Law Enforcement & Judiciary Committee

The regular meeting of the Sauk County Law Enforcement Committee was held on Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 8:00 A.M., in the Community Room. 1300 Lange Court, Baraboo, Wisconsin.

The meeting was properly posted and all interested parties were notified.

Members Present: Montgomery, Giebel, Carlson, Wenzel, Williams

Members Absent: Others Present: R. Stammen, B. Hinze, M. Hafemann, M. Bolz, D. Weinke, T. Liebman, G. Dallman, Public

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 Williams, seconded by Carlson, to adopt the agenda. Carried.
3. Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting(s): Motion by Giebel, seconded by Wenzel, to approve the minutes of the regular Law Enforcement Committee meeting held on February 7, 2003, and the special meeting held on February 25, 2003. Motion carried.
4. Communications: Sheriff Stammen read a letter from Tom Wilson resigning his employment as a jailor for Sauk County to take a job with Middleton Police Department.
   A letter concerning road construction and bridge replacement on STH 23 and STH 136 was summarized but Sheriff Stammen said he couldn't determine from the letter exactly what areas of the road(s) were affected and Lt. Meister would be contacting the engineering firm to get better information.
   A letter from Dick Schauf was read. Mr. Schauf was impressed with the technology and design of the new facility and believed it would serve Sauk County well for many years. Mr. Schauf had recently been part of a tour group to the facility.
5. Appearances: The February, 2003, employee of the month, Gerald Dallman was presented his award by Chairman Montgomery. Mr. Dallman, a dispatcher, won the award for giving instructions over the phone for infant CPR, instructing the mother of a non breathing infant how to do CPR over the phone. EMS from Reedsburg had been summoned but the infant was non responsive. The child's breathing was restored by the CPR and the child lived.
6. Review and Approval of February, 2003, Bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Department: Motion by Giebel, seconded by Carlson, to approve payment of the Coroner's February, 2003, bills in the amount of $1,501.40. Motion carried.
   Sheriff Stammen informed the committee of the increase in projected revenues for the Sheriff's Department for the past several years and gave a brief rundown on the various amounts turned over to the general fund. The revenues for 2002 are expected to exceed those of the previous years.
   Motion by Wenzel, seconded by Williams, to approve payment of the Sheriff's Department March bills in the amount of $111,691.43. Motion carried.
7. Discussion on and Consideration of Contract with Communications Services for Maintenance on Communication Equipment and Tower: For the past three years Sheriff Stammen has been working on getting a formalized written agreement with Communications Services outlining the maintenance coverage they will provide for Sauk County's radio equipment, to include the radios towers, the Communication Center Equipment and the mobile and portable radios. A number of options have been proposed by Communications Services as a result of meetings between Communications Services, Chief Deputy Prantner, Captain Bolz, and Communications Supervisor Dena Weinke. A draft contract for maintenance for the remainder of 2003 has been reviewed by Sauk County Corporation Counsel Todd Liebman who saw no problem with the agreement as written. Montgomery asked if any of the costs currently included in the maintenance agreement could be handled by the radio communications person being hired by Sauk County. Sheriff Stammen said he hadn't seen a job description for that position and the main concern was getting an agreement in place for the remainder of 2003.
   Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Carlson, to recommend entering into a contract with Communications Service for the remainder of 2003 for a total cost of $63,102, which is over the budgeted amount of $50,648. Motion carried.
8. Discussion Regarding Agreement Between Sauk County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff for Double Bunking in New Sauk County Jail: Captain Hafemann informed the committee that before Sauk County could proceed with any plans to double bunk inmates, a contract or resolution between the Sauk County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff must be made and the agreement filed with the Department of Corrections. Hafemann said he had contacted Bob Lee, District Jail Inspector, about double bunking and Lee said there was insufficient staff on third shift with the present projected staffing levels for DOC to approve the plan. An additional two employees would have to be hired .
   The steps necessary to authorize two more employees through the various committees was discussed. Giebel said he remained committed to double bunking and again brought up the possibility of housing inmates from other counties as a means to generate revenue to offset the costs of double bunking and other jail expenses. Sheriff Stammen asked that the issue be tabled until the next meeting to allow time to explore options related to double bunking and the ramifications of it.
9. Consideration of Bids and Resolution for Purchase of Cargo Van for Inmate Transports: The bids for a cargo van had been reviewed prior to the meeting. All bidders were local dealers except for Sirchie Finger Print Lab out of New Jersey, which is a company specializing in security and law enforcement items. Sauk County has done business with Sirchie for a number of years and has had good luck with the firm, according to Sheriff Stammen. Sirchie builds the inserts that go into a cargo van to adapt them for use for prisoner transporting and Captain Hafemann said even if the van were purchased from a local dealer they would be buying the insert from Sirchie to adapt the vehicle for prisoner transport. The inserts are necessary for safety and security reasons. The vehicle has to be reinforced to safeguard inmates and staff members.
   The bids received were:
   Baraboo Motors with base vehicle price and conversion equipment $43,532.00
   Don Larson with base vehicle price and conversion equipment $42,123.00
   Koenecke Ford with base vehicle price and conversion equipment $36,913.08
   Kayser Ford with base vehicle price and conversion equipment 36,872.00$
   Sirchie Finger Print Lab with base vehicle price and conversion equipment $36.036.00
   The low bidder was Sirchie Finger Print Lab out of New Jersey and the committee was informed that their low bid included delivery to Sauk County.
   Motion by Carlson, seconded by Montgomery, that the bid of Sirchie Finger Print Lab be accepted for a total cost of $36,036, and that the resolution be taken to the Sauk County Board of Supervisors meeting for consideration at the meeting on March 18, 2003. Motion carried with Wenzel casting the single dissenting vote.
10. Denial of Claim of Joan M. Ploetz: Todd Liebman appeared in regard to this issue, which is a suit filed for alleged incidents that occurred during the arrest of Joan Ploetz for operating while intoxicated. The defendants are the County of Sauk, The City of Baraboo, the Baraboo Police Department, the Sauk County Sheriff's Office. Chief Dennis Kluge and Sheriff Randy Stammen, as well as individual police officers and deputies.
    Motion by Giebel, seconded by Wenzel, to deny the claim of Joan M. Ploetz. Motion carried.
11. Request to Replace Totally Destroyed Squad Car: Captain Bolz reported that a squad assigned to Guy Matthews had been totally destroyed when it was struck by a pickup truck pulling a trailer. The squad was parked in a field at the scene of a farm accident. The vehicle has been declared a total loss by the county's insurance company. Bolz said he had discussed the matter with Carl Gruber and learned the value of the vehicle was listed as $12,675, and insurance company would be paying Sauk County $9,675 after the $3,000 deductible. There is money left in the vehicle replacement account that could be used to make up the difference.
    Bolz also said he had located a Ford Crown Victoria police package vehicle at Kayser Ford in Madison for a cost of $20,693, and had spoken to Kerry Beghin regarding what needed to be done to get approval for replacement of the destroyed vehicle. She had authorized him to order the vehicle. Payment for the vehicle will come from the insurance payout and funds left in the 2003 vehicle replacement account. Because the purchase involves transferring revenues to an expense account the resolution has to go before the Finance Committee in addition to the Law Enforcement Committee.
    Motion by Giebel, seconded by Carlson, to approve the purchase of the 2003 Ford Crown Victoria from Kayser Ford in Madison for $20,693, with payment for the car coming from insurance monies transferred from a revenue account to the vehicle replacement expense account, unspent funds in the vehicle replacement account and miscellaneous remaining costs from an expense account in the Sheriff's 2003 budget and to take the resolution to the Finance Committee and the Sauk County Board of Supervisors March 18, 2003. Motion carried.
12. Establish a Date for Grand Opening of Law Enforcement Center: Sheriff Stammen asked the committee to consider using the date of May 12, for the grand opening, which would coincide with the Respect for Law Day celebration. The committee agreed with the date and it was decided that there should be an open house the day before as well, Sunday, May 11th. The dedication of the new center would take place after the regular Respect for Law ceremony at the Courthouse.
    Captain Hafemann said the Department of Corrections is planning to do their final inspection of the facility on April 25, 2003, and he hoped to begin placing inmates in the Huber portion of the facility shortly after that date but he didn't want to house inmates in the facility before the grand opening.
13. Certify Eligibility Lists for Female and Male Jailors: Sheriff Stammen reported that as of April 1, 2003, there would be 8 openings for male jailors. As well, there is still one opening for a female jailor and the list of female candidates is getting very short. Several applicants have been hired, some have withdrawn and some have been eliminated during the background investigation. A new recruitment for female applicants is being started. Sheriff Stammen said that final interviews of male jailor applicants would be done on Wednesday, March 12, 2003. The list of candidates to be interviewed are:
    Wayne Bell, Michael Blake, Troy Deal, Andrew Faber, Sergei Rybin, Edward Grondin, Isaac Hanson, Christopher Keller, Lance Kreyer, Daniel Krolikowski, Robert Lee, William Miller, Kristofer Mondlock, Thomas Pearson, Shane Potter, Steven Rodriguez, Mark Roen and Jason Snyder.
14. Sheriff's Report: Sheriff Stammen reported that Stacy Hellmich had been promoted to patrol and Josh Kowalke had taken her place as the electronic monitoring deputy.
    One of the transport officers, Pam O'Hara, was removed from the transport team.
    There were 135 prisoner transports in February, 2003, bringing the year-to-date total to 324.
    As of this date there were 6 inmates being housed out-of-county. In February there were 70 inmate days for out-of-county housing in Juneau County, for a cost of $3,744; and 260 inmate boarding days paid to Waushara County, for a cost of $10,712, bringing the year-to-date costs for the first quarter of 2003 to $32,219.
    Bookings into the Sauk Count Jail for 2002 were 5,349, which doesn't include intake bookings. The bookings for 2001 were 3,849 and 2000 there were 3,680.
    There were 6.5 hours of overtime paid to supervisors in February for an ERT callout.
    The jail diversion program statistics for January were 295 boarding days with costs of $3,523 and revenues of $4,789, with a revenue of $1,266. The total jail diversion profits for 2001 were $10,897 and the total jail diversion profits for 2002 were $18,952.
    Sauk County has received a highway safety grant for speed and aggressive driving enforcement for a maximum of $5,000.
    Captain Hafemann reported that a jailor training course was recently taught in Sauk County at the new facility. The course was taught by our jail staff and was approved by MATC. In addition to being able to train many of our new jailors, the class was opened to jailors from other counties, which generated some revenue as we were paid $4,220 for conducting the training.
    Swanson Commissary has paid Sauk County $7,500 for renewal of our contract with them for provision of inmate commissary and food vending machines.
    The committee opted to continue meeting at the new facility instead of returning to the Historic Courthouse for meetings until the actual move to the new facility.
15. Adjourn To Date Specified: The next regular meeting will be held on Friday, April 4, 2003.

Motion by Giebel, seconded by Carlson, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried.

(minutes taken by B. Manning)