've discussed in last year's budget process, is records 22 management. Okay. I've got two 30-by-50 rooms full of 23 records, and I've got over 125 file cabinets full of records 24 that have never beer computerized, and Linda sent me the 25 records retention schedule, and I'm finding that a whole lot 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 of those records I've either got to keep permanently, or even up to 75 years. And these things are in pretty bad shape, and we have to get those managed in some way, 'cause we're just going more and more. Where we are at this point, we had Xerox come in last month and do a study of how many copies we're making in the jail, just trying to break down our Xerox in the jail, and the jail is currently making, on the Xerox copy machine, an average of 30,000 copies a month, with the things we have to have that go to court and everywhere else. So, our part of it -- you know, when you figure we book in an average of 40 to 50 inmates every weekend, and we booked in almost 4,000 last year. The records management and the amount of records being created out there has grown enormously. In talking with Stan's people, one of the biggest things that I think we're going to need help on is grant funding, because I visited with Software -- I got prices from them to upgrade our system in the Sheriff's Office, as to what we need. And, as I told Jonathan the other day, the upgrades that the Sheriff's Office actually just needs, not -- not pie-in-the-sky upgrades, but things that we really need to be able to cut down on the amount of manpower that it's taking to actually do things by hand, or the amount of records we're actually having to keep by hand, the 1 upgrades from Software Group total right at $92,000, okay? °'2 That's just a start, and that does not include the AFIS one 3 which we talked about that last year. That does include 4 Live Scan, which would help the clerks and us. But the AFIS 5 apart of itto actually identify unknown people immediately '~`6 is going to average close to another $100,.000. By the time 7 you get that, there's no way -- 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Through Software 9 Group? Or -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, AFIS is a whole 11 'nother application that's directly linked with the AFIS 12 system at DPS and FBI to identify unknown people immediately 13 through fingerprints when they're booked into jail, 'cause 14 you get a lot of false names. DPS is now going computerized 15 through AFIS, with their fingerprint system. And what you 16 have happen now, when we're still taking ink fingerprints 17 and actually having to roll them and send them in, with -- 18 with DPS and FBI and everybody going computerized, if 19 they're out of the lines a little bit on the card, if 20 they're smudged just a little bit, you know, that computer 21 kicks them out. It will not accept those prints, okay? And 22 normally it's about a month before we get them back saying, 23 "This print wasn't good enough, it's been rejected. Get us 24 a new one." Well, you can imagine, a month later, that 25 guy's not in jail any more, okay? And so that record never 16 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 goes on his criminal history, which it should on every one of them. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty, is the system you're talking about the one they use over at the driver's license place, where you put your thumb on the -- SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The system is lots more detailed than that. It takes a complete set of prints; it does it on a computer screen. It's inkless. You actually get to view the prints and make sure they are good prints. Then you push a button, and it automatically sends it electronically to DPS, and it can automatically feed it into the AFIS system and come back with a positive ID on a person within a few minutes. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Do you have to keep a hard copy of that, legally? SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You have to print it out and keep a hard copy? SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So we're not going to solve that problem, but at least you do get the access to -- SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, and then it's in there. Because what happens now, it's more of a manpower -- sure, you've got to keep one hard copy that can -- or you got to microfilm it, I think, as Linda says, if you got good 18 1 enough microfilming. But the other thing, it does-enable 2 any computer user _t hat's tied in with the software that we 3 have, we can give them access to that, to where the 9 investigators, .instead of having to get up and go findthe 5 prints in the jail filesfor things like that, theycan pull 6 them up on screen. We can do fingerprint comparisons from 7 there, and there's just so much more manpower that would 8 slow down. 9 Now, some of the other stuff that counties -- 10 the Sheriff's Department, I think, is -- is in need of, and 11 we're looking at, is such as fleet management, okay, on our 12 vehicles. We're getting a number of vehicles, as y'all 13 know, and the care and mileage and recordkeeping of those 14 vehicles, Software Group does offer that program in here, 15 okay? That would be -- be an excellent way to keep track of 16 everything. All the work ever done or anything else done 17 with vehicles. The CJ1Sform, which isthe Criminal Justice 18part --and it's the. triplicate form right now to get _a 19 person on the way to DPS, unless you do it electronically, 20 how a person's' record follows nim ishe gets arrestad,we 21 fill out the top part of the fcrm and we fill out that inked 22 fingerprint card. 23 That form gets sent, then, to e~the~'Linda, 2~ ~ if it's going in the District Clerk's Office --.well, 25 actually, it goes to the prosecutor first, I guessl. Goes to 19 1 the prosecutor, they fill out another part. This is a "~2 triplicate form. Then it goes to the court where they went, 3 they fi11 out another part. A11 those parts are torn off '4 individually by those courts or those people handling it, ''5 and sent in individually by mail to DPS. There's a way to 6"" do all that on the system, to where you don't have to worry ~ about that. Plus, after they've done all tr:e -- the filling 8 out, sending in the forms, if the print card cur people took 9 is rejected, everything everybody's done is for nothing ~0 anyhow, because we can't get it on the guy's record, 'Cause Il the print card wasn't good enough. 12, COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN:I justwant to make 13 sure I understand this correctly. The. system to do that 14 electronically is available today? 15 SHERIFF HIERHCLZER: Yes. ~.6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Through Software 17 Group, or a separate package? i8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER:'' Through, Software Group. 19 It's been available.. 20 MS. DECKER: Actually, we're ready to doit'.' 2'1 There's only one -- one little part of that that's missing, 22 and that's because the D.P..'s, neither one of them want to 23 use The Software Group, so that is the link that's missing 24 for us to be able to do that electronically. Now, if the 25: Software Group had at least one, you know, terminal or FC ir. G a. 1 each one of those offices, to where that could come through ~ the D.A.'s office and `hen go to us, it could be done ',,3 electronically. I got called a couple of weeks ago frost 9 Diane Wilson on the Judicial Committee on Information ''>~5 Technology, wanting to know why we weren't doing that; that ~ we were one of the counties that were listed as ready tQ go,, 7 except we weren't doing it. And, you know, I had to tell 8 her, well, our D.A.'s aren't on -- online. Now,. 9 ..misdemeanors could be done, because the County Attorney is 10'` using The Software Group. 5©, you knew, y'all are ready to II go there. But -- Z2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER:" P.rd the 216th could be 13 done pretty easy by getting a computer over at Bruce's 19` office, and I tviink Kay -- from what I understand in talking 15 to Kay and Jane, they wouldn't mind doing it that way, I6 'cause it saves everybody a lot, but there is an expense. 17 MS. DECKER: Hut Bruce is going to be the 18 problem, and so is -- 19 SHERIF'F' HI~RHOLZER: I'll get with Bruce, 20,-, COMr~1ISSIONER LETZ: Rusty, what does that -- 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The Sheriff's Office 22 part of that, where it all has to originally -- 23''' COMMISSIONER LET2: I didn't even askmy 24 question; he knew what I -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZEF.: I think you're going to 21 l ask about money. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Go ahead. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 4 P•1S. UECKER: That information has to start '5 with that event, that arrest. And the person arresting -- '',6 or the agency, which might be the Sheriff's Office, it goes. ~ from there to the prosecutor, and then to the court, and 8 .then to the state. So, the .only thing we're missing on the 9 felonies is the D.A.'s. 10 MR. GRIFFITH: You buys are obviously a lot 11 better off than most of the county. l~ MR. REID: That's a classic system, and I3 that's the classic problem of CJIS. You were talking about 14 sauzngpersonnel. A lot of the county, even though they may 15 have the software to do it, since they can't transmit it 16 electronically, what's happening is they have to turn on 1~ their software program, then read .the screenand fill out 3$" the paper document -- 19 MS. UECKER: Yeah,by hand. Little pink 20 form, just stacks and stacks of them. 21 MR. REID: And then DPS has to hire a data 22 entry clerk on the other end to type it into their system. 23 So, what happens is your subsequent DWI's or subsequent 24' ccnvictions, if Rusty arrests somebody and takes him to 25 - Motley for a DW3, he may have had three first-time 22 1 convictions already, before -- you know, before it comes. 2 back into the system that he's had them. 3 MS. DECKER: And another thing that's. 4 happening there is the D.A.'s, for whatever reason -- and 5 we've tried to tell them, you know, don't do this -- they 6 hold all of those forms. It's a triplicate form, or a ? four-part form. They hold them all for a month, even after ~'g the case has been heard and disposed of. They hold tY~ietn 9 all, and then we aet there in a stack like this. It takes 10 one clerk a whole day to pull that information off of the 11 computer, to put it on this little pink form for us to get 12,;, ready to send to DPS, so DPS can take it back off the paper 13 and put it back an the system. I mean, it doesn't make any 1'4 sense. ~,4: ~ w : qty ff~~. y~ /y ~( Wit( ~. ... rte':.-i.-. .. :. ,.y v„t.: .. ...:: .. . ... . _ ~~ ~ ~. ~ ~ -. .. .. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You know, it's a 21 dangerous situation all -- it's a manpower situation with 22 the counties, drastically, but it's also a danger situation 23 when something such as maybe a murder or something else does 24 not get on a guy's criminal mystery. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we have this 23 1 capability right now, with no additional expenditure? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 3 MS. UECKER: Yeah. Now, we've got -- and 4 I've gotten calls from DPS saying -- you know, kind of 5 threatening calls, like, "You're not getting data in. Why?" 6 And we're saying, "Well, we haven't got a form back from the 7 D.A.'s yet." 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: What would -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want a dollar figure. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hang in there, Jon. 11 Hang in there, buddy. 12 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Well, actually -- and 13 on that point, as I said at first, this is not to spend 14 money today, but if you have a dollar figure, if it's 15 $92,000 or whatever -- 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, that's -- 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That was something 18 else. But I'm saying, if you have a dollar figure, throw it 19 out. We're not trying to debate budget now. If we know 20 that it's -- it's out of the realm of fiscal reality, then 21 we'll have to say maybe we've got to go another way. But if 22 we're -- if it's something that makes sense, then in the 23 next year or two, budget-wise, we may want to see about 24 getting it in, perhaps. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's why I think 24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 the grant will -- we're talking about grants -- they do grants for this. I think he was saying it's 75 percent/25 percent match, and that could help for the Sheriff's Office, okay? Part of this alone, which is where it originates, okay, the AFIS hookup, which would identify people immediately, will probably be close to $100,000. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Would you -- SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The TSG, Software Group interface to Identex Live Scan machine -- now, it doesn't say that the machine is furnished. It says their interface to it is $6,500. The CJIS module for all offices involved, three days on-site training set up for the offices, the Micron PC installed to electronically report it to the State, in order to print the CR-43, which is that triplicate, quadruplicate form we're talking about, and capable laser printer required, that is $21,000, okay? So you're probably -- COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Some of that could be done with grants. JUDGE HENNEKE: So you're talking about $27,000 to put the Sheriff's -- MS. UECKER: I thought we already had the module. Tommy, don't we? SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. MS. UECKER: Don't we already have the 25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 module? SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. I talked with Software, and we do not. (Discussion off the record.) MR. GRIFFITH: If I may, I'm Mike Griffith from the Office of Court Administration. You can keep that copy. As the Sheriff and Ms. Uecker have pointed out, it's kind of a two-part -- actually three-part issue. You've got the arrest reports, you've got the indictment report, and you've got your disposition record report. The Live Scan arrest reports, I think you said about $92,000. The disposition piece for both the District and County Clerk would run about $25,000, based upon Software Group's kind of quick and dirty estimate to us. If you add all that up, the -- we're working a grant proposal right now that we would be happy to include you in that would fund about 75 percent of that. So, a hundred and -- well, $120,000, I guess. Three-quarters of that we could fund with federal grant money, and 25 percent, then, the County would have to match. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. JUDGE HENNEKE: If we had the sophisticated system in place, how many people would it free up for you? SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: None. JUDGE HENNEKE: None? SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: None. 26 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: But you may not have to add any more. SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the big deal. And, see, a lot of this, Judge, at the point we're at -- and I know that we've got a long-range planning committee that's been working on the Sheriff's Office and that. A lot of this is, as far as actual manpower or personnel, you know, being able to cut positions or things like that -- JUDGE HENNEKE: I'm not talking about cutting positions; I'm talking about reshuffling. SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, reshuffling, being able to use them where they're supposed to be, you know, like -- like the current schedule at the Sheriff's Office in the jail part alone is -- we're supposed to have four people walking the floor, okay, as far as jail standards, all right? And we have one in the control room. That's five people per shift. Well, where we are right now is, we'll have a lot of times, unfortunately, up to maybe two walking the floor, one in the control room, two other ones are in the booking room or whatever, doing actual handprints, doing a lot of this stuff the computer could do for us. So, you would free those personnel up to do more -- you know, to better utilize their time and that in actually doing these inmate checks and things that we're required to do. And that's where you get into reshuffling, but it wouldn't cut 27 1 manpower. You couldn't cut manpower. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sheriff, could you 3 not also provide these services through interlocal agreement 4 to other smaller counties around you? Do they not have the 5 same needs you have? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Everything starts in the 7 jail. That's the thing. We do all the prints. The other 8 counties -- City arrests somebody, they don't print them. 9 Ingram arrests somebody, they don't. DPS, it's all a jail 10 function, so a lot of that is already being done by us, 11 without being supplemented from those other agencies. It's 12 something this County's -- we have to do by running a jail. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What Bill's saying, could 14 Real County use any of this, through interlocal agreement? 15 MS. DECKER: No, because they have to buy the 16 Live Scan. 17"" SHERIFF.HIERHOLZER: They have to look it np 18 from there; it is a technology issue. And then I don't want 19 to take up all this, but one of the other technologies the 20' Judge and I may ha-~~e mentioned to ~~1r. Griffin is what's 21 called inmate tray:king. That's also done through Software 22 Group. That program's there, same as the fleet management, 23 same as -- this is just options the County hasn't bought 24 into. Inmate tracking, any time we have an inmate in that 25 jail that is a possible danger, suicide risk, welfare 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 concern, anything like that, we have to do a constant 15-minute check on him, every 15 minutes. As you've noticed, in the last, even, week, alert jail staff prevented a suicide in that jail by doing these and following the procedures they're supposed to. But all of that is documented. Those records have to be kept forever, okay? Every 15 minutes, there's a jailer that goes by a cell that he has to initial, date, time, and everything else, and who the inmate was and any unusual occurrences with that inmate, and all that's in writing, every 15 minutes for as long as that person is in there. And we may have 40 of them in that jail that have those watches, easy. There is an inmate tracking system, which is just -- kind of the best way to describe it, kind of like checking out a grocery store with the scanner. What it does, there's two hand-held scanners that every inmate is issued a bar card number and ID bracelet. Any time you move them -- any time you check them, you put the bar card on the cell that you're checking; you just walk by and scan it. It identifies the jailer, it identifies the date and time, and it identifies the inmate that you're checking on, and all that is automatically put in the computer, so you don't have the paperwork there; it's already in the system. Any time you move them to the rec yard or any of those -- 'cause we get lawsuits that say we -- they didn't take me to rec like 29 1 they were supposed to, or take me to the nurse's office. I 2 need a medical -- you scan that with their stuff, and it's 3 automatically in there. And that would -- that's another 4 one of those things that frees up a lot of -- an extensive 5 amount of man-hour time filling out the paper forms. You 6 know, there's a lot of this stuff that is available 7 currently, has been available through Software Group. It's 8 just that we don't have it, and it's very expensive, and I 9 think -- 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We need to look at it. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- we can find grants 12 and ways of trying to help fund a lot of this kind of stuff. 13 MR. REID: Rusty, there's a tremendous amount 14 of reporting that you have to do to Commission on Jail 15 Standards. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 17 MR. REID: If we were to find a way, talking 18 with Jail Standards so that that could be a fairly automatic 19 process, maybe even just get those -- that information 20 directly out of your system and pump it to Austin or central 21 server, would that save you -- 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That would save me a lot 23 of time. What he's talking about, by the 5th of every 24 month, we have to have certain reports in to the Commission 25 on Jail Standards; number of inmates, who, even by name, 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 they're housing for another county, who by name you're waiting on getting to T.D.C., when their paper-ready time was, how many days you've held them there. All this stuff is calculated and has to be done between the 1st and the 5th, and the reports have to be faxed into the Commission on the 5th. There is ways of doing all this, I believe, computerized too. We've got part of it in our system, which I have started making them do, but there's not a way to send it directly to the State yet. You have to print it out and mail it in. But, all that kind of stuff -- it's the same as with the CJIS and the CR-43's. It's just technology things. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thanks, Rusty. Before we move away from the judicial area -- and I'd really be interested in hearing particularly from Paula, too, in your area in a second, but before we move away from that, well, there's one question I've got to ask. And, I mean, this -- in a very general sense, since they're not here to defend themselves. What are the D.A.'s concerns about going with this system, since that seems to be the only roadblock at -- I mean, is it -- MS. UECKER: I have no earthly idea. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. MR. REID: That means she's not going to tell you. MS. UECKER: No, seriously, I really don't 31 1 know. I think they have their own prosecutor's package, and 2 they just don't want to have to do something else. Maybe 3 it's not being open-minded, I don't know. I talked to them 4 a couple of years ago and realized pretty quick that I was 5 up against a brick wall, and that was even before 6 Mr. Hierholzer was the Sheriff. So, I -- I really -- I hate 7 to speculate. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I just thought maybe 9 it's something that we can address or solve if we knew what 10 the -- 11 MS. DECKER: Also, while I'm up here -- and I 12 have some of the same concerns that the Sheriff has, 13 because, like, when he says paper-ready, you know, prisoners 14 that are paper-ready, they have to come paper-ready from us. 15 I mean, it's our packages. And, there again, until we get 16' evArything from the prosecutors, we can' t make that prisoner 17 paper-ready to qo for the Srieriff to del iver to T.D.C. On a 18 slightly different subject, but still on the judicial part 19 of it, there are a tremendous amount of forms that have to 20 be issued and that, fortunately, can be issued through the 21 Software Group's programming. In other words, I can pull up 22 State vs. Griffin, and -- 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Hope not. 24 MS. DECKER: -- just key in -- as an example. 25 If I want to issue a warrant, I just go to the forms, type 32 1 in "Warrant," do a print, and it automatically prints out a 2 warrant for you. Now, the proper preparation has to be 3 done. Every one of those forms has to be manually, at some 4 time prior, put into the system. Now, I talked to Tommy 5 about this, and you're asking about, you know, what I would 6 like to see. Well, it -- because of the Software Group's 7 Uniplex system, which is a totally, totally archaic -- I 8 mean, it's almost carved in stone with a chip. It's such a 9 sorry, sorry word processor that I've been working a day and 10 a half trying to get a writ of garnishment in there, because 11 it's so -- I mean, it's bad. It's all keystrokes and, you 12 know, quotes and unquotes and parentheses. F.nd T know that 13 there is the capability new of transferring everything -- 14 'the word processing to a Word, Windows-based, and I don't ]:5 know wr.at the cost is of that. I know we've had that 16 capability, and at one time when I talked to the Auditor 17 when he was doing the technology part of it, I was told that 18 everybody had to have PCs, which I think we're all on PCs 19 now. So, I would like to see us look into that, too, to go 20 to Word, because I was either fortunate or unfortunate 21 enough to be asked by the Office of Court Administration 22 last year, by Jim Boetke, to do forms to put in the Clerk's 23 Manual, to do all the forms for all the Clerks in the state 24 to use. So, I've got that on a disk, and I've got them in 25 Word, but I can't transfer those over to my own system. I 33 1 mean, I've got them for everybody else in the state, but I 2 don't -- I can't put them on the Software Group's package. 3 So, here, Jonathan. Just so you know, I checked with 4 Software; there is capability of that conversion to 5 Microsoft Word ir. software, and our quote was $8,.500. 6 MR. REID: The issue there is that they use a 7 proprietary operating system, or they have in the past, 8 unless they've changed their software. Once it's in there, 9 there's no way to get it out. It's not generally O.D.B.C. 10 compliant. The new standard is XML, which is what Judicial 11 Committee on Information Technology is working on, so that 12 that data can come out. Now, I don't know if it will come 13 out in Software Group or not, but that's a standards issue, 14 that once you -- again, we as counties should be addressing 15 and saying we're only going to buy software that meets -- 16 you know, that is O.D.B.C. -- that we can suck out into a 17 Word document. Not -- not to -- I'm not saying anything 18 about Software Group. I'm just -- those are some of the 19 standards that can save us a lot of money if we're careful 20 in our buying. 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's where the 22 industry's headed, too, not just counties. 23 MS. DECKER: And, too, all the reports -- you 24 know, we were talking about Rusty making the reports 25 electronically. Tknow clerks -- County ClerksardDistrict 34 I Clerks, and I'm sure ~~au1~z does toa -- I' know I make swine I5 2, reports to -- 30-something reports to like, 15 different 3 'state agencies every month. 4 MR. REID: That's where I'll throw in, again, 5 Rider 9 of Senate Bill 1 last session made the Department of 6 Information Resources. First thing they're doing is they're 7 inventorying all those lines that are coming into county 8 courthouses. We're working with them. But the other thing, 9 they've got the requirement to do an inventory of all 10 reports that counties are doing to the state. And where 11 they're going is with an eye toward consolidating that 12 stuff, because they're reporting the same thing 10 times 13 over. Consolidating those. In fact, there's. a financial 14 data committee whose sole purpose is to consolidate the 15 financial reporting, so Paula doesn't have to report the 16 same thing Tommy's reporting; that it all comes together in 17 one place. That will save tremendous -- I went to Senate 18 Jurisprudence on Thursday. How many -- how many court costs 19 reports are there? One's due on the 10th, one's due on the 20 15th. Incredible. 21 MS. UECKER: And we have to do all of those. 22 I was going to -- 23 COMMISSIONER LET2: Stan, is anybody in your 24 group working with The Software Group or -- or them and the 25 other large software providers of county software? 35 1 MR. REID: I haven't started working with the 2 vendors yet. That is something that's on our plate to do. 3 Obviously, the larger that we get, the easier it will be to 4 deal with them and to qet what we want. There are a lot of 5 strategies, depending on what you want. For example, 6 smaller counties may want a piece of software that sits out 7 there. Maybe we can convince DP8 to put it on their server 8 so that, you know, you update it there. There's a lot of 9 different ways of dealing with that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It seems -- the reason I 11 came out asking about that is that when I first got on the 12 court, we had lots of different software, and since I've 13 been on the court, we've been trying to consolidate to get 14 everyone to be able to talk to each other, at least in the 15 county. I think we've gone a lot in that direction, but we 16 still have a huge problem, it seems, with Software Group and 17 probably every other vendor you can include. 18 MR. REID: That's where the O.D.B.C. comes 19 in. O.D.B.CR. is the new standard. Ideally, you can -- the 20 Commissioners Court can buy whatever software package you 21 want to run your business, your Road and Bridge piece. You 22 could buy whatever piece you wanted. The jail could have 23 theirs from a different provider; it doesn't really make any 24 difference. And your legacy systems, the ones you have now, 25 you wouldn't have to update, and they will all exchange 36 1 data. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: If there was some 3 format -- 4 MR. REID: But that's what the XML does. It 5 takes it out of the old one, puts it into a new one, and 6 sends it over. ~ JUDGE HENNEKE: Sheriff? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only thing, kind of 9 along the lines of what Jonathan was talking about, Software 10 Group does stay up with a lot of the legislative issues and 11 changes their program. They do have their, you know, 12 programmers and experts that do that, such as on the issue 13 of county -- where it says about the racial profiling. They 14 have already upgraded that in the system to enable it to do 15 what is required by that Senate Bill on racial profiling. 16 We now have the capability of doing that, and are using it. 17 And that is one of the very few things that Software Group 18 did that didn't cost us anything extra. Because, actually, lg all the information is already there; they just have to get 20 it to -- to do the format for our reports that we have to 21 do. 22 MS. UECKER: Which they've always done. 23 They've always met with their -- their clerks about any 24 legislative updates to change their package, and that 25 doesn't cost us anything. I'm -- I'm wondering why, since 37 1 The Software Group is obviously, you know, our vendor, why 2 we don't have a representative from them here. 3 SHERIFF HIERH4LZER: Because he's out at my 4 office teaching class. 5 MS. UECKER: He's where? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: At my office teaching. 7 MS. UECKER: Oh. 8 MR. REID: You mentioned microfilming -- or 9 somebody mentioned microfilming. Is it a -- since this has 10 come up, I really haven't had a chance to research, but some 11 people believe that the law requires you to microfilm 12 records, while other people are saying that no, it doesn't 13 require you to microfilm it, that it just has to be digital. 14 Is there -- 15 MS. UECKER: No, the law does not 16 specifically require records to be microfilmed; however -- 17 and I was on the five-member state committee that wrote the 18 standards and procedures for microfilm and optical imaging, 19 and -- but I personally -- I think this is a Clerk's choice, 20 as far as what you consider to be archival. Microfilming is 21 still -- and any vendor that's going to be honest with you 22 will tell you, microfilming is still the only archival 23 media. Because images, although some of -- some of the 24 technology has been upgraded from 10 years to 50, is still 25 not -- has still not been proven to be that archival. 38 1 MR. REID: In what respect? 2 MS. UECKER: In the respect that it has to be 3 rewritten. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's still good a 5 hundred years from now, when you print off of it. 6 MR. REID: Oh. 7 MS. UECKER: Yeah, or 200 years. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Comments? Tommy, you 9 had a comment? Or input on this? 10 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, you asked about -- 11 somebody asked about a representative from the Software 12 Group. I had a guy -- I had a salesman in my office last 13 week, and I can bring the Court up to date as to kind of 14 what's on their plate, if you'd like for me to. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Sure. 'Cause I think 16 this goes across -- this affects everybody in this room. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, and I'm sure some of 18 the people in the room know -- know this, but Business 19 Records and Software Group merged about three years ago, and 20 as a result of that, they're -- they're a subsidiary now 21 of -- of a corporation called Tyler Corporation. Tyler 22 Corporation purchased, I think, 20 -- 23 or 25 different 23 software vendors in -- over the United States, and what 24 they've done is to try to pick software vendors that are 25 expert -- that have expertise in different areas of -- of 39 1 software that's needed in either county or city government. 2 And what they -- what their plan is, is to try to take 3 the -- the different applications and pick and choose from 4 -- from different vendors that have the -- that have the 5 best tool, and incorporate it into one product. An example 6 of that is -- is that in their -- in one of their purchases, 7 they purchased a company in Lubbock, Texas that -- that's a 8 vendor for -- for the financial products for cities. Since 9 that time, they have -- they have developed that financial 10 software into a package that's -- that's almost ready for 11 counties to use. I think there's already -- I think there's 12 eight or ten counties statewide that have it already, but as 13 luck would have it, the -- the man that wrote -- that helped 14 write the software sits on the Governmental Accounting 15 Standards Board, and was one of the -- one of the guys that 16 helped write GASB-34, so that's what -- that's the direction 17 that they're headed. 18 And so -- and another thing that I -- that I 19 think is good about -- about Tyler Corporation is that, in 20 the merger, they have now the financial capability to -- or 21 the staying power to stay in business. There's -- there's a 22 lot of software vendors out there in this world that -- that 23 are new and upcoming, that -- that there are some horror 24 stories about from a financial point of view. I mean, 25 they've started in business, and -- and they've stayed two 40 1 or three years, and from a financial standpoint, they can't 2 hack it, and so they're gone. And, I mean, this Auditor 3 does not want to get in bed with -- with any corporation 4 that does not have a financial record of some kind. And, 5 so, I -- and in this business, I think -- I think that you 6 need the financial ability to stay. 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Tyler's huge. That's 8 a huge outfit. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: It is. It's a publicly 10 traded company. But I won't ask you for that software right 11 now. 12 (Laughter.) 13 MR. TOMLINSON: But I will. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I got a quick question 15 for you. This is a little break from The Software Group's 16 execution and all that. What would it take for this county 17 to have direct deposit, both payroll and -- like, the State 18 pays electronically for a lot of their billings and stuff, 19 just to cut down that paperwork and automatically handle -- 20 is that a big thing, or little thing, or -- Zi MR. TOMLINSON: I think it's about $2,500. 22 That's to get direct deposit. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: The reason we haven't 24 is 'cause we have a relatively low number of employees for 25 payroll, and it's not that hard to write -- print checks, I 41 1 suppose. But it would seem that, as things get a little bit 2 bigger, perhaps a few more employees, it just seems like to 3 me that, you know, I mean, there's companies a lot smaller 4 than we are on the number of employees that use direct 5 deposit. I mean, it's just -- it just makes a lot of sense, 6 fewer errors. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: I think it's a good thing to 8 do. But I do have one guestion for Stan while I'm here. 9 Are you -- are you on the task force, the legislative group 10 that -- that standardization of accounting policies to 11 counties? 12 MR. REID: County policies? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Or accounting systems. 14 MR. REID: Yeah, the financial data, right. 15 And I had mentioned that earlier. It's a group to try to -- 16 last session, County Affairs sent out an interim charge and 17 said we want to know what counties are -- are having to pay, 18 how much your mandatory duties are, what are your 19 discretionary duties costing you, you know, this big 20 over-encompassing charge. We came back and said we've got 21 this data, we got a report. P.F.C. did a report; they said, 22 well, that's nice, but that's not telling us anythinq. So, 23 they wrote -- they enacted a law that creates a Data 24 Advisory Committee to try to help counties on the 25 consolidated reporting. One is the electronic reporting, 42 1 but to have some apples-to-apples, what means what. And, 2 one of the things they're offering to counties -- not 3 mandatory, for those of you that already have them -- is a 4 standard chart of accounts, and it's based on the GASB 5 model, and it's supposed to take into consideration GASB. 6 And that way, if you use that chart of accounts, ideally, 7 your -- your data can be poured straight out in the counties 8 as you need it. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: I was wondering, you know, 10 what -- at what degree that our standardization would result 11 in this, if it's something that -- that's necessary to 12 report financial data to the state. That -- and the state, 13 you know, I'm sure wants -- wants standardization from every 14 county by December. 15 MR. REID: Actually, it's really us that 16 needs the standardization so that we don't report, you know, 17 one piece of data five different ways to six different 18 agencies, and then probably that same piece of data in the 19 same -- you know, in two departments of the same agency. 20 They're getting this -- 21 MR. TOMLINSON: My concern is that -- I have 22 a standard, you know, basically recommended by the 23 Comptroller. My question is, do you think this -- this 24 study will be out in a reasonable time and meet -- for 25 counties to use in conversion to GASB? I mean, and you 43 1 know, I don't want to -- I know that in implementing GASB, 2 I'm going to have to make some changes in my chart of 3 accounts, and that will -- that will make it easier for me 4 to -- to report and get a report. And what I don't want to 5 do is make changes to my accounts for GASB-34, and turn 6 around the next year and make more changes to comply with 7 whatever comes out of this -- this directive. 8 MR. REIB: Let me -- and this issue comes up 9 a lot. The chart of accounts is just there as an aid, and 10 so it's a beginning process. So the chart of accounts is 11 required to be in place by September 1, required to be 12 finished. We voted to have it finished by September 1. But 13 it's going to be very high-level in the sense of public 14 safety, and the idea is to try to build subcategories. If 15 you've got to report Road and Bridge expenditures, then 16 there'll be a place under there for, you know, Road and 17 Bridge expenditures, so that you could either take your 18 chart of the data that's in your chart of accounts and map 19 it to this unified report, or you could use the standard 20 chart of accounts; you could just punch the data in. That 21 would go to a central -- a central server that everybody had 22 access to, the other counties, all the state agencies, and 23 you -- so you don't have to do a trillion reports. It's 24 just come look at it. 25 MR. TOMLINSON: Now, I'm -- I've done the 44 1 financial reporting that TAC has asked us to do for both my 2 counties, and from that experience for two years, I know 3 that it -- that there's a lot of consolidation work. And if 4 I had a chart of accounts that would match that -- that 5 reporting requirement, then I wouldn't have all of the -- 6 all of the consolidations that I do now to -- to accommodate 7 that report. 8 MR. REID: Could y'all send Tommy up to 9 Austin to help us with your chart of accounts? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Well, thanks, Tommy, 12 for that update. Appreciate that. One other thing I should 13 mention, because -- and I know all the Commissioners got 14 this same handout that I did, and everybody read it in great 15 detail. It's called the Judicial Committee on Information 16 Technology. It does have one -- for those of you who may 17 have read it and forgot it, there is a -- there's a very 18 important thing that talks about the J.C.I.T. charter in the 19 front end. And I would -- I would recommend that you at 20 least read this part, because it tells you -- I think, at 21 least in the judicial area, and I suspect the rest of the 22 state is going to follow right along with it, it's going to 23 tell you where the state is headed in information 24 technology. And if they come anywhere near meeting the 25 charge in the charter, it's going to be a lot different 45 1 world that we look at when it's complete. And that's years 2 away, but it's still something that we -- we're either going 3 to get on that train or we're going to get off of it, or 4 never get on it, perhaps. And I think we're petty well on 5 it, but it's an interesting charter and very broad. It was 6 done by the 75th -- this charter was issued by the 75th 7 Legislature, by the way. Paula, do you have some insights 8 that you might want to add in your area? 9 MS. RECTOR: Mine seems trivial compared to 10 all this other. I guess my focus right now is in my tax Il collection department. Since I do have some people 12 retiring, I've kind of been at' a standstill as far as 13 .technology in that department. I`m looking toward' working 14 over there and trying to streamline some things and cut out 15 a lot of the paperwork, which -- 16 MS. UECKER: Yeah, you're right, it is 17 trivial. 18 MS. RECTOR: It is trivial. 19 (Laughter.) 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Linda. 21 MS. RECTOR: DPS has done a wonderful job at 22_ the state level with. motor vehicle records. T think that's 23 the best thing that's ever happened to the Tax Office as far 24 as registration -- vehicle registration and title transfers. 25 That's a wonderful thing. Voter registration, we finally 46 1 did our first online update to the State. Software Group 2 spent many hours trying to make it work, and we stayed after 3 them till they finally got it to work. We did an update; 4 everything went through fine. 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I have a question for 6 you. How is your electronic-communication wifih KCAD? Is it 7 -- is it good, bad, indifferent, or could it be better? 8 MS. RECTOR: We have one terminal online to 9 them, and we can only access basic information. Fourth 10 Coates and I have -- the Chief Appraiser there looked at 11 some other software that we can share. They would be able 12 to do all of our corrections through their system 13 automatically to ours, instead of them running a tape, 14 bringing it to us, we load it on our machine, we update it, 15 we run a report, recheck it, we balance it, dah, dah, dah. 16 It all gets done automatically. With the new upgrade 17 that -- software that we're going to be seeing within the 18 next year in our ATC package, there's some things -- it 19 looks wonderful. It looks -- I mean, state-of-the-art. But 20 we can't merge anything off of Word or anything into their 21 system. So, as far as documents, I'd like to be able to see 22 us keeping all of our documents, contracts, letters, 23 correspondence, anything that we do for taxpayers in that 24 record where, when we pull up that taxpayer's record, we've 25 got everything we've done for that taxpayer, and not have to 47 1 go into another part to pull that together. With this other 2 software that we looked at, all of that just -- it 3 commingles. We have access to pictures, square footage, 4 everything that we need on property records. -Instead of 5 saying, "Qh, you'll have to go to the Appraisal District for 6 that" we have it xight there. Fie can share our information 7 between both offices.- And that_'s kind of where we"re going, 8 as far as the appraisal and in'the tax collection end, is 9 sharnq that information. IQ COMMISSIONER'LETZ':, Do they use Software I1 Group at KCAD? 12 MS. RECTOR: Yes'.' Yes. We would -- it would 13 be a disaster if we didn't share that'. 14 MR. REID: That's one area where there's some 15 -- there's big technological changes coming, and that's -- 16 in the tax appraisal area, primarily because -- especially 17 since after 911, especially after the Twin Trade Towers, 18 they're wanting to know more parcel information from FEMA. 19 FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, is looking at 20 wanting to know more about the parcel layer -- what we call 21 the parcel layer; what are the actual physical confirmations 22 of the parcels, who's there. FEMA also wants to know that 23 from a floodplain management standpoint, 'cause they're 24 paying out so much money, they want to see what properties 25 are in the floodplain. Where the GIS -- you can attach all 48 1 your -- all the data that you're talking about to that 2 parcel so you can view it. That way, you can also query 3 against that, say, "Give me all the property, you know, 4 that's over $10,000 that has a house on it, and it pops it 5 up there. It's also an application you can share, you know, 6 using Arc IMS or something like that. I just bring that up 7 because it ties into your 911 stuff. It ties into your Road 8 and Bridge map. It's a w~~y -- GIS is a vaay .for each of you 9 to share that, rather ~'han da it over and over again. For 10 example, the state has your county on it on a disk. That's 11 one giant aerial image that has enough resolution that you 12 can tell if there's a DC-3 sitting at the airport. You can 13 pull back and zoom in, and it snaps -- all these layers snap 14 on top. I just mention that technology because it's' 15 relatively cheap, and it's an area that there's a lot of 16 money going into for you already. l~ MS. RECTOR: That was one of the things that 18 we looked at with the other vendor that we visited with, is 19 the layering of information. And we don't have the 20 capability of doing that with Software Group. 21 MR. REID: Right. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Rusty? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only other thing I would 24 mention, that I know you have some joint workshops coming up 25 with the city, Judge. A whole lot of this, Chuck and I have 49 1 talked about it ourselves, just amongst ourselves, on trying 2 to maybe get the City to end up using same software type 3 stuff we use, such as Software Group. 4 MS. UECKER: You found him? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Chuck? Oh, yeah, I can 6' find Chuck. Because so much of the stuff the police 7 department does and we do is exactly the same, and the same 8 people, that would it save everybody a lot of time, and in 9 the long run, probably a lot of money being able to share 10 all these databases with municipal court, you know, police 11 department. And it may be something, too -- I know that 12 Bexar County and S.A.P. D. have the same one. I can go to 13 the police department, get the same information I can get 14 from the Sheriff's Office and things, and it saves a lot, 15 and it's so much more detailed and better information, law 16 enforcement-wise, that'it's'unreal. And it's just something 17 that they work towards trying to explore, at least to the 18 technology in sharing that amount of information. 19 MR. REID: Not only do you gain efficiency, 20 but these grants that -- that Mike is talking about, the big 21 push -- we had a big meeting of J.C.I.T. with the feds that 22 came down, the different programs, and the big push right 23 now, both in the governor's office and in the people that 24 are controlling the money, is the data, the exchange of 25 data. So, when you start talking about coming up -- Tarrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 County`s trying to do an integrated justice system, looking at trying to get federal grant funds to do that. If you want to think, you know, out there into the future, perhaps you should get together. I'm just saying get together with your other law enforcements, whether it's the school, Rusty, everybody, and start looking at getting you a planning group and start working on a grant to tie those pieces together so that data can be exchanged and pushed up to the federal level. That's what they're looking for. MR. GRIFFITH: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Can you help with us 12 that, Mike? 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. GRIFFITH: I can. As I mentioned earlier, we're working right now to put our grant package together, and we've kind of taken the mid-tier counties -- there's, like, 61 counties that are doing electronic disposition recording right now with DPS. There's another 35 counties -- actually, of that 61, 35 of those counties also do electronic arrest reporting with Live Scan. We're trying to extend that now to the next 25 counties, and certainly Kerr County would be part of that as we go through to try to get as many additional counties reporting as possible. So, we're -- we'd be glad to factor you into the grant proposal to whatever extent you want us to. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Well, we certainly, I 50 51 1 think, want to be there. 2 MR. REID: What I'm suggesting is you may 3 want to apply for a separate grant to Criminal Justice, the 4 governor's office, to do your integration piece. 5 MS. UECKER: Is that part of the money that 6 we collect, the Criminal Justice Planning? 7 MR. REID: This is federal funds that are -- 8 MS. UECKER: This is federal funds? 9 Mr. Reid nodded.) 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Judge Tench, did you 11 have a -- 12 JUDGE TENCH: I think that sharing the 13 information is great, wonderful. We gat four J.P.`s ~n this 14 county, and we don't share anything electronically:. We 15 got -- three of us have PC's that are office-oriented only, 16 to our own office. One of the J.P.'s is on the Software 17 Group. I don't -- I've never been on the Software Group, so 18 I don't know what advantage it has. I do know that the 19 program that three of us is using is archaic. It was great 20 when it was put out seven, eight, nine years ago, but it 21 still uses MS DOS, and it's going to die. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's Apollo? 23 JUDGE TENCH: Yeah, the Apollo program. 24 And -- 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Needs to be in a 52 1 museum, sounds like. 2 JUDGE TENCH: Right. And we're using -- my 3 documents -- my documents in my computer are on Word Perfect 4 5.1, I mean, so we're going to have to change somehow, 5 someway, and it could happen very shortly. 6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yeah. 7 JUDGE TENCH: I've talked to Tommy. Tommy -- 8 we are aware of the situation, but we don't know what the 9 solution's going to be at this point in time. 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. Well, that's 11 one, obviously, we need to address fairly, because those are 12 museum names that you've been mentioning. 13 MR. REID: That's pretty much a statewide 14 problem, too. The J.P.'s have a tendency to be the least -- 15 the least technologically connected. One thing is because 16 they're usually away from the courthouse, and there's -- 17 there's problems in getting to them. But they are -- 18 generally, they are a fairly high-revenue generator, and 19 they are just not connected. That may be a situation -- 20 some counties are popping wireless up and going. out to their 21 precinct barns and their J.P. offices and other parts. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You can get a 23 bandwidth wire these days that reads enough for a J.P.'s 24 office and for a precinct barn or something like that. The 25 advantage of that is you can get out -- then you've got 53 1 wireless popped up, you can start using -- law enforcement 2 could even start looking at some of these things from a 3 wireless standpoint, where you can do your reporting and 4 ticket writing, and you got GPS on here and the whole nine 5 yards. But we didn't want to go there today. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Don't even let my guys 7 know about that. 8 MR. REID: Well, it's not very expensive. 9 Cheaper than a laptop, so anyway -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Got to get up to the 11 present first. 12 MS. UECKER: Well, and another thing that I 13 just happened to think about is, about a year ago, The 14 Software Group sent me the software to load on my PC at home 15 so I could work at home. through the,internet. Now, that is 16 something else that maybe the J.P.'s could think about. 17 MR. REID: You could have one piece of 18 software -- could you have one piece of software here, one 19 piece of justice -- of the peace management software here in 20 the courthouse, and through a secure Internet connection, 21 through secured sockets, they can come in and use that as 22 their management tool. Then you've qot it right there into 23 your accounting stuff, and you've got it, and it's all 24 together. 25 JUDGE TENCH: I tried to do that with my home 54 1 computer, trying to get -- and I didn't have the -- the 2 necessary software installation package to put it into my 3 lap -- my home computer. 4 MS. DECKER: I've qot it. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Denton County is a good 6 example of that, because what Denton County has done, 7 they're one of the biggest software users -- Software Group 8 users. They have their own web site, and they have linked 9 Software Group to their web site, to where the public 10 information that people need and can get, such as public. 11 jail information and different things like that, you can 12 actually get off their web site through the internet just by 13 linking straight into their software package. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: They also have, I 15 think, a secure -- they have a secure area for internal use 16 too. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, they do. 18 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Access via internet, 19 which all that's possible. That's just -- 20 MR. REID: Yeah, that's something everybody's 21 doing; a lot of companies that do that. We may even offer 22 that service. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Any other comments? 24 Anybody else who's got something to put in front of us? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. 55 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yeah? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where do we go -- I mean, 3 from a -- with our budget, four, five months down the road, 4 what do we need to be -- what do the elected officials 5 really need to be doing to, one, get a plan to where we need 6 to go over the next -- whatever the plan is, three, five 7 years, whatever the period is, ten years? Where do we need 8 to go, and then how do we get moving in that direction? And 9 I guess just to keep track through the Court, they need to 10 have some idea what may have some sort of a chance of 11 funding. 12 MS. UECKER: Sponsor a retreat in the Virgin 13 Islands for all elected officials. 14 MR. REID: We'll come help. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But that's the first 16 question. The second one, which is a little bit unrelated, 17 since Shaun's here -- we haven't heard from Shaun yet -- is 18 just more to him. Is he -- you know, is he working with all 19 the departments? Is he comfortable working -- is 20 everything set up right now, and is that -- you know, how 21 does he fit into that picture of coordinating -- and that 22 kind of merges those two ideas. There's a -- I have never 23 worked out in my mind how we work out a -- you know, a kind 24 of a county system that we kind of are pushing, or, you 25 know, through Shaun and all that, with I don't know how many 56 1 independent elected officials that can do what they want. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Eighteen. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Eighteen. Eighteen 4 elected officials.-'The~,~ .am basically do what they want, 5 within budgetary constraints that we set up, and how we end 6 up working that all together, I've never figured out how we 7 do that. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Let me take a little 9 bit of a shot at both of those, 'cause I've had the same 10 questions in my mind, and concern, and I spent some time 11 delving into it. And that -- probably, what we need -- and 12 I'm not proposing this today or anything of the sort, but 13 probably what we need is something like an information 14 technology working group, and it would include people like 15 Shaun. It would probably include a member of the Court or 16 two. Certainly, the elected officials and department heads 17 or their representative, if they have one who would 18 logically be sort of the handler of their information 19 technology. Because what we need to do is make sure that 20 we're all on the same page, even though we have different 21 purposes for accessing information and for inputting it. 22 We've got different purposes for -- and likes and dislikes 23 and a personal basis for one group or one software package 24 or another or whatever the case may be. 25 Somehow or other, that needs to get worked 57 1 down into a management package that can be proposed to the 2 Court for funding purposes, and overall policy and strategy 3 guidance. But I think we're going to have to go to 4 something like that, because like most companies of this 5 size, we sort of built a technology -- information 6 technology system from scratch, and we started off and are 7 coasting through exactly the same thing, and have for years. 8 One group will go off and charge in this direction. The 9 other group goes off and charges in this direction, and 10 somewhere about the time the company get's profitable, the li G.E:O. and. the president, or t'he C.O.O. or somebody sits 12 down and says,_ Wait a minute. We've got a hodgepodge of 13 stuff. Let's get together a working group and sort it all 14 out and come up with something that's going to keep us 15 profitable.. So, in the heat of battle, people do what they 16 got to do, but there comes a time when I think we're going 17 to have to probably put a more formalized process to this. 18 And it's happening in state support agencies; it's happening 19 in state government. It's happening with the feds already, 20 and has many times over, and we're just going to have to 21 probably go through that same process. 22 The second part, I think -- I think we're 23 still learning a lot, since we've had an Information 24 Technology Specialist in Shaun. We've had him for less than 25 a year, and we have filled his plate pretty full, and I 58 1 think we still need to work on some means of organizing that 2 carefully, making sure that he understands our priorities 3 and he understands the needs of all the elected officials 4 and departments, and I think we've done about as well as in 5 that area as we can hope to at this point. But we're still 6 learning, and I think Shaun's still learning how to try to 7 access all the data that we do have and take advantage of 8 and exploit the technology that we already have on-hand. 9 And it's pretty powerful. We had a lot of slack capability; 10 we do have a lot of slack capability still in the system. 11 And I know that Shaun and many of you are looking for ways 12 to better utilize it. I think we just got to keep doing it. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Tommy? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah. You were talking about 15 thinking about next year's budget. Besides -- besides the 16 nuts and bolts of the system, I'd like to see the court 1'7 allocate some funds to -- for every department, every 18 individual in the system, to have some formal training in 19 operating systems, whether it be Linda's operating system or 20 any -- or have -- have a person from our software vendor 21 here to have maybe a whole week's worth of training. And I 22 know I'll be -- in my own package, I mean my financial 23 stuff, that I know that there are aspects of my package that 24 I use on a daily basis that I don't know how to use. And 25 part of it is that I don't have -- I don't have the time to 59 1 teach myself. And I use what it takes for me to get by from 2 day to day, and I think that -- that by people in the system 3 knowing at least the basics of -- of Windows operating 4 systems will help Shaun, because there are a lot of things 5 that people can do on their own and never go -- or that 6 doesn't take Shaun. And, I mean, I think that would take a 7 load off of him somewhat. And I also think that, you know, 8 if we know -- if we know all the intricate details of our 9 system and what it will do, and maybe even what's 10 available -- maybe we don't even know really what software 11 has developed, and that we need to explore those things. 12 And I think we need the money to do that in next year's 13 budget. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: And a way to structure 15 that training, too. I think any help we can get in that 16 regard for you, Tommy, or -- or Shaun, how do we structure 17 that so we know what to ask The Software Group or anybody 18 else for in the training world, so that we don't kill our 19 business capability day-to-day, but that we still have 20 formal training for all of our people. I think it's an 21 excellent idea, and something we need to do. 22 MR. REID: It's one of the cornerstones of 23 LIRA to get the training and education. Once again, that's 24 another one of those places where there's a lot of people 25 doing training; Agriculture Extension is doing computer 60 1 training, Texas Engineering Extension is doing computer 2 training, TAC is doing computer training. We'd like to see 3 some more -- like you said, a more structured kind of a -- 4 let's get out there in the field and get everybody trained 5 at the same time. We're putting up on our web site as many 6 free training sites, the basic computer training, basic 7 Windows. There is -- there's a ton of stuff on the 8 Internet, so we're trying to put those in as links, so for a 9 couple hours a day an employee could go to that site and run 10 through that. And also, the National Association of 11 Counties has a program that there's a tuition fee -- who do 12 they contract with, Microsoft? 13 MS. NORRIS: Well, really, it's a federal 14 government subset. It's all.Internet-based federal 15 government courses that have been developed, and they're 16 repackaging them and making them available to counties. 17 MR. REID: You can go online and take 18 everything from basic computers up to some network 19 administrator courses right now. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Sheriff? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: First, I want to echo 22 Tommy's deal on the training. When I took office, or -- 23 took office, we had just gone back to Software Group, and 24 all I've heard, really, out of my office, a lot of the 25 officers and the employees, is how terrible it is. And what 61 1 their deal is, they have no idea how to use it. And once 2 they -- once they actually learn -- start learning the 3 capabilities of it, you know, opinions have changed. That's 4 why Software `Group is up'here this week training six people 5 out of our department to use the sheriff's-package,' sheriff 6 and jail. and all that. And the biggest thing I`think the 7 County erriployees need to'understand today is how Linda's 8 package affects our package, how our package affects hers or 9 Paula's, because it's all from the central database, and if 1.0' they enfer things wrong in it, it messes up everybody 11 else's, and it is a big training issue. 12 This week, for me to have six employees in 13 that training in software down here is a little over $5,000, 14 is what it's costing us out of our training budget, but 15 we're at the point we had to get people trained 16 appropriately. And I found out people I thought were 17 trained couldn't even log onto the system this morning when 18 they first started. You know, they tell you, "Yeah, I know 19 how to do that," and you get into it and they really don't. 20 The only other thing, because of the expense and because of 21 what I see the expense in just the Sheriff's Office package 22 part of it, I'd like to see the County possibly -- the Court 23 as a whole, if it can be done through the budgeting, to 24 budget some funds into a grant pool that could be used as 25 matching funds for grants that we could all apply for to 62 1 improve the technology and be able to get -- a lot of this 2 stuff is a quarter of -- 3 MS. UECKER: Yeah, but you'd get it all. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'd try. But it will 5 help us all in the end run of it. So, we got all the 6 records management funds; I haven't gotten those yet. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Brad? 8 MR. ALFORD: Judge, on what Shaun and all 9 them are talking about, I know Linda can back me up on this. 10 It's amazing how many times people call me during the day 11 saying, "My computer's locked up. What do I do?" The other 12 day Shaun was at the jail; y'all went through the 13 conversion. I spent three hours, probably, in two days 14 running around the courthouse simply turning computers off 15 and turning them back on because they did not understand the 16 Windows operating system. And I think that would just free 17 -- I feel -- I tease him all the time; I feel sorry for him 18 because of what he goes through. And on the sharing of 19 data, as y'all know, my whole job is to make y'all money. 20 It would be so nice if-1 could access the J.P. records, 21 simply because 90 percent of the people that the Sheriff 22 arrests qo to the Court system, I see, and they get a 23 speeding ticket six months down the road, and we can't find 24 them. But, if we could access the J.P. records, we'd 25 probably have something on them in a couple of days; we'd 63 1 know where to find them all. Our biggest problem ;is finding 2 people. I think the; Office of Court Administration has run 3 a tab on Kerr County,. and we have about 84 .percent 4 collection on contact. In other words., where we can find 5 them and we meet them the first 'time, I think our collection 6 rate is, like,_84 percent, T'think that would Jump 7 drastically if we could just find these people through the 8 J.P.'s. Paula's records, I think there's a legal issue with 9 some -- what is open and what's not. Linda has the same 10 problem. But, through this statewide pool, it would help us 11 tremendously, 'cause we access Workmen's Comp already. We 12 already access some of the Attorney General's office records 13 that the court already pays for. So, if this data will 14 become county-wide, it'd sure be nice. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thank you. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, the training issue, I 17 think that is really two levels of training. One is basic 18 computer or intermediate computer. The other is the 19 specific packages. The Auld Center through their Club Ed 20 offers more computer training courses than it does anything 21 else, so as far as basic computer, I think if we want to, we 22 can contract with them or contract with some of the 23 instructors to give a series of workshops to employees 24 that -- new employees or existing employees, probably for a 25 fairly reduced cost, and not have to pay Software Group to 64 1 send people down here to teach them how to turn the computer 2 on and off. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We did run across that 4 this morning. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: The other thing -- just a second, Linda. The other thing I think I'm hearing that it might be a good idea to do as part of the ongoing budget is to have a technology budget, and that would be drawing new technology funding ,out of each department's budget and putting it in pne budget so we can all see-what we're doing for technology. You know, Paula has a piece; she knows what's she's spending. Sheriff has a piece. But if we all see it in one place, it might be pretty significant. The other thing we can do, I think, which is a good suggestion if we have the funds, is to put a matching grant pool into that technology budget. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: And then see if we can keep Rusty from getting all of it. (Discussion off the record.) JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, let's go back. Ms. Decker has the floor. MS. DECKER: Just for your information, The Software Group has an excellent user group meeting that lasts three days every February, I believe, in Plano. There is no registration fee. The only thing you have to come up 65 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 with is your travel expense, meals, and room, and they even furnish, I think, a couple of meals. Don't they, Paula? MS. RECTOR: Mm-hmm. MS. UECKER: But they have specific training for different offices, different applications. MS. RECTOR: And it's hands-on. MS. UECKER: Yeah, it's hands-on. They have the computer set up, everything. And I've been there. Last couple of times, I have not been able to go. One time I didn't have travel funds, and another time I had a conflict because of the time. But they do have -- COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: More travel funds. MS. UECKER: And Commissioners do go, because -- COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How about Commissioners' technology representatives going? MS. UECKER: Anybody can go. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That fellow right behind you there. MS. UECKER: Yeah, Shaun needs to go. COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. JUDGE HENNEKE: Good ideas. Larry? COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay, I think we're sort of there. And I want to, for today's activities, just reiterate again that this is an ongoing process. This is 66 1 not a one-time deal that's going to answer a whole lot of 2 questions for us, but I hope -- today's been very 3 informative to me, and I hope it's been for others, just to 4 get us started thinking and -- and as an entity, and as -- 5 having a purpose, that we're going to reach some point out 6 here. It's still yet somewhat unknown, but we're all going 7 to have to work together to define what the goal really is. 8 That's going to be an ongoing process. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Bob? 10 JUDGE TENCH: Larry, you said at the 11 beginning that this was the first meeting, and the next one 12 probably would be 12 months down? 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I said no longer than 14 12 months. Probably needs to be more like three months. 15 JUDGE TENCH: It needs to be a much closer 16 period of time -- 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Right. 18 JUDGE TENCH: -- than 12 months down the 19 road. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Absolutely. 21 MR. REID: I'd just ask you a favor; as you 22 go through this process, as you identify legal roadblocks to 23 get to where you want to be, or if you identify technology 24 coordination roadblocks, if you could pass them to us, we 25 can add them to the stew of things that we need from the 67 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 next Legislature, or maybe we can even get the agencies to change them. MS. UECKER: Oh, before we -- I did want to read you an e-mail that I received from Diane Wilson, who's the Clerk's representative on the Judicial -- she sent me an e-mail, because I had asked her about the stuff that you had asked me to find, and she says E'-filing Report Newsletter for January states that the U.S. Supreme Court is now accepting e-mailed or faxed backup copies for legal filings in the wake of the anthrax scare that closed the court on 10/26, and is now compelled to review the move toward electronic filing due to 9/11, the anthrax scare and stoppage of mail. The court plans to move cautiously when it comes to upgrading its filing procedures, even though it accepted electronic filing of Bush vs. Gore last year. One Justice stated that e-filing might mean more filings and thus more cases to consider. Another reason to resist such technology. Interesting or twisted logic. (Laughter.) JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Thank y'all for coming. We enjoyed it; it's been very beneficial. (Workshop concluded at 3:15 p.m.) 68 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 STATE OF TEXAS ~ COUNTY OF KERR ~ The above and foregoing is a true and complete transcription of my stenotype notes- taken in my capacity as County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 15th day of February, 2002. BY: JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk Certified Shorthand Reporter May 11, 2009 IT Policy Change Agenda backup information LAST PAGE