Upon taking office on January 6, 2009, the first official act undertaken by newly elected Clerk of Court Malcom Thompson was to engage the services of the Florida Association of Court Clerks (FACC) to conduct an audit of the Criminal and Civil evidence in the custody of the Clerk and to determine the status of financial records required to be maintained by the Clerk. The audit began on January 6th and was concluded on January 9th. It was performed by Senior Auditor Sharon Paulette of the FACC.
The purpose of requesting this audit was not because Mr. Thompson had any reason to believe that anything untoward had occurred in the prior administration, but rather because he wanted to establish a baseline by which his performance as Clerk could be properly and effectively evaluated. The official audit report from the FACC has been received by the Clerk and is available for public inspection.
The audit contains four (4) main sections: Findings, (including Introduction, Background, Objectives, Scope, Procedures); Results; Conclusions and Recommendations. As noted above, the focus of the audit was primarily upon the status of Criminal and Civil Evidence in the custody of the Clerk and to determine the present state of financial records required to be maintained by the Clerk. The audit yielded several recommendations regarding the maintenance of Criminal and Civil Evidence.
I. Criminal Evidence
The audit of the Criminal and Civil Evidence concentrated on the contents, security, maintenance and business process of the Criminal Evidence Vault and the Civil Evidence. Although we received praise for the handling of most of our criminal evidence and our business procedures, the auditor’s findings resulted in four (4) main areas of concern.
Listed below are those concerns, as well as our proposed course of action to correct these problems, and an estimated timeframe for completion.
- PROBLEM:
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Fifty (50) pieces of unaccounted evidence.
After thorough research, we have located thirty-seven (37) of the fifty (50) pieces of evidence and there are now thirteen (13) remaining pieces of evidence that are unaccounted for. The items missing relate to the following four (4) cases:
** Due to the diligence of the Clerk of Court, as of June 3, 2009 the Clerk of Court has reduced the number of items unaccountable from thirteen (13) to seven (7).**
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CR 74-56 Cross, Mervin (CT1 & 2: Indecent Assault on a Child)
State 9-A-C-D
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CR 82-634 Staiano, Albert (CT1 & 2 Armed Robbery)
State 4 - $9.00 food stamps
State 5 - $98.00 U.S. Currency
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CR 96-27 (DF) Yates, Russell (CT3: Agg Battery, CT4:
GTA; CT5: Burg/Dwell)
State 1, 3, 5, 6, 9-Photos
State 30 & 31-Photos
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MM 99-1544 Pinellas, Annie (CT1 Petit Theft of $100 or More)
Defense 1 Copy of Tape Receipt
-SOLUTION:
We have advised the Chief Judge of this situation and will also apprise the State Attorney as well. We will continue to search for the remaining evidence.
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Recommendation of additional security within the vault.
As to the recommendation of additional security within the vault, we have implemented the use of a log system. The log indicates the date of entry, the names of the clerks who enter the vault, and the case number (if applicable). In addition, the audit recommends installation of a video monitoring system to compliment our current motion sensor system. Both systems would be maintained by Courthouse Security.
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TrakMan, our evidence tracking system, needs to be updated with destruction dates.
Entering destruction dates into the TrakMan system will enable us to electronically track the destruction due date. With the assistance of temporary full-time staff, this is estimated to be completed within two months from the start date.
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Ability to use a handheld scanner to scan barcodes for inventory or audit purposes.
We have begun to compile information in furtherance of procuring the recommended handheld scanner which is compatible with the TrakMan application. Further communication between CSI, the Criminal Administrator, and the Clerk’s IT Director is underway to ensure the proper equipment is ultimately ordered.
With the implementation of these improvements, we are confident the Osceola County Clerk’s Office Criminal Evidence Vault will be in full compliance with the law.
II. Civil Evidence
-PROBLEM:
With regard to the FACC audit of the Civil Evidence, the findings were:
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Civil evidence has never been inventoried in the past;
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There is no process in place for tracking outgoing or incoming evidence; and
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Civil evidence was not retained in an area conducive to the proper retention and preservation of such evidence, like a vault.
- SOLUTION:
In order to appropriately address these issues, we have begun to organize, inventory and enter all Civil Evidence into the Clerk’s Trackman Evidence Tracking System. The system will track the close date of each case and notify us when the evidence has met its retention period for destruction. The system will then print the required notices to be mailed out to all parties as provided by rule 2.430(f)(2), Florida Rules of Judicial Administration.
Once the inventory and destruction of appropriate evidence is completed, the remaining evidence will be transferred to a vault for safe keeping. The Trackman System will also be reviewed to ensure that it will be utilized to its fullest capacity. While this is being implemented, a paper log sheet will be used to track the incoming and outgoing evidence.
The timeframe for completion of this process is approximately six (6) months. Currently one employee is assigned full time to this project and an additional employee will be assigned full time as of February 16, 2009.
With the implementation of these improvements, we are confident that the Osceola County Clerk’s Office Criminal Evidence Vault and the Civil Evidence Vault as well will be in full compliance with the law.
III. Financial Matters
The FACC audit also concerned bank reconciliations. The conclusions drawn by the auditor are threefold:
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The cash balances as of November 30, 2008 are correct on the Clerk’s books;
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The bank reconciliations are conducted on a timely basis according to written procedures and signed by a preparer and a reviewer; and,
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The bank deposits and receipts are safeguarded from loss.
The FACC expressed its appreciation to the Clerk’s Office for ensuring the accuracy of its banking records and for providing Mr. Thompson with a baseline for comparison of future financial bank reconciliations.
During the transition to the new administration, however, the Finance Department of the Clerk of Court encountered a few hurdles which have thankfully not affected the citizens of Osceola County or our service to the community. For instance, in preparing W-2s for our employees, salary data was not transferred to the 2009 calendar year which is a prerequisite to beginning the process of completing those required tax documents. We worked with our finance software company to create a separate database to recreate the 2008 salary data, which allowed us to complete the printing of W-2s in only two (2) days.
Another issue that we encountered concerned unemployment. The wages for employees have not been reported to the State of Florida since 2005 due to a transmission problem. We have contacted our finance software company to work on a solution to the problem.
The software company has upgraded our finance software in order to facilitate the unemployment reporting process, and we are updating the database to meet the new specifications. Once completed, we will resubmit all unemployment wage data to the State of Florida.
The Osceola County Clerk’s Office would like to thank the Florida Association of Court Clerks for conducting this audit and helping to establish a baseline by which the new Clerk’s performance can be properly evaluated by the public.
Prepared by: Stephen Hooper, Courts Director, Michelle Shepard, Civil Administrator, Catherine Smith, Criminal Administrator and Kim Hennecy, Finance Director
Approved by Malcom Thompson, Osceola County Clerk of Courts.
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