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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolutions - 2002.10.24 - 26976MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTION # 02 254 October 10, 2002 BY: Public Services Committee, Hugh D. Crawford, Chairperson IN RE: CIRCUIT COURT — USE OF MEDIATION FUNDS To the Oakland County Board of Commissioners Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen: WHEREAS by Miscellaneous Resolution #90177, the Board of Commissioners established the Circuit Court Civil Mediation Fund; and WHEREAS the balance of the Civil Mediation Fund, after payments to case evaluators (formerly known as mediators), will be used to help pay for Circuit Court enhancements and improvements only as requested by the Circuit Court and approved by the Board of Commissioners; and WHEREAS by Miscellaneous Resolution #02028, the Board of Commissioners authorized the creation of two judgeships in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court effective January 1, 2003; and WHEREAS by Miscellaneous Resolution #02101, the Board of Commissioners authorized a transfer of $1,473,000 from the Capital Improvement Program/Building Improvement Fund to the Project Work Order Fund to relocate the Library for the Visually and Physically Impaired, construct the necessary courtrooms, chambers, staff offices, jury deliberation rooms, and prisoner holding areas to accommodate the new judgeships, and to acquire the necessary X-ray and metal detection equipment to secure the West Wing Extension to the Courthouse; and WHEREAS the amount transferred from the Capital Improvement Program/Building Improvement Fund does not include the acquisition of furniture and equipment to support the new judgeships; and WHEREAS the Department of Facilities Management has estimated the cost of the furniture and equipment to be $142,360; and WHEREAS the Circuit judges have approved the use of Civil Mediation Funds to equip the courtrooms, chambers, staff offices, jury deliberation rooms, and prisoner holding areas with the necessary furniture and equipment to support the new judgeships. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approves the transfer of $142,360 from the Circuit Court Civil Mediation Fund for the acquisition of furniture and equipment for the courtrooms, chambers, staff offices, jury deliberation rooms, and prisoner holding areas assigned to the new Circuit Court judgeships. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the remaining balance, if any, be returned to the Civil Mediation Fund upon completion of the acquisition of furniture and equipment as authorized by this resolution. Chairperson, on behalf of the Public Services Committee, I move the adoption of tl:e.„/ foregoing resolution. ;---/ , re./#4./e. v,e4s Co.vm 1 rrEE Public Services Committee Vote: Motion carried unanimously on a roll call vote with Galloway absent. Page 1 of 2 Helen Hanger From: Kevin Oeffner [oeffnerk@co.oakland.mi.usj Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 11:37 AM To: Hanger, Helen Subject: FW: Resolutions Helen, per our discussion just moments ago, below is an e-mail that I sent to Jim and Harvey earlier this week. It describes three resolutions that will make their way to the Public Services Committee in the weeks ahead. Please call if you have any questions. The resolution regarding mediation funds was prepared by me, the other two will be prepared by the administration. Thanks. Original Message From: Kevin Oeffner [mailto:oeffnerk@co.oakland.mi.us] Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 10:50 AM To: VanLeuven, Jim; Wedell, Harvey Subject: Resolutions Good morning Jim and Harvey. I want to give you a heads up on a couple of resolutions that should be presented to the Board's committees during the next group of committee meetings. There are three resolutions as follows (I don't have exact titles yet): 1. Resolution to approve support staff for the new circuit judges - I was able to persuade Personnel to support the presenting of this resolution to the Public Services Committee on October 1, pending Commissioner Crawford's approval. Personnel and M&B will author the resolution. As I understand it, the resolution will authorize the support staff (Circuit, Prosecutor, Clerk, Sheriff) necessary to support the two new Circuit judges. If approved, the positions will be effective January 1 (or the closest pay period prior to January 1). I believe the funds exist in a Non-Departmental account, therefore, the resolution would authorize the transfer of the appropriate amounts from that account into the respective budgets of the Circuit Court, Prosecutor, Clerk and Sheriff. The resolution would go to Public Services on October 1, the Board for referral on October 10, the Personnel Committee on October 16, Finance on October 17, and the full Board on October 24. There was a letter and attachment written a few months ago that showed the support positions to be created.. Harvey, I believe you have a copy of the letter. If not, please let me know and I will get a copy to you. There will also be some related adjustments incorporated into the resolution. For example, we are going to delete appropriations for two visiting judges, one court clerk, and some funds for court reporting services. This is in an attempt to minimize the impact of the cost for the new judges and their support staff. The letter referenced above (and attachment) include those cost reductions. 2. Resolution to approve the use of mediation funds for the new judgeships - several months ago Dave Ross asked if we would be willing to use mediation funds for the furniture associated with the new judges and their staff. In keeping with past practice, we are going to use mediation funds to fully equip the chambers, staff offices, and jury deliberation rooms with furniture and equipment (file cabinets) associated with the new judges. We are also going to use funds to equip the new courtrooms (jury box chairs, witness chairs, prosecution & defense tables and chairs, judge's chair, court clerks work station, and other attorney chairs. The only furniture that will not be covered by mediation funds are the pews for public seating. Dave has already made plans to pay for this out of the $1.4 million transfer from the Capital Improvement Fund approved by the Board a few months ago. Dave estimated the mediation fund use at $142,000 and some change. The judges have already approved the use as referenced above. The resolution will be included on the October 1 Public Services agenda, pending Commissioner Crawford's approval. It would then go to the Board on October 10 for referral, to Finance on October 17, and the full Board on October 24. Note: this resolution has no personnel implications so it doesn't need to go to Personnel. 3. I don't have any idea what the last resolution will be called, but it will seek to amend the FY 2003 budget. The County Executive has indicated to the court that he wants to do away with a block grant that has been used for the Drug Court for several years. One of the reasons is that the grant funding has declined drastically over the past few years while the county match has increased. Funding for the Drug Court is included in the FY 2003 budget, which is balanced at this point, so we were surprised when he just recently contacted us and spoke of his intent to delete the program effective this coming October 1. The county match to be saved as a result of the Drug Court's elimination is about $184,000. This is in the form of positions that will be eliminated because they 09/20/2002 Page 2 of 2 are impacted by the "Gosling" amendment. Last Friday I met with Doug Williams and others from the administration. To make a long story short, I requested that the court be able to retain a visiting judge and court clerk so that we could wind down the Drug Court program and visiting judge civil docket over the next year. The visiting judge who presides over the Drug Court also handles many civil trials for the court. An abrupt end of the visiting judge would be a hardship in that I would have two dockets (Drug Court and visiting judge civil) that would end with the elimination of the visiting judge. Doug agreed to recommend to Brooks that we continue the visiting judge and court clerk assigned to the judge. The FY 2003 cost to retain these positions is about $130,000. So, the corresponding amendments would result in a savings to the county of about $54,000. This savings was unanticipated in the FY 2003 budget that will soon be approved by the commissioners. I don't know when the administration will bring the resolution to the Board. Tim Soave indicated that he would prefer to fast track it at the the next round of committee meetings, but I don't know if that's the approach they will take. Sorry for the length of this e-mail, but I wanted you to be aware of some upcoming matters that will be presented to the commissioners. Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information. Thanks. 09/20/2002 i Resolution #02254 October 10, 2002 The Chairperson referred the resolution to the Finance Committee. There were no objections. FISCAL NOTE (M.R. #02254) October 24, 2002 BY: FINANCE COMMITTEE, SUE ANN DOUGLAS, CHAIRPERSON IN RE: CIRCUIT COURT - USE OF MEDIATION FUNDS TO THE OAKLAND COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen: Pursuant to Rule XII-C of this Board, the Finance Committee has reviewed the above referenced resolution and finds: 1. Resolution authorizes the utilization of Circuit Court Civil Mediation funds as established by Miscellaneous Resolution #90177. 2. Request for these funds are to be used to pay for courtroom furniture and equipment ($142,360) to support the new judgeships authorized by Miscellaneous Resolution #02028 to equip the courtrooms, chambers, staff offices, jury deliberation rooms, and prisoner holding areas. 3. Funding of $142,360 is available in the Circuit Court Civil Mediation account. 4. The following budget amendment is recommended to the FY 2003 budget: Circuit Court Mediation Funds(101) Revenue 1-35-130000-22200-0351 Civil Mediation FY 2003 $142,360 Expenditures 2-35-220000-11000-4100 Expendable Equip. $142,360 Net of Revenues and Expenditures $ 0 FINANCE COMMITTEE FINANCE COMMITTEE Motion carried unanimously on a roll call vote with Douglas absent. G. William Caddell, County Clerk Resolution #02254 October 24, 2002 Moved by Crawford supported by Coleman the resolution be adopted. AYES: Douglas, Garfield, Gregory, Law, McPherson, Melton, Middleton, Moffitt, Moss, Obrecht, Palmer, Patterson, Sever, Suarez, Taub, Webster, Amos, Appel, Brian, Buckley, Causey-Mitchell, Coleman, Crawford, Dingeldey. (24) NAYS: None. (0) A sufficient majority having voted therefore, the resolution was adopted. •MEWING Pr- /0""2 c--417 Date STATE OF MICHIGAN) COUNTY OF OAKLAND) I, G. William Caddell, Clerk of the County of Oakland, do hereby certify that the foregoing resolution is a true and accurate copy of a resolution adopted by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners on October 24, 2002, with the original record thereof now remaining in my office. In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of tilp County of Oakland at Pontiac, Michigan this 24th day of October, 2002.