Awards

2010 Minnesota Association for Court Management (MACM) Awards

The Minnesota Association for Court Management (MACM) Awards for 2010 were presented at the MACM Spring Conference. On behalf of MACM and the Membership Services Committee, CONGRATULATIONS to our 2010 Award Winners. Your continued commitment to excellence and Court Administration is an inspiration to us all! Thanks also to all who submitted a nomination, your submissions were phenomenal and you made making a decision very difficult.

Award recipients were:

Excellence in Savings: Linda Murray

Training Coordinator, 3rd Judicial District

Linda Murray is one of the most creative and inventive people in the Third District. She is repeatedly developing suggestions and ideas for new and different ways that Court Administrators and their staff can do business that will save time and make our jobs easier, more efficient and/or provide better service to the public.

Examples that demonstrate Linda's outstanding fiscal responsibility in developing new ways to do business that save resources and preserve court services are:

  1. Working with Court Administrators and their staff to regionalize the distribution and processing of probate notices;
  2. Working with the vendor, every law enforcement agency in Rice and Steele County and staff to implement e-citations;
  3. Working with the vendor and prosecuting agencies to expand the use of e-complaints throughout the District;
  4. Working with the vendor, prosecuting agencies and staff to implement e-charging in Olmsted County;
  5. Working with the vendor and Ramsey County personnel to implement bar code case tracking functionality in MNCIS for Olmsted County;
  6. Working with CAs and staff to change workflow and push the use of macros and in-court updating;
  7. Working with CAs and staff and pushing clean-up of the financial area, including workflow changes that have dramatically increased collections and prepared all counties for CPC auto referral well in advance of kick-off dates. In fact, cleaning up what was being referred to collections resulted in a $236,033.56 increase in ACS collections between 2008 and 2009 and an increase in assigned dollars by $6,970,435.32;
  8. Working with District accounting personnel to develop a mini-financial audit process for CA offices including recommended practice changes and follow-up audits to ensure compliance with fiscal accountability expectations;
  9. Continuously working with CAs and Court Ops Supervisors in reviewing reports and correcting errors to ensure data quality and timely disposition of cases;
  10. Working with CAs to develop district-wide standards re: which reports are to be monitored and developing the schedule for when/how often these reports must be monitored;
  11. Developing, maintaining and updating District-wide CA workload backlog reports;
  12. Providing suggestions for CPC business process rules that will streamline the workload at the local level for calendaring mandatory court appearance cases.

The Third District has benefited greatly from Linda's resourcefulness, inventiveness and proactive thinking. Additionally, other Judicial Districts have benefitted from Linda's innovations as a number of her ideas have been shared statewide; Linda has also assisted interested non-Third District counties and districts with the implementation of her ideas. Her tremendous skills have resulted in maximizing the efficiency of the limited resources while maintaining the highest service level possible.

Coach/Mentor of the Year: Lynn Wagner

Human Resources Manager, 10th Judicial District

Lynn Wagner is the HR Manager in the Tenth Judicial District. Her coaching and mentoring skills are shared in a variety of ways. On an individual level, Lynn is certified in various 360 performance evaluation instruments by the Center for Creative Leadership. She has facilitated the interpretation of the results and provided individuals with insightful, valuable feedback on their strengths and development needs. Her focus on designing a development plan that links their needs with their job-related skills is critical information that can help supervisors and managers be more successful. She has facilitated feedback sessions in a number of districts including some participants in the EDGE program. Lynn is also certified in the Myers Briggs Assessment and has administered the assessment and interpreted the results for various groups. She is also a certified trainer of the Achieve Global curriculum and is a frequent presenter of those classes at the state and out in the Districts.

As an HR Manager she has forged collaborative supportive relationships with the administrators and supervisors she works with. She provides counsel on the nuances of personnel policies and offers advice and suggestions on how to approach various personnel situations.

On a statewide level Lynn has served as the Education Chair these past two years Lynn worked tirelessly to maintain the MACM training programs and identify curricula to meet the needs of MACM members. The work of Lynn and her Committee benefits all MACM members.

Distinguished Service: Jerry Winter

District Administrator, 1st Judicial District

Jerry is Minnesota's longest serving Judicial District Administrator, beginning his service in 1980 as the Fifth Judicial District Administrator. He has served as the First Judicial District Administrator since 1985.

Jerry's excellent and distinguished service to the First Judicial District and to the Minnesota Judicial Branch goes beyond years of service. He has been an outstanding leader for our branch. Here is what others had to say:

Sue Dosal stated the following: Jerry is considered the "Dean" of the district administrators. During his 29 years he has contributed enormously to the advancement of judicial administration at the district and state level. Jerry has been a member of virtually every significant state level committee dealing with administrative reform and restructuring. His selection by Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz as Chair of the important State Transformation Workgroup, exemplifies the esteem in which he is held by the leadership of the judicial branch and the utmost confidence she had in his leadership abilities. Under his guidance, a new model of governance was developed that aligned with our new unified, state funded organization. Jerry was elected by his peers as an original member of the Judicial Council and was an important and respected voice during the formative years of that body. His ability, professionalism, dedication, integrity and good humor make him among the most effective administrative leaders with whom I have worked. Minnesota's judicial branch is fortunate to be the beneficiary of Jerry's many talents and extraordinary dedication to service.

Jerry has been involved with every major branch initiative while serving as District Administrator. He was the co-chair of the court transition committee that transitioned the branch from county to state funding and to the new governing organization. He is now a member of the Access and Service Delivery committee charged with reviewing the operations and mission of the courts in this new era of underfunding. He is viewed as a voice of reason with a concern for the integrity of the operations of the branch as a whole over any other concern. He can be very passionate when advocating for transparency and accountability within the branch. He has been a promoter of talent within the First District and is always encouraging good people to advance with in the profession.

At the district level, he has been involved in countless committees, taskforces and workgroups that have enabled the 1st District to be progressive, responsive and accountable. I have never seen him lose his temper and more importantly, I have never heard him be critical of anyone. He has groomed many people who have gone on to successful careers in court administration and I know that he has been recruited for other, higher profile positions because of his leadership ability.

He deserves the recognition because his service to the judicial branch has always been distinguished.

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