DATE: September 3 , 2004
The regular meeting of the Sauk County Law Enforcement Committee was held on Friday, September 3, 2004, at 8:00 A.M., in the Community Room, D102A, 1300 Lange Court, Baraboo, Wisconsin.
The meeting was properly posted and all interested parties were notified.
Members Present: Montgomery, Sinklair, Fordham, Tollaksen, Carlson
Members Absent: None
Others Present: R. Stammen, B. Hinze, M. Hafemann, J. Prantner, J. Spencer, T. Liebman, J. Deal
1. Call To Order and Certification of Open Meeting Law: The meeting was called to order and compliance with the Open Meeting Law was certified by Chair Charles Montgomery at 8:00 A.M.
2. Agenda: Motion by Carlson, seconded by Tollaksen, to adopt the agenda. Carried.
3 Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting(s): Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to approve the minutes of the regular Law Enforcement Committee meeting held on Friday, August 6, 2004. Motion carried.
4. Communications: Congratulations going to Art Carlson for his hole-in-one shot at the 7th Annual Sauk County Deputy Sheriff's Association golf outing on September 1, 2004 at Devil's Head Resort.
Sheriff Stammen read a letter from Mr. & Mrs. Charles Haugh from California expressing their thanks and commendation to Deputy Tyler Stephens for his assistance in towing their vehicle.
A letter from the Department of Corrections was read informing us that there are 1, 820 inmate days for Probation & Parole.
Sheriff Stammen read a resignation letter from Karl Larson, resigning him from the Sauk County Dive Team. His resignation is effective September 1, 2004.
5. Appearances: Officer of the month award will be presented next month.
6. Review and Approval of August, 2004 bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Department: It was suggested by Todd Liebman to collect expenses from autopsies and dental identification from the helicopter crash and submit an insurance claim to see if we can be reimbursed for the expenses accrued.
Motion by Carlson, seconded by Tollaksen to approve payment of the Coroner's August, 2004 bills in the amount of $6,247.90. Motion carried.
We have exhausted 60.59% and should be at 66.64% for our budget this year. The Sheriff's Department will be close to zero on the budget. Revenue continues to flow in especially from the jail, even with the price of medical prescriptions growing.
Todd has been asked to check on legality of inmates names being printed on the monthly invoices due to the fact that the invoices are a public record.
Motioned by Montgomery, seconded by Fordham, to approve payment of the Sheriff's Department's August, 2004, expenditures in the amount of $98,747.48. Motion carried.
7. Draft of Amendment for Animal Control Ordinance: A Draft of the Animal Control Ordinance was presented by Todd Liebman. This ordinance will be for persons in an unincorporated area in Sauk County. One of the major concerns will be the considerable cost to the County for impounding the animal(s). This is due to court/appeal actions that will take place before the disposal of the animal. Expenses will try and be collected from the animal(s) owner. Those that meet the minimum qualifications will need to obtain a license/permit from the Sauk County Department of Public Health. To be reevaluated in one month.
8. Sheriff's Report: Sheriff Stammen reported the following information for the final overtime costs for the month of July, 2004:
There was a total of 2,312.83 hours of overtime for the month of July 2004. 401 hours of compensatory time, 1911.75 hours of overtime. There were 190.25 hours of supervisory overtime authorized in July.
For the month of August there has been 139.5 hours of Supervisory overtime authorized. 48.5 hours for Supervisors to worke the various drug and highway grants; 46.75 for Supervisors to work special investigations; 22 hours for Supervisors to work the bank robbery; 32 hours for Supervisors to work on special teams.
The contract has been signed as of Thursday, September 2, 2004 at 3:00pm, for the vehicle registration service. There will be a training session set up and the program up and running by the end of September 2004.
Union openings were posted and completed for vacancies in the Detective Division. The following were promoted to Detective:
Trevor Lohr (September 1, 2004); Kim Wasilewski (September 2, 2004; Michael Foster (September 3, 2004). Detective Eric Miller will be replacing Aaron Kirby for the Drug Grant Detective Position.
Todd Bychinski is now in Patrol permanently and Karl Larson has transferred from Detective to Patrol.
Martin Ederer, Patrick Burroughs and William Charlebois have all been promoted to Patrol from the Jail. Bradley Stoddard will temporarily be filling in for William Charlebois as Electronic Monitoring until the position is filled permanently.
There were 2 injuries to report. Shawn Finnegan was bitten by a dog while responding to a call. The dog has been impounded and there was no work time lost. A jailor was pricked by a needle while helping a diabetic inmate.
There have been no recent complaints of the Law Enforcement Center's holding pond. Rocks and rubber liner for the holding pond are not permitted. They will be looking into doing natural planting in the holding pond.
The Speed Grant was successful. Total of 176 stops for 120 Deputy and Supervisory hours. The breakdown is as follows: 89 excessive speed citation, 7 OAR/OAS citations, 17 seat belt citations, 2 child restraint citations, 2 intersection citations, 8 miscellaneous citations, 33 speed written warnings, 14 other moving written warnings.
Sheriff Stammen reported that there were 2 fatal car accidents in the month of August. Neither Alcohol or Drugs were the cause of these accidents. This brings the total up to 4 for the year, compared to the 6 fatal accidents last year and 15 the year before.
There was 333.5 hour of overtime authorized to date for Boat Patrol. This is three times more hours than last year. Our Deputies have issued 31 citations which equals to 10 hours of patrol per arrest/citation. The overtime hours are funded through a Federal Grant.
Sheriff Stammen stated that there were 115 prisoner transports for August, which brings to 962 transports for the year. There were 14 juvenile transports which cost us $2470.56 plus secure housing costs of $14,415. The total cost for juveniles for August, 2004, is $16,885.56.
For the month of August, 2004, boarding revenue was $75,923.44 which brings us to $535,511.93 for the year (this does not include Probation & Parole holds). Currently we have a total of 200 inmates in the Sauk County jail. There are 86 Huber inmates, 13 on Electronic Monitoring, 65 Sauk County inmates, 28 Dane County inmates, 8 Iowa County inmates.
There were 406 boarding days in July for electronic monitoring. The breakdown of expenditures and income are:
$6521.00 collected from inmates for the use of the electronic equipment
$2436.10 paid out for the lease of the electronic equipment
$4,084.90 net gain
There will be a new education program starting for our female inmates. This program is being funded through grants from the UW Extension office. They will be offering a parenting class, nutrition class, and basic checkbook balancing class. This is to help the transition of inmates when they are released.
We will be reevaluating our strip search policy and Supervisor staffing. Polk and St. Croix Counties are both being sued in violation of their strip search policies. Most (if not all) counties are being looked at for this as well as the number of deaths inside the jail. We received a open records request for this information and we complied.
The Sheriff's Administration meet with Gene Weigand regarding the budget. One suggestion was made by Gene Weigand regarding the Jail Assessment Fund. He suggested the Jail Assessment Fund be used for debt service and that $86,000.00 planned for equipment replacement be added to our expenditure account.
9. Adjourn to Date Specified: The next regular meeting will be held on Monday, October 4th, 2004, at 8:00 AM.
Motion by Sinklair, seconded by Carlson, to adjourn the meeting.
___________________________
Joan Fordham, Secretary
(Minutes taken by J. Deal)
7. Preliminary Discussion of Proposed Amendment to the Animal Control Ordinance Regarding Wild/Exotic Animals: Wenzel said the tiger, which is about half grown, weighs about 500 pounds and is kept in an uncovered fenced area. Sinklair said he had been at the residence where the animal is kept and also verified that the cage doesn't have a top on it. The person keeping the tiger is not violating any state or county laws by having the animal in his possession. Wenzel, Sinklair and Kindschi all agreed that this gap in the law had to be addressed for the safety of the populace. Several issues relating to public safety, along with the concerns about the living conditions of the tiger itself, were discussed.
Kindschi said that zoos and other areas housing wild animals are designed to maximize public safety while providing humane surroundings for the animals. Sinklair said that if an ordinance is enacted to address the issue of keeping such an animal it would be Sauk County's responsibility to determine the fate of the tiger if it's impounded. He had contacted the Vilas Park Zoo in Madison, as well as Oschner park personnel and neither was interested in taking the animal.
The committee all agreed that language in the proposed change must be worded so it doesn't stop people from keep animals for commercial ventures nor the ability of rehabilitators to have wild animals in their possession for the purpose of physical treatment and rehabilitation. The distinction between native species and nonnative species would prevent sanctions on a person who keeps a raccoon for a pet, or who operated a petting park for white tail deer.
Wenzel will continue to work with Corporation Counsel Todd Liebman in regard to amending the County Ordinances and both the Executive and Legislative Committee and Law Enforcement committee should have input into any proposed amendment.
5. Appearances:
a) Deputies Trevor Lohr and Diane Slaney were presented the Employee of the Month Award. Lohr and Slaney, two third shift patrol persons, were confronted by a man wielding a knife and were able to disarm the man and take him into custody without any injury. The man had earlier told someone that he intended to commit suicide by provoking a police officer to shoot him.
6. Review and Approval of July, 2004, Bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Department:
Motion by Sinklair, seconded by Tollaksen, to approve payment of the Coroner's July, 2004, bills in the amount of $2,822.71. Motion carried.
There were no items of note in the Sheriff's budget expenditures for July.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to approve payment of the Sheriff's Department's July, 2004, expenditures in the amount of $118,792.59. Motion carried.
8. Review, Discussion and Consideration of Jail Bed Leases: A lengthy discussion took place regarding this item. Sheriff Stammen said he and Captain Hafemann had done some study of the issue because he had been instructed by Chairman Montgomery to do so. Some preliminary conversations have been held with Dane County Sheriff Hamblin, as well as with a number of other counties. Dane County, Iowa County, Richland County and Wood County have all expressed interest in leasing beds in the Sauk County Jail in varying numbers. The option of leasing beds is only feasible if A Pod is opened and staffed, either in whole or in part.
Although Sauk County is holding inmates for Dane County, and has held inmates for other counties the number that can be held is limited by the number of Sauk County's own detainees. Security Captain Hafemann said that he had projected revenues and costs in a couple of options. Tollaksen and Sinklair were concerned about any option that required the addition of staff and possible layoffs down to road. Montgomery said he believed it was possible to generate revenues of approximately one million dollars a year by staffing A Pod and renting out beds.
The committee agreed that an ad hoc committee involving representatives from the Law Enforcement Committee and the Finance Committee and members at large from other committees should be selected by Chairman Wenzel. The ad hoc committee can come up with options and suggestions to take to the full county board for consideration.
9. Report on WPPA Scholarship Award: The five committee members were given copies of essays written by high school students applying for a scholarship from the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. The scholarship is given out each year by the local bargaining unit. The committee members rated the essays, which were identified by number only, and the applicant with the highest score received the scholarship. Tracy Benesh, daughter of jailor Toni Benesh, received the scholarship.
10. Review, Discussion and Consider of 2005 Sheriff's Budget Request : Coroner Hinze presented her budget request first. She said there are no increases in her budget except in the salary and benefits areas. All other requests remain the same as last year.
Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Tollaksen, to approve the 2005 budget request for the Coroner's Office in the amount of $118,653. Motion carried.
Chief Deputy Prantner told the committee that a number of sizable budget expenses are not determined by the Sheriff or administrative staff of the Sheriff's Department, among them the requests from MIS for computer supplies and upgrades; the Board of Prisoners expense, which reflects the costs of meals for inmates; and the salary and benefit increases for employees. The Sheriff and the Chief Deputy had attempted to come in with a 0% increase but salaries and increases in the number of inmate meals pushed the request beyond the 0% goal. In addition the number of squad cars purchased last year was cut bumping up the number of squads to be purchased in 2005. The final percentage increase is 1.75%, an amount of $158,000.
The committee then reviewed the projected revenues for 2004. They were asked to present their to input and to make any changes they felt necessary. After a review of the revenues there was a motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to approve the projected revenue amounts.
Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Tollaksen to approve the 2005 budget request overall. Motion carried.
11. Authorization to Dispose of 1977 Motor Home: Sheriff Stammen said the old command post is in bad shape and needs to be sold or traded. The unit would need a lot of work to keep it running and it's not feasible to repair it. The dive van, a 1985 Ford, is also in poor condition and should be replaced. One option that has been looked into is to replace the dive van with an enclosed trailer. All the dive equipment could be stored in the trailer ready to roll at a moment's notice and all administrative vehicles are equipped with heavy-duty trailer hitches, as is the army surplus truck that Sauk County recently received. The dive van often doesn't start immediately when needed because it sits for long periods of time. The battery goes dead and has to be jumped to get it going. Besides being a place to store the dive equipment, the trailer would offer the divers a place to change into dive gear. Kayser Ford in Madison has said they would sell us the trailer and take the dive van and motor home in on trade. Captain Meister said there's over $10,000 left in the vehicle replacement account that could be used to purchase the trailer. The committee agreed this was a good plan and authorized the Sheriff and Captain Meister to proceed.
12. Sheriff's Report: Sheriff Stammen reported the following information for the costs of the 4th of July circus parade and holiday pay:
A total of $2,119.84 was spent on equipment for the parade. The overtime wages for parade duty were $12,933.29 and the compensatory hours accrual was $3,373.45 for a total wage cost of $16,306.74. The overtime expenses for holiday pay for all other employees not working parade duty was $29,144.82.
There were 1871 hours of overtime accrued in July, 2004, and 401 hours of compensatory time.
There were 190 hours of supervisory overtime authorized in July.
The implementation of the vehicle registration service will most likely begin in September instead of August. The contract has been amended by Corporation Counsel and is now in the hands of the out source company for their review.
There were 418 boarding days in June for electronic monitoring and 20 inmates participated in the program. The breakdown of expenditures and income are:
$6,705.00 collected from inmates for the use of the electronic equipment
$2,277.37 paid out for the lease of the electronic equipment
$4,427.63 net gain
There were 129 prisoner transports in July, bringing the year-to-date total to 845.
Captain Hafemann reported there were 31 GED modules completed by inmates toward their GED requirements and four inmates completed all necessary modules and were awarded their GED certificates.
Sheriff Stammen said that one of the jailors who was scheduled to attend six months of training in the National Guard has left the Guards and won't be off work for military leave as reported last month.
A jailor was disciplined for an off duty incident.
There were 19,063 inmate meals served in July.
Lieutenant Kevin Fults said that Sauk County was not awarded a grant in the amount of $22,000 for negotiating equipment for which he'd applied. The Sheriff's Department will need to explore options to budget for this equipment.
The annual Jail Inspection by the Department of Corrections, Jail Inspector Bob Lee, will be done on August 12, 2004.
Sheriff Stammen said County Coordinator Wiegand had forwarded to Sheriff Stammen a copy of an article on Alcohol Abuse Court which has been established in Waukesha County. A copy of the article will be mailed to each committee member with the draft of the minutes of this meeting.
13. Adjourn To Date Specified: The next regular meeting will be held on Friday, September 3, 2004, at 8 AM.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to adjourn the meeting.
_____________________
Joan Fordham, Secretary