Travis County Commissioners Court
December 16, 2008
Item 11
>> item number 11, ready for that one? Number 11 is to consider and take appropriate action on 2009-2010 Travis County community plan for criminal justice.
>> good morning. I'm roger jeffreys, executive manager of justice and public safety and I have with me today michelle cass nova, who is the assistant director of community and economic development for the capital area council of governments. And we're here today to present to you and ask you to approve Travis County's community plan for criminal justice. And what this is, it's a plan that is required by statute and directed by the capcog arrest capital area council of governments, and over the last several weeks we've been working with them to develop and produce this plan. The plan is designed to set priorities, for the community to set priorities for funding. Capcog administers several federal funding streams for Texas and for this area as well as the state funding stream for criminal justice. They include the victims of crime act federal money, the violence against women act federal money, the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. It a federal funding stream. Safe and drug-free schools money and fund 421, which is a criminal justice funding stream administered by the state. The way the plan was developed is we invited stakeholders from the community into two different sessions. One was dedicated to victim services and the other was dedicated to juvenile justice/criminal justice. These sessions were held on October 20th and 22nd. Capcog prescribed the process and the format of the plan. Community stakeholders were invited to provide input into the priorities which you see in your backup. They also provided -- I would encourage if you have a moment to go to capcog's website, we didn't include it in the backup, but they did this just amazing job of amassing a wide array of statistics on criminal justice that is specific to Travis County, everything from crime rates over the last several years to information on family violence incidents and juvenile justice, prison, local jail. It's just a great resource. We can get it to you if you would like it, but it's on their website. That data was presented in these planning sessions and the stakeholders also brought data of their own, it helped substantiate and give some guidance as to what the priorities in the county should be. If you will go to page 2 in your pack-up, it actually lists the priorities. I won't read them out, but under each funding stream of what we're asking you to do today is consider those and approve them. If you do, then the plan will be signed and we'll hand it over to capcog and then capcog will use it to -- when they issue rfp's. The way it's supposed to work is the stakeholders, if I get it right, the stakeholders must have participated in the development of the community plan or their program must fit under one of the priorities that are listed.
>> those particular services that were rendered before, if there are dollars that are not available now that was available for the same or similar service in prior years, how is that -- what happens if there's a shortfall in the amount of funding? In other words, for the same service from year to year?
>> well, actually, we're never told how much money is going to be coming down to our region from the governor's office. So what these plans do is it allows our criminal justice advisory committee to prior prioritize by community based on the ones that come in, prioritize them in a list. The governor's office is the sole designator of who gets funding. It goes down the list. We never know where it will stop. We make our best that we're reviewing the applications and services and we adhere to what community has identified as their priorities.
>> but I guess what I'm trying to get after is that let's say that there is a significant cut back as far as funding in previous year services. Even though you may come back and prioritize, I guess my question is that set amount of money may have a direct bearing on services that may have been provided for someone in one previous year, but then it had to be relaxed, done away with because of difference in priority or difference in the amount of funding.
>> yes, that is correct. That is correct.
>> so that's what I was trying to pose in that because I can kind of envision maybe Monday night coming -- maybe money not coming down -- I don't mean to cut you off. There may be some cutbacks in some services, either different range as far as priorities in services.
>> that is correct. These funds that come through the governor's office are seen as seed money. And for three of the grant fund sources, the juvenile justice prevention, the drug-free schools and communities and the state 421 funds, those are declining fund when they're awarded. So the first year award is the agency's 100%. Then the sec year through the fourth year they would play for 80, 60, 20. It's enough money to get their programs started or to build a sustainability plan to continue those programs beyond the fourth year.
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>> I would like to quickly thank the folks who work with michelle, vinny Davis, who is here today, cynthia finegan, Karen maxwell from the sheriff's office, melissa and carol coburn all assist understand helping to facilitate those sessions on the 20th and 22nd and amassing this data into a report.
>> is the
>> [inaudible] the capcog on this list, I'm looking through it real fast. The list where it shows the e-mails addresses for all these folks, what is the website of capcog?
>> oh, capcog's website is www.capcog.org.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> I have a question about applications. This is a wonderful thing and as I'm looking at the state fund 421 and the various other funding streams, I'm wondering how we can either at the capcog level or the Travis County level allow this priority time and timeization to our own budgeting and disbursal of funds. It occurs to me it's not only in the realm of criminal justice plan, but city of Austin, hhs, aisd, there are various entities we could across pollenate with in terms of carving up the pie.
>> well, actually what roger and I when we were looking at this plan, this plan is not comprehensive, but it is a great beginning for conversation on how to tie in some of those issues that you speak of and going forward with it.
>> is state fund 421 specifically for criminal justice?
>> it is. And it's actually a fund, it's the only state fund what comes to the governor's office for payment of fines and fees. There is a decrease because of our economy. Our economy affects everything across the board. But, you know, two years ago at the last legislative session the legislative budget board created six positions to help counties and cities across the state increase their collection of these court costs, fees and fines which feed into this fund source. Then depending on what the governor's office looks at as to how much will be available per region and then for criminal justice-related activities, that's determined by the governor's office.
>> I can tell you this paired with the data from their -- I guess annual report that they put out already started some very interesting conversations. It's great information that, for example, shows the trends in the crime rate here in Travis County which has been trending down. Although juvenile arrests are trending up. It just creates a lot of interest in developing strategies that will cause some of those things to move.
>> is there any way possible that -- and I know this is a great -- this is great to look at projections and predictions and a whole lot of things, but is there any kind of way there may can be a side-by-side comparison with a program that is in force and continuing of what you did, in example, fiscal year '07 paired to fiscal year '08 or '09? Is there any way to compare year by year side to side?
>> it would be a little different because the three funds are declining grants. So how applicants work their budget is that the first year they are awarded 100%, they may serve 50 people. The next year 80% of the original amount. And depending how much they actually get from the governor's office which is competitive every year, they may have to alter their program.
>> but you could actually see even in that declining formula, you could actually see where things may need to be beefed up. I'm just trying to look at that maybe from that perspective. And -- but anyway, I just posed the question.
>> we might be able to pull some comparison, but I would not be able to say it would be apples to apples.
>> no, no, of course it wouldn't be apples to apples, but it would be --
>> it would be information.
>> yeah, kind of look at --
>> yes, we could do that.
>> about what percent of the funding is state money and about what percent is federal?
>> I would say maybe 10% of what we get a year falls into state funding. The rest are federal pass-throughs that come through the source that capcog manages.
>> the administrative costs that the governor's office takes, does that come from state funding or federal funding in.
>> they take a percentage of every funding source that they oversee. And I can tell you that for the violence against women act, I know there's a 15% allowance for administrative cost, administrative and the discretionary.
>> how much?
>> 15%.
>> 15%?
>> that they are able to take.
>> the hope is that the committee that you work with to allocate available funding by making recommendations to the governor's office, the hope is that you take this plan basically see what Travis County has prioritized, I guess, and make that decision?
>> correct.
>> but there are nine other counties in capcog.
>> correct.
>> some with agencies like this, some have two or three counties working together, I guess to increase the size and competitiveness. So when we do this for Travis County, we have to be mindful that the other nine counties have an interest and priorities also.
>> correct.
>> okay. Questions? Comments? Move approval.
>> second.
>> discussion of the motion? Any final words, ms. Casanova?
>> I'm fine, thank you.
>> thanks for joining us. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 1:45 PM