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Mahoning County courts receive technology grants
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: June 23, 2016
A new round of court technology grants from the Ohio Supreme Court found three Mahoning County court projects to fund, much to the delight of local court administrators.
“We have an e-filing committee in the court, and we used everybody’s input to decide how to improve what we do to help the public,” said Robert Ragula, court administrator for Mahoning County common pleas court, which received two grants totaling $104,000.
Campbell Municipal Court received the third grant.
In all, the Supreme Court gave 110 grants to 69 courts in 44 counties, totaling approximately $16.5 million. This was the second year of the court’s technology grant program, which has the stated purpose of delivering technology upgrades to Ohio’s courts to “aid in the orderly adoption and comprehensive use of technology in Ohio courts.”
The first grant to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court will be dedicated to the building’s Wi-Fi system infrastructure, said Ragula. The other grant will be to upgrade the telephone systems in the county courts in Boardman, Sebring and Austintown, he said.
The e-filing committee took charge of the grant applications, said Ragula.
“We identified a couple of projects that met the requirements, applied for them, and received them,” he said.
They did it the old-fashioned way, said Ragula. “Our consultant Barbara Zorn told us to just conform to the guidelines for the applications. “She said, ‘follow what they give you—not more than they want, and not less than they want. Just answer the questions as is.’ And that’s what we did.”
The guidelines “force you to think,” said Ragula, because they are somewhat restricted to upgrades to hardware and software, and security equipment. For instance, he pointed out, they will not cover brand-new computer equipment.
Ragula said that the court sweetened the application pot a bit by offering to pay 10 percent of the projects’ costs “to show good faith, a commitment to the projects, and a need to get them done.” He also said that these were projects that the court would have had to pay for itself had it not gotten these grants.
The equipment and upgrades will be installed “hopefully by the end of July,” in accordance with Supreme Court guidelines, said Ragula.
“We look forward to getting the projects implemented in the building and throughout the county,” he said.
Campbell Municipal Court clerk Christine maker said that their grant to $3,065 will go to “upgrading our FilePro database.”
Maker said that Judge Patrick P. Cunning became aware of the applicability of these grants to his court through a technology advisor.
“They sent us a letter saying that these grants were available, and that we needed to apply,” said Maker. “The judge said to definitely apply, so we did, and we received it.”
It was the first time that the court had applied for these grants, said Maker, who added that “we greatly appreciate the Supreme Court’s help.”
The upgrade will be in place by September, she said.