(DISCUSSION) Chief Probation Officer’s report:
· report on Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (Bieringer)
G. Bieringer submitted a written report (available from JPC office). This is going well and there will be a dept wide training on it to fully orient staff on it.
He further mentioned some activities going on in the Dept. 1) circulation of a draft mission statement and dept values statement. When the entire Dept has had a chance to speak about it, it will be submitted to the Commission.
He and the Asst. CPO attended a town hall meeting for a 6 mos review of his work, held in the Bayview. It was a good meeting. He will be holding the first meeting of a parent advisory group that will meet on Saturday.
They are forming a workgroup to look at the reorganization of the Probation Services division.
He has met with the Zellerbach Foundation and they seem interested. He is hoping for a follow up call, and potential for their support.
· report on Dept budget status and general Dept operations
M. Lui said that the Controller’s monthly projections of the Dept’s operations, and the most recent showed a potential surplus of from $112-$195K. this will probably not happen as the Chief is planning to do some hiring, and costs in the Fall/Winter part of the year typically increase. A positive is that because the Dept is not projected to be in deficit, the normal processes for approving hiring requisitions are being eased.
Workers Comp is budgeted at $1.5 mil, which is double what it was 3 yrs ago. For the first 3 mos, the costs have been about half of what is budgeted for that period. This will not be straight line so it will not come in at that level, end of the year.
He said there will be some unexpected costs, eg. natural gas.
The next fiscal year budget process will begin sometime in Dec.
Comm Chuck asked about the Log Cabin Ranch budget. Lui said it was on budget. Propane costs are up. They are paying some bills in arrears for water treatment. The non-salary costs look to be high, but salaries are on budget. Food costs are also high. They are paying off some bills from the prior year. So they may be a little over in materials and supplies, but WC is lower.
The Chief said that status quo is not what they are seeking, either in budget or programming. As it improves, the budget will grow.
· report on Log Cabin Ranch
Toni Powell, Director, briefly said that they are improving programs and emphasizing a family like setting. The staff is working hard on this and on addressing the concerns that the commission has had.
The Chief added that many things are being done to change the attitudes and climate of LCRS. The dormitory is now changed so there are tables and chairs where kids can sit and study. He mentioned that one Saturday night he and the Asst. CPO went down there and had a pizza making snack session, which the youth got a kick out of.
He said that even the staff is now willing to look at the staffing patterns in an attempt to reduce OT, something they hadn’t done in previous administrations. This is reflective of a new sense of cooperation.
· report on Juvenile Hall replacement project
There are things that will delay the opening date of Jan. It will now be later than that. No exact date given. There are work items, which were removed from the design phase. The project director considers them enhancements but the dept sees them as security requirements. To replace them in the plan is going to demand more expense and a full assessment of the amount needs to be made before they go to the Bd of Supervisors.
Comm Hale asked for JC Winship to give a full report at the next commission meeting.
He also asked the Chief to give a report on plans for Hidden Valley Ranch vis a vis the Mayor’s comments today at his state of the city address. Comm Queen said that the Mayor’s committee on Log Cabin Ranch made recommendation that no recommendations be made re. Hidden Valley Ranch for now.
(public comments)
There were none.
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