I. WELCOME AND CALL TO ORDER

Commissioner Calvin Harris called the meeting to order at the Pinellas County Commissioners Office, Clearwater, FL. Board Members, Juvenile Justice staff and guests were welcomed.

The following were in attendance:

Commissioner Calvin Harris	Mr. Paul McClintock
Judge Marion Fleming The Honorable Bernie McCabe Mr. Mark Phillips Mr. Ben Shirley	Ms. Martha Lenderman Ms. Jackie Griffin-Doherty Mr. James Myles Mr. Tim Niermann
Mr. James Uliasz Lt. Kathy Brown	Ms. Pat McGhee Ms. Terri Buckley

II. ROLL CALL AND QUORUM COUNT

A Quorum was present.

III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the January 24, 2005 meeting were approved.

IV. COUNTY JUVENILE JUSTICE COUNCIL REPORTS

Pinellas County Council Report:

Jackie Griffin Doherty reported that the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Board adopted its Strategic Plan and she has provided copies for all of the Circuit 6 Board Members. We also reviewed the grant review committees report and forward our recommendations to Tallahassee and Pat McGhee. The next council meeting will be held on April 28th.

Jackie Griffin Doherty reported that Pinellas County had $258,363 available in DJJ grant prevention dollars and Invest in Children’s License tag dollars. DJJ tags in Pinellas are still selling pretty well. The last report, which is at least two years old, Pinellas County sold between $30,000and $40,000. The Department adds the county tag proceeds with federal grant dollars to provide an allotment for each county.

There were different parameters on spending the tag dollars, as oppose to the federal dollars. Three or four years ago the board had written to Tallahassee and Scott Wright from DJJ gave an opinion on the tag dollars.

Based on the $258,363 that was available to Pinellas, Pinellas had 3 applications that were submitted.

Pasco County Council Report:

Mark Phillips reported that they had two meetings since this board last met. In February. Eckerd Youth Alternative presented on the Pasco Hi Five program. It was one of the programs that received a grant last year. After their presentation, they asked for volunteers to sit on their board of directors. Last month, in celebration of juvenile justice week, we asked the agency’s that received DJJ funding or that are connected with DJJ in some way, to nominate turnaround kids from their programs. The purpose of that was to give kids positive recognition as well as highlight the local programs. Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Youth and Family Alternative. Eckerd Youth Alternative Hi Five Program, Harbor Academy, Judges in School and the PACE Center for Girls all nominated someone. All the youth brought at least family members or significant people. They had staff from the programs to attend. And Pat Mallory, Chairman of the Pasco County Commission was there. The feedback received was that the kids did an excellent job articulating what had happened in their life. Over all, it was a very positive experience. The only thing we had to pay for was the certificates. I would certainly recommend this for all boards and councils.

The Council is continuing to enlarge are membership. We had someone from the Zephyrhills Police Dept. to join the council. We have a committee working on our three-year plan. They are in the process of doing a survey, they will use the feedback to start working on the plan.

VI. CIRCUIT MANAGER’S REPORT

Circuit Manager Tim Niermann provided the Board with the following update:

Mr. Niermann presented a department overview for the benefit of the new board members. He circulated a continuum of services in circuit 6. These constitute the current services that we have available. The department is basically made up of 4 different branches. It’s made up of our prevention branch, which has a primary interest to the council and the boards. We have the detention branch and Superintendent Uliasz is here today to give us an overview of Pinellas detention. We also have residential services, and Terry Buckley is here today from the residential services branch and she going to give an overview of residential services.

The councils and boards are heavily involved evaluating and awarding of grants. That’s prevention side of the house to help kids from moving deeper into the system. Unfortunately, from time to time kids move deeper into the system and a lot of times their first experience is going through the assessment center and then into detention. After they go into detention, the state attorney’s office will investigate whether or not there is a case for what the kids are charged with, then a petition is filled, and then it will end up in a court hearing. Before it goes to court, there are some interventions, Mr. McCabe’s office has excellent intervention services that he started himself. But if they eventually get to court, some youth go on formal probation. Between Pinellas and Pasco there are 84 probation officers and they supervise kids on formal probation. Another thing that this circuit does a lot of is judicial plans; probation officers supervise those plans to make sure the kids are compliant with their sanctions. On occasion, if formal probation won’t take care of it for the youth, then a lot of times if they re-offend or just can’t adhere to conditions of probation, then the next step in the process is residential commitment. After commitment youth return to conditional release. The Eckerd Youth Foundation has a small conditional release program, and the Marine Institute in both Pinellas and Pasco has conditional release programs. Pinellas Boot Camp is a self-contained program, and Boley has a program for conditional release youth.

Superintendent Uliasz presented information regarding Pinellas Detention:

Secured 25 surplus computers will be used for vocational and reading programs.

Should have the vocational and reading programs up and running within the next month.

Accomplishments:

Recently went through a quality assurance review achieved "Deemed Status" which is the highest level a department can have.

They have an academy for officers and trainees. And had three consecutive top performers in the certification academy. Recognized for having the "Officer of the Year" for the state of Florida. (Senior juvenile detention officer Charles Pits. Last year they were recognized as having the "Supervisor of the Year”, Tim Higgins.

They have added 500 extra books to their library.

They also have a mental health program contracted to be on site five days a week, eight hours a day.

They are also starting a girls mentoring and vocational program through the center and the Youth Arts core and Pace Center for Girls.

Assistant Director for Residential Services; Terry Buckley gave a brief description of Residential Services:

Pinellas, Pasco County, and Circuit 6 they have several programs for both boys and girls. They have forty-four programs in their region. About eighty five percent of the beds are contracted with private providers to operate their programs. A report of how many beds the Circuit 6 program has would be as follows: Britt Halfway House has twenty eight moderate risk boys beds, San Antonio Boys Village has thirty moderate risk boys beds, Pinellas Boot Camp has sixty moderate risk boys, Mandela is twenty two moderate risk boys, Wilson Youth Academy has thirty two moderate risk girls beds, Gulf has thirty nine moderate risk boys beds, and Lake has sixty moderate risk girls beds.

C. DJJ GRANT REPORT

Pinellas Council Grant recommendations: YMCA Greater St. Petersburg was awarded $91,981, YMCA of Sun Coast was awarded $86,010 and Boley was awarded $80,672.

Recommendations were approved and second. Approved unanimously.

Pasco Council Grant Recommendations were: Eckerd Youth Alternatives was awarded $75,000, Big Brothers and Big Sisters was awarded $48,112. The remaining balance of the $123,000 was given to Pasco County.

These recommendations were approved and seconded. Approved unanimously.

Pat McGhee passed out a summery of monitoring reports for the third quarter. The programs that were on corrective actions have addressed their issues, except West Care. The executive director of West Care came to a mutual agreement to terminate the program. Instead of having these dollars go back to the state (approx $37,000). Ms. McGhee recommended that we be allowed to keep the dollars and do a "Youth Summit", possibly at the Hilton in St. Petersburg. She will be keep everyone posted via email.

V. NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business to report

VI. CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS

Chairman Harris announced that the next meeting is June 20, 2005. He suggests a Pasco location.

VII. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Martha Lenderman thanked Tim Niermann for doing a good job but she expressed concerns for all aspects of the department to be represented. Mr. Niermann responded that members from each branch will be requested at every meeting.

Paul McClintock states that there are two bills in the legislature: Senate bill 192 or 194 and House bill 1863. If they are passed they will become law July 1st. Mr. Niermann responded a summery of new laws could be done in June.

VIII. PUBLIC COMMENTS

Cathy Corry commented on previous minutes, Terri Fare is not a Pinellas council representative. She reminded the Board that one of its responsibilities is to provide advice and direction to DJJ. She addressed the Board being out of compliance with the bylaws regarding the Chairmanship position, and the Board needs a vice chair position.

IX. ADJOURNMENT

Commissioner Harris acknowledges thanks everyone for coming and motioned to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded and adjourned. The next Board Meeting will be held on June 20, 2005 at a Pasco County location to be announced.

NOTE: These minutes were amended as a result of the June 20, 2005 Board to reflect the correct meeting attendees.