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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 01-29-2009 PUBLIC SAFETY COORDINATING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting January 29, 2009 Convened: Adjourned: 3:35 p.m.4:15 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Craft called the meeting to order at 3:35 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 John Romano, New Horizons of the Treasure Coast Bruce Colton, State Attorney Ken Mascara, Sheriff of SLC Major Pat Tighe, SLC Sheriff’s Office Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Mitch Hilburn for Janet Collins, SLC Bail Bond Association Thomas Mark, Department of Corrections th Judge Philip J. Yacucci, 19 Circuit Members Absent: Diamond Litty, Public Defender Others Present: Mark Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator Broderick Underwood, SLC Analyst Lisa Savage, SLC Pretrial Manager Trevor Morganti, SLC Sheriff’s Office Debra Wright, SLC Sheriff’s Office Jack Miller, Magellan Health George Woodley, SAMH Director Theresa Bailey, SAMH Mitch Hilburn, Hilburn Bail Bonds Ethel Rowland, Taxpayer Julie Dolen, New Horizons Sean Baldwin, Ft. Pierce Police Department APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the September 25, 2008 meeting were unanimously approved. Public Safety Coordinating Council January 29, 2009 Page 2 PRESENTATION: Ethel Rowland presented Sheriff Mascara with a print of a painting. The print and painting was of the Escobedo Family who were assassinated, Friday morning, October 13, 2006, on the Florida Turnpike. Ethel thanked Sheriff Mascara. Sheriff Mascara said the trial started this week. Opening arguments were Tuesday morning at the Federal Courthouse in West Palm Beach. Both Sheriff Mascara and Major Monahan attended. Sheriff Mascara said the print will hang in their detective bureau because the lead detective on this case has said he will never ever have a moment that he will not be thinking about this case. UPDATE by CRIMINAL JUSTICE COORDINATOR-MARK GODWIN: Major Tighe said immigration and customs enforcement are really stepping up to the plate in St. Lucie County more than they have in the past. The beginning of next month they will be digitally hooking to our finger print machine. It will go right into the database. One of the biggest problems we’ve been having with customs is if they are arrested for misdemeanor charge and they have the federal hold once the misdemeanor charge is disposed of under Federal Statute customs have 48 hours to pick them up and they don’t always make it to pick up the person and we get notified by attorney’s that we are violating federal law and they are going to bring civil litigation to the Sheriff, so we release them. Commissioner Craft said he seen on the news there are immigrations going back across the border due to lack of jobs. Mark Godwin mentioned at the county jail, Mental Health, the number of incarcerated patients receiving medication. This relates to a couple of programs the St. Lucie County B.O.C.C. approved which was the Forensic Case Manager. The funding for the Mental Health Court and support of that and dealing with the grant the team applied for under the Division of Client Services. He thanked John Romano and Julie Dolen from New Horizons for receiving a couple of checks from the voucher system. There is money being refunded back to the county and that is being put back into the Mental Health Fund in the Criminal Justice Division. Lisa savage gave update on Pretrial. 63 on GPS, 83 on Standard, 52 in jail that have Pretrial Orders, 20 cases sentenced to us. Some are 30, 60 days or 3 months. Judge Cox ordered some cases to pay while on GPS. Some are paying $5.00 week or $10.00 a day. She would like to have the charge at $10.00 a day which would cover the $8.00 per day for GPS, blackberry’s, filed work, vehicles we use with the county. Commissioner Craft wants to make sure if out-of-county the cost is covered. Does not feel $10.00 a day will cover the cost. We need to make sure we are covering every dime of the cost that we Public Safety Coordinating Council January 29, 2009 Page 3 can get from them. This program is funded by the Board of County Commissioners and I just want to make sure they are being reimbursed for every dollar from someone we are monitoring from outside. This is designed to keep our jail population down not someone else’s. I don’t mind helping out but $10.00 a day isn’t going to do it. Mitch Hilburn asked if somebody is supposed to be paying for the bracelet and they can’t make that payment is that a violation of the program. Lisa Savage said if the Judge has ordered that to be paid then I am going to notify the court. Mitch Hilburn asked if the person had a surety bond and a bracelet, in that condition would there be any way for surety to know. Lisa Savage said I don’t call and advise we are doing a violation. The State Attorney and Defense Attorney are not made aware until after it is signed. Mark Godwin said he would like to thank Lisa and her staff. On Christmas Eve, and this has happened on a regular basis, she was out at 2:00 in the morning taking somebody into custody that was on house arrest with the ankle bracelet and tracked the individual right into a wooded lot, in complete darkness, where she could not see him and she called the individual out. Commissioner Craft asked if she had a deputy present. Lisa Savage said they had the dogs out but they had gone. We came back to the residence and we were watching the GPS. Commissioner Craft said I don’t want you following anyone into the woods. That is why we have law enforcement officers. Mark Godwin said we would like to order (2) 800Mhz radios, I will be taking it to the Board. I talked to the Sheriffs staff about getting on the band so we can talk directly to law enforcement. Bruce Colton asked aren’t the people that are in Mental Health Court there because they are incompetent to proceed or have been found to be not guilty for reasons that they are incompetent. Asked John Romano if that was his understanding? John Romano said no, they’re not all NGI (not guilty by reason of insanity). Most of them are Misdemeanor. Bruce Colton asked how do they quality to go to Mental Health Court? John Romano said the jail identifies them most of the time and then they are referred to the court and pretty much what Judge Cox is telling me other judges refer to her when they feel someone has a Mental Health issue. Public Safety Coordinating Council January 29, 2009 Page 4 Commissioner Craft wants Mark to work with Lisa to define the criteria of how a violation is handled. We need to work with the Sheriff office on that. Commissioner Crafts wants a written policy approved by the St. Lucie County B.O.C.C. because we can not have our staff doing that. Tom Genung said it sounds like to me that the services that Lisa’s group is providing is perhaps expanded beyond the contemplation of the original administrative order going along with that program. I think it is really important that we review that administrative order and modify to encompass so we are all operating according to the order. Mark Godwin said and we also want to comply to the Judges order too. Mark gave update on the drug lab. From July 1, 2008 to the present we processed 5,159 urine specimens. Out of all the specimens 24.8% have determined to be positive for drugs. 6.8% of the positive specimens were for nd Oxycodone followed by 5.8% for THC. The drug lab is on the 2 floor of the courthouse and is open to the public. We are reaching out to community organizations. Judge Yacucci asked on the percentages, the 24% that tested positive, does that include those who had a legal prescription. Mark Godwin said that is a good question, I’ll find out. Judge Yacucci said the way we get it , it will come back as a positive report but will say “may have tested positive because of a legal exemption for”, so there is no cause for a violation, we check the box that says put it in the file so we know it was a positive but I think that’s a little high as far as persons that have actually violating. I think it’s actually less than that. I think a number of those have legal prescriptions. Mark Godwin said that is something we will have to track because Oxycodone is a prescription and it is being prescribed and we do make note of that. The number of people that has tried to flush, which is called the creatine levels, there were 327 individuals and the number of people who tried to mask their urine by drinking certain types of drinks that mask their urine was 487. Mark Godwin went over the booklet from Broderick. Gave credit to Broderick for putting it together along with all the other databases he has running. The databases for the other types of specialty court, not only does he have it running here in SLC but he has it running in other counties that have requested it and he just recently ruled out the court calendaring system for the Judges and the judicial system that helps the bailiffs tremendously from what I hear. The program even signs bailiffs to the courtrooms. We are getting statistics from the DJJ. In 2008 qtr, summer and into the fall, there are certain individuals that are being held in our juvenile detention center. Usually it is for 21 days but there are certain individuals that are being held for 40, 56, 58 days, I understand that the cases are not disposed of, but holding a juvenile, that juvenile is costing the county a tremendous amount of money. I think it is $200 a day to hold the juvenile. JUDICIAL UPDATE: Tom Genung said they have the new courtroom in St. Lucie West. The county staff did a wonderful job. Debra Pierce, our magistrate will be operating in that courtroom fulltime. Any matters coming Public Safety Coordinating Council January 29, 2009 Page 5 to St. Lucie West that someone needs accommodations for we will move people around so they can use that courtroom. Another important program that the circuit is going to go into is to assist with our foreclosure cases. We have a huge volume of foreclosure cases in SLC upwards to 1,000 filings for a month. The Common Center which is a Think Tank out of Tallahassee, is non-profit. They were asked to handle all the insurance mediations from the hurricanes. They said they would manage foreclosure mediations. We worked out an administrative order for that process. They presented a budget that it will cost them approximately $750.00 a case for mediation. They are training local mediators to perform those mediations. There will be 16 different financial programs that they will be able to try to work out between the homeowner and the lender. Sheriff Mascara asked if they would be doing the mediation in the courthouse. Tom Genung said no – they have rented space in the community. NEW BUSINESS: ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Craft adjourned the meeting at 4:15 p.m. Submitted by, Carol Strobert THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD February 26, 2009