URBANA – Ignoring requests from Urbana and Champaign for a month's delay, the Champaign County Board voted Monday night to enter into negotiations with JANO Data Systems of Jackson, Miss., for an integrated justice computer system.
   City officials in Urbana and Champaign had recently requested a month's delay in the decision, saying they wanted time to interview the two finalist companies under consideration by the county. Of particular concern was how well each integration approach would work with the Area-wide Records Management System used by Champaign, Urbana and University of Illinois police.
   But no city officials showed up at Monday night's meeting, and board members indicated an impatience to move forward.
   Board member Robert Kirchner, D-Urbana, said he wasn't made aware of the cities' concerns until he read them in The News-Gazette last Thursday, which he called "troubling."
   "We need to move forward in negotiations," Kirchner said. "In those negotiations, these issues (raised by the cities) can be addressed."
   Board member Tom Betz, D-Urbana, said he thought the real concern of the cities was the cost they might have to bear to use the integrated system. That would eliminate redundant data entry by different justice offices and allow them to track a court case efficiently through the system.
   "There's no such thing as a free lunch," Betz said. "People are going to have to pay to use it. We'll try and make it as reasonable as possible."
   Joan Dyskstra, R-Savoy, expressed the strongest reservations about moving foward.
   "I do not want to take a vote where I don't have the information I need to make a critical decision," she said. "There are so many unanswered questions."
   Steve Mitchell, R-Tolono, asked county co-administrators Denny Inman and Debra Busey about claims by city officials that their requests to discuss the computer issue with county officials had been repeatedly rebuffed.
   Inman said he learned on Feb. 15 about the cities' desire to interview the finalist companies.
   JANO Data Systems sells proprietary, off-the-shelf software called Clericus Magnus that supports the circuit clerk and courts, state's attorney, public defender and adult and juvenile probation offices.
   JANO would license its software to the county, would own the source code and would make any programming changes requested by the county. It would also charge a yearly maintenance fee of about 15 percent to 18 percent of the initial cost of the software.
   The other finalist company was Bradley Consulting Services of Lombard, an IBM business partner. It proposed to use the DuPage Unified Court System approach, called DUCS, developed jointly by IBM and DuPage County programmers.
   With Bradley, the county would own the source code and county programmers would make changes requested by justice offices. The county would pay no annual licensing fee.
   Champaign County Presiding Judge J.G. Townsend was among the strongest advocates for the JANO approach, which is in use in several mid-sized Illinois counties. He said he was pleased the county board didn't put off a decision.
   "We're four years into this," Townsend said. "I think the county board did the responsible and appropriate thing by addressing the technology process. I'm surprised and disappointed that some of the people from one or the other of the cities believe that communication has to happen through the newspaper. I'll certainly do what I can to encourage more communication between officials in the justice arena."