DATE: October 4 , 2004
The regular meeting of the Sauk County Law Enforcement Committee was held on Monday, October 4, 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, O. Coller, A. Gorsuch, B. Rupert, D. Horkheimer, B. Manning, T. Liebman, 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 Fordham, seconded by Tollaksen, to adopt the agenda. Carried.
3 Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting(s): Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Carlson, to approve the minutes of the regular Law Enforcement Committee meeting held on Friday, September 3, 2004. Motion carried.
4. Communications: Sheriff Stammen referred to the most recent report from Bob Lee on the jail inspection. All committee members received copy of Bob Lee's report. Carlson commended Captain Hafemann and his staff for the excellent job they did.
Sheriff Stammen reported that he had received notification from Training and Standards that Mike Foster and Todd Bychinski had successfully completed their law enforcement training and were state certified lasw enforcement officers.
The Sheriff received a letter from a Ms. Hoffenberg who state she was the victim of racial profiling when she was issued a traffic citation by a Sauk County deputy. Sheriff Stammen said the allegations in the letter weren't supported by the facts but that he had initiated a complete investigation into the matter which is still in progress.
Sheriff Stammen told the committee that he had been notified that Sauk County Deputy Harold Weinke had been appointed to the Board of Directors for the National COPS organization (Concerns of Police Survivors) and that he's also the training officer for National COPS. In addition, Deputy Weinke serves as President of the Wisconsin COPS Chapter.
A press release from James Warren of the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation was read. The release pertained to a felony search warrant that was done on the residence of a suspected drug trafficker. The search warrant netted 695 grams of cocaine and Sauk County Deputies Brent Rupert and Canine Boris were credited with quickly locating drugs in a barn filled with numerous items saving hundreds of man hours needed to do a manual search.
Sheriff Stammen said that vacancies in patrol had resulted in temporary appointments of officers to fill them. Among those filling patrol slots is Telecommunicator Josip Sabol. Besides Sabol there were other shortages in dispatch. Sheriff Stammen worked with the union and the Department of Personnel to appoint retired Deputy Scott Simonds, who's a certified dispatcher, to a limited term to cover vacant shifts. Sheriff Stammen related he was reporting to the committee after the fact due to the urgency to get more help in dispatch and avoid burning out the staff with overtime. This issue is part of Item 8 on the agenda.
Detective Sergeant Joe Welsh reproted that this fall's golf outing had resulted in raising $18,866.97. This money is donated to the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial and the Wisconsin Chapter of COPS. Over the past six years that the golf fundraiser has been held $90,937 has been raised for these two projects.
5. Appearances: a.) Jailor Debra Horkheimer was given the Employee of the Month award for July and Deputy Brent Rupert and Boris were chosen as the Employees of the Month for August. Horkheimer's award is the second time she's been honored and her nomination mentioed the outstanding job she does as a trainer for new employees. in addition she's written a booking manual to assist all employees with the booking procedure.
Deputy Rupert's nomination related that he and Boris have assisted in drug investigations in Vernon and Adams County, as well as assisting the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Lake Delton Police Department with significant investigations. Deputy Rupert and Boris also appear at local schools and day care centers and are working to raise funds to purchase a second canine for the Sheriff's Department.
b.) Jail Nurse Andrew Gorsuch appeared before the committee to apprise them of concerns he has with developments in his beneifts and classification since his date of hire with Sauk County. Gorsch reported that last year he and the other jail nurses were informed that they would most likely be removed as exempt employees of the Sheriff's Department and placed into a union that included other county nursing staff. The process for the reclassification started in late summer or early fall. Gorsuch said that he didnt' have any confusion about the process of switching the jail nurses to union employees but stated that once he and the other jail nurses received information that the reclassification was underway he had lost pay and benefits. Although all Sheriff's Department employees are given a uniform allowance, both union and non-union members, the jail nurses were not given an allowance last year. Personnel denied the allowance based on their being members of the nurses union since no other nurses are given such a benefit. Manning stated she had requested that the uniform payment at least be prorated for the months when there was no pending decision about the reclassification but that was not allowed.
Exempt employees of Sauk County didn't get a merit increase in 2004. The increases were canceled for one year for budgetary reasons. Gorsuch and the other nurses didn't get a merit increase based on Personnel's decision that they were still considered exempt employees. Gorsuch said he has written to the Personnel Committee and the Personnel Director about these concerns and he had forwarded copies of his letter to the Sheriff among others.
Todd Liebman was at the meeting and he stated that the issues are negotiable items and as such the Law Enforcement Committee had no authority to act on the issues. Gorsuch said he didn't expect any action but merely wanted the committee members to know the situation. He said he would be requesting an appearance before the Personnel Committee. Sheriff Stammen said he would be in favor of clarification of the nurses' status in regard to the uniform allowance and the merit raise until a decision is made. Sinklair asked Liebman when the matter might be settled so that the Jail Nurses would know what their status is. Liebman said the matter might take two to three years.
Hafemann asked if the nurses, and Gorsuch specifically, would be given a merit increase based on satisfactory performance in July, 2005, when his performance appraisal is due should the matter still be unsettled. Liebman said that he should get an increase based on a favorable review.
6. Review and Approval of September, 2004, Bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Department: Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Fordham, to approve payment of the September, 2004, bills for the Coroner in the amount of $4,713.44. Motion carried.
Motion by Fordham, seconded by Tollaksen, to approve payment of the Sheriff's Department's expenditures for September, in the amount of $102,337.79. Motion carried.
7. Consideration and Approval of Amendment to Sauk County Animal Control Ordinance: Corporation Counsel Todd Liebman said he had sent a draft of the proposed amendment the animal control ordinance to Sauk County Public Health and the Sauk County Humane Society. He hadn't received a response from either. Sheriff Stammen said that all Field Service Supervisors had received a copy and he hadn't had any feedback from anyone with suggestions or changes.
Due to the time constraints Liebman said the amended ordinance would most likely be placed on the November County Board agenda.
8.Discussion and Approval of Limited Term Employment: Sheriff Stammen said that he was asking permission from the committee to hire retired Deputy Scott Simonds as a limited term employee in dispatch and that he also wanted permission from the committee to hire retired Jail Sergeant O. Fred Coller to write policy for the jail.
Captain Hafemann told the committee that written policies and procedures are mandated by the Department of Corrections to cover all functions in the jail and Huber Center. Stammen said that one of the ongoing issues pointed out by State Jail Inspector Bob Lee is the lack of a complete Policy and Procedure Manual. Failure to have the policies and procedures could lead to the closing of the facility in extreme cases and could also leave the county vulnerable in legal action against the jail for any reason. The policies and procedures for the Huber Center are done but only about 15% of the necessary policies and procedures for the jail are complete. Sergeant Coller was working on rewriting the transition scenarios and plans into day-to-day operations policies and procedures at the time of his retirement but since then the process has slowed to almost a complete stop. Hafemann said he doesn't have time to write the policies and the present jail supervisors are busy supervising staff and inmates during their shifts. In addition, not everyone is proficient at writing policies and procedures.
Hafemann said he had met with the Personnel Director and there was no objection to hiring Fred Coller as a limited term employee. The hourly wage will be less than he was receiving as a jail sergeant and there will be no benefits. The salary will be paid from unspent salary money and the missing policies and procedures should be able to be completed in approximately 180 eight-hour days. The wage will be set at somewhere between $18 to $20 per hour.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Carlson, to authorize the hiring of Scott Simonds as a limited term employee at a rate of pay commensurate with an experienced dispatch, for a period not to exceed three months unless extended by the committee; and to authorize the hiring of Fred Coller to write policies and procedures for a term not to exceed 180 eight-hours days at a rate of pay not to exceed $20 per hour. Motion carried.
9.Sheriff's Report: Sheriff Stammen noted that the topics to be covered in his report were enumerated on the agenda. This is due to recent legal cases pertaining to open records law that may make it necessary to note on the agenda all items to be discussed or reported even if no action will be taken on them.
a. Inmate Meal Reports - 16,154 meals were provided in September, 2004
b. Department Overtime Report - August, 2004, overtime was 1,760 hours of paid overtime and compensatory time banked. September supervisory overtime was 109 hours.
c. Prisoner Transport Report - There were 102 transports in August, bringing the year-to-date total to 1,068.
d. Triad Car Care Clinics Report - Sauk County Triad is currently conducting Car Care Clinics for senior citizens at various locations throughout Sauk County. Participants have their vehicles checked to make sure tires, antifreeze levels, belts and hoses are in good winter driving condition. There is no charge for the service, which is done by a mechanic. In addition the seniors are given various gifts and handouts. This year Land's End of Dodgeville donated 180 polar fleece blankets to the project.
e. Electronic Monitoring Report - There were 18 inmates participating in the program this month with 470 inmate days.
$7,545.75 collected from inmates for the use of the electronic equipment
$2,590.47 paid out for the lease of the electronic equipment
$4,955.28 net gain
f. Boarding Out-of-County Inmates Report - As of this date the jail/Huber population is 92 Hubers, 13 on electronic monitoring, 32 Dane County inmates, 7 Iowa County inmates, 68 Sauk County jail inmates for a total jail population of 212.
Dane County was billed $33,020 for September housing and Iowa County was billed $11,596 for a total of $44,616. The year-to-date total is $587,332.63 and approximately $65,000 is expected from the State for Probation and Parole Holds.
g. Department Personnel Issues - A clerk working half time and a clerk working full time will be switching duties and hours on November 1, 2004.
Deputy Sheriff/Jailor Darick Krause has resigned effective September 28, 2004, to accept employment elsewhere. Tyler Bongard has been hired as a jailor. Bongard has been working part-time at Lake Delton Police Department as a patrol officer. Deputy Sheriff/Jailor Patrick Burroughs has been transferred to the Patrol Division.
Amanda Daniels has been hired as a female jailor. She will begin her tour of duty on November 3, 2004.
h. Highway Safety Issues - Nothing to report
i. Triple III Reports - Deputy Stacy Hellmich was slightly injured in a fight with a combative male at St. Clare Hospital. She didn't lose any work time.
Deputy Diane Slaney's squad car received light damage in a hit and run incident. A report was taken by the Baraboo Police Department.
Deputy Shawn Finnegan's squad was lightly scratched at some point; date, time and place unknown.
Deputy Sheriff/Jailor Mitch Schauff was transporting an intoxicated male and the inmate rammed the jail transport van with his head, causing $840 in damage to the vehicle., which was parked in the sally port of the Sauk County Jail. The inmate has been charged with criminal damage to property.
j. CVR Program - The training has been done for the vehicle registration program and it officially started on Friday, October 1, 2004.
k. Budget Matters - Sheriff Stammen said events like the Circus Parade may put the Sheriff's Department over budget in 2005 in some accounts, such as overtime allocations.
Art Carlson said he had attended the Wisconsin Counties meeting in Racine.
Captain Hafemann said he had been approached by Rock County, which is suffering an acute shortage of jail space. They may be willing to negotiate with Sauk County for a contract for inmate housing. Hafemann will be in further contact with them.
Sheriff Stammen said his understanding was that an ad hoc committee was going to be appointed to look into housing out-of-county inmates but he's heard nothing about it for a while.
Sheriff Stammen requested permission to research the cost of his attending the National Sheriff's Association convention in Louisville, Kentucky, in June of 2005. He said that Sheriffs who go the convention report learning many helpful things. The committee instructed him to look into the cost.
10. Adjourn to Date Specified: The next regular meeting will be held on Friday, November 5, 2004.
Motion by Carlson, seconded by Tollaksen, to adjourn.
Joan Fordham, Secretary
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Joan Fordham, Secretary