Public Safety
Committee
November 2, 2006
Scott Heyman
Conference Room
3 p.m.
Present: L. McBean-Clairborne, R. Booth, M. Hattery, M. Koplinka-Loehr, M. Robertson
Staff: K. Leinthall (Department of Probation and Community Justice); P. Younger, Deputy County Administrator; P. Meskill, Sheriff; M. Lynch, Public Information; S. Cook, County Attorney’s Office; L. Shurtleff, Department of Probation and Community Justice; G. Potter, Information Technology Services; S. Whicher, County Administrator; M. Pottorff, County Legislature Office
Guests: N. Rosen, Interim Director of Offender Aid and Restoration
Mrs. McBean-Clairborne called the meeting to order at 3:01 p.m.
There were no changes to the agenda.
Mrs. McBean-Clairborne, Chair, spoke of the shocking and sad news of the recent death of former District Attorney, George Dentes. She said Mr. Dentes served the County and community well and will be deeply missed. The entire Public Safety Committee expressed its condolences and sympathy to the family of George Dentes.
No member of the public was in attendance.
Nancy Rosen, Interim Director of OAR, summarized the content of a letter she has written to the Committee. She thanked Legislators for their advocacy and the $10,000 grant to the Bail Fund. She said the Bail Fund program is complex and she is grateful to the Committee for its energy, competence and persistence in helping the Legislature understand the need such that the grant was approved. She also announced OAR has hired Deborah Dietrich as the new pa new permanent Director who will be starting full-time on January 2, 2007. Deborah Dietrich is relocating from Washington, DC but is a Cornell graduate and served on the Tompkins County Legislature from 1986-1993 so she is well known and admired locally.
The Committee expressed its appreciation to Ms. Rosen for graciously taking over OAR during a very difficult budget season and doing so very efficiently.
Ms.
Rosen briefly discussed the Bail Fund and said the total Fund is $37,000. Ms. Rosen did provide the Committee
with additional information on the Bail Fund that will assist members in
tracking the numbers and amounts of bails that have been issued at a previous
meeting.
Ms. Younger
referred to agenda attachments that were provided in advance of the
meeting. One of Ms. Younger’s goals when she joined the County four and
half months ago was the implementation of a framework for developing and
sustaining organizational effectiveness. She has been moving forward with
that goal and designing a framework which best complements the ideas and needs
expressed in the various conversations in with staff during department
visits and meetings, as well as discussions with Legislators. That framework is
referred to as “Core Performance Dimensions for Developing Organizational
Effectiveness.”
Ms.
Younger explained how the framework is being pilot tested via the current
CJA/ATI action planning effort. She referred to the CJA/ATI progress report
that contained a list of action steps/ recommendations and said using the
framework she tried to organize it in such a way that she could understand
where needs are being met in the Core Performance Dimensions. She then produced
a “Strategic Action Planning Framework for Sustaining Organizational
Effectiveness” from that list. This was presented to the CJA/ATI Advisory
Board and volunteers were asked to help her in developing an action plan.
The result was the formation of a seven-person facilitation team who has been
meeting and has refined those items into five “smart objectives.” The overarching
goal is to safely reduce the Jail population and to better target existing
programming toward breaking the cycle of crime and recidivism in Tompkins
County. The five objectives are designed to help reach that
goal.
Ms.
Younger stated that rather than take recommendations, they will be taking
specific steps that are specific, measurable, attainable,
result-oriented, andtime-bound. With the
“SMART” list they have begun to identify these five steps for each objective
and identify members of the work groups to serve and be able to take the
objectives and map them out in the form of a comprehensive plan. With
that step, they are now using the ADDIE (Assessment, Design/Development,
Implementation, and Evaluation), which is a long-time, industry-standard tool for program
planning and training and design. Using ADDIE within the context
of the Core Performance Dimensions framework will and help the groups
stay on target as they move through the process.
At
this time she referenced the CJA/ATI Action Plan Process Flow Chart which
provides an overview of how the groups are organized. To date, three of
the five teams have had their first meeting and all of the groups are planning
to meet at least once or twice and will have out-of-group assignments.
The Facilitation Team will meet at least two more times to assess the overall
progress of this. She estimates approximately 85 hours of total staff
hours will be spent on this.
They
hope that a penultimate draft of the plan will be available near the first of
the year and that a final plan will be ready by January 31st.
She
said it is not their intent to identify new things to do and more costs to
incur. They are working to insure
that what is currently being done is being done as cost effectively as
possible.
Mr. Booth spoke of the
strategic goal and suggested that it be worded to reflect the possibility that
the Jail population may go up and this effort may still have been successful;
also, the Jail population may go down, but this effort may be
unsuccessful. Ms. Younger agreed and said it is important to recognize
that this is a first-time effort with this approach. Mr. Booth also suggested
that the term “budget development” was not appropriately being used in the
context in which it was used.
Jail
Statistics
Sheriff Meskill explained the different charts contained in the agenda packet and stated there will almost always be differences in the inmate counts as of the 12:01 a.m. count and the number of inmates housed per day. Ms. Robertson asked if an inmate is transferred to Tioga County prior to the 12:01 a.m. count and returns to Tompkins later in the next day, if payment is made to Tioga and Tompkins for the same day. Sheriff Meskill said that was correct.
Budget
Adjustment
It was MOVED by Mr. Koplinka-Loher, seconded by Mr. Hattery, and unanimously adopted by voice vote, to approve the following budget adjustment:
REVENUE: 3113.42770 Law Enforcement – Miscellaneous Revenues $615
APPROPRIATION: 3113.52220 Law Enforcement – Department Equipment $615
Explanation: Target Inc. donated funds to purchase equipment for use with the Road Patrol. Purchase to be made from the expense line. Revenue deposited 10/16/06.
Dispatch
Operations
Mr. Shurtleff reported that they are beginning to look at grant programs that will allow them to improve the backup operations at Central Fire Station.
At the present time they are into an overtime situation that is the result of disciplinary actions involving time off. He stated they have taken a “harder line” with personnel and there are consequences to that. He believes these actions are resulting in less complaints and they continue to work on these issues. Mrs. McBean-Clairborne said the number of complaints she receives are significantly less than they were last year. Mr. Shurtleff credited Lin Hurd, Director of Dispatch, for her efforts to improve the supervision, training, and accountability with Dispatch operations.
Towers
Mr. Shurtleff updated the Committee on the communications towers and stated the six free-standing lattice towers are all up; the Monopole for the Ithaca College site has been sent back to Missiouri due to a manufacturing problem. Motorolla and Pryamid have been diligent to make sure specifications are being followed. The shelters have begun to ship in this week. He said they are still on schedule to have construction done by the end of December/early January.
Subscriber
Equipment
He reported the subscriber groups are actively working on defining equipment needs. Last month he mentioned the retired Clinton County was asked to come to Tompkins County. Since that time he has taken a position with the State Office of Homeland Security to do outreach to counties on best used subscriber equipment. They will be providing his services to do interoperability exercises and he will be here the week of November 15th.
Mr.
Booth reiterated a comment he has made in the past with regard to the need to
having an ordinance prohibiting the construction of anything that would
interfere with this system. He
asked Mr. Shurtleff to discuss this with Jonathan Wood, County Attorney.
Portable
Radios
Mr. Shurtleff reported there has been discussion of various options by equipment users on the purchase of portable radios and said there are differing opinions. The end result will likely involve a limited mix of radio options.
Deputy
Director Position
Mr.
Shurtleff reported interviews will begin tomorrow for the position of Deputy
Director of Emergency Response.
Those who will participate in those interviews with him are Jack Crance,
Department of Emergency Response; the Assistant Chief from the City of Ithaca,
and a member of the Freeville Fire Department.
RESOLUTION NO.
– AUTHORIZATION TO EXECUTE GRANT AND ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH
TOMPKINS CORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE – DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE
It
was MOVED by Mr. Booth, seconded by Mr. Koplinka-Loehr, and unanimously adopted
by voice vote to approve the following resolution and submit to the full
Legislature. Mr. Shurtleff said
the goal of this is to have a series of training to supplement what we do with
other State programs. The funding
is coming from grants TC3, and other local agencies, and efforts will be made
to look at private grants.
He said there is a need for this type of training and TC3 has a history
of training people in this area.
WHEREAS,
the Department of Emergency Response applied to the New York State Office of
Homeland Security (OHS) for funding to support identified responders’ training
needs, and
WHEREAS,
OHS has granted the Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response $55,000 to
fund the development of training programs in accordance with State and Federal
response strategies, and the Tompkins County Legislature has accepted these
funds through Resolution No. 116 of 2004, and Resolution No. 263 of 2005, and
WHEREAS,
the Federal Government, through the allocation of these funds, has strongly
encouraged the development of partnerships with accredited educational
institutions to ensure a regional approach to the delivery of training
initiatives, and
WHEREAS,
the Department of Emergency Response has collaborated with Tompkins Cortland
Community College since 2004 in the evaluation of emergency responder training
needs, and in assessment of training models and capabilities, and
WHEREAS,
Tompkins Cortland Community College has long delivered courses in public safety
and public health concentrations to the emergency response community in
partnership with Tompkins County governmental entities and has reaffirmed its
interest in expanding these offerings, and
WHEREAS,
the Department of Emergency Response has determined that Tompkins Cortland
Community College is best suited to assist the Department in the development
and delivery of a suite of response courses directed toward the many
disciplines engaged in county response and preparedness activities, in addition
to the Fire, EMS, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Courses now
coordinated by the Department, now therefore be it
RESOLVED,
on recommendation of the Public Safety Committee, That Tompkins County, through
the Department of Emergency Response, is hereby authorized to enter into a
formal agreement with Tompkins Cortland Community College for the continued
development, promotion, administration, and delivery of a pilot series variety of training programs for the period November 1, 2006 thru
August 31, 2007 to assure
compliance with Federal Responder Guidelines and to locally effectuate the
goals of the National Response Plan at a cost not to exceed $55,000,
RESOLVED,
further, That the Department of Emergency Response and Tompkins Cortland
Community College should will continue to cooperate and collaborate to establish and effectuate
strategies to provide comprehensive training to the overall emergency response
community, thereby ensuring baseline competencies and improved proficiencies, and
will further cooperate to identify and pursue outside funding streams to
sustain these critical efforts.
SEQR ACTION: TYPE II-20
* * * * * * * * * *
Mr. Potter said the County currently runs an email system that is decentralized in nature. The mail comes into the mail server and then gets distributed to a number of County servers based on where an employee is located on the network. In each one of the servers there is a folder for each employee’s email which is in a text format. This leads to complications in terms of records retention and retrieval. One of the reasons they are looking into this is because there has been an increase in the number of requests for employees to access all of their mail from outside the County as opposed to just the incoming mail. The retrieval is a problem, particularly with FOIL requests because of the cumbersome amount of work involved in retrieval. He said there has also been exploration of a County-wide calendar system, automatic replies, and internal email encryption due to HIPPA requirements.
Mr. Potter said an evaluation of systems that are available was done and of the available systems, the system being recommended is Novell Group Wise. He concluded by saying he recommends the approval of this as the County needs to do a better job managing electronic mail and address the records retention aspect as well.
A voice vote resulted as follows: Ayes – 5, Noes – 0. MOTION CARRIED.
WHEREAS, Tompkins County Departments rely on Electronic Mail (E-mail) as a primary form of communication and information exchange, and
WHEREAS, it has been determined that the current E-mail system does not provide adequate functionality to meet the needs of public records retention and retrieval requirements, and
WHEREAS, Tompkins County Departments have expressed the need for advanced E-mail features to improve their current business practices including simplified Internet-based email access, E-mail archiving, integrated calendaring, Email-address list sharing options, project management and document sharing, full text search, automatic reply, internal E-mail encryption, and the transfer of E-mail to laptops for County field staff, and
WHEREAS, the Director of the Information Technology Services Department, and other County employees with information technology responsibilities from the Public Health Department, Department of Emergency Response, Department of Social Services, Department of Mental Health, Probation and Community Justice Department, and the Information Technology Services Department have reviewed various alternatives and have determined that the Novell GroupWise E-mail system will meet Departmental needs, integrate most effectively with the County’s current network and end users, and provide future for growth and flexibility, now therefore be it
RESOLVED, on recommendation of the Government Operations, the Public Safety, and the Budget and Capital Committees, That the Director of Finance is hereby authorized and directed to make the following budget appropriation:
FROM: Contingent Fund A1990.54400 $75,000
TO: Appropriation Account 1680.52202 $75,000
SEQR ACTION: TYPE II - 20
* * * * * * * * *
RESOLUTION
NO. –
BUDGET TRANSFER – HUMAN RESOURCES/PAYROLL SYSTEM BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS
(BPA)
MOVED by Mr. Booth, seconded by Ms. Robertson, and unanimously adopted by voice vote by members present, to approve the following resolution and submit to the full Legislature:
WHEREAS, the Tompkins County Administration and Personnel Department have identified additional needs and requirements that the current Payroll System is unable to provide, and
WHEREAS, it has been determined that the County investigate options available to support the evolving needs and requirements of the County Administration and Personnel Departments, and
WHEREAS, Tompkins County Information Technology Services, Personnel, Administration, and Finance Departments conducted a demonstration of Sungard Pentamation, Inc.’s Human Resources/Payroll System and after reviewing the options available to the County, it has been mutually agreed upon to enter into a Business Process Analysis (BPA) with Sungard Pentamation, Inc., to further define the County’s workflow and requirements, and
WHEREAS, a budget transfer from a personnel budget line is requested, now therefore be it
RESOLVED, on recommendation of the Public Safety and the Budget and Capital Committees, That the Director of Finance is hereby authorized and directed to make the following budget transfer:
FROM: Personal Services 1680.51000637 $15,000
TO: Professional Services 1680.54442 $15,000
SEQR ACTION: TYPE II-20
* * * * * * * * * *
It was MOVED by Ms. Robertson, seconded by Mr. Booth, and unanimously adopted by voice vote to approve the minutes of October 5, 2006 with the changes submitted by Ms. Robertson. MINUTES APPROVED.
It was MOVED by Mr. Booth, seconded by Mr. Koplinka-Loehr, and unanimously adopted by voice vote, to approve the appointment of Rich Bennett to the Criminal Justice Advisory/Alternatives to Incarceration Board as a State Certified Out-patient Service Provider representative for a term to expire December 31, 2009.
The meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Michelle Pottorff, Legislature Office