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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 03-26-2009 PUBLIC SAFETY COORDINATING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting March 26, 2009 Convened: Adjourned: 3:35 p.m.4:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Craft called the meeting to order at 3:45 p.m. in Conference Room # 3, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Present: Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Janet Collins, SLC Bail Bond Association Bruce Colton, State Attorney Commissioner Chris Craft Diamond Litty, Public Defender Virginia Keating for Thomas Mark, Department of Corrections Ken Mascara, Sheriff of SLC th Tom Genung for Chief Judge Roby, 19 Circuit th Judge Philip J. Yacucci, 19 Circuit Members Absent: John Romano, New Horizons of the Treasure Coast Major Pat Tighe, SLC Sheriff’s Office Others Present: Mark Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator Joe Smith, Clerk of the Courts Theresa Bailey, SAMH Ethel Rowland, Taxpayer Chris Harris, Magellan Health Gary Robinson, PSLPD Broderick Underwood, SLC Analyst Becky Bleyman, C.O.R.E. Program Scott Harloff, C.O.R.E. Program APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the February 26, 2009 meeting were unanimously approved. Public Safety Coordinating Council March 26, 2009 Page 2 Tape malfunctioned the first 5-7 minutes – did not record. Tape picks up with Sheriff Mascara saying, and the current company which was QWC Ibelieve. Commissioner Craft said I don’t remember – I vaguely even remembered that until Chief Wilson had mentioned it to me in the meeting following the next day. That’s the reason I wanted to come back and again I tried to get the input from the Boards that have something to do with what were discussing so that’s why I brought it up to everyone. Diamond Litty said I think that was part of the settlement agreement that we were going to negotiate the medical facility. Commissioner Craft said specifically it says the Board of County Commission would consider it. Sheriff Mascara said if they have the funding. Commissioner Craft said in these times the Board is trying to decide whether they want to spend money on adding extra room on the medical wing at the jail or do we want to put that in bricks and mortar that is going to help us bring jobs which in turn is going to help the jail by keeping people to work. That was the conversation I wanted to get if someone wants to make a motion to the BOCC to consider the proposal Sheriff Mascara just mentioned. Motion made by Diamond Litty and Sheriff Mascara. Mark Godwin said working with Wayne Tegardin dealing with medical cost in the past year. It’s apparent if they had more beds at the jail the inmates that are sick wouldn’t be transported to the hospital so often – reducing cost. Commissioner Craft stated what we were attempting to do was to utilize what ever funds we needed to get the process started. What ever funds was left out of that we would use that for other capital improvements throughout the County and then go after stimulus dollars which may take six months to a year. Diamond Litty asked if this will be an agenda item on the next County Commission meeting. Commissioner Craft said no – we are not there yet. I will bring the recommendation from this Board to the BOCC at the next meeting to let them know the Public Safety Coordinating Council has waited on this issue. Sheriff Mascara stated just to expand on what Mark said, the plans that we have drawn up take into account that we send the sickest of our sickest people to the hospital and I think there is more aggressive treatment area for these sick people that we could take care of them right there in the medical wing if we expanded. Public Safety Coordinating Council March 26, 2009 Page 3 Commissioner Craft asked could we get the number of dollars we would save for this process. Mark Godwin told him they keep track of every pill for the inmates. Mark will work with Wayne Tegardin to get the information on the cost savings. UPDATE by CRIMINAL JUSTICE COORDINATOR-MARK GODWIN: Mark Godwin thanked everyone for sending letters of support for JAC. Faye Outlaw has seen the letters and will be meeting with Dan McIntyre. Sheriff Mascara said we are seeing a reduction in our VOP both misdemeanor and felony from last year also our population is around 1,400. Commissioner Craft said I’ve had conversation with two separate individuals and because of the economic downturn they had left the state, violated their probation, so they didn’t make it to court. They called my office and asked how to handle this because they can’t get a job right now and they are ready to do their time. Bruce Colton said there is another situation that is people who have an outstanding warrant for VOP or an original charge, now they can’t get social security payments. We are getting calls from all over the country asking if we can drop their charges and what we have worked out so far we started in Martin County and want to expand it through the circuit is to have these people especially on VOP on minor charges and minor misdemeanor is to ahead and enter a plea and have the judge determine the fine and we can get that money and get rid of their cases and they can get their public assistance. Sheriff Mascara said we were backed up with misdemeanor warrants. What we are doing is sending out a letter. We are letting you aware there is a misdemeanor warrant for your arrest, the charge is, bond out is $500 and we give them seven days to respond to it. They are coming with the money and we are booking them in and booking them right out. Suzanne Caudell said that is something from misdemeanor probation we have implemented as well. Mark Godwin thanked Broderick Underwood for his work with the databases. Diamond Litty said Broderick recently put together a database for their re-entry program. Mark Godwin said there are about 80 defendants on GPS. Last year the legislature passed an act law called “A Citizens Right To Know Act”. We gather data on everyone who has gone through our Pretrial Program and differentiate types of categories and it is broken down very specifically. Since the County took over the Pretrial Program, there has not been one failure to appear. Public Safety Coordinating Council March 26, 2009 Page 4 Drug Lab continues to grow not only in the number of defendants but because the drug lab did open up to the public. The drug lab is self supporting and as a result we reduced the cost that we can pass unto the court system for the Judges. We reached out to the community. I met with twenty-nine Human Resource Directors from different agencies and organizations here in St. Lucie County and presented them with brochure and telling them our lab is available. JUDICIAL UPDATE: Tom Genung said last week we lost the longest sitting County Court Judge in the state. Judge Harper passed on last Tuesday. NEW BUSINESS: Diamond Litty’s office received two Davis Productivity Awards for Mental Health Court and for Re-entry. They will receive a $500 check from the state for Mental Health Court. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Craft adjourned the meeting at 4:00 p.m. Submitted by, Carol Strobert THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD April 30, 2009