JUSTIS Governance Council
September 30, 2010
City Hall 288
Present:
Emily Murase, DOSW
Eileen Hirst, Sheriff
Rob Castiglia, Department of Technology
Al Corker, Department of Technology
Walt Calcagno, Department of Technology
Bella Fudym, Adult Probation Department
Wendy Still, Adult Probation
Martha Knutzen, District Attorney
Nicolas King, Mayor’s Office
Angel Poon, SFPD
Maricela Sainez, SFPD
The meeting was called to order at 10:10 a.m. on September 30.
No members of the public present.
APD seeks to convert to COMPAS as case management system.
This item was on the agenda which was posted approximately 70 hours before the regular meeting, not 72 as required by Section 67.7 of the Sunshine Ordinance. A motion to add APD to the agenda based on the harm of not complying with federal grant compliance and delay resulting in funding delays was seconded and passed. The need to take action on the item was so imperative as to have threatened serious injury to the public interest if action had been deferred to a subsequent meeting, and the need for such action came to the attention of the Council subsequent to the agenda being posted.
The full revised agenda was adopted by motion, seconded and passed without objection.
Chief Wendy Still and Bella Fudym of Adult Probation then presented the advantages of changing case management systems.
The existing outdated case management systems (NCCD and CTAG ) lack the functionality needed for implementing evidence-based practices throughout the Department, nor do they allow APD to be compliant with existing and upcoming State mandates to implement evidence-based practices.
The current vendors’ systems do not meet existing or future needs. Switching to COMPAS alleviates these issues with a minimal increase in initial expense and has advantages in terms of additional functionality over the old system. COMPAS is already the standard at CDCR.
In addition, the first year of using COMPAS is free while the ongoing license fees of existing systems are more expensive. The City will save money in the long run because switching applications will eliminate ongoing CTAG and NCCD software license fees ($65,000 versus $91,000 per year)
In addition, the State uses COMPAS and already has 600,000 offenders in their database. Of those, 16.5% are from the Bay Area. That means that SF APD will have access to these completed risks and needs instruments reducing duplicated workload.
Chief Still also believes that COMPAS is a key part of increasing accountability for those facing motions to revoke, that it will support the court’s parolee reentry court. Six other California counties use COMPAS and more are moving to COMPAS.
With COMPAS, software upgrades are free of charge for existing users, unlike SYSCON that charges us for upgrades. Finally, Northpointe has a track record of delivering service and high level responsiveness to users with a large investment from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
In sum, switching to COMPAS is a timely and cost-effective solution. It has been before Technical Steering Committee and received that Committee’s report and Still is asking for the support of the Governance Council.
Walt Calcagno, on behalf of Technical Steering Committee:
Strongly endorses her decision based on all of above and that existing functionality is subpar and customer service is lacking, contract is costly. Plus, no additional cost to City since some funding comes from existing budget and grant funds. Hub connection via SYSCON was lengthy, but COMPAS can deliver connectivity in existing time frame.
Al Corker as member of committee:
SYSCON used to be effective, but was acquired by another company that seems to have disinvested in innovation.
Martha Knutzen asked to clarify if there was an effect to hub connection.
Rob Castiglia: Actually more accomplishable now.
Support of the switch to COMPAS was moved, seconded and passed without objection.
Nothing further from executive sponsor update.
Calcagno:
The TSC has been meeting to plan the migration to 200 Paul from 1 Market. Have had meetings with business analyst Tara Regan to discuss funding. Working with her to make sure that all equipment in move is grant compliant since not 100% of equipment is sufficiently JUSTIS-related.
Staffing
Still working on 3 requisitions which are the 3 highest priorities of the Mayor’s Office to be filled.
Until they are hired, have successfully worked with OCA to get Citrix engineer Matt Newton in place. He will assist with move as well.
Castiglia:
Newton adds technical depth and will help us expand our test environment. Also allows us to schedule with other departments to begin to test connectivity and performance. Will also help implement how we’ve reimplemented Citrix for JUSTIS. Will plan and likely do the work that needs to be done.
Calcagno:
We will have Newton’s services for 6 months.
Next, we’d like to focus on getting staff support for warehousing data. Interviews are under way. Will go through process with Office of Contract Administration to ensure that we are compliant with all rules.
Scheduled meeting with Operations of DT to make a detailed, serious plan to move JUSTIS equipment to 200 Paul. DT will be in contact with all partners to make sure there is minimal downtime in process.
Murase:
It’s been long time since these vacancies have been open. That is not acceptable and how can we make this a higher priority.
Calcagno:
Middle month period where requisitions where not available when there was budget uncertainty
Murase:
Wants Mayor’s office to be cognizant of late 2009 commitment to fill these openings. How can we escalate these issues to get these things done? This data is critical to so many issues of public safety.
Nicolas:
Expressed frustration with bureaucracy as well on behalf of mayor. We are working hard to get new people on board. Some of this is about navigating bureaucracy better and we are always working to remove obstacles to fully staffing JUSTIS and making sure that it at least has the staff resources already allocated to it.
Case management system updates
HUB
• Testing
• Did a production upgrade
• All is going well
• Issue is now tied to availability of blades and SANS
• Reengaged defender, preparing to develop their spoke
• That preparation should benefit DA prep later too
• Server update embedded in TSC update
• Plus, mainframe is up at 200 Paul. Should be connected in the next 10 days. Soon thereafter, we can test existing CABLE at 200 Paul at 1 Market.
• Saatia has resigned, so we have one additional vacancy.
District Attorney
• No updates, except working on subpoena printing problem and working with Sumai on background issues with progress.
Public Defender not present
SFPD
• Sandra Yamashiro departed
• No named replacement yet
• No word on SFPD CIO being hired
Sheriff
• Covered under server
• Upgrading to version 9, some bumps but progressing well
• Hit 20,000 bookings milestone
• No insurmountable problems
Court not present
Next JUSTIS Governance Council is 10/28.