DATE: August 12, 2008
The regular meeting of the Sauk County Law Enforcement Committee was held on Tuesday, August 12, 2008, at 10:00 A.M., in room D102A Community Room, 1300 Lange Court, Baraboo, Wisconsin.
The meeting was properly posted and all interested parties were notified.
Members Present: Stevens, Sinklair, Montgomery, Sprecher, Tollaksen
Members Absent:
Members Excused:
Others Present: B. Hinze, M. Hafemann, R. Meister, W. Schneider, J. Spencer, J. Fry, M. Stoddard, B. Manning, Media
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 Donald Stevens at 10:00 A.M.
2. Agenda : Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Sinklair, to adopt the agenda. Motion carried.
3 . Approve Minutes of Previous Meeting : Motion by Sinklair, seconded by Tollaksen to adopt the minutes of the July 10, 2008, meeting. Motion carried.
4. Communications : A packet containing several communications were handed out to the committee members by Chief Deputy Meister. It was noted that Sauk County is responsible for traffic control on the construction area of Highway 12 from 7 AM to 11 AM each day and from 3 PM to 7 PM. There were no questions on the items handed out.
5. Public Comment : There was no public comment.
6. Appearances : There were no appearances.
7. Sauk County Animal Shelter Operations Update
Shelter Director Wendy Schneider passed out the Director's Report for July, 2008. She told the comm ittee that Animal Control Officer Justin Huelsemann does an excellent job and he's extremely busy handling animal complaints, bite cases and after-hour pick ups. He and another shelter worker handle all after hours calls and are paid $10 per call. She will seek their inclusion into the county health insurance plan as an incentive to retain them. She said Huelsemann coordinated boats to pick up abandoned animals during the summer flooding and he made several trips to rescue animals.
The committee was presented with the 2009 budget request for operation of the Animal Shelter. There are increases requested related to the requested health insurance benefits for two shelter employees and the replacement of the Shelter's van which has 125,000 miles on it.
Accounting has placed the Animal Shelter budget into the Sheriff's Department's budget for 2009. The Law Enforcement & Judiciary Committee has had oversight of the Shelter budget but this year the Shelter Director will not appear before for the administrative budget review independent of the Sheriff's budget.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Sinklair, to acknowledge the receipt of the presented budget request which will go before the Sauk County Board of Supervisors for consideration. Motion carried.
8. Review and Approval of July, 2008, Bills for Coroner and Sheriff's Department : The Coroner had to leave the meeting prior to the presentation of her bills and budget proposal. The bills for the month of July totaled $4,997.20.
Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Sinklair, to approve payment of the July, 2008, bills for the Coroner in the amount of $4,997.20. Motion carried.
The Coroner's 2009 budget proposal is less than her 2008 budget request which included a replacement van. Coroner Hinze stated before leaving that there were no real changes in her general budget requests from the previous year.
Motion by Sinklair, seconded by Tollaksen, to acknowledge receipt of the 2009 budget request from the Coroner and to authorize taking that request forward in the budget process. Motion carried.
The Sheriff's Department's bills were reviewed and discussed. There was a question about one of the vehicle repair bills. A copy of the bill was produced and the expenditure was found to be reasonable for the work done.
Motion by Tollaksen, seconded by Sprecher, to approve the July, 2008, bills in the amount of $148,755.91. Motion carried.
9 . Consideration and Approval of resolution Authorization to Increase Civil Process Mileage Fees by the Sauk County Sheriff Effective September 15, 2008 : A recommendation to bring this before the committee was made at the July meeting. Based on the wishes of the committee the resolution was written to allow the mileage rate for service of civil process to be based upon the IRS rates without requiring a resolution for each mileage change. Corporation Counsel provided language to build that into the resolution.
Motion by Sinklair, seconded by Tollaksen, to approve the resolution Authorization to Increase Civil Process Mileage Fees by the Sauk County Sheriff Effective September 15, 2008 , and to take the resolution to the Sauk County Board of Supervisors at the August 19th, 2008, meeting. Motion carried.
10. Consideration and Approval of resolution Authorizing Purchase of Two Replacement Vehicles for Unmarked Squad Cars : The resolution to purchase two front wheel drive Ford Escapes from Koenecke Ford was approved at the July meeting. The bid of Koenecke was the third lowest bid received for detective vehicles but the lowest bid and the next lowest bid were dropped because the vehicles were not available.
The resolution went to the County Board of Supervisors at the July meeting but wasn't passed because of a discrepancy in the cost of the cars in the body of the resolution and the fiscal note. The resolution has been corrected so the two amounts are the same.
Motion by Montgomery, seconded by Tollaksen, to approve the resolution Authorizing Purchase of Two Replacement Vehicles for Unmarked Squad Cars and to take the resolution to the Sauk County Board of Supervisors at the August 19, 2008, meeting. Motion carried with Sinklair dissenting.
11 . Presentation of 2009 Draft Budget : The committee received a preliminary draft budget and set a date for a special meeting to go over the budget. That meeting was set for Thursday, September 4th, at 5 PM at the Law Enforcement Center.
12 . Sheriff's Report : Chief Deputy Chip Meister gave the Sheriff's Report.
There were 373 inmate boarding days in July for electronic monitoring and 20 inmates participated in the program. The cost of leasing the equipment was $2,051.50 and the income was $6,341 which leaves a revenue of $4,489.50.
There were 146 transports in July, bringing the year-to-date total to 760.
The Communication Center has received 8,682 calls for service as of July, 2008, which is 1,621 more that the comparable period in 2007,
One of the Crown Victoria squad cars was involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle operated by a drunk driver who crossed the center line and hit . It's expected that the car will be declared a total loss by the insurance company. The deputy operating the vehicle received facial cuts and a sore back.
In June, there were 196 hours spent working the Highway Safety CLICKIT grant. There were 129 citations written for various offenses, including speeding and drunk driving; and 130 written warnings were issued.
Sauk County has had five traffic fatalities in 2008.
There are currently three vacancies in dispatch; one due to retirement, another due to a resignation and the third because a dispatcher transferred to the Patrol Division. A jailor and a detective have been temporarily assigned to dispatch, both of whom were hired initially as dispatchers, and a recruitment is underway.
Jeremy Mammos has been hired as a jailor and four jailors have completed their jail certification training.
13 . Adjourn To Date Specified: In addition to the special meeting scheduled for August 27th, 2008, the next regular meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, September 9th, 2008, at 9:30 A.M.
Motion by Sinklair, seconded by Sprecher, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried.
________________________
Robert Sinklair, Secretary
( Minutes taken by B. Manning)