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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Protection Committee 05-09-02ST CROIX COUNTY PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE TO: C. W. Malick FROM: Julie Speer DATE: May 9,2002 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 NEW BUSINESS: 1. Election of Officers 2. Bills & Vouchers* 3. Traffic Tickets Collection 4. Medical Examiner's Report 5. District Attorney /Victim Witness Report 6. Child Support 7. Sheriff, Chief Deputy, Patrol Captain, Jail Captain and Officer Manager. A. Reclassification of Law Enforcement Clerk Position B. Expenditure from Drug Fund C. Jail Assessment 8. Correspondence *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 presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: Julie Speer DATE: 04/18/02 COPIES TO: County Clerk Notice Board /News Media Committee Members * *ADDITIONS /CHANGES /CORRECTIONS PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE MEETING MAY 9, 2002 MEMBERS PRESENT: Julie Speer, Charles Mehls, Denise Gunderson and Mary Louise Olson. Dan Raebel arrived at 8:55 a.m. STAFF AND OTHERS PRESENT: Sheriff Dennis Hillstead, Jail Captain Karen Humphrey, Chief Deputy Ron Volkert, Adm. Assistant Mary Martell, Child Support Administrator Katy Kapaun, Board Chairman C.W. Malick and Renee Carufel. Meeting called to order at 8:30 a.m. Motion by Mehls /Olson to adopt the agenda. Carried. Date of the next meeting will be June 7 th at 8:30 a.m. Motion to approve the minutes of April 9, 2002 by Speer / Mehls. Carried. Speer informed the committee she was asked why the patrol cars were not utilized for more than 80,000 miles. Hillstead responded with: of the six marked squads that were sold, two had 99,000 miles, two had 98,000 and two had 97,000 miles. One needed a new power steering unit, one needed tie rods and front ball joints. MEDICAL EXAMINER'S REPORT Review of Medical Examiner's bills. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to approve the bills of $4603.37. Carried. Speer informed the committee that interviews have been held for the Medical Examiner but no decision has been made. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S REPORT Review of the bills. Olson questioned what SART meant Sexual Assault Response Team. Motion by Gunderson / Mehls to approve the bills for the DA's office of $1552.75. Carried. TRAFFIC TICKET COLLECTIONS: Mehls reported we have over 2 million dollars in outstanding traffic tickets. One means of collection would be to have the patrol officers accept credit cards. Checking the credit card would not have to be done from the patrol car. It would be done in the office at a later date. Mehls has checked with other counties such as Chippewa, Eau Claire, Barron, and Dunn. Eau Claire and Barron Counites have been very aggressive with their collections with good results. Chippewa, Barron, Dunn and Eau Claire have had good tax intercept results. If the ticket is out of State (53 %) it is especially hard to collect. There were 4661 tickets issued in 2001. The average of each ticket was $102. Another means to collect delinquent traffic fines would be through the new Tax Refund Intercept program. Some follow up collection procedures would be to give a time limit rather than a long time to pay. The procedure to collect delinquent fines would be to have a warrant issued from a Judge, letter sent, then the person has to appear or pay off the ticket. If the person does not pay up or appear the person can be arrested from their job, work site or school. Another means would be to publish names in newspapers or put actual photos on the internet of the top ten people who owe fines. Some counties offer a bounty or award system. Full cooperation from the Clerk of Courts, Judges, Sheriff's Department and District Attorney's office is needed. This will be back on the agenda for the June meeting. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Vice Chairman Mehls received nomination of Chair: Motion by Gunderson /Raebel to nominate Speer for Chairman. Carried. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to cast unanimous ballot for Speer as Chair. Vice Chair Mehls turned the meeting back to Chair Speer. Motion by Olson /Gunderson to nominate Mehls for vice chair. Carried. Motion by Gunderson /Raebel to cast unanimous ballot for Chuck Mehls as vice chair. Motion by Gunderson /Raebel to nominate Olson for secretary. Carried. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to elect Olson as secretary. Carried. Supervisor Mehls had to leave at 9:25. Excused. VISIONS Hillstead reported the Vision's Project manager has left the company. We have not received any good news from Visions. We are still looking for a new software company. Hillstead explained the problems with Visions and what we hoped to do in the future. SHERIFF'S REPORT Hillstead reported the county has had 4 fatalities to date. This is the lowest number for this month in a long time. We have a lot of accidents because of more traffic due to the increase in population. County inmates have increased from past years. We are making more arrests for DWI'S, drugs and domestics. Hillstead projects that in 3 years we will not have any bed space to rent out. Our search warrants have doubled from previous years. As we grow and the numbers increase, our number of staff and officers will have to increase also. Hillstead reported we will apply for a new COPS grant as the other one will end in June. The grant has to be for new officers and will pay about 75% of their wages. They have to be somewhat involved in community policing such as going into schools and teaching about drugs. Olson stated we should be careful not to duplicate certain programs. Raebel advised this would be a means to increase the staff of officers or get a "jump- start" on getting the help that we should have. Committee consensus is to apply for the new grant and if we receive it, come back to the committee with the cops that would be needed. If the State cuts back on the Shared Revenue then some of the small communities will cut back on their police force and therefore put more of a burden on the County Sheriff's department. • JAIL CAPTAIN'S REPORT Humphrey reported we will have to start thinking about the more jail space that will be needed due to the increase in county inmates. We have a contract with Pierce County to house more inmates at this time. She also reported the benefit for Officer Jeremy Freeland, who was injured in a car accident, raised about $9,000. Our civil process server and the officer for the evidence room are both on medical leave. Discussion of overtime of the Jail and Sheriff's Department was held. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT'S REPORT Martell presented and informed the committee of the Law Enforcement Clerks seeking reclassification to Law Enforcement Secretarties. This would be going from pay grade 2 to pay grade 4. Speer informed the committee that this is a union issue and it is a labor negotiation issue. Martell and Hillstead support the staff and explained the need for the reclassifiation, knowing that this is a negotiated issue. Olson would not support any action from this committee and considered this as an information item only. This was brought forward for discussion. If it goes into effect, the committee would support it at that time. BILLS AND VOUCHERS Motion by Gunderson /Olson to approve the bills for the Jail of $42,024.12. Carried. Motion by Raebel /Gunderson to approve the Sheriff's bills of $61,823.77. Carried. The total revenues for the month of April were $126,399.16. Total expenses were $103,847.89. 78% of the revenues went into the general fund or specialized accounts = $98,262.24. Hillstead explained the different funds in the Sheriff Department, Pierce /St Croix Drug fund, Counteract fund and Confiscated Drug fund. Request $1521.60 from the Confiscated Drug fund for gas and less lethal rounds for the granade launcher. Motion by Gunderson /Olson to approve that expenditure. Carried. The Board Chair offered the use of his office for any county supervisor that needs a place to work or use the phone for county business. His door will be open. CHILD SUPPORT REPORT Kapaun explained that each child support case must be converted to a set amount. There is State money available for this conversion and we will have to start using some of this money. We are going to hire retired Judge Richards to hear the remaining cases. The additional costs will be for the court reporter, process serving and the need to reimburse Clerk of Court and Corporation Counsel. Motion by Raebel /Olson adjourn at 11:45 a.m. Mary Louise Olson, Secretary Renee Carufel, Recording Secretary