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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 02-28-2008 PUBLIC SAFETY COORDINATING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting February 28, 2008 Convened: 3:40 p.m. Adjourned: 4:45 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Craft called the meeting to order at 3:40 p.m. in Conference Room # 3, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Present: Commissioner Chris Craft th Tom Genung for Chief Judge Roby, 19 Circuit Ken Mascara, Sheriff of SLC Major Pat Tighe, SLC Sheriff’s Office Thomas Mark, Department of Corrections Suzanne Caudell for Peggy Cioffi, CORE Program Janet Collins, SLC Bail Bond Association John Romano, New Horizons of the Treasure Coast th Members Absent: Judge Philip J. Yacucci, 19 Circuit Diamond Litty, Public Defender Bruce Colton, State Attorney Others Present: Mark Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator Broderick Underwood, SLC Information Technology Department Lisa Savage, SLC Pretrial Program Manager Ed Fry, SLC Clerk of Circuit Courts Commissioner Grande, SLC District 04 Jim Reeder, Palm Beach Post Ethel Rowland, Taxpayer Eva O’Donnell, Aide to Commissioner Craft Eva Bryant, SLC Drug Lab Trevor Morganti, SLC Sheriff’s Office Becky Bleyman, CORE Program Mitch Hilburn, SLC Bail Bond Association Michael Houston, Houston Cuozzo Group Rodney Hopkins, Fountain Resort Hotel Robert P. Bozzone, CARP, Inc. Public Safety Coordinating Council February 28, 2008 Page 2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the January 31, 2008 meeting were unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: st Major Tighe made correction to the bond report handed out at the meeting of January 31. The corrected amount collected in 2007 was $64,089,060 not $126,999,557. The computer kicked out a double amount. Ethel Rowland was mistakenly left off of Others Present. Mark Godwin read an email from Ethel. Minutes accepted as amended. Commissioner Craft handed out an update from Department of Central Services. Talks about the shortfalls with our budget. A little bit as to why the court expansion of the rehab of the old court facility is slowing down. The reason we were late getting into this room today, the Legislature provides the Board an opportunity to meet only a very few occasions outside of the sunshine and one is contract negotiations with our unions. One of the bits of information that was given to us is over the next two years were going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of a $50,000,000 shortfall because tax reform and property value decreases. Because of that I think the level of importance of this board has risen to a higher point than it has ever risen before. We need to increase our cooperation beyond what we ever imagined it could be. We are going to have to really get creative and try to treat the front end of the criminal justice system more so than we ever done in the past because once they get into the criminal justice system and especially towards the back end we all know what these costs are. This is with a heavy heart that I am even saying this today. There is some difficult choices that your BOCC is going to have to make in October and I wanted to make sure everyone here understood that as long as I am sitting in this chair over the next year I would respect everyone’s cooperation and please let’s not bring up building any new jail space for at least a year. UPDATE by CRIMINAL JUSTICE COORDINATOR-MARK GODWIN: Mr. Godwin said the last meeting with Court Facility Space Needs, Chairman Craft has requested that we set up a tour of the court facilities. Tentatively the schedule will be March 14, 2008 Lisa Savage, SLC Pretrial Program Manager, gave update on the Pretrial Program. About 45 to 50 on GPS. About 50 on Standard Pretrial. We have a few more that are DOC-VOP technical violations. We had 37 during February for drug testing. We now have breathalyzers and were called to mental Health Court to use the breathalyzer on a case. A couple more Mental Health cases, a couple of Baker Act cases. Public Safety Coordinating Council February 28, 2008 Page 3 Mr. Godwin said Lisa had one of her staff look at the number of beds they saved for those individuals since Lisa took over the program which was approximately eight months ago and we looked at it in different parameters from $45.oo a day all the way up to $70.00 a day based on inmate needs but this does not include the inmates that are ill. Typical example $45.00 based on the number of individuals that Pretrial Program has served that would be roughly $903,015, $60.00 a day would be $1,200,000 and that is based on bed day savings. Mr. Godwin went over the handout from Broderick Underwood. Average length of stay for felony inmates in 2007 was 83 days. Now you see it is being pushed up. I have to give a lot of credit to the judges. Major Tighe stated Judge Cox was still on the bench at 8:00 PM and Judge Nelson was on the bench at 10:30 PM on a Friday. Commissioner Craft said as the economy goes down we have less revenues to operate on as do people which causes them to get into trouble because they don’t have a job. Commissioner Craft asked Broderick if he could do a report that would give him an understanding of what the unemployment rate is and how it is changing according to the jail. Mr. Godwin updated everyone on the Drug Lab. It is moving forward. We plan to have that before the Board for final approval on March 11, 2008. State funding helping to buy the chemicals, which are very expensive. Our Drug Lab would be using up to $50,000. That has to go out to bid. That is state money in addition to the substance abuse fund that we receive. We are looking at setting up the Drug Lab without taxpayer funds. Grant update – still waiting for the Memorandum of Understanding from the State regarding the funding of the Mental Health Court. Waiting for them to return it so it can be put on the Boards Agenda for final approval and acceptance of that which does not include taxpayer dollars. Total of $688,000 over three years of funds. Still waiting on the information from the Second Chance Act. We checked on that recently and it’s a little bit stagnant right now in the Senate. It has gone through the House and passed. Sent a proposal up to the Department of Juvenile Justice. DJJ was charging us $176.00 per day to the County out of taxpayer revenue for housing children at the detention center. It has now gone up to $184.00 a day which will equate to well over $200,000 a month we are going to have to pay to the DJJ. We are making a proposal as an alternative to incarceration at the Juvenile Detention Center working with the detention center and the judges to utilize a GPS proposal that Ms. Savage has put together utilizing the staff that is at the DJJ along with the tracking capability that we have and it is only $8.00 a day as oppose to $184.00 a day. Mr. Genung said everyone has heard and seen all the press about the state budget. Furloughs are still on the plate. Legislative leadership said they are willing to work with the court to find another alternative to furloughs. Without furlough pretty much operating (inaudible) until July and then Public Safety Coordinating Council February 28, 2008 Page 4 the second round comes. Those cuts will be severe for the next budget year. We fully expect to lose staff. It will probably affect more Family and Civil then it will in Criminal at that point. Commissioner Craft made a request on the Council to ask Senator Pruitt and some other members of our delegation to sit in on our next meeting and it may require to meeting on a Saturday. They need to hear these from the ground level instead of from Tallahassee. Major Tighe mentioned that he heard from DOC about the way judges are sentencing people to state prison. State prison system is in critical condition. I think there is about 105,000 prisoners and they have bed for 95,000. Michigan’s doing it, Alabama’s doing it and California is attempting to do it. Right now Florida Law is 364 days you’re sentenced to the County Jail, anything over you go to State Prison. There is a move in Tallahassee to change that to 3 years in County Jail. It’s very quiet and very subtle right now. You hear it in little remarks from DOC but what they are attempting to do is lower their population and throw it back on the local taxpayers, so we need to monitor that. Mr. Romano asked Mr. Genung what the status of Mental Health Court is with all the cuts we are talking about. Mr. Genung said right now Mental Health Court is pretty much local funding. NEW BUSINESS: Commissioner Craft said we have a presentation from CARP (Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Program) Michael Houston from Houston Cuozzo Group passed out a map that shows where the site for CARP would be. The address would be 4891 N US1, Fort Pierce, FL. We will be going to the BOCC and asking for rezoning and conditional use that would allow for a treatment facility like this. We are here to inform you, get your thoughts and hopefully get your support. Robert Buzzone, Executive Director, handed out the CARP – SLC Inpatient Treatment Program. Proposal is to develop a 36 bed inpatient treatment program for adults 18 years of age and older. Men and women who live in the Treasure Coast area, the 4 County area. A minimum 60 day stay with a maximum length of stay of 180 days. It will be licensed as a Level 2 substance abuse treatment program by the Department of DCF. A maximum of 184 clients will be serviced annually. Sheriff Mascara asked can a judge order your treatment in lieu of being sent to jail. Mr. Buzzone answered yes. Public Safety Coordinating Council February 28, 2008 Page 5 Commissioner Craft asked if all the clients are going to be from the Treasure Coast. Mr. Buzzone answered yes. Commissioner Craft asked if a doctor will be available. Mr. Buzzone answered yes. Commissioner Craft asked that this council support this facility at this location and if we can make a recommendation to the BOCC that you support it and it is needed for our community. Is someone willing to make a motion? Motion forwarded motion second. All was in favor. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Craft adjourned the meeting at 4:45 p.m. Submitted by, Carol Strobert THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD March 27, 2008