DATE: October 22, 2024
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Kirk Haynes, Chief Probation Officer
SUBJECT: Amendment to Master Schedule of Fees - Probation Department
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Conduct first hearing to amend the County of Fresno Master Schedule of Fees, Charges and Recovered Costs Ordinance by amending Subsection 1815 - Daily Rate of Section 1800 - Probation, waive the reading of the proposed Ordinance in its entirety, and set second hearing of the proposed Ordinance, including its requested Board adoption, for November 5, 2024;
2. Designate County Counsel to prepare a fair and adequate summary of the proposed Ordinance; and
3. Direct the Clerk of the Board to post and publish the required summary of the proposed Ordinance in accordance with Government Code Section 25124(b)(1).
REPORT
Approval of the recommended actions would revise the existing Master Schedule of Fees (MSF), Charges, and Recovered Costs based on the Department’s costs for FY 2024-25. The recommended amendment to Subsection 1815-Daily Rate will update the current rate to house youth from other counties at the Juvenile Justice Campus (JJC), which will allow the Probation Department to charge sending counties a daily rate of $420 per youth to be housed at the JJC per day. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Your Board may direct staff to use the current fee or propose an alternative fee, which may not recover 100% of costs.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. It is anticipated that with the updated proposed daily rate of $420 per youth per day, the Probation Department will ensure full recovery of the cost to house other counties’ youth at the JJC.
DISCUSSION:
SB 823 transfers responsibility for the custody, care, and supervision of high-risk youth from the DJJ to the local county jurisdiction and established the Juvenile Justice Realignment Block Grant (JJRBG) program, which allocated block grant funding to the County for the transfer of jurisdiction of these high-risk youth. The County was also awarded funding from the BSCC in the amount of $1 million to establish a regional hub program for youthful sex offenders. This program provides a secure residential placement option eligible youth from the following eight counties located in the Central Valley Region of California: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, and Tulare. Youth eligible for this hub need to be between the ages of 14 and 21 who have been adjudicated on a qualifying sexual offense. The addition of the daily rate fee to the MSF allows the Department to offset ongoing costs associated with housing eligible youth in the regional hub, as well as costs associated with housing youth from other counties in the general population area of the JJC. The County must have an agreement in place with a county seeking to house its youth at the JJC. The County currently has these agreements in place with the counties of Merced and Tulare.
On January 18, 2022, your Board conducted the first hearing for the FY 2021-22 recommended updates to the MSF by adding Subsection 1815 to establish a daily fee rate to house youth from other counties at the JJC. The daily rate was recommended at $380 per youth per day. Therefore, on February 1, 2022, the daily rate was approved at $380 per youth per day, respectively, with all other rates approved as recommended.
The recommended fee of $420 per youth per day ensures proper cost recovery and has been reviewed by the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector. If approved by your Board, the second hearing is scheduled to take place on November 5, 2024. Currently all agreements with sending counties have language in place stating that any updates made to the MSF will automatically be incorporated into those agreements, and will be the new rates to be paid by the sending counties from the effective date of the rate change forward.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #26, February 1, 2022
BAI #4, January 18, 2022
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Ordinance, including Exhibit A - Probation MSFs
On file with Clerk - Summary of Ordinance
Attachment A - Probation MSF Memo
CAO ANALYST:
Fine Nai