March 22, 2016

The Honorable Ed Emmett

Harris County Judge

Via E-mail: CJOgrantsnotification@hctx.net

RE: 2nd Revised Statement of Grant Award – Extension for Grant Number 212-TS-101

Dear Judge Emmett:

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission has approved Harris County’s request for

extension for the Targeted Specific Discretionary Grant awarded in response to your

application titled Attorney Voucher Processing System (ViPS). Your revised Statement

of Grant Award is attached and extends the grant period through June 30, 2016. Please

sign, scan, and return via e-mail this revised Statement of Grant Award to Edwin Colfax

at ecolfax@tidc.texas.gov on or before April 21, 2016. You do not need to mail a copy.

If you have any questions or need clarification of the information contained in this letter

or the attached Statement of Grant Award, please contact me at (512) 463-2508.

Sincerely,

Edwin Colfax

Grant Program Manager

Copy: Clay Bowman, Court Administrator, Harris County District Courts

Ed Wells, Court Manager, Harris County Courts

Barbara Schott, Harris County Auditor

CHAIR:

The Honorable Sharon Keller

Presiding Judge,

Court of Criminal Appeals

VICE CHAIR:

The Honorable Olen Underwood

EX OFFICIO MEMBERS:

The Honorable Sharon Keller

The Honorable Nathan Hecht

The Honorable Sherry Radack

The Honorable Brandon Creighton

The Honorable John Whitmire

The Honorable Abel Herrero

The Honorable Andrew Murr

MEMBERS APPOINTED BY GOVERNOR:

The Honorable Olen Underwood

The Honorable Jon Burrows

The Honorable Linda Rodriguez

Mr. Anthony Odiorne

Mr. Don Hase

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

James D. Bethke

Texas Indigent Defense Commission 209 West 14th Street, Room 202 Austin, Texas 78701 www.txcourts.gov/tidc

Phone: 512.936.6994 Fax: 512.463.5724

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 2 of 12

Statement of Grant Award

FY2014 Target Specific Discretionary Grant (2nd Amended) Grant Number: 212-TS-101

Grantee Name: Harris County

Program Title: Attorney Voucher Processing System (ViPS)

Grant Period: 10/1/2014-9/30/2015 3/31/2016 6/30/2016

Grant Award Amount: $578,000

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission (Commission) has awarded the above-referenced grant to Harris County (County) for

indigent defense services. The authorized official named on the grant application must sign this Statement of Grant Award and

return it to the Commission by October 14, 2014 September 30, 2015 April 21, 2016. The grantee will not receive any grant

funds until this notice is executed and returned to the Commission. Funding is provided as listed in the categories in the table below:

Direct Costs:

1) Personnel (Total Number of FTEs: 0)

2) Fringe Benefits

3) Travel and Training

4) Equipment

5) Supplies

6) Contract Services $578,000

7) Indirect Costs

Total Proposed Costs $578,000

Less Cash from Other Sources- County Match

Total Amount Funded by Commission $578,000

Standard Grant Conditions:

The authorized official for the grantee accepts the grant award.

The authorized official, financial officer, and program director, referred to below as grant officials, must comply with the terms

of the grant as written in the Request for Applications issued on January 14, 2014, including the rules and documents adopted

by reference in the Commission’s Grant Rules in Title 1, Part 8, Chapter 173, Texas Administrative Code.

The grant officials understand that a violation of any term of the grant may result in the Commission placing a temporary hold

on grant funds, permanently deobligating all or part of the grant funds, requiring reimbursement for funds already spent, or

barring the organization from receiving future grants.

Disbursement of funds is always subject to the availability of funds.

The grant officials agree to follow the grant terms contained in the “Required Conditions and Report” contained in Attachment

A which includes the final grant application.

Any indigent defense plan documents submitted to the Commission must continue to meet all grant eligibility requirements.

The judges hearing criminal and juvenile matters must amend the Indigent Defense Plan for their respective courts to include

the program funded under this award and submit it to the Commission by December 31, 2014.

The authorized official for this grant program has read the preceding and indicates agreement by signing the Statement of Grant

Award included below.

________________________________________________

Signature of Authorized Official

________________________________________________ Name & Title (must print or type)

________________________________________________ Date

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 3 of 12

Attachment A

Required Conditions and Reports

Program Requirements

In addition to the program requirements stated in the Request for Applications (RFA) these specific program requirements apply

to this funded program:

The County will submit reports to obtain reimbursement of expended funds based on actual expenditures. The

reimbursements will be proportional to the county’s required match.

This grant requires quarterly progress reports to provide information on the effectiveness of the program. The Commission

grants administrator will construct an on-line progress report that best reflects the actual work performed in this program

and is consistent with the FY14 application listed below as edited and agreed to. The County will be able to request

modifications to the on-line report when the performance measures are determined to not accurately reflect the work

performed.

The County must provide a plan of data collection by the first progress report that includes a list of data elements that

capture the work performed under this program or impact on the county’s compliance with the Fair Defense Act. This

County must submit data collection agreements from county offices or departments to provide this data to the program

director on a regular basis to measure the impact of this program.

The County may contract services under this agreement only if the contract contains a provision that the grant terms and

conditions, including positions and amounts, will be followed unless scope and budget adjustments are obtained from the

Commission.

Contract

Grantees that use grant funds to contract for services must develop and include in the contract provisions to monitor each

contract that is for more than $10,000 per year. These provisions must include specific actions to be taken if the grantee

discovers that the contractor’s performance does not meet the operational or performance terms of the contract. In the case

of contracts for public defender offices and managed assigned counsel programs, these provisions must include a review

of utilization and activity, reporting of financial data to evaluate the contractor’s performance within the budget required

by statute for such programs.

Harris County Purchasing has preferred vendor contracts that are utilized by the IT Department (ITC) for contract

resources. It is planned to employ preferred and proven contract service vendors to implement this project. Estimates are

based on a single blended hourly rate for contract resources.

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 4 of 12

EDITED 2014 Harris County Target Specific Discretionary Grant Application Narrative

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 5 of 12

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 6 of 12

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 7 of 12

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 8 of 12

PROJECT PROPOSAL

ATTORNEY VOUCHER PROCESSING SYSTEM (VIPS)

Table of Contents Project Description .................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Business Benefits .................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Problems identified in original 2007 non-funded grant application .................................................................................. 8

Problems identified in IDER reporting ................................................................................................................................ 9

Problems identified during other areas of business ........................................................................................................... 9

Solutions.............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Consequence of doing nothing ............................................................................................................................................... 9

Systems Context – in business process order ......................................................................................................................... 9

Attorney facing systems ...................................................................................................................................................... 9

Coordinator Facing Systems ................................................................................................................................................ 9

Clerk Facing Systems ......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Judge Facing Systems ........................................................................................................................................................ 10

Auditor facing systems ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

Management Reports ........................................................................................................................................................... 10

Estimated Project Costs ........................................................................................................................................................ 11

Project Deliverables by Quarter ............................................................................................................................................ 12

Project Description

This integrated justice project seeks to automate the business process from attorney voucher submittal, court and auditor approval, through to initiating and tracking attorney payments for the District Courts Hearing Criminal Cases in Harris County, District Courts Hearing Juvenile Cases in Harris County and Harris County Criminal Courts at Law. The Administrative Office of the District Courts (DCA) serves all district court divisions. The Office of Court Management (OCM) serves the County Criminal Courts at Law (CCCL). This project comprises:

1) Online attorney fee voucher preparation and workflow automation between HC departments. 2) Data Integration with existing Harris County (HC) systems, JIMS and IFAS. 3) Attorney certification profile data integration with county auditor system for enhanced claims validation. 4) Consolidated reporting – key IFAS data should be made available within the Information Technology Center’s single

consolidated staging to allow improved management reporting to Judges. 5) Replace the existing custom Attorney Claims Module which the auditor uses for claims data entry. 6) Extend the Fair Defense Act Management System in use today by District courts to use by the County Criminal Courts

providing online attorney profile maintenance, consolidated availability calendaring and appointment rotation automation. 7) Implement a single attorney portal bringing together disparate department attorney services.

ViPS will automate the voucher submission process, verify claims against court case information, generate accurate claim vouchers, produce management data to TIDC, courts and the auditor and enhance government transparency. The scope of this project relates to all Adult and Juvenile Criminal matters – see Case Types below.

Business Benefits

Problems identified in original 2007 non-funded grant application

1) Difficulty in comparing case history information to claims. 2) Submission of incorrect claim forms. 3) Inconsistent supporting document for claims. 4) Accounting errors on claims. 5) Missing signatures on claims.

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 9 of 12

Problems identified in IDER reporting

HB 1318 requires the auditor’s annual IDER report beginning Nov 1st, 2014 (for prior state fiscal year) to report the number of cases paid to each attorney by case type and court to each attorney. This is challenging to achieve since a single vouchers is often used for multiple cases and there is no provision today in the auditors system to record multiple case numbers. Additionally, for contract vouchers the voucher does not always include all case numbers. The example offered in the meeting on 12/16/2013 was: “Attorney Mike was paid $2000 on 38 disposed cases by court number, by case type.” Case types are: Juvenile, Capital Murder, Adult Felony, Adult Misdemeanor, Juvenile Appeals, Felony Appeals, and Misdemeanor Appeals. Additionally, the distinction was made that while HB 1318 requires this level of reporting, the commission additionally requests that the cases are auditable. Using the example above the ‘38’ cases should be identifiable by their case numbers.

Problems identified during other areas of business

Problems with maintaining data consistency between IFAS and the District Courts Attorney Fee Reporting System (see Management Reports section for list of reports). A detailed system specification of requirements was submitted to ITC during 2012. Problems with the manual creation and use of the CCCL quarterly attorney appointment schedule.

Solutions Category Problem Solution 2007 Grant app

Difficulty in comparing case history information to claims

Submittal driven from JIMS data (dispositions and attorney appointment orders)

2007 Grant app

Submission of incorrect claim forms Rules based forms production and JIMS systems integration

2007 Grant app

Inconsistent supporting document for claims Rules based edits and approval processing

2007 Grant app

Accounting errors on claims Automatic default calculation of totals with provision for Judge to override as needed

2007 Grant app

Missing signatures on claims Automated forms submission

HB1318/IDER Difficulty in meeting HB 1318 requirements for IDER and TIDCs audit requirement at the case level

Online submittal of voucher, workflow automation and existing systems integration

Other bus. Problems with maintaining data consistency between IFAS and the District Courts Attorney Fee Reporting System

Selected IFAS data should be made available within ITCs single consolidated staging to allow improved management reporting to Judges

Other bus. Problems with the manual creation and use of the CCCL quarterly attorney appointment schedule

Extend the Fair Defense Act Management System in use today by District courts

Consequence of doing nothing

Not being able to implement the requirements of HB 1318. Financial reports to TIDC not being auditable down to the case number level.

Systems Context – in business process order

Below is a summary list of the applications used in the business process today.

Attorney facing systems

Attorney today login to many different but related applications: DCA Fair Defense Act Management Systems (FDAMS) to schedule availability for court appointment. DCO web site offering advanced features such as automated docketing emails and view DEEDS image capability, FREEFax and e-Subpoena. TIDC are about to newly launch an Attorney online reporting form allowing for entry of percentage of their practice time devoted to appointments in criminal cases and juvenile cases for the prior 12 months. CCCL executes these features manually. Consideration should be given to implementing a single attorney portal bringing together disparate department attorney services.

Coordinator Facing Systems

DCA FDAMS to pull attorney lists and make appointment selections (not at the case level), implementing the local plan.

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 10 of 12

Coordinators use JIMS docket turnaround screens (LCDP) to record the presence of attorneys during a setting that is used by the auditor to validate a fee voucher for payment. CCCL executes these features manually.

Clerk Facing Systems

JIMS to enter in appointment order. DEEDS to image appointment orders. DEEDS to image attorney fee voucher – Vouchers for Family and Juvenile CPS are also being eFiled via TexFile.

Judge Facing Systems

Juvenile Judges have recently been provided a DCO Judges Home Page features in support of the TexFile/eCourts project. DCA provide management and financial reporting to all District Judge boards using Attorney Fee Reporting system to compliment IFAS. Consideration should be given to unify the Judges experience in dealing with attorney related filings including attorney fee voucher approval and adjustment as needed.

Auditor facing systems

County’s financial system – IFAS Accounts Payable GL Module

Attorney Fee Module

Management Reports

DCA provides management and financial reporting to each board of District Judge using Attorney Fee Reporting system to compliment IFAS. Monthly Reports:

Attorney Fees Criminal Attorney Fees Juvenile Attn. Fees Family (out of scope)

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Case By

Court and Month

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Month and Court – Year to Date

Fee Payment for Indigent Defense Cases

by Attorney and Month – Year to Date

Capital Fee Payments for Indigent Defense

Cases By Court and Category

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Attorney and Court – Year to Date

Fee Payment for Indigent Defense Cases

by Service Rendered and Court – Year to

Date

Capital Fee Payments for Indigent Defense

Cases By Court and Category

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Attorney and Court – Current Month

Fee Payment for Indigent Defense Cases

by Court and Month – Year to Date

Non-Capital Payments for Indigent Defense

Cases

– Appointed Attorneys

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Service Rendered and Court – Current Month

Fee Payment for Indigent Defense Cases

by Court, CPS/Non-CPS and Month –

Year to Date

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases

– Investigators & Expert Witnesses

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Service Rendered and Court – Year to Date

Indigent Defense Cases by Court Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Attorney, Service Rendered and Court – Current

Month

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Month, CPS/Delinquency and Court - Year to

Date

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Attorney, CPS/Delinquency and Court - Current

Month

Fee Payments for Indigent Defense Cases by

Attorney, CPS/Delinquency and Court - Year to

Date

Custom ad-hoc reporting is also provided by the Attorney Fee Reporting system e.g. Fees by Attorneys breaking out expert witness fees. OCM prepares a summary of attorney fees paid on a monthly basis for each of the fifteen CCCL. This Excel spreadsheet reports the monthly total for each court and compares the budget amount available for the year. Prior year totals are also provided for

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 11 of 12

comparison purposes. Other summary reports prepared include a detailed report by attorney for each court and a report by type of payment for each court. Custom ad-hoc reporting will be enhanced by increasing data access with implementation of this project. Additionally, available on-line reporting will increase for misdemeanor courts.

Estimated Project Costs

Current indigent defense business process assessment

District Criminal

County Criminal

Juvenile

$32,000

Extend the functionality of the Fair Defense Act Management System (FDAMS) for use by the county criminal court:

attorney profiles and qualifications

attorney integrated calendar

picklist generation

new roles and administration features

$96,000

Extend the functionality of the Fair Defense Act Management System (FDAMS) for use by attorneys:

migrate security to new security framework to facilitate single sign-on

create web services to the attorney features to make them available for an attorney portal

$32,000

Attorney home page: identity management

voucher creation

voucher status lookup

voucher adjustments

$24,000

Create on-line attorney voucher forms (~10): persist entries into data store

validate voucher form entries

printable PDF forms

$128,000

Create on-line judge voucher work queue and voucher confirmation page:

voucher adjustments

accept/reject voucher with feedback

$8,000

Create on-line auditor affirmation page: replace existing IFIS attorney entry module

accept/reject voucher with feedback

data interface to accounts payable

$16,000

Indigent defense reports data extract from financial system and import

to financial staging

merge case and financial data

$16,000

System training for defense attorneys and staff $40,000 Project Management / Analyst $186,000 Total $578,000

Note: Harris County Purchasing has preferred vendor contracts that are utilized but by the IT Department (ITC) for contract resources. It is planned to employ preferred and proven contract service vendors to implement this project. Estimates are based on a single blended hourly rate for contract resources.

FY2014 Statement of Grant Award – Harris County Page 12 of 12

Project Deliverables by Quarter

Timeline for Reporting and Fund Distribution

Reports will be submitted on-line over the Internet.

Reporting Period Type Report Due Date Report Due Fund Distribution Date

October 2014 through December 2014

Expenditure Report Progress Report

January 15, 2015 January 2015

January 2015 through March 2015 Expenditure Report Progress Report

April 15, 2015 April 2015

April 2015 through June 2015 Expenditure Report Progress Report

July 15, 2015 July 2015

July 2015 through September 2015 Expenditure Report Progress Report

November 16, 2015 November 2015

October 2015 through December 2015

Expenditure Report Progress Report

January 15, 2016 February 15, 2016

January 2015 through March 2015 FINAL Expenditure Report Final Progress Report and Conclusion. FINAL software development report with report examples and screenshots

April 15, 2016 May 15, 2016

Q1

Initial Attorney home page – a single location for attorneys to login and interact with Harris County

Extend functionality of FDAMS to integrate with Attorney home page

Q2

Extend the functionality of the Fair Defense Act Management System (FDAMS) for use by the county criminal court: o attorney profiles and qualifications o attorney integrated calendar o picklist generation o new roles and administration features

Q3 On-line attorney voucher forms available through Attorney

home page

Q4

Integrated process for vouchers o On-line work queue and voucher confirmation page for

judges o On-line voucher affirmation page for auditors

New indigent defense reports to meet reporting requirements