Law Enforcement Committee Meeting Minutes

DATE: April 2, 2004

The regular meeting of the Sauk County Law Enforcement Committee was held on Friday, April 2, 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, Giebel, Carlson, Wenzel, Williams

Members Absent: None

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. In recognition of the fact that this was the last committee meeting for Marvin Giebel, Charles Montgomery turned the meeting over to him as Vice Chair.
2. Agenda: Motion by Carlson, seconded by Williams, to adopt the agenda. Carried.
3. Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting(s): Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Wenzel, to approve the minutes of the regular Law Enforcement Committee meeting held on Thursday, March 4, 2004. Motion carried.
4. Communications: Sheriff Stammen read a letter from the FFA praising Deputy Charles Schreiber's handling of a plane crash on February 7, 2004, at the Tri County Airport at Lone Rock.

   The committee was informed that Sheriff Stammen has received a letter from Chief Kluge of the Baraboo Police Department requesting mutual aid on July 3, 2004, to assist with law enforcement for the Circus Parade.

   Sheriff Brent Oleson of Juneau County sent a letter to Sheriff Stammen thanking Detective Sergeant Joe Welsch for his professionalism and expertise in doing an internal investigation for the Juneau County Sheriff's Office and thanking Sheriff Stammen for allowing Sgt. Welsch to do the investigation.

   A notification from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was read. This letter informed the Sauk County Sheriff's Department that it had been awarded a $4,000 seat belt enforcement grant.

   Sheriff Stammen also read letters regarding the retirement of four Sheriff's Department employees. The employees will be credited with 100% of their accrued sick leave, both regular and catastrophic under a temporary amendment to 13.04 of the Sauk County Code of Ordinances. Under the temporary amendment the retiring employees are allowed 100% of accrued sick leave, as opposed to the 60% granted normally, if the employee announced his/her intention to retire prior to March 31, 2004, and provided the retirement takes place prior to June 30, 2004. A later retirement date than June 30 is allowed for employees who reach an age eligible for retirement in the calendar year 2004, with the same 100% payout of sick leave accrual.

   The employees who are retiring are Deputy Scott Simonds who will retire on June 30, 2004; Lieutenant Mike Deakin whose last day will be July 2, 2004; Sergeant Fred Coller who will retire on June 30, 2004; and Clerk Lola Griffin who will retire on June 2, 2004.

   Sheriff Stammen also read a letter from Rose Vallem resigning from employment with Sauk County on March 2, 2004.

5. Appearances:
   1. Presentation of Employee of the Month Award. This item was tabled until the May meeting because the recipient was on vacation.
   2. Presentation of the 2003 Employee of the Year Award. Deputy James Hodges was awarded the Employee of the Year plaque. Deputy Hodges was also chosen as Officer of the Year by the Sauk County Tavern League. Both awards are related to his lifesaving actions for a man who collapsed at Kmart and was revived by Deputy Hodges with the use of a portable AED.
6. Presentation of Awards: Awards were presented to Dorothy Williams and Marvin Giebel for their years of service to law enforcement and the people of Sauk County, and to William Isaacson, retired Director of Food Service for the Sauk County Jail and the Huber Center. The awards were given by Chair Montgomery and coffee and cake were served.
7. Review and Approval of March, 2004, Bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Office:
   Motion by Wenzel, seconded by Williams, to approve payment of the Coroner's bills for March, 2004, in the amount of $1,530.65. Motion carried.

   There were no unusual expenses in the Sheriff's bills. Motion by Carlson, seconded by Williams, to approve payment of the Sheriff's Department's March, 2004, expenses in the amount of $123,882.54. Motion carried.

8. Consideration and Approval of Resolution Recognizing National Telecommunicators Week, April 12-16, 2004: The committee was told that National Telecommunicators Week is April 12-16, and the Sheriff's Department wanted to recognize the dispatchers with a resolution of appreciation if the committee agreed.

   Motion by Wenzel, seconded by Williams, to approve the Resolution of Appreciation for the Telecommunicators and their supervisor, Dena Weinke. Motion carried.

9. Consideration Of Request For Authorization to Obtain a Military Surplus Truck: Sheriff Stammen reported that Sauk County had recently renewed enrollment in the Wisconsin Division of the Federal Property Program. Through the program Sauk County can get a pick up truck. Detective Sergeant Welsch has located a 1985 Chevrolet pickup truck, four-wheel-drive with a diesel engine. The truck has 32,000 miles on it and is left over from the Desert War.

   There's no charge for the vehicle but there will be a cost involved in the transportation of the truck from Fort Drum, New York, to Baraboo, and the vehicle would also need painting since it's finished in military camouflage. Sheriff Stammen said the truck would be useful for moving the speed sign, the marijuana eradication program and the transportation of large amounts of evidence which is sometime confiscated in a search warrant. The heavy ball hitches for the squads are expensive and hauling heavy loads on a trailer is hard on the squad cars. The cost of getting the truck from New York was estimated at around $700 to $800 and the auto body class at the Reedsburg High School will paint the truck for a cost of $200. The Sheriff said he had six days to respond to the Federal Property Program either accepting or declining the truck.

   Motion by Carlson, seconded by Montgomery, to authorize the Sheriff to accept the truck, with the costs for transporation and painting to be paid from regular expense accounts in the Sheriff's Department's budget.
   Motion carried.

10. Consideration and Possible Approval of Contract with Consolidated Correctional Foodservice for Provision of inmate Meals: The current contract with Consolidated Correctional Foodservice for provision of inmate meals expires on June 30, 2004. There is a provision in the contract to extend it for one year without County Board action and the increase in the cost of meals would cap at 1.9% for the additional year. Sheriff Stammen said the contract is meeting the needs and the cost of the meals is competitive. Consolidated Correctional executives have expressed interest in negotiating a long term contract with Sauk County and have stated that they could provide meals for a lesser cost than at present under a long term contract. The Sheriff said he was interested in exploring the options offered by Consolidated.

    Motion by Carlson, seconded by Williams, to authorize Sheriff Stammen to extend the contract with Consolidated Correctional Foodservice for one year, until June 30, 2005, and to use that year to consider both a long-term renewal of the contract and/or bidding the jail meals.
    Motion carried.

11. 2003 Annual Report Information: Chief Deputy Prantner handed out copies of the draft of the 2003 annual report he had prepared. The report was similar to those done in past years in that it gave a detailed picture of the activities of the Department and showed statistics concerning calls for service and other data. The last few years the format used for the Sauk County annual reports was very abbreviated and didn't include many of the items that were traditionally tracked through the annual report. Prantner said he believed this year's report gave a clearer picture of the real scope of the activities of the Sheriff's Department.
12. Possible closed session pursuant to Sec. 19.85(1)(f) Stats, consideration of financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data for specific person, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where par.(b) applies, which if discussed in public would have a substantial adverse effect on the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data, or involved with such problems or investigations: Motion by Giebel, seconded by Williams, to go into closed session.

    Roll call: Williams yes
    Giebel yes
    Carlson yes
    Wenzel yes
    Montgomery yes
    Motion carried.

13. Reconvene in Open Session: Motion by Wenzel, seconded by Carlson, to reconvene in open session.

    Roll call: Williams yes
    Giebel yes
    Carlson yes
    Wenzel yes
    Montgomery yes
    Motion carried.

14. Sheriff's Report: Helene Smyth-Eagle from MATC, who was at the meeting, invited any interested committee members to come down to see the classroom for the GED students in the jail. She reported that classes had been started on March 22.

    Captain Hafemann reported that the eye glass cleaning and sorting program, being done as part of the Lions program, has begun.

    Overtime hours for February, 2004, were 475 paid hours and 258 hours of compensatory time accrual for a total of 707 hours.

    Supervisors were paid for 22 hours of overtime in March, 14 of which were for special teams training, 4 hours for the execution of a search warrant, and 4 hours for grant enforcement.

    The committee was given a list of accounts which are being placed in the inactive file due to unpaid civil process bills. The committee was informed that the accounts are kept on file and if any of those who've defaulted on payments come in for future paper service needs they have to pay the old expenses and prepay any new costs before papers will be accepted.

    Electronic monitoring for February was 368 days. The cost for lease of equipment was $1,997.25; the amount collected was $5,919.50; leaving a profit of $3,922.25.

    There were 130 transports in March, bringing the year-to-date total to 342 compared to 494 for the same period in 2003.

    Inmate meals for February were 13,564 and for March the count was 17,260. Lisa McCartney is the new food service director, replacing Bill Isaacson.

    At present there are 42 inmates from Dane County in the jail, 4 from Grant County and 7 from Iowa County and there are 11 people on electronic monitoring.

    In March the following inmate boarding fees were collected:
    $ 7,488 from Grant County for 144 inmate days
    $15,652 from Iowa County for 301 inmates days
    $48,672 from Dane County for 936 inmate days.

    The year-to-date revenue for housing out-of-county inmates is $105,880.

    The various highway safety grants appear to be having a continuing positive effect on highway safety in Sauk County. Thus far in 2004 there has been only one traffic fatality.

    Sheriff Stammen reported that permission was received from the Personnel Department to establish eligibility lists for patrol, security sergeant and detectives. There are still names on the current eligibility list for Patrol Sergeant and Patrol Lieutenant.

    Sheriff's Department administration is trying work out implementation of payment of an additional $1 per hours for Field Training officers. This item was negotiated between the WPPA and the County but the details of how it's to be done aren't clear. There's no money budgeted in the payroll accounts for the extra dollar per hour to training officers.

    Sheriff Stammen announced that former Sheriff Alan Shanks is retiring as Deputy Director for the Wisconsin Department of Emergency Management and his retirement party will be held on April 30, 2004 at the Park Plaza in West Baraboo.

    Respect for Law Day will be held on May 10th, 2004, at the Historic Courthouse.

    The committee persons were each given a coffee cup from the Wisconsin Sheriffs & Deputy Sheriffs Association.

    Marvin Giebel said he had served on the Law Enforcement Committee under four sheriffs during his time on the County Board. He said he would possibly return to visit in the future.

15. Adjourn To Date Specified: The next regular meeting will be held on Friday, May 7, 2004.

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