MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL JOINT MEETING BETWEEN THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE COORDINATING COMMITTEE:
DECEMBER 3, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Report from Alternatives and Treatment Opportunities Subcommittee........................................ 1
Report from Public Awareness and Information Subcommittee.................................................. 2
Report from Facilities Planning Subcommittee.......................................................................... 3
Discussion: CJCC Coordinator................................................................................................. 3
Discussion: Utilization of the Vernon Research Group............................................................... 5
Possible Rescheduling of February 4, 2009 Meeting.................................................................. 7
Additional Comments from Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee Members.......................... 7
Chairperson Sullivan called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 4:02 p.m. Members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, and Rod Sullivan; absent: Sally Stutsman.
Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee members present were: County Attorney Janet Lyness, Facilities Manager David Kempf, Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Douglas Russell, MECCA Outpatient Clinical Manager Megan LaVelle, Temporary Mobile Crisis Coordinator Jessica Peckover, Dorothy Whiston, Bob Elliott, Mental Health/Disability Services Director Kris Artley, John Stratton, and County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek.
Temporary Mobile Crisis Coordinator Jessica Peckover said since its inception in 2005, they have met with a total of 373 individuals in Jail Alternatives. Of those 373 individuals, 121 have been intensive or individuals who received the full spectrum of services from Jail Alternatives. In November, they served 33 individuals. Peckover said Mobile Crisis has currently been put on hold because of funding. The Department of Human Services has put out the RFP for the Emergency Mental Health Crisis Services for the state. Mid Eastern Iowa Community Mental Health Center and Abbey Center are collectively going to submit an application. They are having a stakeholder meeting to discuss how to get a version of a Mobile Crisis Team up and running. The two staff members at Jail Alternatives do what they can for Mobile Crisis Services between 8:00 and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to avert incarceration or hospitalization. A greater need for crisis intervention and committals usually comes after the hours of 8:00 - 4:30 p.m. R. Sullivan asked if she has had any discussion with Mid Eastern Iowa Community Mental Health Center Director Stephen Trefz about a statewide grant for outreach. Peckover said that is what the stakeholders meeting will address. The RFP came out and they had to submit whether they were interested in applying, and it had to be at least two contiguous counties for the regions. She thinks they will award two. The Abbey Center and Mid Eastern Iowa Community Mental Health Center are going to apply together.
Neuzil said they had a discussion during the budget meeting about potential employees who could help. County Attorney Janet Lyness said she put in a request for a legal assistant. Part of their job duties would be working as a case expediter actually looking over the jail populations everyday. If someone is in jail the assistant can talk to prosecutors to determine how much time they need on the case and let them know the person is still in jail. As a result, trial information could be filed sooner so the person may be released sooner. If it proves effective for one or two inmates a day, or two inmates a week, the cost savings would be over $100 a week. The program they explored in Scott County was very favorable. Neuzil asked if part of this legal assistant position description includes collections. Lyness said yes, the other part of the job is collecting past due fines and court costs, and working with the County Attorney's payment plan or the CAP program to help people get back their drivers licenses. R. Sullivan asked if this new employee would be expected to attend CJCC meetings. Lyness said yes, to this meeting and also the Jail Population and Systems meetings. County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said the position has been discussed for several years. The National Institute of Corrections recommends a CJCC coordinator and this facilitator position. Neuzil said alternatives and treatments are never ending. They are always on the radar screen and if the County can justify a return, it would be worth while to pursue this new hire.
MECCA Outpatient Coordinator Megan LaVelle said they completed 26 evaluations, 18 of which were on weekends or holidays in November 2008. Neuzil asked if they are having people come around to the idea of evaluations. LaVelle said they still have one or two refusals a month but this month they did not have any. They had a couple of PD requests to do evaluations and they met the criteria for jail evaluations. Neuzil said they should see some results of less contempts of court. LaVelle said they have worked out a nice system with the magistrate to get people through the system more quickly on weekends.
Pulkrabek said they have not met but he has a new report to send to the media tomorrow. The report studies in depth public intoxication and related arrests. It is fairly comprehensive and brings out some interesting points and goes a long way to dismiss the idea the jail is filled with drunken college students. Out of all public intoxication arrests, 7.5% of arrests are Kirkwood College students and 27.8% are University of Iowa students. Only about one third of all intoxication arrests are college students. It shows Iowa City is a location well known for its party atmosphere. The Iowa City Police Department makes up 57% of the public intoxication arrests and the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety makes up 29%. Downtown Iowa City is where the concentration of alcohol and bars are located in the County. He thanked John Neff for all of his hard work on preparing the report. Neuzil asked for a summary of the information. Pulkrabek said there is not a summary other than the first paragraph. Neuzil asked what message they want to promote with this report. Pulkrabek said to continue to say it is not just drunken college students who fill the jail and that only about one third of arrests are local college students.
Lyness said to look at how many people are released within 24 hours. She said 64 are students at Kirkwood College and were booked 68 times and all but one were released within 24 hours. These are not the people taking up jail space. Of the 243 student arrests, they were booked 253 times, and all but one were released within 24 hours. Of the 493 other persons, non-college student, booked 528 times and of those, they were all released within 24 hours. Neuzil said when they send the report to the press it would be better to show the quick facts they just discussed so the media knows how to interpret the report. Pulkrabek said the media grabs what facts they want from reports. Neuzil said he'd still like to make it as easy as possible, especially with regard to the message the Board would like to send. Neuzil said the community section of the Gazette prints a listing of the jail expenses every Wednesday. Pulkrabek said that is the report he and others developed early on and the Gazette is the only paper who prints it. He encourages everyone to tell the Iowa City Press-Citizen they know this is something people will read. In the past, the newspaper did not want to be seen as promoting the need for a new jail. But since then, the Press-Citizen Editorial Board publicly endorsed the need for a justice center.
Neuzil said they had a good conversation with the federal delegation about case work possibilities and he knows Harney is communicating with some of the GSA people. Harney said they do not have a meeting set up but Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan sent out an email a couple of days ago. He said they would like to meet with them the second week of December but have not gotten back to them. Neuzil said it was encouraging to have the federal delegation people allow staff to do some nudging with the GSA. He asked about the acquisition of the three properties. Harney said it is on the agenda for the December 4, 2008 formal meeting.
R. Sullivan said they accepted an offer from Bob Elliott to serve as coordinator. They do not have a finalized contract but in theory he wants to discuss what they would like Elliott to do. Neuzil said they had some conversation about the coordinator position and one discussion point was working with Pulkrabek and University of Iowa Professor Emeritus of Psychology John Neff to develop a team approach to understanding the statistics. Pulkrabek said it will be important for Elliott to become acquainted with all the information on the website and to organize the information. They also worked on the cost of housing inmates for FY07 and the next step is to prepare the FY08 to show the costs for housing inmates in the county and out of the county. From the FY07 budget they determined it was not cheaper to house inmates out of county. Some of this expense is due to paying twice for an inmate because they were in the County jail part of one day and in another county's jail the other part of that same day.
Pulkrabek said there are some committee meetings they all attend including systems meetings with Department of Corrections, MECCA, Mental Health Diversion, the Sheriffs Office, and the County Attorney's Office to discuss the inner workings of the local criminal justice system. It would be helpful for Elliott to start attending these meetings. Harney said Elliott’s duties should extend further to be a liaison between the Vernon Group if they decide to choose them and try to take a leadership role within the committee to push the agenda along. Pulkrabek said additional responsibilities include creating and revising agendas for the three different subcommittees to get them back together, making sure there is an accurate email list to notify people of changes, and running the meetings. Neuzil said primarily they need the coordinator to focus on putting a plan in place over the next six months
Attorney Jim McCarragher asked if they think Elliott will be working with the City of Iowa City. Some of the papers keep talking about the jail and when they go to the public with the justice center they may get a misconception about what is going on. Elliott could be a liaison with the public on this. Elliott said he wants to figure out precisely where they are in the path towards a new criminal justice center. He has been coming to the meetings for the past two years and has not seen much movement on the project because the Board has been busy with other things. He wants to find out where they are now, what has been decided, how much of the structure and location has been decided. He said he would like to work with the Board to determine who the members of the CJCC are or will be. In response to the question, Elliott said the project is to plan and design the center to the best it can be and to sell it. It is vitally important to view the facility as a criminal justice center and not a jail.
R. Sullivan said Elliott has a good list of activities to keep him busy over the next week. For future agendas, they will start with a report from Elliott. Elliott asked if the Board wants him to work initially through M. Sullivan. Neuzil said Elliott will work with M. Sullivan and himself. Elliott said he is anxious to sit down and hammer out details of where they are and what they need to do. Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Douglas Russell asked Elliott to call him at the Courthouse so they can have a meeting. Elliott said they need to have representatives from all areas. They need to know what the judges need for courtrooms, what the State will do for them, how many courtrooms are needed, and the alternatives to incarceration. He wants to sit down with M. Sullivan to determine what is expected from him. Elliott said he wants to go about this on a month to month basis. Anytime the Board feels he is not doing the job they anticipated, the Board can ask him to leave. If he feels they are not going in a good direction, he will leave. Neuzil said Elliott needs a complete list of who is on the committee so he can meet with everyone to get a feel for their thoughts. Elliott said he is excited to move productively forward with a timeline. Neuzil said Elliott may communicate with other communities that have gone through the same process.
R. Sullivan said Vernon Research Group Associate Susan Todd is unable to be with them today. He said she recommends they do a benchmark study to assess general community opinions. He said Todd wanted to emphasize there was some confusion amongst people about how long the survey is good. The life of a survey is five to six months and after that time they'd want to resurvey. There were a lot of people who thought they should wait five to six months before an election and run the poll. R. Sullivan said he agreed with Todd in her assessment about determining baseline attitudes first and then they can start a timeline.
Lyness asked if they have any money for the survey. R. Sullivan said the amount is $18,000. Neuzil said they do not have the money but they will find it. They do have quite a bit of money stored away. R. Sullivan said he thinks this is very important because they all have ideas but they do not know where the community is at on the issue. He thinks they need to dig down and ask some probing questions to find out if people are supportive of this or something smaller. If they get positive responses, they know they can get things going quickly. If the responses are negative they might have to explore other plans and address the concerns of citizens. Pulkrabek said he absolutely agrees. If there is support among Board members it comes down to whether they can find the money to do the project. Neuzil said the GSA thing is hanging out there and it will be a shame if they cannot negotiate something for the property. R. Sullivan said he is less worried about it after talking to Senator Charles Grassley's, Senator Tom Harkin's, and Congressman Dave Loebsack’s office staff and learning they were willing to help. Harney said he believes they can work something out. He is in favor of using the Vernon Research Group but is concerned with the timing because of the state of the economy, the Communications Center, and tax increases. Harney said he is concerned that people in support of a jail will not be willing to pay for it now. These questions need to be answered but he thinks they should wait a couple of months. Meyers said he does not think a couple of months will make much difference. Realistically it could be a couple of years before the economy takes on a significantly different shape. Meyers noted the Conservation Bond passed in November, one of the worst months on record. That might have been the limit as to what people want to spend, but until they find out what the population is willing to do and to pay, they could spend a lot of time going in the wrong direction. Meyers said they should figure out what people are willing to go with and extend energy in that direction. Pulkrabek said he agrees and suggested fashioning the survey questions to take the economy into account. He said to ask if people would be willing to pay for it if the economy picks up in two years, or if residents would prefer Supervisors paying off the County debt prior to starting the project. Would the public prefer Supervisor's bond for this or set a five-year penny sales tax. He said they need to know what the baseline is. Harney said he agrees but doesn't think they have gotten across the point that they need a new justice center. He doesn't think the public sees the importance of one now.
Neuzil said it will be March, April, or May by the time the Board gets a commitment to pursue it with Vernon and compile a survey. He said if they set a goal to have the survey conducted in April, it gives them time to regroup and use the Durrant Group report. R. Sullivan said he asked Todd the same questions about when they would conduct the survey. In Johnson County they would not do anything in December and January because they think the survey would be skewed since so many faculty and students are gone on semester break. The survey would take about six weeks, four weeks developing the survey questions, and two weeks for the actual calling. R. Sullivan said they could have data to evaluate within about six weeks from the time they sign a contract. So if a contract is signed in February, data would be available in mid March.
CJCC Member Dorothy Whiston said they have a couple of meetings scheduled where they can work with them. R. Sullivan said Todd had mentioned they would have to limit the survey to eight to 10 questions because they need to limit the time they keep someone on the phone. Harney asked when the follow-up survey would be conducted. R. Sullivan said if 50% of people say they are in favor of it, they would follow up as soon as possible. If only 20% are in favor, they will not go ahead with it knowing they have work to do. It depends upon the initial numbers. Pulkrabek asked if the survey would cover demographics and tell them the best time to put it on the ballot. R. Sullivan said if they receive a high percent of positive response they want to put it on a ballot when more people will be voting. If the percent of positive responses is low they want it on a ballot when less people will be voting. Whiston asked if they need to do more public education before the survey. Most people do not know that it costs more to house an inmate out of the County now. R. Sullivan said they will learn the level of public knowledge from the survey. Whiston said public opinion is that it is just as cheap to house inmates out of County but that is no longer true. Residents are actually paying extra at this point. R. Sullivan said the survey has ways to correct for responses that are based on lack of information or lack of knowledge.
Neuzil said this discussion should occur at the January 2009 meeting. Elliott said there are two reasons to do the sampling; one is to find out what people know and don't know, and what their feelings are about the need for a criminal justice center. The other is to assess how well they have done after completing something and what they should anticipate. He said he thinks the Board is discussing the first reason for the survey, that being able to tell the Board where they need to focus their marketing efforts. Harney said he'd also like to know how residents would want to pay for it; whether they'd support a sales tax or a bond. There may be sticker shock associated with a justice center where people would pay $69 million but not $70 million. If they discover there is a magic number out there they clearly have a line to draw. Elliott said this would be a sampling to find out where the public is on the whole situation, what they need to work on, and where the efforts should be directed. One week before the City of Iowa City voted on the library bond issue, a group predicted it would pass by about 80% and it did. Elliott said he was surprised at the lopsidedness of the predicted victory based on their sampling, but they were right on. R. Sullivan said the marketing materials the Vernon Research Group gave them indicated a 5% margin of error.
Richard Twohy said he hopes they are not at risk of losing people before they have a chance to reach them on the underlying issue of what it costs to house an inmate. People were very surprised when it first became clear that it was costing less to transport inmates to Linn County. He asked if the current figures indicate the costs of transporting inmates has taken into account there will be a Linn County jail. There are not too many focus areas Johnson County residents will be so readily able to form opinions around other than issues about inmate housing and transportation costs and what factors were considered to reach those figures. Twohy said he sent Board members a copy of the Black Hawk County report and hoped they could learn from it.
R. Sullivan said they need to invite Todd back to the January 2009 meeting. Neuzil said the survey should be the main focus of the January meeting. Whiston asked if they need to have more conversations before they decide to go with the Vernon Research Group. Harney said they need Todd present for the discussion in order to make decisions. Harney said he believes there is consensus that if they can pay for it, they want to go for it. R. Sullivan said he is working with the assumption the Board is interested in contracting with her and then answering any final questions at the January 2009 meeting. Once they have a signed contract, Todd would want to meet with this group to determine what the Board needs to know. Harney said M. Sullivan will meet with the budget director to see if the money is available to actually do that. Whiston asked if the decision is to do this. R. Sullivan said the Board would formerly make that decision after meeting with Todd one more time. Neuzil said they need to nail down the costs first and it could mean waiting until July 1, 2009 for next year's budget.
R. Sullivan said he and Neuzil will be in Washington D.C. on February 4, 2009. It is not a problem if the Board wants to meet without them. In March all the Supervisors will be gone for the Iowa State Association of Counties meeting in Des Moines. They could move the dates of those meetings or they could meet with just three Board members. Harney said February 2009 might be alright but they will have to change the March 2009 meeting. Neuzil said having two of them gone for these meetings might not be a good idea. He wants to be involved with these meetings. Meyers said the next couple of meetings could be important. Whiston said they could delay the meetings to the following week. R. Sullivan said the February 4, 2009 meeting is now rescheduled for February 11, 2009. The March 4, 2009 is now rescheduled for March 3, 2009. Twohy asked if these schedule changes would allow enough time to make sufficient progress. R. Sullivan said he, Elliott, and M. Sullivan can meet before hand and decide to cancel if little progress has been made.
CJCC Member Connie Champion said she is a member of this committee again and requested updates. Neuzil recommended Champion serve on one of the subcommittees. He suggested the facilities subcommittee would be a good fit for her because they need an Iowa City representative on the committee. He also suggested she read the Durrant Report for an update on the space and location analysis. Whiston said she thinks they need to evaluate if they want to continue with subcommittees, and she asked about appointing someone from the Correctional Services Department to be on the committee. Lyness said Johnson County Department of Correctional Services Supervisor Jerri Allen attended the last meeting at the request of herself and Pulkrabek. They do not have a commitment from her yet. Whiston said it is important to have someone from Correctional Services. Lyness said Attorney John Robertson is the designee from the Public Defenders Office. R. Sullivan said Robertson has been coming to public awareness meetings. Lyness asked someone to prepare a list of all committee and subcommittee members.
Adjourned at 5:04 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Nancy Tomkovicz, Recording Secretary