Travis County Commissioners Court
May 19, 2009,
Item 25
>> item number 25, receive update and take appropriate action on upcoming grant opportunities for the Travis County criminal justice and law enforcement community.
>> good morning.
i'm rodney jeffreys, executive manager of justice and public safety.
i've got lots of parnses.
you're welcome to come up if you want to.
>> what we wanted to do today is to give you a brief update on the grant opportunities for criminal justice.
criminal justice has actually I think been in the forefront of some of the stimulus money that's come down.
we were the first group, I guess, targeted with this money.
there's been three pots of burn and jag money, for example.
jag is justice assistance grant out of the department of justice.
the first pot of it went to the Austin police department and to the sheriff's office in the city of Pflugerville.
it was a formula grant.
the second pot was a competitive grant nationally, and the juvenile probation department put in an application for that.
we recently got notice of a third pot of burn jag money coming out of the governor's office and we utilized the community justice council to convene criminal justice partners from across the county and identified some priorities that we could go for in a collaborative grant.
the governor's office is requiring this to be a joint application from the county.
and it's one-time money and it has to be spent within the period of the grant, which is October 1st tow September 30th.
there's approximately $2 million that's available to the 10-county capcog region.
and so we got together and determined some priorities.
and because it's one time money, that excludes a lot of things from our criminal justice tool box if you will.
you can't go for f.t.e.'s, obviously because the funding is not going to last beyond that one year.
but there's lots of things we can purchase with it that would reduce crime that's in our tool box.
there's all kinds of enforcement strategies, there's research and analysis that can be done.
there's technology that can be purchased.
that's what we landed on as a group to use this money for.
and so what you have in your backup is it's all been kind of fluid in the last week.
we've got an updated chart I'd like to give you that has got some more specific and updated numbers for the different partners.
it's a little bit different than the chart in your backup.
we did add some equipment to digitize videotapes that the county attorney and the district attorney.
we updated some numbers.
for example, the ongoing costs for the east side station units is only 80,000.
i think you had 85,000.
so we brought our partners together in case you had any questions on these specific projects, but I'll go through them very quickly.
the first gap that we identified in our technology strategy is a need for incourt computers by the manor police department.
and this -- these monies will pay for I think it's 12 of them for their police cars.
number two is --
>> manor has 12 police cars?
>> is that right?
>> that is correct.
>> we have a representative.
>> good.
>> [ laughter ]
>> and they -- I think they're one of the few police departments in the county that currently don't have the equipment that allows them to properly or adequately contact their dispatch areas.
so this will help them update their technology so that they can utilize that technology.
>> one of my favorite cities, by the way.
>> [ laughter ]
>> that's a good omen for you.
the Travis County constables have requested 46 east citation units and each con tables office will get an allocation of those.
the Travis County records management in conjunction with the county and district attorney's offices is asking for electronic document scanning equipment.
right now it's paper records and it's -- there's a lot of time involved in retrieving those records, and this will shave time off of court processes, which will aid in case processing.
the same thing for the digitizing of videotapes.
right now it's vhs.
it's a large vhs cassettes.
what they're proposing is equipment to digitize evidence, interviews for d.w.i.
and child abuse cases.
the Travis County juvenile probation department is requesting a wireless technology and some equipment to produce id bracelets for juvenile offenders.
it's going to help them in their identification efforts for all offenders, but basically gang, which is a priority area by the way in the grant.
the adult probation department is asking for some technology and some software to help them evaluate their current program that they have targeting high risk probationers.
and finally, the office of court administration is asking for some video teleconferencing system to update and enhance their current system.
if y'all have any questions, again, we're all here to answer any.
this -- actually, this is a presubmission.
the actual grant application is submitted and it's been submitted to pbo and it will show newspaper your grants package next week for your consideration of both.
>> so when is the application deadline?
>> the application deadline is not until June 1st.
but to get it on --
>> that's way far away.
>> [ laughter ]
>> but it get it on, we had to speed this up to get it on Commissioners court for a vote.
>> so this is through capcog?
>> yeah.
the application is -- they'll administer the -- it's actually to the governor's office, but they'll administer the selection process.
>> do you know how long -- how long it would take to receive the distribution of that grant or the grant monies itself?
how long are they anticipating?
i know you've got a time line as far as October through September, but in receipt of it, do you know exactly how long it would take to get it here?
do you have any idea?
>> if I recall correctly, the -- what we do is submit the application.
we have to go before the capcog board, the criminal justice board --
>> the committee.
advisory committee first.
>> advisory committee.
make a presentation.
and then in conjunction with capcog they'll make the decision on which awards they're going to make.
i imagine that will be in August sometime is when the decision is made.
they want to have the monies in the hands of the recipients by October 1st.
they have to be spent in that fiscal year.
>> within that fiscal year.
>> but in the meantime you all have plans that as soon as that money hits you're going to get things done immediately.
and that's important, very important.
regardless of how long they take.
hopefully they won't take too long, though.
>> I think they're all ready to spend.
>> good.
>> so we've got -- they'll have applications coming in from 10 counties of central Texas.
>> that's right.
>> and the governor ultimately makes the choice about who is allocated what funding?
>> I think so.
we're under the advisement of the capcog advisory committee.
>> so we will be competing with other jurisdictions in the 10-county region.
>> but this is a great coalition to put together and go forward for the money.
great.
>> the memo that was written on this is just excellent.
i wanted to ask you all about the precedent for this level of collaboration across, constables, juvenile, manor police department.
i know in the previous burn grant it was also a collaboration with a.p.d., tcso and Pflugerville.
has this happened before?
>> yeah.
>> not on this scale.
>> not on this scale.
>> it's really gratifying to see.
it's really, really gratifying to see.
>> thank you.
it's been a fun process.
it's been quick.
we've had to turn this around quick.
we're also working in tan dom with the group that deeks eckstein and roger rhodes have put together, and you all have put together to look at the stimulus monies.
>> it's been great.
>> every time we want to see this level of collaboration, all we have to do is make $2.2 million available.
>> [ laughter ]
>> it's amazing how that motivates.
>> I move approval, judge.
>> second.
>> discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank y'all.
>> we would ask the various applicants to give comments, but since we're going to approve it anyway, we didn't want them to talk us out of it.
>> thanks so much.
>> congratulations.
good work.
we have 12 minutes.
do we have a 12-minute item?
>> 15.
>> I meant to ask you earlier whether we got anyone.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 2:00 PM