City, vendor negotiate agreement on muni courts computer system fiasco
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported today that the City of Houston will get back some of the millions it has wasted on a deeply flawed computer system for the municipal courts:
The city will receive $5 million in a settlement with the company that designed a problem-plagued computer system at Municipal Courts, according to a copy of the deal.
Maximus Inc. also has agreed to waive millions more in support and maintenance costs over the next two years, says a proposal the City Council is set to consider Wednesday.
The settlement marks a turning point for city officials, who have considered litigation against the company while watching it struggle to implement a complicated, paperless case-management system.
Now, it appears the city could look to a new vendor to build a different system, but will continue using Maximus for as long as three to four years, according to the agreement.
City Councilman Ronald Green, a lawyer who has held hearings about Municipal Courts reforms, said city officials were not clear enough to the company about its needs when the contract was approved in 2003. Nor, he said, did Maximus understand the scale of the courts, where more than 2 million people visit annually.
"Everybody underestimated what the city needed to move into the 21st century," he said. "Everybody takes some blame. It wasn't all Maximus' fault. But it wasn't all the city's fault, either."
[snip]
Other city officials declined to make public comments because the settlement contains a "Non-Disparagement" clause.
"Maximus and the city agree to issue a joint release characterizing the settlement in a neutral manner — specifically that the parties have determined that in light of the current circumstances that it is in the parties' best interest to modify their existing relationship," it reads.
Stiles' measured reporting really doesn't convey just how big (and expensive) a fiasco this has been for the city (unfortunately, it is doubtful that the Chronicle's weak metro columnists will give the matter the treatment it deserves -- oh how nice it would be to have a real metro columnist like some cities, but that is not the topic of this post). Cory Crow has some salient thoughts on the matter. We're going to stick with the more succinct "fiasco." Check that -- FIASCO.
However, after perusing the critical posts in our own archives (the tone of which no doubt prompted some enablers of the city's entrenched elites to proclaim we were being mean and overly negative), we thought it might be fun to provide a sampling of what some city officials had to say as the FIASCO progressed, along with some snippets from various reporting. It will all be posted beneath the [Read More] link. Enjoy (and especially keep some of the comments from city officials in mind when you see city officials today claiming that the Real Time Crime Information Center is "CompStat on steroids," talking about "bridging the digital divide," and other assorted nonsense)!
Presiding Judge Berta A. Mejia stated, "Our courts handle a million cases each year. From the onset of this project, our goal was to implement a case management system that improves access not only by defendants who have matters before the Court, but by the public as well. Enhanced accessibility to the system creates a more effective channel of communication between citizens and the court. Since we are the largest municipal court system in Texas, that improvement is essential to our efficiency and effectiveness."
Barbara Sudhoff, Director of Municipal Courts Administration, went on to say that, "Mayor Lee P. Brown and the City Council have provided the means for Municipal Courts to implement operational efficiencies throughout the court with the purchase and implementation of these state-of-the-art computer systems. In addition, these systems, which include electronic workflow, will allow us the opportunity to re-engineer and implement best business practices throughout the court." (Business Wire, 05/02/2003)
***
"We have millions of pieces of paper," said Richard Lewis, the courts' top administrator.
The $20 million case-flow system could speed service for the people - Lewis calls them "customers" - who go to the courthouse for traffic cases and other fine-only misdemeanors, such as public intoxication.
"It's going to be potentially dramatic in terms of the efficiency, the effectiveness and the timeliness of handling cases," said Lewis, also the city's chief information technology officer. (Houston Chronicle, 06/08/2005)
***
Richard Lewis, the top municipal courts administrator, said he hopes the meeting will help avert a delay. But he worries that the company hasn't sent enough staff here to ready the system and train city employees.
"There's no excuse now not to ensure that we have sufficient resources," he told City Council's municipal courts task force committee Thursday. "Actions speak louder than words, and we've got to see some action."
Lewis' presentation prompted Councilman Ronald Green to ask whether Maximus understood the severity of the city's concerns.
"Did you make clear to them that we've invested a significant amount of money to this project, and that we would, probably, invest just as much in litigation, if necessary?" he asked. (Houston Chronicle, 09/16/2005)
***
“This is the first real business day,” said Richard Lewis, Houston Information Technology Director. “And it’s gonna take a lot, a little while to get back to the same speed. We’ve trained them, but it really only is going to come from experience.”
City officials said this whole process will speed up once municipal courts workers become accustomed to the new computer system.
[snip]
But as court workers convert their 18-year-old computer system.
“We ask for a little patience, because as every time when you change from one system to another, there is a learning curve,” Berta Mejia, Municipal courts director. (KHOU-11, 04/03/2006)
***
City officials admitted there is a learning curve for judges, clerks and other staffers who have been handling cases another way for 18 years.
"It's probably going to take a little bit longer until they get up the learning curve and the repetition of using the new system," said Richard Lewis, the director of Information Technology.
[snip]
City officials said Monday's performance of the computer system was better than a trial run in January. They said it could take between 30 and 90 days for the system to be at full speed. (KPRC-2, 04/03/2006)
**
Richard Lewis, the acting chief clerk of the municipal court, explained, "Until you actually start using a tool for your work, you don't get proficient at it."
Lewis says except for a few minor glitches, the computer system is functioning properly. He attributes the delays to user inexperience.
Lewis warns those planning to appear for court to expect delays, at least for the next 30 to 90 days, while judges and court staff become accustomed to how things work.
He said, "When you change a system like this, it's not going to be perfect, particularly initially." (KTRK-13, 04/04/2006)
***
"It's not at the point where it needs to be today, but it's moving in the right direction," said Lewis, who took over the project in March 2005 as interim director of Municipal Courts.
Traffic attorney Pat Monks said he appreciates the system's ability to retrieve electronic documents so he doesn't have to wait in line for paper records. But he thinks the city was short-changed.
"As far as the day-to-day operation in the courtroom, it's terrible," he said. "It's slowed the Muni Courts down something drastically." (Houston Chronicle, 04/11/2007)
***
"We need to be prepared to do the performance test. And we hope that it does perform," said Mayor Bill White. "We're working to victory not to failure. But if somebody stumbles we need to make our case, so we can hold their feet to the fire." (KTRK-13, 04/12/2007)
***
City officials, at their wit's end with the company they hired to turn municipal courts into an electronic operation, this week threatened to sue unless the company fixes problems with the $10 million system.
Aside from causing headaches for city officials overseeing the transition, the flawed system has resulted in longer waits for the thousands of residents, lawyers and bail bondsmen who navigate the courts each day, and frustration for those who work there.
The city is giving Maximus Inc. until Thursday to provide a plan for making its work meet expectations.
"We said, `It's really up to you Maximus. You tell us how you're going to keep Houston as a long-term client, how you're going to satisfy all your requirements, or we're going to declare you in default," said Richard Lewis, the city's director of information technology.
[snip]
Because the city has warned Maximus before that its work has not met expectations, some city officials do not think they should get another chance.
"Enough already," said Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck. "This does not meet the basic terms of the contract, we've got taxpayer money on the line and it's time to cut our losses and move on."
Lewis said it is in the city's best interest to be patient. "But it's not going to last very much longer," he said.
[snip]
"They (Maximus) have been saying the right things, and they've deployed a bunch more resources down here in the last six months," Lewis said. "Whether or not that's enough is another whole matter." (Houston Chronicle, 12/08/2007)
***
The system is supposed to generate reports that court officials can use to alert police supervisors when officers didn’t show up for ticket hearings, but it isn’t doing the job.
It hasn’t generated those reports since it was installed two years ago last month, said Gwendolyn Goins with the Municipal Courts Administration.
In fiscal year 2005, judges dismissed 136,000 traffic tickets because the officer wasn’t present.
This fiscal year, with the computer system, judges expect to dismiss 250,000 for the same reason. (KHOU-11/TXCN, 05/28/2008)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/09/08 11:26 PM | Print | Comments (1)
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.