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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Protection Committee 06-07-02ST CROIX COUNTY PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE Amended TO: C. W. Malick FROM: Julie Speer DATE: June 7, 2002 TIME: 8:30 a.m. LOCATION: Government Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Visions -Visit to Coon Rapids- Information Services report NEW BUSINESS: 1. Bills & Vouchers* 2. Citizen Request: Robert Tweedy 3. Goals & Objectives for Each Department* 4. Budgets* a. Current Status of Budget Expenditures as of May 1. Line Item Transfers (Reference Finance Meeting Minutes, May 10 th ) b. Over Budget Items C. Any Other Information Regarding 2003 Budget Planning 5. Medical Examiner's Report 6. District Attorney /Victim Witness Reports 7. Administrator of Child Support Report 8. Sheriff, Chief Deputy, Patrol Captain, Jail Captain and Office Manager a. Expenditure from Drug Fund b. Jail Assessment c. Large Assembly Ordinance 9. Traffic Tickets Collection Ordinance 10. Closed session per WI Stat.1983 (1) (b)for discussion of employee 11. Reconvene into open session. *These will be presented by each department at the time of their report ANNOUNCEMENTS & CORRESPONDENCE POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily SUBMITTED BY: Julie Speer DATE: 05/22/02 COPIES TO: County Clerk Notice Board /News Committee Members presented in this order) Media * *ADDITIONS /CHANGES /CORRECTIONS PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE MEETING June 7, 2002 MEMBERS PRESENT: Julie Speer, Charles Mehls, Denise Gunderson, Dan Raebel, Mary Louise Olson. STAFF AND OTHERS PRESENT: Sheriff Dennis Hillstead, Chief Deputy Ron Volkert, Adm. Assistant Mary Martell, District Attorney Eric Johnson, Victim Witness Legal Advocate Karn Rasmussen, Child Support Adm. Katy Kapaun and Renee Carufel. Meeting called to order at 8:30 a.m. Motion by Olson /Gunderson to adopt the agenda. Carried. Date of the next meeting will be July 9th at 8:30 a.m. August meeting will be the 7 th at 8:30 a.m. Motion to approve the minutes of May 9 2002 by Mehls /Raebel. Carried. Cynthia Litzell has been hired as the Medical Examiner. No bills have been presented this month. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S REPORT Bills were reviewed. Motion by Gunderson /Raebel to approve the bills of $725.69. Carried. CHILD SUPPORT REPORT Kapaun alerted the committee to an issue in Child Support. A client owed $15,000 for child support. We tried to serve papers several times and he was given the opportunity to pick up the papers at the Roberts Police Department. He failed to do so, therefore he was served the appropriate papers at a funeral, because of no other alternative. The mother of said person complained to Rich Loney this was very distasteful in this situation. Kapaun will send a letter of apology to the mother after being reviewed by Corporation Counsel. Progress with the conversion of the child support cases is being made. Judge Richards is hearing these cases, 261 cases remain as of May. A staff member is requesting 56 hours of unpaid leave. Kapaun sees no problem with this request. Kapaun does help out with her cases. She is requesting a 35 hr week which will help her with a child care issue. Committee consensus is this would open up problems with the rest of the staff. Motion by Mehls that we stick to the 40 hour work week for the department and want the office to reflect the hours to be open to the public from 8 -5. Second by Olson. Carried. Kapaun reported her office had an air quality study. Maintenance was very responsive to this study and did all they could such as carpet cleaning. No other measures can be done. No capital outlay is foreseen in the future budget for Child Support. VICTIM WITNESS REPORT: Eric Johnson appeared before the Committee with a request to increase the part -time legal advocate position to full time. Karn Rassmussen is our present legal advocate. Her main job is to help the public with restraining orders. She also sees the restraining order to completion. Being part time, she is usually not here when the person has to go to court. After the court case she does a follow up also. Johnson complimented how Karn handles each case. We have seen a large increase in this number of cases. He gave an explanation of the different duties of VW, Specialist, and Advocate. This position is state funded by the VOCA grant for 80 %, of which a 20% local match is required. Speer read a letter from Ann Gustafson for the receipt of $4,074.91 for the expenditures under the VOCA Grant for Jan - March. Olson expressed concern of the availability of the grant. Motion by Speer /Gunderson to approve this request changing this position from part time to full time in 2003, (Correction from July 9 th meeting)by adding a sunset clause depending on the issuance of the grant. Approved Mehls, Gunderson, and Speer. Olson and Raebel voted no. Johnson explained more cases are getting rougher. Meth cases are increasing. To date we have had 25 meth cases. These are delivery or manufacturing cases, not possession. This issue is close to epidemic. The District Attorney's office will be very aggressive with these cases to make a statement. Johnson explained his budget will be case driven. There will be high costs if several big cases are solved. Chairman Malick advised that these costs should be budgeted for in the DA's and Clerk of Court's budgets. VISIONS Martell said she and Tom Boron will be going to Coon Rapids to see how their Visions software program is working on June 13 Visions is coming out with a new revision to fix part of the program but we do not have a definite date on that. SHERIFF'S REPORT Hillstead reported we have had five traffic fatalities in the last 30 days, making a total of nine for this year. This is attributed to the sheer increase in volume of traffic. Assistance calls have increased about 300 per year. We had three emergency detentions yesterday. This number is increasing dramatically These are people who are trying to commit suicide and are time consuming and expensive. We have had a lot of construction site burglary going on lately. Drug cases are up, a lot of meth cases are pending. The County inmate numbers have increased in the Jail. Average daily number for the month of May was 112 of which 64 are county inmates. Next open Huber date that someone can serve is the end of August. We have started the electronic monitoring. We have 2 cases now but it is hard to find an inmate that should be using this devise. We have three deputies that are out on medical leave, which is putting a strain on the department. Hillstead reported the Concert in Somerset on Memorial Day weekend went well, 87 -90 arrests were made. Most of the problems were in the campgrounds. Four sexual assaults were reported from the campgrounds. The real problem is they are putting 10,000 people in a space that is designed to hold 4,000. Sheriff reported some of the incidents that happened at the concert. LARGE ASSEMBLY ORDINANCE: Discussion on whether or not we can enforce an ordinance at this time. Corporation Counsel Timmerman said an ordinance would not apply in a village so this would not affect the concerts in Somerset. Sheriff Hillstead said our goal would be to have adequate protection for all persons involved. We have to move from reaction to prevention. Correction from July meeting: The committee asked Corporation Counsel to draw up something concerning this ordinance. BILLS & VOUCHERS Hillstead reported we received $1200 from former employee who passed away and left this money to be used for the evidence room. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to accept the Jail bills of $73,250.20. Carried. Motion by Gunderson /Speer to approve the bills of $25,773.61 for the Sheriff's department. Carried. Revenues for the month of May were $64,868.96. 83% of the revenues went into the general fund of specialized accounts= $53,665.56. Speer informed the Sheriff that the reclassification of Jail Bookkeeper position was a union position and could not be approved from this committee. Sheriff expressed the need for a third sergeant so we have round the clock supervision in the Jail. We had an unsuccessful suicide attempt in the Jail last night. That is why supervision is so important. We need a new position for this. Sheriff requested two half -time nurses without benefits instead of using the County Public Nurse. He thought we could get these for about $24 per hour. We need more coverage than what we are currently receiving. Raebel questioned what would happen to the Public Health nurse position. Hillstead requested an upgrade of the Programs /Volunteer Coordinator position from % to full time status. Have had positive responses from inmates for the education offered. This Coordinator applies for grants from the State for these classes. Hillstead also requested a Huber /Electronic Monitoring officer only if the Huber addition is approved. This would be adding a total of 48 additional beds onto the 32 existing beds. This addition could be adequately monitored with one additional Huber /electronic monitoring officer. Motion by Raebel / Mehls to have all positions go to the Personnel committee. Carried. Discussion on the position reclassification for the administrative assistant. Sheriff is requesting this position go from a pay grade 6 to pay grade 7. The duties have increased with this job. She provides training to all employees and has a big part in hiring staff. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to approve this going to the Hay study committee. Carried. Hillstead presented the cost of the federal COPS grant. Due to the increase with traffic tickets, accidents and other needs, we should have more officers. These positions would be basically for traffic enforcement. After the fourth year, the county would have to pay for these officers. These positions are needed anyway so the State grant is a real benefit to the County. Motion to accept the COPS grant by Gunderson / Mehls. Carried. In the capital outlay plan for the Sheriff's department Hillstead presented a five year vehicle outlay plan if the COPS positions are received. Committee reviewed the whole capital outlay plan. Hillstead requested the purchase of six used handguns from the Village of No. Hudson for $250 each. If they pass inspection, we should purchase these guns from the Drug /Confiscated fund. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to purchase these guns from that fund. Carried. TRAFFIC TICKET CO LLECTION : Mehls reported the ticket collection goal for 2002. We need to collect fines from out of state