Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutJune 28, 2012 Agenda Packet$To LUCIE COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY COORDINATING COUNCIL June 28, "12 3830 p.m. $To LUCIE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION ANNEX BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CONFERENCE ROOM 3 1. Call to Order — Chairman Tod Nowery Z. Roll Call 3. Approval of Minutes- May 31, 2012 Meeting 4. Sheriff's Office Update — Sheriff Mascara/Major Tighe s. Update by Criminal Justice Coordinator- Mark Godwin 6. judicial Update- Chief judge Levin 7. Old Business 8. New Business: State Probation Travel Update 9. Adjournment Members: Suzanne Caudell Janet Collins State Attorney Bruce Colton Commissioner Tod Mowery Public Defender Diamond Litty Justine Patterson Sheriff Ken Mascara Chief Judge Levin John Romano Major Pat Tighe Judge Philip Yacucci L N 00 'd' 0 O O CO ti m LL W � Vf � V � V '- cn � b�A s � � a-+ •— s ca � � M CA �- > O '- ._ W M 70 .�+ m > V� 'i m > s - s CL L O O E CA w E O 00 O Q 0 m CL m 4� s V 0 a O V LM CL 00 Vl- O L _ R .s O t'w -W •— s cn � ,N ,O > �s (A +� s � N V � N � 0 CL C > a) O � � � � o O LM °' LM o O V 0.-0 E o ._ ca O • - > V 4-J O a� � �••+ txo O N m L V � Ca o E CL a) o >_, m E > m V 0 E LM •_ 0 N LM O s LM . 0 m O m ._ N m m m LM m •- O � Q •— V � N V Q. 0 Li N .� O J O 'p " U E ro R:::I- _ O m +, +� 4� V 3: V + v C 0o � O o _ ^ > L .— O , O 4-J O 0o L m +-' 4-, O O O . `n :3 `n X 4� p L I� O 4) C OLL �A U n •— - w E E U O O V A1 - ' N O � 0 O � s- cr) 4-J O Q X E N+ O co p U un . Ln O U O� � 1 O O Ln Q 00 -0 L .- O U •v p p O `n p S- i U U U_ - E O r--1 N M 00 M M= M 4J M U 0 • f z 401 V 4� W a O a . - tm E can O a� tj a� W� O ca — ca o a� CL s E a c� I ON M w C .s c s LM c� ._ N j � O O aw . •— w •— i o E C . _ aA =5 aA O — — M Law FU E 0 � � CL N 0 4- O a ,O MMEN aw M aw E M O a-+ M w IMEMEN 0 ILO.�, 0 a m m m V s CL L 0 E 0 a� 0 s F z O 2 aA .a N i 0 txo m 0 0 mle LM tb CU z 0 Tile Florida Bar News/May 1, 2012-5 Santa Rosa clerk goes paperless The move is seen as a way to increase efficiencies Mary Johnson, Santa Rosa's Clerk of the Circuit Court, got a letter from the. Supreme Court April 4 allowing her to discontinue. the.requirement.to have paper follow-up documents in all of her court areas, meaning she could go all electronic for court filings. "I was ecstatic," Johnson said. "This was the day I was waiting for." That day marked the end of the lengthy process Johnson had undertaken over the past few years to finally going paperless, being able .to use an electronic record, and creating what she says is a better work flow for her office and the courts. Since the beginning of the budget cuts in 2009, clerks across the state have been holding tight.to their purse strings and cutting positions, freezing vacancies,. and instituting furloughs; The Santa Rosa. Clerk's Office was. no different. "We were. lucky to be able to handle the cuts through attrition and freezing positions," Johnson said. "We continued to freeze positions as they became available since that time. Now, as often as we can, we are using a temp agency to fill in the gaps when we have a need on the court -side." But Johnson also saw aging technology and felt a new approach would help her create efficiencies, easing the workload on staff, as well as creating a more effective process in the courtroom. "1 have been in the courtroom since we handwrote in docket books," Johnson said. "I knew what we had could be better, but I have been waiting for the right case maintenance system to come along that incorporated so many of the requirements of recent legislation and a-f ling." Johnson upgraded her case maintenance system last year, allowing her office to image, redact, and accept a -filed documents, making her office compliant with Florida law, and setting the stage for going paperless. The new system allows clerks to provide images to the public. on demand that are redacted of sensitive information, creates all required financial reporting thatformerly had to be done in another system, and.allows for faster docketing and case processing. . Installing the new features connected her case maintenance system to the Florida Courts E-Filing portal, allowing her office to accept electronically tiled documents. Beginning a few months ago, Johnson and tier staff urged local attorneys to begin sending their documents electronically. Through local demonstrations, she was able to help them see thatusing www.myflcourtaccess.com would save them time and money. In March, Johnson's office processed more than 970 documents filedelectronically, filed on cases in eight of the 10 court areas. In the first few cases, the numbers climbed even further. There were 400 documents filed in the first week, 121 in just one day. Statewide, the focus has been on e-filing all civil cases. But Johnson took the system further to incorporate criminal case filings. Florida clerks have chosen December 31 for clerks to be ready to accept e-filed criminal documents. "It really didn't take us long to set up our docket. codes in this new. system to be ready for criminal filing," Chief Deputy Adair Cotton said. "We started with a few cases to make jOHNSON sure it worked efficiently. Then we worked with our local state attorney's and public defender's offices to make sure the portal was easy for them to use and went from there.'.' Johnson reached out to Bill Eddins, the First Circuit state attorney, aiid Public Defender James Owens, offering them an opportunity to try their hand at e-filing criminal cases in Santa. Rosa County. "Our Santa Rosa office started some test filings in January to see how it would work," Eddins said. "While we are aiming for batch filing, we have found that electronic filing has not slowed our Santa Rosa office down at all. We are now sending all case documents through the portal, where they become immediately available to the judge and, the clerk. We are discontinuing all paper and only send the clerk follow-up documents of those verified pleadings, those forms that require a real signature." Johnson then brought the electronic file to the Santa Rosa County courtrooms. On April 3, County Court Judge Robert Hilliard tested the system during his regular criminal proceeding and never touched a paper file. Hilliard is among several judges who now have a computer on the bench, so he can use the new touch -technology system. "I can bring up the pertinent file and. the document needed, and, with a series of taps and touches, I was able to get through 109 criminal cases that day and never touch any paper," Judge Hilliard said. Circuit Judge Marci Goodman was also part of the demonstration: "Innovations such as this allow for. the judicial system and its partners to continue serving the citizens of Santa Rosa County in a faster, more efficient manner." . Johnson is working on ways to expand the use of the system, to include first appearance, pretrial release, or other types of judicial process. "Getting documents from the other court partners electronically, such as corrections or probation, would be of real help," Johnson said. Johnson believes that her patience and hard work has finally paid off. "The letter I received in early April from the Florida Courts Technology Commission allowing my office to discontinue receiving paper copies of documents, sent as follow-up to an electronic filing, confirms that the Santa Rosa Clerk's Office has arrived. We have set the bar for the rest of the state for clerk and court workflow efficiencies." PUBLIC =AFETV COORDINATING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting May 31, 2012 Convened$ 3:36 P.M. Adjourned: 4:19 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Mowery called the meeting to order at 3:36 p.m. in Conference Room # 3,2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Presents Commissioner Tod Mowery Chief Judge Steve Levin, 19th Circuit Judge Philip). Yacucci,19th Circuit Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Sheriff Ken Mascara Major Pat Tighe, SLSO Janet Collins, Bail Association John Romano, New Horizons Members Excused$ Bruce Colton, State Attorney Justine Patterson, Florida Department of Corrections Diamond Litty, Public Defender Others Presents Mark? Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator Ethel Rowland, Taxpayer Broderick? Underwood, CJIS Analyst Allison Duffy, SLC Drug Lab Lisa Savage, SLC Pretrial Program Trevor Morganti, SLSO Scott Harloff, CORE Program Chief Sean Baldwin, FPPD Det. Scott Young, SLSO Trevor McKnight, SLSO APPROVAL OF MINUTES$ The minutes from April 26, 2012 were unanimously approved. Public Safety Coordinating Council May 31, 2012 Page 2 UPDATE bV SLC iherriff's Office- Major Tighe on behalf of Sheriff Mascara: Major Tighe reported the population count at 1256 with 39 US Marshal Inmates included. The Juvenile population is up 81 percent since January witch equated to 9 - 15. The female population is down 18 percent and the Major attributed that to all the action the State and Sheriffs office has taken with the abuse of pills. There was a discussion about how State took action with the Department of Corrections and shut down prisons along with budget cuts. Probation Officers were told not to leave the office; the offenders on probation would have to report to them. This has caused an increase in violation of probation (VOP's). Detective Scott Young was then introduced for his presentation on Krobodil a new drug that is not in America now, but will be eventually. Please see the attached presentation (warning some pictures are graphic). There was some discussion after the presentation about how some of these drugs make these individuals more violent. In some cases in order to protect the health care workers at the hospitals, they are sent to the jail. Mr. Romano, CEO of New Horizons, commented that it never slows down, they are always full whether it be the crisis unit or detox unit (Spice is a problem). Mr. Romano reminded the group that is has been twenty years now since there has been any price level increase from the State for treating these individuals. UPDATE bV Criminal justice Coordinator- Mark Godwins Mr. Godwin thanked the Sheriffs office for the donation of a vehicle for our Pretrial division. Lisa Savage, Pretrial manager reported to Mr. Godwin that there have been over seven thousand home visits this year. Coverage is provided seven days a weeks, twenty-four hours a day including holidays. Mr. Godwin asked Allison Duffy, Drug Lab Manager for any comments. Ms. Duffy stated that she recently added heroin and ecstasy the drug panel. She also reported that recently individuals from California visited both Lab locations and were very impressed with Ms. Duffy and the Drug Screening Labs. The Monthly Population report was reviewed and discussed. Commissioner Mowery had to leave and Chief Judge Levin stepped in to continue. Mr. Godwin mentioned that the Department of Juvenile justice predicted an increase of $71,000.00, therefore we had to increase our budget. He reported that it surprised him to see the increase since last year a credit was given of $660,000.00. We also continue to fund the Juvenile Assessment Center and were pleased that the city of Port St. Lucie contributed ten thousand dollars to help out the County and assist with this important program. Sheriff Mascara complimented Lisa Savage, Program Manager of Pretrial on her excellent work:. Ms. Savage recommended possibly utilizing county vehicles for field supervision for the State Probation Officers who can't conduct field work:. Chief Judge Levin asked Mr. Godwin to add: State Probation Travel Update to the June agenda. Public Safety Coordinating Council May 31, 2012 Page 3 JUDICIAL UPDATE Chief Judge Levin expressed his thanks to everyone in the room who worked so well together to accomplish the things that they do. The Drug Court Team is at a conference and Chief Judge Levin will share the new ideas at the next meeting. The Drug Lab is tremendous and thanlged them. The Spice problem has been overwhelming along with Bath Salts and other synthetic drugs. Judge Vacucci wanted to pass thanks along to everyone at the jail because there were no problems with any First Appearances, Change of Pleas or Arraignments. OLD BUSINESS- Courthouse parking update could not be discussed because Commissioner Mowery had to leave early. NEW BUSINESS- Suzanne Caudell, Director of C.O.R.E. Probation wanted to share good news. The site team from the Department of Highway Safety showed up as a surprise and visited two of the four offices. The site teams pulled client records, sat in on DUI School and sat in on evaluations as well. Ms. Caudell was happy to report that they received a perfect site visit and it was so validating for her staff because like so many, they have been doing more with less. Due to budget issues staff hours had to be cutback. Chief Judge Levin congratulated her and the meeting was adjourned. ADJOURNMENTS Chief Judge Levin adjourned the meeting at 4:19 p.m. Submitted by, Carlene Busse (Stacy Pourahis, Pretrial Staff Assistant recorded meeting in my absence) THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD June 28, 2012 St. Lucie County Criminal Justice System 2009 2010 2011 - 2012 1450 Average Daily Population 1350 1250 1254 1205 122 220 ,.�,,� 212 �12031197 � 175 ���1209 1172 1150 1160 1050 `""" 110 1 � 1086 950 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Through 5/30/2012 1600 1400 2009 2010 - 2011 - 2012 Monthly Bookings ON 1200 1877 1000 + 9 1051 "�'� 915 1004 811 800 600 400 200 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Through 5/30/2012