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Records/Archives in the News Part 04 01/20/00



Records/Archives in the News r991226a
There are 5 stories in this posting.

Houston Chronicle 12/26/99
Battle brewing over records of life before Texas won independence

Savannah Morning News 12/26/99
Point, click and sue

Seattle Post-Intelligencer 12/25/99
Spokane judge allows chatroom records as evidence

Deseret News 12/24/99
SLOC opens a small reading room -- to let public in on all the details

Toledo Blade 12/25/99
Public criticism of police records department mounts


________________________________________________________________
Houston Chronicle 12/26/99
Battle brewing over records of life before Texas won independence

Associated Press
<SNIP>
AUSTIN (AP) -- It?s not exactly the Alamo, but a fight is brewing over old 
Spanish and Mexican records of life in Texas leading up to the state?s battle 
for independence. 
Bexar County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff wants the University of Texas to return a 
collection of as many as 300,000 pages of documents dating from 1717 to 1836 
-- the year Texas lost the mission fort but won independence. Some of the 
records mention Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett. 
The Mexican government left the documents, written by Spanish-speaking 
priests, diplomats, military officers and others, in Bexar County when they 
withdrew in 1836. 
In 1899, the documents were sent to UT, which has been steadily organizing 
and translating the documents, said Don Carleton, director of the Center for 
American History. 
Rickhoff, however, said the university is taking too long to translate the 
works. About 14 percent of the documents have been translated and it could 
take up to 200 years to finish them, he said. 
?Those records don?t have a voice,? Rickhoff told the Austin 
American-Statesman. ?I am the voice of these records. ... I want them back 
and I?ll go to whatever measures it takes.? 
Patricia Ohlendorf, counsel for the university, said the documents are 
staying put. 
?These are documents that are critical to the state of Texas, and we feel 
that what?s best for the state of Texas is that they remain here,? Ohlendorf 
said. 
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
Savannah Morning News 12/26/99
Point, click and sue

by Leonora LaPeter
<SNIP>
Lawyers might have fewer reasons to hang around the courthouse come 2000 once 
Chatham County?s State Court becomes the first in Georgia to adopt complete 
electronic document filing. 
For a fee, lawyers will be able to submit lawsuits and other filings on 
behalf of clients in both criminal and civil cases over the Internet, 
supplementing the traditional method of filing and serving documents. The 
system is also available to people representing themselves in court. 
State Court Clerk Carlton Blair has been working feverishly to get the system 
ready in time for the New Year. 
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Chatham County is working with a California company, Image-X, to provide the 
electronic filing system. The company operates a site, E-filing.com, that 
lawyers can use to file lawsuits at a number of courts across the country, 
from New Jersey to Minnesota. 
As Blair says, filing a lawsuit will be as easy as ?point, click and sue.? 
The system costs the county nothing because it already has the computers 
needed to implement it, and Image-X will get paid by those filing the cases. 
Fees to use the service will range from $7-$20 for each document filed. For 
example, a lawyer filing a civil lawsuit would pay the regular $74 filing 
fee, plus $5 to the court and $15 to e-filing for the electronic filing. Fees 
to serve the lawsuit on the other party would also be paid at that time. 
Other legal documents, such as an answer, a motion or an entry of appearance 
in a criminal case, would cost an additional $5 to the court and $2 to 
e-filing. 
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Chatham County?s State Court is the first to provide full electronic filing, 
but it is not the first to try it out. Fulton County State Court began 
testing an electronic filing system earlier this year in an asbestos case 
that had multiple defendants and plaintiffs. It hopes to have a more complete 
system up and running sometime in the future, said Don Forbes, executive 
director of the Georgia Courts Automation Commission. 
Forbes said courts in Gwinnett, Henry and Floyd counties are all beginning 
efforts to get electronic filing in place but none has reached Chatham 
County?s stage. He said it?s a slow process but it will probably catch on 
because of the efficiency it brings. 
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Blair said electronic filing will also cut down on all the paper that the 
county must manage and find space for. 
?We have a records storage crisis in Chatham County,? he said. ?We don?t have 
room to house all the records that need to be housed.? 
Blair said Chatham County is seeking a request for proposals to provide a 
document imaging system in the State Court that would allow the public to 
view whole files over the Internet. This would cost $300,000 and provide the 
basis for other county departments to scan documents into the computer once 
they get the equipment. 
But just because State Court is going electronic doesn?t mean the public will 
no longer have access to paper documents at State Court. 
?We will always have both there for people who are not going to fool with the 
computer and for people who are not capable of using the computer and for 
people who are too poor,? Blair said. ?We?ve got to provide for all those 
people.?
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 12/25/99
Spokane judge allows chatroom records as evidence

Associated Press
<SNIP>
SPOKANE?Online computer chatrooms do not have the same privacy protections as 
private telephone calls, a judge has ruled. 
In what is believed to be the first decision of its kind in Washington, 
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O?Connor ruled that police don?t 
need court permission to record online chats. 
Last week?s decision allows prosecutors to pursue charges of second-degree 
attempted rape against Donald T. Townsend. Prosecutors allege Townsend, 26, 
made contact over the Internet with a Spokane police detective posing in a 
chatroom as a 13-year-old girl. 
Washington?s Privacy Act requires consent of both parties before 
conversations made over ?any electronic device? can be recorded. Police 
frequently seek court orders to wiretap a person?s phone line. 
But O?Connor said in her nine-page opinion that police are not required to 
notify the other party while recording or transcribing remarks sent between 
computer users. 
?The defendant?s choice to communicate via chat was with the knowledge that 
the computer itself is a transmission and recording device,? O?Connor wrote. 
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Patti Walker called O?Connor?s ruling an 
important one. 
?If the judge had not ruled in our favor, it would have changed how everybody 
does business in this state using e-mail or chat,? Walker said. 
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
Deseret News 12/24/99
SLOC opens a small reading room -- to let public in on all the details

by Lisa Riley Roche
<SNIP>
There?s not much to read in the Salt Lake Organizing Committee?s reading room.
Still, Olympic officials hope the handful of books, videos, magazines and 
documents available in a small conference room just off the organizing 
committee office?s main reception area are enough to answer the public?s 
questions about the 2002 Winter Games.
?It may be symbolic,? said Nolan Karras, who represents Gov. Mike Leavitt on 
the SLOC Management Committee. Karras led a committee that came up with the 
idea for a mini-library of SLOC documents, such as a summary of the $1.34 
billion budget and the lengthy contract with the International Olympic 
Committee.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
?Sometimes when an organization is under fire, as this one has been, people 
think they are being kept in the dark,? Karras said. Even if they never make 
the trip to SLOC?s downtown headquarters, just knowing information about the 
Games is available gives people a comfort level, he said. ?It won?t trouble 
me if people don?t access it.?
SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw said there?s no count of how many people have 
visited the reading room, which has been open since July. But Shaw said she 
believed the number would be relatively small ? and that?s adding in the 
local media, who also use the room.
Those who do come will find a quiet, wood-paneled room with a few books, 
videos and magazines scattered across the shelves. There are copies of the 
final reports written by organizers of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and 
the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, as well as the bid books put together 
for Salt Lake City.
Most of the documents about the 2002 Winter Games are under lock and key in 
an adjacent storeroom and must be retrieved by a receptionist. The list of 
documents available runs some 16 pages. Besides the budget, it includes 
salary information for top SLOC officials, tax returns, contracts valued at 
more than $500,000 and minutes of SLOC board meetings.
There?s even a collection of more than 30 videos, including copies of the 
tapes shown during Salt Lake City?s unsuccessful presentation for the 1998 
Winter Games, made to the IOC eight years ago in Birmingham, England, and the 
winning pitch for 2002 made to the IOC in 1995 in Budapest, Hungary.
Visitors are welcome to read or view the information in the room and can 
obtain up to 10 pages of copies for free. After that, a 10-cents-per-page 
charge applies. SLOC is also willing to research information that?s not on 
the reading room list, but there is a $25-per-hour fee.
The room is open during SLOC?s regular business hours, 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. 
Monday through Friday, and is located on the sixth floor of the office 
building at 257 E. 200 South. A driver?s license or other photo 
identification is required for entry under a new SLOC security policy put in 
place last December.
<SNIP>

________________________________________________________________
Toledo Blade 12/25/99
Public criticism of police records department mounts

by Robin Erb
<SNIP>
For Kelly Williams, it was a week of phone calls to get a simple traffic 
accident report for her insurance company. 
For Shannon Kimble, it was the hour-long wait in line this week to file a 
police report when he wanted to be Christmas shopping instead. 
?We?re citizens,? Mr. Kimble fumed as he left the Safety Building Thursday. 
?We deserve better than this.? 
Both are examples of taxpayers who have been frustrated recently by the 
Toledo police records office, which supposedly serves the public but is 
becoming increasingly more inaccessible. 
On Jan. 3, it?ll get worse. 
The operation - once serving the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - 
repeatedly has clipped back its hours over the last several years. Beginning 
Jan. 3, the office will be limited to so-called ?bankers? hours? : nonholiday 
weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
?They?re there to provide a public service. It?s not happening,? said traffic 
Lt. Louis Borucki, who said he gets frequent calls from angry citizens who 
say they can?t obtain traffic reports for their insurance claims. 
The problem, say those who head the records office, is a dwindling number of 
staff forced by a hiring freeze that has affected several city departments. 
The around-the-clock shifts that five years ago were shared by about five 
dozen clerks and officers were shared yesterday by 27 clerks and seven 
officers. 
While the office is open for limited hours to the public, clerks have to 
staff the office 24 hours a day to run reports, check licenses and suspect 
information, and file papers for Toledo police officers, records Lt. Cynthia 
Bobash said. 
?Right now, we?re to the point where we?re having to force people on 
overtime,? Lieutenant Bobash said. ?We don?t like [the shortened hours] 
either, but what can we do?? 
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
For example, the records office officially was closed Thursday and yesterday 
for the Christmas holiday for city workers. But with the Thursday morning 
snow, the city?s police officers quickly had too many traffic accidents to 
handle. The city?s 911 dispatchers began advising callers to file their own 
police report on noninjury accidents because no officers would be available 
for several hours. 
The records section staff opened for part of the day so citizens could file 
the traffic reports immediately instead of waiting until after the Christmas 
holiday, Lieutenant Bobash said. 
Chief Mike Navarre pointed out that citizens can file reports with police 
officers at any of the department?s district or sub-stations, and they can 
fax or mail in requests to the downtown records section for existing reports. 
?In many ways, we?ve made it a lot more convenient,? the chief said. 
Jeff and Kelly Williams don?t think so. 
Mrs. Williams?s van was struck by a 16-year-old driver on Dec. 13. Mr. 
Williams went to the Safety Building the next day to get a copy of the 
traffic report for the couple?s insurance company, and was surprised when he 
was handed a piece of paper instead and told he?d have to mail in his 
request. 
Mr. Kelly said he returned home, filled out the form, and dropped it in the 
mail the next day 
As of yesterday, the report still hadn?t arrived, he said. In the meantime, 
Mr. William made several calls and finally reached a traffic sergeant who was 
able to get a copy of the report for him. 
<SNIP>






PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM

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