MINNESOTA ASSOCIATION
FOR COURT MANAGEMENT
REFLECTIONS
Volume 4, Issue 3
July 2012 through November 2012
THREE MACM MEMBERS RECEIVE AN AWARD AT 2012 FALL CONFERENCE
by Annette Fritz, Membership Services Committee
Robyn Boche, Rhonda Bot, and Judy Isaacson (pictured below)
each received an award at the 2012 MACM Fall Conference,
“Together Into the Future - A New Era of Innovation” in Duluth,
Minnesota.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE
AWARD
A few years ago, Wadena County
was struggling. They had just
lost their Court Administrator
I N S I D E
TH I S
I S S U E :
MACM Committee Updates
5-8
Interview - Theresa Fredrickson
9-11
CourtNet
11-12
District Updates
14-23
MACM Conference Sessions 24-31
due to budget cuts and staff had
lost confidence, trust, communication, teamwork
and belief in the system. As Wadena hit
this low point, a new
Court Administrator
was assigned to the
County.
With two counties
already "under her
belt," Rhonda was
willing to take on
Wadena County knowing she
would be going into a county
that had many issues.
Soon after beginning in her new
role, Rhonda, with her strong
leadership skills and belief in
her staff, started to implement
changes and things began to turn
around. Rhonda led by example
and soon others started to buy
into her positive outlook, hardworking demeanor, and forward
looking vision. Staff began to
trust, work together, communicate, and become a team. She
always let her employees know
that she believed in them and
she managed with a "tough
love" type attitude. She has a
way of instilling respect for her
supervisors as well.
Rhonda would
demonstrate that
she believed in her
supervisors by
standing behind
them which would
help them gain the
confidence they
needed to become
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R E F L E C T I ON S
THREE MACM MEMBERS RECEIVE AN AWARD AT 2012 FALL CONFERENCE
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good leaders for their staff. Rhonda supports her supervisors’ education and mentors them through
tough times. She allows them to
make their own mistakes knowing
she will be there whenever they
need guidance.
Since Rhonda became Court Administrator in Wadena County, the
office has again gained respect of
others and can tackle anything that
comes its way. Rhonda is a strong
willed person, never afraid to take
on new challenges and always
looks for the positive of what’s to
Rhonda hugging a colleague
come in the future. She has done
this while at the same time managing Douglas and Morrison Counties. And if that wasn’t enough,
Rhonda still manages to serve on
many committees in her spare
time…including COAW, MACM
Bylaws, ECourt Process Reenginering, 7th District ECourt
Steering Committee, 7th District
Finance, Douglas County CJI.
Rhonda has previously served on
the MACM Education Commit-
tee, MACM Legislative Committee, MACM Executive Committee,
State Criminal Justice Forum, and
State Court Executive Team.
Congratulations to Rhonda Bot for
the 2012 MACM Distinguished
Service Award.
EXCELLENCE IN THE COURTS
AWARD 2012
Judy Isaacson has played a critical
role in the Sixth District Process
Improvement for psych services
and district probate.
In Psych Services, she has taken
district-wide responsibility for the
process of appointing examiners
for Rule 20 hearings. Utilizing
SharePoint she has developed a
site that contains all the information necessary to appoint examiners for Rule 20 cases, along with
orders that can be used. She has
ensured that the orders clearly
state who is responsible for payment of these exams. Her work in
this area has cleared up so much
confusion in our district. She has
tracked the cost of examiners over
the years and now handles all the
billing involved for these examiners; she makes sure the examiners
we use in our district have reasonable fees; and she serves as the
contact person for any and all
questions regarding psych services. She tracks the District's
psych services budget so she has a
handle on where the money is being spent and keeps the district
judges and the management team
apprised of where we are in regards to this.
Judy serves as the district's probate
manager, a role she has embraced!
In addition to Carlton County, she
took over all supervision of the St.
Louis County probate unit. She
oversaw the transition of work assignments in conservatorships/
guardianships from Duluth staff to
Range staff. This was in the face
of significant and historical resistance from judges and longtime Probate staff. Judy was able
to achieve district goals to reduce
staffing to meet implied need levels, more fairly distribute workloads between the three court sites
in St. Louis County, assure a post
retirement framework that was
often described as impossible, and
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R E F L E C T I ON S
THREE MACM MEMBERS RECEIVE AN AWARD AT 2012 FALL CONFERENCE
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maintain a positive relationship
with probate staff and judges. Best
evidence of Judy's work has been
the recent retirement of one 36
year veteran probate registrar. The
stage had been adequately set so
that when another employee was
moved into the reclassified senior
court clerk position to assume probate case management, the transition was smooth, effective, and
achieved with minimal disruption
to the overall operation.
Judy Isaacson, Carlton County
Court Administrator, is involved
with the following committees and
activities: SharePoint site that
contains all the training material
for probate staff in addition to the
logistical changes implemented
and training; she is a: MACM
member, CAT committee member,
MAPR Board, Business Rules,
CAAP committee, 6th District Security Committee.
Congratulations to Judy Isaacson
for 2012 MACM Excellence in
Courts Award.
COACH/MENTOR OF THE YEAR
2012
Throughout her career with the
Minnesota Judicial Branch, Robyn
Boche provided strength and direction by coaching and mentoring
her coworkers, staff she supervised, and others across the state.
She led the Court Business Systems Coordinators for five years
and under her supervision, the
CBS Coordinators became more
of an integrated team.
She encouraged and motivated the
CBS Coordinators to move beyond their traditional roles and
enabled them to work in different
environments to enhance their careers. MNCIS training and other
court business systems training
became more consistent statewide
through these efforts. Instead of
each coordinator creating their
own training, each coordinator became an expert in select areas and
was able to share their expertise
and training development with
other trainers around the state.
This greatly increased the efficiency of the training efforts. She
looked for ways to encourage success for the coordinators and other
court staff. She applied for and
received three grants from SJI for
transitioning classroom learning to
distance learning methods including using ITV, WebEx and tutorials. This enabled learners
throughout the state to access information more easily and with
minimal amount of time away
from the office.
When Robyn first began her employment with the State Court system twelve years ago, the transition to full state funding had just
begun. Up until that point the
Continuing Education Department's focus was primarily on
judge education.
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THREE MACM MEMBERS RECEIVE AN AWARD AT 2012 FALL CONFERENCE
(Continued from page 3)
As each district became state funded, the number of court staff grew
and it soon became clear that the
focus needed to change to promote
organizational development to
meet the needs of the ever expanding judicial branch. I was quite
skeptical when Robyn first talked
to me about offering the FISH philosophy training to our court staff.
Remember that one (Be There,
Play, Make Their Day and Choose
Your Attitude)? The staff evaluations of this training session were
so favorable it was soon followed
up by "Who Moved My Cheese?".
I realized how effective Robyn's
trainings were when one of our
judges mentioned that he was a
little upset at first when he told a
court clerk that he didn't like the
new MNCIS calendars and he
wanted to go back to the typed one
and the clerk replied "We moved
your cheese, Judge. Get over it."
Committee since 2001; Team
Lead of the e-Court MN:
Knowledge, Skills, Development
Team; MNCIS Leadership Team;
EOD Operations Team; and the,
eCourtMN Engagement Team.
Congratulations to Robyn Boche
for the 2012 Coach Mentor of the
Robyn has demonstrated tremendous dedication and enthusiasm in
her work and has been an outstanding coach/mentor with her
energy, talents and creativity. She
will be greatly missed.
Robyn Boche is a past Manager
with the Education and Organization Development division of
SCAO. She has been involved
with the following committees or
activities: MACM Education
Year Award.
MACM’s MISSION:
MACM is an organization committed to the enrichment
of its members through professional growth
and development, opportunities, promoting
advancements and innovations in court
administration, and partnering with other
professionals working to improve
the justice system in Minnesota.
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MACM PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
friend asked me to take the back
so I could steer. Well, on the big
open lake I was thinking…wow
I'm pretty good at this. She decides we should paddle over to
this river inlet. We start going
through the channel and the reeds
are 10 feet on either side of us and
we start crashing into the reeds. I
quickly think....mmm….maybe
I'm not as good at steering this
canoe as I thought.
Vicky Carlson: MACM President
Wow, what a great turnout for our
2012 MACM conference! We
were thrilled to have over 160
managers, supervisors and administrators in attendance.
Peggy Gentles and the Education
Committee offered an excellent
variety of education sessions including grand juries, expungements and eCourts.
Annette Fritz and the Membership
Services Committee offered excellent opportunities for the networking to continue after the education
sessions.
Thank you to everyone who attended and for your continued
support of the Minnesota Association for Court Management.
Below is an excerpt from President Vicky Carlson’s welcome to
conference attendees.
I was just up in Park Rapids a couple of weeks ago and went canoeing on Fish Hook Lake. My girl-
What I
quickly
realized is
that we
really
needed to
work together in
order to
get us
through
the channel in the
most efficient manner.
It got me thinking about the
eCourts initiative and our conference theme. We have so many
teams implementing eCourts, trying to make sure it is a successful
reality. In order for us to be truly
successful, all of these teams,
SCAO, district offices, and the
local courts must work together.
Collaboration: Working together
to achieve a goal. Our conference
theme: Together Into the Future,
a New Era of Innovation. We
must work together and collaborate in order for eCourts to become a reality in the Minnesota
Judicial Branch.
5
by Vicky Carlson, MACM President
I recently attended and participated on a panel at the National Association for Court Management’s
2012 annual conference. The session was based on “A Case for
Court Governance Principles” developed by the Executive Sessions
at the Harvard Kennedy School.
My participation was as a member
of a state unified court system.
It was interesting to hear the different perspectives from those
courts who have implemented
many of the principles and those
who have not. While local court
innovation and good customer service is essential to our mission, we
are also fortunate to be in a unified system where the public can
find our courts easily, where we
have pro se services, one case
management system to access, and
numerous other collaborations.
I have talked with court administrators across the country. Many
have a maze of courts and rules
that govern each court in that
state. I can’t imagine being an
attorney or a citizen who has to try
to navigate that system.
There, of course, needs to be a
balance of good governance principles along with local innovations
and processes that takes into account and recognizes the difference of the court location, size of
the court and population served.
We are on the cutting edge of
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MACM PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
(Continued from page 5)
technology implementations in
Minnesota, exceeding many of our
counterparts from around the
country.
watch over the critical mission
and capacity of the state courts has
not changed.”
John T. Broderick Jr., former
Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court said this:
“Times have certainly changed,
but our mutual obligation to keep
6
John T. Broderick Jr.
Change, innovation and technology continue to be a central part of
our everyday experiences. We
must embrace and continue to fulfill our mission and the public’s
expectations.
MACM LEGISLATIVE & OUTREACH COMMITTEE UPDATE
and the 50th anniversary of Martin
Luther King Jr’s “I Have a
Dream” speech made in front of
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC - So you can see why the
theme of Equality for All was chosen for 2013.
Greetings MACM Members: This
year’s Law Day was a huge success as noted in prior communications.
You should start thinking about
the ways that the court works tirelessly each day to provide equal
treatment to citizens. How do our
initiatives provide equal treatment
and how do we provide services to
get people onto the same playingfield? Think of ways that you can
express this to the public, and start
planning your 2013 Law Day
Event!
The 2013 Law Day theme is
“Realizing the Dream: Equality
for All.” The theme centers on
how the promise of equality under
the law is what made America a
beacon amongst other nations.
2013 is the 150th Anniversary of
the Emancipation Proclamation,
The 88th Minnesota Legislature
will convene on January 8th. After
the results of the election, please
consider contacting your local legislators to congratulate them on
their election and let them know
what is going on in the courts and
why a strong judiciary is an inte-
Aaron Williamson, MACM Vice President
gral part of life in Minnesota. You
might consider inviting them to
your courthouse to see what is going on there.
As you all know, this session is a
budget year where they decide
how much money we get to do our
jobs. It is crucial that we have
open communication with them
and inform them of the projects,
such as eCourtsMN. Let them
know what we are working on and
how we are doing more with less.
As the budget request gets closer
to finalization, we will be updating our legislative contact brochure, which I will send out to
MACM members.
As for legislation that affects court
operations, the Legislative and
Outreach Committee have met to
discuss the legislative proposals
that were submitted to SCAO.
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MACM LEGISLATIVE & OUTREACH COMMITTEE UPDATE
Many of the proposals address
potential changes that would be
needed in order to implement
eCourts initiatives across the state.
The eCourts Steering Committee
has spent a lot of time considering
these issues and coming up with
potential statutory solutions that
resolve these issues and help us
move into the new era of innovation. More information will be
forthcoming as the Legislative
Advisory Workgroup considers
the proposals.
A reminder from the
LegislaƟve Outreach CommiƩee
Recognize Court AdministraƟon
in your Local Newspaper
Is there something newsworthy happening in your court? Has someone received an award? Have you implemented a new project? If so, please consider pu ng an ar cle in your local newspaper. 2012 MACM Legislative Outreach Award for Washington County
Left to right: Gwen Upton, Deb Lepper, Kris Cunningham, Lisa Haas, Wayne
Minske, Aaron Williamson, Annette Fritz
At the MACM Conference, Washington County was awarded the
Legislative Outreach Team
Award. The team from Washington has gone above and beyond to
reach out to their local legislators
and have been a vital part of the
committee, helping to encourage
similar outreach across the state.
Congratulations to Washington
County!
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MACM EDUCATION COMMITTEE UPDATE
2012 Annual MACM Conference.
It was made possible by the hard
work of the MACM Education
Committee.
Peggy Gentles: Second Vice President, and
Education Chair
I hope you enjoyed the recent
For those of you who were unable
to attend, Committee members
have provided summaries of the
sessions which appear elsewhere
in the newsletter. Members of the
Education Committee are: Patty
Amberg, Jeri Boetcher, Jessie
Carlson, Vicky Carlson, Chris
Channing, Jan Cossette, Jamie
Cramble, Diane Fox, Connie
Gackstetter, Jill Goski, Hans Hol-
MACM MEMBERSHIP SERVICES UPDATE
tributed at the show along with
many door prizes.
Thanks to MACM members for
your personal contributions to
help make these events possible.
The creativity and generosity of
time from the membership services committee is greatly appreciated and I want to extend a special thank you to the committee
Annette Fritz: Third Vice President, and
Membership Services Chair
Hello MACM Members. The
Membership Services Committee
had a fun and busy time preparing
for the Fall Conference.
At the murder mystery dinner, the
CEO of the Paper Company was
the culprit and used an icicle.
The vendor show had 17 vendors
and the conference gifts were dis-
8
by Peggy Gentles, Education Chair
land, Pam Kilpela, Brenda Koenig,
Joanne Kopet, Sarah LindahlPfeiffer, Susan Love, Patty Mallum, Bridgid Murphy, Pam Norenberg, Judy Peterson, Lisa Pister,
Krista Sandhoefner, Monica
Tschumper, and Gwen Upton.
We’re always looking for people
who are interested in joining us.
Keep your eyes out for an email
from me in a month or so soliciting new members as we start planning next year’s Annual Conference.
by Annette Fritz, Membership Services Chair
members for their talent and time.
Please check our MACM website
http://mnmacm.org/ from time to
time for current information and a
picture from the conference which
will be posted soon.
Also, thank you to all of our committees and members for the work
to make the conference successful.
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WAYNE MINSKE AND MONICA TSCHUMPER REPRESENT MACM ON THE CRIMINAL AND JUVENILE
JUSTICE TASK FORCE GROUP
By Vicky Carlson and Annette Fritz
In July of 2012 Wayne Minske,
Chief Deputy Court Administrator
for Washington County and Monica Tschumper, Court Administrator, Isanti County became the
MACM representatives on the
Criminal and Juvenile Justice
Task Force Group.
The responsibilities include:
Attending task force meetings in
St. Paul, involvement in other
Crimnet workgroups as designated
or assigned, and providing progress updates to the MACM Executive Board and at MACM business meetings.
In 1993, Minnesota Statute
299C.65 was enacted into law
which created the Criminal and
Juvenile Justice Information Policy Group. Subdivision 2 created a
Task Force which “shall assist the
policy group in its duties. The task
force shall monitor, review and
report to the policy group on
CriMNet related projects and provide oversight to ongoing operations as directed by the policy
group.”
agement; at least one of whom
must be a court administrator.
Thank you to our previous representatives Susan Stahl, Court Administrator in Renville County,
and Gail Clapp, manager in
Hennepin County, for their service
to the work group and MACM.
Thank you to Wayne and Monica
for representing MACM on this
work group.
The statute provides for two members to be appointed by the Minnesota Association for Court Man-
INTERVIEW WITH TERESA FREDRICKSON
Teresa Fredrickson retired on July
31, 2012. She was the Court Administrator of Kandiyohi, Meeker,
and Swift Counties in the 8th Judicial District. Teresa worked with
the Minnesota Judicial Branch for
32 years.
was an ICM graduate in 2001.
Prior to working for the courts,
Teresa taught dance at UMD
(1975); taught physical education
at Eveleth High School (1976 to
1978); worked for St Louis County District Courts (1980 to 2001)
at the Virginia, Hibbing and Duluth locations; and worked for
Kandiyohi District Court (2001 to
2012) with the addition of Swift
and Meeker District Courts for the
past 4 years.
Please tell us about your family?
”I was married to Laurie Brunfelt,
retired home builder and CP. We
have a beautiful daughter, Sarah
and three grandchildren. Our
handsome son Keith lives in Virginia MN.”
Teresa had earned a BS degree
from UMD in Physical Education
with Coaching Certificate, and
Prior to retiring, I caught up with
Teresa for an interview:
When you started your career,
did you ever think you would be
with the MN Judicial Branch
this long? Was it a personal/
professional goal?
“I was hired into the Courts really
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INTERVIEW WITH TERESA FREDRICKSON (Continued from Page 9)
by accident. After two years of
teaching high school, I was laid
off, as were 15% of all Iron Range
teachers during the mid-70’s due
to the down-sizing of the iron
mines.
After two years, I took a Civil Service test to try and find work.
One of the civil service rules was
that if you turned down a job, you
were taken off the hiring list. I
did turn down a job, but lo and
behold, I got another interview
and, within two days I was working at the Virginia District Court
as an entry level clerk.
I found the work very interesting
and I saw the potential of becoming a court manager.
After being promoted to a Court
Clerk in Hibbing, I transferred to
Duluth and worked there for a few
months. My journey next took me
back to Virginia as the supervisor
in that office, then back to Duluth
to fill Arne Johnson’s shoes when
he retired as Chief Deputy there.
Ted Gladden was the District Administrator at that time, and he
afforded me the opportunity to
enroll in ICM. To defray some of
the costs, MACM awarded me
their annual scholarship, of which
I am appreciative. ICM helped
crystalize my vision of the field of
court management. I started to
focus on “what could be.” I was
eager to continue with a career in
court administration. ICM made
me a much more informed and
effective leader.
Describe the changes you’ve witnessed in your tenure.
I started on a manual typewriter
with one key that didn’t work.
My boss told me to avoid using
that key and that’s the truth!
We used written minute books and
manual receipts back in the early
1980’s and now we are all about
technology and the applications
that we enjoy today.
What do you find the most rewarding as a Court Administrator?
I find the most rewarding thing
about being a Court Administrator
is the opportunity to be a leader in
a progressive organization that
makes a difference in people’s
lives.
What do you find the most challenging as a Court Administrator?
This career has been enjoyable
most each and every day. My one
challenge and maybe it isn’t really
a challenge, but instead a personal
pet peeve, is the length of time it
oftentimes takes for a decision to
be made because of the multilayers of committees that ideas
and initiatives must pass through
before becoming a reality.
What is your most memorable
event in your career?
The most memorable event in my
career has to be graduating from
ICM at the U.S. Supreme Court
building with Sandra Day O’Connor giving the commencement address. I was totally overwhelmed!
What accomplishment are you
most proud of in your career?
I am most proud of graduating
from ICM and having the opportunity to lead a wonderfully progressive court. Working as the
Court Administrator in the Central
Assignment area of the 8th Judicial
District has been a complete joy.
We had the opportunity of piloting
several technological initiatives
that have been successfully implemented in other Minnesota courts
because of the lessons learned
during our pilots.
I am very proud of the court administration staff who worked so
hard on these projects to make
them successful and I am also
thankful for the support of the local Judges and District Administration as well.
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INTERVIEW WITH TERESA FREDRICKSON (Continued from Page 10)
What advice would you have for
your colleagues?
My advice would be to enjoy the
challenges ahead and be a positive
influence in all that you do.
As you leave, what legacy do
you wish to leave behind?
I hope that the people that I have
worked with will remember that
continuous improvement is a process and that a positive attitude
and effective communications
make for a pleasant and a productive working environment.
COURTNET - SUPPORTING EMPLOYEES AND JUDGES
In 2008, the State Court Information Office (CIO) led an effort
to recast CourtNet as a support
tool for Judicial Branch employees and judges, 90 percent of
whom work in district courts.
A survey that returned more than
500 responses provided extensive
input into what information was
most valuable to employees and
judges. A committee that included several representatives from
district courts worked with the
CIO and a Web development consultant to come up with a new in-
What are you looking forward
to most in retirement?
I look forward to whatever life
brings. Every day is a good day
and there will be new opportunities to make a difference in my
world, and I plan to do that.
by Court Information Office Director John Kostouros
formation structure. It’s that
structure you see today when visiting CourtNet.
Following best practice on website
design, the information on the site
was organized by subject, rather
than organizational structure. The
site contains a section in the middle of the home page for Branch
news written by the Court Information Office staff. It also contains recent news stories in the
media about activity in Minnesota
courts. The stories are compiled
by the CIO staff, and you can sub-
scribe to receive an e-mail alert
about new postings.
Across the top of every page of
CourtNet, on the yellow bar, are
seven links (Mission and Strategic
Plan; Calendars; Resources,
Rules, and Reports; MNCIS Resource Center; Administrative
Tools; Court Forms; and Policies
and Procedures.) Quite a bit of
work has gone into reorganizing
the Policies and Procedures section to make it easier to find pertinent policies quickly.
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COURTNET - SUPPORTING EMPLOYEES AND JUDGES
The left navigation column on
every page has six links to what
we call “pathway pages” because
they provide access to related material.



Court Management Information – trial and appellate
court reports, Judicial Branch
performance measures reports,
weighted caseload, etc.
Court Programs and Services: interpreters, psych services, bail bond agents, ADR,
jury management, ECM/ENE,
problem-solving courts, etc.
The page also includes a section on family- and childfocused programs and services.
Employee Services – This
was designed to be a one-stop
center for information of interest to employees as individu-
als.

Judges’ Portal – This section
was created to support judges,
both personally and in their
work on the bench.

Judicial Council, State Committees and Workgroups

SCAO Divisions and Offices
– Information about State
Court Administration, the
Minnesota Judicial Center, and
related resources. It is the only pathway page that is organized by division or office rather than by topic.
The column on the right-hand side
of the home page, Quick Links
area, is where we put links to frequently accessed material or timelimited information of interest to
the whole Branch. For instance,
every year you will see a link for
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(Continued from Page 11)
benefits Open Enrollment.
CourtNet does have a search function at the top of every page, but
the current limitations of our software platform limit its usefulness.
We look forward to the day when
we can improve the search function.
The Court Information Office
manages the content on CourtNet
with the help of about 40 subject
content specialists.We’re always
looking for ways to make CourtNet more useful to employees and
judges. We’re also always looking for news out of our courts, so
please contact me at:
john.kostouros@courts.state.mn.u
s or Kyle Christopherson at
kyle.christopherson@courts.state.
mn.us with your suggestions.
COURT PAYMENT CENTER RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD
The Minnesota Judicial Branch Court
Payment Center (CPC) received the
2012 Justice Achievement Award from
the National Association for Court
Management (NACM) at its annual
conference on July 17 in Orlando, FL.
NACM is the largest organization of
court management professionals with
members from the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries.
the nominated project identify a specific problem; demonstrate that the project was more efficient and/or more
effective than alternatives; and have
measurable outcomes of effectiveness
through resource savings, meeting
identified needs, or improving service
delivery.
Creation of the Court Payment Center
was part of the Judicial Branch’s effort
The Award recognizes courts and relat- to centralize and streamline the proed organizations for meritorious pro- cessing of the more than one million
jects and exemplary accomplishments payable citations filed in Minnesota
that enhance the administration of justice. Criteria for the award include that
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COURT PAYMENT CENTER RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD
courts each year. The process utilizes
fewer staff, allows for the payment of
fines by credit card through the Judicial
Branch Website or over the phone, automates the calculation and distribution
of fees to the state and local government, and automates the referral of
overdue fines to a collections agent.
Administrator Sue K. Dosal. “The
Payment Center has been a transformational reengineering effort. We have
already seen a reduction in processing
costs and an increase in the collection
of fine payments, money that is badly
needed by the state and local governments.”
The first phase of the effort, the conversion of 85 counties to CPC processing, was complete in 2011. Planning is underway to convert the Second
Judicial District (Ramsey County) and
the Fourth Judicial District (Hennepin
County) to the CPC in 2014.
Before the creation of the CPC, clerks
in local courthouses processed citations
manually. Employees working from
home offices now do most of the work
in a highly automated system. Over
$50 million was receipted in fiscal year
2011, including current and overdue
debt. The amount of overdue debt collected in fiscal year 2011 was $4.8 million, compared to $.9 million collected
in fiscal year 2010 and $1.1 million in
fiscal year 2009. The CPC logged its
“We are very pleased that NACM has
recognized the Court Payment Center
project as a national model of innovation and achievement,” said State Court
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(Continued from Page 12)
one-millionth phone call on Nov. 22,
2011.
A user satisfaction survey offered to
individuals calling the CPC in March
2012 indicated an 80 percent satisfaction rate when evaluating whether the
information provided was clear and 70
percent of users indicated satisfaction
with the automated voice response system. Ninety-seven percent of users
indicated they were treated respectfully
when they spoke with a CPC clerk.
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Minnesota State Court News From The Land of 10,000 Lakes
SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT - EMPLOYEES STEPPING UP INTO THE
BUSINESS ANALYSIS WORLD by Tama Hall-Court Administrator-Special Courts & Lynae Olson-Court
Administrator , Civil
In the Fall of 2010, a team of
Second Judicial District court
employees signed up for and attended a series of day long training sessions entitled Business
Analysis Process and Modeling.
Little did they know that this
was the start of a significant
change to how we as a court approach and implement business
process change. Two individuals within the Civil and Special
Courts Divisions of the Second
District responded early on with
enthusiasm, dedication, and a
“can do” attitude to lead this
new approach: Beth Tisdell and
Michael Upton. Beth and
Michael’s leadership and commitment to the business analysis
process have been nothing less
than extraordinary. Here’s why:
Since January 2011, Beth and
Michael have successfully coordinated, led, analyzed and implemented business process
changes for electronic filing in
Civil Filing, Family Court,
Housing Court, Domestic Abuse
and Harassment Court.
Electronic filing (eFiling) has
been implemented in all of these
areas and currently work is underway to prepare Probate and
CHIPS to implement eFiling this
Fall.
courts as part of the statewide
eCourt initiative.
Before eFiling is successfully
implemented, the Business
Analysis (BA) work identifies
and documents all of the pieces
to the processes as they exist
now, and then narrows them
down to the critical components
and how the process should look
under the new system. Beth and
Michael continue to lead this
detailed work and assure that
nothing is missed and everything
that is essential is identified and
incorporated into a completely
electronic process where there is
no paper, no files, and no scanning.
The BA work requires an unwavering commitment to the value
of business re-engineering to
meet the needs of our customers
in a changing environment. Without the willingness
and commitment of Beth and
Michael to step up to this very
challenging assignment, our
court’s experiences with eFiling
to date may have been far less
satisfying and far more problematic. Because of their work, and
the work of so many others in
the Second District who contributed to this process, we can
proudly say that the business we
do has been re-made to meet the
future.
Beth and Michael signed up for,
and committed themselves to,
the court’s eFiling pilot projects
in the Civil and Special Courts
Divisions. What began as a pilot
has blossomed into mandatory
electronic filing in all major Civil and all Family Court case
types. In addition, Beth and Michael have become known as “e”
experts, spending a portion of
their time sharing their experiences with State Court Administration, Supreme Court rules
committees and conducting
demonstrations for other pilot
LETTER FROM CHIEF
JUDGE WARNER
It’s an honor and a privilege to
represent the Second Judicial
District as Chief Judge. I’m
humbled to serve this district as
Chief Judge given my deep roots
in St. Paul. I’m a native St. Paulite, born and raised on the east
side of St. Paul.
(continued on page 15)
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SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT - LETTER FROM CHIEF JUDGE WARNER
I’ve worked in the Second Judicial District as a judicial law
clerk in the early 1980s. I was
also a law clerk in the Ramsey
County Public Defender’s Office
and worked as a certified student
attorney. When I was in civil
practice I tried my first civil trial
in Ramsey County District Court
before Judge John Connolly in
1986. I was appointed as a
judge in the Second Judicial District in January of 1998.
(Continued from page 14)
ly and statewide.
In the Second Judicial District
we also have an extremely hardworking, dedicated and knowledgeable group of judges. We
are a high volume court and each
judge maintains a very large
caseload.
Judges and their staff are constantly required to do more as
our resources continue to
shrink. We will continue to face
challenges in the future as caseloads grow and resources diminish.
Some of the challenges facing
the Second Judicial District over
the next two years are the impact
of budget cuts, an increase in
pro se litigants and a reduction
in services provided by other
stakeholders.
As a judge I have worked in every court assignment. I’ve had an
opportunity to get to know many
of the Second Judicial District
staff. I admire their hard work,
knowledge and dedication. Our
staff has been recognized by
members of the public and employees of other judicial districts
and the State of Minnesota for
the high quality of service they
provide. We can be proud of the
strong reputation we have local-
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Currently the Second Judicial
District is in transition to an ecourt filing system. Many court
employees remember the transition from TCIS to MNCIS. We
got through that transition with
class. Once again we are experiencing a significant transition in
the way we conduct our daily
business. And once again, our
staff has responded to these
changes with hard work and dedication.
In addition to systemic changes,
the face of the Second District
bench is changing.
This summer we welcome two
new judges to the Second Judicial District bench, Judge Leonardo Castro who will be sworn
in on July 23, 2012 and Judge
Patrick Diamond who will be
sworn in on August 1,
2012. They join Judges Marek
and Ireland who have been with
us for just under two years.
We will also be getting a new
judge this fall, to replace Judge
Dale Lindman who retired on
June 1, 2012. These new judges
bring a depth of experience and
legal knowledge to the Bench
and we are lucky to have them.
Assistant Chief Judge George
Stephenson and I hope to match
the hard work and dedication of
the judges and staff of this district. We’re looking forward to
representing the Second Judicial
District for the next two
years.
The Second Judicial District
encompasses all of Ramsey County.
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THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT - A LEGAL NIGHT AT THE THEATRE by Karrie Espinoza
with a live play put on in the historic 76 year old Potter Auditorium.
For the last several years Olmsted
County Judge Joseph Chase has
appeared in several of the productions, including Captain Von
Trapp in the Sound of Music,
Lumier in the Beauty and the
Beast, the Preacher in Footloose
to name a few.
other 3rd Judicial Judges assumed
roles in the play. Through the
character, Charles “Charley” Culver, played by Judge Robert Birnbaum the story unfolds. He
played the now grandfatherly
character sharing memories of his
days as a drummer boy with the
This year audiences were treated
to not only Judge Chase’s thespian talents, but to his storytelling
or story recalling skills as well.
Playbill designed by
Judge Joseph Chase
The Last Boy in Blue - A play
based on a true story, written,
produced and directed by Judge
Joseph Chase, Olmsted County
District Court Judge.
The production this year Last
Boy in Blue, tells the story of the
first 24 hours of the 1862 Dakota
War; an historic recollection of an
incident involving Company B,
the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment of which 2/3 of
the 85 men and boys were from
Chatfield, Judge Chase’s
hometown.
As do most towns and cities,
Chatfield, Minnesota holds an
annual town wide celebration.
Chatfield is a small town that sits
half in Fillmore County and half
in Olmsted County.
Every year Chatfield celebrates
Western Days with the usual attractions, a parade, food vendors
in the town square, a car show
and a street dance, etc. Chatfield
also celebrates Western Days
Judge Kevin Lund
Company B infantry with his curious pre-teen granddaughter.
Other “court notables” who
showed off their acting skills
were Judge Kevin Lund, as
Leuitenant Timothy Sheehan who
showed up with his troops to save
Fort Ridgeley!
Several area attorneys also held
roles in the production to include
Bill French, Dan Heuel and Mark
Delehanty.
Judge Joseph Chase
(continued to page 17)
This play was produced and directed by Judge Chase. Several
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THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT - A LEGAL NIGHT AT THE THEATRE
Judge Jeff Thompson
Judge Jeff Thompson played John
Whipple, a volunteer gunner, who
had served with John Jones in the
Mexican War.
Also appearing were Judge
Lund’s son Bryan as Private Williamson, a member of his Dad’s
troop. Judge Chase’s son, Na-
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(Continued from page 18)
Granddaughter of Charley Culver, Cora Zaffke
and Judge Robert Birnbaum
thaniel, also showed off his thespian skills in the role of Corporal
Mark Wilson.
As a special surprise, present in
the Theatre during Saturday’s
production and introduced by
Judge Chase at the conclusion of
Saturday’s performance was the
actual granddaughter of Charley
Culver, Cora Zaffke.
The Third Judicial District encompasses Dodge, Filmore, Freeborn,
Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice,
Steele, Winona, Waseca, and Wabasha
counties.
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M A C M
R E F L E C T I ON S
Fourth Judicial District - Hennepin’s New Problem Solving Court, Co-Parent Court
Problem-solving courts, such as
drug courts, DWI courts, veterans
courts, and mental health courts,
have proven effective in addressing recurrent case types resulting
from persistent social problems.
So far, problem-solving courts
have been limited to criminal cases, but Hennepin County is experimenting with expanding the concept to family law cases.
Called Co-Parent Court, the new
pilot-project provides services and
support to low-income parents establishing paternity. Funded with
federal and foundation grants for a
three year demonstration period,
the project recently entered the
third year.
Unmarried parenting is one of the
most significant demographic
shifts of the past forty years. Over
forty percent of children nationwide are now born to unmarried
parents, and over one third in
Hennepin County. The trend is
very problematic.
On almost any measure – educational attainment, economic prospects, sociological issues such as
teenage pregnancy, juvenile delin-
quency, or psychological issues
such as suicide attempts – children
of unmarried parents face significantly higher risk than those of
married parents. Moreover, unmarried parenting is concentrated in
populations with lower income
and less education. Thus, children
of low-income unmarried parents
face not only the challenges of
poverty, but the burdens of greater
family instability and limited parental resources.
Courts are ideally situated to address this problem. Because of the
federally funded child support enforcement program, large numbers
of fathers of children whose mothers are receiving public assistance
are summoned into court to establish paternity and child support.
parents are referred to a series of
four three-hour workshops to address the important issues in coparenting, such as communication
and the distinct contributions of
both parents to child development.
Second, after the workshops, the
parties are assisted in working
through a model parenting plan,
which is then presented to the
judge for signature.
Third, since preliminary surveys
demonstrated that many parents
Hennepin County establishes palacked basic services essential to
ternity in about a thousand such
cases each year. The focus in these parenting, such as stable housing
cases has traditionally been on the and health services, case managefather’s financial obligations, with ment and referrals to community
less attention given to his emotion- agencies for social services are
also provided. In order to evaluate
al contributions or to the parties’
capacity to work together for their the impact of this investment in
parents, cases from selected zip
child.
codes, centered on North MinneTo address this limitation, a family apolis, are randomly assigned each
court working group consisting of month either to Co-Parent Court or
to a control group, which are being
county and court employees, as
carefully compared by evaluators
well as members of community
agencies, developed a pilot project from the University of Minnesota
Extension Service.
to promote co-parenting. CoParent Court offers three related
Anecdotal feedback about the proservices.
ject has been very positive.
After the first hearing establishing
paternity and child support, the
(continued on page 19)
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M A C M
R E F L E C T I ON S
Fourth Judicial District - Hennepin’s New Problem Solving Court
Attendance at the workshops is
better than expected, and most parents complete parenting plans. The
workshop sessions, separate for
mothers and fathers, have been
lively and engaging.
clients to be good parents.
While the project is a short term,
modest intervention in the face of
such difficulties, project staff take
heart from the deep desire of these
Graduates of the program are enthusiastic about the benefits provided to them. One of the stark
realizations the Co-Parent Court
team has faced is the enormous
challenges faced by many parents,
from children with multiple partners, to criminal records, to mental, physical and chemical health
issues, to domestic violence.
This project is a heartfelt effort by
a large team of dedicated professionals to help children at risk. If
the University’s final evaluation is
positive, Co-Parent Court may
serve as a model for courts and
agencies struggling with the serious issues presented by unmarried
parenting.
The Fourth Judicial District encompasses all of Hennepin County.
FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT - BLUE EARTH COUNTY STAFF RECEIVE AWARDS
by Linda Sandberg, Human Resources Manager
On September 25, 2012, at the
39th Annual MN Family Support
& Recovery Council, a team including Blue Earth County court
administration and child support
staff were announced as the winners of one of the MFSRC, five,
annual awards. This team, nominated by BEC Child Support acting supervisor, DeAnn Boney,
was announced as the recipient of
the Outstanding Program
Achievement award.
This achievement award was designed to recognize a county or
local program that has experienced significant improvement in
operations or collections and has
shown leadership in innovations
as evidenced in their collections,
Left to right: Picturedlefttoright….LisaAlitz,PamFry,CarolynEdwards,Trish
Garvin,DebHanson,andMelissaGiernoth(notpictured:MelissaKantola)
welfare fraud or support program
management.
At the ceremony, a plaque inscribed as follows was presented
to this group:
“In Recognition of Your Outstanding Collaboration on the
Modification Forms Online
Video and Your Dedication to
the Child Support Program.”
(continued on page 20)
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FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT - BLUE EARTH COUNTY STAFF RECEIVE AWARDS
(Continued from Page 19)
Members of this team were as
follows: Blue Earth County
Court Administration Staff:
Pam Fry, Sr. Court Clerk; Carolyn Edwards, Sr. Court Clerk;
Deb Hanson, Sr. Court Clerk;
and, Trish Garvin, Court Operations Supervisor. Blue Earth
Child Support Staff: Lisa Alitz,
Self Help Center; Melissa
Giernoth and Melissa Kantola
This initiative really had its
roots back in 2009 when Blue
Earth County Court Administration staff partnered with the
Blue Earth County Child Support Unit and the MN Self-Help
Center staff attorneys in a collaborative project which would
benefit the pro se participants in
completing the paperwork involved with modification of
child support.
Workshops were developed via
the use of ITV where the staff
attorneys from the Self-Help
Center were available to go over
forms and offering instruction to
the pro se participants who
would come in person to the
courts for help with modification forms and procedures.
The workshops also included
staff from Court Administration
as well as Child Support so that
the participants could get all the
needed information. Participants were also able to ask questions. Workshops were held
every other month and partici-
pants could register on line.
Court Administration would
provide copies of the forms
packets and obtain file numbers,
dates and/or copy of last child
support order. Child Support
Staff had access to their computers which allowed them to determine amounts of child support
owed. The Self-Help staff
guided them through each form
for motions, supporting affidavits and service documents as
well as fee waivers.
These sessions grew in popularity and additional counties such
as Faribault, Martin and Rock
participated along with Child
Support staff from other districts. The team received feedback that parties would be interested in having a video version
that they could view on their
own time as many could not get
to the Justice Center to attend,
and one that they could review
or repeat on their own. Thus,
the brainchild for this video project began.
Blue Earth County court administration and child support staff
worked together to create the
workshops and Self-Help staff
worked on a live web version of
the workshop. The workshops
were divided into a six part series. This allows individuals to
view selected parts which allows them the flexibility of
looking at or repeating what
they want to view. It also al-
lows staff to make any changes
without having to re-do the entire presentation. The web-ex
presentation was completed in
March of 2012. The Self Help
Center has reported that the
number of calls they receive on
this topic has decreased since
this training was rolled out.
The team is hopeful that this
tool will be able to be used by
individuals who have transportation issues, cannot leave work,
have child care or other conflicts
in being able to attend a workshop at a designated location or
time, jail staff who work with
incarcerated individuals or people who are not comfortable in a
group setting for such personal
matters. Also, the web version
frees up time of the staff that
have been a part of every workshop. When asked about the
project, Lisa Alitz, Child Support Officer in Blue Earth County indicated, “I am proud to
have had the opportunity to
work with this fabulous group of
women.”
Congratulations to the Blue
Earth County staff who provided their time, commitment and
expertise for this valuable, timesavings project which will benefit many of our court customers!
The Fifth Judicial District encompasses
Blue Earth, Brown, Cottonwood, Faribault, Jackson, Lincoln, Lyon, Martin,
Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Pipestone,
Redwood, Rock, and Watonwan counties
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Tenth Judicial District - ‘Snakes in a Courthouse’, the sequel to ‘Snakes on a
Plane’….
By Rosemary Nelson, Kanabec County Court Administrator
Life was anything but peaceful
on the 3rd floor of the Kanabec
County Courthouse on a warm,
sunny, Wednesday afternoon in
August….
As one of my staff was finishing
her lunch break, she noticed
something out of the corner of
her eye. It was a snake moving
across the floor in the Court Administration break room, adjacent to our file room, which is
adjacent to our office. She
stepped into my office and said
in a bewildered voice… “There’s
a snake in the break room…..”
I promptly followed her back
into the file room where we
peered around the corner, and
sure enough, a garter snake,
about 20 inches long, was in the
middle of the floor. By that time
the rest of the staff had come
back to view the oddity, and I
said “Look! And there
are worms all over the
floor!” (meaning the floor
our office!” Maintenance, probably thinking this was some sort
of crank call, paused, and then
said “Who is this?” I promptly
exclaimed “This is Rosemary!
There are snakes all over the
floor in our office, come
quick!!”
What seemed like forever, but
was probably closer to 3-4
minutes, the maintenance crew
of three came up. (safety in numbers?) The female maintenance
armed with a badminton racket
and a very large black garbage
bag, the male maintenance with
a long stick with some sort of
pincher on the end, and, of
course.…the supervisor.
By this time, with all the squeals
and commotion we made, the
adult snake had slithered its way
out of the break room, and under
the door into our exhibit room.
of the file room where we
were all gathered…) But
soon we realized something else.. “They’re not
worms, they’re baby
snakes!!!”
The chaos that followed
can only be imagined,
with five women standing
amidst little squiggling snakes
near our feet. I rushed to call the
maintenance department and
when they answered the phone I
shouted, “There are snakes in
The maintenance crew began to
pick up the baby snakes with
their pincher, and deposit them
out of sight into the garbage bag.
The supervisor and male maintenance worker carefully opened
the door to the exhibit room and
after moving a few boxes around
and poking around under the
multiple shelves, they were successful in finding the adult
snake. We assume the mother to
all the little 6” babies. (Internet
research informed us a garter snake
can deliver from 7 to 90 babies by
live birth)
Baby snakes were found all over
our break room; along the wall,
under waste baskets, under chair
and table legs. I watched from a
safe distance away, with my feet
raised high above the floor. The
search went on, and more baby
snakes were found in the law
library, connected to the break
room by a doorway.
Throughout that afternoon, and
during the next two days additional baby snakes continued to
be found in the break room, the
law library, and right outside my
office! We had cleverly applied
double sided carpet tape in all of
the doorways and were able to
snag a handful of babies stuck to
the tape.
(continued on page 22)
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TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT UPDATES
We patrolled the file room, break
room and law library every hour
or so, intent on catching those
things before they escaped to a
different hiding spot.
The maintenance supervisor, in
conference with an exterminator,
and not overly sympathetic to our
repulsion, assured us the snakes
could not live beyond 48 hours
without food and water….
However, the following Monday,
day 5, another adult snake about
10 inches in length was found in
2 2
(Continued from page 21)
our break room, so much for that
theory! Altogether 2 adult snakes
and over 25 babies were captured
from our office and law library
area. It took two weeks before
any of us were brave enough to go
into the exhibit room, and we still
walk around with our eyes downcast, searching the floor for any
errant serpents…
Curiously enough, the word
Kanabec, pronounced ka-NA-bec
– is derived from the Ojibwa
word for the Snake River which
flows through the county (thus the
long N-A sound).
Three weeks later, another adult
snake was found on the first floor.
Now, they consider it a security
problem….
ECOURT PILOT KICKOFF PARTY IN
WASHINGTON COUNTY
by Lisa Logghe, Court Operations Supervisor
On July 17th Washington County District Court
hosted an eCourt Pilot Kickoff Party. Court administration staff, judges, law clerks and court reporters were invited to attend one of two sessions. eFiling Co-Lead Judges Ilkka and Hannon
welcomed the participants. A brief presentation of
imaging and eFiling was provided. Refreshments
were served for the event.
Washington County District Court began imaging
active cases on October 22nd. As a pilot Washington County will Go Live on eFiling and eService
with Civil and Family cases beginning November
26th.
The Washington eCourt Implementation Team has
been working hard on their implementation tasks as
well as creating new business processes in preparation for their Go Live date. Judges and court staff
are looking forward to increased efficiency with the
ability to view and work with the most up-to-date
case documents from anywhere, even when others
may be viewing the case file. Co-Lead Judges Ilkka
and Hannon have expressed confidence in Washington County Court Administration’s preparations
and leadership in moving our Court into the electronic environment.
Carrie Hafeman is shown presenting a cake she created for the kickoff party.
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TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT UPDATES
NEW SUPERVISOR IN
ANOKA COUNTY COURT
ADMINISTRATION
by Jennifer Schlieper, Anoka
County Court Administrator
Anoka County is pleased to welcome Mindy Ellingson as a Court
Operations Supervisor in the
Criminal Division.
and was officially promoted as a
permanent supervisor in August.
Mindy supervises a staff of 10
out of a division of 20.
We are very fortunate to have
Mindy working for the Minnesota Judicial Branch – her positive
energy, extensive background
and can-do attitude are true assets to the Anoka County Supervisory Team.
Please join us in congratulating
Mindy and wishing her well as
she starts this new chapter in her
career.
(Continued from page 22)
it was a great morale booster for
all.
Six overflowing boxes of school
supplies consisting of paper, binders, glue, pens, markers, pencils,
erasers, scissors calculators, back
packs, glue sticks, and deodorant
were donated to Anoka Middle
School for the Arts, Fred Moore
Campus in Anoka. A special
thanks to Sarah Lindahl-Pfieffer
for coordinating and to Sue Portugue and Jo Ann Bennett for dropping all donations off.
SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE IN ANOKA
by Sue Portugue, 10th District/
Anoka County
Mindy has accumulated 11 years
of court experience with the Judicial Branch. She spent her first
six years as a Senior Court Clerk
in Mower County before moving
to Anoka in 2007 as a Senior
Court Clerk. She spent the last
six months as the interim supervisor over part of the criminal area
Anoka County Court Administration coordinated a school
supply drive on September 6,
2012. Those who donated
school supplies were allowed to
dress casually for the workday.
The donation of school supplies
was a great way to help the community. In addition to being
able to dress casually if they
brought in an item for donation,
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The Tenth Judicial District
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2012 Annual Conference
A NEW ERA OF INNOVATION
Park, Neutral or Forward - What’s the Direction of Your
Workforce Motivation?
Presenter: Ted Schick, Schick Corporate Learning
By Sarah Lindahl-Pfieffer
Ted Schick presented on motivation and leadership. It was a fun
and interactive presentation incorporating humor, resources, and
practical points on what motivates
people.
Unraveling the Mysteries of
the Grand Jury and Judge
Pendleton’s Dirty Dozen
Presenter: Judge Alan Pendleton,
10th District
By Jessie Carlson
During this session, Judge Pendleton explained the Grand Jury
process from start to finish. His
engaging presentation included
real life case examples demonstrating the fascinating and
unique Grand Jury process.
Judge Pendleton noted how little
experience most judges have
with the Grand Jury except those
prosecuting homicide cases before becoming a judge. In addition, the Grand Jury can be unfamiliar to court staff because it
may be rarely convened.
The absence of any of these workforce “hygiene” factors will demotivate workers: Pay, working
conditions, policies, status, job
security, supervision, and interpersonal relationships.
People need to be able to achieve,
be recognized (without asking for
it), feel responsible, and advance
to feel engaged. Helpful quotes,
books, tips were given throughout
the presentation.
fendant or decide there is no probable cause and return a “no bill”.
A Grand Jury does not determine
guilt. Unlike other court proceedings, grand jury proceedings are
secret and must not be disclosed to
anyone.
The presentation also explained
the Court Rules applicable to
Grand Jury proceedings and referenced the Minnesota Grand Jury
Guide, published by SCAO, and
available on Courtnet. At the end
of the session, Judge Pendleton
provided some brief information
on petit juries.
Performance Management
Calibration
Presenters: Deb Morse, Human Resources Manager, 4th District, Susan
Love, Judicial Education & Development Manager, 4th District
A Grand Jury is convened in 1st
degree murder and treason cases
(these crimes cannot be charged
without a Grand Jury Indictment), in high profile, highly political criminal cases (at the prosecutor’s request), and for inquiries of prison and public officials.
By Jan Cossette
Judge Pendleton began by
providing a definition of the
Grand Jury and proceeded to describe its specific duties and very
broad powers. A Grand Jury can
return an indictment after determining there is probable cause a
crime was committed by the de-
Hennepin requires monthly meetings with each employee and they
complete the IDP discussion
guide. It provides for meaningful
and real conversations with employees.
Performance management calibration is rating employees consistently on performance evaluations.
There are tools available on the 4th
district’s Courtnet page along with
hyperlinks to their forms.
(continued on page 25)
Managers, senior managers and
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supervisors meet yearly and review actual performance evaluations, discussing them to see if
they make sense.
It took 18 months to devise the
program and roll it out. Their
goal was the need for consistent,
accurate performance reviews.
The ratings are to a standard, not
to fellow employees. The attendees reviewed and discussed
actual performance evaluations
(with identifying information removed) written by Hennepin supervisors.
The key to giving feedback is the
STAR method: Situation, Task,
Action and Result.
Expungements and Collateral
Damage
Presenter: Emily Baxter, Director of
Public Policy & Advocacy, Council
on Crime and Justice
al from finding safe and affordable housing, finding employment, and even pursuing higher
education.
Emily complimented her presentation with many real life stories
and examples which captivated
the conference attendees. Emily
presented the topic from a different side than the Court typically
views, making it very interesting.
By Krista Sandhoefner
Emily Baxter gave a compelling
and passionate presentation on the
effect a criminal record can have
on an individual. Emily told of
how a record could be as seemingly insignificant as a minor infraction or an arrest that did not
result in the individual being
charged criminally and yet have
profound impacts on an individual’s life. She spoke of how these
records could prevent an individu-
eCourtMN Court Administration Processes Explained
Presenters: Anita Hupfer, Court
Operations Analyst, State Court
Administration, Ann Peterson,
Court Operations Analyst, State
Court Administrator’s Office
By Jan Cossette
The presenters lead the two process reengineering teams, Criminal and Non-Criminal. There are
representatives from all districts
on each team.
Each CAP contains background
information and is a step-by-step
action plan in a paper world as
well as identifying where processes change with imaging and eFiling. These are internal documents
only and are not to be shared with
others.
A draft of each CAP is written,
reviewed by the legal team, then
team members complete business
process mapping, reviewing each
CAP line by line.
(continued on page 26)
A demonstration was provided on
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the workflow process mapping.
The attendees indicated who has
used the CAPs and how they’ve
used them. The document security CAP was reviewed with explanations regarding document security levels, terms used in the CAP,
restricted identifiers and redaction.
There was discussion regarding
the new release, the document
types are included with a default
security level. The pilot CAPS
are available on Courtnet in draft
form. Eventually each CAP will
have a recorded training session.
eCourtMN Plenary: Panel
Members from eCourtMN
Teams
Presenters: Honorable Lisa Borgen,
7th District, Shay Cleary, Project
Manager, State Court Administration, Annette Fritz, Court Administrator, Washington County District
Court, Lynae Olson, Civil Court Administrator, Ramsey County District
Court, Amy Turnquist, Court Administrator, Cass County District Court,
Nancy Winger, Assistant District
Court Administrator, Ninth Judicial
District Court, Dr. Marcy Podkopacz, Research Director, Fourth
Judicial District Court
By Monica Tschumper
Shay Cleary started the session by
discussing the eR&R, his recipe
for eCourt success, and the eCourt
Sharepoint site. He mentioned
the newsletter that will be posted
on the website, which targets
live counties, to ensure they are
made aware of changes made;
post implementation.
Marcy Podkopacz from Hennepin
talked about how they prepared
There are often changes as processes rollout to other counties,
and this is a way to ensure that
the original counties will be
made aware of those changes.
Lynae Olson addressed staff
training and how they took both
their judges. She felt it was important to provide the tools, the
rules and the training.
Annette Fritz spoke about external
outreach and the efforts that
a macro and micro approach to
training. They worked closely
with Hennepin and both felt it
important to answer staff questions and equip them to troubleshoot.
(continued on page 27)
Washington County has made,
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leading up to their November
rollout date. Annette felt it was
important to meet with external
stakeholders and stress to them
the benefits they will gain from
eFiling, as well as the benefits to
the system. Be sure to have an
expert on board for these meetings, as the participants will likely
have questions.
Nancy Winger and Amy
Turnquist spoke about the implementation of Cass County as a
works with MNCIS
in an eenvironment.
Dakota County began the pilot in
April of 2012 with
Ramsey County going live later in the
summer. The benefits of this new Appeal process are
enormous! The time to prepare a
case for appeal is reduced, the
cost of mailing is nearly eliminated and the physical file remains with the District Court.
 The first step is case prep. If
pilot. They talked about the importance of selecting qualified site
coordinators and in Cass, they
selected Senior Court Clerks, who
will assist district wide with implementations.
Appellate Courts and
eCourtMN
Presenters: Tracey Anderson, 1st
District, Doris Karlisch, QA Analyst,
State Court Administration, Bridget
Gernander Acting Clerk of Appellate
Courts via recording
By Brenda Koenig
This presentation was an overview of how the Appeals process
exhibits exist in a document
form, they are imaged to the
exhibit on the Exhibits tab.
Other exhibits including photographs, CD, large posters
and physical exhibits are either kept by the court or
mailed to the court of appeals
according to current practices. An exhibit list is printed,
added to the case events and
imaged.
 The next step is to print the
register of actions, numbering the documents on the
ROA, add it as an event and
image it.
 In the new MNCIS Appeals
tab, the clerk will create up
to 4 filing categories, exhib-
its, transcripts, supplemental,
and documents. Once that is
completed the clerk creates an
index of each category’s documents. These categories are
date certified and an event is
added showing the case is
ready for review for the court
of appeals.
Post pilot implementations will
begin with the 1st District, Morrison and Clay, before the end of the
year. We are recommending that
some type of centralization of appeals be considered when implementing.
The appellate mailboxes will be
replaced early next year for all 87
counties with integrations between
MACs and MNCIS replacing
them, and information and training
will be done about a month before
the change takes place.
(Continued on page 28)
Managing the Unknown - The
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Impact of Implicit Bias on
Fairness
Presenters: Judge Tanya Bransford,
Fourth Judicial District Court, Connie Gackstetter, HR Education &
Organization Development Manager,
State Court Administration
By Jan Cossette
Implicit bias training is part of the
judiciary’s strategic plan. The
training was piloted about a year
ago and will be included with new
judge orientation. The attendees
watched a video, “The Lunch
Date.” There was a man and
woman in the video and the group
discussed what they saw from the
woman’s perspective, then the
man’s perspective.
During the discussion it was evident everyone had made assumptions that they later learned were
not true.
We all have influences in our life
that create biases, whether they
are explicit biases, implicit biases
or schemas. Explicit bias is a
conscious preference for a social
category, implicit bias operates
outside our awareness
and schemas includes
processing information with little or
no conscientious
thought.
The presenters discussed the basic neurobiology of emotions
and fear and the physiological
predictors of bias. There is an
implicit attitude test that can be
taken online.
By Peggy Gentles
The link is: https://
implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
demo/. It assists individuals in
identifying their own biases.
This session introduced the Conservator Account Auditing Program (CAAP), a state program
housed in the Tenth District.
Conservator Account Auditing
Program (CAAP)
The mission of CAAP is to ensure
proper oversight of protected persons’ assets by audits, education
Presenters: Cate Boyko, Conservator Account Auditing Program
(continued on page 29)
Manager, Sherilyn Hubert, Information Technology Specialist, 10th
District
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lent and delivered each of their
unique perspectives and positions
on the project.
of court staff and conservators,
and an online account reporting
system (currently CAMPER).
Criminal Justice Data Integrations: An Example from
Northeastern Minnesota
Analysis of CAMPER data from
September 2012 indicates that
there are over 6,000 conservatorships with $487.5 million in
assets.
Presenters: Stacey Andrews, Court
Business Coordinator, 6th District,
Linda Emeott, Manager, Integration
Competency Center, State Court
Administration, Angie VanDeHey,
Director of Education Services,
NEMESIS
Personal Excellence: Everyone
Wins When We Are At Our
Best!
By Krista Sandhoefner
Keith Nord was our closing speaker and his presentation focused on
achieving personal excellence.
Cate Boyko reported on the audits
of conservator accounts that
CAAP had conducted. Those audits have been a mix of cases referred to the program by court
staff or a judge and first accountings on more recently filed
cases.
In 61 completed audits, eight cases resulted in findings questioning
whether management of the protected persons’ assets was appropriate. Additional training and
information are being rolled out
this fall and winter.
This dynamic and interactive
breakout session presented information regarding a relatively
new project happening in the
Sixth, Ninth, and Tenth Districts.
The project involves developing
a system which helps coordinate
efforts between Law Enforcement Agencies, Prosecutors, and
the Courts. The project has been
in place and “live” for 9 months
and it has been very successful.
Other Districts are interested and
gathering more data on the phases and involvement possibilities.
The three presenters were excel-
Presenter: Keith Nord, Motivational
Speaker, Former Minnesota Viking
By Monica Tschumper
Keith identified three key factors
he felt were necessary when defining excellence in our lives. Those
factors were integrity, spirituality
and having fun.
Keith shared both personal and
professional experiences that revealed how he has been challenged
and has managed to achieve these
in his own life.
(continued on page 30)
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Keith indicated he continues to
strive for excellence each and
every day. He is passionate about
helping others make a difference
and about encouraging others to
take (positive) action in their own
lives.
Keith led a few group activities
that were very interactive. One
of the activities was done twice,
with a slight change added to the
second round. The first time
Keith gave us the instructions
then timed us on completion of
the activity. He then had us do
the activity again, but he added
another component to the instructions which encouraged verbal
interaction between people during
the activity.
The outcome from each version
showed that the second activity
ended in a better time, because the
additional instruction and the verbal interaction made the activity
more fun! He wanted us to remember that whether in our personal or professional lives, we can
make a difference with our experiences, and, as leaders, we can
also have a great impact on those
around us.
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Klein McCarthy Architects MACM Gold Level Vendor Fall
2012 Vendor Show
We would like to recognize
Klein McCarthy Architects
as a Gold Level Vendor
at our
2012 MACM Fall Conference.
As part of the gold level, the vendor receives recognition in our
Reflections Newsletter.
MACM REFLECTIONS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER NEEDS YOU
Please send your MACM articles
and pictures to Annette Fritz for
inclusion in the next edition of
Reflections.
You do not have to be a member
of a MACM committee to send in
an article about your court or
your colleagues.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Annette Fritz, Janice Cossette
Co-Editors
Susan Love, Publisher
2012 Conference
New Member and
First Time Attendee
Breakfast
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