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Transcript of C6JJB Meeting Links to key subjects in the transcript of the April 30, 2007 meeting of the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board
JJ MEETING APRIL 30, 2007 – 2:01 P.M. ROUGH VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT MARYANN PENHALE, BOARD REPORTER
2:01:27 PM ~ Harris: This is the appointed time. The Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board will come to order; I want to welcome all of you here. We haven’t seen this many people in quite a while and that’s a good sign. I am not sure what constitutes a quorum - Ms Waters.
2:01:51 PM ~ Waters: You need at least –
2:01:58 PM ~ Harris: We need eight –
Waters: --of your voting members.
And we have got more than eight people here; so we have a quorum. You all received the minutes in the mail from our last meeting. Question?
2:02:11 PM ~ Plyer: Yes, can I have a call of the roll please. So we know who is here and who isn’t here.
Harris: Sure. It might be better if we identify ourselves.
2:02:21 PM ~ Roll Call: Martha Lenderman, Teri Simpson, Lt. Brown, Lt. Taylor, MaryAnn Penhale (Board Reporter), Vance Arnett, Jim Coats, Norm Roche, Lavetta Waters, Bruce Wright, Dave Plyer, Al Capadiferro, Paul McClintock, Lisa Sloan, Stacey Schroeder, Calvin Harris
[Request for designation letter from McCabe] Harris: Yes, Mr. Arnett.
2:02:50 PM ~ Arnett: I need to have something clarified. I don’t know whether Mr. McCabe, he and I didn’t discuss it and I don’t know whether I am officially designated as a voting member; I would like to clear that up before we have to call a question.
2:03:04 PM ~ Harris: It was my impression that you were the designee and if you are uncomfortable with that then—
2:03:15 PM ~ Arnett: No, I’m not uncomfortable with any assignment he gives me. I just want to make sure I know if I’m voting or not.
2:03:22 PM ~ Harris: You know one of the things, this is supposed to about children; and it’s not about us or it’s not brain surgery or anything and we're just making it so difficult and it does not have to be. Yes?
2:03:35 PM ~ Plyer: I realize that this is a difficult point, but to be a voting designee you have to have a letter from the member. Do we have that?
2:03:48 PM ~ Harris: Mr. McCabe had designated Vance long before any of this came up and we do have a letter designating him, and if you like that, I would be happy to send you a copy of the letter, if you need that, if that makes the world any better for you, I will send it to you.
2:04:09 PM ~ Plyer: Excuse me, it has nothing to do with whether I like it or don’t like it; it’s what the bylaws call for.
2:04:18 PM ~ Harris: We can all read Dave, and that’s why we accepted the letter from Mr. McCabe designating Vance as the voting member.
2:04:30 PM ~ Plyer: The only reason I bring this up is the last time you told us you had a designated member we found out that he was not a designated member; you told us we had a letter for him and we didn’t so I just want to make sure we have things squared away.
2:04:42 PM ~ Harris: And since you are the keeper of veracity and everything, you make sure.
Plyer: Thank you.
Harris: Now you all received the minutes from the last meeting. Are there any questions, corrections to the minutes?
2:04:57 PM ~ Plyer: Before we can review those minutes we have to review the minutes of the September 18 meeting; we never approved the minutes from the September 18 meeting.
2:05:16 PM ~ Lenderman And I would move approval of those minutes.
Plyer: We have to approve those minutes before we can--
McClintock: Second.
Harris Okay we have a motion and second to approve the minutes of the September 18 meeting that were not approved at the last meeting.
2:05:28 PM ~ Plyer: I have comments.
2:05:34 PM ~ Harris: Do you have those in writing?
2:05:38 PM ~ Plyer: I will read the comments. And for the sake of time I am going to will skip over the fact that the members are not listed that were here or not here; under Chairman’s comments, I would like to add, this is under article 6, Chairman’s comments - add: the motion after discussion was stated by the Chair as we are going to create an advisory Council to give us advice and immediately put to the vote; in that same article on the agenda add: Bob Gardner representing the Circuit 6 Public Defender Bob Dillinger voted aye. Chair verified that Gardner was designated to represent the Public Defender; Bob Gardner was allowed to vote. Under new business, Plyer asked if any of the meetings would be held in the evening; the Chair confirmed that all meetings would be held during business hours; add after, and this is agenda 8, item 8, add after Martha Lenderman's motion, add these: the Nomination Committee established April 24, 2006 to elect the Vice-Chair never met; and then just a couple of which I would think would be routine things – the time the meeting adjourned; on all if our minutes we should have the time that the meeting adjourned and the name of the person who prepared the minutes.
2:07:47 PM ~ Harris: Thank you. Anybody else with any corrections, suggestions, input? We have motion and second for approval all in favor say aye. Opposed like sign nay. The motion stands approved. Now we have a second set of minutes; and everybody received those, right? Okay. Do we have a motion for approval?
Plyer: Again I have a couple of comments.
2:08:16 PM ~ Lenderman: You have a motion.
Harris: Is there a second?
McClintock: Second.
2:08:28 PM ~ Plyer: Yes. Two comments: I would like the title of these minutes changed. The title currently reads Circuit 6 Department of Juvenile Justice Board Meeting - I would like the word department stricken, department of stricken.
2:08:42 PM ~ Harris: Because?
2:08:45 PM ~ Plyer: Because the name of this is Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board, not the Circuit 6 Department of Juvenile Justice Board. That’s why.
2:08:57 PM ~ Harris: Anything else?
2:09:02 PM ~ Plyer: Yeah, one more. In the list of attendees it’s not clear who are members and who are visitors.
2:09:13 PM ~ Harris: We don’t normally list visitors and membership—
2:09:21 PM ~ Plyer: Well again I just go by what I understand the minutes are supposed to be an accurate reflection…So in the future at least we ought to at least indicate who are members and say here are the members and here is anybody else who cared to sign in.
2:09:41 PM ~ Harris: Thank you. Any other comments? Yes?
2:09:44 PM ~ Roche: Mr. Chairman, should I note that my name isn’t on there as attendee?
Harris: You may.
Roche: Thank you sir.
2:09:53 PM ~ Harris: Any other comments?
Plyer: And you are?
Roche Norm Roche. My apologies.
Harris: We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as amended. All in favor (ayes). Opposed? (none) Okay, the minutes stand approved. Now we go to our Juvenile Justice Council Reports. A report from the Pinellas Council by Dave Plyer.
[Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council's report]
2:10:19 PM ~ Plyer: I have two things to report. First is that the Council for over a year now has been dealing with the Pinellas County School Board in an attempt to reduce school-related arrests; now we can’t go and tell them what to do but we kind of spotlight on them. So quarterly we produce a report card for the School Board and tell them how we believe that they are doing in the effort to reduce school-related arrests. So I would like to read you the letter that I wrote to Superintendent Wilcox and to the School Board. And it says this: This report card reviews your efforts to reduce school related charges in Pinellas County public schools. This report covers the third quarter of the 2006-7 school year; the report from the Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center titled admissions into PJAC with school-related charges January through March 2007 quarterly report is our source for this report; overall the third quarter of the 2006-7 school year shows steady improvement in the efforts by the School Board, the Superintendent and your partners in reducing school-related charges. There were 246 school-related charges in the third quarter of this year. This is a 25 percent reduction over the 330 charges for the same period a year ago; it is down 42 percent from the 226 charges in the third quarter of the previous year, the 2004-5 school year. On the other hand, although the count for the misbehavior charges of disorderly conduct and disruption of school environment is down 69 counts, in the mix of all charges it remains high at 28 percent; the lowest rate, 23 percent of all charges was in the first quarter of the 2005-6 school year; the highest rate was 39 percent in the first quarter of the 2004-5 school year. If we look across all quarters from the third quarter of the 2003-4 school year to the present, charges for misbehavior account for 32 percent of all charges; in need of improvement are schools that consistently rank in the top ten for school-related charges; two schools, Clearwater High School and Richard L. Sanders were in the top ten in each of the past two school years and remain there through the third quarter of this school year. Once again, best wishes to Pinellas County for your continuing efforts to reduce traffic on the schoolhouse to jailhouse track. And then the other report is our letter to Pat McGhee concerning the grant approval process, grant scoring process and this letter goes: On March 29, 2007, the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council met to approve the rank of the following delinquency prevention grant applications; and we go on to rank four grant applications that we got. Number one was the YMCA of Greater St. Pete; number two Boley Centers; three, Juvenile Services Program; and four, Pinellas County PAL, Police Athletic League, I believe, that was number four. The scorers were Councilmember Cathy Corry, Dave Plyer, and Matt Sullivan. They completed delinquency prevention training pier review sheets, and signed conflict of interest declarations are attached to this letter. In addition, review sheets were emailed to Kristen Avery, grants manager. The applications were scored solely on the instructions and information provided by the Department of Juvenile Justice; however, the Council has these concerns: one, none of the applications contained quote a letter from the Chair of the Juvenile Justice Circuit Board confirming that the grant application has been reviewed and found to support one or more purposes or goals of the Juvenile Justice Plan as developed by the Board; and the point here is that is required in the Florida Statutes concerning the grant review process. The other seven, there were eight requirements; the other seven requirements were met by the applicants. Number two, the document used by applicants to focus their proposals reference supplement one high risk zip codes by county states quote: for each county at least 70 percent of youth referred reside in the zip codes listed; the cumulative total for youth referred in Pinellas County is 39 percent. The discrepancy between the piece of paper that the grant applicants received that tells them the high zip code areas that constitute 70 percent of the youth to be included for Pinellas County it only totaled 39 percent; something wrong with the calculation. And the other thing that we found very disturbing was the applications were consistently lacking in meaningful performance metrics. Finally, the Council offers these administrative suggestions - put spaces on each page…delinquency prevention pier review sheets for the scorer’s name and application number; and put spaces on each conflict declaration for the application number and the agency name.
2:17:20 PM ~ Harris: Thank you. And we did receive your information; however, the grants were scored according to statute and they were awarded that way; and so the information you sent was received and your suggestions will be included in the list of suggestions for next year’s grant applications. Thank you. Now Lisa Sloan report-- do you have a question?
?: No.
[Pasco County Juvenile Justice Council's report]
2:17:46 PM ~ Lisa Sloan: Pasco County Juvenile Justice Council has been meeting monthly; we added a forum to our meeting to have a guest speaker…about 20 minutes; subjects so far are learning advancement to do a better job; also we invited some members of the community of faith…and we had a turn around event…we give each year recognizing programs that are represented at Council,…to honor them for their outstanding achievements; that was well attended…
2:18:39 PM ~ Harris: Are there any questions for Ms. Sloan? (none) Okay, thank you and we are now at the Circuit Manager’s Report. Mr. Nierman.
2:18:49 PM ~ Nierman: Good afternoon. I apologize for being a few minutes late. We were way down on the other side of the county. Here with us this afternoon we have Richard Davison who is Deputy Secretary for the Department of Juvenile Justice and I was going to impose upon him to give us just a few minutes of the department’s new mission since Deputy Secretary Richardson and Secretary McNeil came in.
[DJJ Dept. Secretary Davison's statement]
2:19:12 PM ~ Davison: Good afternoon. I am Rick Davison. As Mr. Nierman indicated, Rick Davison, Deputy Secretary for the Department of Juvenile Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for allowing us to be here today and thank you Board members for the service that you provide to the children of the 6th Judicial Circuit; Pasco County and Pinellas County are an important part of the state; and thanks to the Chairman for the wonderful service that he does in terms of leading this Board as you guys endeavor to help the children of the Circuit. On behalf of Secretary McNeil, who could not be here today, today is the beginning of the last week of the 2007 legislative session; and if any of you have ever been involved with a legislative session, you know that this is the rush period. There are things that are happening, not every hour but every minute in the capitol. So Secretary McNeil thought it appropriate to remain in Tallahassee today to carry on with that process; we are diligently looking at our budget, diligently looking at the substantive bills which may impact the department, those that we are aware of and those that we are not aware of in terms of the impact that many bills have; if you don’t watch them very closely, you find out after the fact that you have been impacted. So part of the legislative process is just to continue to be vigilant. One of the things that Secretary McNeil did upon coming into the department was to look at the direction the agency was traveling and he took a very close look at our mission statement which is to protect the community by reducing juvenile crime; and look at the question, what does that mean? What really does that mean? So the Secretary has gone back and we have begun to refocus our attention; and instead of specifically saying protecting the public by reducing juvenile crime, we have looked at the mission statement of the department and back to 1994, which covered just a whole spectrum of issues; and actually it was that balanced approach that we hear so much about. It talked about prevention, talked about intervention, talked about partnering with our stakeholders, talked about partnering with the communities such as what we are doing here today from the Board standpoint. It talked about dealing with parents, talked about dealing with law enforcement, talked about dealing with the courts. All those things are part of the 1994 mission statement which we the Department is currently looking at and many of those things will be incorporated in the new mission statement that’s going to be issued very shortly. Another major endeavor that the department is taking on is that we are looking to just do away with ...from top to bottom; and when I say we I am not talking about the administration department; I am talking about a blueprint commission that the Secretary is putting together, and that blueprint commission is going to consist of stakeholders from every aspect of our communities from the courts, to parents, from juveniles, to law enforcement, to administrators, those persons who have something to add to this process, something positive to add to this process; and we imagine that commission which we are in the process of formulating is going to be anywhere between 15 to 25 people; and once the commission is put in place then we are going to travel around the state. We are probably going to go to five or six locations around the state and hold public hearings to hear from our stakeholders. We are going to make sure that we hear from law enforcement and from the providers and from the defense community. Then we are also going to hear from those persons who are just everyday lay people in the communities; and so we are going to hold two days of hearings, one for first group and the second day for that second group in order to ensure that there’s enough time, in order to ensure that the hearing is set up at a time that is going to be convenient for parents and children to come out and talk with us. And I use the word children because of late we talked about youths and offenders and juveniles and delinquents, but the fact of the matter is when the dust settles, no matter what you call them you are talking about children who we the Department of Juvenile Justice has responsibility for providing care, custody, and in some instances control; and once we gather all that information, we are going to synthesize it, and we are going to help to decide what direction the department is going in; but it’s clear that direction is going to have a very significant component of prevention. That’s an area that has been lacking over the past seven or eight years, and in fact it’s been lacking since the significant cuts of 2001, when we went from somewhere around 100 FTE in the area of prevention to 17. Secretary McNeil has used a phrase that we are going back to the future; he has looked at those components from the 1994 mission statement, and many of the programs that were in place then; and he said let’s take those things that will work and those things that are significant and should carry on, and let’s move them forward in terms of the new programs that we’re going to put together. And in order to do that we need your commitment, we need the commitment of all our stakeholders; with that said, from Governor Crist, who is without a doubt the people’s governor, and Secretary McNeil, who has stated very clearly at the end of a letter he wrote on his first day on the job and sent to each and every employee of the department. And then he went around and talked to each and every employee at headquarters; he is a service leader, that is his approach; and that is his management style; he is willing to listen, he is willing to….and he is willing to make a move if it’s the appropriate and right thing to do to make sure that when the dust settles that every we move we make, every conversation we have, every position we take, is for the children of the State of Florida and will benefit the children of the State of Florida. And as he carries that message to the legislature, as he carries that message to the Governor’s Office, as he carries that message to the Boards and Councils that he will be visiting over the next year or so; we were in south Florida and visited with that Council and it was one of the most learning beneficial experiences we have had. Secretary McNeil certainly regrets he is not able to be here today because of what we learned from that meeting down in Miami a few weeks back. I just want to thank you Commissioner Chairman for the opportunity to bring a couple of remarks and put to the review Board members – I don’t know if it’s appropriate to take questions—
Harris: Yes, it is.
2:27:10 PM ~ Lenderman: Just a quick comment; very rewarding to hear those remarks; and we all know the Governor around here, this being his home town, know where he comes from on that, and to see the kind of mission that you are representing and the Secretary is representing in terms of a balanced approach is so welcome, music to our ears; so I thank you so much and look forward to working with you to make sure that happens. At least in our little area of the state.
2:27:45 PM ~ Davison: Last time I checked there were quite a few million people down here.
2:27:54 PM ~ Lenderman: Quite a few million, yes, it is. We may be a fairly small geographic area compared with the rest of the state, but lots of people and lots of people in need of the kind of services that we as a department offer, and we as members of this Board certainly advocate for.
2:28:10 PM ~ Davison: And I don’t know the exact number of what the total is for both Pasco and Pinellas County, but I was at the legislature a few weeks back and I saw a list of the Pinellas County delegation and I understand they were ten strong, led by Representative Anderson; and so I know that you guys are well represented in Tallahassee, and your issues are at the forefront of many of those who are making policy decisions.
2:28:37 PM ~ Wright: Thank you again for being here; Reverend Bruce Wright, with Refuge Ministries, and I appreciate the stated goals and some of the new directions the department is looking at going towards. My question is to what extent, I am glad to hear you say you want to make it at a time when parents and youth and children that are caught up in the situation can be there, because I think that’s critical to hear from the people affected by it; to what extent is the direction of the new department going to include more oversight? But not just oversight internally; I mean externally from groups that represent those affected.
2:29:23 PM ~ Davison: Very good question, and it’s one that we have been grappling with for the past couple of months because we have a provider community out there; and you may be aware that the department from a residential standpoint is 85 to 89 percent privatized. One of the complaints that we have gotten from our provider community is that we do too much monitoring; which is hard to believe; and so we have come to the table with, and had those discussions, and our position is very clear that the level of monitoring the department will perform is the level that’s necessary to ensure the health and safety and welfare of the children who are in the programs that they are running on our behalf; and so in terms of oversight, and one of the criticisms that we saw in some of the articles as the Secretary and I came in, is that, and there are some instances where the department has been charged with overlooking as opposed to providing oversight; and we don’t want that to ever be a criticism that comes to this administration or comes through this administration. In terms of expanding that oversight to groups outside of the department, we have not had discussions along that line but that is certainly part of the blueprint commission and many of the discussions we will have as it relates to different aspects of the agency; that could possibly be something to discuss and may be made a part of the new direction of the department.
2:30:54 PM ~ Plyer: Dave Plyer with the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council; good to meet you.
Davison: It’s good to meet you, Mr. Plyer.
Plyer: You mentioned that this commission or this body that the secretary is putting together is going to be how many people, 15 or so?
2:31:16 PM ~ Davison: We have not determined the number.
2:31:20 PM ~ Plyer: The point is they are going to go from county to county to hold these town hall meetings you might call them and get input from the people?
2:31:31 PM ~ Davison: Not quite county to county, that would take a very, very long time; but what we are going to do is designate five or six locations around the state where the persons who are in those geographical areas will be able to come to us; and we are going to pick I guess populated areas and areas that are going to be easily accessible. We have not set the number; but we anticipate it will be five to six locations with two days of hearings in each location.
2:32:10 PM ~ Roche: If I may, I’m going to just cut right to the chase on this. There has been obviously some issue up to and including a report in the Times today about this Board, its makeup and what have you; my name is Norm Roche. I was a member of this Board I believe at this point. Are you or Mr. McNeil going to make any sort of determination so that we can move on and do just what you have stated and work on behalf of the citizens and the children in this state to bring some closure to this sort of issue that’s going on relative to this Board and its membership?
2:32:46 PM ~ Davison: From the department’s standpoint?
Roche: If you please, sir.
Davison: We have full faith in the ability of the Chairman of the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board to lead this body in the manner that is consistent with the statutes; and we anticipate that he will. The Department of Juvenile Justice has no direct authority over the County Councils or the Circuit Boards; so we don’t have the ability to dictate any direction; in fact, the Boards and the Councils provide advice to the Department of Juvenile Justice in terms of the programs. I think that the makeup of the County Councils and the makeup of the Juvenile Justice Boards are local issues which should be resolved form a local standpoint; and some Circuits consist of one county, some two counties, some multiple counties. I know here in Circuit 6 it’s Pasco County and Pinellas County. I have had conversations with the Chairman, and again we believe he is very capable of leading this body, and very capable of directing the discussion and conversation as it relates to its makeup.
2:34:05 PM ~ Roche: If I may, I really have no question about the Chairman at all; at this point my question is if it’s a local resolved issue, are we talking about state legislatures? Are they to resolve this membership issue that exists? Or are we prepared to bring that to a head I guess and be done so we can move on.
2:34:25 PM ~ Davison: Mr. Roche, my understanding is that there is no issue; that the Pinellas County Council, the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council as well as the Pasco County Juvenile Justice Council is represented at this table today; and I don’t see an issue.
2:34:47 PM ~ Roche: Thank you; I appreciate it very much.
Harris: Commissioner Welch.
2:34:50 PM ~ Welch: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Deputy Secretary. I’m Ken Welch, Board of County Commissioners; Pinellas County. I believe the budget is almost finalized, if it hasn’t been finalized. My question is how did the department fare in this budget compared to last year, and are there new dollars for prevention in the proposed budget?
2:35:13 PM ~ Davison: Yes, we are getting close to a final budget. The budget that was put forth by the department this year, as Commissioner, you are probably aware, there is a long budget process; and… LBRs or legislative budget requests were due before this administration was put in place. In fact the legislative budget requests that were sent to the legislature were developed by the previous administration; and the previous administration did not have a particular focus on prevention; and when Secretary McNeil came in…budget, it was pretty much that the budget lbrs that were put in place were what we essentially had to go with, with some small tweaking or modification. Let me be very clear--
2:36:18 PM ~ Plyer out
2:36:22 PM ~ Davison: --that Secretary McNeil has made that as a major part of what he will do in this Department of Juvenile Justice is to make prevention his watermark for the State of Florida, it’s going to be prevention taking a very significant place within the juvenile justice system. Secretary McNeil also recognizes that we have got a system that has approximately 6,000 beds, residential…beds; and there are juveniles, kids, who are currently in those beds; and so we don’t have the ability to say, legislature would you take $60,000 of those dollars and move it over to prevention, because then that leaves a deficit of $60,000 in the residential standpoint; and so I use the analogy of a battleship, we are just…ahead; and it takes about ten miles to turn that battleship. and we are in the first mile; but as we progress in the department, we will continue to turn the battleship; and we will begin to target more money to prevention programs; but can’t do that at this moment because there are kids who are in the programs; and as we submit our new budget next year, it will have requests for additional dollars in areas of prevention. In the meantime, we brought in a new Assistant Secretary for prevention, a lady by the name of Cassandra Jenkins; and Cassandra is very committed to the direction of the Secretary because he is the boss; but she has a personal conviction that leads us towards prevention; and she is that sort of dynamo that we need here; and so each day-- she is out and she would have been here today but she is ill. And if anyone knows Cassandra, she has to be really ill not to come and participate in this particular meeting.
2:38:35 PM ~ Plyer back
2:38:39 PM ~ Lenderman: She came from here, didn’t she?
2:38:43 PM ~ Davison: No, Cassandra originated in Pensacola years ago, and she has been in Tallahassee for some time; worked briefly with the Department of Juvenile Justice as the chief of intervention; and I think prior to that she was like a chief probation officer; so she has been around the department. And for a number of years, she worked for FDLE, Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She has been in and around this process for a number of years; and when Secretary McNeil saw the opportunity to bring her back to the department, and I think she was most recently working with the children’s campaign, prior to coming back to the department. And so she has got a variety of experience from intervention, to probation, to just working with a children’s advocacy group; so she is bringing all that experience back to the department and frankly, she is a direct report to me, and when we meet I listen because she knows what she is talking about. And she is bringing that experience and that energy back to the department. And so to answer your question, are there going to be new dollars in prevention this year - there is a projected $750 million budget shortfall for the state budget this year, which has impacted every appropriation across the Board including ours; and because of that we have not gotten any new dollars, including prevention dollars. In fact, this year we are having the fortune of gaining three new positions in the department; but in order to get those three new positions, we lost two. So we have a net gain of one; and that’s just kind of the horse trading that’s been going on in Tallahassee this year. What Secretary McNeil has indicated, because the budget that was put forth this year, it was set by previous administration. When this session is over, what he is going to do is what we call recasting the budget. He is going to put together the budget that if he was Secretary at the time the legislative budget requests had to go in, this is what he would have submitted. And this is going to be the starting point as we begin to go around with the blueprint commission throughout the summer and when we get ready to submit our legislative budget requests, and it’s sort of like truth in lending, well, it’s going to be our truth in budgeting. This is going to be what we really need.
2:41:25 PM ~ Harris: Any other questions?
2:41:30 PM ~ Harris: Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Secretary, for being here. Pinellas County has always been, or this Circuit has always been the leader in these efforts; and we take our roles very, very proudly, and we want to continue to be the leaders. We want to put forth solutions that make this a better place to live, not only in our Circuit but in the state, and we can only do that by working hard, and taking the I out of team work. We just have to go and work as a group to create programs and create an environment where families can live and be safe and kids can grow and nurture to be outstanding citizens.
2:42:21 PM ~ Davison: Mr. Chairman, not only do we want that from you, we expect that; and we look forward to receiving it. On behalf of Secretary McNeil again, thank you for the opportunity to be here; we will be here throughout the meeting and if anyone is around and wants to talk afterwards I will be available.
2:42:39 PM ~ Harris: Thank you. Now, Tim, did you have anything?
2:42:41 PM ~ Niermann: Yes, I only have one thing to note and I want to make sure that Superintendent Uliasz has a minute or two to update detention issues. The one thing I want to bring to the Board’s attention, as Deputy Secretary Davison had mentioned, there is going to be no new staffing next year. The probation and community intervention branch has just undergone a study to see if our resources are in the right area; and unfortunately when you have existing resources and you do any type of a reallocation, you have some winners and you have some losers; but our Circuit and the central region as it stands right now would be winners in some staff reallocation. I don’t have to tell any of you in here, you know the size of the workload and whatnot. It seems like since the storms in south Florida they have lost some population and they all have come pretty much to the central region, which includes from Pinellas County all the way across I-4 to Cocoa Beach, that is the DJJ central region; so the bottom line pretty much is our Circuit would stand to receive four JPOs, juvenile probation officers; and what our thoughts were was, the lion’s share of those would go out to probably the Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center; we have two assessment centers; one here and one in Pasco. Pasco is pretty much fully contracted out where we have contract staff; but in Pinellas we have a hybrid system out there; we have some contract staff and some DJJ probation officers. We really had some record days this spring; we have had some days where typically we will process maybe 20 children day; we have been as high as like the high 30s and 40; and basically we have two people per shift working that. And you can do the math; it just does not compute out. So we don’t want to flood Deputy Secretary Davison’s email, but I am sure that he would like to have any opinions you have on that; and again being sensitive that no one wants to lose staff; and I have been the recipient of losing staff and it’s painful. You have to regroup and so on and so forth, so it has an impact; but at the same time if we only have X amount of resources we have to make sure that they are fully deployed; so that’s the only thing from the probation community intervention branch at this point in time and hopefully here in Circuit 6. But I did want to give Superintendent Uliasz a couple of minutes to bring us up to date on any detention issues.
[Pinellas JDC Superintendent Uliasz's report] 2:45:20 PM ~ Uliasz: I won’t take too much of your time. I just want to add a couple of things. We are very pleased with the Department’s direction as far as prevention; over the last few years we have been doing a lot of those types of things at the center and I think it’s had a marked impact on what we do and how we do it. May 2005 we topped out the highest in the seven years I have been at the Center at 171 kids; our bed capacity is only 120. About that time, we sort of took a look at how we were doing things as far as our community advisory and what we wanted to see happen in the detention center and how we could better prevent kids coming back into detention. Well, the response that we had from this community in Pinellas County was overwhelming; any person we asked or solicited for input or for assistance in providing help in the center, not only did they did provide it but they provided it in an overwhelming fashion. Since that time we established two grant-funded, intensive case management after care programs in the center; the Youth Arts Corps has been instrumental in providing services not only in the center but for the kids once they leave the center and go back into their communities. They spent a year painting a mural in our cafeteria that’s featured on the department web page. We have had a photography and a poetry component that’s been featured several places locally, most recently I think the Clearwater Library; and plans are for a full size sculpture to be placed in front of the center. We are also participating in the department’s trauma initiative with female offenders; it’s our fastest growing population; I can recall back when I first started having you know single to low teens in girls in custody, in detention; and now it’s not uncommon to have 25 to 30 girls in custody at any given time. We are one of only two centers, Pinellas and Marion, that are piloting that trauma project with our female population; we are expecting some pretty good results. And I guess the reason I am saying all this is that anytime that we ask somebody for help, whether it’s JWB, whether it be Family Resources, whether it be Youth Arts Corps, they were happy to oblige, happy to come in and help the kids in the center and in this community. We have had outstanding cooperation with the State Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender, and our interagency partners in the department, probation and residential services. By doing all this, by placing a focus on prevention, and obviously that is our department’s focus, I am happy to say that it’s made a marked difference in the detention center. I can’t recall the last time we had been over 120 kids in the center, let alone 171; this morning we had 96; and over the last 18 months it’s not uncommon for us to be under 100 kids, and there’s no secret to why that is working; I think it’s a direct reflection of the people that are committed to doing this stuff in Pinellas County. We asked the service providers in this area to assist us and like I said, they have answered to that call; and we are extremely appreciative. Now on our quarterly community advisory Board meetings, it’s not uncommon to have 30 people in there. I have to go searching for chairs for people that have come from the community to help us at the center. Because I have always said that it’s not so much what you can do for kids while they are in the center, it’s what can you do for them when they leave; and that’s what’s happening now. They are coming in and establishing partnerships and identifying these kids and these programs are in place to help the kids when they go back to the communities; and obviously it’s had outstanding results. I mean the numbers speak for themselves; and I think it’s been really beneficial for us as far as stability in our center as well; probably in the last 18 months we have only had single digit vacancies in the center, and that’s very untypical. We were seeing as high as 12, 15, 18 vacancies in the center. And now anyone that knows any kind of detention work, it’s shift work and it’s that type of job. It’s difficult to recruit and keep people; to have single digit vacancies for that long and have our population stay that low is a credit to this community and to the providers that have assisted us; I just wanted to point that out today because I know there has been a lot of strife and internal conflict with this Council but at the end of the day, the service providers and the people of this county are doing an outstanding a job for the kids that we serve. Thank you.
2:50:47 PM ~ Harris: Any questions for Superintendent Uliasz? Commissioner Welch.
:50:50 PM ~ Welch: Mr. Chairman, I think those are some good comments; you mentioned JWB and reminded me of something. Is there a specific program sponsored by JWB that stands out in terms of assistance to you?
2:51:07 PM ~ Uliasz: It’s many; we have a post-detention services program that’s funded by JWB that identifies kids that are at risk while they are in the detention center; and then what it does is follow them once they go back into their communities, provides intensive services, referrals, even sets them up in after-school programs. There’s money available to pay for Boys and Girls Clubs sponsorships, paid internships. From what I understand, JWB also has a big part in the Youth Arts Corps; and that has been an extremely huge influence on the kids in the center. I can’t tell you how many kids that I have seen in the community that have been exposed to it while they were there and then went back to those neighborhood family centers and what have you and went back to the actual Youth Arts Corps Center down there around Wildwood and participated in that stuff after school, and I have got to tell you I am convinced that’s why our population is as low as it is today.
2:52:07 PM ~ Welch: And I guess what I want the Board, the Council to be aware of is that the Deputy Secretary talked about the iterations of the budget; and previously child services agencies had been exempted in the rollbacks that the legislature was talking about; in the latest version the Senate in an effort to align with the House plan, put children’s services organizations back in the mix; and for JWB, the worst case if they follow the House version, a rollback to 01, would be a $16 million cut in JWB’s budget; you’re talking about a third of JWB’s budget; so if that happens every program across the Board would be hit; and it’s important for this Board and Council to understand. Those will be draconian hits for JWB if that happens.
2:53:00 PM ~ Lenderman: In addition to the state funded cuts and in addition to you name it.
[Greg Pound comments on youth in Pinellas County] 2:53:08 PM ~ Greg Pound: I don’t have a--my question, my comments as a Board member and part of this committee here in Pinellas County, we put together a website called freeourkids.com; and it just shows what’s happening in Pinellas County to our youth; and one of our goals should be prevention and to see what’s happening to our youth, I don’t know if you’ve seen that yet, that website, freeourkids.com, but I would like to just encourage those on this committee to take a look at what is happening in the juvenile DJJ, in the juvenile court to our youth; and this might be a reality check for us to see, to just watch and see the testimonies of young people, parents, and what’s going on and you know our motivation is going to have to be a love for people, not a love for the money that people are bringing into Pinellas County through these cooperative grants that’s coming in to Pinellas County and just as a parent and as a citizen, and as a Christian, just to see what is going on with their youth, I feel we as a committee and as a Board can stop what’s happening; and I think one of the most powerful men we have in our county is Jim Coats, our Sheriff. And we just need to somehow stop the laundering of children for federal grant money.
[Old Business - New Advisory Council] Harris: Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. We are going to forego our discussion under old business the new Advisory Council and we are going to go right on to new business which would be our grant review report. 2:55:09 PM ~ Plyer: Why are we not covering old business?
2:55:14 PM ~ Harris: Because we are not ready. We don’t have all the information we need for that.
2:55:22 PM ~ Plyer: You had at least three months since the last time. It is an item on old business. When is this going to come to a head, after the observers are gone? I am tired of coming to these meetings and getting put on by you. I want to come to a head on this. Is there a new Advisory Council and what is it?
2:55:51 PM ~ Harris: No, there is not a new Advisory Council.
2:55:53 PM ~ Plyer: Okay. So there is no more old business then. That’s put to rest.
2:55:58 PM ~ Harris: There is not a new Advisory Council and we are not discussing that; the only person that’s discussing that is you.
2:56:08 PM ~ Plyer: I just want to find out if it’s old business or it’s not old business. There is no Advisory Council.
2:56:13 PM ~ Harris: No.
Plyer: Very good. Thank you.
[DJJ Pat McGhee announces grant awards] Harris: Okay. Ms. McGhee?
2:56:27 PM ~ Pat McGhee: Good afternoon, everyone. The Juvenile Justice Circuit Grant Committee reviewed and evaluated delinquency prevention grants; and each grant was found to be not only consistent with the Juvenile Justice Plan, but also very consistent and supportive of the Delinquency Prevention Plan as well. The allocation for Pinellas County was $148,947 was the allocation for Pinellas. The recommended grants for Pinellas were Boley Centers for a total of $81,288; the second was Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office which was in collaboration with Pinellas Athletic League. The total amount recommended for that program was $67,659; which is a total of $148,937; for Pasco County the recommendation program was for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay. The recommended amount was $91,959, which is the total allocation for Pasco County.
2:58:05 PM ~ Harris: Okay. Are there any questions? Mr. Plyer.
2:58:08 PM ~ Plyer: I am just curious. The Police Athletic League, Pinellas County voted them dead last in the ranking. How did-- what was the override for that?
McGhee: The average, the score…you are asking me?
Plyer: No; we ranked those grant applications that were earmarked for Pinellas County; and our scoring for the Police Athletic League came out number four at the bottom of the ranking and I am just curious what other inputs you had that override that.
2:58:52 PM ~ Harris: Mr. Plyer, we had a Grants Committee that read the grants and scored them and made those recommendations; Now even though we received your scores, those were not the official scores; we passed those on and as I said when you gave your report, the recommendations that you made regarding the grants and the forms we will also pass along for next year’s grants; but the Council according to statute does not have the responsibility for scoring the grants and we did those; the Board scores the grants and we formed a grant committee as we have always done and had those grants scored and the recommendations forwarded.
2:59:37 PM ~ Plyer: Who formed the Grant Committee?
2:59:43 PM ~ Harris: Grant Committee was Lisa Sloan, Steven A. Johnson; Marty Fogel, Susannah Templeton, Jackie Griffin Doherty, Stephanie Presswood.
2:59:55 PM ~ Plyer: Now none of those names are particularly familiar to me; so I know the known members of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council; there’s no members of this Board on there-- (several voices)…Lisa Sloan; but again who decided who the Grant Committee would be?
3:00:14 PM ~ Harris: This Board selected a Grants Committee; we got input, and all these people are members of our provider network, Jackie Griffin Doherty is a former Chairman of the Council; Marty Fogel works in juvenile arbitration; Steven Johnson works at St. Petersburg College; Susannah Templeton is from the Pinellas County Department of Justice Coordination; and Stephanie Presswood works for DCF; so we were trying to get an expert panel who was involved in the network, in prevention, who was working with the juvenile justice community establishment to read those grants.
3:01:06 PM ~ Plyer: Now you used the word the Board for this Grant Committee. I am a member of the Board and I was not even aware there was a Grant Committee- how was this done, how did this Grant Committee get formed?
3:01:21 PM ~ Harris: The Grant Committee was formed on recommendations from the group; we contacted these people and asked them if they were willing to serve and they did and then we wrote letters.
3:01:30 PM ~ Plyer: What group?
Plyer: When? I’ve been to every one of these meetings and never heard of a Grant Review Committee.
Harris: Mr. Plyer, we talked about this.
Plyer: I’m afraid not. We have not talked about it.
3:01:43 PM ~ Corry: We have videotapes of every meeting.
3:01:51 PM ~ Plyer: We have transcripts of every one of these meetings; it’s never been discussed; I just want to know who is the Board, is it you and a few select members or is it all of us?
3:02:02 PM ~ Harris: It’s all of us.
3:02:07 PM ~ Plyer: Then in the future I would like to be included when the Board makes its decisions because I am a member of the Board, so are all of these people members of the Board; just out of curiosity, how many other Board members were contacted about this committee? How many other Board members here were contacted?
3:02:23 PM ~ Lenderman: Mr. Plyer, let me just say it’s a usual and customary duty of a Chair of a Board to appoint committees and to appoint Chairs of those committees; and I don't know why this would be any different than any other organization in which the Chairman of the group has that responsibility and prerogative; this just seems a little out of the-- (several voices from unidentified individuals in audience) I know we do and that's why we don’t talk outside this group, at least most of the Board members, with each other, and I won't say any more about violations of sunshine.
3:03:04 PM ~ Wright: I am just curious why, when did the appointed members that reviewed the grants meet, was this under the old Circuit Board makeup prior to September?
3:03:24 PM ~ Harris: No.
3:03:27 PM ~ Wright: So it was under the new Circuit Board makeup as of January of this year.
3:03:31 PM ~ Harris: Yes.
3:03:34 PM ~ Wright: Again, I have an issue with it too because not all of the Circuit Board was informed of the process and who was involved.
3:03:41 PM ~ Harris: The process is according to statutes and the bylaws and so that's what we followed; the grants were scored and the recommendations were made according to the bylaws.
3:03:56 PM ~ Wright: But the bylaws would have to include all members of the Circuit Board in that discussion.
3:04:03 PM ~ Plyer: We are supposed to hold our business in the sunshine.
Harris: And we do.
Plyer: ...suggest that if there are committees that there should be public announcement of those committees, that if there were any other meetings among this group...announcement...; and as far as the bylaws go, when it comes to grant review it is the Council, the County Council with responsibility to provide the grant scores to the Board.
3:04:42 PM ~ Harris: No, it is not the Council's job to do that; that is a Board function.
3:04:55 PM ~ (unidentified individual talking from audience: point of information...I spent two days reviewing those)
3:05:01 PM ~ Harris: Sir, would you please-- Mr. Plyer according to the bylaws, according to the statutes, it is the Board's responsibility to score the grants and make the recommendation; and that comes under Statute 985.664.
3:05:20 PM ~ Plyer: First of all, those are not our bylaws; our bylaws, which is the point I was trying to make here, under Section C, powers and duties, Paragraph 2, to make recommendations to the DJJ for awarding of prevention and early intervention grant programs. That's the duty of the Board. In the absence of a County Juvenile Justice Council; so there are two Juvenile Justice Councils; so those two Councils make the recommendations to the Board. It's not the Board's function to make those recommendations.
3:06:01 PM ~ Harris: The Board established a Grant Committee; as we have always done in this Circuit. (remarks from unidentified individuals in audience) That is a Grant Committee and the grants are scored and those scores always come back to this Board and they are transmitted to DJJ.
3:06:12 PM ~ Wright: But they have always begun with the Juvenile Justice Council of that County; I've been a member of the Juvenile Justice Council for years; and they have always begun there.
3:06:29 PM ~ Harris: Thank you for your input.
3:06:37 PM ~ Roche: Do we have copies of the Board's bylaws available?
3:06:44 PM ~ Harris: Yes, they are available.
3:06:47 PM ~ Roche: Is there an opportunity for us to get a copy of those?
Harris: Yes.
Roche: Before the end of the meeting?
3:06:55 PM ~ Harris: I don't know before the end of the meeting; you can certainly get a copy.
3:07:00 PM ~ Plyer: ...request copy from you?
3:07:03 PM ~ Harris: I will just mail it, if he gives me an address I will make a copy and mail it to him. Okay. Any other questions? Any other questions on the grants?
3:07:12 PM ~ Coats: ...talk about the PAL programs; for those of you who may not know, there are two PAL programs in Pinellas County and I was curious which one was referenced regarding the grants; the Sheriff's PAL program or the St. Petersburg program?
3:07:39 PM ~ Harris: It says Pinellas Sheriff's PAL Program. You mean they have got one in St. Pete also? (laughter) Just kidding.
3:07:55 PM ~ Sloan: Comment about the grants; the grants are, even though the funding is set, we can still make recommendations to make those programs effective; when I read that PAL grant I saw a beautiful program that would fit right in there that talks about, it mentioned media literacy and alcohol, ...so I put in my notes please try to get this program in place; it's been evaluated, it's documented, let's use it; so we can make this win for all of us.
3:08:42 PM ~ Harris: Thank you. Do we have any Board member announcements? We'll start with Norm Roche.
3:08:56 PM ~ Roche: No sir, thank you.
3:09:07 PM ~ Wright: No.
3:09:12 PM ~ Welch: Appreciate your steady leadership, Mr. Chairman.
3:09:21 PM ~ (no other announcements from members)
[Public Comments - Dennis Segell] 3:09:33 PM ~ Harris: Public comments - please identify yourself for the record.
3:09:38 PM ~ Segall: My name is Dennis Segall, I was a teacher for 40 years, a minister and director of the Coalition for Reform of Youth Services...; but I just wanted to say and I have probably said this before...important issue; there are two ministers traveling the country doing a film on child abuse from the system. They have been in every city in the country;...helping delinquents; but they came to Florida, they have come back two times. They were stunned at how children are abused in the system in Florida; they said they have never seen anything like this anywhere before; and to me it's a big issue. It's not just a big issue do you rehabilitate children. It's a big issue. Do you kill children, do you abuse children, do you hurt children. And not only have I taught school for 40 years, I have worked with children in prison; and I say children because we have 12 year olds and 13 year olds in the state of Florida in adult prison, there are pictures of them on the wall in the Public Defender juvenile office in Tampa on...Street, I don't think Pinellas County goes that far. And I talk to the kids, I work with the kids all the way up through prison until they are not kids anymore; and they tell me about how kids get-- there was one program in south Florida a kid got knocked out because he called one of the counselor's mother some name. This is not rehabilitation; I would like to propose that we become serious and it's difficult for me to believe that we can become serious at doing something about the abuse of our kids, when I see what goes on in here. In other words, do these things really matter or do the children really matter? If we are not honest in here about what we did and what we said, are we going to be honest about facing the issues that are hurting our children; and to me it's important to face the issues that are hurting our children and I am glad to hear this gentleman coming and saying there are going to be changes because there are changes that are needed. We can smile and we can laugh but children are dying and children are being hurt. Thank you.
[Public Comment - Cathy Corry] 3:12:05 PM ~ Corry: I am Cathy Corry with Justice for Kids; and yes, I am the sign holder; I have a problem with lies and violations of the law, and it seems fairly consistent with this Board. This Board in the entire three years, I have been to every single meeting of this Board, has never done any grant reviews. I am a member of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council. The Pinellas Council...Pasco County has done their own grant reviews; this Board has never done it. I do not know why the Chair of this Board lies; that is disconcerting to me in the realm of lies that happen on behalf of our children by cops, the courts, and DJJ. And regarding what Dennis Segall just mentioned about abuses and deaths of children within the system, I am aware of a recent incident of a youth who was abused at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida; Rick Davison and other DJJ administrative people will be aware of this. There was a videotape of this young man getting assaulted by a guard; and the boy was not believed. He was told that he was a liar; his father thankfully kept pursuing, found out there was a videotape and I don't know all of the details and I certainly don't know the investigation aspect. What I do know that I have been told...in news reports is that a guard was fired as well as a regional administrator John Talon (spelling?); but it comes down to lies. Lies that end up resulting in youth being abused and victimized by the system; and it is absolutely just appalling and appalling that this Board cannot obey the simple bylaws and statute. It is really almost close to incredible. You know I feel like I have been popped to another planet ever since being exposed to most of this. I have never been around so many liars in my life. You know I was recently accused actually by Rick Davison of using profanity in talking to his staff; and he did not want to pursue my argument and I told him that is a flat out lie. I may be many things that people don't like; I may be very bold and I may be very certain about my views; profane is not one of those things. I am not profane; I am not vulgar. He would not pursue that for an entire week until I got Walt McNeil involved who forced him to find out that in fact that his words to me was, I have done my due diligence and I made some phone calls, and I found it was not you they were talking about. I was given either misinformation or I misinterpreted it; and I thanked him for clarifying that. And I told him I was not going to give up because it was a lie. But it is a shame that we have to pursue the lies and the violations against the very people that should not be liars. I just don't understand it; it makes no sense to me. Even with this, I told Rick Davison at nine o'clock on a Friday night when we had this conversation, this is not about Cathy Corry and the lie said about me; this is the bigger issue of the lies that impact our children and their families; and they may not have the stamina that I have or the resources I have or the gumption to stand up to the liars. It's just not right; I don't know how you guys sleep at night. I just don't know.
3:17:14 PM ~ Harris: Thank you, Ms. Corry. You had a question?
[Public Comment - Question from Eric Smith]
3:17:19 PM ~ Eric Smith: ...I am a kid; I just want to know by a show of hands how many people benefit financially from coming here today or coming here any other time...Nobody here benefits financially? (several voices)… Who gets paid?
3:17:41 PM ~ Harris: No, you don't get paid from here, Vance. He is talking about how many people get paid...(many voices at once)
3:17:51 PM ~ Smith: Who gets money for coming here? (many voices)
3:18:04 PM ~ Smith: I apologize for that.
3:18:08 PM ~ Smith: So everybody that showed hands are the only people who are paid to come here?
3:18:17 PM ~ Harris: Actually I don't think anybody gets paid for coming here - now, do people come here as part of their duties and their responsibilities; there are people who come here as part of their duties, their responsibilities, but those salaries would go on. We volunteer, we choose to be here because this is important. We don't come here because someone pays us to come here; I mean if you have been here - I don't think you could put a price tag on it. There are people who come here and none of the people on this Board are paid to come here.
3:19:01 PM ~ Smith: I only know two people on the Board...; I am just trying to form my own personal opinion...I would like to attend more...just curious...people paid to come here, listen...collect paycheck.
3:19:23 PM ~ ?: I think you will find that most people here that are on paid time put in at least 60 hours a week anyway.
3:19:33 PM ~ Capadiferro: I would just like to address the young man. I get paid while I am here. I am on salary; when I leave here I will go back to San Antonio Boys Village and do all the stuff piling up on my desk while I am here and before I go home, it's going to get done; most everybody that works here has that kind of job. The work gets done when it gets done.
3:20:06 PM ~ Sloan: I appreciate you being here. My previous job was with tobacco prevention; and even though...trying hard to make an impact, it wasn't till…came along...so I appreciate you being here.
3:20:24 PM ~ McClintock: I am not typical but I am a member here now for 13.5 yrs, even before this became a department - my name is Paul McClintock. I am not employed by any agency or any provider for the DJJ, strictly an involved volunteer from Pasco County for 13.5 yrs. And it will be 13.5 more if I have my way.
3:20:52 PM ~ Davison: Eric, I'm Rick Davison. I'm Deputy Secretary of the DJJ. Your question is valid. And I guess the question you are really asking is, are these people here because they have a commitment to the system or are they here because they are being paid to be here; |