(Left to right: Commissioner Theresa Daniel, Commissioner Mike Cantrell, Urban Counties Executive Director Donald Lee, County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, Commissioner John Wiley Price, Commissioner Elba Garcia)
Donald Lee, Executive Director, Texas Conference of Urban Counties, recently issued a refund check to the Dallas County Commissioners Court for their participation and funding of TechShare.Juvenile, a statewide juvenile case management system. TechShare, a program of the Texas Conference of Urban Counties, enables a return on investment to counties that initiate a project if additional counties join the effort after development is complete. When Collin County made the decision to join in sharing the TechShare.Juvenile resource, it was determined that Dallas and Tarrant counties would receive reimbursements for capital costs used to fund the development effort.
(Left to right: Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks, Commissioner Andy H. Nguyen, County Judge B. Glen Whitley, TechShare Program Director Charles Gray, Commissioner Gary Fickes, Commissioner J.D. Johnson)
One week after Dallas County received their refund check, Charles Gray, Program Director, TechShare, presented a check to Tarrant County Commissioners Court. Following his presentation of the check, County Judge B. Glen Whitley stated, “We’ve been partnering to create software that we all use throughout the state…It’s truly been a collaborative effort.”
Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks, Precinct 1, added, “We are developing software that we need; software that we would have either had to develop on our own or buy from somebody else. To get money back for doing something that we would have had to do anyway…that’s a good deal.”
There are nearly 230 counties in Texas currently live on the basic solution, Juvenile Case Management System (JCMS). TechShare.Juvenile is an advanced version of the system, providing more robust functionality above and beyond JCMS. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) anticipates statewide participation and accessibility to the system by August 2015. Collin County will be the fourth county to implement TechShare.Juvenile statewide since development completed in 2012. Denton County implemented TechShare.Juvenile in 2014.
The refund amount for TechShare.Juvenile was calculated based on the type of agreement Collin County and the funding counties approved as well as a portion of the population size. For instance:
Collin County Population ÷ 75% of Member Population × Total Capital Cost = Refund Amount
From here, the payment is distributed proportionately to Dallas and Tarrant counties for funding the effort.
This is one of the main reasons why counties choose to partner with TechShare for their technology needs: the potential for return on investment.
Unlike traditional software providers, TechShare builds solutions that are ultimately owned by the counties, not TechShare. While we facilitate contract negotiation, requirements gathering, development, training, and implementation, in the end, Dallas and Tarrant counties have more ownership of solutions like TechShare.Juvenile. Once a solution’s been implemented, the counties continue partnering with TechShare for ongoing support, development, maintenance, and operations.
For more information about TechShare.Juvenile, contact Rebecca Lewis at rlewis@cuc.org.