March 14, 2012 Planning and Grants Committee Meeting Minutes

I. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 9:15AM.

II. Roll Call

IJJC Chairman Timberlake; Chairman Lisa Jacobs; Commissioners Rick Velasquez, Pam Rodriguez, Ben Roe, Wayne Straza, Esther Franco-Payne and Julie Biehl. Quorum present. Staff: Rob Vickery, Ron Smith, Jeff Bradley, Michelle Arnold, Karrie Rueter, Julie Stremlau, Lin Ferguson.

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes from February 8, 2012 was made by Commissioner Franco-Payne. Commissioner Biehl seconded the motion. All in favor. Minutes approved.

IV. Status of Funds: Title II and Title V

Commissioner Velasquez reported that he anticipates that transportation grants will be reduced by one-third each year until they are phased out by 2015. We will continue to monitor them closely in the meantime. Commissioner Straza suggested that we talk with Ron Smith about further review of Franklin County, because that region could put us in jeopardy of non-compliance with the core requirements. Commissioner Velasquez added that the transition will give us flexibility to find areas that are negatively impacted and address them. The JDAI meeting is scheduled for March 15, 2012 and transportation grants will be discussed further.

DMC – This is the last year the current DMC sites will be funded so there is $0 allocated for SFY2013 contracts at this point

Domestic Battery Program: Previously funded with Title V, the remainder will be funded by Title II. Karrie Rueter asked the Committee if they want to consider funding the Domestic Battery sites for an additional year through Title II funds. Karrie explained that the only problem encountered has been reporting on the match funds. Only one of the three sties has reported match to date and they have been notified to submit the reports as soon as possible. Chairman Jacobs added that the match exists, and she is sure we can get the reports. She reported that ICJIA has indicated that some Juvenile Block Accountability Grant (JBAG) funds may be lapsing and would be available for projects like the domestic battery sites. Commissioner Velasquez added that since CCBYS has been rebid we have begun to look at developing a domestic battery guide for providers on risk assessment and how to implement it. He indicated that Cook County is looking at using this as a means to reduce detention admissions and that there may be funds available in the county to support ongoing services. Karrie added that for CCBYS it is premature to have all sites implement a model that we have not laid out fully or planned for training, because we are in the early stages of planning. Chairman Jacobs added it will be too soon to work further on this at the April meeting, because we don’t have enough information to move forward, i.e. service level, reports, system change and data, but we may want to set aside extra time in May to have an in-depth discussion on what was done, what was learned and what the potential model looks like and decide if the Committee is supportive of the model. Rob’s report will be in the RBA format and will be easy for sites to utilize.

Next Step: On April 11, 2012, sites will provide the Commission with more information so a decision can be made on whether we can create a model that we can use to diffuse a plan. Karrie clarified that, should we decide to fund this program the procurement process needs to be done now, it can be pulled back, but contracts won’t be written until decisions are made by the Commission.

Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) Case Management Funding Currently, DJJ has not reported expenditures on their grant; this information is needed to determine whether they will fully expend the current grant. If not, the Commission needs to decide whether to offer a SFY2013 contract to allow DJJ to expend the remainder of the previously-allocated funding. DJJ has been asked to provide a report on both expenditures and on grant implementation progress. The Commissioner Pam Rodriguez and Chairman Timberlake agreed that it is important to have a discussion with DJJ concerning progress on implementation and expenditures. Commissioner Straza would like to know the caseload numbers for each of the Aftercare Specialists (workers) funded to include the number of youth each staff is serving. Rob Vickery will ask for a general status report by next week’s full Commission meeting. V-DISC should be included in the report. He will ask the RBA questions, “What have they done”, “How well have they done it”, and “Is anybody better off because of what they’ve done”. Committee agreed that we should assume that we will have a FY13 contract with DJJ to allow them to spend the money previously approved and allocated as long as the progress made so far is sufficient.

SFY2013 Contracts Karrie explained the PBC process of the State and informed the Committee that the process has to be started now. She asked if the Committee wants to continue to fund CPRD at the current funding level $60,000 for JMIS, $100,000 or $120,000 for research and about $45,000 for the RBA. Chairman Jacobs anticipates that the funding will be lower. Commissioner Pam Rodriguez has a 12 month estimation of $100,000 costs for DMC that needs to be added so we can have up to that amount.
ICJIA – $60,000 for next year.
DOC – $200,000 for compliance monitoring.
YNC – $899,000 per year which includes JJ Commission and Redeploy expenses. Chairman Jacobs suggested a next step of sketching out the PBC process and what we want to do in that process, including deadlines. Planning and Grants will have a small number of people who have knowledge in this area to work on this. Chairman Timberlake will take care of this personally. Commissioner Pam Rodriguez made a motion to move forward on continuing ongoing grants with DOC, DJJ, YNC, Transportation grantees, CPRD, Domestic Battery sites, ICJIA. Chairman Timberlake seconded the motion. All in favor, none opposed, Commissioner Velasquez abstained. Motion carried.

Next Steps: DJJ needs to report on the rate of expenditure of the funds and the substance of progress of what the Commission has asked them to do in the contract regarding case management, implementation and how this relates to facility closures. We also need to know their future funding needs-Rob Vickery will get the status report.

V. 3-Year Plan Development

Status and Next Steps: We have not received guidelines with deadline dates from OJJDP at this point. Chairman Jacobs suggested that we approve the substance of the report as it stands, because in her review, she didn’t see anything in any section that did not go along with the way we want to move. She asked for volunteers to examine sections of the report as it is now. Commissioner Rick Velasquez made a motion to accept this report as it will be submitted, with revisions, to the Commission. Chairman Jacobs seconded the motion. All in favor, none opposed, and none abstained. Motion passed. Chairman Jacobs added that our award will be approximately $1.5 million to spread across all of these programs. She also suggested that certain components of the 3 year plan could be posted online to allow the public to get information on the activities of the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission.

Next Step: Compile information from each section with submission to Commissioner Biehl. Presentation of plan as edited to full Commission next week.

VI. Program / Project Reports: Process and Timeline

See below.

VII. Committee Updates/Motions for Consideration

  • Communications Committee: No motions. The Committee is working through the Annual Report and DMC report. Jim Bray is working on the Annual Report and will be putting together an outline of how the final report will look. Juvenile Sex Offender study will be done within the next couple of months. The Raise the Age report is on hold, pending data collaboration with the AOIC. A status update letter was sent to the Governor announcing the completion date of June 30, 2012. There is a meeting with Commissioners at Metropolis 2020 at 3:00, to put together a plan regarding youth engagement.
  • BARJ Committee: Chairman Timberlake reported that DJJ has renewed interest in the Circle Training Project at Harrisburg. They have a new superintendent who has talked to IBARJ and Governor’s State. We can expect a proposal within 30 days.
  • DMC Committee: No motions. 
  • Executive Committee: No motions. 
  • JDAI / Detention Committee: Commissioner Velasquez reported that $30,000 request for JDAI sites at last Commission meeting is being withdrawn until we receive a letter of agreement or contract from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The JDAI Committee may ask the Commission for travel money in the future and will submit that in a formal request. Next Steps: Continue work on the Annual Report and Juvenile Sex Offender Study. Collect and compile data for the Raise the Age Study from AOIC. Inquire about the timeline of the letter of understanding or agreement delineating Casey’s role and support.

VIII. Reentry Request for Proposals

Funding Recommendations: Commissioners Rick Velasquez and Pam Rodriguez and Ron Smith recused themselves prior to the Reentry discussion. Chairman Jacobs note that the Committee’s charge is to prepare recommendations for the Commission for funding of two Reentry projects. She suggested that we work from the summaries of the proposals and how they were scored and discuss verbatim comments of the reviewers. She asked that Karrie Rueter pass on the Committee’s thanks to the DHS reviewers for their work. She also thanked Rob Vickery for all of his work in reviewing all of the proposals. Commissioner Jacobs wants a consensus of Committee members to approve the projects.

Process: Rob presented the format of approaching this process. The RFP was released December 19, 2011, 51 letters of intent were received. Bidders’ conferences were held January 5 and January 12, 2012. We received 23 proposals on January 23, 2012.

Scoring: DHS staff, Commissioners, DJJ staff reviewed and scored the proposals. Rob Vickery met with team leaders to discuss scoring.

Rating: Scoring and key elements were reviewed to make a decision on funding to present to the Commission next week. The plan is to have funding in place by mid April with services available by mid June.

Recommendations: In Cook County, the proposal with the highest overall score was Youth Outreach Services. The Committee also discussed the next highest rated proposal in this area. The proposals were discussed and then the group finalized their recommendation. Commissioner Wayne Straza made a motion to fund Youth Outreach Services in Cook County. Commissioner Esther Franco-Payne seconded the motion. Chairman Timberlake recommended that the Commission be involved in the fine tuning of the project activities for this proposal. All in favor, none opposed, none abstained. Motion passed.

Rob Vickery discussed the summary of scoring and comments by reviewers in the downstate Proposals. The downstate proposal with the highest overall score was Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois. The group also discussed the second highest rated downstate proposal. The Committee finalized their recommendation. Chairman Timberlake made a motion from the downstate applications to fund Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois. Commissioner Julie Biehl seconded the motion. Commissioner Esther Franco-Payne added that the Commission should be involved in the fine tuning of the project activities for this proposal in the future. All in favor, none opposed, none abstained. Motion passed. It was recommended that a letter of thanks be sent to the reviewers and applicants from Judge Timberlake.

Next Steps: Letter from Chairman Timberlake to reviewers and applicants to acknowledge their effort and hard on this RFP. Present the Committee’s recommendations to the full Commission next week for final review and approval.

IX. New Business

No report.

X. Adjournment

Commissioner Franco-Payne made a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Straza seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 12:19PM.