Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Closed Board of Directors Meeting
San Bernardino Community College District
114 S. Del Rosa Drive
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Don Averill, Deborah Barmack, Tom Brickley, Erin Brinker, Ann Bryan, Rachelle Bussell, Ken Coate, Scott Hofferber, Matthew Issac, Mark Kaenel, Lowell King, Pam Langford, Bill Lemann, Sue McKee, John Mirau, Tom Nightingale, Bev Powell, John Prentice, Brian Reider, Susan Rice, Kristine Scott, Larry Sharp, Paul Shimoff, Phil Waller, Janet Weder, A.J. Wilson and Ray Wolfe.
Announcements: 1) The Omnitrans sbX rapid transit service will celebrate its completion today at 9 a.m. at the Court Street Square, Downtown San Bernardino. 2) Southern California Assoc. of Governments (SCAG) will hold their 2014 Regional Conference & General Assembly, Partnering for Prosperity: Technology’s Impact on Mobility and Opportunity on May 1-2, 2014 at the Renaissance Esmeralda, Indian Wells Resort & Spa. For more information and registration please go to http://www.scag.ca.gov/calendar/Pages/GA2014.aspx 3) A letter of support of SB 1190 which would fund the fifty judge positions was sent out last week. A hearing will be held in Sacramento today at 1:30p.m. Members have been e-mailed regarding their availability to participate in the public comment portion at the end of the hearing. 3) Allen Gresham, Emeritus member and one of the founding members of Inland Action passed away on Sunday, April 20, 2014. 4) Life Stream (formally Blood Bank of San Bernardino) has been proposed for membership. This is the first of two announcements prior to voting. An e-mail announcement will be sent to the membership.
M/S/P: Minutes from April 15, 2014.
Scott Hofferber introduced Sheriff John McMahon.
Sheriff McMahon discussed the need for judge funding siting the excessive time and distances that law enforcement, business, and citizens must travel to testify. Due to court closures access in parts of our county can be over 185 miles away.
AB 109 Public Safety Realignment has been in place for three years now and continues to be a leading news story. Federal court orders siting overcrowding at our state facilities remain in place. Our county historically sent on average over 400 convicted prisoners a month to state facilities and now, although crime rates are increasing, averages only 85 with realignment in place. The county jails are, like the state facilities, at full capacity and require releasing of a prisoner to accept a new prisoner. The new jail facility in Adelanto has recently opened 220 useable beds. Although their capacity is 1,392 full funding for staffing has not been acquired. In order to release a prisoner the county rates and assesses what is known as the “triple nons” (non-serious, non-sexual and non-violent) offender. These inmates are released as is needed to make room for more serious criminals. So far the some 9,000 prisoners (mostly convicted of property crimes) have been given early release in our county. The Probation Department is now more than ever a key law enforcement tool as they can dictate parolees to attend AA meetings or other programs.
The Sheriff reported that the current recidivism rate in San Bernardino County is at 45% although the state rate is at 70%. He believes we can increase our local figure with further training programs in our county facilities. Programs that train for GED, and ROP skills in addition to the fire fighting camp have proven successful and give the inmates needed purpose and structure.
The Sheriff’s Department has also been successful in a pilot program to reach out to the homeless over the last year. Deputies are speaking to the homeless in their camps and serve as a resource for basic services such as housing and food. Often the homeless are not aware of the programs available to them. It is estimated that 45% of the panhandlers on our streets are homeless.
Since experiencing many budget cuts, the Sheriff’s Department has maintained the same budget for the last two years. Their goal is to provide as many deputy sheriffs as the budget will allow.
Realignment has had a huge impact on our county and further programs to reduce recidivism are critical and will need ongoing funding.
A Q & A period followed
Meeting adjourned at 8:30a.m.