PORTLAND — Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court announced the recipients of the Maine Judicial Branch employee performance awards for 2015.

The Special Service Award was given to the Court Management System Request For Proposal Steering Committee. This group is involved in preparing for the purchase of a modern case management and electronic filing system and wrote the RFP issued earlier this fall for this multimillion-dollar project.

The employees honored were: John T. Smith of Brunswick, Service Center manager; Beth Maddaus of Sumner, manager of Clerks of Court; Ellen Hjelm of Windham, director of Budget and Accounting; James “Ted” Ross of Cape Elizabeth, deputy chief, Judicial Marshals; Anne Jordan of South Portland, manager of Process Improvement; Anita Alexander of Phippsburg, Clerk of Courts, West Bath District and Sagadahoc County Superior Courts; Superior Court Justice Anne Murray of Bangor; and District Court Judge Susan Oram of Auburn.

The chief justice also recognized Michele Haggan of Lewiston, administrative clerk in the Lewiston District Court, with a Special Service Award for her work implementing the unified criminal docket in Androscoggin County. 

The chief justice observed, “The Thanksgiving holiday is an appropriate time to recognize and thank court employees for their public service. . . . The employees recognized today by the court and their fellow employees exemplify the public service provided by so many wonderful employees in the judicial branch, and I thank them for their public service. ”