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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSheriff’s Emergency & Veterans’ Services Committee - Minutes - 1/15/2024 Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors Minutes of the: Bayfield County Sheriff’s Committee Meeting January 15, 2024, 4:00 p.m. Meeting Held in the Bayfield County EOC, Washburn, WI The meeting of the Bayfield County Sheriff’s Committee was called to order at 4:02 p.m. by Bayfield County Chair Jeremey Oswald. A roll call was taken by Chair Jeremy Oswald, present virtually, as follows: Dennis M. Pocernich - present; Jeff Silbert – present virtually; Total: 3 present. A quorum was present to conduct business. The following were also present for today’s meeting: Emergency Management Director- Meagan Quaderer; Emergency Management Assistant- Maria Renz; Child Support Director- Michelle Alexy; Veteran’s Services Officer- Kevin Johnson; Sheriff- Tony Williams; Chief Deputy- Andy Runice; Jail Administrator- Luke Kleczka; Sergeant – Dave Renz; Citizen attendee – Shawna. 2. Approval of Minutes of October 16, 2023 Motion by Silbert, seconded by Pocernich to approve the Minutes of the Monthly Bayfield County Sheriff’s Committee Meeting held on October 16, 2023. Motion carried. 3. Public Comment: None. 4. Veteran’s Office a. The Budget Summary and Department Overview was presented together by Kevin Johnson, Bayfield County’s Veteran’s Services Officer. Johnson reported on the supplemental grant for veteran’s affairs that was targeted towards outreach. All the grant money was used and covered events such as Big Top, the county picnic, and helped supplement Amanda, the new employee, at full time. Johnson included the application packet for the CVSO grant. He worked recently to increase the amount of the grant. The grant award has been $8,000 for a long time and is now up to $11,000. The office will receive the grant award in a couple months and will be used for their training conference, travel, outreach, and salary supplement. Johnson also included the 2023 year-end budget report. The office had an adjustment towards the end of the year of $8600 that went back to the general fund. Johnson states the 2024 budget looks good right now. Silbert inquired of the housing issues for vets. Johnson reports there are always issues but they are working with some of the homeless veterans getting into a place. Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors 5. Emergency Management a. The Budget Summary was presented by Meagan Quaderer, Bayfield County Emergency Management Director. Quaderer reports with the new year the budget is doing well. They are currently in contract negotiations with AT&T and the Hillside tower. Norvado forgot to charge the department for the Namakagon tower, and the Sheriff’s Office for the Ino tower. A new invoice will be received, and the budget will be affected by the charge. The county administrator is working on negotiating with Norvado. b. Department Overview: Quaderer shared that they received another Saturday for the Clean Sweep event in 2024. On September 28th from 8:30 am until noon, there will be a hazardous waste, electronics, and medication collection. The Search and Rescue team has voted on the board and on team leaders, their next meeting will be on February 12th to discuss applications and annexes. The Auxilia Initiative is doing well in its formation and is open to providing services outside of the area after a crisis. Renz reports that they are working on their grant closeouts due at the end of this month. 6. Sheriff’s Office a. Budget Summary: Budget Report included. Sheriff Williams reported that the 2023 budget is good and the Fleet account is being worked on. They are awaiting the income from the cars sold and they still need to sell five cars. The budget will still be down but plan to be good by summer. b. Department Overview: Sheriff Williams provided an incident chart today. He reports that the new K9 was purchased and will be going into training in February and ready to go this summer. Officer Ryan Miller is the handler. Squads are up and running, body cams and dash cams are working together. Sheriff Williams reviewed the incident chart. There were 9,837 total calls for 2023 in comparison to 9,120 in 2022. In 2023 there were 2,606 traffic stops while in 2022 there were 1,934. There were 67 burglaries in 2022 while there were only 43 in 2023. In 2022 there were 122 thefts but 67 in 2023. In 2022 there were 247 traffic crashes compared to 173 in 2023. These numbers show that the patrol officers being out, being visible, and the traffic stops seem to be making a difference. Sheriff Williams states he hopes the new equipment will help reduce the numbers as well. Another number comparison to consider is that Bayfield County handled 2,600 more calls than Ashland County, and 1,200 more calls than the city of Ashland. In 2022, Bayfield County had 6 fatal traffic crashes, but only 1 in 2023. c. Jail Overview: Captain Kleczka shared that they currently have 45 inmates, 38 males and 7 females. They are boarding inmates from other counties. There were 485 bookings for 2023, about average. The daily population is about 38 inmates. The jail Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors is seeing more people come to jail and stay in jail. Burnette County’s jail renovation is projected to be complete this spring. Therefore, the boarding numbers will decrease. The jail charged almost $206,000 to Burnette for boarding in 2023. The revenue from Ashland County was almost $20,000. For the 2023 budget the revenue was $241,000 which was over by $166,000. For 2024, the capital improvements budget should cover another door project. They received a bid to update the electronic system of the doors. Silbert inquired about the overage in revenue funds. Kleczka explained that without a motion to use the extra funds in a specific way, the funds return to the general fund account. Pocernich inquired about other projects. Kleczka reported that they are considering a capital improvement project in the kitchen, replacing appliances at different intervals to avoid a large replacement year in the future. 7. Other – Silbert inquired if there was a resolution regarding a previous motion for the personnel committee regarding the jailers’ wages under protective status. Pocernich stated that the personnel committee decided not to do anything. Sheriff Williams explained that the jailers could choose to opt-in with the knowledge there is no monetary help. Pocernich inquired about future towers. Quaderer explained that the state will be putting in more towers in the future with the wiscom overhaul, however they will be owned by the state. Pocernich reported that zoning is proposing harsher regulations. 8. Next meeting February 19th at 4pm in the EOC 9. Adjournment: There being no further business to come before the Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors, Chairman Oswald adjourned the meeting at 5:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Maria Renz Bayfield County Emergency Management