News Release
June 2, 2010
Contact: Steve
Davis, Court Communications Officer, (515)725-8058
2009 Iowa
Judicial Branch Awards
Des
Moines, June 2, 2010—
The Iowa Judicial Branch announces the recipients of the 2009 Iowa Judicial
Branch Awards.
Amicus
Curiae Award—Robert
Beard, Reinbeck.
Distinguished
Service Award—Co-recipients
Beth Baldwin, District Court Administrator, Fifth Judicial District, and Lodema
Berkley, Clerk of Court, Johnson County.
Court
Innovation Award—District
Judges, Third Judicial District.
Meritorious
Service for Part-Time Judicial Officer —Hon. Patrick McCormick, Senior Judge, Woodbury County.
Meritorious
Service Award for Administrative Employee—Cheryl Thrailkill, Administrative Secretary, Iowa
Supreme Court.
Meritorious
Service Award for Clerk of Court Employee— Eileen
Grave, Osceola and Lyon County Clerk of Court.
Teamwork
Award—Clerk of court
staff in Hamilton, Humboldt, Webster and Wright counties.
Customer
Service Award—Lori
Johannes, Case Coordinator, Pottawattamie County.
Amicus
Curiae Award
Robert Beard,
Reinbeck, is the recipient of the Amicus Curiae Award given in recognition of
persons or businesses who contribute to the administration of justice or who
have contributed to building public support for the judiciary.
Robert Beard,
a retired attorney, volunteered more than 400 hours in a five-month period to
help purge probate, civil and criminal files in the Grundy County Clerk of
Court Office. This purging project not only helped the local abstractors,
researchers, attorneys, and the general public, but tremendously helped the
clerk of court's office. Working in a more efficient office is crucial for
the clerks to complete the workload with reduced staff. The organized,
readily-available files contribute to that success. The project required
someone with the legal knowledge to identify the correct documents to purge.
Grundy County Auditor Mary Schmidt said: "With limited storage space available
for any of our courthouse offices, this project was much appreciated by Grundy
County Officials." The Grundy County Board of Supervisors also recognized
Beard's volunteer efforts.
Distinguished
Service Award
Beth Baldwin,
District Court Administrator, Fifth Judicial District, and Lodema Berkley,
Clerk of Court, Johnson County Courthouse are the co-recipients of the
Distinguished Service Award given in recognition of a court employee who has
exemplified a sustained level of exceptional service to the courts, has
demonstrated a strong commitment to public service, and has continuously
initiated efforts to improve the administration of justice in Iowa.
Baldwin has
been District Court Administrator for 11 years. Berkley has worked for the
Judicial Branch for 17 years.
Beth Baldwin
was recognized for her leadership on the Juvenile Data Grant Steering
Committee, the Mental Health Advocacy Workgroup and the Digital Audio Recording
Technology Committee, especially for her ability to keep very diverse groups
focused on obtainable goals. She is also a member of the Children's Justice
Advisory Committee, the Polk County Model Court team and was awarded the 2007
National Juvenile Court Services Association Juvenile Court Administrator of
the Year. In 2008, the advance planning done by Baldwin and Fifth District
Chief Judge Arthur Gamble prepared the Fifth District in general but Polk
County specifically to deal with the flooding issues and other events that
could have had a devastating impact on the administration of justice in Polk
County. Beth has continually demonstrated sound logic and common sense in her
approach to problem solving, and a willingness to share her experiences with
other court administrators.
Lodema
Berkley was recognized for the expert guidance and leadership she provides to
her staff and the calm, direct way she works with the public. If she sees
that someone is struggling with work that is accumulating or a customer that is
disgruntled, she is out on the floor helping the situation. She was also
instrumental in the use of security deputies placed in the Johnston County
Courthouse. Berkley worked in the Black Hawk County Clerk's office as a
supervisor, and was Delaware County Clerk of Court before she was appointed
Johnson County Clerk of District Court in 1999. She is a member of the
Clerk's Manual committee, the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS)
Business Advisory Committee, the Johnson County Court Security Committee, and
is a former president of the Iowa Clerk's
Association.
Court
Innovation Award
District Judges
in the Third Judicial District are the recipient of the Court Innovation Award,
given in recognition of a court official or officials who has/have demonstrated
leadership in the development and implementation of an innovative program that
has improved the delivery of court services, public access to the courts, or
the administration of justice.
The judges
are honored for their willingness to work together to improve judicial
management of civil and family law cases. With the transition from a
master scheduling system to an individual assignment system, the judges used
e-orders and increased the use of telephonic hearings to provide increased
judicial access to parties on the cases assigned to them. The shared goal is to
improve judicial efficiency through case familiarity and provide more equity in
workload distribution. Judges have dedicated more time to addressing
motions that are filed and have taken ownership of their individual caseloads,
working with court administration to ensure coverage of all scheduled matters.
The
recipients are Chief Judge Duane Hoffmeyer, Judge John Ackerman, Judge Steven
Andreasen, Judge Patrick Carr, Judge Don Courtney, Judge John Duffy, Judge
Edward Jacobson, Judge David Lester, Judge Jeffrey Neary, Judge James Scott, Judge
Sokolovske, and Judge Nancy Whittenburg.
Meritorious
Service for Part-Time Judicial Officer
Woodbury
County Senior Judge Patrick McCormick is the recipient of one of five
Meritorious Service Awards given in recognition of court personnel who have maintained
a high level of service to the public and to the courts. McCormick is
honored for his high standards of professionalism as a part-time judicial
officer.
Judge
McCormick worked to create "Project Compass," a viable, collaborative mental
health court in Woodbury County to screen all defendants entering jail for
mental health issues so services can be obtained for them. Judge McCormick has
improved court services by working with existing resources and helping local
county officials to understand the needs of the individuals in jail with mental
health issues. He also provided judicial leadership to launch an effort to
address the mental health needs of individuals that become involved with the
criminal justice system. As a result of the leadership Judge McCormick
provided, Woodbury County has a viable mental health court. As a senior judge,
Judge McCormick has committed his time and adjusted his schedule to ensure
defendants referred to Project Compass are given the judicial supervision
necessary to increase their potential to be successful outside the criminal
justice system. Judge McCormick was a District Associate Judge from 1996 to
2006 and a Senior Judge since 2006.
Meritorious
Service Award for Administrative Employees
Cheryl
Thrailkill, Administrative Secretary, Iowa Supreme Court, is also honored with
the Meritorious Service Award. Thrailkill is recognized for her ability to
adapt to new technology and her instrumental role in both internal and external
statewide communications, particularly with the website and speakers bureau.
Thrailkill
assists with the branch newsletter and internal news bulletins, manages the
judicial branch speaker's bureau and employee service anniversary recognition
program, arranges tours for visitors to the judicial branch building in Des
Moines, assists with public inquiries, and serves as the primary person
responsible for the day-to-day upkeep and management of the Iowa Judicial
Branch website. She was instrumental in the design of the first website layout
and two subsequent redesigns. She adds new information and documents to the
site nearly every day. She also updates site content and works with the website
vendor to troubleshoot problems and create new pages and features. Recently,
she added sections to the site that keep court employees, lawyers, the media
and others informed about judicial branch budget matters and court closures.
Due in part to Thrailkill's efforts, the website earned the 2006 and 2009
Justice Served Top-10 Court Website Award for excellent customer service and
exceptional access to justice. Thrailkill single-handedly began and operates
the judicial branch speaker's bureau. She designed a webpage and form for
persons who seek a judge or court employee to speak at public events. She
joined the Judicial Branch in 1996.
Meritorious
Service Award for Clerk of Court Office
Eileen Grave,
Osceola and Lyon County Clerk of Court, is the recipient of the Meritorious
Service Award for Clerk of Court Office Employees for her efforts to improve
efficiencies in two clerk of court offices by pooling resources. She also
worked to bring court records up to date and created a network of other clerks
with multiple-county responsibility for mutual problem solving. Eileen Grave
has been employed by the Judicial Branch of Iowa since 1978. She started
as a deputy clerk, became the Clerk of Court for Osceola County in 1989 and
added the responsibility of being the Clerk of Court for Lyon County in 2008.
As clerk of two counties, she re-organized how the clerk staff operates to
expedite docketing and recording of case information so that the work is
usually completed in the day it was received. This has provided more timely
notification of litigants.
Teamwork
Award
The clerk of
court staff in Hamilton, Humboldt, Webster and Wright counties are the
recipients of the Court Teamwork Award given in recognition of a person or
group of employees who consistently exemplify the ability to work together
effectively to achieve established goals and boost morale and help create a
work environment where teamwork typifies working relationships.
The clerks
used their combined 227 years of experience to pull together and work as a team
to make four understaffed clerk's offices function like one large office. For
example, Wright County shares an employee from their office one day a week with
Hamilton County. An employee in Wright County is also on standby to travel
to Humboldt County if necessary due to staff shortage. Webster County assists
with additional workload from the three other counties by handling all
financial processing from Humboldt County, assisting with workload and
financial processing in Hamilton County and Wright County, and picking up extra
workload in Webster when one employee travels to Humboldt County three days a
week to work.
The
recipients are Robin Hovick, Elaine Keane, Anne Bretthauer, Glenda Meyer, Sheri
Miller. Pam Pingel, Sue Minikis, Janet Clark, Brenda Ivory, Beth Grebner,
Raenae Cauelin, Laura Jacobson, Lisa Lombard, Kristine Olsen, Kathleen Loerts,
Jill Watne, Jennifer Hogrefe and Sally
Gordon.
Court
Customer Service Award
Lori
Johannes, Case Coordinator, Pottawattamie County, is the recipient of the Court
Customer Service Award given in recognition of a person or group of employees
who have maintained a consistent level of superior service to the public,
attorneys, judges, and others utilizing court services and who have
significantly improved court services. Johannes started with the judicial
branch in 1985 as a court attendant and began work as a case coordinator in
2001.
Johannes is
recognized for her work to manage the cases in six counties, assist with
domestic abuse applications, and to reduce the number of "old cases" on the
district pending lists. She also helps with the scheduling of judges and court
reporters—a more difficult process since the layoffs and trains new court
attendants and case coordinators. Her skills shopping garage sales has allowed
the Pottawattamie County Courthouse to equip and maintain a play area with
toys, stuffed animals and a wide variety of books for children accompanying
their parent to file a domestic abuse petition. She has negotiated parking
for elderly jurors, who would otherwise have a difficult time making the walk
from the county parking lot, and tracks down wheelchairs for others who have
difficulty walking.
# # #
2010
Iowa
Supreme Court
1111
East Court Avenue
Des
Moines, IA 50319
515-281-3952
