Gender and Justice CommissionJuly 13, 2001Washington State Gender and Justice Commission PRESENT Commission Members: Justice Barbara A. Madsen, Helen Donigan, Thomas Fallquist, Judie Fortier, Jennefer Henson, Representative John Lovick, Sandra Matheson, Mary Pontarolo, Judge Ann Schindler, Judge Linda Tompkins Guest: Judge C. Kimi Kondo Staff: Gloria Hemmen, Office of the Administrator for the Courts
Justice Madsen called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.
It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the May 4, 2001 meeting. Motion carried.
Gloria Hemmen reviewed the budget report. See attached. With the delay in completion of the Domestic Violence Manual for Judges revisions, funding was available to send seven judicial officers (three superior court, two district court, and two municipal court) to the Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases workshops. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grant will pay for up to 25 additional judges to attend these workshops in September and December.
Tom Fallquist reported the Nominating Committee met via conference call to review the list of candidates and recommends these four candidates be approved for appointment to the Commission:
In order to stagger terms, the Committee recommends that Judge Hale and Mr. Thompson be appointed for three-year terms and Judge Riehl and Ms. Fairhurst be appointed for two-year terms. It was moved and seconded to approve the recommendations of the Nominating Committee. Motion carried. The candidates' names will be forwarded to the Supreme Court for consideration and appointment. Domestic Violence: VAWA STOP Grant to the Courts The Commission reviewed and revised the second draft of the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the $106,000 VAWA STOP Formula Grant allocation for court-related domestic violence projects. The RFP will indicate that three to ten projects will receive grant funding. The RFP will be sent to every superior, district and municipal court presiding judge, court administrator and the county clerks on August 1. It was recommended that a copy be sent to the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence programs. First round proposals are due at the Office of the Administrator for the Courts on September 21. Helen Donigan, Justice Madsen, Mary Pontarolo, Judge Schindler and Judge Tompkins volunteered to serve on the steering committee to evaluate the proposals. Judge Schindler and Judge Tompkins will recuse themselves if their courts apply for funding. It was suggested Judge Appelwick be asked to serve on the committee. Pearl Gibson, Office of Crime Victims Advocacy (OCVA) will also serve on the committee.
Projects/Meeting Schedule The Commission reviewed the projects and meeting schedule for 2001-2002. See attached. Discussion of specific items follows. Glass Ceiling Survey Project Judith Ramseyer was unable to attend the meeting but provided a brief e-mail update: The current status is that we have in about 90 surveys of more than 400 mailed. We are in contact with approximately another 50 firms who either have promised to return the survey by a certain date or have asked for another to be sent. The hope is that we could send the "Madsen" letter to the remaining firms, with a new survey, to try to boost returns by another 50 or more. That would bring us in to the 40+% return rate, which is excellent. The slowness with which the surveys are coming in has put us a bit behind the planned schedule, but the schedule was very ambitious. At this point it is more important that we get good data. If we take a few more weeks to do that, we will be better off in the long run. The data is being entered as it comes in, but analysis will not begin until we cut off the data entry. Even with a few more weeks of data entry, we are on target for a report release by early September. Thank you for dispersing your funds to NW Research Group. They are doing a terrific job. The Northwest Research Group did complete the work contracted by the Commission before June 30. A follow-up letter from Chief Justice Alexander and Justice Madsen was sent out to law firms that did not return their surveys. Washington State Full Faith and Credit Team--Follow-up Meeting The Commission reviewed notes and action items from the June 26 Washington Full Faith and Credit team follow-up meeting. Problem areas identified include: (1) the need for clerk office protocols for handling foreign protection orders, (2) additional judicial and court clerk education regarding foreign orders and law enforcement database mandatory data fields, (3) data on how many orders are not entered into the law enforcement database because of missing information, and (4) access to JIS for tribal courts. Another issue concerns adding new data once the court order is signed. Tom Fallquist suggested we request a presentation on the Judicial Information System (JIS). He noted there is a controversy regarding confidentiality issues. Justice Madsen proposed the Commission take on management of the Full Faith and Credit project follow-up. The Full Faith and Credit team would become a subcommittee of the Commission. The Full Faith and Credit team will be invited to the November Commission meeting. Domestic Violence Manual for Judges-Update Status Updating the manual has turned into a major revision. Judge Halpert, Commissioner Prochnau, Judge Doerty and Judge Palmer are currently working on chapter revisions. Several chapters have been revised twice; one was completely re-written and some chapters still need sociological references/statistics updated. The 2001 manual will be ready for distribution later this fall. Local Domestic Violence Summits--2001-2002 a. East Pierce County, 9/29/01 The Eastern Pierce County Alliance Against Domestic Violence is following the local summit model. Gloria Hemmen met with Amy Goings, the chair, and Ruth Camp, Manager and Senior Consultant for the Organization and Management Division of Boeing, who will facilitate the Summit. Justice Madsen has been asked to speak and Judges Buckner and Jasprica are on the agenda. Senator Murray will be there in person or on videotape. Commission members are invited to attend the program on September 29 at the Puyallup High School. b. Spokane County, 2/09/02 Pat Gruis, Director, YWCA, Alternatives to Domestic Violence, reported the Domestic Violence Summit date has been confirmed for February 9, 2002. Tentative locations are Gonzaga University or the Riverpoint Office Building. She is working with the Sexual Assault Center and Lutheran Social Services--focusing on a "grass-roots" program. She has asked Mayor John Powers and Senator Lisa Brown to be the leaders. Nancy Ashley has been confirmed to facilitate the program. The Commission requested that the Spokane group be reminded to follow the local summit model. Pat Gruis will be notified that Commission members from Spokane are willing to help with the program. c. Thurston County Request, Domestic Violence Conference, 10/04/02 Commissioner Chris Wickham and Dee Koester, Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney's office, submitted a written request for $5,000 to assist with the 2nd Puget Sound Domestic Violence Conference: Best Practices in Addressing Domestic Violence - A Coordinated Response. This multi-county conference will be held October 4, 2002. Consensus of the Commission was funding is dependent on a community following the Domestic Violence Summit model. The goal is to get a community together to resolve problems and find solutions. The Commission will reconsider Thurston County's request if additional information can be provided to show how the summit model will be used so the program is consistent with the summit model. It was moved and seconded to send the Thurston county program organizers a letter indicating funding is dependent on following the Domestic Violence summit model and requesting additional information. Motion carried. Other Programs a. Women Judges History Project: Her Day in Court Justice Madsen, Gloria Hemmen and Margaret Fisher will be attending the October 13 meeting of Washington State Social Studies Teachers in Edmonds. We will demonstrate the Her Day in Court videotape and lesson plan and distribute copies to the teachers. The lesson plan is also posted with the Judges in the Classroom lessons on the court's website. (See http://www.courts.wa.gov/education/lessons/herday.cfm.) Justice Madsen reported TVW will not telecast Her Day in Court since their policy is only to show tapes they have recorded. They are willing to videotape and televise a Gender and Justice Commission meeting. Judie Fortier suggested the Commission contact local television stations, for example, Tacoma City Channel, for Women's History Month. We could prepare a press release and distribute the videotapes across the state. Judge Tompkins suggested distributing the videotape through the Educational Service Districts and using the WSBA Public Legal Education (PLE) Committee. b. VAWA Rural Domestic Violence Grant - Conclusion The grant being managed by Margaret Fisher concludes in December. The Laminated Domestic Violence Benchguides, the final grant product, is being finalized and will be distributed to all state judges in October. c. Annual Judicial Conference, 10/7-10/01, Tacoma: On Tuesday, October 9, the Commission will set up a display of educational resources and demonstrate our videos and lesson plans. Judge Appelwick, Judge O'Connor and Mary Wechsler are working with OAC judicial education on the Parenting Plan Session. The three-hour session will be repeated morning and afternoon on October 9. d. Public Legal Education Justice Madsen requested copies of our lesson plans and videotapes be sent to Judge Ireland who is working with the Public Legal Education (PLE) Committee. It was noted Helen Donigan and Judge Appelwick also serve on that committee. Other Business Kathy Franklin provided copies of two resource manuals, the 2000 National Employer and the Washington Employer. The Commission has been invited to send representatives to a two-day Gender Bias Implementation meeting following the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) conference in New York, October 7-8. Gloria Hemmen participated in the Access to Justice Civil Legal Representation Summit, in Wenatchee, June 7. Results of the Option Finder survey of participant priorities were included in the meeting materials. Service Award Justice Madsen presented a service award to Judge C. Kimi Kondo and thanked her for her dedication to the work of the Gender and Justice Commission especially on the When Bias Compounds program. Judge Kondo noted the importance of the Commission's work in this area and indicated she was available to work on projects.
The next meeting was scheduled for September 14, 2001. (Note: that meeting has been rescheduled for October 12, 2001.) The meeting adjourned at 12 noon. |
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