Tarrant County will not audit courts software program. Questions linger about if it works
Tarrant County has decided not to audit its TechShare.Courts software program, the online document system that some leaders say is flawed.
Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to reject a proposed $150,000 audit, with commissioner Alisa Simmons voting in opposition.
The program took 12 years to get off the ground. Tarrant County has TechShare software across its courts system to manage documents, but the courts component of the software has has had problems since development began.
Taxpayers have spent more than $28 million on developing the courts software program alone, according to documents from a July 18 work session about the county’s involvement in the program.
Travis County and Dallas County originally signed on with Tarrant to develop software each county could sell, but Travis left in 2016 after spending $3.3 million and Dallas backed out after spending $35 million.
Commissioners’ concerns about the program differ. Some commissioners worry the county will not be able to make money off the software as originally intended because there has been no marketing to promote it.
Meanwhile, Simmons is hard pressed to think the program works. Among commissioners, she has asked the most questions about the county’s continued involvement in the program.
The court decided at its July work session to keep being involved in the program, but not spend any more money on developing software.
Commissioner Gary Fickes, who is TechShare’s representative on the court, said Tuesday that the program works but not perfectly. District Clerk Tom Wilder said the program had 170 open tickets and that there was nothing to hide.
Simmons argued the program should have been perfect after how long the county took to launch it May 1 after months of delays.
County judge Tim O’Hare told the court Tuesday he wasn’t comfortable putting money toward an audit that would tell the county what it already knows — the courts program is flawed and has issues.
O’Hare said he wished the program was making progress faster, and said that if the commissioners didn’t come up with a plan for TechShare moving forward before the new fiscal year it would be first on the priority list once the budget is passed.
Commissioner Manny Ramirez questioned what an outside audit would tell the county, and he said it was too early into the software’s launch to look into an audit.
“I’m sorry, it’s not working and we know it,” Simmons said.
Commissioner Roy Brooks wanted Simmons to say something that would allow him to support her, but said he hadn’t heard it. Throwing the program out and starting over didn’t make sense to Brooks, and neither did Simmons’ suggestion to switch to Tyler Technology’s program that Dallas County is having issues with too.
Simmons has told members of the court before that staff have come to her with concerns about TechShare.Courts. Those who have voiced concerns have not made those grievances public because they fear for their jobs, Simmons said.
