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Re: AOC System Outage / Emergency Request for Anticipated Overtime
From Kimberly Allen <kallen@grantcountywa.gov>
Date Thu 11/14/2024 8:23 AM
To Cindy Carter <ccarter@grantcountywa.gov>; Danny E. Stone <destone@grantcountywa.gov>; Rob Jones
< rjones@grantcountywa.gov>
Cc Caitlin E. Manell <cemanell@grantcountywa.gov>; Barbara Vasquez <bvasquez@grantcountywa.gov>
Good morning Commissioners! After speaking briefly with Cindy yesterday for some direction, she
advised me to write this e-mail to you.
am writing to advise you that the AOC statewide system outage continues. All Washington Court
systems have been down since November 2nd. However, AOC is "cautiously optimistic" that all systems
will be back up on Monday, November 18th
Although courts will be happy to have all systems back, the Clerk's office will have 10 court days of
catch-up work that must be completed — the work must be done in order, prior to working on any new
work coming into the courts in the remaining 8 days of the month (from November 18th and forward).
In essence, we will be working hard to play catch-up - - all the while, the finish line will be ever -moving
because the incoming work will not stop (unless Superior Court enters some sort of emergency order
like District Court did to slow new incoming work and court proceedings).
The Clerk's office has done an excellent job of supporting Superior Court during this outage, which has
allowed the courts to remain open. In addition, the Clerk's office remains open during regular hours, and
we are performing as much work as we can to service the public with extremely limited resources. I am
also providing courtroom clerks for each of the four Superior Court courtrooms as usual. On top of that,
we are using manual methods to find and create dockets for the court and manually typing those dockets
for Superior Court and posting them on our web page for attorneys and the public to view - - this is a
long process of creating something out of next to nothing, and then comparing notes with our legal
partners. To date, the outside world has not seen a change in services. However, that is about to
change because my staff must do 18 days of work in 8 days to keep functioning.
From the afternoon of November 1st until today, we have continued to scan documents into Laserfiche;
however, we have no way to docket them into any system or set hearings in our calendaring system.
Therefore, all paperwork from November 1 through today is stacking up and waiting for us to be able to
do all the necessary data entry, scheduling, and filing into our paper files (which have saved the court's
bacon during this event). At this time, my rough estimate of anticipated need is for each of my
employees to work two hours, per day, of overtime to get caught up by the end of November. Of course,
will be flexible regarding already scheduled time off, or other requests for time off, and have consulted
with HR regarding this situation. This is a VERY rough estimate of the timeframe needed to get caught
up and it relies on a number of assumptions - - it assumes we are truly back up and online by November
18th, that the systems perform correctly, that the systems do not encounter lag due to the volume of work
being done by all courts, that my staff can maintain 10-hour work days until work is caught up, and many
other variables. I may also be WAY off in my estimation, but my staff is determined, and I believe in
them, and I know they will do their best! All this to ask that I be allowed to grant my employees the
ability to work overtime to get caught up due to this unprecedented outage caused by AOC's system
"event".
If there is a silver lining to my ask for approval of overtime hours, the AOC has provided courts with
instructions on how to track and submit a claim for reimbursement. My understanding is that AOC will be
working to request funding from the legislature to reimburse courts for overtime and other expenses
incurred because of this outage. However, no reimbursement funding has been confirmed at this time,
so I would say it is a "potential" reimbursement.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I would be grateful for your approval of this emergency
request to allow necessary overtime. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Kim
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Kimberly A. Allen, Grant County Clerk
P.O. Box 37
Ephrata, WA 98823
Direct Phone: 509-754-2011 ext. 2818
Main Office Phone: 509-754-2015
Email: kallen@grantcountywa.gov
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Dated this ��� day of , - -
Board of County Commissioners
Grant County, Washington
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