House Journal: Page 68: Wednesday, January 15, 1997

What can be done?
First of all, I want to thank you for the help you've given us
in the past.  The additional judges, juvenile court staff, and
other resources have taken the edge off a serious situation. We
also appreciate your continued efforts to keep compensation
competitive so that we can attract and retain talented people to
handle the caseload.  But problems remain.
Our budget request for the next fiscal year, although a modest
one, has been tailored to address our most pressing problems. 
The details are included in the materials provided to you this
morning.  One request deserves your special attention - our
request for more clerk of district court staff. 
Our clerks' offices are important in so many ways.  Litigants
depend on them to get complete records of their cases to the
judges.  Our state and local governments depend on them to
collect and distribute fines and fees.  Crime victims depend on
them to collect and disburse restitution payments.  Custodial
parents depend on them to collect and disburse child support
payments.  Businesses and property owners depend on them to keep
track of liens.  Everyone depends on them as the trusted
gatekeepers for our justice system.
I ask that you give this request special consideration.  
Second - there is one other problem you should know about.  Most
of our courthouses have run out of room for storing court
records.  This is a problem state government shares with the
counties because the counties bear the responsibility to provide
our courts with facilities.  We can report some progress this
year resulting from the use of  CD-ROM and imaging systems to
reproduce and store old court records.  One compact disc can
store about five or six file cabinets full of records.  But even
though this is an effective way to address the records storage
problem, it's only a short-term solution.  It's like bailing
water out of a boat that has a gaping hole in the bottom.  Water
keeps gushing in until the hole is plugged.
The long-term solution will require electronic data management
systems, commonly called EDMS. The applicability of EDMS to the
courts has already been studied.  Before committing scarce
resources, we should study the cost of installing and operating
EDMS.  Our budget request includes a recommendation for such a
study. 
The solutions I've mentioned are not simply answers to current
problems; they will help us in the future as well.  This brings
me to our greatest success this year.  
When I addressed this assembly last year, we were eagerly
awaiting the results of the first comprehensive study of our
courts.  The purpose of the study was to develop a long-range
plan that would prepare our courts for the challenges we will
face in the next century, which is fast approaching.
I'm pleased to report that our Commission on Planning for the
21st century, which conducted this study, submitted its report
to us last summer.  A copy of the report has been provided to
you this morning.  We now have an outstanding blueprint for a
model system of justice.  It will serve Iowans well into the
future. 
Who were the architects of this plan?  They were more than sixty
Iowans from many different walks of life including farmers, a
retired newspaper executive, a county supervisor, small business
owners,  union representatives, former and current members of
the General Assembly, judges, business executives, attorneys,
and heads of state agencies.  And they came from every corner of
the state - from Corwith to Carroll, Marathon to Bettendorf, and
Burlington to Sioux City.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: House Journal (77th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1997 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.

Last update: Thu Jan 16 13:10:03 CST 1997
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