DATE: May 7, 2004
The regular meeting of the Sauk County Law Enforcement Committee was held on Friday, May 7, 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, Carlson, Fordham, Tollaksen, Sinklair
Members Absent: None
Others Present: R. Stammen, B. Hinze, M. Hafemann, K. Fults, J. Prantner, R. Meister. L. McCartney, G. Wiegand,
J. Spencer, M. Busser, O. F. Coller, B. Manning
Sheriff Stammen called for nominations for the office of committee chair.
Motion by Carlson, seconded by Tollaksen, nominating Charles Montgomery for chair of the committee, that the nominations be closed and a unanimous ballot be cast for him. Motion carried.
Sheriff Stammen turned the meeting over to Chair Montgomery.
Chair Montgomery asked for nominations for Vice Chair of the Committee.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, nominating Arthur Carlson as vice chair of the committee, that the nominations be closed and a unanimous ballot be cast for him. Motion carried.
Chair Montgomery opened nominations for the secretary of the committee.
Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Tollaksen, that Joan Fordham be nominated as secretary of the committee, that the nominations be closed and a unanimous ballot be cast for her. Motion carried.
There are three new members of the committee due to changes on the Sauk County Board of Supervisors. Chair Montgomery asked the committee members and Sheriff's Department personnel to introduce themselves to each other.
A letter from Denise Radtke was read commending Deputies Dadam and Rupert who handled a complaint at Radtke's elderly parents' home. Radtke's letter said both deputies were extremely professional and patient with the homeowners who were upset and confused.
Sheriff Stammen reported that due to the retirement of Lieutenant Michael Deakin, Sergeant Mike Stoddard had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, thus leaving a patrol sergeant opening. Detective Aaron Kirby has been promoted to fill this slot, leaving his duties as drug investigation officer open in the Detective Division. A recruitment is underway for patrol deputies and detectives.
Adams County Sheriff Roberta Sindelar sent a letter thanking the Sauk County deputies who assisted during the fatal shooting death of an Adams County deputy in 2002. Sindelar noted that case had recently been completed with a guilty verdict being rendered against the suspect. Lieutenant Fults, the commander of the Sauk County ERT team told the committee persons that Sauk County deputies and the Sauk County ERT team, along with a number of other officers from surrounding counties, responded to the site of a standoff after the fatal shooting of the deputy. Fults told the committee that Sauk County's ERT team has a team medic, Detective Sergeant Welsch. Welsch has received specialized training for medical emergencies that might be encountered during confrontations containing high risk for injuries to law enforcement personnel and those they're attempting to take into custody. He said that with the potential for additional serious injuries during the standoff the presence of Welsch was of vital
importance.
The Sauk County Chapter of TRIAD, which is a group comprised of law enforcement personnel, community volunteers and senior citizens working on safety and crime issues specifically related to senior citizens, received two awards at the recent Wisconsin TRIAD conference in Fond du Lac. They received the best program award for the Grab-A-Phone program, which provides seniors with used cell phones that can be carried and used to call 911 in emergencies. The Sauk County Chapter also received honorable mention for the Car Care Clinic which is done each fall by local law enforcement and mechanics in the area. Senior citizens can have their cars checked for antifreeze levels, tire safety and other minor repairs and checks insuring their vehicles are ready for winter driving. The vehicle safety checks are performed at a number of places in the county and are free.
Lt. Kevin Fults told the committee that two months ago he had discussed the possibility of applying for a grant to upgrade VISIONS, the Sauk County Sheriff's Department's records keeping program. The Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance is offering grants to upgrade internal software and hardware for law enforcement agencies to make the programs compatible with data gathering needs for the Wisconsin Uniform Crime Reporting. The new program, the Wisconsin Incident Based Reporting System, will streamline UCR reporting and provide valuable data and more accurate statistics. The basic program that Sauk County has is one that will integrate with the Wisconsin system but the upgrade in hardware and software is projected to cost $75,000. A grant award of $30,710 has been approved by the Office of Justice Assistance, leaving a shortfall of about $44,290. Sauk County has to agree to provide that amount or the grant can't be accepted.
The committee couldn't approve or deny the acceptance of the grant without an agenda item. Lieutenant Fults was instructed to put the item on the agenda for the Judiciary meeting , along with the MIS committee's agenda, for a possible resolution supporting acceptance of the grant. The Office of Justice Assistance must be notified if by May 19, 2004, if Sauk County is going to accept this grant.
Chair Montgomery asked the committee members if they were agreeable to having the Law Enforcement portion of the monthly meeting and the Judiciary portion back to back. Both the law enforcement issues and the judiciary issues require separate agendas normally because of the number of items on each. The committee persons agreed to hold the meetings the same day whenever possible.
6A. Review and Approval of April, 2004, Bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Department: Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to approve payment of the April, 2004, bills for the Coroner in the amount of $1,601.81.
Sheriff Stammen explained to the committee some items in the revenue accounts, pointing out that some accounts receive deposits only once a year and noting that some of those payments come late in the year.
No other items of note were contained in the monthly bills except that the four new squad cars were included in the payments.
Motion by Carlson, seconded by Tollaksen, to approve payment of the Sheriff's Department's April, 2004, expenses in the amount of $190,505.98. Motion carried.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to approve the Application for Permit for Open Air Assembly by the Border Riders Motorcycle Club for May 29 and 30, 2004. Motion carried.
Sheriff Stammen told the new members of the committee that he reports on hours of overtime paid to supervisors each month. Under the Sauk County Personnel Ordinance supervisors aren't eligible for overtime pay but an agreement was reached to allow payment to supervisors for certain reasons, such as ERT callouts, holidays worked and working hours on highway safety grants. He is required to report this each month to the committee.
There were 56.5 hours of supervisory overtime paid in April, 51 of which were hours worked on a holiday and 5.5 hours for supervisors working highway safety grants. Supervisors are eligible to work traffic enforcement hours for overtime pay only when no union deputy signs up to work the hours and the wages for all the hours worked are billed back to the grant.
There were 425 inmate days in March for electronic monitoring. The breakdown of expenditures and income are:
$6,831.25 collected from inmates for the use of the electronic equipment
$2,304.50 paid out for the lease of the electronic equipment
$4,526.75 net gain
Sheriff Stammen noted that the electronic monitoring program is overseen by one jailor and that unless another deputy were to be assigned to assist no more than 12 to 15 inmates can realistically be supervised under the program. The monies that are collected over the amount paid out to lease the electronic equipment make the cost of the program almost a break-even situation after calculating the salary and benefits cost for the deputy administering the program.
There were 103 prisoner transports in April, bringing the year-to-date total for 2004 to 448 transports.
Sheriff Stammen did a brief explanation of the civilian transport programs, comprised mainly of retired law enforcement persons. They handle low risk transports in pairs or do transports with an armed deputy in other instances. The advent of statewide video conferencing will have an impact on transports since some appearances will be done via video, eliminating the need to actually transport detainees to other locations for hearings and appearances. The program is being worked on but isn't in use. Sauk County already has the video visitation equipment because it was included in the construction of the new facility.
For February, 2004, there were 13,564 inmate meals; March, 2004, showed 17,260; and in April, 2004, there were 17,022 inmate meals served.
Chair Montgomery said that at the next meeting the committee should take a tour of the jail and Huber Center and eat lunch from the jail kitchen.
At present there are 193 prisoners in custody and 12 on electronic monitoring. There are 68 Sauk County prisoners in the Huber Center and 66 in secure detention, 40 of which are Dane County inmates and 7 from Iowa County.
The following amounts were collected in April from various agencies for housing their prisoners in our facility:
$ 2,912 from Grant County
$17,108 from Iowa County
$46,748 from Dane County
$300 from INS for detention of illegal aliens
The total collected in April was $68,966.55 and the year-to-date revenue for housing out-of-county inmates is $196,186.45.
Tollaksen asked what happens to revenues collected in excess of annual projections. Wiegand said that eventually those monies are transferred to the general fund. In certain instances some might be transferred to expenditure accounts but that would require approval by the Finance Committee and the full Sauk County Board of Supervisors since it would be an amendment to the adopted budget for a given year.
Sheriff Stammen reported that due to retirements, promotions, resignations and a termination there was/ or soon would the following open slots in the roster of employees; six jailor positions, four patrol positions and two detectives slots.
There has been only one traffic fatality in 2004 in Sauk County. The Sheriff said he credited the decrease largely to the reassignment of personnel to work traffic safety grants in areas that have been identified as danger areas.
Plans for the Circus Parade continue with decisions being made as to the deployment of employees. The City of Baraboo has estimated that they need 100 officers just for parade duties. Field Service personnel, including some jail staff assigned to work parade duty will be placed on 12-hours shifts and all days off and vacations have been canceled department wide. Thirty Sauk County deputies will be assigned to the City of Baraboo and the rest will be doing county patrol. Dane County and Columbia County have already told Baraboo that they won't be able to provide mutual aid for the parade due to press of business in their respective counties. Sheriff Stammen said he estimated the overtime for his staff for the 4th of July holiday weekend will run in excess of $52,000.
In addition, Stammen said information posted on the Internet indicates that a Weedstock event is being planned but the dates and location haven't been posted. Traditionally this isn't done until the last minute to hamper efforts by law enforcement in the chosen county to organize efforts to police the event.
The Sauk County Open Air Assembly was challenged in court and eventually the Wisconsin Appeals Court determined it to be faulty due to what it called a excessive lead time prior to the event in which the permit should be made. It has been revised and Sheriff Stammen reported that if the event takes place on the 4th of July weekend he'll close it down as he did the last time. He said the event promoters may select the 4th of July because they'll expect all local law enforcement agencies to be overburdened with other activities.
The Respect for Law ceremony will be held on Monday, May 10, 2004, at the Historic Courthouse on the Square in Baraboo.
A picture of the committee was taken.
Captain Hafemann reported that the first inmate had finished his GED requirements under the education program in the jail which was approved by the committee a couple of months ago. The inmate doesn't have the $10 required to get the GED certificate and MATC personnel were looking into a funding source. Sinklair said he believed the lack of money to get the GED certificate once the study is completed should not prevent successful inmates from getting their certificate. The modest cost could be covered by an expenditure account and the other committee members agreed that it would appropriate for Captain Hafemann to authorize payment from an expense account.
Captain Hafemann reported that the first batch of glasses from the Lions Club had been cleaned and classified by inmates. Arthur Carlson reported that the Lions Club provides the machines and the boxes of donated glasses which are cleaned and the prescriptions read. They're then shipped around the world. The Sauk County Jail is the only county jail in the state that' participating in this program.
Sinklair inquired as to the availability of AA and other programs to assist inmates with alcohol and other drug problems while incarcerated. Hafemann reported that the AA program is being offered now but it wasn't for a period of time in the past due to lack of AA members willing to offer the program. He's currently working with the Pauquette Center to get the Sauk County Jail approved as a treatment site. If approval is given then inmates can participate in AODA programs within the confines of the facility at no cost to the county. The counseling would be billable to inmate's health insurance. Sinklair asked if other AODA programs had been asked to submit programs for this type of service and Hafemann reported that they had been. The Pauquette Center offered the best deal. It also provides service to a percentage of indigent inmates so it covers a wide spectrum of the inmate population. The implementation of the Pauquette program hinges on the facility being approved as an
"off site" meeting room with accommodations that meet Pauquette's standard for confidentiality and privacy.
Church services are offered to inmates but due to lack of volunteers some denominations aren't represented.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried.
Respectfully Submitted: Joan Fordham, Secretary