HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986-06-03; City Council; 8642; Inter-Agency Contract for Court Liaison Services0
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AB# S:<si l./ ;t ItI.Le; APPROVAL OF INTER-AGENCY CONTRACT TO
PROVIDE FOR COURT LIAISON SERVICES
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RECOMMENDED ACTION:
CITY A TTY-F--,:~
CITYMGR,...;;;r..._
Approve Resolution No. f:..S-79 approving an agreement with San Diego
County, City of Oceanside, and the City of Escondido for the court liaison
service.
ITEM EXPLANATION:
The Carlsbad Pol ice Department recently participated with Oceanside, Escondido,
and the San Diego Sheriffs Office in a joint study to determine the desirability
of jointly funding a court liaison position.
The court liaison position would be staffed by a person under contract to
coordinate court appearances by personnel from the respective agencies. The
benefiting agencies would share the cost of this service.
While there are many benefits to be realized from such a service the primary
consideration is one of cost savinq3. For example it is currently the practice
of the district attorneys office to subpoena witness officers at 8:30 AM even
though misdameanor trials will not go until 11:00 AM if at all. This is to
ensure the readiness to go to trial and the city pays for this practice at
over time rates. The managing DA has agreed to modify the appearance time to
11 :00 AM if there were a liaison person who could coordinate the appearance
of witness officers. A further savings would result from cases that are called
off prior to 11:00 AM if there were .a liaison person who could coordinate the
appearance of witness officers. A further savinns would result from cases that
are called off prior to 11:00 AM but would otherwise result in a 4+1/2 hour
payment for an 8:30 AM appearance. The agreement will provide a liaison ser-
vice otherwise not feasible. The attached exhibit, 2 , further describes
some of the services to be provided by the position.
The position will be filled through a selection by a committee representing
the four jurisdictions. Supervision will be provided by the Sheriffs Depart-
ment. There will be no employee benefits applied since the service will be
provided under contract. •
FISCAL IMPACT:
A preliminary study suggests the position should save the city in the neigh-
borhood of $24,000.00 per year in court overtime costs. Carlsbad's share
of funding the position would be $6,000.00 per year for a net savings of
$18,000.00 annually. No additional funds are being requested as payment
can be made with savings realized in the overtime budget.
EXHIBITS:
1. Resolution No. f"4;" 7~
2. Court Liaison Duties
3, Cost Savings Study
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RESOLUTION NO. 8579 -----
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA APPROVING AN AGREEMENT FOR
THE SERVICE OF A COURT LIAISON PERSON.
The City Council of the City of Carlsbad, California,
does hereby resolve as follows:
1. That the co 1Jrt liaison agreement, attached thereto
as exhibit A, between the cities of Carlsbad, Escondido,
Oceanside and San Diego County for the ser·vice of a court
liaison person is heraby approved.
2. That the Mayor of the City of Carlsbad is hereby
authorized and directed to execute said agreement for and
on behalf of the City of Carlsbad.
PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED at a regular meeting of
the City Council of the City of Carlsbad, California, held
on the 3rd June day of ------------1986 by the
following vote, to wit:
ATTEST:
AYES: Council Members Casler, Lewis, Kulchin,
Chick and Pettine
NOES: None
ABSENT : None
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MAR~ASLER, Mayor
a~✓vc~-=--ALETHA L. RAUTENKRANZ, City qierk
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EXHIBIT "A" to
Resolution No, C,
COURT LIAlSON AGREEMENT
This Agreement is executed this _____ day
or. ---------1986 by and between the following parties.
City of Escondido
100 Valley Boulevard
Escondido, California 92025
City of Oceanside
321 North Nevada Street
Oceanside, California 92054
City of Carlsbad
1200 Elm Avenue
Carlsbad, California 92008
San Diego County
222 West C Street
San Diego, CA 92101
WHEREAS, the law enforcement agencies of each of the
above listed agencies would benefit from the services of a court
li~ison officer to coordi~ate court appearances between. the \aw
enforcement agencies and the courts of North San Diego County:
and
WHEREAS, it would be more productive economically to
have a single court linison officer serve the needs of several
law enforcement agencies, and
WHEREAS, the Cities of Escondido, Oceanside, Carlsbad,
and the County Sheriff's office desire to contract .:ith each
other for the services of a court liaison officer for their
mutual benefit:
NOW THEREFORE IN CONSIDERATION of the mutual covenants
and conditions listed below, the parties do hereby agr':!e as
follows:
JOINT COURT LIAISON COMMITTEE
1. All activities relating to the selection,
responsibilities and supervision of a court liai-
son officer shall be conducted by a Joint Court
Liaison Committee. This committee shall be com-
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posed of one representative fran each of the l~w
enforcement agencies participating in this ~gree-
ment, All ctctivities of the committee shall be
conducted by a majority vote, Direct supervision
of the court liaison officer shall be conducted by
the Sheriff's office.
SELECTION OF LIAISON OFFICER
2. Each participating agency may submit up to five
names to the joint court liaison committee. These
names shall be the candidates for the position of
court liaison officer. ·!'his nomination procedure
shall be used any time a court liaison officer is
selected.
It shall be the responsibility of the court
liaison committee to evaJ.uate the names submitted
by each of the agencies and select a court liaison
officer. The decision of the committee shall be
final, and each participating ag•mcy agrees to
accept the decision of the committee.
JOB DESCRIPTION
3, The court liaison ccmmittee shall draft and
approve a job description for t.he court liaison
officer, Tnis job description shall contain, but
not be limited to the items set forth in Exhibit A
to this agreement which is attached and incorpo-
rated by this reference.
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COMPENSATION
4. The compensation of the court liaison officer
shall be set by.the court liaison commitLee, with
the approval of the governing body of each agency.
The court liaison officer shall be er1titled to a
flat salary but s1hall accrue no benefits of any
sort. Compensation during the initial term of
this agreement shall be $24,000 per year.
The City of Escondido shall be responsible for
direct payment of the salary of the court liaison
officer.
Each participating agency shall be responsible for
paying a pro rat a share of -ehe court liais.on' s
salary amount in timely fashion to the City of
Escondii:iu,
s. A participating agency may withdraw from the
responsibilities of the court liaison committee
effective on any renewal date. of this Agreement by
giving written notice to the other members by
April 30th immediately precedin~ expiration of the
current contract.
Th.e withdrawal of any participating agency on the
renewal date shall have no effect on the validity
of this Agreement, and it shall remain binding on
the remaining agencies. Each remaining agency
shall assumo, a pt-lJ rata share of the w!.thdrawing
agency's court liaison salary obligation.
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&. The term of this agreem~nt shalt b~ from July t,
1986 to June 30, 1987 and shalt automatically
r2new on July 1st of each succeeding year unless
the participating agencins, by majority vote,
decide to terminate the program.
Date: ________ _
Date: _______ , ___ _
Date: _---"&a..--/-~_-_/ / __ Cc, __ _
Date: __________ _
Date: __________ _
Date: __________ _
ERNIE COWAN, Mayor,
City of Escondido
JEANNE BUNCH,
City Clerk, City of Escondido
d.~
ASLER, Mayor,
Carlsoad
ALETHA L. RAUTENKAANZ,
City Clerk, City of Carlsbad
LAWRENCE BAGLEY, Mayor
City. of Oceanside
13AP.BARA BIS HOP
City Clerk, City of Oceanside
JOHN F, DUFFY, Sheriff
San Diego County
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EXHIBIT A
court Liaison Officer Duties
1) Establish and.maintain a positive working relationship
between members of the District Attorney's staff, judges,
court clerks and police officers. Must have good verbal and
written communication skills. ~
2) Coordinate information concerning subpoena service between
the District Attorney's office and contracting agencies.
a. Telephone notice to law enforcement agencies of late
issue subpoenas,
b. Confirmation of subpoena service of law enforcement
witnesses,
c. Advise prosecutors of officer appearance problems.
3) Coordinate officers' appearance in court.
a. Determine which cases are going to trial,
b. Call off officers on continued or adjudicated cases,
c. Call off officers when the defendant fails to appear on
the date of the trial.
4) Keep officers advised of court avallability on the date of
appearance and until the trial is l!1ssigned.
a. Advise officers how many tria1 s are ahead of theirs,
b. Give the subpoenaed officers a time window when they
can expect to be called.
5) Maintain coltl\lunications with the Assistant Chief Deputy
District Attorney and Victim/Witness Advocate Section of the
Distr~ct Attorney's office.
a. Identify scheduling and appearance problems before the
trial date.
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~ 1200 ELM AVENUE
CARLSBAD, CA 92008-1089
TELEPHONE
(019) 438-5511 '
Qtitp of (arl~hab
POL.ICE DEPARTMENT
January, 86
TO: V.D. Jimno, Chief of Police
FROM: G.K. Fried, Lt.
SUBJECT: COURT LIAISON POSITION
Late last year you assigned me to a committee with instructions
to determine the practicality of jointly hiring a court liaison
person. The four North County agencies involved in the committee
are Oceanside, Escondido, SDSO and ourselves. The concent of
jointly creating such a position orieinated with the Escondido
Police Dept. and the attached document submitted by Escondido
Lt. J. Wilson adequetly ex~lains the prooosal.
The benefits, duties, and comolexities described in Lt. Wilson's
re?ort also aoply to our own department. To better comorehend
this report I recommend that Lt. Wilson's document be reviewed
before going any further.
In accordance with our nrevious discussion I conducted a (1) pay
neriod study to deter.nine notential cost savings a court liaison
~osition could provide. The period I examined was for 12-2 through
12-15, 1985. The study revealed 17 overtime requests for misdam-
eanor trials that were either continued, trailed, or otherwise
disposed of orior to trial time of 11:00 AM. The 17 overtime re-
quests comnute to a total of 45.5 hours at time+ 1/2. The follow-
in? illustration 'demonstrates the notential savings a court
liaison position might have provided.
45.5 Hours at Time+ 1/2 = $942.53 (based on "E" ste1> natrolman)
Yearly Projection= $24,505
I caution that the above figures are computed based solely on
(1) two week pay oeriod. I also point out that in order for the
savings to have occured the individual officers muse have been
called off prior to the 11:00 AM a~pearance. Absent an effective
nolicy by which subooened officers can be called cff such savings
would not occur.
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" • '1200 ELt-C AVENUE
CARLSBAD, CA 92008-1969
etitp of QCarlsbab
POLICE DEPARTMENT
I would anticipate certain complications to arise between
labor and management regardine the imolementation of this
-propos.al. For an example, an ofii.cer may be sub-i;>oened for
an 11:00 AM·appearance on his day off. In the event the
officer is then called off at say 10:30 AM on trial day
he ~ay argue that he is entitled to comoensation. It would
probably be claimed that such a co1..n:t policy is a working
condition and subject to MOU.
SUMMARY
The concent of mutually employing a court liaison ~erson
ap~ears to be highly beneficial and cost effective from a
management standpoint. If ootential concerns with labor can
be resolved then I reconrrnend the logistics of this ~ronosal
be further oursued and the prooosal implemented.
TELEPHONE
(619) 438-5511
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