Members present: Judge John Lohrmann, co-chair; Mr. Craig Daly; Judge Steve González; Ms. Suzanne Elsner; Judge Elizabeth Cordi-Bejarano; Justice Mary Fairhurst; Chief Robert Spinks

 

Members not present: Judge Janis Whitener-Moberg; Mr. Jeffrey Beaver; Ms. Fona Sugg;

 

Staff present: Mr. Rick Coplen; Ms. Karen Castillo

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Judge Lohrmann called the meeting to order.  

 

Members present on the call identified themselves. 

 

Judge Lohrmann asked if there were any additions or corrections to be made to the minutes of the December 11, 2009 meeting. There being none, Judge González made a motion to approve the minutes; Ms. Kraski seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

Judge Cordi-Bejarano asked if anyone had suggestions or comments regarding the newsletter draft. She noted that she had chosen “cell phones in the courts” as a subject for the newsletter because it is a topic of current concern. Justice Fairhurst suggested that the term “defendants’ cell phones” should be changed to “parties’ cell phones” because not all matters in court are criminal matters.   Justice Fairhurst also suggested that the wording in survey Question 3 be changed to say, “If not a statewide policy, would your court prefer guidelines?”   With regard to formatting, Justice Fairhurst suggested leaving more space for a response after Question #5 for those who might not fill it out electronically.

 

Judge Bejarano also asked for suggestions on topics to cover in future newsletters. Judge Lohrmann suggested the topic of incident reporting.

 

There was general discussion about various approaches being taken by individual judges pertaining to cell phones in the courtroom.

 

Judge Gonzalez commented that the discussion leads to Item 5 on the agenda – The Model Policy Subcommittee Report on Cell Phones in Court. He said that Ms. Sugg (principally), Mr. Beaver and he have been working on a proposed model policy or guidelines to be added to the WA State Courthouse Safety Standards. He said that what they developed is a general statement of the issues that the court might want to review. Rather than setting forth procedures, it would provide links to information from various sources, to assist each court in developing a cell phone policy that suits each court’s needs. He asked the members if they agreed with that approach, or if they want to draft a proposed policy.   Judge Gonzalez noted that an amendment to the standards would ultimately have to be approved by the BJA.

 

Justice Fairhurst referenced the cell phone policy questionnaire that Judge Bejarano had included in the Court Security Committee Quarterly Newsletter draft. She suggested that it might be helpful to find out if courts have these policies in place already, and if so, what those policies are. She suggested that Judge González, Ms. Sugg and Judge Bejarano discuss this. 

 

Ms. Kraski asked if there is a way to distribute the survey with an electronic link. It was noted that the SCJA and the DMCJA have listservs through which the survey could be distributed. It was also suggested that the survey be conducted using SurveyMonkey. Judge Lohrmann asked Rick and Karen if they could find out how to do that.  Rick commented that he has used SurveyMonkey in the past.

 

Mr. Daly acknowledged Bill Holmes for standing in for him at the last meeting. He said that the JCA has been pushing to get responses from as many juvenile courts as possible. Judge Lohrmann asked what the intent of the survey was. Justice Fairhurst said that the committee wanted a snapshot in time to see if there is a problem in the juvenile courts concerning security. Also, it was thought that, if some courts have good policies in place, perhaps they could be used as a reference to assist those who don’t have policies. 

 

Judge González noted that one of the questions pertains to how many Juvenile Courts have separate buildings from their respective courthouses. He added that the previous discussion on this came about as a result of the problems they were having in King County. It also spilled over onto the subject of cell phones.

 

Mr. Daly said that, at one point, they assumed that all the incident report information was going to the court administrators, but they came to realize that this wasn’t the case. This survey has been helpful in getting this information out to the juvenile court administrators and, hopefully, getting them involved more. 

 

Judge Lohrmann commented that the information from the JCA survey has been very helpful and that this might be a good subject of a quarterly newsletter, which can be sent to the JCA via the listserv. It was suggested that the newsletter include a link to the Incident Report Log Updates. It was also suggested that the newsletter be kept to two pages in length, unless a special item like a survey is attached.

 

The following members’ terms will expire on June 30, 2010: Judge Steve González; Mr. Jeffrey Beaver; Justice Mary Fairhurst; Judge Janis Whitener-Moberg; Chief Robert Spinks; Ms. Sonya Kraski.  All members except Ms. Kraski and Chief Spinks have served two terms and will not be eligible for reappointment, according to BJA rules. 

 

There was discussion about the need to recruit new members. Each retiring member was asked to help with the recruitment of their replacement. Ms. Castillo reported that letters are in the process of being drafted that will go out to the various associations to ask that they appoint replacements or, in Chief Spinks’ and Ms. Kraski’s case, reappoint them for additional two-year terms.

 

It was suggested that the outgoing members join the fall meeting, and that the fall meeting be “in person” to say thank you to the outgoing members and hello to the new members.  Everyone agreed. Mr. Coplen said that we’ll need an allocation for our budget, so he will talk with Mellani McAleenan about that. 

 

Justice Fairhurst commented that it appears that more counties are reporting.  She added that she thinks the link to the incident report form in the newsletter will be helpful. 

 

There was discussion about the public dissemination of the reports. It was noted that the Incident Reports Log Updates are placed on the AOC website and are available to the public; all names are removed in the reports, however. 

 

Mr. Coplen said that he has been getting contacted by a number of lower jurisdiction courts that are losing their court security because of budget constraints. Justice Fairhurst noted that this places more of a burden on local law enforcement.

 

Mr. Coplen said that the feds did authorize funding for state courts, but they still have not specified how to apply for that funding. They have been developing the program instructions for over a year. At some point, this information will be useful to apply for funding. He added that he is staying in touch with the National Center for State Courts to remain informed on the process. As soon as something happens, he will distribute information to the committee.

 

Ms. Elsner reported that the DMCMA and DMCJA are holding their joint conference in late May. There will be training sessions on May 24^th and 25^th dealing with personal security. Sgt. Rob Huss from the WSP will provide the training. She said that she will probably be given the last 15 minutes of each session to talk about Court Security. She asked for feedback from members on what they would like her to share. She added that she thought she would focus on linking the court judges to the incident reports. Judge Bejarano suggested emphasizing to everyone that the information gathered in the incident reports can be used in requests for court security funding.

 

Judge Lohrmann commented that, until he came onto the Court Security Committee, he had not been aware of the Washington State Courthouse Public Safety Standards. He suggested providing that information to the conference attendees.

 

Chief Spinks discussed the email that he had sent to Court Security members prior to the meeting regarding revisions he has proposed to the law enforcement accreditation standards. He provided some background, saying that one year ago he made a verbal request during the accreditation meeting, but it was tabled. This year, he made a more formal presentation to the WASPC Accreditation Committee and to the Small Agency Concerns Committee. Both the committees reviewed the written proposals but will not take any action until the May statewide conference. He added that, given the history on how long it takes to make any changes to the accreditation standards, he anticipates it will be another year. Justice Fairhurst asked if it would help if they understand why this is important (i.e. helping to develop policies and protocols for proposed legislation, creating a basis for funding requests, etc.)

 

Chief Spinks said that, if anyone can provide any additional information, he would be happy to have that to add to the report. Mr. Coplen responded that the committee has survey information from all the courts, which provides a great deal of background information. He will email that information to Chief Spinks.

 

Justice Fairhurst suggested a cover sheet discussing the importance of involvement by law enforcement in court incident reporting because of the critical role they play.

 

Chief Spinks said he will start that out by sending it out to the listserv for WASPC. Mr. Coplen said he will contact Chief Spinks on Monday to talk about that.

 

The next meeting of the Court Security Committee will be a teleconference on Friday, June 18, 2010 from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m.

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.