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Transcript of C6JJB Meeting Links to key subjects in the transcript of the July 16, 2007 meeting of the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board
[Introductions] 1:59:37 PM ~ Harris: There is a sign-in sheet going around we are asking everybody to sign. Did everybody sign in? For ease of operation, we are going to ask that only board members sit at the table and the visitors sit in the audience.
2:01:23 PM ~ Plyer: So only board members will be at the table?
2:01:28 PM ~ Harris: Yes. Okay we will call the meeting to order and we will go around and let everybody identify themselves for our quorum count.
2:01:43 PM ~ Plyer: Excuse me, point of order. I would prefer a roll call, please.
2:01:49 PM ~ Harris: I'm sorry; we are going to have the members go around— Plyer: I would like roll call please. I have a list of the roll and would be glad to read it for you. Harris: I didn’t ask you. I am asking the members to go around and identify themselves and then I will check it off the list. Plyer: I don't know who some of these people at the table are. Harris: Dave, we are going to go around and we are going to let the members, and then if you look at the person who is talking, then you can check that off. We will start with Reverend Wright.
2:02:18 PM ~ Wright: Reverend Bruce Wright, I am with Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council and Refuge Ministries and one of the appointed circuit board from Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council.
2:02:26 PM ~ Roche: Norm Roche.
2:02:33 PM ~ Arnett: Vance Arnett, State Attorney's Office.
2:02:36 PM ~ Taylor: Lieutenant Barbara Taylor, Pasco County Sheriff's Office.
2:02:40 PM ~ Lenderman: Martha Lenderman.
2:02:43 PM ~ Gross: Raymond Gross of the Circuit Court, newly appointed member.
2:02:49 PM ~ Harris: I’m Calvin Harris.
2:02:51 PM ~ Coats: Jim Coats, Sheriff Pinellas County.
2:02:53 PM ~ Niermann: Tim Niermann, I'm not a board member but I represent the Department of Juvenile Justice.
2:02:56 PM ~ McClintock: I'm Paul McClintock and I represent the Pasco County Juvenile Justice Council.
2:02:59 PM ~ Simpson: I'm Teri Simpson from Big Brothers/Big Sisters and I represent the Pasco Juvenile Justice Council.
2:03:05 PM ~ Plyer: Dave Plyer, I represent the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council.
2:03:13 PM ~ Pound: Greg Pound.
2:03:17 PM ~ Harris: Commissioner Welch is out of town, Lieutenant Brown is out of town and Lisa Sloan is out of town but we have a quorum.
2:03:38 PM ~ Plyer: Excuse me, I have people at the table who are not board members.
2:03:42 PM ~ Harris: ...you made it.
2:03:44 PM ~ Lisa Sloan: (arrives and sits at table)
2:03:56 PM ~ Harris: Now—
2:03:59 PM ~ Plyer: Who is Mr. Gross? Lenderman: Judge Gross, Circuit Court Judge appointed— Plyer: To what?
2:04:04 PM ~ Harris: To this board. Lenderman: By the Chief Judge of the Circuit. Corry: It was Marion Fleming--
2:04:09 PM ~ Plyer: I'm with you now, my apologies. Harris: That’s a first.
2:04:22 PM ~ Wright: Point of order, that was uncalled for.
2:04:25 PM ~ Harris: You have revised minutes that were passed out. Did everybody get a copy of revised minutes? Okay, you have all read the minutes. Do I have a motion for approval of minutes?
2:04:47 PM ~ Coats /Lenderman: (motion and second)
2:04:52 PM ~ Plyer: I have comments. I would like these corrections made to the draft minutes of the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board. I am reading from what I was given by email and apparently—
2:05:05 PM ~ Harris: Do you have the meeting that says Revised 7-6, is that copy you are reading from?
2:05:16 PM ~ Plyer: Correct. Revised 7-6-07.
2:05:24 PM ~ Plyer: And I have five changes. Page 1 document title - please put on there that these are draft minutes. Page 1 under absent - please add the name Susan Biszewski-Eber. She is a board member. Page 1 under also present, please add the name Matt Sullivan, Vice-Chair Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council. And I will hand this in for the record. Page 2, welcome/call to order/quorum count, please strike at the request of Mr. Plyer a roll call was taken. Replace with Mr. Plyer requested a roll call be taken. Instead of a roll call members and non-members seated at the table introduced themselves. Then item 5, also on page 2, also in section under quorum count, after the last line that reads Chairman Harris indicated that a letter from Attorney McCabe had been accepted naming Mr. Arnett as his designee, please add Chairman Harris offered to send Mr. Plyer a copy of the letter.
Harris: Any other comments or corrections?
2:07:01 PM ~ Plyer: That’s the end of my comments.
2:07:06 PM ~ Harris: Anybody else? Okay, we have a motion and second. All in favor say aye (ayes) Opposed like sign. The minutes stand approved.
[Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council report] 2:07:19 PM ~ Harris: Council report - Dave Plyer for the Pinellas Council.
2:07:22 PM ~ Plyer: I would like to begin with our quarterly report to the Pinellas County School Board; each quarter Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council submits to the School Board a progress report on their efforts to reduce school-related charges; and again I will provide a copy of this as well; but I would like to read the report into the minutes; this is to Superintendent Wilcox and members of the Pinellas County School Board. This report card measures the success of Pinellas County public schools in reducing the number of youth on the schoolhouse to jailhouse track. The report prepared by Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council covers the fourth quarter of the 2006-7 school year. The Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center supplied the data; the data shows that law enforcement officers over the past three school years applied 111 different charges in school-related incidents; the Council placed these charges into seven categories: battery, behavior, drugs, theft, trespass, weapons, and other; there are only two charges in the behavior category - disruption of school environment and disorderly conduct. The Council refers to these as childhood misbehaviors and there is a table of those charges. The fourth quarter results for the 2006-7 school year show a 30 percent drop in the number of all school-related charges to 172 from 246 the previous quarter; similarly, the number of behavior charges in the fourth quarter, 52 counts, is down 25 percent over the past quarter; and this continues the downward trend in school-related charges over the past three school years; and there is a chart that shows that. There was a total of 765 counts of school-related charges for the 2006-7 school year; this number is down 18 percent from the 2005-6 school year of 934 counts; and 38 percent from the 2004-5 school year of 1,231 counts; furthermore, the number of behavior charges in the 2006-7 school year, 221, is down 23 percent from the 2005-6 school year; and 48 percent from the 2004-5 school year. When we look at the last three school years, charges were levied at a total of 2,930 times; charges applied for disorderly conduct and disruption of school environment were used 928 times, in other words 32 percent of all charges were for behavioral issues, what the Council again refers to as childhood misbehavior; these are not charges for weapons, drugs, battery, theft, et cetera. On January 2006 the Council asked Pinellas County School Superintendent Wilcox and the School Board for a moratorium on school-related charges for disorderly conduct and disruption of school environment. You did not consider a moratorium but you have worked to reduce the number of times those charges are used; in so doing, you have reduced all school-related charges. The Council looked at all school-related charges provided by the PJAC in the quarterly reports; seven schools accounted for one third of all the charges levied over the past three school years; the schools are listed below in descending order by rank according to the total charges reported. And there are seven schools there; Superintendent Wilcox may wish to concentrate on these schools to get them out of their persistent position in the top ten; of particular interest is Richard L. Sanders ESE. This school, like the others on the list, has been in the top ten schools for school-related charges in the past three school years; a closer look at this school reveals that 38 percent of the charges were for behavioral issues; this is a school where youth are sent who have been identified with behavioral issues; yet here where we know they have difficulties we still resort to filing charges against them for misbehaving. Apparently there are students who cannot be dealt with in any other way than by using law enforcement and filing charges; a case in point is charges at elementary schools. In 2005 Superintendent Wilcox halted the use of police in elementary schools; however, according to the PJAC data, in the school year just ended there were charges applied to students at Gulf Beaches Elementary, Northwest Elementary, and South Ward Elementary Schools; these charges were for assault, drugs, and weapons; clearly these serious charges are disturbing; however, for youth in elementary school there must be alternatives to arrest and the …arrest record; in closing, the Council commends Pinellas County School Superintendent Wilcox, the School Board and your partners for continued decline in school-related arrests; based on the information we have Pinellas County Schools are doing their part to keep youth off the schoolhouse to jailhouse track. Thank you.
2:13:48 PM ~ Plyer: I will submit a copy of that.
2:13:56 PM ~ Harris: One of the things we talked about as a Board are intervention strategies and programs to work with kids; and I am wondering if the Council has, if that is that ever part of your discussions where you talk about prevention, or in those neighborhoods where those schools are, programs where you can be of assistance to the neighborhoods with intervention programs, with prevention programs, with after-school programs or activities to help these kids; because there are always going to be statistics if all these kids have to do is stand around and spend time; and that’s why we put so much emphasis on prevention so that kids can be taught a better way; and that’s what we would expect the Council would bring forth some ideas that could be useful in prevention.
2:14:53 PM ~ Sloan: My favorite is positive behavior support; it’s a difficult system to initiate but it rewards good behavior; and the research shows that it’s an excellent program; but what it takes to get started is every single level of the school needs to be on board; Pasco County has some new schools coming up, and that’s an ideal place to get started; when they interview and come on board, this is our program.
2:15:28 PM ~ Plyer: [Receipt
of Arnett designation letter]
2:19:56 PM ~ Harris: Mr. Plyer, is this a part of your meeting, from your council meeting?
2:20:06 PM ~ Plyer: That’s right. I am reading the results of a motion at the Council meeting.
2:20:10 PM ~ Harris: And this is how you spend your Council time.
2:20:13 PM ~ Plyer: We spend our Council time trying to figure out how we are going to survive the next meeting with you; now please don’t interrupt me.
2:20:22 PM ~ Harris: Is there any end to this or--
2:20:27 PM ~ Plyer: Yes.
2:20:30 PM ~ Plyer: The Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council
contends that the Department of Juvenile Justice knowingly failed to obey the
letter and the spirit of the Florida Statute when it decided not to require
grant applicants to include a letter of confirmation with their applications.
In addition, the Council contends that DJJ knowingly failed to obey the letter
and spirit of the law when it excluded the Council’s recommendations for grant
awards for Pinellas County; the Council’s grant review committee recommended to
DJJ that YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg receive grant funds; DJJ awarded no
money to this applicant, the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg; instead it awarded
$67,659 in tax dollars to the Pinellas County Police Athletic League (PAL), the
applicant rated at the bottom of the Council’s ranking of the four applicants
for DJJ delinquency prevention grants in Pinellas County. The DJJ announced the
Pinellas County grant awards during the April 30 meeting of the Circuit 6
Juvenile Justice Board; the balance of this document has three sections; the
complaint in two parts, summary of correspondence, and text of correspondence.
2:22:18 PM ~ Harris: You’re kidding, right? Plyer: Okay, then perhaps I’ll refresh your memory. I am going to read this. Harris: I have your snide letter with the rest of your snide letters.
2:22:35 PM ~ Plyer: I am going to read this. County Commissioner Calvin Harris, the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council expects your apology; you, Calvin Harris, have corrupted every meeting of the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board since January 30, 2006, with your unprovoked open hostility towards the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council; on that day you poisoned the air at board meetings when you without warning or rationale cried we may not be able to control the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council but if you don’t support DJJ we will ask you be abolished; end quote. You repeated that threat at every meeting and not once could you show cause; by September 18 you had made board meetings so toxic that you and a few other members of the board felt free to attack the character of individual members of the Council; the members of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council that were the focus of your assault were not present, nor had you ever met these citizens; never a debate of ideas; no you chose the coward’s critique of the council based on email addresses of its members; board vice chair Paul McClintock singled out one address and with insight gained from his pinnacle of ignorance and bias declared its owner quote appears to be a school shooter type to me; when a member of the Council protested, you shouted shut up; at the next meeting January 22, 2007, you Calvin Harris reinforced your contempt for democracy; you opened with the meeting with your arbitrary decree of a tyrant that the appointees to the board by the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council were not board members; to enforce your dictate, you ordered a Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy to remove those board members from the meeting. Your capricious and lawless act quickly ended the meeting as you slithered off in the advice of Vice Chair McClintock to seek legal counsel from Tallahassee and get a referee if necessary; you Calvin Harris apparently planned to abolish the Council at the following meeting of the board April 30, 2007; you set the stage when you stipulated that DJJ send meeting notices to select members of the board, members chosen by you so that they could plan to attend as DJJ called it this important meeting; you told DJJ to exclude--
2:25:39 PM ~ Harris: Mr. Plyer, is there a point to this? Plyer: Yes there is a point to this. Harris: Are we going to get there today?
2:25:46 PM ~ Plyer: You told DJJ to exclude five of the seven members appointed to the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council from the meeting. You then invited new faces to seat themselves at the board table. The board’s agenda for the meeting had one item of old business and that was new advisory council, your euphemism for a group chosen by you to replace the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council; curiously during the meeting you skipped old business. When asked you said there is no advisory council; the fact that DJJ Deputy Secretary Rick Davison was there, and said DJJ has no authority to get involved in issues between local boards and councils dampened your plans. Davison’s announcement, coupled with the presence of a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times, gave you pause for reflection. Calvin Harris, your behavior towards the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council is neither acceptable nor professional; you are a Pinellas County commissioner; you should know better; you were elected to serve the people and the people deserve better of you; now you owe the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council a sincere apology for your unconscionable behavior towards it. We would demand that your apology include your assurance that you will never again attempt to overthrow, abolish or otherwise impede the legal operation of a Juvenile Justice County Council or attack its members; unfortunately you continue to demonstrate that your words cannot be trusted. Calvin Harris, the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council deserves and demands your written apology. My final item on the agenda here is the next meeting of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council is Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 7:00 P.M., Seminole Community Library; the meeting calendar is on the DJJ website and the Council’s website, pinellasjjc.org.
2:28:04 PM ~ Harris: Are there any questions for Mr. Plyer? Ms. Sloan
2:28:09 PM ~ Sloan: ...
2:28:13 PM ~ Wright: I just want to make a comment its important to note for the record that Dave is not writing this as a sole member; this was the conclusions of the entire Council, some of which are also on the Circuit Board so I think it needs to be stated for record that it’s not just Dave Plyer because it’s been characterized that way and it’s inaccurate; and if any one from the Council that’s on the Circuit Board wishes to add to that, please do.
[Pasco County Juvenile Justice Council report] 2:28:51 PM ~ Sloan: I feel like the Juvenile Justice Council for Pasco County has had a little win; usually we forego the July meeting; but we all agreed to have another meeting reviewing the three-year plan and trying to keep it up to date ongoing instead of every three years; we also submitted the LBR legislative budget request and our focus was mental health; and we would like to note that if there are other councils or counties that are interested in getting more funding for mental health, a collaborative effort would make more noise.
2:29:41 PM ~ Lenderman: Do you have anything specific on that, is that like JAC center or ongoing treatment?
2:29:51 PM ~ Sloan: The gist of our letter was that we do not have enough high tech or high needs services; so what happens is those beds get full with high needs where there are supposed to be lower needs and the lower needs people do not get serviced because the high risk come up front; and at the training in Tallahassee, they really stressed that the LBR needs to be as tight as possible, how much do you need, what programs do you need, how are you going to implement it if you get the money; we looked at an existing program to add more beds to it.
2:30:44 PM ~ Lenderman: So it will be residential.
2:30:47 PM ~ Sloan: Yes; and our argument was if we get what we need then we can clear the plate for other services; and provide what we can do; the argument was it takes special, special care to do those high risks; and more people can do the low risks; so get us that special care so we can open our services up; also in Tallahassee they argued that you can't just sit on the LBR, you have got to have some momentum pushing for that throughout the year; it was a great learning experience for me and I hope to deliver it.
2:31:30 PM ~ Lenderman: Maybe before our legislative delegation begins meeting, probably in November--
2:31:40 PM ~ McClintock: December, November, December, January.
2:31:44 PM ~ Lenderman: I am just thinking this council if we get copy of what your request is, we certainly could be in a position I would think of endorsing it and recommending it to the delegation...their support.
2:32:01 PM ~ Sloan: Maybe under new business we could talk about what the LBR was and if it ties in--; I think that was the meat of meetings; and we have new people coming; and we are pleased.
2:32:21 PM ~ Harris: Very good. Are there any questions for Ms Sloan?
2:32:24 PM ~ Arnett: Has anything come up, I noticed since the last meeting there was a newspaper article that was out about the growth in gang activity following the growth in the population and spreading across the county where it used to be kind of targeted in one area, now it seems to be kind of pervasive through the central corridor all the way east and west; has there been any discussion at the Council meeting of that?
2:32:43 PM ~ Sloan: We had a presentation on gang awareness, we did get our providers trained in gang awareness and I know that our SROs, our school resource officers, just got a grant for that issue.
2:33:04 PM ~ Lenderman: Where did they get the grant from do you know? DJJ or the state?
2:33:08 PM ~ Taylor: That comes out of the juvenile operations budget which I am not involved in; I am with juvenile assessment center; I am not involved in that area; I’m not sure which one...
2:33:35 PM ~ Harris: Anything else?
2:33:38 PM ~ Sloan: Our next meeting is this Thursday from 1:30 to 3:30 P.M. at the YFA in New Port Richey…
2:33:56 PM ~ Arnett: It’s this Thursday.
2:33:59 PM ~ Sloan: On the address list, the health department phone number has changed. All welcome.
2:34:11 PM ~ Coats: Is that where we met last year?
2:34:16 PM ~ Lenderman: Yes.
2:34:21 PM ~ Roche: Does the Pasco County three-year plan link or coincide at all with the Pinellas three-year plan? - do the two councils meet at all and kind of discuss, or cross-reference or anything of that nature?
2:34:31 PM ~ Sloan: After this training they gave us nine points of interest for lack of a better word; and I had always done a three year plan with zip codes and this and that; and it was very, very challenging; so I kind of put that aside; I looked at all their nine points, and I was told that when you do an LBR, it matches those nine points; so if it’s all about the money, let’s go to those nine points and then from there draw out our LBR; and with that process, it was so easy to see mental health on the top. It was so easy to get consensus.
2:35:13 PM ~ Arnett: And those nine points are a result of the new administration’s approach to the legislative budget request because we haven’t heard that before
2:35:20 PM ~ Niermann: Yes, you are right, Mr. Arnett.
2:35:24 PM ~ Lenderman: I would like us to have at least some information about the nine points, the priority of those, maybe at our next meeting.
2:35:32 PM ~ Niermann: Are they priorities or areas—
2:35:34 PM ~ Sloan: Areas to address - number of foster children, number of people falling behind in their grades; risk factors,--
2:35:49 PM ~ Harris: --which is from that state list
2:35:53 PM ~ Sloan: number of students who have a DSE diagnosis.
2:36:01 PM ~ McClintock: Is this the list, you can read from that if you want.
2:36:07 PM ~ Sloan: Youth from single parent families, youth below grade level, youth of a parent or sibling involved in the correctional or juvenile justice system, youth with a diagnosable DSM 4; youth self reporting alcohol and drug use; and as a side note on that - Pasco now has an ASAP Coalition, and they did a community assessment and alcohol and tobacco is well covered in their report, and other drugs too; youth with a school disciplinary action or referrals; youth with a prior criminal history; youth with a child dependency history, and youth with domestic violence; so that’s where I went instead of going zip codes; and a lot...PACT, I’m sorry, I don’t know what it stands for.
2:37:10 PM ~ Niermann: Positive Achievement Change Tool.
2:37:19 PM ~ Lenderman: Is that through JJ?
2:37:22 PM ~ Niermann: Yes; what happened was we had changed our initial assessment tool about two years ago, a year and a half ago; and this one is evidence based because I think all state agencies are moving towards programs and procedures that are evidence based; and so we purchased this one actually from a vendor who implemented it in the state of Washington; and then it had to be tweaked for Florida; it’s up currently statewide; and it gives the top three risk factors or actually gives like ten risk factors; we concentrated on the top three; and it also gives the top X amount of protective factors; so whatever the youth has positively in their life going so we can try to excel that and minimize the risk factors.
2:38:15 PM ~ Sloan: One other thing that I added was I looked at that PACT data, and I looked at where Pasco was the very worst compared to the state and where Pasco was the very best compared to the state; and domestic violence was what Pasco is very bad at.
2:38:37 PM ~ Harris: Okay, any other questions? Thank you very much. Tim, are you going to give the probation and community corrections update?
2:38:48 PM ~ Niermann: [Blueprint
commission]Yes, I will; two things that I want to talk briefly about;
2:43:13 PM ~ Sloan: The Health Department expects a 6 to 10 percent cut, we are on a hiring freeze already.
2:43:21 PM ~ McClintock: What is the average case load now compared to what it will be if—
2:43:26 PM ~ Niermann: Right now if we had all positions filled on probation we would average around 50 kids, and that would go up probably like another 15.
2:43:35 PM ~ McClintock: And the ideal is around 32? Niermann: 35.
2:43:38 PM ~ Arnett: That’s if all positions are filled; what is the real one now?
2:43:40 PM ~ Niermann: Right now we have about five vacancies; but the good thing is we have less vacancies now than we have had in the past two years; we hit a high of 18 about almost two years ago; so we are really coming up on that, and it’s a direct result of the counties and the cities tightening up to give us more of a labor pool; when the cities and the counties are at full speed they pay better so people are going to gravitate that way; so the situation is that we are going to have a little bit more of a labor pool but we have not frozen positions yet; what’s happening is, is any type of like a secretarial positions, which we only have a handful left, and any type of an administrative type positions, those have to approved by the Secretary and his team themselves before we can fill those; so I anticipate…, and it’s not all directly related to property tax; a lot of it has to do with state revenues just really decreasing; the real estate market is way down for various reasons, and so on and so forth; so the bottom line is that again, Lisa’s agencies, you know we are all having to go through this ten percent reduction.
2:44:57 PM ~ Lenderman: My understanding is it’s a definite four percent and then an exercise for ten, is that correct? Niermann: Yes, we have to be ready for…
2:45:06 PM ~ Sloan: ...
2:45:08 PM ~ Lenderman: DCF, that’s what I heard.
2:45:12 PM ~ Harris: For all the state.
2:45:14 PM ~ Niermann: I think they want four percent by the end of the calendar year and then the fiscal year obviously goes from June to July for the state so in the spring we will see what happens next; and I am sure Sheriff Coats is finding the same thing, so we are all in it together; and so that’s why it’s just critically important that we come with ways to be more effective and work smarter because the days of additional staff they are over, it’s just not going to happen.
2:45:42 PM ~ Roche: Going back to your comments on the blue ribbon, it kind of piggy-backs what I’ve asked Lisa, there are all these councils, various boards and various blue ribbons and this and that, all working on what seems to be the same goal. Is there any collaboration between them to eliminate sort of, or perhaps become more effective, so that we all focus on one or two of the main goals versus going all over.
2:46:06 PM ~ Harris: Actually there is; there are statewide meetings where all the councils and boards come together and they share information; in fact, there was a time when the Pasco and the Pinellas County used to collaborate on what the plan was; I guess that’s going to continue to be in the past; the blue ribbon committee is designed to take a lot of these ideas and bring them forward so that you can have greater efficiencies; in fact, the chairman for that committee is Frank Brogan, a former school superintendent and former lieutenant governor who has a love for children and has been involved with kids all of his career; and the idea is to move Florida forward in a positive state. You know we had gotten a reputation for primarily detention; first we had the greatest prevention programs; then we went away from that at the state level and now we are going back in that direction; and the idea is to take the best practices and institutionalize them so that we all can benefit from that and everybody does not have to invent the wheel and the costs that go along with that, …everybody can share in those.
2:47:29 PM ~ Roche: So am I clear in understanding that is sort of what that blue ribbon is going to do and with the councils and boards going to that August meeting sort of getting some guidance--
2:47:37 PM ~ Harris: They are going to have meetings all over the state, that’s just going to be one; there will be meetings in every part of the state, and then they will get all this input and they will issue if you will a blue ribbon report that can be used in helping the Department plan its new program; because the money is going to be short; you know the state is already saying they know they are a billion four down; everybody is cutting their budgets at the local level; next year there will be constraints on growth; but there will still be kids; and then when you have a county like Pinellas that’s getting younger, you know you are going to have more kids needing service with less money, and so that’s why we have to work smarter.
2:48:26 PM ~ Sloan: I just wanted to comment about that state conference I went to, it was my first, so I was taking it all in. They really encourage councils with a similar mission like mental health to get together and form an unofficial alliance; so around the state you hear all these squeaky noises; we need mental health, we need mental health; so they did encourage that to happen. And different counties have different top issues, but to find the people to connect there; and it was the first meeting for me and probably for lots of people and it has gone in a new direction; so those relationships have not really developed but if we keep going, I think they will and we can get some money; some counties got money every single time they put in an LBR, every single time.
2:49:25 PM ~ Lenderman: Let me just say there is a Pinellas County Mental Health Coalition; I chaired it the last two years and now it’s chaired by Janice Hill from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, heads up Health Contract Administration, something like that; and it’s just outstanding.
2:49:49 PM ~ Sloan: That’s what we need.
2:49:53 PM ~ Lenderman: It has 30 different organizations that are members; the map council in Pasco has many of the same organizations I believe, or similar, corresponding organizations; so the council just needs to if you are not already, and I assume you already have probably overlapping membership there; it will help you get a lot of focus that you may be looking for.
2:50:26 PM ~ Niermann: Mr. Roche, do you have a copy of the Pinellas Council strategic plan?
2:50:32 PM ~ Roche: I do.
2:50:35 PM ~ Sloan: Ours looks a lot different.
2:50:38 PM ~ Roche: When you say that, we’re not just talking visual; you have different goals, different ideals or--?
2:50:40 PM ~ Sloan: We just started new with the nine points and that’s all.
2:50:45 PM ~ Roche: So that’s your focus on that. Are you doing a new one? Arnett?: A new format.
2:50:48 PM ~ Sloan: Ours had expired, so a new one…
2:50:55 PM ~ Lenderman: I love the idea you are updating on an ongoing basis, not just every three years, that’s a pain but shows a lot of commitment.
2:51:04 PM ~ Niermann: When do you think you will have yours done?
2:51:07 PM ~ Sloan: I am waiting for two people who had research to send to me, but with school and things right now, people on vacation, I have not gotten it yet.
2:51:19 PM ~ Harris: Does the Pinellas Council have a strategic plan?
2:51:24 PM ~ Plyer: Our strategic plan is ongoing so we are going to reissue that plan and concentrate on the eight strategic elements in that plan; we haven’t even gotten to all those eight.
2:51:37 PM ~ Harris: What do you mean ongoing?
2:51:40 PM ~ Plyer: We are going to renew that strategic plan.
2:51:46 PM ~ Harris: You mean the old one.
2:51:49 PM ~ Plyer: The current plan. Harris: The old one. Plyer: The current plan, current plan; we are going to renew that current plan and use that going forward because that current plan has in there eight elements that we have been tracking or we as a council have wanted to address and are addressing.
2:52:07 PM ~ Niermann: I don’t know where Superintendent Uliascz is today so I do not have a detention update.
2:52:21 PM ~ Roche: I am hearing two different numbers here, eight and nine. Is the nine a state sort of guideline that you received at your meeting?
2:52:30 PM ~ Sloan: Yes, it was a guideline with bullets; I just numbered them to help me get through each topic.
2:52:39 PM ~ Roche: Okay. Are those available online anywhere?
2:52:42 PM ~ Sloan: I can email them.
2:52:45 PM ~ Lenderman: What is that Paul? Is that the same thing?
2:52:48 PM ~ McClintock: This was developed for the Pasco County Council for the June meeting.
2:52:54 PM ~ Niermann: I can ask Lavetta Waters, who is the Board and Council liaison, to inquire with headquarters because I think that this is really out of the prevention shop and then if there is some type of a document on it then we can get it out to the board members.
2:53:10 PM ~ McClintock I think I have what you are talking about and I will give this to you now; this is from Lavetta and it has the points that seem to correspond exactly to the points I have on this.
2:53:23 PM ~ Niermann: Is this your only copy (yes) 2:53:27 PM ~ Sloan: That’s ours; and we need those two pieces of data to add.
2:53:33 PM ~ McClintock: We can pass this on to him.
2:53:37 PM ~ Sloan: …the word draft on it.
2:53:40 PM ~ Arnett: Let me go ahead and clarify this a little bit; the nine points are embodied in the focus; the nine points of focus, it just happens to be nine that the new administration has designated for the legislative budget request; based upon their preliminary needs assessment; they looked at kids across the board, they looked for common facets - about two thirds of that list is the old eight percent solution criteria; they are the old criteria; if you have a kid that’s got somebody in the system already, they have a higher propensity to have problems and they need, that always translates or it should translate to, they also need more intervention; you can’t just treat everybody-- if they have these risk factors, the idea was that you concentrated the specific prescriptive intervention you used with that kid based upon the child’s needs; a kid lagging behind in school is going to be at risk to get picked up by and get with the wrong crowd, hang with the crew that doesn’t value education; if they have family members that are missing; if they have a history of witnessed domestic-- all these things came out at above an 85 percent frequency rating, so what they did is they looked across the board at all these kids and 85 percent of them for each one of those things that were there, had one or more combinations of these nine risk factors. It’s kind of a unique thing that they are going to let their budget initiative be driven by the needs they have seen reflected in the needs of the kids. The only downfall with that is that that can have a significantly different profile based upon the nature, the demographics of your community. See what I’m saying? In other words, Pasco may not look like Pinellas in all instances; we have a significantly different, we didn’t have all nine here but for example, the concept of having a non-traditional family or non-supportive family members I think is the way the risk factor functions, that’s what we use when we consider it a diversion. That one seems to be a higher frequency function because there’s more extended family available in Pasco than there is in Pinellas; a lot of our folks are relocatees – you don’t have grandma, grandpa, a whole series of uncles in a traditional culture. You do have that extended family that’s there and they have more of a tendency to step in and assist, there’s more of a support group there; so each one of those plans will have to reflect that kind of nature because once it gets to the system you can’t take any of that into consideration, only in the prescriptive process that’s there; you can at the front end in the prevention side of it and that’s probably why it has come out from the prevention side rather than the response side.
2:56:10 PM ~ Judge Gross out
2:56:13 PM ~ Arnett: I mean once you’re in front of the court, you’ve got to kind of first we take care of the incidents; now what are the needs of the kids; and I think what they are trying to do is not reinvent the wheel with each one; they’re trying to get some standardization for the process; a very energetic process to tie that to the LBR because what he’s saying is, don’t come next year and ask for money unless you can prove, that’s what it means by science driven, unless you can prove that’s going to meet one of these nine points. Nobody else is doing that.
2:56:54 PM ~ Harris: Reverend Wright.
2:56:56 PM ~ Wright: I was just going to make a comment. One of the reasons we are looking at renewing our strategic plan is because there are elements in it that have not even been addressed yet; we feel like we need to continue working on what needs to be addressed. But one of them that Dave gave a report on earlier is school-related arrests and seeing a decrease in that which is one thing that we have seen a real significant change in Pinellas County, which I think is great.
2:57:22 PM ~ Lenderman: I have a comment; in talking about the cuts before, I just think we need to be really concerned because I think those cuts are not going to be across the board cuts at four percent, it may be things that cannot be cut at all in DJJ meaning that other programs will have to take a much deeper cut; I think also your deep end services obviously cost per child, far more than the earlier intervention; so— 2:57:54 PM ~ Judge Gross back
2:57:57 PM ~ Lenderman: --retaining all those residential beds that we have that we need is going to result in probably much, much deeper cuts in prevention early intervention than would be likely. I just think we need to be really careful and try to do our best to advocate. I guess the final thing is that we have the cities for example, St. Pete, who said we are not going to cut any children’s services and yet I know some of them have some major impact on child serving agencies; we have the County which has not dealt with children’s services in the Juvenile Welfare Board in Pinellas, but there are cuts in the Juvenile Welfare Board; there are cuts in the state funding, there are cuts across all governmental; and any time any one of them makes a significant cut, it can result in the inability of that agency to continue to meet their objectives that they owe to other agencies; so this is a very scary time I think out there, and I think we need just to be very careful and when we talk about our provider agencies, they are just our agents, it’s the kids and families, and while we may talk about providers in those budgets, each and every one of those is tied to children and their families who need those services - so I don’t have an answer but I am very anxious right now over our ability to meet those needs.
2:59:47 PM ~ McClintock: Some of the things that Martha is referring to are statutory; for instance, you mentioned residential – it’s statutory that you must have, you can correct me if I am mistaken, but you must have so many attendees for so many residents on a per shift basis, staff; so those are statutory and you can’t cut back those.
3:00:10 PM ~ Lenderman: You would have to eliminate the whole program, you can’t cut just three beds out of it, or five beds out of it because you still have to have the limited number of staffing necessary to operate it.
3:00:21 PM ~ Niermann: In nearly 30 years I have not seen an across the board reduction. Martha is absolutely correct. It’s front end and then also if you happen to be the unlucky area that has staff vacancies, they are history, because unfilled positions are so much easier to resolve than filled positions; but I can tell you in 2002 we laid off, we had, I think they eliminated just over 600 positions statewide. About 425 of them were filled. So they actually did 425 layoffs statewide; and you don’t have control over that; you may have a good two, three months where you have positions filled and you could have a bad two, three months where people want to go to Wal-Mart because they pay about the same, and the work is a lot less stressful; so it’s a situation where you can’t control your vacancies.
3:01:19 PM ~ Arnett: There’s a rule of thumb, in any reduction whether it’s across the board or not, the front end services are always the ones that suffer the most, because they are the least squeaky wheel; and the issue is not with DJJ’s reduction; the issue is going to be with reduction in terms of the courts with local support. My guess is for local dollars, and the county does invest in youth programs; it’s not just JWB, the county has got all sorts of supportive programs in there; if you are running programs for parenting you are supporting the system; you are trying to help someone be a better parent so that they can buoy up this child that’s got services. My guess is the local cuts at the local level will have a much greater impact on the front end of the system than anything that happens at DJJ; and I don’t mean to demean the fact that you are facing it again. I think that this is about the sixth time in my 30-year career where we have gone through this; at least it’s not furloughs; I remember the days when we used to just tell people to go home, we can’t pay you, we can’t make payroll, go home, we are bankrupt. But it’s always the front end – always the intervention, always the prevention, always the subsidized day care, always the after school programs, always the in school programs. All of those programs are at the front end trying to help these kids at the very first initiation are the ones that fall by the wayside; because it’s the ones that are gun-toting needing institutionalization that always fall under the statutory requirements. That’s why your mental health kids are falling away; all the money gets directed at those kids who by their behavior show that they need to have further inpatient level treatment; you and I have thought this a number of times. The outpatient stuff where you could be stopping that process is usually first one that goes because it’s the most expendable in the minds of the folks, it’s not mandatory.
3:03:22 PM ~ Taylor: I would just like to bring up that tomorrow at 9 A.M. Pasco County is having its first budget meeting with the commissioners.
3:03:35 PM ~ Simpson: And from an agency prospective and not part of a government entity, we are getting it from all different ways because at Big Brothers/Big Sisters we have grants from the CDBG, we have outside agency funding, we have DJJ fundings, we have state impact as well; and another interesting phenomenon is I don’t know an agency that has met its budget under special events this year; and so when the economy suffers people don’t give as generously at a special event as they did previously when things were good; so the agencies are feeling it because we have such diversified funding with so much of it so dependent on grants, and the state, and individual giving; and you know when your budget gets tight, that’s probably a place where you are going to pinch your pennies and don’t have that money to give that you used to.
3:04:34 PM ~ Harris: Our challenge and it’s already starting, is not to let government balance budgets on the back of kids; but you know kids don’t vote, and so their parents don’t show up to meetings to protest, and the only people who show up are the people who are against something; and we have to guard against that because you will see that all over our area; recreation programs, after school programs, community health clinics, dental clinics, all of those services that we took for granted will not be there - homeless intervention programs, affordable housing, all of those are going to suffer; and even if you don’t eliminate the program when you start cutting, it takes so long to get back to the funding that you had; you just keep cutting back and you are treading water trying to get back in. We just need to make sure that we continue to fight for kids because it’s going to be very, very important. Tim, did that conclude your report?
3:05:47 PM ~ Niermann: Yes. 3:05:49 PM ~ Harris: Okay, now we are at Chairman/s comments. I have a couple of things. First of all I want to thank you all for adjusting your schedules to meet here today; and how will the schedule go? Are we going to go through the next meetings that were scheduled and then go back to Pasco?
3:06:04 PM ~ Niermann: We certainly owe Pasco a meeting; we would have to get that worked out; I think the next scheduled meeting would be September; I can ask Lavetta to-- Arnett: Do you know when it is? Niermann: It would be the third Monday in September.
3:06:23 PM ~ Arnett: September 17.
3:06:28 PM ~ Harris: I know that one of the things was getting the minutes taken; and if we have it here we can always have the Clerk's office come; and I don't know how we could do that at Pasco but we will certainly work out the next meetings; and also we owe Pasco a meeting and we’ll work on it. And then I wanted to clear something else up, you know since we are putting things on the record, it is true that the Pinellas Council scored the grants but they were not asked to do that; I appointed a grants committee that read the grants and they made the report and we sent that report to Tallahassee. The Pinellas Council scored those grants all on their own and they started making recommendations; and we did not ask for that; and when they made the recommendations I was very, very clear that we have received your recommendations but they won’t figure in the awards; and we appointed a panel of experts to read those grants and score them and then we sent those on to Tallahassee and they were accepted; there was nothing mysterious about that- and that’s not the first time that the Chairman has appointed a grants committee in Pinellas County for this district; we always end up getting kind of to the end of the line; and we get the grants, and we appoint a panel and we get them in.
3:08:13 PM ~ McClintock: Commissioner, as an example, it was probably five or six years ago now that Pasco County had a committee appointed by the board, approved by the board and appointed by our Council and approved by the Board.
3:08:21 PM ~ Sheriff Coats out
3:08:26 PM ~ Paul: We reviewed, we submitted, and they totally disregarded our recommendations and went ahead and made their own recommendations in Tallahassee. So that is not totally unusual.
3:08:38 PM ~ Sloan: Also I would suggest in the future that we are a committee, we value all these opinions, so if there’s an opportunity and we’re not in a time crunch line, let’s hear other people; this is our official recommendation and here are unofficial comments; they can throw it out if they want but at least let’s deliberate.
3:09:03 PM ~ Harris: The unofficial comments went to Tallahassee also; we said what our committee said; they all went to Tallahassee. We didn’t try to stop that.
3:09:13 PM ~ Sloan: Okay.
3:09:15 PM ~ Harris: Now is there any Old Business? Okay, under New Business - Mr. McClintock. 3:09:22 PM ~ McClintock: [Eliminate term limits] I have under New Business, I would like to propose that we set in motion either by motion today or by notification to board members that we eliminate term limits for board members, and that they should be elected on a per case basis; that’s my recommendation and I don’t know if we have to notify first because it’s a change in the by-laws; if that were the case, I would make that recommendation that we notify first; but if we don’t need to notify, and if we have a quorum, which we appear to have, that we could vote on it today.
3:10:00 PM ~ Harris: I think we have to notify and then bring it back to the next meeting to vote on.
3:10:09 PM ~ Arnett: Let me understand what you are saying; are you asking for a committee to be established to revise the by-laws? Or are you going to put a revision on the table for us to consider?
3:10:17 PM ~ McClintock: Just put a revision because there’s only one item that I can foresee anyway.
3:10:22 PM ~ Roche: And do you have that written for us…
3:10:27 PM ~ McClintock: It's verbal.
3:10:31 PM ~ Lenderman: It’s just simply that we remove the term limits for Circuit Board members.
3:10:37 PM ~ Sloan: Can we make comments on this? Harris Yes: Sloan: What are the pros and cons? To me term limits give fresh input on the table.
3:10:51 PM ~ McClintock: We have had that; as an example, you would not be locked in; if you did not want to appear again, you could just decline nomination for the Chair of the Pasco County Council. So you would not be appointed again unless you wanted to be, unless you made yourself available; but those who make themselves available and want to be should be allowed to be.
3:11:21 PM ~ Sloan: Once you get in your position you have to be reelected.
3:11:26 PM ~ McClintock: If somebody doesn’t do the job that we need them to do then we can remove them. Sloan: Right now our term limits are two years.
3:11:30 PM ~ McClintock: For chair and vice chair, those are positions that are nominated and elected by the Board; so if someone is not doing the job that we expect, we can nominate someone else for the position.
3:11:45 PM ~ Wright: For the particular Chair, Vice-Chair? McClintock Sure. Wright: Okay.
3:11:48 PM ~ Sloan: If my term is two years and I want to run again, I just compete with other people who want the position and run again.
3:11:57 PM ~ McClintock: That’s it.
3:12:00 PM ~ Sloan: I don’t get permanent status.
3:12:03 PM ~ McClintock: No, you don’t get permanent status. Term limits limit by law in this case not statute, but that means that the person is not obligated to stay on if they don’t want to stay on; you can decline. And I’ll make sure you are aware of that.
3:12:18 PM ~ Harris: Then what we will do is we will get that written up, where it would go in the by-laws, and get it out to you, then you can react to that. McClintock: Okay.
3:12:28 PM ~ Plyer: I just wanted to make sure that I am understanding; so there will be in advance of the next meeting we will all have copies of this proposed change, so it gives us time to discuss in our own minds what we want to talk about at that time.
3:12:43 PM ~ Harris: And it will also give the Councils the time to take it to their meetings.
3:12:50 PM ~ Sloan: Are the by-laws by consent or by vote?
3:12:55 PM ~ Harris: By vote.
3:12:58 PM ~ Judge Gross: [Update statute number] As long as we are talking about the by-laws, the by-laws make reference to Florida Statute 985.4135; they have been renumbered; it’s-now 985.664; so if we are making some by-laws changes we should be consistent statutorily; that’s not a change other than keeping it current.
3:13:33 PM ~ Harris: We can go to the computer that’s housing these and then change the numbers; also under new business in the by-laws—
3:13:44 PM ~ Plyer: Just something that occurs to me is that I don’t think DJJ allows us to change our by-laws. If I look at my current copy of the by-laws it says—
3:14:02 PM ~ Arnett: You are talking about the prescribed—
3:14:05 PM ~ Plyer: It says here, amendments to the by-laws, this is article 7 - amendments to the by-laws shall be made at the discretion of DJJ with sufficient notice for boards to review and adopt revisions; so does this mean that we send this first to DJJ--
3:14:25 PM ~ Harris: They will also get a copy.
3:14:29 PM ~ Plyer: --DJJ looks at it and they decide whether or not this is a good thing for our board, they send it back to us and then we say great. I mean is that the idea?
3:14:35 PM ~ Harris: We will propose the revision and we will send it to everybody including them. |