Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council: May 24, 2007 — Report from the Chair

Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board Meeting of April 30, 2007

The Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board met on April 30, 2007. I believe that Board Chair Calvin Harris planed to have the “Board” create an advisory council to replace the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council. I believe this for two reasons. First, the only item of old business on the agenda was “New Advisory Council”. Second, Calvin Harris did not want most of the Board members appointed by the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council to attend the meeting. Therefore, Harris instructed DJJ to exclude those Board members from the meeting notice. I finally announced the meeting to all the Board members appointed by the Council (Note: Susan Biszewski-Eber and Chimurenga Waller were the only Council appointees who did not attend).

As reported to the Council on April 26, 2007, I emailed Rick Davison, Deputy Secretary DJJ, Susan Churuti, Pinellas County Attorney, and the statutory members of the Board (6^th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge designee Marian Fleming, Public Defender designee Bob Gardner and State Attorney Bernie McCabe) to alert them of Harris’s unconscionable actions.

Perhaps because of this email campaign, the reporting by media (an article in the St. Petersburg Times appeared the day of the meeting), and the appearance of DJJ’s Rick Davison at the meeting, Harris bypassed the issue of the New Advisory Council. When I asked Harris specifically, “There is no advisory council?” Harris replied, “No.”

There is no excuse for Harris’s actions. If the Council has no objection, I will demand that Calvin Harris apologize, in writing, to the members of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council for his despicable, if not illegal, behavior towards the Council over the past year.

Letter to the Attorney General

On February 22, 2007, the Council voted to authorize a letter from the Council to the Attorney General. The letter would ask for an opinion on the legal status of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council. The purpose of the letter was to counter the actions of Calvin Harris to abolish the Council. As mentioned earlier, I wrote a series of emails to local officials alerting them to Harris’s campaign. I did this in lieu of the letter to the Attorney General.

Grant review update

At the April 30, 2007 meeting of the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board, Pat McGee, DJJ, announced that DJJ awarded grants based on the Circuit 6 Juvenile Justice Board’s scores of the grant applications. I believe that would be Calvin Harris’s recommendations. Harris, without consulting or even notifying the Board members—at least the Council’s representative to the Board —formed a grant review committee.  This group met without the knowledge of the Board and submitted its scores in the name of the Board. Again, Harris did not consult the Board nor is there any indication of any public discussion as required in Florida’s sunshine law.

I emailed Cassandra Jenkins, DJJ’s Assistant Secretary for Prevention, asking why the department awarded grant money to the Pinellas County Police Athletic League when the Council had ranked it last among the four applications it reviewed. First in rank by the Council was the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg. A copy of the letter is submitted for the record. [Email Plyer to Jenkins 05/24/07]

Juvenile Justice Circuit Boards and County Councils Meeting, May 21-22, 2007

DJJ held the second quarterly meeting of the Circuit Boards and County Councils for 2007 in Tallahassee May 21-22, 2007. As Chair of the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council, I am a member of this group. However, I was not invited to the meeting until April 19, 2007; two weeks after the March 30, 2007 deadline to confirm attendance. My schedule did not allow me to attend. On May 18, 2007, I asked DJJ’s Statewide Partnership Coordinator, Marisela Bravo, to send me three items:

1. All materials that I would have received had I attended the meeting;
2. Progress report on the fifteen (15) Department of Juvenile Justice Office of Prevention and Victim Services Implementation Plans introduced at the January 9, 2007 Circuit Board & County Council Chairs' Quarterly Meeting; and
3. Bylaws that govern the General Board of the Circuit Boards and County Councils.

Next Council meeting: 7:00 pm Thursday June 28, 2007 at the Seminole Community Library (727) 394-6905.

This report is submitted for the record by Dave Plyer, Chair, Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council.

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