Continuity of Court Operations Plan

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Continuity of Court Operations Plan

• Clerk of Courts

Presented by York County Information
Services Mary Jane McCluskey Michelle Lombardo
Smith
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Overview

• Understanding Continuity Planning for York County
• York County Court Priorities
• Court Communications Plan
• Departmental Plan What Does it Mean to YOU?
• Sources of information for employees
• Departmental critical functions
• Staffing critical functions
• Timelines relocation
• Questions

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Causes of Operational Interruptions

• Natural earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane,
  storms, tornadoes, blizzards
• Manmade bombings, explosions, power outages and
  other utility failures, sabotage and terrorism,
  hazardous material spills, acts by disgruntled
  employee(s), strikes and civil disorders,
  transportation mishaps, accidents in general
• Technology hardware or software failures, virus
  attacks, testing outages, intrusion and
  penetration

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Why is York County Creating a Continuity
Plan?Provides a Framework for Decision Making

• Disaster is about the impact not the event itself!

It doesnt matter if the disaster was caused by a
hurricane or a system malfunction when youre
down, youre down.
Planning allows us to manage the chaos in the
first 24 48 hours President Judge Renn
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Continuity Planning-What is it?

• Understanding the priorities and needs of your
  business
• Understanding key business processes
• Understanding who and what and where you need to
  get back up and running
• Having a process to achieve your goals

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Continuity Plan Takes Charge

• After an interruption in normal operations
  after response of emergency personnel
• To resume key services supporting legal
  requirements and priorities
• To provide stability to public employees

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Courts Continuity Planning Team

• Information Services - Sponsor
• Continuity Steering Committee provides
  oversight and guidance
• Concorde Group consultant for Courts plan
• Phase I - York County Courts Team
• President Judge Renn
• Court Administration
• Judges and MDJ Review Teams
• Court Departments Management Teams

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York County Command Structure

• Incident Command Structure - York County
  Government
• For use across York County
• Goes into effect after an incident
• occurs and first responders act
• Provides a structure for decision making
• Consists of a core group of decision makers
• Recognizes the involvement of the elected
  officials
• Does not usurp the power of the first responders
• (Sheriff, EMA, fire or the local policing
  authority)

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York County Incident Command Teams

• Decision Making Team for a Judicial Center
  incident consists of the following members and
  their designated backup
• Primary
• President Commissioner
• President Judge
• Administrator/Chief Clerk
• Representative of Row Officers
• Sheriff

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York County Incident Management Structure
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York County Court Priorities

• Five Key Courts - Plus
• Protection from Abuse
• Bench Warrants
• Juvenile Delinquency
• Juvenile Dependency
• Emergency Hearings
• Statutory Requirements
• Super Counter for Public
• Interface

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Courts Communication Plan

• Defines levels of communication from Decision
  Makers to Department Directors
• Establishes a feedback loop for sharing of
  information
• In conjunction with departmental phone chains,
  allows communication down to all employees
• Allows for communication via phone,
  Internet/Intranet, and media outlets

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What Happens in My Office?(Incident Happens
During Work Day)

• Employees will evacuate according to normal
  procedures
• If building will be closed, employees will be
  notified at their relocation site by evacuation
  coordinators
• Employees will be notified by their Supervisor
  regarding who, when, and where to return
• Outside of direct supervisor communication,
  up-to-date information will be on the County
  website via 800 phone number

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What Happens in My Office?(Incident Happens
Outside of Work Hours)

• Employees will be notified by their Supervisor
  regarding who, when, and where to return
• Outside of direct supervisor communication,
  up-to-date information will be on the County
  website via 800 phone number

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Clerk of Courts Office

• Critical Functions - 24hrs
• Accept filings and payments at Super Counter
• Re-establish AOPC connectivity
• Re-establish imaging capabilities
• Support Emergency Courts
• Processing Bench Warrants/Rescissions
• Clerks for Emergency Court Proceedings

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Where will Court be Held?

• President Judge to relocate to AC
• 5 Emergency Courts
• Ceremonial Courtroom AC
• 2 shifts?
• Separating adults from juveniles
• Juvenile delinquents from dependents AND, if
  Needed
• Adults Prison
• Juveniles YDC and/or INS Farmhouse

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Clerk of Courts Office

• Ongoing Functions - 1week
• Reconstruct paper and electronic files
• Assist in determining extent of information lost
  or damaged
• At 2 weeks, some criminal courts will begin to be
  heard at the Prison
• Evidence consideration for portable
  vaults for each court location

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Super Counter

• Establishes one place for public to access Court
  departments
• Will be staffed by Clerks Office
• To take filings and payments
• Back office scanning
• New cases from MDJs
• Emergency courts
• NOTE Initially may not have computer access
• will need to date/time stamp filings call AOPC
  for case numbers

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Staff Relocation

• Staffing will be based on fulfilling the critical
  needs of the department
• Super counter staff scanning staff will be
  assigned
• Clerks to support emergency courts will be
  assigned
• Other staff as relocation is needed
• In a major incident, Clerks Office will relocate
  to Assessment, and to Prison
• as needed to support Criminal Courts

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Moving ForwardAfter the Incident

• Communication will be ongoing on a daily basis
• With Court Administration re emergency cases
• With Decision Making Team as requested
• With employees
• Clerks office will be relocated to either its
  original location in Judicial Center or a
  permanent relocation site as needed

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Summary

• York Countys Court Operations Plan was approved
  June 13, 2007 by the Board of Commissioners
• This plan includes a plan for each Court
  related/appointed office
• Providing communication to/from employees
• Providing relocation for the office
• Providing definition of priorities during an
  incident
• The Court Operations Plan is part of an overall
  on-going York County Continuity of Operations
  Plan

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Questions

• Are there any questions regarding our
  departments continuity plan?