The Trial Court Funding Act of 1997, which provided for State assumption of trial court operations costs, substantially changed the funding relationship among the State, the County and the Court, and necessitated many administrative, budgetary, organizational, and procedural changes in order to transition the Court from a Board-governed agency to a State agency. The Act recognized the need to maintain cooperation between the County and the Court so as not to disrupt basic court operations. While the Court has been an independent State agency for many years now, there still remain many areas for which continuing cooperation and service is beneficial. The County and the Court entered into an MOU in 1998 that laid the foundation for the continuing relationship during the transition period and under which the County and Court worked cooperatively for 17 years. In November 2015, the County and the Court executed a comprehensive MOU formalizing the majority of services provided by one agency to the other; however, some of the service agreements, such as for information technology and telecommunications, were complex enough to warrant separate MOUs, which are attached hereto. The agreements cover services provided beginning July 1, 2016 and into perpetuity unless amended by mutual agreement of the parties or terminated by either party pursuant to the Trial Court Funding Act.

Should the Board elect not to approve the information technology and telecommunications MOUs, the County could only continue to coordinate such services with the Court pursuant to an obsolete agreement that does not comply with the requirements of State statute in terms of specificity and cost rates.