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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 05-31-2012$T. LUCIE COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY COORDINATING COUNCIL May 31, 2012 3830 p.m. $To LUCIE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION ANNEX BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CONFERENCE ROOM 3 1. Call to Order — Chairman Tod Mowery Z. Roll Cali 3. Approval of Minutes- April 26, 2012 Meeting 4. Sheriff's Office Update — Sheriff Mascara/Major Tighe Presentation by Detective Scott Young on New Drug 5. Update by Criminal justice Coordinator- Marb Godwin 6. judicial Update- Chief judge Levin 7. Old Business s. New Business Update on Courthouse Parking 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 PUBLIC SAFETV COORDINATING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting May 31, 2012 Conveneds 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,19t" Circuit Judge Philip J. Yacucci,19t" Circuit Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Sheriff Ken Mascara Major Pat Tighe, SLSO Janet Collins, Bail Association John Romano, New Horizons Members Excuseds 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, C115 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, 51-50 APPROVAL OF MINUTESs The minutes from April 26, 2012 were unanimously approved. Public Safety Coordinating Council May 31, 2012 Page 2 UPDATE by SLC Sherriff's Office- Major Tighe on behalf of Sheriff Mascaras 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 Sheriff's 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 Krokodil 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 mahe 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 by Criminal Justice Coordinator- Mark Godwim 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 week, 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,"12 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 thanked 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. ADJOURNMENT: Chief judge Levin adjourned the meeting at 4.19 p.m. Submitted by, Carlene Busse (Stacy Pourakis, 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 1254 1250 1205 1226��-=—v^-"—�„_-.,,_� — 220 __ 212 f 175` 1203 1197 ' 1209 1172 1150 1160 ` 068 1101 3086 1050 950 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Through 5/30/2012 1600 2009 2010 2011 2012 Monthly Bookings 1400 1200 1000 60 93 1051fR 915 1004 966 811 800 600 400 200 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Through 5/30/2012 4-0 � O O .%J4 L '� 0 L 67 L N }' 0 c� a, L M •� m u LIJ f6 � E D s _ m 4-1 �M CL 0 E > GJ 4-0 LM Y/ •L 'N A V � aA � C w ' u'' en ba N Ln "O N N N r 4- c fV -O � Q '� 0 � s v 'O (A+ Up O 00 cn N ` +-., X N U E - O d- Q _ p N � � 4A .N .-, cn -EM M V + V N' c Ln aj O p 0 o ; E > 00 � O ca _0 in E J 4-J O Ln O 00 + WCL lti0 U n � s N E E v O O O � ~ f�a M E i N O ca N aA 0 O N N +; O p u N CD 4- cn O — v s cz O N p .- O 0 U N N N s to �O Q 00 j, E N N � _ N �� N N E .- N 4- � 1 u 00 0 .N O' O O r-I N M COca ra = CO 4 -+ m U .� I. :F I m IL L ei5 dd 0 2 0 u L i m sWN 4ml m s81 s o 4-1 m L ._ m •— CL v� C c m o � aro a� � L � • L �' Ids LL 1a 'o Y O L Y tw C s 0 � t a W s 0 10 e I Z .lmon M' �. Q � L •N •` ' (A L 0somm y M OC c6 I I 1 IVIIUQ W., IVGVVJl1VIQy 11 GV I l.."'"J Santa Rosa vlerk goes paperless The move is seen as a way to increase efficiencies Mary Johnson, Santa Ross's Cleric of the Circuit Court, got a letter from the Supreme Court April 4 allowing her to discontinue the- requirerneut.to have paper follow-up documents in all of her court areas, meaning she could go all electronic for court filings. `9 was ecstatic," Johnson said. "This was the day I was waiting for," 'First clay marked the end of the lengthy process Johnson had undertaken over the past few years to final ly going paperless, being able to use au electronic record, mid et Gating shesays is a better work flow for her office and the courts. Since the beginning of thebudgetcuts in 2009, clerks across the state have been holding light totheir 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 continue(] 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 creatingamore 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 e-filing." .lohnson upgraded her case maintenance system last year, allowing her office to image, redact, and aoeept e-filed documents, making her office compliant with Florida law, and setting the stage for going paperless. 'fire new system allows clerks to provide images to the public on demand that are redacted of sensitive information, creates all required financial reporting thatformerlyhad 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 cleetronically filed documents. Beginning a few months ago, Johnson and her staff urged local attorneys to begin sending their documents electronically. Through local demonstrations, she was able to help them see that using www.myflcourtaccess.com would save them time and money. In March, Johnson's office processed more than 970 documents filed electronically, filed on cases in eight of the 10 court areas. In the first few weeksofApril, the numbers climbed even fiiither. There were 400 documents filed in the first week, 121 injust one day. Statewido, 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 oases to snake JOIiNSON - sure it worked efficiently. 'Then we worked with out 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, and Public Defender James Owens, offering them an opportunity to to try their hand at e-filing criminal cases in Santa Rosa County, "Our Santa Rosa office storied 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 tine judge and the clerk We are discontinuing all paperand 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 call 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 drat 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 One use of the system, to include first appearance, pretrial release, or other types of judicial process. "Getting documents front 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."