ADP Board Continues to Scrutinize Technology Solutions for Courthouse Addition;
Informed of Hacking Incident in Burton
ADP Board Meeting - April 28, 2025
Meeting Details: The Automatic Data Processing Board (ADP) held a Special Meeting at 1:00 pm on April 28, 2025 in the Geauga County Auditor’s Office Appraisal Conference Room at 231 Main St. Chardon, OH 44024. Virtual access was available via MS Teams, and the agenda was provided in advance. This Observer attended via MS Teams.
Public Comment: ADP does not have a written public comment policy. In practice, public comment is solicited at the end of the meeting.
Board Attendance:
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Auditor/Chief Administrator – Charles Walder
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Clerk of Courts – Sheila Bevington
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County Commissioner – Carolyn Brakey
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Engineer – Katie Taylor for Andy Haupt
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Board of Elections – Michelle Lane and Nora McGinnis
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County Prosecutor – Jim Flaiz
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Recorder – Celesta Mullins (absent)
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Sheriff – Scott Hildenbrand
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Treasurer – Caroline Mansfield for Chris Hitchcock
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Coroner – John Urbancic (absent)
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Common Pleas Court Judge - Observer Note - It was stated at the January 28, 2025 meeting that this seat will not be filled.
ADP Staff Attendance:
Other Government Representatives:
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Carolyn Paschke - Court of Common Pleas Judge
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Matt Rambo - Court of Common Pleas Judge
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Linda Burhenne - Acting County Administrator
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Velta Muisio - Court of Common Pleas IT Director
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Pam McMahan - Chief Operations Officer, Auditor’s Office
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Natalie Ray - Auditor’s Office
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Dan Lark - Environmental Health Director, Geauga County Public Health
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Randy Taylor - Court of Common Pleas
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Tom Huff - Court of Common Pleas, IT Officer (virtual)
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Kate Jacob - Chief Compliance Officer, Auditor’s Office (virtual)
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Rean Davis - Operations Manager, Board of Developmental Disabilities (virtual)
Others Present:
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Brett Bestgen - Infinity Construction
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Lee Hribar - ThenDesign Architecture
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Jarrett Parker - NV5
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Philip Kiser - Beincourt (virtual)
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Chris Vance - Beincourt
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Jim Rivard - Technology Consultant with Thorsen Baker (virtual)
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Allison Wilson - Reporter, Maple Leaf
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Kelly Clause - DEX Imaging (virtual)
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Scott Curry (virtual - affiliation not identified)
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Dan Merton (virtual - affiliation not identified)
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm by Mr. Antenucci.
Mr. Walder asked everyone for a moment of silence for Judge Mary Jane Trapp who recently passed away.
Minutes: Minutes for the January 13, 2025 Organizational and Special meetings, and for the January 28, 2025 Special meeting were approved without edits.
The Board took the following actions:
APPROVED - Great Lakes Computer Corp. ($94,000) - Mr. Antenucci explained that this item was for a six-month renewal through the end of 2025 for backup and disaster recovery services. Mr. Walder noted that the backup process is now automated whereas it used to be done with tapes. ADP will look at other solutions for this service that is now provided by Great Lakes Computer before renewing beyond 6 months.
APPROVED - StarSevenSix ServiceNow Renewal ($97,776) - Mr. Antenucci explained that this is a one-year renewal of the ServiceNow enterprise licensing product used by the service desk. He said that they migrated to this hosted product last year and have been happy with it. He explained that the renewal cost for the product is the same, less the costs incurred for the migration in the prior year. The licensing levels are the same. ADP will explore self-service functionality provided with the product in the coming year.
TABLED - BOCC Garrett Metal Detectors ($6,108) - Mr. Antenucci introduced the request for a walk-through metal detector for the courthouse addition project. Garrett will install the product but there have been disagreements with Garrett and its refusal to accept the county contract’s terms and conditions. After discussion, it was agreed to table this matter until contractual issues could be resolved.
Reviewer Note: This was discussed at the Board of County Commissioners meeting on April 22, 2025. See LWVG report (end of report).
APPROVED - Developmental Disabilities DEX Imaging ($53,753) - Mr. Antenucci explained that this request was a result of ADP’s effort to modernize and upgrade Developmental Disabilities’ printers to a product used successfully by government and other entities across the county.
APPROVED - Law Library Thomson Reuters ($54,366) - Mr. Antenucci introduced the Thomson Reuters item, noting that the subscription term was 3 years and that it covered all judges, magistrates, the Prosecutor, public defender and miscellaneous public seats.
APPROVED - BOCC Baggage Handler (not to exceed $52,030) - As a part of the technology for the courthouse addition, a baggage scanner was approved.
TABLED - BOCC IT Plan for Courthouse Addition - Mr. Antenucci referenced a list of items related to the courthouse addition project and asked Mr. Kiser from Beincourt to explain its technology recommendations and quotes related to the technology to be used in the 2 Common Pleas courtrooms ($222,828) and 3 Magistrate courtrooms ($242,475). Observer Note: Beincourt is an end-to-end technology platform that supports in-person court operations and virtual hearings and also facilitates a hybrid setup. Mr. Kiser provided an overview of the courtroom technology, including speaker microphones, cameras, monitors and digital signal processors. Included in the Beincourt’s plans is the use of Crestron video equipment. The Board discussed the history of Crestron equipment installed in the County Office Building and the ongoing issues they’ve experienced with the non functioning equipment. Observer Note: See LWVGObserver report from the December 10, 2024 ADP meeting. Mr. Kiser explained that Beincourt regularly uses Crestron equipment in its projects and has had good experience with it. When asked about the timeline, Mr. Kiser said that Beincourt would need 3 to 4 weeks to complete the installation of the equipment in the courtrooms. In addition to concerns about the Crestron equipment, Mr. Flaiz expressed frustration that his office had not been consulted on the courtroom designs saying, “My office probably does 90% of the jury trials in this county in any given year. We were never asked to play around with it. We've had zero involvement in it.” Ms. Brakey asked if it would be possible for the Prosecutor’s office to see a demonstration of the equipment in use. Mr. Kiser said that Beincourt has solutions in place in 38 courts in the Akron area and offered to arrange a demonstration. The Board decided to table the courtroom technology approval to allow for a site visit and further review.
Mr. Antenucci asked Mr. Bestgen from Infinity Construction for a cost breakdown of the other technology items requiring Board approval for the courthouse addition for the Board meeting in June. These items include public safety radio, intrusion detection, access control and intercom systems. Mr. Bestgen estimated the total of all these items to be $700,000 but no cost estimates were included on the list provided to the Board prior to the meeting.
Regular Business:
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TABLED - Company 119 ($56,100) - Mr. Antenucci introduced a one-time effort to bring the county’s 30+ websites into compliance with American with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. This would entail updates for the visually-impaired including website stretchable fonts, adopting shading standards, and other measures.. He stated that compliance was required by February 2026. The Board decided to table the matter to provide time to gain more understanding of the requirements and timing. Observer Note: For more information on ADA’s rule on accessibility of websites provided by state and local government see here.
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APPROVED - HS GovTech USA ($174,356) - Mr. Antenucci provided background to Public Health’s request for a new system to replace HDIS, a Lake County proprietary ERP (Enterprise, Research, Planning) system developed in 1996. Mr. Lark explained that he had researched a number of system options and that the selected cloud-based system, GovTech, will handle financials, permitting and database management much more efficiently. It will include a public portal for easier interaction with business license owners and facilitate checks of restaurant health inspections by the public. Mr. Antenucci added that GovTech is compliant with ADP’s security standards, including multi-factor authentication, and after implementation of GovTech, ADP will disable the server currently hosting HDIS.
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Mr. Antenucci informed the Board that Sheila Bevington, Geauga County Clerk of Courts, designated Tammy McClintock as her alternate on the ADP Board. No action required. It was simply noted in the record.
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Mr. Antenucci informed the Board that a serious incident involving outside hackers occurred at Burton Township. He explained that ADP does not currently provide services to Burton Township but he was advising the trustees on the matter and was attending an emergency meeting of the trustees that evening. Reviewer Report: This was discussed at 1:054 Minutes of the Board of County Commissioners meeting on April 29, 2025. See LWVG report of this meeting.
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Mr. Walder inquired about the status of the implementation of cameras in the elevators at the County Office Building, a condition to the Board of Elections’ move to the building. Mr. Antenucci explained that since the ADP staff member who had been overseeing the installation had left ADP, the effort stalled. It was agreed that Mr. Antenucci will follow up with the vendor on the project in an effort to ensure its timely completion. Reviewer Note: This was also discussed at the May 6, 2025 Board of Elections meeting. See LWVG Report of this meeting.
Public Comment: Mr. Antenucci asked for any public comment/questions. This Observer requested a copy of materials from the meeting regarding Courthouse IT items which were received via email on April 28, 2025.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:25 pm.
The next meeting of the ADP Board is a Regular Meeting on June 10, 2025 at 2:00 pm.
Minutes when posted are available here: Meeting Minutes | Geauga County Automatic Data Processing
Virtual Meeting Information: Contact Pamela McMahan at pmcmahan@gcauditor.com
Observer: Carol Benton
Editor: Gail Roussey
Reviewer: Sarah McGlone
Submitted: May 7, 2025
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