Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

 

Page 1

 

AOC Announces Governance Structure for CCMS Program

 

By SHERRI M. OKAMOTO, Staff Writer

 

The Administrative Office of the Courts yesterday announced the creation of an expanded governance oversight structure for its controversial California Case Management System.

A governance committee and three advisory committees, all of which will be overseen by the Judicial Council, have been formed to increase participation by justices, judges, court executive officers, law enforcement personnel, and social service agencies in the implementation of CCMS,  a spokesperson for the AOC said.

“We’re trying to get as widespread participation as possible,” the spokesperson explained, noting that an expanded governance plan was one of the recommendations made by the California Technology Agency—formerly known as the Office of the State Chief Information Office—after it reviewed the case management system last April.

Representatives from 30 courts, including Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William A. MacLaughlin and Clerk/Administrator Joseph Lane of this district’s Court of Appeal, are involved in the committees, the spokesperson said. 

The day-to-day management of the program is the responsibility of Mark Moore, whom Administrative Director of the Courts William C. Vickrey named as Executive Program Director of the CCMS Program Management Office.

Although the announcement came yesterday, Moore has served in this role since Nov. 1, the spokesperson said.

Moore previously served as the assistant director of the AOC’s Information Services Division and deployed a case management system now used by the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal, according to the AOC release. He also directed the design, development, and implementation of the California Courts Protective Order Registry, which allows judges and justice system partners to view protective orders entered in criminal and domestic violence cases and used technology leveraged from the CCMS project.

The CCMS program, which the AOC said has cost $332 million to date and is expected to run a total of $1.3 billion, has been in development for nine years. It is expected to be deployed in the  San Diego, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Superior Courts this year, with phased implementation throughout other courts to follow over the next four years, the spokesperson  said.

Critics of the program have complained its development has diverted needed funds from court operations.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Horan, a vocal opponent of the CCMS, remarked yesterday that the reorganization of the governance structure was “lipstick on a pig.”

“Perhaps if this sort of organizational structure been considered at the outset, we wouldn’t be trying to clean up this mess,” he said. “You’ve heard the expression ‘Day late and a dollar short?’ Well, they are 8 years late and about $1.7 billion short.”

Horan also noted this reorganization comes shortly before a  report is expected to be released from the Bureau of State Audits regarding the CCMS project. He said he had “no doubt” this audit “will not be flattering towards the AOC and their mismanagement of this project.”

The AOC spokesperson said the audit is expected to be released Tuesday. “We are looking forward to the report, and we’ll respond to it just as we have to the report of the Chief Information Officer,” he said.

“We are always looking for ways to improve the development and implementation of the case management system and it is entirely possible that some of the recommendations to be made by the state auditor will coincide with steps we have already taken,” the spokesperson added.

 

Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company