MACCAC Board of Directors Meeting AMC Board Room Friday, January 26, 2007 Meeting Minutes Attendance: Don Ilse Anoka County Tom Roy Arrowhead Regional Corrections Gerald Haley Blue Earth County Michael Kafka Central Minnesota Community Corrections Midge Christianson Chippewa, Lac Qui Parle, and Yellow Medicine Counties Barbara Illsley Dakota County Ron Wiborg Hennepin County Fred La Fleur Hennepin County Community Corrections Deborah West Kandiyohi County Corrections Jon Ramlo Nobles County Douglas Lambert DFO Carol Roberts Ramsey County Sally Ruvelson Ramsey County Community Corrections Theresa McCoy Scott County Mark Sizer Stearns County Katherine Langer Todd/Wadena Susan Mills Tri-County Community Corrections Tom Adkins Washington County James Haas Rice County Andy Erickson Ramsey County Staff: Scott Simmons, Cathy Hanson, AMC Guests: Kay Pedretti, State Court Administrator s Office Mary Dombrovski, Department of Corrections Dylan Warkentin, Anoka County Staff Tracy Page, Hennepin County Jerry Driessen, Hennepin County I. Call to Order: President Fred La Fleur called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. Introductions were made around the room. Approval of Meeting Agenda: Ron Wiborg moved to approve the January 26 meeting agenda. Carol Roberts seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously. Approval of November 17, 2006 Meeting Minutes: Sally Ruvelson moved approval of the November 17, 2006 minutes. Jon Ramlo seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously. 1
II. Drug Court Initiative Kay Pedretti, State Court Administrator s Office: Kay introduced the two staff people with her, Jeff Shorba and Dan Griffin. Dan gave an overview of the information contained in the packets distributed to members. Dan stated that an advisory group was formed to look at drug courts to determine if they were working well. The Drug Courts were established with federal funding and the advisory group needed to determine the legislative proposals needed for state funding if the Drug Courts were to continue to operate. A budget request of $7.38 million has been submitted to the judicial council and governor for drug courts. There is a little over $4 million for the judicial branch: $3.2 million for judicial branch and new drug courts; $18,000 new coordinator positions and training, $3.371 million for grants to partners. Survey research and discussion of staff time spent in drug courts was done to establish requested amounts. An oversight group, Drug Court Initiative Advisory Committee (DCI), was formed to allocate the money and weigh in on some of the standards issues for drug courts. Kay then spoke about the oversight issues. An effort was made to bring together all partners and to collaborate on the development of these courts. There will not be federal funding available in the future, so the state must look at sustaining the courts that are already operational and to look at growth. The DCI will likely meet monthly in the beginning moving on towards a quarterly schedule. Statewide standards, distribution of funding and monitoring of activity (program evaluation) will be determined by this group. The ten key components of drug courts that exist at the national level will be considered. A MACCAC representative was asked to sit on the committee. Discussion ensued on clarification of funding and operating responsibilities of drug courts in the future. Members asked if the funding requested is one-time or added to the courts base. The courts have requested this funding as a part of their base funding. The federal funding is going away and the courts are looking to keep the existing courts sustainable. Judicial coordinator positions have been added as a result of planning for the future of drug courts. Kay stated that it is up to the local court to determine if they are going to be in the business. This is transitional and developmental planning. Concern was also expressed regarding database management in this issue. In addition, there will be an evaluation group led by Deb Daley, lead researcher. Evaluation is a current requirement for funding and they are hoping to do a comprehensive evaluation in the next biennium, as the drug courts need to be in place for a while in order to have graduates of the program as your control group. Kay noted that a MACCAC representative is welcome to be a member of the evaluation team. III. Department of Corrections Report-Governor s Budget Recommendations: A summary document on the governor s recommendations was available for review. Comments and questions ensued regarding the following: CCA funding formula issues, short-term offender funding increase, population increase projections, which will be released on February 1. Carol Roberts asked if DOC would be doing away with public risk management and whether the criteria will be going away. Mary Dombrovski did not have the answer at this time and will follow up on the question. 2
IV. Evidence-Based Practices Guidelines for Self Evaluation--Don Ilse and Dylan Warkentin: Risk assessment Best Practices Plan: to come up with a basic best evidence practice for a local agency. Dylan reported on the one-page final outcome guide submitted by the committee on this issue. Don commented that this guide should be used as a self-assessment. Kathy requested that the document be expanded to include juveniles. Carol Roberts, Mark Sizer, Barbara Illsley, and Therese McCoy volunteered to staff the group to add the juvenile portion. Members expressed appreciation for the document and the fact that it is very concise. An electronic version will be forwarded to members by Scott after it is received from Dylan. V. Court Case Disposition Summary-MNCIS--Tracy Page, Hennepin County: Tracy is on the CriMNet task Force. Tracy reported that one of the unintended processes in MNCIS is that probation officers are having a difficult time getting criminal history out of the database. CriMNet authorized a delivery team to investigate this, which Tracy is a part of. They have found a new way to gather material for a criminal history. Olmsted, St. Louis, Hennepin, and Ramsey counties have created their own repositories accessing statewide information for pulling together these histories. A plan will be presented to the CriMNet Task Force on February 9. Hennepin Justice Integration and STI will be meeting next week to come up with a plan to propose to the CSTS Steering Committee and CriMNet. At this point it looks feasible to create, test, and implement a product by the May/June timeframe when MNCIS is implemented in Hennepin County. Hennepin will send out copies of the proposal and development approach once agreement is made with the appropriate partners. VI. CCA Funding Trends--Jerry Driessen, Hennepin County: Jerry gave an overview of a study done through surveying CCA counties. He noted that it is apparent that operations and reporting differ somewhat between counties/jurisdictions. However, there is a trend over time that the overall cost of operating community corrections has grown due to the addition of CCA counties and the imposition of unfunded mandates, workload and caseload increases. One conclusion is that funding of CCA counties over time has increasingly relied on property taxes. The reduction and consolidation of County Criminal Justice Aid aggregates to an over $21 million dollar cost shift on to property taxes. Jurisdictions not reporting can still submit information to Jerry to update this survey. Jerry encouraged members to send 2007 data as well and to continue to maintain this research. Jerry will send the documents to members electronically. Members requested that AMC is needed to bring this issue to the legislature at the county level. There was universal agreement to use this document, as needed keeping in mind it is a sensitive issue as the numbers differ jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Members suggested that data begin at 1997 and move forward. VII. Committee Reports Treasurer s Report: Kathy Langer reported on the budget update, investment of savings, and working with Sue Bowman on projected dues spreadsheet to present at the next meeting. There was an issue of a number of checks misplaced at Wells Fargo bank, which is being investigated. MOTION: Susan Mills moved to invest $50,000 in a five-month CD at 4.5 percent interest. The motion was seconded by Barbara Illsley and passed unanimously. There was a brief discussion of annual dues increases of three to four percent to be able to sustain an executive director. Members were in agreement with this. 3
Legislative Report: Tom reported that the governor has proposed to increase short-term offender reimbursements to about $30 per day. The governor has also proposed $2 million for sex offender funding in the first year with $4 million to follow in the second year. There is an increase for the CCA subsidy of about 7.7 percent. There is also language for juvenile sex offender funding and caseload standards requiring 40 additional probation officers statewide. Short-term offenders: Fred La Fleur gave an overview of a handout Hennepin County prepared for the legislature on the issue of short-term offenders. Midge asked if MACCAC would take a position on the CCA subsidy proposed in the governor s budget. A talking point paper will be drafted on this issue. Tom Adkins and Ron Wiborg will draft the document. Ron added that it is still early in session and there will be more information in the coming weeks. Ron Wiborg spoke on the resolution on loss of federal health benefits. The update sent by AMC on this issue was disseminated for review. Tom then briefly reviewed the NAMI mental health proposal. Tom was approached by the county attorney s association on the juvenile sex offender registration issue. The previous MACCAC platform language was available for review: Juvenile Sex offender registration should be narrowed to those offenders designated under Extended Juvenile Jurisdiction (EJJ) and non-ejj offenders ordered by the court as needing to register. Jim Haas moved to add this proposal to the MACCAC platform. Fred La Fleur seconded the motion. Discussion followed with suggested language changes and the motion was withdrawn. Tom and Ron will work with the language and bring it back to the Board after the county attorneys clarify their position. Sex Offender Standards: Carol Roberts reported that she, Kathy Langer, and Tom Adkins worked together on an electronic response to the task force proposal. The proposal was sent out and copies were available at this meeting. Carol asked members to review the proposal and provide input to Fred before he signs and returns to DOC by February 15. Discussion ensued and members offered some alternate language be inserted into the document for the purpose of clarification of a point. MACCSS: Don Ilse reported that DOC would be mailing a letter in regard to their major disaster recovery mutual aid agreement. The department will be asking for directors or county board members to sign the agreement. Each jurisdiction will be asked to attach their individual plan. Don stated that DOC is initiating a release violators project. They would like to get several MACCAC directors/staff to volunteer to meet with them on this project. Barbara nominated Dylan Warkentin and Tim Cleveland. They agreed to participate. Jim Haas volunteered Christine Bauer from Rice County. MACCSS also discussed sex offenders on supervision in DHS facilities. Until April 2005, DHS took responsibility for them. Since then, CCA jurisdictions have had some level of involvement in these cases. The department would 4
like to communicate with MACCAC on how they can work together with these offenders. DHS contacts will be invited to the next MACCAC Board meeting. VIII. IX. DOC Training--Jerry Haley: Juvenile facility inspector called Jerry regarding training funds allocated and offered the opportunity for input into what type of training is needed. A meeting to discuss the allocation of funds will be held next week. Interested members should give input to Jerry in the next couple of days. MACCAC Committees and Appointments--Don Ilse: A list of current MACCAC committees and membership was reviewed by members. Any changes or additions should be sent to Don in the near future. Doug Lambert will replace Andy on the EBP subcommittee. A rural representative from MACCAC is needed for the MACCSS committee. It is Midge s intention to start attending as the Vice Chair, which will fill this need. The Drug court Position Paper Committee is no longer needed and can be removed. The Board requested an updated membership list for MACCAC. X. Executive Director/AMC Agreement Fred La Fleur XI. Adjourn: There being no further business before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 12: p.m. 5