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Home My WebLink About11-02-2023 Public Protection & Judiciary Minutes MEETING MINUTES PUBLIC PROTECTION & JUDICIARY COMMITTEE November 2, 2023 8:00 AM St. Croix County Government Center - Room 1284 Government Center - 1101 Carmichael Road, Hudson, Wisconsin CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL Attendee Name Organization Title Status Arrived Cathy Leaf St. Croix County Supervisor Present Paul Adams St. Croix County Supervisor Present Bob Feidler St. Croix County Chair Present Mark Carlson St. Croix County Supervisor Present Tim Ramberg St. Croix County Supervisor Present Others present; County Administrator Ken Witt, Child Support Administrator Lisa Plunkett, Clerk of Court Kristi Severson, District Attorney Karl Anderson, Justice Support Services Director Phil Galli, Medical Examiner Patty Schachtner, Sheriff Scott Knudson, CASA Executive Director Sean Kinsella, meeting organizer Janet Smith. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Public Protection & Judiciary Committee – Regular Meeting – October 5, 2023 8:00 AM RESULT: ACCEPTED PUBLIC COMMENT BUSINESS ITEMS 1. Financial Report for September 2023 Administrator Witt presented the September 2023 Financial reports, included in the agenda packet. RESULT: DISCUSSED 2. CASA Overview - CASA Executive Director Sean Kinsella CASA Executive Director Sean Kinsella gave a brief update of the CASA program. The CASA program serves children who have been adjudicated due to abuse, neglect and/or abandonment who need protection. CASA Recruits volunteers who are asked to commit 2 hours a week for 52 weeks. Following the child throughout the year and reporting back to the courts. The program currently has 20 volunteers. 78% of the children are in the program due to parents with addiction issues. Average age of the children is 12 years old, mostly girls. The program is always looking for volunteers. Training is approximately 30 hours for report writing, court appearances and extensive training for participating in the program. Discussion. Committee would like to hear from the CASA program on a quarterly basis. RESULT: DISCUSSED 3. Circuit Court Update RESULT: NO ACTION 4. Consolidation of Services - Justice Support Justice Support Services Director Phil Galli spoke on current drug testing services and a goal of streamlining services for Pretrial, family court and drug court, GPS and remote breath tests services. Pretrial and treatment court have been using different software systems, which makes the documenting difficult. The department has consolidated the process of reporting by moving to the same provider for all programs which, helps with billing, customer Service and reporting. The new provider is SCRAM, a large international company. Discussion. RESULT: DISCUSSED 5. Consideration of jail wire mesh screening project in 2024 CIP project Chair Feidler spoke on the upper level of the POD project. Sheriff Knudson spoke on his belief that completing the wire mesh project on the upper level of the POD would help to prevent incidents and attempts by inmates to do self harm. Supervisor Carlson believes that since SCC has identified a potential danger the county could be liable. Costs for the project is just around $550,000 and is in the CIP for 2024. Supervisor Ramberg agrees the county is moving forward and doing their own due diligence. Feidler addressed the $550,000 asking if the same outcome could be accomplished for a lesser amount of money. Knudson responds that several vendors have been identified and yes there are reduced costs but of a lesser product. Discussion. RESULT: NO ACTION 6. Consideration of Additional Public Safety Priorities Beyond 2024 Budget Administrator Ken Witt spoke on the 24 (narrowed down from 47) Public Safety positions which had been identified as needed to best serve the Public Safety in St. Croix County. Funding for the positions was included in the spring elections 2023 referendum. The 24 positions included in the referendum totaled 3.7 million, the referendum was defeated. Since the referendum was defeated new ways of funding those positions need to be found. The County Board will be voting on the 2024 budget which will include 13 of those 24 positions. There remains 11 positions that were identified as important in providing optimal public safety to St. Croix County but need funding. The positions identified are as follows; Administrative Assistant for Justice Support Services, two deputy Clerk of Courts, 2 co-responders from HHS, 1 District Attorney Investigator, 4 correctional deputies, 1 District Attorney Legal Assistant, 2 HHS Co-responders. Administrator Witt asked the committee for priorities in funding these positions. Witt explained the 2024 budget included four major revenue sources; increase in property tax (due to growth within the county), increase in sales tax, Interest earnings, Other revenue source 753,000 from State of Wisconsin. Discussion on other funding options and simplifying the referendum text. A special Public Protection and Judiciary Committee meeting to be held to detail the positions and further discuss funding these positions. RESULT: DISCUSSED-NO ACTION REQUEST FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Special Meeting dates to go out to committee ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE Sheriff Scott Knudson reported on the success of "National take back day", when citizens can bring in unused prescriptions for disposal, 678lbs were transferred to the state for disposal. New Richmond, Hammond, Glenwood City, Hudson, River Falls, Somerset and the county all participated. ADJOURN Adjourned at 8:49 AM DATE OF NEXT MEETING - DEC 7, 2023