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Home My WebLink About04-25-2013PUBLIC =AFE? OORDIN~11'ING COUNCIL Minutes of Meeting April 25, 2013 Convened: 3:40 p.m. ~~~~ Adjourned 4:19 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Mowery 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 takten. Member: Presents Commissioner Tod Mowery Tom Genung for Chief Judge Steve Levin,l9t" Circuit Gary Wilson for Ken Mascara, Sheriff of SLC Judge Philip 1. Vacucci,l9t" Circuit Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Major Pat Tighe, SLSO Janet Collins, Bail Association John Romano, New Horizons Memberf Absents Bruce Colton, State Attorney Justine Patterson, Florida Department of Corrections Diamond Litty, Public Defender Other: Pretent~ Allison Duffy, SLC Drug Lab Ivelisse Chico, SLC Pretrial Program Trevor Morganti, SL SO Scott Harloff, CORE Program Susie Caron, BOCC Ethel Rowland, Taxpayer Chris Harris, Magellan Health Kayla Filippini, Third Grade Student APPROVAL OF MINUTEf: The minutes from January 31, 2013 were unanimously approved. Publie safety Coordinating Couneil April ZS, 2013 Page Z IN1'RODUCTION~ Commissioner Mowery opened the meeting by introducing the new Pretrial Manager, Ivelisse Chico who was promoted after her predecessor, Lisa Savage retired earlier this month. Ms. Chico shared her backrground as a former Police Officer for the NYPD. She relocated to Florida in 2007 and has worked her way up within the Pretrial Program ever since. In light of recent events in the news outside the state and in Orange County Florida where the Pretrial Program was shut down, Ms. Chico explained how the St. Lucie County Pretrial Program is different. Defendants are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 day a week including Holidays. Unlike other Pretrial Programs monitoring is performed by staff, not an outside agency. Defendants are required to check in the office at least once a week and they are visited at their home weekly ensuring visual contact. Ms. Chico explained that there is always three staff on call to handle any GPS alert. Ms. Chico invited members to contact her anytime with any questions or concerns. Judge Vacucci added that Judges had standards put into place when the Pretrial Program was set up to limit who would be eligible to participate in the program. Safeguard measures were implemented in the beginning to minimize the chances of any occurrences like the one is Orange County. Furthermore, Judges have been called on occasion in the middle of the night for a warrant if there was an issue that needed to be addressed. Major Tighe spoke of the close communication Pretrial has with all involved in the system and offered support if needed. Judge Vacucci as well as Major Tighe praised Ms. Chico for her outstanding work over the past years and expressed their confidence of her abilities in her new role. Commissioner Mowery also introduced Kayla (Carlene Busse's daughter) who had the opportunity to attend the meeting because it was, Take Your Son/Daughter to Work Day. Kayla became Commissioner Mowery's assistant during the meeting and enjoyed her educational experience. UPDATE by sLC fherriff'= Offiee- Major'iighe on behalf of sheriff Ma:aara~ Major Tighe reported the population at the St. Lucie County Jail declined to 1175 with 59 Federal Inmates. He announced on May 4th the Police Athletic League is going to host, Law Enforcement Family Fun Day from noon until 4:OOpm. in Fort Pierce. This group was formed after wives of other Law Enforcement Officers attended the Funeral of Sargent Gary Morales this past February. This was in an effort to offer support to one another and get to know the spouses of those who are in Law Enforcement. Public fafety Coordinating Council April 35, X013 Page 3 UPDATE Criminal Justice Coordinator- Allison Duffy on behalf of Mark Godwin Allison Duffy, Manager of the St. Lucie County Drug Screening Lab provided a Summary Statistics hand out for fiscal year 2012/2013. The St. Lucie County Criminal Justice System Yearly Population/Booking Summary was also distributed. Suzanne Caudell, CORE Program Director, thanked Ms. Duffy for the Drug Testing Hot Line she implemented. Ms. Caudell was pleased about how well the hotline has worked out. All of the CORE clients are testing more often with the random system as opposed to the manual system that was in place in the past. JUDICIAL UPDATE- Tom Genung on behalf of Chief Judge Levin Tom Genung, Court Administrator for the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit provided a few updates since our last meeting. Mr. Genung announced the State Court System received a little over five million dollars from the Foreclosure Settlement Lawsuit. Those monies are used to address the backlog of foreclosure cases statewide. Mr. Genung stated we were able to apply for some of that money. It was also suggested by the Chief Justice to mention in the application that intentions for the funds would be technological advances to address the foreclosure backlog better. Mr. Genung advised members that electronic filing was now mandatory for Civil Attorneys and all civil proceedings. He also mentioned in October electronic filing would be mandatory for Criminal Attorneys as well. Mr. Genung explained that the Clerk's Office will be storing digital images and bites accordingly. Court Administration recently contracted with Memphis Technology Solutions for installation and implementation of a Judicial Viewer System. He gave a brief overview of what that does and how it will make the electronically stored information searchable and user friendly between the different databases within the court system. Mr. Genung indicated that eventually sometime in the future the Judges would go paperless by viewing cases on a touchscreen tablet. Commissioner Mowery explained that the County Board recently transitioned to a paperless system with agendas being done through a program and Commissioners viewing those items on a tablet at the Board meeting. Public fafety Coordinating Council April Z5, Z013 Page 4 OLD BUfINEff -None NEW BUfINEff Suzanne Caudell, Director of CORE Probation, added that they too are malting an effort to go paperless and have been reviewing Case Management software with scanning capabilities that includes a web portal for the Judges, Clerkzs Office as well as other agencies. John Romano, CEO of New Horizons, shared good news about Mental Health and Substance Abuse dollars have not been on the "chopping bloclt" for the first time in years. It is too soon to tell what that means in terms of additional dollars for our area yet since there is still some time left to go in the legislative session. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Mowery adjourned the meeting at 4:19 p.m. Submitted by, Carlene Busse THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD May 30, 2013