Hello! I worked really hard to get this out before tomorrow’s Board of Supervisors meeting. Usually, these meetings are held on the second floor of 74 Ontario Street, but tomorrow’s meeting will be held at the Bristol Hills 4-H Camp (4437 Kear Road, Canandaigua) from 6:30-8:00pm. I encourage anyone who is interested to attend and/or take a look through the meeting agenda, which can be found on this page (hit the “download” button and click on “agenda”). Alternatively, here is a direct link to the file. There will be no online component to the meeting tomorrow.
Forensic Hospitalizations Are Not Sustainable as They Are
Dr. Jessica Mitchell from the Office of Mental Health introduced a resolution to transfer $650,000 into the forensic hospitalization budget. Forensic hospitalizations can be required based on the results of “730 examinations” (competency to stand trial evaluations). These examinations are required in order to designate someone to a forensic hospital.
“As you know,” said Mitchell, speaking to the Health and Human Services Committee, “it’s hard to predict the cost of our forensic hospitalizations, and we’ve done a lot in the last couple of years to try to divert hospitalization as much as possible. However, we have seen a tremendous increase in the number of 730 exams that we’ve been doing this year... With that increase in the number of 730 examinations, we have seen an increase in the number of people who have needed the forensic hospitalization.” Mitchell said that the county has conducted 20 730 examinations so far this year; 16 did not need hospitalization, while four did. In recent years, the total number of 730 exams administered has been 25-27 per year.
The forensically hospitalized are criminally committed at an inpatient treatment center, typically for a period of 6-10 months. The cost per individual per day is between $1,400 and $1,500.
Funding for these examinations used to be split 50-50 between the state and the county, but as of 2019 (or 2020 — it wasn’t entirely clear) the county is responsible for the entire cost – and sinking under the weight. Although only four individuals have required forensic hospitalization this year, the entire budget for forensic hospitalizations has already been exhausted. Based on the current spending trajectory ($178k in January, $69k in February, $111k in March, and $138k in April – all for four people), Mitchell estimates that an additional $650,000 will be required for this state-mandated program.
“Everybody across the state is saying the same thing,” said Mitchell. “All the county DCSs (Departments of Social Services) are also seeing an increase in their examination numbers, which then, of course, means that there’s a higher chance of having more hospitalizations.”
To address to growing problem, the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) is organizing to lobby the state. The county is planning to contact state representatives and hoping to spread the word that forensic hospitalizations are not, in fact, treatment for mental health diagnoses. This seems to be a common misconception within the legal profession.
“There’s discussion happening currently around changes to the statute itself,” said Mitchell, “which I’m hopeful, and the DCS group in general is hopeful, will help to minimize the number of 730 examinations.” The proposed changes, according to Mitchell, include clarifying language to make it obvious to judges and attorneys that forensic hospitalization is not meant to provide treatment for mental health diagnoses. Rather, the goal of the hospitalizations is “restoration”: to enable an individual to participate in his trial and/or cooperate with his lawyer. Medication is provided, but therapy, counseling, and similar services are not. Listening to Mitchell, it sounds like too many judges are ordering 730 examinations thinking that they might result in treatment for a mental health condition.
The Department of Mental Health continues to work with the District Attorney to divert 730 examinations and resulting forensic hospitalizations by lowering charges, making plea deals, or even dropping charges if a defendant agrees to voluntarily enter treatment (the county is not fiscally responsible for voluntary treatment).
The Youth Bureau Update: Youth Program Funding and Trafficking Data
The Youth Bureau submitted a resolution to enter into contractual agreements to help fund certain youth-oriented programs. The Bureau received roughly 300,000 funding requests, but had only $88,000 in funding available. “We wish we could give more,” noted Youth Bureau Director Marsha Foote in committee. This resolution will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors this Thursday, August 4th.
Foote also reported on youth trafficking: there were 14 cases (2M/12F) in second quarter. “Which is putting us more than half of what we did last year in reporting… Most of them are between the age of 13 and 19… Majority are white, heterosexual. The two males, one wouldn’t report their orientation, the other is a LGBTQ person.” For clarification, these youths are not necessarily victims of trafficking, but include individuals who were in the process of being groomed by others or who were engaged in inappropriate text-based conversations with undercover officers posing as underage kids. Foote assured me that a high number of apprehended youth is a good thing and indicates that Ontario County’s programs are working as intended. She also stated that she very much appreciates that the various agencies in the county are so willing to work together as a network.
Office of the Aging Seeing More Seniors in Need of Help
The Office of the Aging has, for the last 4-5 years, been contracting with a company called Lifespan to staff their NY Connects program. This phone hotline program helps to connect people with services, resources, benefits applications, and more. Due to staffing difficulties, Lifespan is unable to renew its contract with the county. The Office for the Aging will seek to hire two additional full-time employees to take over the program. Director Irene Coveny noted that the program typically receives 3,500 calls each year. Recently, however, daily call volume has ballooned from 12-15 calls to as many as 30-35 calls. Coveny reports that, according to her staff, “more and more older adults are coming to us because they’re homeless and on the street.” She added, “And, last week, we had about five people come in without health insurance.” These cases typically cannot afford a Medicare supplement plan and then suffer a major health event. Fortunately, The Office for the Aging is very good at helping such cases to obtain health insurance. The homelessness is a much trickier problem to solve, especially for older adults.
Social Services: Emergency Rental Assistance Program Is Out of Money
Social Services Director Eileen Tiberio submitted the completed 2021 annual report for her department. The report should be made publicly available after it is formally accepted by the Board of Supervisors. Tiberio emphasized the seriousness of the rising homelessness problem, pointing to the Emergency Housing and Eviction Prevention program section of her report. “You can see, over the years, it’s [expenditures have] been going down,” began Tiberio. “So far this year, we’re at 90% of what we paid last year – at the six-month mark… This is the crisis that we’re in right now. We have people that we’re paying $2,000 a week for them to be in a hotel because there isn’t sufficient housing… The response from our state agencies were, ‘Wow, it’s a really awful situation out there!’ And that was about it.”
Although the state is pushing for more affordable housing, Tiberio worries that the crisis won’t wait for the buildings to be finished. “We’re just kind of finding places as we can to house people for the time being.”
State agencies have informed Tiberio that they do not have enough money to pay for ERAP (emergency rental assistance program) requests that have come in since March of this year. Individuals and families in need of assistance may or may not be eligible to receive such assistance in the first place if their income is above the cutoff — which, Tiberio emphasized, is very, very low. Being the fighter that she is, Tiberio plans to ask relevant state agencies to begin tracking how many requests are being denied due to over-earning in order to get a clearer picture of the problem she faces on a daily basis.
Based on her experience during 2008, Tiberio predicts that “I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of middle class individuals and families in crisis with regard to their housing. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Housing Study Contractor Selected Pending Board of Supervisors’ Approval
The period to submit proposals for the Ontario County housing study has closed, with the county receiving two proposals. The purpose of the housing study is “to conduct a comprehensive analysis of housing needs across the county.” County Administrator Chris DeBolt has selected Urban Partners, a company based in Philadelphia, to complete the housing study for a total of $94,500. The county plans to pay for the study using ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) monies.
County Seeking More Veteran Service Officers
The county is seeking more accredited Veterans Service Officers, as there is only one left! Other counties might be willing to help Ontario process claims, but veterans could also be looking at longer wait times for claims processing until the county can find more help.
Waste Hauler Registration Software to be Adopted by Ontario County
This Department will be partnering with a Canadian company, Emerge Knowledge, to register waste haulers. It will cost the county $19,000 (one-time) to set up the system and $7,400 annually for software and administration. The necessary funds are already in the current year’s budget. The county is considering charging haulers an annual fee to help offset the annual expense to the county. Haulers of waste are currently required by law to report on their work quarterly – on things like the types of waste they are hauling and the destinations of such waste. “There is a law today that requires them [haulers] to submit reports,” said Jordan, “and no one’s doing it.” Moving forward, SSWM would like to require a single annual report and provide the software required to do so; the Supervisors, however, remain in favor of quarterly reporting and have proposed making Casella carry the annual cost of the software.
SSWM has not identified any similar software packages, making the Canadian company their only option. The department has observed Monroe County’s success with the software and hopes for the same outcome.
Mattress Recycling Event Being Planned for September
The Department wants to hold a county-wide mattress recycling event on or around September 24th. As I have covered previously, mattresses and carpets create seams in landfills which disrupt the flow of leachate. Such items are generally considered a menace. Further, Jordan shared that mattresses are almost entirely recyclable (if they are recycled properly): “Pretty much nothing goes in the landfill.” The county is trying to decide how to best help residents with the transportation of their old mattresses – stay tuned!
Farmworker housing grants
Planning Department Director Tom Harvey reports that his department has received $2.1M in requests from local farms for grant monies to help pay for farmworker housing. Five farms have been selected to receive grant money. Harvey submitted a resolution to hold a public hearing regarding this matter, which passed in committee and is headed to the Board of Supervisors tomorrow, August 4th. If approved (it will be), the public hearing will be held on Thursday, August 25th at 6:30pm at 74 Ontario Street in Canandaigua, room 218. Everyone is encouraged to attend and bring comments and questions. Farm operators will have two years to complete their construction once their grants are issued.
New ePLUS Video Conferencing System for Supervisors
Ontario County is required by law to maintain video conferencing capabilities – this was a result of the Covid experience. The Board of Supervisors spent a month (in May) meeting in a conference room in FLCC to test out their state-of-the-art video conferencing technology, which they are now looking to purchase for their meeting rooms at 74 Ontario Street. (It really does provide a far superior video conferencing experience, especially for those attending remotely. The system intelligently switched cameras and microphones according to the location of the person speaking and also filters out noises that are not voices, such as typing on keyboards.) The vendor of the software and equipment, a Pittsford-based company called ePLUS, Inc., has quoted the county $116,691.90 for “audio upgrades,” including a number of ceiling-mounted microphones and some new cameras. Some of the cost is already budgeted for; the unfunded balance of $56,691.90 would be transferred from the General Fund Contingency Account. The county speculates that the resale value of the old audio equipment may be as high as tens of thousands of dollars, which could help to recoup some of the cost.
The resolution to approve the contract with ePLUS, Inc. will go before the Board of Supervisors at their meeting tomorrow night, August 4th.
Not included in the resolution is a proposal to replace the board room’s overhead projector and projector screen with an array of 65” monitors at an additional cost of roughly $50,000. (Apparently the existing projector blinds the Chairman and some other staff during meetings.) The Supervisors will likely be discussing the costs and benefits of this proposal in the future. (But you can tell me what you think right now by commenting on this post!)
Sheriff’s Office Contracting with Local Schools to Provide Full-Time or Part-Time School Resource Officers
The Sheriff’s Office is contracting with a number of local school districts, including Manchester-Shortsville, to provide full- or part-time school resource officers (SROs). The annual contracts run for ten months, between September 1st and June 30th. Full-time officers are contracted for 1,733 hours at an hourly rate of $72.53 (and an overtime rate of $108.80) for a total cost to the school of $125,700. Part-time officers are contracted for up to 1,040 hours at an hourly rate of $43.91 (and an overtime rate of $65.87) for a total cost to the school of $45,668. The difference in the hourly rate is largely a matter of benefits: many do not realize that the cost of providing healthcare and retirement benefits to employees is typically around 40% of the employee’s salary (depending on salary). This is in addition to salary. Part-time employees, not being entitled to these benefits, can therefore be hired at a lower cost to the employer – but, of course, they are only available for 60% of the time that a full-time SRO would be present at the school. This is clearly a difficult choice for school leadership.
Substitute Jail Orders in Ontario County
Substitute jail orders are in place in various counties across the state due to wide-spread law enforcement and correctional officer staffing shortages. “The New York State Commission of Corrections still has in place a substitute jail order mandating us to transport all sentenced and unsentenced male inmates – incarcerated individuals – to the Monroe County Jail. That process is continuing,” said Povero. “On August 4th… the commission of correction will be here… to meet with myself and the jail administration regarding the current substitute jail orders that are in place, look at our current staffing situation, and confer on the relationship that exists with Monroe County as we go on with the substitute jail orders.”
Ontario County Jail is currently the substitute jail for female detainees, meaning that incarcerated females from surrounding counties are moved here. “Of the 22 [female] inmates that we have, 16 of those are from other jurisdictions. So, we’re able to accommodate the needs of other counties, while other counties accommodate our needs,” Povero reported.
“It all hinges on staffing,” continued Povero, who then informed the Public Safety Committee that he successfully hired a new corrections officer and has three or four more promising candidates. Povero hopes that the orders will be lifted by Labor Day, at which point the male inmates would return from Monroe County. The weekend high for July 23-24 was 45 detained individuals.
Povero advocated for what he admitted was an unpopular idea: considering “looking at corrections as a regional concept,” suggesting that the corrections industry could benefit if different counties specialized in the detainment of different “classes” of offenders. Ontario County, for example, could specialize in the female population, while another county might specialize in offenders with mental health problems. “It’s becoming more and more a topic of discussion amongst sheriffs and county officials because of the lack of staffing and trying to identify if there are facilities where it might be appropriate to house a certain group of people with specific needs,” said Povero.
Administrator DeBolt chimed in with a supportive opinion, saying, “That would be, I think, an interesting discussion with the state as to whether they can get on board with that… if you can have the facilities specialized, I think we can give much more effective programmatic support to the incarcerated individuals… I think that’s a worthwhile discussion to have with the state.”
I have no idea where this conversation might ultimately lead, but I want to hear your thoughts and opinions – and so does your Town Supervisor!
Five Percent Raise “Across the Board” for Managerial and Confidential County Employees
The Department of Human Resources submitted a resolution to increase the pay for Managerial and Confidential Employees by 5% across the board: for all “bands” and “steps” in 2023.
“We are recommending a 5% increase across the board in all bands and steps,” began Michele Smith, who I think (but am not sure) works in Human Resources. “And that’s a little bit to address compression that happened because of all of the adjustments to all of the labor union contracts.” In other words, the labor unions negotiated raises for themselves. Now, labor salaries are too close to those of managerial and confidential employees, who are needing raises in order to continue earning more than labor and hourly employees – not to mention to try to keep up with inflation. There is little doubt that the county is also hoping that the pay increase will help to attract new staff, which have become elusive.
The proposed 5% increase comes on the heels of a 3% increase for 2022 and a 0% increase in 2021.
The resolution also includes a one-time retention payment of $5,000 to all full-time managerial and confidential employees who are employed in December 17th, although there is no mention of where this money will come from. Last year, managerial and confidential employees all received a one-time payment of $7,000 using ARPA money (see page 62), although retention was not cited as a reason. (Well, there was no cited reason. And the pay schedules are not attached to the relevant Board of Supervisors agenda.)
Regarding $50,000 for new display screen due to current screen blinding a member......$128, Staples, Chair with Rollers, OSHA approved.
SRO Cost to schools: Big Red Flag. I recently had a lengthy conversation with an fulltime SRO (retired Sargent, under 65 years old) at a school district north of Albany and south of Lake Placid. A retired policeman, certified to be an SRO, has a MAXIMUM income level after retirement of $35,000 as per Sections 211 and 212 Retirement and Social Security Law. His salary is $35,000 and that salary is set by the legislature......so why is the county billing schools $127,500 if the officer is being paid $35,000.