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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Protection Committee 11-07-02ST CROIX COUNTY PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE TO: C. W. Malick FROM: Julie Speer DATE: November 7, 2002 TIME: 8:30 a.m. LOCATION: Government Center CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL ADOPTION OF AGENDA DATE OF NEXT MEETING: December Stn, ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES 9:00 NOTE TIME CHANGE UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Vision 2. Public Safety Ordinance update 3. Traffic Tickets Collection update NEW BUSINESS: 1. Bills & Vouchers* 2. Medical Examiner's Report 3. District Attorney /Victim Witness Reports 4. Administrator of Child Support Report 5. Sheriff, Chief Deputy, Patrol Captain, Jail Office Manager a. Expenditure from Drug Fund b. Jail Assessment c. Citizen Input: Rita Lawson, Mark Vanasse, 6. Huber facility and Storage /impound area 7. Tour District Attorney /Victim Witness Office Captain and Apple River *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: 10/25/02 COPIES TO: County Clerk Notice Board /News Media Committee Members * *ADDITIONS /CHANGES /CORRECTIONS Wrd PUBLIC PROTECTION COMMITTEE MEETING December 5, 2002 MEMBERS PRES Julie Speer, Dan Raebel, Mary Louise Olson, Chuck Mehls and Denise Gunderson. STAFF PRESENT: Sheriff Dennis Hillstead, Jail Captain Karen Humphrey, Chief Deputy Ron Volkert, Adm. Assistant Mary Martell, Investigator Mike Wakeling, District Attorney Eric Johnson, Assistant DA Dennis Erickson, Child Support Administrator Katy Kapaun and Renee Carufel. Others present: Rita Lawson and Mark Vanasse. Meeting called to order at 9:00 a.m. Motion by Gunderson /Raebel to adopt the agenda. Carried. Date of the next meeting will be Jan. 9 Meeting in Feb. will be on the 7 th at 9:00 a.m. Motion by Mehls/ Raebel to approve the minutes of Nov. 7 th with the addition of: Under Public Safety Ordinance Update, Raebel wants it noted that Public Health Sanitarian Diaby- Gassama is willing to help with the Sheriff's department in working with the campgrounds. Carried. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S REPORT Johnson introduced Dennis Erickson from his office. Dennis has the most case loads in the office. He worked for the County as a paralegal from 1977 -81 and also from 1986 -88 while going to law school. The Federal Government had a program that funded the paralegal program 70% from which they hired Erickson. After he received his law degree in 88 he was hired as an Assistant D.A. In 1990 the Assistants became State employees. Committee was pleased to meet him. Chair Speer asked Johnson to draft a resolution to have a methamphetamine offense be a felony instead of a misdemeanor. He has contacted Rep.Kitty Roades and Senator Sheila Harsdorf for support on the State level. LAW LIBRARY SPACE After the DA's office lost the victim witness space on first floor, Johnson said their office was supposed to expand into the law library. The Clerk of Court was putting new files in that space. It is on the Finance agenda for Dec. 10 to decide who will get this space. This committee would like the Finance Committee to tour the District Attorney's office to see how cramped they are for space. Motion by Mehls /Gunderson to reserve the space in the law library for expansion of the DA's office. Carried. 1 1 ±t . Johnson reported he applied for a grant for a drug prosecutor and there is a good chance he will receive it. He needs space for this new position. He explained how the new prosecutor will work in his office and will serve Polk and Pierce Counties along with St. Croix. After a review of the bills, motion by Raebel /Mehls to approve $12371.36 for the District Attorney's office. Carried. Chair Speer read a letter regarding the VOCA grant for $5591.41 dated Nov. 11 covering the expenditures from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2002. In addition to the reimbursement for operating costs, it also includes $1487.40 additional grant money for the purchase of a computer and printer for the legal advocate. Johnson reported on the drug poster ceremony last Tuesday night. There were 300 people in attendance and was a great success. Mary Louise informed the committee about the SKITZO program and would encourage each school in the county to present this to their students. Tomorrow a U.S. attorney will meet with the DA's office to talk about the drug problems. CHILD SUPPORT REPORT Kapaun will provide a list of her bills for future meetings. She reported she will have some of her old files shredded to make room for new ones. The threshold to place a lien on real estate property is going down. If someone owes in excess of $2000 in child support, a lien can be placed on the real estate property. Another collection technique is suspension of recreational licenses. State staff will be here tomorrow doing an inspection of the Child Support agency. The contract for 2003 is signed, reviewed by Corporation Counsel and forwarded to County Board Chair Malick for his signature. PEO reconciliation is finished. If any cases come with percentages, they have to be converted to a set figure. Next year most agencies will see lower dollars collected because of the fixed dollars collected. This will affect the work -load because federal law requires an annual review of each case. Kapaun also reported they are having telephone problems in the office. Emergency Communication Director Kollman is trying to solve the problems as they come up. A new phone system will be forth coming. She also explained how cooperative services are paid. Discussed the possibility of doing saliva swabs instead of blood draws to establish paternity. 2 14 FA Speer read a letter from Department of Workforce Development commending the Child Support office for the successful efforts in converting more than 66,000 percentage expressed orders. PUBLIC SAFETY ORDINANCE UPDATE Mark Vanasse and Rita Lawson from Somerset appeared before the committee. They are interested in the Apple River activities. The Village has made a lot of progress over the last few years but the problems seem to get worse every year. Rita Lawson informed the committee that the concerts have had an effect on the river floating. The permit the Village issues annually is coming up for review. The County should be reimbursed for the total cost of law enforcement of the concerts. Mehls questioned the role of the DNR in this situation. Hillstead said part of this could be DNR enforcement. Under the law, parks should enforce floatation devices for everyone on the river. The DNR has not enforced this issue in the past. Basically, for right now, the DNR is not involved with this. Media is glamorizing this, maybe this would be an avenue to stop. Hillstead said we do not have the manpower to spend every week -end on the river. He has met with the Parks and told them that there will be more enforcement on the river. The Parks said they would try and control the illegal activities. The Parks wanted the towers and arrests have been made due to these towers. The safety of our officers is an issue also. The County will try and do more enforcement on the river this year and then concentrate on the campgrounds. If we could get the tubing places to enforce underage drinking laws, this would be a big help. Solving this problem without destroying the tubing industry is the Sheriff's goal. The screening for security personnel should be reviewed. Investigator Mike Wakeling reported on the work he does in the department. We have had 300 -400 cases of child protection this past year, 93 sexual assaults, 39 child abuse cases, 3 neglect cases and 17 fraud cases. Elderly abuse is an area that is being neglected because it is hard to press charges. Computer crimes and child porno are increasing. Wakeling is also active in the SART program (sexual assault response team) and Child Death review board. CHIEF DEPUTY'S REPORT Volkert reported the river will always be a problem. It would take at least 20 -30 officers to do a proper sting on the river. Concerning the campgrounds, they have provided a lot of jobs for local residents. 3 i S Hillstead reported on the 21S fatality this year. Another person is on life support and also there was another very serious accident yesterday. This person might not survive. These statistics are the same as counties with population of 150,000. TICKET COLLECTIONS Clerk of Court will deal with the 1St National Bank of Hudson to see if they will forgive the commission to handle the credit card ticket collections. Kristi Severson had to pass an extensive security clearance for her new position and will be the only one able to enter the collections to the tax intercept program. Mehls reported we have to set a schedule for obligations, along with a time table as to when they have to be paid. JAIL CAPTAIN'S REPORT: We received a $33,000 grant for the literacy program in the Jail. The money will be used for GED classes, anger management and other educational classes. The nurse's position for the Jail has not been advertised yet. The contract with Public Health runs out the first of the year. Motion by Raebel to inquire from the Personnel Director as to why this position has not advertised as of yet and for Personnel to implement the hiring of two part time nurses in the Jail immediately. Second by Gunderson. Carried. At the November Finance meeting that committee decided to have a Huber building committee. Motion to have Denise Gunderson serve as the representative from the Public Protection Committee with Dan Raebel as alternate by Speer / Mehls. Carried. BILLS & VOUCHERS Motion by Mehls / Raebel to approve the bills for the Jail for $65,571.50 Carried. Motion by Gunderson /Speer to approve the bills of $45,698.03 for the Sheriff's Department. Carried. $87,001.69 (93 %) went into the General Fund or specialized accounts. Martell handed out a survey of civil process fees. This will be put on the agenda for next month. VISIONS Hillstead received a letter from Visions, proposing a reduction in the fee that we owe them. If we would pay them 25- 30% of the money that we owe them, they would give us a savings of $30,000. We could pay them 50% now and hold back the remaining 50% until we are satisfied. The consensus of the committee would be to just wait until we get an answer from them 0 e as to how they are going to fix our problems before we pay anything. MEDICAL EXAMINER'S REPORT After review, motion by Mehls /Olson to approve the bills of $3984.00 Carried. Cost of the autopsies will go up from $1000 to $1200. This should be covered in the budget. Motion by Olson / Mehls to go into closed session for the purpose of reviewing the job performance of an employee. Roll call all voted yes. Motion by Raebel / Mehls to come out of closed session. Carried. Motion by Gunderson to adjourn at 1:45 p.m. Mary Louise Olson, Secretary Renee Carufel, Recording Secretary 5