Best Practices Committee

March 16, 2006

Board for Judicial Administration
Best Practices Committee
March 16, 2006

Meeting Minutes

Members Present:	Judge Evan Sperline, Chair
	Ms. Pat Austin
	Judge Suzanne Barnett
	Judge Steve Brown
	Mr. John Gray
	Ms. Pam Daniels
	Ms. Andra Motyka
	Ms. Yvonne Pettus
	Judge Ann Schindler
	Judge Julie Spector
	Ms. Yolande Williams
Members Absent:	Ms. Linda Bell
	Ms. Kim Eaton
	Judge Janet Garrow
	Justice Susan Owens
	Mr. Dave Ponzoha
	Judge Jeff Tolman
	Mr. Warren Swanson
Guests Present:	Mr. Charles Benedict
Staff Present:	Ms. Colleen Clark
	Ms. Meagan Eliot
	Mr. Jeff Hall

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Judge Sperline called the meeting to order and asked if there were any changes to the November 17 minutes; there were none.

The November 17, 2005 minutes were approved as written.

Ms. Meagan Eliot has joined AOC and will be staffing the Best Practices Committee; Mr. Jeff Patnode has moved on to another position for the state.

ATTORNEY SURVEYS

Question 9 and Question 12

Ms. Daniels voiced concern over Question 9 and Question 12 on the Superior Court Survey regarding county clerk staff. She feels they should be deleted from the survey because the County Clerk [staff] is part of the executive branch and this is a judicial branch survey. Ms. Daniels does not think value will be added or detracted in this specific survey by deleting these questions.

Discussion both pro and con followed — including the fact that the County Clerks currently audit performance measures and perform surveys themselves; it's a look at how people feel about the experience using the court facility and coming into contact with the contributions of all branches; and a caution that if separate surveys are done (different audiences, different measures) responses might be diluted.

This is one of a variety of tools which reflect on the court as a whole. As Best Practices is a subcommittee of BJA; this is possibly a policy decision that will need to be made by BJA.

After much discussion, it was decided to respect the Clerks' request and remove Question 9 and Question 12 from the survey.

Question 7

Question 7 was briefly discussed (In-court staff) and whether or not it should be modified to specify court reporters and bailiffs. It was decided to leave as written.

Trial Survey Sites

Mr. Hall discussed the process; SCOMIS/DISCUS will be queried by AOC to obtain names of attorneys in the pilot sites that have actually appeared in court. A statistical-based decision will need to be made to decide if that entire population or a sampling will be sent the surveys.

We want to validate if this is a measure of court performance that will help court management. Questions won't be entirely static over time; part of the process is documenting exactly what this process is/will be. More than the actual conduct of mailing out and receiving data - are the answers useful.

Judge Schindler said she would like to look at the COA survey again and discuss it with Mr. Hall before it is presented as a final document. They will work on a letter to the Chief Judges asking if they have any changes before the survey is finalized.

Mr. Hall indicated that both the Appellate and CLJ surveys will be formatted to match the Superior Court survey.

A letter of introduction from the Presiding Judge of each of the following (volunteered) pilot sites will be included with the survey.

King County Superior (Judge Spector said the KC judges still need to approve)
Whitman County Superior
Kitsap District
Seattle Municipal

PROPOSED BASE AUDIT PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Mr. Hall said Measures 3, 4, 5, 8, and 14 have been moved to the pilot stage. The courts used will not be the same as the courts being used for the Attorney Surveys (Measure 1).

Ms. Motyka stated that hard numbers are important to the Executive and Legislative branches.

Ms. Daniels will take Measures 7, 9, and 11 to her executive board meeting next week to see if there are any issues from the Clerk's Association.

Mr. Hall suggested a subcommittee be formed to look at Measures 10, 12, and 13.

A subcommittee was created to work on a proposal for Measures 10, 12, and 13. Members include Judge Spector, Ms. Pettus and Mr. Benedict (as an interested observer). Ms. Williams will see if someone in her office would also like to be on the subcommittee.

The information under Tab 4 (For Addition of Other Type of Legal Proceedings; Table 1.5.1-1) will also be part of the subcommittee's work.

NEXT MEETING DATE

The committee will meet in May, then possibly in June (depending on the status of projects). The committee does not plan to meet in July or August.

May 11, 2006 (note that this is a change from May 18)
1:30 - 4:00
AOC SeaTac facility

Respectively submitted,
Colleen Clark