Primary Department: District Clerk
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Marilyn Burgess
Managing Department: County Engineer
Managing Department Head/Elected Official: Dr. Milton Rahman
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Investment Memo
Investment Memo Type: Final Investment Memo
Project Name: Civil Document Control Workstations
Project ID (if applicable): TBD
Vendor Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Achievement (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Incremental Authorization Requested: $73,311
Total Estimated Project Cost: $73,311
Request Summary:
title
Request for approval of a Final Investment Memo for the Civil Document Control Workstations project for an amount of $73,311 and commercial paper funding in the amount of $75,000.
end
Project Description:
The District Clerk’s Office (DCO) is requesting a buildout at 201 Caroline 2nd Floor for Civil Document Control Workstations and expansion of workspace. The buildout will provide a more accommodating space to a growing department that will increase productivity, morale, and access to Civil Courts and Civil and Family Intake personnel. The current Civil Document Control (CDC) Team consists of 37 full-time employees who work a 7:00 am - 3:30 pm schedule. The team currently located at 201 Caroline has 12 employees working Monday-Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The proposed buildout will include 15 total workstations and more storage space for supplies, creating a larger work area with cubicles and fully equipped workstations.
Anticipated Project Expenditures and Timeline:
|
Project Scope Breakdown |
Estimated Cost |
Estimated Completion |
|
Construction Labor |
$50,644.00 |
Q3 of FY2025 |
|
Construction and Renovation Materials |
$4,000.41 |
Q3 of FY2025 |
|
Fire Safety System Renovation (Sprinkler and Smoke Detector) |
$4,122.00 |
Q3 of FY2025 |
|
Data Drops |
$7,879.68 |
Q3 of FY2025 |
|
Contingency 10% |
$6,664.61 |
- |
|
Total |
$73,310.70 |
- |
Justification & Alternatives:
v Since originally occupying the space at Civil Courthouse Building 201 Caroline 2nd floor, this section continues to be responsible for processing all new filings in a time-sensitive manner to observe rules and statutes. A large quantity of physical paper documents is delivered by Intake and Court personnel for immediate processing daily. Staff also retrieves documents from the mailroom several times daily. Work is processed in one set location to avoid any mishaps, errors, or misplacement of documents. This section must be located in the civil building for easy access to courts and Intake staff.
v In addition, the buildout of HCDCO Civil Document Control (Civil CDC) space will enhance the following: A larger space will accommodate the influx of personnel that will be added to process the growing number of courts that will, in turn, increase daily workload. Due to the time-sensitive nature of these documents, it is crucial for this section to be located in an area easily accessible by staff to ensure efficient and accurate processing of documents. This proposed buildout would eliminate the need to transport work to an offsite location at Records Center, 5900 Canal St., for completion of the process there, and thereby avoiding any possible errors or mishaps.
v Other DCO employees and departments whose work processing directly impacts the overall workflow and accessibility of documents to and from the DCO Civil Document Control.
o Civil, Family and Juvenile Courts, as well as Civil and Family Intake Sections.
o Civil/Family/Juvenile Court Clerks pick up and drop off documents such as new case filings, original petitions, protective orders, temporary restraining orders, signed orders, bonds, capias and special minutes.
o All documents in this area are time-sensitive and need to be processed within 24 to 72 hours.
o Each document is carefully prepped and properly processed. Each document is carefully moved through an extensive image and digitization process which includes scanning, quality control (to ensure highest image quality), document coding/indexing (to assign proper security level and document tagging for easy retrieval) and finalization/verification (which ensures documents has correct identifiers attached, all pages for document are included, and image quality meets quality standards).
Anticipated Impact on Other Funds (If Applicable):
|
Fund Code |
Description |
Estimated Cost |
Funding Method (Existing or Future Budget Request Required) |
Estimated Date of Needs |
|
|
|
$- |
|
- |
|
|
|
$- |
|
- |
|
Total |
|
$- |
|
- |
County Strategic Plan Goal: 1. Make Harris County safer and more just.
County Strategic Plan Objective: E: Increase efficiency across the legal system.
Justice/Safety Initiative (Goal 1): N/A
Infrastructure Initiative (Goal 2): N/A
Economy Initiative (Goal 3): N/A
Health Initiative (Goal 4): N/A
Climate/Resilience Initiative (Goal 5): N/A
Housing Initiative (Goal 6): N/A
Previous Court Action: N/A
|
Date |
Agenda Item # |
Action Taken |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Address: 201 Caroline St., 2nd Floor, Room 218 Houston, TX 77002
Precinct(s): Precinct 1
|
Fiscal and Personnel Summary |
|
Service Name |
|
|
|
|
Current Fiscal Year Cost |
Annual Fiscal Cost |
|
|
Labor |
Non-Labor |
Total |
Recurring Expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
Existing Budget |
|
|
|
|
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Total Current Budget |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Additional Budget Request |
|
|
Commercial Paper |
$ |
$75,000 |
$75,000 |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
|
Total Additional Budget Request |
$ |
$75,000 |
$75,000 |
$ |
|
Total Funding Request |
$ |
$75,000 |
$75,000 |
$ |
|
Personnel (Fill out section only if requesting new PCNs) |
|
|
Current Position Count for Service |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Additional Positions Request |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Total Personnel |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Anticipated Court Date: 5/8/2025
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): Click or tap to enter a date.
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or COVID-19 related item
Legal funding compliance confirmed by: Paige Abernathy, Assistant County Attorney, 4/10/2025
Department Approval by: Wes McCoy, Chief Deputy of Administration; Araceli Carrizales, Financial Services Administrator
OMB CIP Team Approval by: William McGuinness, Director-Capital Projects & Infrastructure, 4/15/2025
Commercial Paper Request (For OMB use only):
Receiving Department: County Engineer
Project PeopleSoft ID: TBD
CP Series Description: Commercial Paper Series D can be used for (1) construction of public works, (2) the purchase of automobiles, equipment and machinery, including computers, materials and supplies for the operation of the County’s precincts and departments (3) Professional services, including services provided by engineers, architects, attorneys, auditors, financial advisors, and fiscal agents, in connection with the contractual obligations described in (1) and (2).
Commercial Paper is being requested for the Civil Document Control Workstations project and is expected to be repaid within the next three fiscal years either through bonds, budgetary means or pay-as-you-go sources.
Note: Commercial Paper is issued in increments of $5,000 and the excess is not available to be spent by the department.
OMB Financial Management contact: Amy Perez, Deputy Executive Director, Office of Management and Budget
Decision Analysis Matrix scoring tool - Commissioners Court has approved the rubric below for scoring capital projects. Please complete the last two rows for OMB review.
|
Scoring option |
Strategic Plan alignment (3x weighting) |
Evidence base |
Impact on outcomes |
Cost effectiveness |
Ease of implementation |
Collaboration / partnerships |
Environmental sustainability |
Equity |
Total |
|
-1 |
Antithetical to one or more aspects of the Strategic Plan |
Evidence shows net negative impact on the intended goal |
Impact is clearly negative |
Costs expected (or shown) to outweigh benefits |
County has no/limited existing capabilities and dependencies are likely to impede |
Could negatively impact relationships with partners |
Negatively impacts environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Inequitable |
n/a |
|
0 |
Does not align to a Strategic Objective |
Evidence base is not well defined or measurable |
Size of impact on one or more strategic outcomes is negligible or unclear |
Net comparison is unclear |
County has no/limited existing capabilities or dependencies are likely to impede |
Does not involve collaboration with partners |
Net neutral impact on environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Does not consider equity to a meaningful degree |
n/a |
|
1 |
Aligns to a Strategic Objective but not to a Strategic Initiative |
Limited evidence-based research on outcomes; may have qualitative/theoretical support |
Outcomes are defined but without target levels and/or expected impact is moderate |
Moderate direct/indirect benefit relative to costs |
County has existing capability to implement or dependencies are unlikely to impede |
Moderately expands County leverage through collaboration with partner(s) |
Marginally positive impact on environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Considers equity to a meaningful degree, but not comprehensively |
n/a |
|
2 |
Aligns to a Strategic Objective and a Strategic Initiative |
Outcomes are directly supported by evidence base or credible research supports anticipated outcomes |
Outcomes are clearly defined and include target levels; expected impact on outcomes is high |
Significant direct/indirect benefit relative to costs |
County has existing capability to implement and dependencies are unlikely to impede |
Significantly expands County leverage through collaboration with partner(s) |
Positively impacts environment and/or climate change mitigation efforts |
Considers equity meaningfully and comprehensively |
n/a |
|
Score (-1,0,1,2) |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
|
Rationale |
The project aligns with G-1 and O-E |
The outcome is supported by a reasonably projected higher number of residents and law enforcement served |
By having a dedicated space, the CDC Section is able to assist a larger number of court clerks due to the increasing quantity of printed documents produced by the courts. |
The quotes being consider for the project were provided by experts within the County Engineering Department to ensure quality work is provided at the least cost possible. |
The County Engineering department has been instrumental in the proposed project in understanding the requirements and costs involved. |
The DCO has been working together with necessary County Agencies to ensure policies and procedures are followed. |
The DCO does not see a negative impact with this project proposed. |
The project does not include an equity component. |
n/a |