Is it still morning?

Okay, 15 minutes left.

Good morning.

Chairman Daly, Commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to provide a mid-year update on the office of the clerk of the circuit court of Cook County.

I'm Marianna Spiropoulos, the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County.

And before I begin, I'd like to introduce my staff that's here with me.

Chief of Staff, Mike Chaito, Executive Clerk for Court Operations, David Moses, CFO Tahani Hill, Executive Clerk for Human Resources, Chad Gearrig, FIS Chief Vivek Ananda, and General Counsel, James Chandler.

Thank you.

When I appeared before you last fall, I spoke about restoring trust in one of the largest public offices in Cook County.

And trust is not built through promises, it's earned through results.

So today I'm proud to report that my administration continues to deliver those results while remaining focused on responsible stewardship of tax dollars.

Residents expect their government to do more than balance spreadsheets.

They expect us to spend wisely, operate efficiently, and deliver measurable value for every public dollar entrusted to us.

And that responsibility has guided every decision that we have made.

Over the past year, we've continued transforming the clerk's office into a more transparent, accountable, and modern institution without losing sight of our core mission, ensuring every person who comes through our court system receives efficient, accessible, and professional service.

We've continued expanding transparency through our public data dashboard.

And this year we built on that commitment by launching our orders of protection dashboard, providing greater visibility into one of the court system's most important functions while equipping policymakers and community organizations with better information to strengthen public safety and improve services for survivors.

Our commitment to modernization has received national recognition.

In fact, uh NACO has honored our e-citation initiative with a 2026 Achievement Award.

By replacing outdated outdated paper processes with secure digital data exchange, we have improved accuracy, reduced administrative delays, and increased transparency while continuing to expand the program across Cook County.

These improvements are not simply about technology, they're about making government work better for the people that we serve.

We've continued expanding online services that reduce unnecessary trips to the courthouse, simplifying interactions with the court system, and improving access for working families, seniors, and residents with disabilities.

Internally, we have remain focused on strengthening accountability.

Our financial oversight practices continue to ensure responsible management of public resources while identifying opportunities to improve efficiency across the organization.

We've continued investing in employee development because well-trained public servants provide better service, reduce errors in public, and build greater public confidence in government.

Our commitment to accessibility extends far beyond the courthouse.

Since taking over my office has participated in hundreds of community events throughout Cook County, therefore bringing court services, educational programming, and vital resources directly into neighborhoods.

Whether helping someone understand the court process, obtain court records, or connect with available services, these efforts ensure that access to justice is not limited by geography or circumstances.

The people of Cook County should not have to navigate government alone.

Government should meet people where they are.

And through all of this, we've remained disciplined in how we manage taxpayer resources.

We continue to evaluate expenditures carefully and pursue operational improvements that strengthen service while protecting public dollars.

So efficiency is not about doing less, it's about doing better.

And as we look forward the remainder of the fiscal year, our priorities remain clear.

We're going to continue modernizing operations.

We're going to continue expanding transparency, and we will continue improving access to justice.

We will continue ensuring every dollar entrusted to this office delivers measurable value for the people of Cook County.

The progress we've made demonstrates that good government and fiscal responsibility are not competing priorities, but they reinforce one another.

Now I'd like to get into some variance information.

Overall, our office remains committed to stay on track to meet our estimated revenue projection and is trending toward ending the fiscal year within budget.

Our revenue variance appears to be related to the timing of when the information was pulled for the report.

The fiscal year 26 budget revenue section includes revenue estimates through May of 26, while the fiscal year 26 actual revenue section, currently reflected in the template, only includes revenue activity through April of 26.

Based on current projections, the clerk's office remains on target to finish fiscal year 26 within its budgeted estimate revenue estimates.

Beginning with professional services, we are showing positive variants of approximately 182,000, 9.8%.

This is simply a timing issue.

Several planned expenditures, including the Sage Accounting Software, Clerk of the Circuit Court website hosting, and the countywide sentinel contract are scheduled for the second half of the fiscal year.

So as this projects m as these projects move forward and the related invoices are paid, we expect this variance to be eliminated by the year end.

In terms of office supplies, we have a positive variance of about $98,000, which is 43.9%.

We started the fiscal year with sufficient inventory on hand, which reduced the need to purchase additional office supplies during the first half of the year.

As inventory is used, we expect purchasing activity to increase during the second half of the year, and we do not anticipate any significant variance at fiscal year end.

With regards to maintenance and operations, we have a positive variance of approximately $119,000, which is 12.0%, which reflects a combination of both overspending and underspending across several accounts.

The overspending is primarily the result of county preload charges, including maintenance and subscription services and the Johnson control security service contract, where annual costs were charged earlier in the fiscal year than the related budget and spending pattern.

Those early charges have been offset by several accounts that are currently underspent.

For example, maintenance for printers, scanners, and call center software is scheduled for the second half of the year.

We also expect additional fuel chargebacks from the sheriff's office, vehicle maintenance costs and property maintenance expenses later in the fiscal year.

As these planned expenditures occur, we expect this variance to normalize by the year end.

For rental and leasing, we have a positive variance of approximately $36,000, which is 13.2%.

This is primarily due to the cashiering security software contract, which is scheduled for renewal around October of 26.

At the same time, the county charged the full annual amounts for certain countywide equipment and facility rental cost during the first half of the year.

Based on the timing of these expenditures, we do not anticipate any significant year-end variance.

With regards to contingency and special purpose, this variance of approximately $301,000 is a negative 40.2 percent, and it relates primarily to appropriation adjustments.

During fiscal year 26, the clerk's office received an additional payment from the state of Illinois for child support services previously provided.

This payment represented a replacement for a check that was originally issued in 2025, creating the variance reflected in this category.

In summary, we remain confident that both revenues and expenditures are in track, and we expect to end the fiscal year within our approved budget.

As of the current reporting period, our office has 24 vacant positions with a projected fill rate of approximately 98% by the end of the fiscal year.

Additionally, 12 SHACMA exempt positions remain unfilled pending further administrative oversight, and 12 full-time employment positions across seven job titles are in development for posting.

Our office is continuing a comprehensive review of staffing needs to ensure alignment with the leadership's strategic priorities.

Happy to take questions.

Thank you very much.

And before we go, I know you had mentioned to me about the clean the clean slate that was passed.

If you could just end what that means.

So yes, I recently received information from uh the governor's office that they're creating a clean slate um task force, which I will be part of.

Um, it basically automates the record ceiling process for individuals with eligible nonviolent offenses after designated waiting periods.

It helps remove long-standing barriers to employment and housing by clearing records for more than 1.7 million residents without the need for court petitions.

And since Cook County represents about 40 percent of the state of Illinois with regards to cases, um, that will be a significant um amount of work for our office.

Um, and we will be seeking to increase some of our staffing so that we can comply uh with the state of Illinois requirement.

We have no, you have to do it.

You're mandate.

We are mandated to do that, yes, sir.

I know you uh you read the report or have read the report that was submitted last week in the criminal justice.

The violence against women task force?

Correct.

Yes.

So I know there's issues that have come up in some of the commissioners.

Number of the commissioner who bring this uh I was just wondering if you could give a general overview of where you see your office, how you could implement it, how what the improvement could be done, because basically it's everyone coming together and making sure these report is implemented.

Yes, and I applaud um the committee for its work in putting that together.

Um we're happy to be to to be able to contribute um some of that.

I would speak to um I know there may have been a little bit of frustration with regards to some of the data because it would be twofold.

First, we're we don't necessarily capture some of those data points in a clear uh fashion.

In other words, this is you know an example, but let's say someone is looking how many A's were filed in 2025.

It may be that our coding doesn't capture just A's, it captures A through Z.

So the staff would then have to parse through to in order to isolate to get that answer.

That would be one thing.

The second thing, and and we have about 12,000 codes um, you know, in our office.

So um we don't necessarily always capture the data in its purest form, we have to um get to it.

So that takes a little bit of time by the staff, number one.

Um and number two, we do get a lot of data requests.

And so um what would be great is if we could have uh about three to five staffers who could just be dedicated to staff uh to data requests that we receive.

We get about 700 requests um annually, and as I said, sometimes going through it's not just pushing a button and being able to get the numbers, which would be ideal.

It's sometimes having to create what that information is.

So some support in those areas would be helpful.

But I do applaud the effort on behalf behalf of the uh that the committee put into it.

They looked at a lot of information from a lot of organizations, and there are some uh uh some valuable suggestions and recommendations um that we would happy be happy to have conversations with members of the committee to try to achieve.

Commissioner Vice Chair Lowry.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Clerk and team for uh your great work.

Just a couple questions.

And looking at your review materials, uh, it's noted that one of the challenges in filling vacancies is the uh office's employment plan.

Would you just speak to that so we better understand what that challenge is and maybe with you can look at ways to try to deal with it?

Yes, Commissioner, I'm have the head of HR, could you say your name and your title?

Chad Garrick, Chief Human.

No.

There we go.

All right, Chad Garrett, Chief Human Resources Officer.

So the employment plan that's currently in place and specifically, Commissioner, thank you for the question.

Um in the entry-level positions.

So we use Telelo, which is provided by BOT um offices under the president.

So all of our um entry-level positions have to go through Tileo.

So for example, most recently when we posted the office open office clerk positions, we had approximately 1,000 um applicants.

Now, the current permissions that we have for to Leo, once that closes, so first it has to be open for two weeks.

Once that closes for two weeks, um the staff has to go through each and every one of those applicants to see if they meet the minimum qualifications and then any of the quote unquote preferred qualifications, which gets them a score.

That then, within that um, we rank them, we give veteran preference, several things within our employment plan.

Once that is complete, we do a randomization per the employment plan.

Um so this can take anywhere, depending, you can imagine a thousand applicants we have to go through anywhere from three, four, five weeks to make sure that we're validating everything.

We then have a uh director of compliance that has to review all of our validations, uh, make sure that we are doing it within the constructs of the employment plan.

Once that is complete, we can start making offers or doing interviews.

So it's just a lot of tape, I would say, but then also the limitations of the current HRAS system that we have access to.

You know, is there an allowance or even a discussion to be had about certain situations where based on need and the provision of services to the residents of Cook County that we adopt some type of accelerated hiring process?

Have you had those discussions or considerations?

We actually did that with the clerk's administration coming in.

Um not only did we initiate a skill, a basic skills test, which I discussed in the um the labor hearing that was had, but we also worked with our director of compliance and developed a memorandum of understanding that we would skip the interview process so that we could accelerate this hiring process, which is how we got to um literally, as I'm talking to you today, we have seven union vacancies open, and that is um six court clerks and one core clerk trainer.

So as far as our budgetary allowance, we are one almost 100% completely full when it comes to entry-level union positions.

Okay.

Uh Clerk, I know that I've heard you talk before about the uh importance and value of having a chief innovation officer.

Uh do we have one in place and and where are you relative to that process?

Um yes, you know, uh being creative with our data, trying to create um a database with um data as well as um you know our internal protocols.

Uh you know, we're working on that, but I'll let um our head of MIS speak to that.

So you're not sure.

Thank you, Combination.

This is Vivek Ananda Chief Information Officer.

Uh to answer the question, uh we have had uh long conversations, Clerk and I have had long conversations about this for a lot of years.

And uh instead of getting uh innovation officer, we did hire multiple resources for different uh heads uh to fill in the gap, and they are actually um helping out in various different ways uh of how we can um improvise the technology to be an enabler for the office to do a better job uh not only from from our staff point of view, but from a public point of view or the judicial point of view.

So that's an effort we have started.

Uh we have identified a lot of key things uh which we are uh using as initiatives to to move forward at a pace, uh starting first internally and then towards the public point of view.

Okay, so the um hiring of a loan chief innovation officer that's in the garage.

It's not really something that's being pursued.

It's not not saying that we are not pursuing that.

It's it's more of um uh innovation comes instead of having one person, we are having multiple people be a consortium of doing that.

Okay.

All right.

Clerk, if you talk about one of your recent successes, the uh depository system.

Yes.

Um so that positions not in the garage.

Okay.

Rule of completion.

Yes.

Um yes, the will depository.

We're very excited um about that.

Um so basically the thought came up when uh I had a conversation with um then um chief Tim Evans.

And um, you know, it's something that um he had been talking about, and um, you know, we agreed that this could be something that we could, you know, place in our office as be part of our our services.

So uh we took that ball um and we ran with it, basically putting together legislation.

The um our general counsel's office um worked on that, basically analyzing what was done in other states.

Um, and there were several states that were doing uh this type of work.

Uh we also had interviews with some of those um uh clerks' offices that were actually doing this work to see what components we could use and what we couldn't.

Um and we crafted something, uh, brought it to Springfield, um, and it just you know uh took off.

We had unanimous support from everybody.

And basically it's um what is sometimes happening um in uh certain scenarios is people are are writing down their last wishes on a piece of paper, they put it in the cupboard under the mattress, somewhere, um, and then when they pass, people don't, you know, aren't aware of where that was.

And so things are not distributed the way that they would have liked.

So that's unfortunate.

So this is just a tool um uh made available to people.

You can write your will, you can deposit it with our office, um, and uh it's on the governor's desk for signature now.

So once that is um, you know, goes into effect, we will be rolling that out and making that available and um going, you know, we'll market that so that people are aware of what they need to do in order to take advantage of it.

But we're excited to be able to offer this service.

So as a member of the Chicago Bar Association, I know there was some pushback, if not opposition by the CBA relative to this measure, don't understand the basis of it.

Would it be the role of attorneys given this system or what what was the basis of that uh opposition from CBA?

Well, I'm happy to say that AARP, um Illinois State Bar Association, um, and uh faith in place, uh several organizations were supportive of our efforts.

Um there was some discussion by attorneys to expand this to be able to have attorneys deposit the wills at our office.

The initial thought was to create this for people who could not afford attorneys.

Um that's not to say that we won't expand this.

Um, you know, when people are closing out a law firm, maybe they want to deposit all the wills that they have on file and and leave them with us.

We'd have to set up a protocol for that.

Um, but it's not where we're at right now.

Got it.

Okay.

All right.

And I have one more uh uh question, uh Chairman, so thank you.

Um I just can't say enough how important second chances are.

You know, and it's a rare family where you either you or someone in your family hadn't really needed a fair second chance.

So with that, I've always applauded the expungement program.

And uh just would like an update over the last year.

Uh what's been the result of the summit, or what's what's been a the result of that effort uh from your office.

I think it's an effort that that alters and changes lives.

So what's the extent of impact?

So um we had a great uh October 11th last year was our first expungement summit.

We are putting together um our next one to be at Kennedy King um in October.

Do we have a date on that?

10th, October 10th this year at Kennedy King.

And we will certainly share all the details with the commissioners um it, you know, so that they can share it with the community.

Um, you know, there's always the expungement location at 26 and Cal that's open all the time, but uh, you know, it's good to bring these resources to the communities.

We set them up with free legal advice and we get them a court date.

So it's sort of an all service um uh event, and uh we look forward to working with you to make that happen.

That'd be awesome.

Kennedy King's in my district.

I'll be there, and we'll also help get the word out.

Great.

Thank you.

We appreciate that.

Before I go into Commissioner Dagner, the clerk wanted to address an issue.

Yes.

Um so there's always uh, you know, the issue of whether individuals are um remaining in jail longer than necessary due to the the documentation and the paperwork and the clerk's role in that process.

Um I know that our MIS uh division is always having conversations with the sheriff's office in order to tighten that process to make sure um but there is also uh the procedure in the courtroom.

So when there's a heavy call, when there's a heavy call and uh the clerk has to, you know, enter data um and work with the judge to keep the call going, uh getting that information to the sheriff's office mid-call uh when someone's someone has been released versus waiting till the end of the call is sometimes um a matter of uh discussion.

Like how do we handle that process?

David, is that something that you'd like to speak to?

So you say your name and title for the record.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is David Moses.

I'm the executive clerk executive clerk of court operations.

Um as it relates to mitts being prepared in the courtroom, the court clerk is responsible for translating the judge's order onto a minimumist form to then pass on to the sheriff's department so they'll know the order and know whether to release or to detain the individual.

That process is is is convoluted.

It's it's a lot going on in the courtroom.

The court clerk is entering all other orders.

The court clerk is making sure the judge has the judge needs for the next case.

So a lot of times in order to maintain um accuracy, we we have to take our times in reading that.

We have to make sure we verify with the judges that that had that information is true and it is concise before passing on to the sheriff's office.

So we we will slow it down because we don't want to detain anyone that should not any longer than they should be, and we don't want to uh release anyone that should not be released or detain anyone that should not be held any longer.

So that process sometimes is a little slow, but that's that's the process we do to ensure that the justice is is uh served properly.

Thank you, David.

And then so that is from the process uh in the courtroom uh procedure.

Um I'd like my MIS um uh Vivekananda to speak to it in terms of technology because there is the entering the order, getting the information to the sheriff's office component to this process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk.

Um so to piggyback and the chief information officer.

Uh to piggyback on what uh uh David Moses uh executive clerk was mentioning from an electronic standpoint of view, uh we have been working with the sheriff's office to try to get this data uh to them, just the data what was entered.

Um and uh we have actually uh have we are having weekly conversations.

In fact, we have actually made it uh multiple calls on explicitly of this transmission with the sheriff's office.

And uh now we are also looking at giving them scanned documents just as we mentioned here that of the convoluted process.

If we we are working uh with our vendors and also they are working with them with BOT to get this data through the bus so that we can have a complete digital documents, including the document provided to them electronically so they don't have to wait for the paper for the code clerk to print it out or wait for the end of a call because the information will be going out much more fast.

Did you explain what the bus is?

Oh, so the bus is stands for.

Sure.

Okay.

Uh the bus, uh, we call it the bus.

It's actually an enterprise service bus, uh, which is uh which was uh incorporated in 2017 uh based on the Illinois uh based on the Cook County IC just program, uh, which the commissioners are aware of, and it's actually managed by Bureau of Technologies here.

We wanted uh outside entity to manage it at that time for all the judicial partners, all of the data which transfers for all the judicial agencies, that is communication going from the clerk's office to the sheriff, from CPD coming to the clerk, coming to the sheriff, going to the state's attorney's office, going to OCJ, going to the public defender, all of that goes through this enterprise service badge, which allows all of the elected members and all the judicial parties to be agnostic not to be on the same system because the bus actually does the translation and or lack of a better word, mapping to provide the data how they want it so that they can ingest it or they they can give data to the bus and the bus will make it in such a way so that we can ingest it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Clark, the in essence before I go to Commissioner Dick.

And this the judge would have to stop his call.

Yes, or her call too.

Her call, right?

Their call.

Their call.

Yes, their call.

Uh and it depends on how a judge runs their their courtroom.

Um and you know, needing the clerk to do certain things to get to call a case because attorneys are waiting, or because um, you know, a petitioner has been waiting.

Um so there's a lot of things going on in the courtroom and it makes it.

They're called, yes.

Commissioner Dick.

Thank you.

I think just a pivot on that conversation, that's why we need e-orders for judges so that they are able to type in their orders, just like we all type on our computers and move us into the 21st century to streamline some of your obligations and their obligations.

There's a lot of things kind of on everybody's plate right now, and I think that would be a great thing that we can bring up when our chief judge is here to talk to us.

All right, so let's talk a little bit about data to start.

You know, you had mentioned uh Clerk Sparabolis, the that there's a frustration with data, and that the county in your office doesn't necessarily capture data the way that it's been requested.

And so understanding that and that there are limitations to the way that you can respond in a timely way.

I know that it is your intent to give responses as soon as you can, but if you're limited to the way that the data is collected, then you know, having human people parse it out, have to make human interactions with a system that you know in many minds it's just you hitting uh a number of keystrokes and having that pop out is not the way it happens.

So adding a couple people to your data team, but really to back end it in.

Let me back up a little bit.

Yesterday we were having a significant conversation about the environment and flooding and um and how data is not really collected across lots of governments, the state governments, county governments, city governments, and if you don't have that data, it makes a lot harder for you to make informed science-based decisions.

The county itself, in my opinion, humbly, is not great at data collection, which makes it hard for us to make really big decisions and also to pull in external money to help us with big issues.

Domestic violence is one of them.

So I guess I would ask you, how do we help you update turn on functionalities that may be present or really amend your system to help you capture data the way that you would best want to do that in concert with your MIS and IT people?

And if we don't have a system that can accommodate that now, you know, how do we move or help you move into a place where you have a system that you can have expedited responses that you don't feel like there's an unnecessarily delay because you're dealing with a bulky system that isn't giving you what you want, and then you have human intervention that isn't perfect either.

So how do you how do and if you don't have the answer, that's a big question if you don't have the answer now?

Maybe it's something we can talk about, but within the budget confines, it would be good to have that conversation.

Yep.

So the short answer would be to dedicate some staffers to be able to just be dedicated as opposed to taking them off of the day-to-day um work that they're doing and then having them answer uh uh respond to a data request.

So having that would be that's a short-term uh problem.

The bigger issue would be fixing the system so that it could give us the information in the way that it's being requested, um, and in a timely uh fashion.

So um my short answer is staff, um, but I'll um let Vivek speak more to um a program answer.

And Vivek, before you start, is also the system that we use required by the state of Illinois.

Are there limitations that are put on your office based on the system that you have to use given other regulations?

Uh short answer to that is no.

Uh but we have to we have to be in compliance with whatever the state wants us to be.

Uh they don't lack of better words, they don't going to ask you what bookshelf you're going to keep the books, but they want you to keep the books in a particular way.

That's all they're they're looking at.

Uh that's a good question, ma'am and uh uh commissioner.

And you also mentioned that you were going to bring this up to the chief judge.

Um data capturing of case evidence historically in the clerk's office has been based on some compliance rules that we have to capture this and report it for some person, or something new comes up and we start capturing it.

So historically we can't get this trend of oh, we're capturing all of this so we can report it correctly or report it not.

Uh a good example would be is uh from PFA, right?

From the time PFA went into effect.

Uh we are actually capturing more data attributes to give more reporting because and that's why if you actually look at the code forms, we see a lot of codes on the farm so that it helps our code clerks to have like like the clerk mentioned, we have over 12,000 event codes out, and we are creating more.

And for Karina's law, we have actually created 20 or 30 more because we had good requirements of what was the reporting they were going to be asking.

So those were things which we needed to start improvising on data capture.

And we have making all the efforts to do that.

Um we can definitely have conversations and we'd love to have conversations on uh other um enhancements we can do the system.

Um can our system right now what we have uh capture these attributes which we are asking to we can and we are making the efforts to do that.

Okay, so the functionality is there.

It's just making the functionality work the way you want it to work.

Exactly.

Okay.

Well, that's really helpful.

Um let me pivot to the fact that um I had I know that the is an ill new Illinois Supreme Court policy on transparency, which starts this month, and it says the AOIC will publish a series of clerk of circuit court data across the state, including orders of protection, probation, juvenile detention.

So if the AOIC is requiring if this information from all clerks of the circuit court across the state, is that something that the system is prepared to give them in the time frame they need, or is it something that we might need additional funding or support for in order to comply with this policy?

James.

Is that something that you can speak to?

James Channel, General Counsel.

Um Commissioner Degan, to answer your question.

Um there's an annual reporting requirement that's a huge list that MIS and his team puts together.

The AOIC is a little different because they create a lot of the VEN codes, so they they know what to ask for.

So we we can just run uh plenary OPs versus this and that, and we make a lot of different reporting requirements to them.

Um when they amended the manual on record keeping for, let's say um Korean's law to to do those additional 22 codes, they're specifically asking for search warrants negated, which is a code, as opposed to someone asking for um search warrants that disappeared.

How many did how many extinguished, which isn't a word that appears in our database, so we have to kind of determine you mean degated or denied, you know, those different types of nuances.

Okay, so you're saying you already have this information and that this new policy at the state level isn't going to make it more difficult for you to comply with that.

That that no, because AOIC has created most of the codes for us in case types.

Okay, sounds good.

So then Dr.

Claire Pixaropoulis, um the materials you provided, you had talked about a goal, your number one goal on page four is the success successful adoption of live electronic ticketing for law enforcement agencies, and that you now have or will soon have 91 law enforcement agencies, and this changes helped your office collect penalty fees and worked with law enforcement agencies as well as residents.

So is there anything that's kind of left that you need to do to expand that?

Are there other law enforcement agencies that have that you need to bring into this, or does the system pretty much the way it's going to be?

Because I know historically it's been tough to kind of target every one of those law enforcement agencies, how much money the clerk is owed, and then kind of move that money around.

Um of the challenges has been the um the software that each of the suburban law enforcement agencies use and making sure that that is compatible with our system so they can send in their data to us.

Um the biggest um group will be CPD to make sure that we can get the Chicago police on board.

Um we've had conversations with them, they're open to that.

They want to create a pilot, they want to start it at the airport in uh some other um locations to make sure that it works.

Um but with regards to the finance of the speaker, they have the title, please.

For each um ticket that we get, we have a statutory um obligation to pay certain municipalities, the schedule and e-citation is part of the schedule.

We as Cook County get, I think three dollars, and the municipalities get uh two dollars.

So each month we do pay the what we collected for each municipality to um collect for e-citation, and the statute says for them to use that to the discretion for e-citation initiatives.

Okay, so CPD is really the last one to pull on board, that is the biggest one, but you're in the process of getting them incorporated into the e-citation, and there's no reluctance.

It just sounds like it's more of the you know, the burden of the system and making that work between offices.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

And then Commissioner Lowry had asked um about the office's employment plan, and then we did here the many, many steps you have to go through.

Um so if if there is like a thousand applicants for one job, is there a process where some of those applicants can be um uh constricted or if it's like too many?

I thought on the county side that if there's a certain number over a certain percentage or number of applicants, then I mean if you have a hundred thousand applicants for one job, it becomes an impossibility for you to do that work.

So, where does where's that threshold and how does that employment plan able to be updated to make sure that that is taken into consideration?

Uh Chad Garrett, Chief Human Resources Officer, thank you, Commissioner, for the question.

Um, we so multiple answers because it was multiple question.

So when it comes to um the number of applicants that we get in, I think at where we are averaging approximately around a thousand for these entry level.

Um currently we aren't capping it because it was the initiative to make us fully staffed for customer service, statutory responsibilities, et cetera.

Now, when it comes to reviewing the applications that we are getting in, um the current system again to Leo does have quite a few limitations.

So we do have to check two places.

It's very it's a little odd to say it out loud sometimes.

So we have to check what they wrote on their application, but then we also have to double check a resume that they upload.

So if you for instance, you said you apply if you applied for an office clerk and the requirement is six months of customer service.

Let's say you didn't put it on your application, but it is on your resume according to the appointment plan.

We would then say, okay, you meet that requirement.

But we do have to do those two steps per the plan.

Now I have an amazing team.

The clerk has brought on an amazing people who are efficient, they're fast, they've been doing this, they know the process.

So I think that the team itself is tremendous in in this process.

Um we have been, as I said um directed to the other commissioner, we have been looking at the employment plan and trying to make tweaks to it so that as you all are saying, how can we make it more efficient and how can we really use it to our benefit?

So again, one of those was the memorandum of understanding that we aren't gonna do uh interviews for these entry-level positions.

But like, isn't interviews one of the the ways you can best determine if a person fits the job that you need.

Like if you're spending a lot of time on a thousand applicants to weed them out, and then you finally have a number, and then you don't even if you don't interview them.

Yes, I agree.

Looking at like the separation of duties and what is the most important for your office.

And I think it depends on the job title that we're filling as well.

When I'm saying we don't do interviews, that's strictly for the entry-level office clerk and financial clerk.

All other posted positions are actively recruited.

We do do interviews for.

So that is the process.

And I do believe that not doing the interviews initially was so that we could full get fully staffed, and then we are using the tools that we have in the employment plan.

Understood.

Okay.

I understand where you're going with that.

All right.

So I just I guess the the kind of close out question is is there a limit to the number of applications that you receive and then a reasonable number of them and saying it's an impossibility for us to look at all of these for this entry level position.

Is it can it be that there's too many and can you cut it somewhere?

Or is that something you're thinking about, or you're just kind of set with the as many as we get, we'll look at.

It hasn't happened yet, but we do have the capability to say, okay, if we get a thousand applications, we're only gonna review the first 500 that is within there.

And then my last question on that is you had noted in there that the technology labor market remains highly competitive, and the clerk's office is generally unable to offer salaries that are comparable to those offered by private sector employers and other public agencies.

So um adjusting the salaries to meet those market realities is something you're gonna have to do in order to hire into those spots.

So is there like what's the percentage difference?

Is it like a 50% difference or a hundred percent difference?

How is that and how many positions do you have?

So, in terms of entry-level salaries right now with the the tech, the technology.

Oh, for technology.

Um that so there are two pay scales currently, right now.

The clerk's office uses our our pay scale, and then there is a Bureau of Technology pay scale.

Um the mark, I would say the difference is probably around um, I'm trying to remember the numbers about 40,000 um our beginning pay scale to the BOT beginning pay scale.

So, what is that about um 40% difference?

The last question I have should be um an easier one.

So the gold number two initiative includes expanding access to information through the secure public access portals.

So, can you give us some a little bit more detail around the types of information that was previously unavailable, but that will now be available?

And is this project complete or will when will it be completed?

This week and I'm the chief information officer.

Um so we are evaluating uh solutions and not just going with the solutions which we have.

We don't want to just get constricted uh for the points you mentioned.

Uh the features which we want to provide is um self-re uh SRL, so self-represented litigants to have access to their cases.

Um, and then also provide uh uh better access to attorneys on cases to have access to their cases, which are some functionalities we don't provide right now.

We cannot provide it based on the present solution we have.

Uh and a lot of times, even the chief judge actually approves uh a case of somebody getting access to portal for only their cases.

Um and those are cases which we can't um we cannot fulfill because our system doesn't allow us today.

These are things key features which we are looking to provide the uh data, I mean access to and features on.

Other than that, we also want to the clerk is looking at from a transporting point of view, what the law and the statutes and compliance allows us to give access uh to all type of cases as much as we can remotely.

But that again, that's totally dependent on other jurisdictions controls which are there in the state of Illinois that we can do.

So it's evolving, and there's probably not an actual deadline as to when this will be done, but based on a lot of different types of documents.

We have not set the deadline yet, but we are definitely uh looking into this.

Thank you very much.

And we had an update about the emits last week, so I appreciate that.

Thank you for being here.

Commissioner Naya.

Thank you, Vice Chair Clerk.

Thank you so much um for bringing your team, but um most importantly for your patience.

I know you had to wait a lot um to to come up uh today and do your presentation.

So I appreciate it.

Um just wanted to clarify uh if you can just clarify, you mentioned um that there's an update on the vacancies in regards to what was reported because of the date that this was reported.

Can you walk us uh once again through those vacancies?

Because I heard 24 vacancies, but I'm not sure if that was accurate if we went from one twenty-seven to twenty-four.

Chad Gary, Chief Human Resources Officer.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Yes, that is a um the 24 is very close to the accurate number.

Uh when that data was polled was at the end of May.

And what that included was everyone who had already started and gone through orientation.

Through the month of June, we had very large classes.

One uh class was approximately 40 new hires, and then the following class I think was another 35 hires.

So that is how we got from the number that was presented to you all to the current numbers that we've got.

Yeah, I was like, that's so impressive.

Yeah.

Um okay, so d can you walk us through what those tw 24 vacancies are?

So I heard in the presentation that potentially by the end of year it's gonna be like 80 plus percent that's gonna be hired.

So um are there any specific positions um that are causing an impact within your operations as of now.

Thank you for the question.

Just to clarify, in terms are you are you asking if we have any open positions that are causing operational problems?

Yeah, the 24.

Or or not even problems, just any that are significant in in why you want to why you would want to close those vacancies.

Uh I think they're all significant, to be honest with you.

Right now, as far as union vacancies, we have approximately, as I I I believe I said to the vice chair, um, six court clerk openings and one core clerk trainer, and that's the highest current level that a union employee can go to.

So I do want to preface too is once we fill those, we go through the CBA, the collective bargaining agreement, we will then trickle down and we'll probably end up with seven office clerk openings that we'll have to fill.

So that's the fundamentals of the operational.

Then we have the clerk's appointments, um, executive assistance.

Um we've had a lot of retirements, um, things along those lines that we are just now starting to fill.

Uh within um my own department, um, a senior human resources generalist.

Um all of those are vital to the organization.

It's just processing them.

I mean, as we all know, going through and getting the request to hire approved takes a little bit of time, uh, and then doing the interviews and the processes I discussed.

So I don't believe I believe that they are all vital to our operations.

Okay, and then um can you verify that most of them will be closed by clo uh end of year?

Oh, yes.

I think absolutely.

Okay.

Um, so as uh Clerk Serapoulos, you you mentioned um I was part of the task force for domestic violence, and I also want to commend you um, particularly because your team was a part of it.

Um, but you yourself actually stopped by in one of the meetings.

So um that is always uh very much appreciated because it shows willingness to be a partner um and a willingness to work to ensure that we uh find solutions.

Um and really to highlight and uh uh the understanding and understanding, you know, obviously the operations.

So one of the areas that um was specifically discussed was regarding transcripts and recording of the actual uh proceedings.

Um folks uh saying that in uh specifically in like domestic relations, there might be um some issues with accessing transcripts.

Can you walk us through what your office's role is in regards to transcripts?

Um and are there gonna be any specific changes through your point of view and your office's point of view regarding that?

David Moses, executive clerk for court operations.

The court reporter's office, which is affiliated with the chief judge's office, is responsible for transcripts.

Transcripts are sometimes tendered to our office, and when they're tendered to our office, we make them available to the uh appellate court for appeals matters.

And in some um domestic cases, we do gather and retain those um transcripts and we make them available as the judge orders us to do those do so.

Um so for the record, you all are not the ones that are actually in charge of the folks that are um doing the transcripts.

No, we know.

You're just in charge of the information and disseminating that.

Have you seen any through your point of view any um uh things or improvements that you can highlight that this body should be aware of in order for us to help move that along?

So I'm not aware of any concerns from any um constituents in the clerk's office that might be seeking their uh transcripts.

I'm not aware of any concerns there.

Okay.

Yeah, because we heard a few, but I think it was most about like how fast they are produced and also the cost associated to the individuals that may need access, right?

Um so I think those were some of the the the concerns and whether they were actually available in some of the courthouses specifically in some of the civil courtrooms.

So um, but we will make sure to um you know ask that question of the chief judge.

I appreciate um your insights.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um my next question is in regards to Karina's law.

So obviously there's been working groups and discussions regarding um how the implementation of Karina's law.

So just wondering um uh you know what the status is on the finalizing and uh and the approval process from your point of view and what role exactly do you all play in in that long process of Karina's law.

James Chandler, general counsel, uh Commissioner, yeah, uh our role in every courtroom um is processing the paperwork on time and it's specifically for Karina's law, and it's a unique law because it changed the way search warrants were administered.

Usually an LEA gets does their investigation and then presents it to a judge for a judge to sign it.

Well, the judge is now filling out an information form and finding probable causewors or to issue that search warrant.

So it's issue from the bench, and we've trained our people on it.

Uh we just had current uh when uh our HR department went through current training specifically on Karina's law and orders of protection, it was a refresher for some and it was new for some.

So we did, I think six weeks of that.

And so our our role and is it in it is to make sure the OP gets to leads, and if there's a Korean search warrant attached to that, that gets to leads as well and to the proper LEA so they can serve it and and properly execute it.

Great.

Um so the six weeks that you talked about in training, was that each individual goes through six weeks, or it was a six weeks of training multiple individuals throughout the so they were classes of 15 or less that were over across the street at 69 West.

And then for those who weren't able to do the training courtroom clerks, um we sent them um on tour to do the suburban those who couldn't come downtown our training.

Okay, and HR.

But it wasn't an individual that did six weeks of training.

Oh, okay, okay.

So it was weeks to get them all trained.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was like you're sitting there for a class for six weeks.

Okay.

Um so what is the percentage of um you know your team that has been already trained?

100%.

Oh, great.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Uh my next question is in regards to the new data dashboard for orders of protection.

So again, this is a great first step.

Uh, again, in understanding getting the data.

Um, a lot of the conversations that we had in the task force was um we can't we oftentimes don't know how we make adjustments from our point of view if we don't have the information, right?

We don't know where exactly we need to go um or uh geographically or whatever the case may be.

So data is extremely important.

So I know the dashboard right now has some uh you know has limited information um with obviously viewing orders of protections that are filed, granted, or denied.

Just wanted to know if there is any um discussion about expanding the data that's there.

I know you you shared some of the internal challenges and um commend you even working beyond those internal challenges within the system.

So just wondering about you know what what is next, are you all looking into expanding or having conversations regarding the data um that is available on um on your end?

So um two different things in terms of our data dashboard.

We when I came before you last year, I spoke about you know how we put out basic information in terms of how many cases are filed in this year at this location.

Um and we've always said that this is a working document.

It's something that we want to add to uh based on what we're hearing.

Um and so there has been interest in eviction data.

Uh so we're looking into putting that out there, but it's always going to be sort of basic information.

The information that was asked for by the task force was a little more um specialized.

So it's something that it took us a little more time to be able to, as I mentioned to Commissioner Degnan.

Um we have to s we have to parse through a lot to get to the answer that was being asked.

So I don't think that we will be doing that specific um dive every time in order to put information on our dashboard, it'll be basic information.

Um but if we can get there through requests, oftentimes highlight things internally that we could improve upon.

Um so uh you know, we certainly want to put more information that is of interest um to the community out there.

Um and so we look forward to working with the task force to see what we can do.

Great.

Um do you have access to the sheriff's uh the sheriff's um service rates for orders of protection?

Or you don't have access.

We uh Vivek.

Do you have access to the sheriff?

Uh this is like another chief information officer.

So we do not have direct access like what Office of the Chief Judge has access to.

However, uh the Sheriff's Office does send us uh data electronically because there are so many requests which happen on summonses and others that those are actually automatically ingested on a daily basis into our system and triggers trial off after that.

Okay.

Yeah, just because I'm wondering whether that would be beneficial also for the purposes of the task force in getting the the service rates for those orders, um orders of protection.

Um because it's it's great getting through the process, but like sometimes what we heard is that orders are not being served now, and that's not under your obviously your jurisdiction, it's under the sheriff's office.

But seeing if there's a way to have that information available, whether with it it's it whether it's within the dashboard or in other means I think would be beneficial, I guess, for those looking and and digesting the the information.

Um the um other I had some questions regarding you know the requests, but you did mention that there's about 700 requests that you all receive on an annual basis.

Um do you all receive those from internal government agencies or is it organizations or anybody can request that information?

Just wondering beyond like the county commissioners or any um public safety stakeholders, um who else is really um requesting this data?

Good question.

So any request uh it it varies.

Who is requesting it?

All of those requests have to go through the chief judge's office and the chief judge's approval, and then we have we are obligated to work on that if we can provide that data.

If you can't, we let them know we can't.

So we do have that could be some could be media, some could be law firms asking for it, some could be government agencies asking for it.

Um so it all varies.

Now all of these requests, other than these requests, we have daily requests coming from the judges for their courts, as well as AOIC asking for those are those are all uh some standard reports which we don't go through this up process, but it has been decimated to uh Secretary of State, Illinois State Police, that is our statutory we have to give that.

So those are all happening automatically.

And if there's any changes to that, that is collaboration between uh my office our office and their office.

Wonderful, thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Clerk Sapolis.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Vice Chair.

Commissioner Aguilar.

Thank you, uh Commissioner Vice Chair, right?

Vice Chair.

Um Clerk, welcome.

Always good to see you.

Okay, I think my colleague already uh mentioned that uh the sheriff's department is not the only one that requests these orders, these information.

Everybody requests from your office, including this body.

Okay, and um you know you're you gotta make sure they're accurate, make sure that they're you know, and time timely, times of the essence, you know, and um if they're not processed, it goes back to your office, it's just more time consuming.

And that takes staff, basically staff to uh to make sure that this information is is uh is actually done and and uh processed and given to whoever requested it.

So um and then you have some vaccines.

How many vacancies do you have available in your office right now?

Um we have 24.

And a lot of it was uh and those are uh uh assistants that process these information, most of them.

A few of them are um the women's task force was mentioned and uh first I gotta commend for their work that they've done in the reports on domestic violence, but there's something that um uh bothers me a little bit, and that's when it comes to immigrant women and domestic violence in the immigrant community.

Um the police arrive, normally their charges are dropped because of the nature of the situation where they get threatened with deportation and my office has has assisted a few cases where we provided information to these women telling me not to fear the threats of deportation.

They have rights and then we probably provide them uh orders of protection and and take them out of their situation.

And those numbers are not reported.

We're and that's a problem overall.

It's hard, it's hard to tackle because of the nature again, the nature of the situation where these women are living living under extremely fear from the perpetrator.

And it just comes goes unnoticed.

And I think that the women task force should really look into it to see if you know education is the best way.

But anyway, um I think the question was answered by my colleague of the number of requests that you get over overall.

And it's a number of them.

So the sheriff's department is not the only one, but other other departments requested as well.

Correct.

Yes, and other departments request this information that you other departments ask for data from us.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Trevor.

Thank you, Vice Chair, and um thank you, Clerk Sparopoulos.

Uh I just want to mention that I'm really impressed with a lot of the work that has gone to modernize the office.

I was just poking around on your website and doing some searches.

I remember doing that kind of uh search a few years ago and just it it didn't work.

And it seems to work so much better, and there's been clear advancement on that.

I also want to thank you for your uh uh community outreach.

We have a justice resource fair scheduled in my district on the 18th of August.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Um and I also uh just want to mention that I kind of understand the issues with respect to data requests, having done that kind of work myself in the past.

Um I know that no matter how you collect the data, there's always going to be an inquiry for it to be cut differently, and that's just that's part for the course.

Um and I also apologize if this question has been answered before because I had to step out for a couple of minutes, and that is with your current staffing levels, do you have the support necessary to handle the requests that you get on an average daily basis?

Specific to data?

Yeah.

Requests from other departments or other parts of county government.

Yes, but it takes time.

And so um it, you know, it's sort of like we are someone used the analogy of fixing the plane while it's flying.

Um so you know, we have to take people off of other tasks in order to fulfill those, but um, you know, we're happy to do it, but I just sometimes we need to manage expectations as to when that information will come through.

All right.

We could o we could use more people, which would just be dedicated to data requests.

That would be like three to five extra people.

Okay.

All right.

Thanks for that information.

You're welcome.

Right.

Thank you.

That's all the questions I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Vasquez.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Hello, Clerk.

It's so good to see you again.

Commissioner.

I gave you a shout out while the sheriff was here.

I just want to thank you again for working with us on that one pager around virtual appearances.

Um it is still, I think, uh a bit murky for a lot of our folks to access, but it's a step in the right direction and it has been incredibly helpful.

Um so from the folks that we work with on the ground, I just again want to say thank you for your partnership on that.

No, thank you for your help.

Um we did want we we were wary of whether there would be an expectation that if we have this information that everyone thinks that they can get a virtual um appearance in court, and that is up to the um the judge to decide how they want to handle it.

Yeah, and we're happy to make that information available.

Yes, and I do think the one pager speaks to that.

It also encourages people to speak with their attorney if they themselves are accused.

And you know, I know that folks get a little nervous around providing information, but I am of the mind that more is better than less.

Um and so while it will never be perfect, and there will certainly be individuals who will misunderstand, you know, it is I in my opinion uh where um the consequences of not knowing what your options are are far worse than misunderstanding a uh one pager.

Um so appreciate you understand those concerns.

Um I also mentioned when the sheriff was here, my interest in seeing some progress around um individuals released in a timely manner from our Cook County jail.

Um I know you were here when the sheriff responded as well.

Um and he mentioned some progress um and some of the progress that Brad Curry mentioned was the essentially the assessment of the actual process.

Um and they had mentioned that specifically they were looking at you know the ways in which they can scan certain documents and how that process kind of flows through their um staff.

But they've also alluded to, I think your staff as well.

So if you could just talk through any kind of improvements you have made towards this, if any.

So yeah, one of the um, you know, among the many things that we talked about when I when I first took over this office was tightening that process so that people would not have to be um held longer than they were supposed to be held.

Um and so tightening that process and and who's involved in that.

So it would be us and the sheriff's office.

Um and so where, you know, how much of that process are we part of, and then where and what we do impacts the next part of that um for the the other player involved in that, which would be the sheriff's office.

So um I know that our MIS, um, our technology team and our operations team is is in constant communication with the sheriff's office to try to say how can we uh tighten the process uh so that documents are not you know sitting around waiting to be entered or uh carried over to a sheriff's office if it's paper.

Uh can we just do this all electronically so that people have things immediately in real time um and and where in the court call would the clerk be able to enter the information?

So, you know, it depending on what's going on in the courtroom and how our the judges managing the clerk's time in a way.

Um so you know, these are all things that you know we're constantly looking at, but um I will ask Vivek to speak to that because I know that he um and the sheriff's office are in constant contact as well.

Thank you, Commissioner.

That's a that's um that's a question which uh the clerk uh mentioned that she when when she onboarded me, she wanted to improvise on these things.

And and I have worked a lot on this, so um, and and I'm uh I want to say is uh those to the sheriff's office, they're being very supportive, they're open to options.

Um and we are now looking to see how much of digital documents we can provide them as close to real time, real time in the sense is as soon as our clerk and enters it into our system, how fast we can get it to them so that would avoid the scanning needed and the documents are available in their system.

Uh and uh we are we are hoping to have something by uh, you know, I don't want to put a time frame uh if I come into time frame here you're doing time frame.

I'm not going to come into time frame right now because it's you have to you have to realize is um it's challenging for them too, right?

Um if I say, okay, I'm going to give you the say two weeks, I'm going to give you start giving you PDFs.

We are not stopping process what's happening today, right?

The field is still going to run how it's going to run because we need to vet.

There's there's a whole vetting process we have to do is I can't eliminate an existing process because I'm going to give you everything digitally real time.

And that vetting process is going to take from both sides a long time.

So you know, we need to account for that.

And we have not we're not there.

Uh but I might be there, but he if if the sheriff is not there, or if the sheriff is there and I'm not there, then it'll be it won't be fair for me to commit something here, but we definitely will get back to you to tell you give better progress on this matter.

A good example I want to suggest, uh, which uh why we are so confident this is achievable is we have done this in the juvenile process right now.

The whole entire juvenile process, right?

From how it comes from Chicago Police Department, how it is ingested directly into the state's attorney's office system, they generate the petition.

The petition automatically gets created with the documents, including sealing into our system and a clerk accept it.

It's completely digital on the this one.

That's what we want to bring in everywhere.

We've already have a use case on that.

So we know it's doable.

It's just that we want to be sure that everybody is doing their piece correctly and we are following the law.

We don't want to uh create some anomalies which could kind of hurt us later on.

And that point, Commissioner, I know you were looking at maybe a report back to the county to the county board, and I maybe you could offer a resolution where the tree the different entities come back and report.

Yes, um, I know you're interested and uh and this topic, so it would be of the clerk, the sheriff.

And the chief judge.

Oh, fantastic, thank you, Chair.

Um, and you know, just to um answer some of what or to respond to what some of you said, what you said.

Um this I'm interested in the progress, but I'm not necessarily advocating that we implement the progress until as you said, the ducks are in a row.

Um, but I do think if there is um if there is an opportunity to understand where we are in digitizing uh this process, I think that'll help to assure the public that we are working on a solution.

Um to me, getting released after midnight when you're unable to coordinate a way home where you know you're not able to catch public transit as easily.

To me, that sounds like a punishment.

Um, these people have served their time and they want to go home safely.

We have volunteers that are stationed outside of the jail that provide these services.

We should not have to depend on good Samaritans for this.

Um and so I very much love to be a partner in this work, and um I'm grateful that you're already looking into this and that you mentioned um what we're currently doing uh with juveniles, because I when I think it was you who was at the board meeting who talked about it at committee.

And I said, like, why aren't we doing this for release times?

Um and so I'm glad that we're on the same page in that um effort, and anything I can do to help with that.

Um I'm happy to to help out and be an advocate for you all.

We'll be happy to work with you, Commissioner.

Yeah.

Um and then I guess related to this in a way, um, and I don't know if this has already been asked, but um the sort of um e-filing integration, the scheduling, um, the business process management tool.

Um has there been any like implementation with document routing and sort of the e-filing process?

Like have we moved forward on that?

I'm sorry if I missed a question about that earlier.

Sure.

Uh so uh yeah, yes and no.

Uh so the the BPM tool is which we call it, uh I don't know why we never gave it a name, but that's what started.

It actually got accelerated.

I mean, talking historically about this, uh, this was uh something which kind of went into high high acceleration due to COVID.

This happened due to COVID.

It's like we need to know how to get all of this.

So presently it was actively used in 26th Street.

Uh and what do we get digitally is uh we get arrest reports and they get um they get uh case reports which are generated by CPD digitally because what CPD was doing is they have a digital system, they actually print it and give it to us.

So we are getting it digitally.

The printing paper is still coming because we still need to wait.

Now there are other pieces which are needed to make the complete packet.

We were working on a pilot, and unfortunately, uh that kind of took a sideline.

So right now uh we have eliminated the paper sheriff uh sheriff used to create a separate manifest that's gone.

The BPM tool actually generates the manifest real time, so everybody can see it.

Information is shared, uh whether they're going whether the state is going to detain or not detain has to be done in the tool, so this uh public defender knows uh we know and and and the sheriff knows where they have to take the individual.

So there's been some improvements.

The tool does have the ability to get more documents.

The tool also has like what Commissioner Degnan was saying is where data can be entered there and it can go to the judge to sign it.

And I'm sure Judge Beach was a big um what do you call a person who wanted to take this forward and and and he I'm sure he's going to talk about it.

Um so yes, it is there.

Uh we are now trying to implement that in um in DV codes at 555.

So that's what is being worked on with COP collaborating with all the teams.

And we and the clerk has made commitment that we will also participate so that that's less of data entry for us to do because if it's all coming through, it's all being done um everywhere.

The only place it's not being done is the suburbs.

And that would be something would be the next stage of that tool um to to enhance it.

I hope I answered your questions.

Uh you did.

I'm just curious.

Um, what is the you said it was um BPM was something you all were working on earlier, then it got slightly slide lined, but then it sounds like we are implementing it at the DB courthouse, but we're waiting to move on the suburbs.

So the sidelining is of law enforcement agencies scanning all the other relevant papers.

So right now, the only thing which comes through the BPM tool electronically as it hits, and it's real time.

So they can go look up tomorrow's case and see who's going to come if CPD has decided that they want to get.

It doesn't work for the suburbs like that, but you can see suburban agency data if they use the CPD system.

If they don't use the CPD system, you have no clue that there was an arrest made.

So uh the only paper which we are getting there is the arrest report digitally, because CPD is willing to give it to us digitally.

Um there is the complaint form, and there could be other documents.

There could be a warrant, there could be there were a lot of other case by case.

Those are still paper, and they are not CPD was working as a pilot to upload it, but that didn't go anywhere, so CPD stopped.

So we we have to initiate it, but that has to come from the chief judge's side.

Thank you so much.

Any other questions?

Clerk before you leave.

I know you refer to the funding.

Yes, there was no funding um that would that went with the responsibilities that go uh with the work that we're gonna have to do for clean slate.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Thank you, Commissioners Chair.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.