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(DISCUSSION) Chief Probation Officer’s Report
In the absence of Gwendolyn B. Tucker, Bill Johnston called Chris Bigelow to the podium for #3a.
a. Status Report on Juvenile Hall replacement project
Chris Bigelow reported that the demolition was completed and now they were doing grading and excavation. They are into the 6th week of a projected 125 wk schedule, finishing phase 1 (the structure) by end of Feb. ’05. They will be doing excavation of Woodside Ave to do the utilities. Things are moving smoothly (paperwork getting in place to obtain the state funds).
b. Status Report on budget operations, status of former SLUG contract work at YGC and LCRS
M. Lui reported they are still working on closing out the ’02-’03 year, expecting to finish by end of August. They started with an $870K deficit in their general fund close out process, and have made that into a surplus of $15K with some transactions they will be completing in the next couple of weeks. Some of the big ones are a TANF revenue from DHS for expenditures made in prior years (there was a close out of some additional monies from TANF beyond our annual allocation of $3.6mil). The Mayor’s office allowed them to recognize some of those additional funds, and that’s how they came up with that additional $335 K). They also recovered about $170K from DCYF (in Prop J funds). Another TANF related item is TANF admin. (10% of the grant = $323K). That is used to cover some of the Dept’s administrative costs. Finally, close out of encumbrances ($65K) that were not used. All these “revenues” brought the Dept’s deficit to a surplus. There are some older grants that are still on the books, and need to be closed. Current FY situation: The STC funding from the State is again not going to be available. ($150K) This will be offset by some general fund set asides. 4 lay-off notices for counselors were rescinded due to Workers Comp and SDI claims. They need to be returned to the budget. The EC is doing an ongoing review of divisions’ budgets.
There’s still the chance of a mid year adjustment depending on the federal budget.
Comm Bonilla asked about the status of outstanding unpaid contracts for ’02-’03. Lui said they were working with the Controller’s office now. They were unable to pay the contractors because they did not encumber the monies to do so, because they did not have a contract in place for a few of those CBOs. (no specific reasons for this were given). The Controller’s office is holding the Dept to certain requirements (which have always been there, but just not as stringently demanded of Depts). They are basically wanting to know how this happened and what the Dept is doing to prevent it from happening again. They are also asking to review invoices, and asking programmatic questions about documenting services provided and the results of those services.
The Dept has managed to make one payment to Potrero Hill. The others are still pending. (They expect to pay them in the next month). CPO Tucker said they are going to finish processing the contracts by Sept. Currently there’s some new language for contracts relative to the hiring of employees, etc. of those CBOs that the Dept contracts with. Those are issues the CPO is trying to iron out with the City Attorney’s office. At some levels, some of that language can be detrimental to those individuals that are going to be employed. She is trying to get that language in such a way that the Dept can moderate that. She is concerned that it may be discriminatory to employees.
Comm Bonilla asked if she was saying that by Sept the Dept would pay off everyone they owe (CBOs)? Tucker said no. She was working with the Controllers’ office to get the authority to pay off all the ‘back’ ones. They have the money, but they need the authority. For the ’03-’04 contracts--- one of the problems before was that those contracts were not executed. If you do not execute the contract, you can’t encumber the money. So all contracts must be processed (“our process”) by Sept. Then they can start going through the channels. But their work is done because if they have completed their process and they go through the rest of the process; purchasing, the attorney’s office, and all that kind of stuff, then the money can be encumbered and ‘we’ won’t have the same problems we have now.
Comm Bonilla asked what the surplus will be used for. Lui said they expect to use it to pay off another bill, but if they don’t have to, they will try to get an appropriation carry-forward.
CPO Tucker said that they had an NIC grant for technical assistance in setting up a training academy, for our staff to train our individuals in the computer technology. We are going to use that model where we get trainers in to train our staff, and they can get money from offering that training to other jurisdictions like adult probation. They also are looking at the union education fund. Every union has an education fund so they are encouraging staff to look into that.
Comm Hale asked about what the City Attorney was requiring in as far as CBO staff backgrounds ---felony convictions, etc.
Comm Ricci took a moment to congratulate Chief Tucker for being named the CPO.
She then asked about LCRS budget. What is the current budget? Lui said the budget is $2.1 mil (approx what it was last year), but 4 counselor positions have been cut. With the shortage of staff there, those 4 positions were given back (not yet put back into the Dept budget), and the lay offs were rescinded.
CPO Tucker reported that the Mayor’s office cleared requisitions so the Dept can hire on-call counselors. 3 will be starting in Sept. This will help in reducing OT. They will develop a list of on-call counselors.
Comm Hale asked the Finance Committee to get an early start in looking at the next year’s budget, so they aren’t caught off guard as they were this year. He wanted open and early planning.
CPO Tucker also mentioned the concerns for extra costs that will come with the opening of the new juvenile hall (equipment, transition). There are less staff in the Dept now, (eg. POs have dropped to 62 from 80) so there are many things that will need to be accounted for in upcoming years.
Comm Bonilla agreed with Comm Hale and assured him that the Finance Committee will begin that process of preparation.
c. Status of LCRS operations.
Liz Jackson-Simpson reported that the horticulture program at LCRS is at a standstill. The YGC landscaping is Prop J funds and will be reallocated, and the community service contract (taking probation youth to fulfill their community service requirements) was funded through a DPW grant. The fiscal agent for that grant will now be the SF Study Center. The SLUG staff will continue to give supervision to our kids until Oct. 31. Then a new arrangement will have to be made.
CPO Tucker said that in July they started planning to meet the reduced budget. They assigned a “monitor” (T Mtambuzi), and they are now developing a workplan for this year. The plan should be complete by the first week of Sept. They need to develop the vocational component. Staff will now be assigned to programs so they can run them if need be. Student handbooks and providers’ manuals will be done.
Comm Hale asked to have attention paid to the funding for LCRS’ future. Comm. Dupre suggested he, the Vice Pres and Comm Chuck go down to LCRS to attend a staff meeting, to be visible and show their support. CPO Tucker asked the Commission to possibly do a committee to look for funding opportunities.
d. Status Report of the JDAI Garry Bieringer gave an update on the progress (his written report is available on the Commission webpage).
Comm Hale asked about the large amount of overrides in detaining youth in Juvenile Hall. Bieringer said that is why they are concentrating on alternatives. Bieringer promised to get Comm Hale info. on reasons for overrides involving African American youth.
Comm Hale referred to an article from ‘Youth Today’ regarding a claim that race had nothing to do with arrests. Bieringer gave the example of Utah, where race definitely seemed a part of the reasons for arrests.
(public comments)
There were none
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