Agenda - 04/19/05 JEO Mtg. - Laserfiche WebLink

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in Lane County. She used charts to illustrate referrals by area, with 42 percent of referrals from the Eugene area, 27 percent from the Springfield area, and 31 percent from rural areas. She commented that citizens' expectations of DYS were threefold: I. hold youth offenders accountable, 2. lock up youth offenders who posed the greatest risk to the community, and 3. provide appropriate and adequate treatment to juveniles so they left the system with more skills than when they entered. Ms. Smith said the current system had incurred such significant reductions that those expectations were at peril and reductions in beds and treatment options undermined DYS' ability to provide a balance of correction and treatment services, with most facilities operating at less than 50 percent capacity. She indicated that DYS had sustained major cuts in State funding and was facing significant reductions in federal funding. She stated that while DYS had been successful in securing grant funding over the past ten years, those grants were expiring and a permanent, stable funding source was essential in order to provide a balance of correction and treatment services to ensure community safety. Alex Gardner, Lane County Assistant District Attorney, said the County's proposal would not be before the commissions if there was any other feasible way to establish permanent, stable funding for public safety services. He said that County employees had been struggling with grossly inadequate staffing for a long time and there had been some by-products of that disadvantage that would allow citizens and elected officials to determine if they were getting "bang for the buck." He encouraged commissioners to compare caseloads in the District Attorney's office and supervisor to line worker ratios; the organization was very lean and had existed in starvation mode for some time - there was no place else to cut. He pointed out that by Constitution the District Attorney (DA) was a State employee and the DA's duties could not be assumed by the cities. He said that given current caseloads the DA provided services at about one-third of the cost for a city to provide those services. He provided as an example of a collaborative effort in the DA's office the "24 hour team" services for victims. He said that one employee was dedicated to supervising the team's 30,000 vOlunteer hours and the office provided a car, telephone, and pager system. He said the program had been eliminated because the paid employee position was cut from the budget. Rob Rockstroh, Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), said that his department's role in the public safety system was parole and probation, mental health, and alcohol and drug treatment. He described the services provided by his department that could not be provided by other entities because it required police power, including civil commitment holds, closure of restaurants because of unsafe practices, and quarantine for communicable diseases. He said that DHHS services were funded primarily by the County with state and federal matching grants. He noted that while parole and probation services were countywide, in reality most offenders were from the cities. He said that a partnership between the State and County resulted in provision of services throughout the County. He described the probation and parole services that provided supervision of offenders in the community and had not been funded adequately in many years. He discussed the impact to DHHS of cuts in the Oregon Health Plan, including loss of methadone treatment. He emphasized the seriousness of problems related to methamphetamine, which demanded services from across the system. Jim Gangle, Lane County Assessor, provided a brief overview of the issue of compression that resulted when passage of Measure 5 limited the maximum rate, based on the real market value, on which property could be taxed. He said there was a $5 rate for education and a $10 rate for government and any time that $10 rate was exceeded based on the real market value, the tax collected was compressed down to $10. He said the vehicle proposed to fund the public safety district was property tax by creating a new permanent rate for the district and as a consequence there would begin to be compression in other governmental districts depending on the amount of rate established for the public safety district. He reminded the commissions that local option levies would be compressed first, then the permanent rates. MINUTES-Joint Planning Commission Public Hearing February 1, 2004 Page 3