Macoupin County Courts Committee met Feb. 26.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER
PRESENT: Pomatto, Thomas, Dunnagan, Reiher, Rull, Schmidt, Duncan, Deihl, Troemper, Meyer, Verticchio, Briscoe, Ross, Watson, Kahl, Demuzio, Clagg
ABSENT: Quarton
II. AGENDA ITEMS
1. Child Advocacy Center Funding Request
Judge Deihl explained there was a request from the Child Advocacy Center to come present to the committee regarding their program. Sharon Clagg from the Child Advocacy Center spoke about the history of the program and how for a period there were no Child Advocacy programs in the county until a grant was obtained to begin this program after Locust Resource Center lost their grant funding. The mission of the program is to advocate for children affected by sexual abuse and serious physical abuse to help children and families heal. They get their funding from a DCFS grant, Victims of Crime Act, Jersey County fees and fines as well as Montgomery 708 and donations. They have offices in Jerseyville, Carlinville and soon in Hillsboro. She walked through how an appointment works step by step and explained this program was a supplement to the services offered by DCFS. She said the importance of the program is that their top focus is the best interest of the child and allows for a coordinated effort during interviews. Clagg spoke the importance of different types of donations the program uses those donations to help cover the holes in their grant funding. Deihl asked what the average monthly donation from Jersey County court fees was and was told $400 to $500. Deihl also asked about the 708 funding from Montgomery. Clagg said that they request $15,000 from them. Their goal is to get each county that has a stand alone office be self sufficient in their funding for the costs of their office. That would require about $1,000 a month to fund the Carlinville office currently. There was a discussion about the number of cases in Macoupin County compared to the other counties and how before their was an office in Carlinville it would require going to Montgomery County for the use of the program taking up time of the employees required. The program case load for just Macoupin County went from about 30 cases in their fiscal year to already 70 or so in this fiscal year with more will happen before the end of the fiscal year. Thomas recommended moving this to the Finance Committee and having them review a request for funding when they consider the budget this summer. Thomas also requested more information on the case loads each county has as well as the specific funding other counties contribute.
2. New Civil Assessment Fee Schedules & Further Fee Waivers
Circuit Clerk Ross spoke briefly about the new civil assessment fee schedule. She had met with the State’s Attorney and spoken with the Trial County Administrator in Springfield and felt the fees collected would go down, but it would be hard to predict until they actually go into effect beginning July 1st. There was a discussion about the effect this would have on the budget going forward and Judge Deihl said this would be on the agenda in the future and they would share new information as soon as they got it.
3. Supplemental Appropriation for Circuit Court Fund
Judge Deihl, Judge Troemper, Judge Meyer and Public Defender Verticchio spoke about the Circuit Court budget for the fiscal year and passed out a memo outlining where the budget is at, why he believes they are where they are at and what they would need to finish out the year. Deihl explained that the bulk of the Court’s budget was in court appointed attorney fees. While it would be nice if each person went out and individually hired their own attorney, they are duty bound by law to provide representation to anyone who can’t afford it, meaning the county is required to pay. Deihl shows the budget and expenses for court appointed attorneys from 2014 through the present fiscal year. Last summer, the two conflict public defenders who were contracted said they would no longer perform the work at the current fee. The Board agreed to hiring a full time assistant public defender and not having any contracted public defenders. With six months now since that happened showed having the assistant public defender has lowered the costs for certain types of cases, but with juvenile cases increasing significantly, paying the hourly rate is skyrocketing. Based on the half year mark, $80,048 of the $90,000 total budget has been spent on court appointed attorneys. The Judge proposed hiring 3 contractual public defenders at $3,000 a piece for the remainder of the fiscal year instead of those employees charging an hourly rate. Deihl explained this was the largest request he had asked for since he first started and he asked for $80,000 to help cover left over bills from his predecessor. This was a significant request, but he felt that the thought that these costs would go down is unlikely unless the case load significantly decreased. The hourly rate is $100 an hour which is significantly less than the normal hourly rate they would charge someone as a client. There was a discussion about how all parties involved are going a great job trying to keep costs as low as possible and moving through cases, but it is just getting harder to continue to provide frugality with the number of cases requiring court appointed attorneys. The county was getting a great bargain with the contracted attorneys they had previous to this year in terms of dollars paid for hours worked, which is why it would be harder to get the work done at a lower price than what was being proposed tonight.
Motion by Schmidt, seconded by Thomas to recommend to the Finance Committee adjusting the Circuit Court’s budget as presented by Judge Deihl.
RESULT: MOTION TO RECOMMEND [UNANIMOUS] Next: 3/7/2019 5:00 PM
MOVER: Larry Schmidt, Member
SECONDER: David Thomas, Vice Chair
AYES: Pomatto, Thomas, Dunnagan, Reiher, Rull, Schmidt
ABSENT: Quarton
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