Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 30
30.
consider and take appropriate action on recommendation to consolidate the courthouse self-help center into the granger law library.
>> good morning, I am steven director of communication and management resources and with me is lisa rush, the manager of the law library, and you should have a backup packet with you that describes our issues that we are really here to talk about some potential changes to the Travis County law library and self-help center.
now, you will note we have two locations for the law library, we have one location here in the grandeur building and we have another building in the heiman maryian sweat course and the changes we are referring to here today should be considered temporary changes due to the fact at some point we expect the law library will be part of the new civil courthouse being planned.
with all of that said, it's probably useful to discuss a little bit as what the law library does and simply stated, they provide legal materials and information and library space to county staff and to the public.
in addition, they also -- we also have a program that assists self-represented litigants or pro se patrons and this has been incredibly successful program for about ten years.
it helps the public in noncontested matters and it also helps our judicial staff, our court staff.
it kind of unclogs the docket, so we have enjoyed incredible success over the past now.
all of that said, we are experiencing some difficulties in the courthouse location.
we have experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of patrons in recent years.
last year, we had over 68,000 patrons visit the law library in both locations, and we had 43,000 people walk in to a very small space in the courthouse.
that's based on 525 square feet.
it is very small.
the problems that we are experiencing are that frequently we have a line of people outside the door.
we -- the patrons can't discuss their questions with the librarians or the attorneys without being overheard.
there is not enough room.
people frequently bring their families into this space, so we have children, there is little privacy.
it is noisy, chaotic, we actually have two library staff working at one desk because we are trying to handle the increased numbers of people moving in to that space, and we are actually having complaints from our staff, that they are going home exhausted and so all of that leads to our proposed solution, and that is that we would consolidate both of those locations here into the grandeur building library, and this library is over 3,000 square feet, and, as a result of being able to reduce our hardcopy book collection and going online, we have actually gained a little space.
and in fact, you will note that location is right across the hall from the Commissioners courtroom here.
we are not making this this recommendation lightly.
we know that there are issues of access in -- for people who need access to the information in the heiman marian courthouse and we made a test to see if this would work or not and we did so.
we closed the courthouse library for a week and routed those patrons to the space here and we learned a couple of things.
first, the remains a need for copier service there.
people come down to make copies of notaries, et cetera, and the other was we need to have some level of presence for patrons that need quick reference on a computer.
as a result of that, we are also proposing that the information booth can handle both of those endeavors.
we can move the copier to the information booth and we can put a computer workstation at the information booth as well, and that will take care of those -- those smaller needs.
now, we also had a really interesting development occur last Friday when we met with facilities management, and we actually received what I think is some fantastic news and that is that they are recommending that when the remainder of rmcr administrative staff move to 700 lavaca in January, that the space that we will be vacating, including media services once they move to 700 lavaca, that that be -- recommending that be part of the law library.
in other words, we just use that to expand and that will give us an additional space that we can use for mediation rooms and we can -- all of the problems that I listed earlier, those can be alleviated with this.
>> is the facilities every time there is a vacant space, we have four or five departments askingtor it?
>> yes, judge, in fact the space we are vacating -- or propose to go vacate in the courthouse has been -- it's already become a controversial item.
and I should also note if you all approve this, that we would -- we would recommend that that space not be allocated to any other group for at least a three-month period and those thoughts were echoed by our presiding civil court judge, judge livingston, in consultation with her, she indicated, don't -- it may have to be undone on some level.
>> how do we notify user that is the library has been moved to the grandeur building?
>> we will use our usual methods, judge.
website.
we are recommending with facilities that we change some signage at the courthouse and that before people get to the guard station, there is a notice that the law library has moved and of course we have the information booth in the courthouse if people get past the guard, the usual methods.
>> how do we deal with the attorney-client confidentiality issue here?
>> well, the attorneys will have offices here.
so much more private space.
>> we have enough offices to give them?
>> yes, sir.
two attorneys, right?
>> that's right.
yes.
the space in the courthouse is not very private.
in fact, we just have bookcases that are a couple of high bookcase that is separate the attorneys from the rest of the office space.
so this part of it will be much more amenable to the privacy issues.
>> talk to us about the savings of $6,500 a year.
>> well, thanks for bringing that up, judge.
as a result of this consolidation, we have duplication of legal materials in both locations, and as a result of that, we can reduce the legal holdings down to one set, and that's an annual savings.
>> and that's documentable?
>> it is.
>> we will be able to see that?
>> absolutely, judge.
I should also mention the law library is completely -- it is a fee-based program and fees collected in courthouse filings and so we have enjoyed not having to have an infusion of general fund money for several years now.
it's -- it's running well, within its budget.
>> you tested it for one week and we can put this in place and I guess 6 months later, you can tell me whether, in fact, it is working as we thought it would?
>> yes, judge.
that's our recommendations.
rather than three, we would recommend six months as a proper test period.
>> okay.
questions or comments?
>> I move approval because I was really taken by the proposal and% the savings
>> thank you.
the -- and especially the savings.
>> thank you.
>> make sure they don't spill over into Commissioners court.
>> [laughter]
>> all those in favor?
this passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> good comment, ms. Rush.
>> [laughter] mr. Eckstein was here.
everybody here ms. Flemming?
okay.
heaves here.
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