The Tri-County Regional Community Corrections Board held a regular board meeting in the Polk County Justice Center on Monday morning.
2021 FINANCIAL AUDIT REPORT
After the Call to Order, the meeting began with first hearing from CPA Gordon Dale on the TCCC’s Financial Audit Report for 2021. He noted that things looked relatively normal on it, but there were a few issues he had found. One was about their timesheets generated from their software program for Internal Controls and recommended having a supervisor go through them to sign them off if they are correct. “He suggested that would be a good Internal Control,” Executive Director Andrew Larson explained. “One question that was posed was if money is receded, can the same person then deposit the money? He said again, because of the relatively small size of our operation, the number of people in those roles, having someone outside of our administrative accounting staff receding the money would be an additional layer of protection in the event of some misconduct.” But other than those, the Financial Report was normal compared to usual times, saying that their Citizen Revenue had gone up this year after learning that much of the payments they were supposed to receive in 2020 had come in 2021. Another change was that Building Operations had gone up by $119,000 due to the increased spending on replacing equipment and roofing. Dale also noted that they needed to record a lease asset for their building operations for the debt payment. For their cash basis, he found there was only a $16,000 difference between the years. Larson explained that with their closing the one holding facility and understaffing issues they had to work through were responsible for the difference. For the Center’s revenues and expenses, their operating revenues (grants and contributions) were at $627,529, which was an increase from 2020, making their profit margins at -55%. He noted that despite these, their budgeting is on track, and everything is tracking well.
MONTHLY DEPARTMENTS STATISTICAL REPORTS REVIEW
The board then began approving the monthly statistics review and a Statistical Reports Review of all departments for the month of August. The board heard from Executive Director Andrew Larson, who reported that they had hired a new administrative assistant, former Jail Clerk Erica Hitchen, who also attended the meeting in place of Jean Clauson, who had retired on August 31 due to health issues. Larson had the board introduce themselves and requested the board sign a card for Jean wishing her well. Larson reported that the jail had 154 inmates and was holding one for Kittson County. Mahnomen County’s population was still relatively low at about 23 inmates. He said they were also in contact with the U.S. Marshalls and there were 11 inmates brought in by them, but they were slowly returning to the numbers they were accustomed to. Larson reported that for August, they had an average of 136 inmates, with a high amount of them being arrested for failure to appear in court and violating their parole. For the Transition program, there were 10 cases with an average case size of 8.4 for the month. He noted that he had met with all of the Social Service directors from every county to review the number of referrals they had every month and pointed out that the referrals had steadily decreased over the last 3-4 years. “We had reached a point where I felt like the number of cases we had to manage could be managed by one person instead of two. So, I brought that to each of the social services directors’ attention to get some feedback from them,” Larson explained. “My recommendation to the board today and my plan for 2023 for budgeting purposes is to now just have that transition program run by one staff member as opposed to two.” Larson informed the board that he requested the Social Services directors to contact them if they noticed any influx or potential problems with criminal activity so they could revisit any staffing changes to counter the issues. The board approved the minutes and statistical reports unanimously.
PERSONNEL REPORTS
The board then received an update on Personnel issues from Director Andrew Larson, who reported several new Corrections Officer appointments for the next month. Such as Kayla Kofstad starting on September 12, Nicholas Pappas set to begin on September 19 as a Corrections Officer, Jace Bueng on September 22, and Michael Roth on October 3. Larson reported that they had one status change, which was Corrections Officer Jessica Volla requesting to become a part-time Corrections Officer on October 1 to let her go to school rather than work full time. There were also two position transfers, which was Safety & Sanitation Officer Joan Forney transferring to become a Correctional Recreation Officer, and Probation Clerk II Alexis Osgaard transferring to become a Jail Clerk at the Northwest Regional Corrections Center (NWRCC) on August 19. Two more members had passed their probationary period to become Correctional Corporals on September 1, and Arika Hitchen had been promoted from a full-time Jail Clerk II to an Administrative Assistant on August 23. The Center had also lost a few members, with Sedekie Bility resigning as a Corrections Officer on August 19, despite still being in training due to the driving distance and gas pricing. Two other members were terminated in August and September for not showing up for their shifts. Lastly, Administrative Assistant Jean Clauson retired on August 31 after 29 years of service to the Center. Larson said the Center would start advertising for Child Counselor and Case Worker positions, though Larson noted the counselor’s title might change to describe the position better. Larson reported they had posted a few job openings and had received a few applications so far but hoped to have more results for October.
Support Staff Restructuring
Larson then gave a report about restructuring the support staff to help manage the Probation Fee Collection and restructure the support staff to help. They would eliminate the Support Service Supervisor’s position and have the support staff supervised by Deputy Chief Probation Agent Dale Arnold. With the additional responsibilities required by some of the support staff, including maintaining records on probation fee collections, the board approved two new Secretary Clerk III positions, with the original Support Service Secretary taking one position and promoting another existing staff member to the other position. Larson expressed his confidence in this new system, and will be something that they could manage and help them save money. The board approved the motion unanimously.
RED RIVER VALLEY JUVENILE CENTER 2023 PER DIEM RATE
The board began discussing the 2023 Per Diem Rate for the Red River Valley Juvenile Center (RRVJC). Larson brought up comparisons to other centers and what rates they were charging, such as the Northwest Minnesota Juvenile Center in Bemidji, which charged a rate of $264-279 per day for non-member children and reaching $340 if they have evaluation services. Larson revealed that the Center’s rates were much lower than those numbers, and they have been trying to raise that number slowly. “The board did approve a $60 per day increase on both our secure detention and non-secure housing option,” Larson explained. “Even with those numbers, that’s a bigger increase than what we have typically done, but even with those numbers, we’ll still be very much in line, if not just a little behind what other places are charging. So, it’ll be helpful from a budgetary perspective.” The board decided to enforce the $60 increase and unanimously approved the motion.
2023 BUDGET DRAFT
The board then began a discussion about their draft for the 2023 Budget. Larson presented that the Personnel costs and the Juvenile Center is a massive part of it that will be needed, estimating another six months for another $27,000. They also had some technology needs, food service increases, and building maintenance that needed to be taken care of. Some increases with the insurance and staff additions on all fronts added about $100 to the budget, but the grant funds offset them, noting that it was a significant revenue increase. There were many one-time costs for the Center with things like laptops and tablets for certain departments to update their records. For the repair and replacement, they had to deal with issues like replacing the shower boxes as they were starting to rot and looked to budget to replace the showers for one unit per year. Another was for the toilet and sink values that were also starting to go out and begin leaking and was budgeting to have them replaced for one unit per year, to replace them with a 10-second automatic shut-off system. He noted that they had begun a plan of replacing all of the cameras over a 5-year plan and have them all replaced at the end of next year. They had increased their revenue budget by about $30,000, and they were planning for an aggressive per diem increase.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
The board then began discussions about three miscellaneous items. The first was about the PREA (Prison Rate Elimination Act) Audit, reporting that they got their report back in August and that they had met or exceeded all Audit expectations and would have another check-in in 2025.
The second miscellaneous item was an update on the revised RRVJC Timeline. Larson reported that the timeline was adjusted by two weeks with the delay of the HVAC system, but everything else was going well. They had recently added the flooring tile and added security on site this week to install the security cameras. He said they were aiming to begin interviews for officers by September 22 and full occupancy by November 28.
The final miscellaneous item was discussions about Kelsey Helgeson being nominated as the 2022 Correctional Nurse of the Year at the upcoming Jail Administrators Conference, and she was selected for it. The Conference is this week from September 14-16, with her presentation on September 15.
The board finished the meeting by approving the invoices and bills for the county for August, which they approved unanimously.
The board will meet again on Monday, October 10, at the Tri-County Corrections Center.
