With the help of the probate lawyers and our many stakeholders,

the Court not only met,but exCeeded these goals!And we can quantify those goals. Inside are the stories behind the numbers, but even they cannot really convey the seismic changes undergone here.

It has been a time of growth, improvement and innovation. In 2013, I identified 5 areas needing attention in this new administration. I promised to deliver:

9 Effective Court Management 9 Fiscal Transparency 9 Broadened Community Outreach 9 A modern physical plant 9 Improved Court Services

2018 marks 5 years of change!

Promises KePtPromises made

Judge elinore marsh stormer2018 state of the Court

250wards served by the Volunteer Guardian Program since 2014

Senior Visitor Program volunteersvisited our wards

2,281 times beginning in 2013

471Community Outreach Speeches / Trainings by

8 employees

Mediation Program settled 80.8% of cases with 2 specialty mediators

serVIce.

by the numbersThe ProbaTe sTory is abouT The PeoPle we serve3,423

people served by our Help Desk attorneys since February 2014

Promises KePtPromises made

In the last five years, 2 of our Magistrates became judges: Judge Jon Oldham and Judge Nicole Walker serve on the Akron Municipal Court bench. Crystal Burnett joined us from Domestic Relations court with 12 years of experience. 4 of our law clerks became lawyers.

Our total staff dropped from 34 to 30 but we received over 50 letters praising their work. We donated 100’s of dollars to oVer 12 causes with our dress down days and donations. In 2013, exactly 0 people worked in dedicated community outreach and now there are 2, resulting in 100’s of communIty engagement opportunItIes.

Our computer operating system was upgraded from XP to Windows 7. Our New Day court welcomed 9 Judges and their staff, as well as outside agencies to observe. Instead of spending nearly $20,000 a year on “snail mail” postage, we send our court notifications in 100’s of emails a month. 1000’s of marriage records were digitized and 100’s of records were moved to the Records Center to save valuable space in the Courthouse.

I look forward to continuing to serve you and I remain committed to our principles of...

here are The storiesbehind The Numbers...

compassIon.IntegrIty.

effeCtive Court management & better Customer serviCe

Since 2013, we have dealt with thousands of cases already in existence and opened thousands more. Perhaps more importantly, we closed 38,281 cases of all types. Over the last several years we worked with attorneys specializing in asbestos litigation to resolve more than 2,000 cases for people touched by lung disease from local manufacturing.

Staffing was reorganized to reflect modern values. Court administrator Lisa Zeno Carano created the 1st ever employee handbook and drafted 26 job descriptions. Annual evaluations now take place.

Support staff was added to allow the court investigators to focus on the needs of our 2500 wards and their families.

We emphasize customer service for everyone. Employees are cross trained to strengthen their job knowledge and, we can assure that each department is covered at all times. We have had 5 whole staff in-service trainings.

Deputy Clerks Eleanor,Aaron & Caroline

My husband and I spent several hours at Judge Stormer’s Summit

County Probate office today. An unfamiliar experience proved to be pleasant and unencumbered as the

entire staff (many employees) offered to answer questions,

make us comfortable, even interrupt their duties to escort

and personally introduce us to necessary offices and staff members. Thanks to Probate Judge Stormer’s staff, our anticipated “anxious day” proved to end pleasantly and

productive.- Signed Mr. & Mrs. A.G.

additional Cases5,276

Including:

Mental Illness

Commitments

Changes of Name

Will Deposits

Birth Record Corrections

Civil Cases

marriage liCenses15,136

adoptions875 case filings meant 625 families

gave 764 kids a forever family!

New day CourtNew Day Court is the first of its kind in the State of Ohio. In 2 years, it has assisted over 120 severely mentally ill patients on outpatient commitment by providing tools for each to take an active role in recovery and to avoid repeat hospitalizations.

52 New Day participants graduated successfully, taking an active role in their recovery. Clients and their families praise the compassionate support of the New Day Court.

senior visitor ProgramSenior Visitor Program volunteers made over 2,280 visits to our

wards, including a special holiday visit to deliver 100’s of cards and holiday cheer. This year, volunteers also delivered hats,

scarves and lap robes crocheted and donated by a talented mother-daughter duo in our community.

The Ohio Supreme Court has challenged courts to develop innovative ideas and programming to meet the needs of our citizens. This Court accepted the challenge and over the past five years, introducing new innovative programming.

99 year old Florence loves

having visitors!

We’ve had a very collaborative process led by Judge Stormer saying, ‘What can we do better.’ What you see is this continuum of care, where the public sees it, the individual consumer sees it, and the families that come to the New Day Court see it. If Judge is saying, ‘Hey, I’m here to help you, tell me what’s going on,’ that has a huge impact.- Dr. Douglas SmithMD, DFAPA, Medical Director of Summit County ADM Board

imProved Court serviCe through innovation

Thank you, Judge Stormer, for opening the door for me to meet so many wonderful staff and the dear souls I have the pleasure of encountering at the various facilities. Thank God for your dedication to this program and to those who make this program a success.- Signed N.E.

Judge Stormer presenting at an Assisted Outpatient Treatment seminar advocating for Mental Health Care.

Guardian TrainingIn 2014, this Court put into place a comprehensive guardianship training program. We produCed 5 videos to train and educate. Among the subjects covered: Duties of the Guardian of the Person and Guardian of the Estate, Advance Directives, Hospice and Palliative Care, Informed Consent, Navigating a Nursing Home.

Guardianship: As Your Special Needs Child Becomes An Adult

Summit County is truly fortunate to have someone like Judge Stormer.  That she has taken such a serious and studied approach to helping families work through the emotional journey of considering guardianship for their “adult child” is outstanding. Thanks for all you do.- John J. Trunk, Superintendent, Summit DD

volunteer Guardian ProgramIn 3 ½ years, more than 250 wards have been served by Volunteer Guardians. Currently,104 volunteers participate in the VGP. The program also has 2 professional guardians to handle difficult cases with complex legal and/or medical or mental health issues.

It has been an honor and privilege to serve my ward through the Summit County Probate Court Volunteer Guardianship Program on behalf of Judge Stormer. If you have the drive and passion to help disabled adults, seniors and those in need, please consider serving as a volunteer Guardian- Signed R.N.

The need for volunteer guardians grows each year. For more information about becoming a Volunteer Guardian, please call the Probate Court at 330-643-8771 and go to our website and view a helpful video about the program.

Ruby celebrates her 100th birthday with Leslie, her volunteer Guardian

A recent gathering of our Volunteer Guardians

Guardian Susan delivered holiday Christmas gifts

donated by staff of Virtual Hold Technologies

Community outreaCh through eduCation & serviCe

speaker’s bureauStaff members have appeared in the community almost 500 times to present to a wide variety of groups and community expos. We’ve met thousands of concerned citizens and handed out tens of thousands of Court brochures and our popular yellow Personal Information sheet.

Look Beyond: An Art Show for All AbilitiesIn August, 2017, Probate Court partnered with Summit DD to showcase art created by artists with disabilities at the Akron Art Museum. All money raised through the sale of the art went directly to the DD artists.

The Akron Art Museum and Courthouse Atrium were the perfect settings to highlight the talented DD artists and their beautiful artwork.

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Probate Court newsletter4 times a year, catch up on activities and current events at Probate Court through our beautiful newsletter on our website and distributed through our Facebook page.

Collaboration & serviceAn important ingredient to our success during the past five years has been collaboration with stakeholder agencies and the “all in” attitude of our staff to support the work of our community partners.

straight talk about ProbateThe probate portion of an original collaborative program, Your Family Matters, has been presented to thousands of citizens all over Summit County. This very popular program answers questions like……What is an estate? What can I do to protect my property and heirs upon inheritance? Is it always good to avoid probate? You can view this as a video on our website.

In 2013, we learned that many people did not know what the Probate Court did or how they could access important probate services. Most people thought they should “avoid probate.”

There are very few reasons to avoid probate and in the last five years we have worked to get that word out.

training & educational videos Our website features an extensive catalog of training and educational videos, which we created to meet the needs of those who come to our Court. This year, Judge Stormer and SCCS Executive Director, Julie Barnes, created a joint video to help families considering adoption through becoming foster parents first. Probate Court is the only court empowered to finalize adoptions.

1social mediaThe Court shares community events and issues regarding, mental health, seniors, adoptions & guardianships through its Facebook & Twitter accounts. By far the favorite viewings are on adoptions days! 

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5

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Foster Care to Adoption:A Journey to a Forever Family

Clothing Drive for SeniorsOver 14,000 pieCes of Clothing were delivered to needy seniors. Probate Court staff collected, sorted and delivered gently used clothing for seniors in long-term care facilities and low-income AMHA housing.

Everyone pitched in to collect, sort and deliver over 14,000

pieces of clothing.

Holiday Mail for HeroesIn the last five years, Probate Court employees have donated and signed over 2,000 Cards for our troops. These cards were delivered to the Red Cross and sent to active military members serving here and abroad, as well as to VA hospitals. This year, kids at Barberton Elementary East made beautiful cards with heart-felt messages to the troops.

Handmade cards from the kids at Barberton Elementary East.

On the Table Greater Akron A collaboration led by the Akron Community Foundation to seek community input on needs within our community. Results from this input will help ACF set their funding goals over the next several years. With 2 other Judges, Joy Malek Oldfield and Amy Corrigal Jones, Probate Court hosted 3 groups at the Court.

United Way Our Court staff always supports two very special United Way projects.  This year, we visited students at Pfeiffer Elementary, Akron, for a fun story time on “Read to Me” day.  Another favorite project was the “Day of Action”, when our hard working staff pitched in for cleanup duty at Tarry House Respite.

save the dateContinuing our commitment to education and collaboration,

Probate Court and other entities serving seniors, worked together to provide a world class two day event.

May 18th – A professional conference at St. George’s Fellowship Center offering CEU and CLE level sessions.

May 19th – A FREE senior Expo featuring booths, break-out sessions, food, entertainment and prizes. Learn about services available in our

community to enhance the lives of local seniors. There will be no charge for admission; coffee and pastries, a food tasting, and a light lunch will be

available free to the first 500 attendees.

For more information about our Senior Summit 2018or to sign up for the Friday conference, go to our Website at:

www.summithohioprobate.com/senior.summit.2018.

Read to Me Day

Collaboration & serviCe highlights Cont...

Thank you very much for your concern, caring and time well-spent in collecting the clothing. I was fortunate to be one who benefitted from Probate Court’s clothing drive for seniors. The variety of items supplemented my wardrobe nicely.- A Senior AMHA Resident

you’reinvited!

assisting the PubliCthrough 21st Century teChnologyTechnology advances helped improve our service. A robust program to align with the best innovations available has streamlined the filing process and allowed the public better access to information. Our technology upgrades have been paid for by our Computer Fund, fees collected from case filings without general fund monies.

probate Court Website. The website reconfiguration means that people get to where they want to be in 2 clicks. They can watch 21 helpful videos. There are 283 on line fillable forms. Since the website was completed in June of 2015, we have gotten over 136,000 “hits” from users around the State of Ohio.

updated Case management system 100% of our records are accessible online, unless confidential. We have added a sophisticated, layered security system to protect confidential records.

In 2013, we embarked on a multi-year plan to repair and remodel the Probate Court offices. We repaired and replaced broken furniture and hazardous floor surfaces, while preserving the character of this historic building. We recycled wood, marble and other materials, some of which were 110 years old. The remodeling was completed at no additional expense to the taxpayers through fees collected by this Court.

transParent managementof tax Payers’ money & resourCesImmediately upon arrival in 2013, this Court initiated a first-ever internal audit. 5 auditors spent 3 weeks going through every aspect of the Court. We adopted all of recommendations. The County audit team performs annual audits, we have passed with “flying colors”.

Since the beginning of this administration’s tenure, we have returned over $2.3 million to the Summit County General Fund through the collection of court costs and filing fees. Our Special Projects fund covered the cost of extensive court renovations at no additional cost to taxpayers.

Promises KePtPromises made

In 2013, Judge Stormer worked with a Transition Team, a group of attorneys with extensive Probate and community experience. This team of 20 lawyers and a Citizen’s Advisory Committee of 27 helped set

the direction for the revolution of the court.

In THe LAST fIve yeArS, We TOOk GIAnT STepS TO keep OUr prOMISeS.We LOOk fOrWArD TO ServInG SUMMIT COUnTy GOInG fOrWArD!

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ligh

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Photos Courtesy Phil Masturzo / Akron Beacon Journal

delivering a modernPhysiCal Plant

Installed a state of the art digital reCording system to record court proceedings here and “on location” saving the costs of court reporters.