The Tri-County Regional Community Corrections Board held a regular board meeting in the Polk County Justice Center on Monday morning.
Monthly Statistical Reports
After the Call to Order, the meeting began with the approval of the monthly statistics review and a Statistical Reports Review of all departments for July. Executive Director Andrew Larson reported that the jail held 161 inmates, with 103 being from Polk County, four from Red Lake, and eight from Norman County, and had a daily average population of 153 inmates for the month of July and 128.4 for the year so far. He noted that they had a high number of female inmates and stated that would be a problem as that will cause issues with housing for their more special attention members. He noted that their most common offenses were DUI, parole offenders, and drug sales. He also noted they had five kids in secure detention at the Red River Juvenile Center, with some potentially being involved in a large weapons theft. He then went into the Transition program, saying that they had ten total cases in the month with an average size of 8.5, which was typical for the summer months. The board approved the minutes and statistical reports unanimously.
Personnel Issues
The board then received an update on Personnel issues from Director Andrew Larson. Larson reported that Felix Contreras became a full-time Corrections Officer on July 25, and Alexis Ostgaard resigned from her job as a Corrections Officer to become a Probation Clerk II on August 1. He noted they had transferred Gabriela Trevino-Valdez from a Youth Counselor position to a Probation Clerk on July 1. Larson reported that Jerome Phillips and Nicole Holtz had passed the probationary period test to become full-time Corrections Officers on June 30 and July 9, respectively. Larson also noted that Bryan Drinkman had passed the test to become a Correctional Recreation Officer on July 6 but then resigned from his position on August 3. Larson said that Corrections Officer Dennis Moore had given his notice of resignation on July 24, Officer Kelvin Kaste had given his notice on July 29, and had looked for more daytime hours but chose to transition to Polk County Maintenance. He then noted that they had terminated Cory Hoeper on July 18 as he did not arrive or return contact with them on his first day. Larson stated that the Center was short of two full-time officers and one part-time Correction Officer. He noted that they had a lot of new applicants applying for the new open positions and said that many seemed like great applicants in the future, noting that the video has been a major component of these incoming applications. Larson said that he had looked back at their hiring process in 2019-21 and saw that many of the Corrections Officers they had hired were leaving their jobs within the first six months of the job, such as the case with Drinkman, either due to health reasons or not meeting their requirements. Larson said that these new candidates had a better feel to them and that they were moving in the right direction with recruitment and would hopefully stop this cycle from continuing. The board approved the personnel issues unanimously. He then went into an announcement about the retirement of Administrative Assistant Jean Clauson and had met with her to come up with a candidate to replace her and work with her with Retirement Planning.
2022 2nd Quarter Internal Audit Report
The board then discussed the 2nd Quarter Internal Audit Report to review the status of many of their grants. Deputy Director Paul Bissonette reported that the State had given them a grant of $21,000 for their expenditures for the Pre-Trial Supervision Grant that they had started this year and will run to the end of 2023 but would have more information to share with them next quarter. Bissonette noted that the county shares had seen a significant reduction in their per diems. “We budget about $1.5 million for per diem revenue on an annual basis, and because of staffing issues within the jail, which required us to close one of our housing units for about five months, plus the closure of the juvenile center due to the water damage that we sustained,” Larson explained. “Our per diem revenue is down significantly, so that has a very negative effect on our overall budget.” The lost revenue caused their fund balance to drop considerably from where it was in 2021, with one of the main causes for this being that technology costs were high due to purchases they made in 2021 only being delivered to them a few months ago. Bissonette also mentioned that they had budgeted for the year based on the average population in the secure detention for the counties, which was just shy of $100,000, but they have already spent over $130,000 and have five children in secure detention in Bemidji and Moorhead, which can easily add more for expenditures. The board approved the report unanimously.
Contracts/Agreements
The board then discussed an amendment to the State of Minnesota Ninth Judicial District Administration Office DWI Court Contract Agreement. Director Larson noted that it was funding for their DUI program and the salary of the current worker was much lower than the previous worker. Larson explained that the State requires that the amount of the grant must match the amount they submitted for reimbursement. Hence, the amendment accounted for the reduction in personnel costs for DWI Court agents due to the new worker taking beginner’s pay scale wages. The board approved the amendment unanimously.
Miscellaneous Items
The board then began discussing a few miscellaneous items. The first was about a Jail Based Care Coordinator for Alluma. Larson said that he had been meeting with Alluma regularly and were looking to place one of Alluma’s staff members within the jail, so they would coordinate the delivery of services, get inmates set up for medical, transportation, and mental health appointments, and help them if they have any issues like anxiety or sleep troubles. The Center had begun work with Alluma before the pandemic, which started to set people up for services for the reintegration process, but the pandemic caused them to cut it. “Unfortunately, coronavirus hit right when the job was really starting to get some legs, and because of all of the staffing issues that Alluma faced, that particular position ended up dissolving, so I’m excited Alluma has some grant funds available through a SAMSHA Grant, and they are looking at reimplementing that position within the jail. The last time I spoke with a representative from Alluma, they were starting the process of drawing up a position description and hope to be posting that soon. I’m cautiously optimistic that within the next month to six weeks, we’ll be able to get that position back up and running again.” Larson said they plan to reopen the position by the end of this week to help expedite people and help the Center with Housing and Substance Abuse to lessen their involvement with the Criminal Justice System.
Red River Juvenile Center Construction Project Update
The second item was an update about the Red River Valley Juvenile Center Construction Project with an update with a revised timeline. Larson noted that the Center was in the process of painting, with electrical and mechanical trim out being the next item to complete. Larson noted that they are still about two to three weeks behind schedule, with them now having a revised timeline of starting their recruitment process in mid-August for Case Workers, Detention Workers, and Youth Workers, and were looking to begin staff training by early October then open the facility by mid-November. “The residential side itself is coming along very well, and I think the next few items that are scheduled are some finish work on electrical and mechanical trim outs, ceiling grids, and lights,” Larson said. “Those are the next items on the agenda once the painting is wrapped up. Because the timeframe has been adjusted, and they’re targeting mid-November, we’ve adjusted our timeframe for resuming operations.”
2023 Draft Budget Presentation
The final miscellaneous item was seeing a presentation of the Draft Budget for 2023 Budget for the September Board Meeting. Larson noted that they were on track for the following year, stating that the budget would be bigger this year due to the Juvenile Center being under construction and soon to open again.
July 2022 Invoices
The board finished the meeting by approving the invoices and bills for the county for July, which they did unanimously.
The board will meet again on Monday, September 12, at the Tri-County Corrections Center.
