POPAI Board Meeting Minutes for 06/08/2022
Troy Hatfield called the meeting to order.
Attending:
- Troy Hatfield, President
- Susan Bentley, Vice-President
- C.J. Miller, Treasurer
- Robert Schuster, District 1 Rep
- Heather Malone, District 2 Rep
- Mike Small, District 4 Rep
- Rebecca Schrock, District 5 Rep
- Lindsey Villalpando, District 6 Rep
- Rupert Strawbridge, District 7 Rep
- Shannon Chambers, PO Advisory Board Rep
- Anthony Williams, Training Coordinator
- Karen Oeding, Membership Coordinator and Website Administrator
Secretary's Report
CJ Miller made a motion to accept the Secretary’s Report from April 2022 (May meeting cancelled). Seconded by Heather Malone. Approved unanimously.
Treasurer's Report
CJ Miller reported that as of April 30, 2022 the checking account had a balance of $98,362.14 and the savings account had a balance of $17,082.85. As of May 31, 2022 the checking account had a balance of $97,378.17 and the savings account had a balance of $17,083.00.
Susan Bentley made a motion to approve both the April and May treasurer’s reports as presented and Rupert Strawbridge seconded. Approved unanimously.
CJ reported that after the state told him he should apply for tax exemption and update our status, he attempted to do so but hit a roadblock with a requirement that we be federally tax exempt first. He will continue to try to work out the issue and see if we qualify and what needs to be filed to do so.
Technology
Karen Oeding reported that she spent a great deal of time updating our membership database to make sure our records as as accurate as possible. She also found a spike in website activity in April that indicates a bot attack, but found that no harm was done and no unauthorized access to the site was made. She added new membership buttons for the 2023 membership year with new appropriate costs. She also sent out the quarterly letter to District 3 members in absence of a representative for that district.
Heather Malone mentioned that one of the articles that was posted in a previous week was behind a paywall. Karen stated that she will go back and check on the articles and remove or repost the one in question if it is available for free.
Membership
As of June 6, 2022, POPAI had a total of 1,014 members; 936 probation officer members, 21 corporate members, and 57 other members.
Karen Oeding reported that she continues to work on the membership year levels. She believes we have better numbers now for the 10 and 25 year levels. She stated that she had a good response from the email requesting that members self-report the number of years they have been members. Karen states she feels pretty confident we’re on the right track to maintain an accurate list and history on memberships.
We also received our first list of attendees of the probation officers academy/orientation. Any new members from the list have joined through their department so far. Thus, we didn’t pick up any others yet. Karen is going to keep following the list of people to see if they attend fall conference and she will be sending them invitation emails to them.
Lindsey Villalpando reported that she is setting up a Zoom meeting with the committee to discuss membership awards and an event night at the fall conference. The committee will be meeting in June.
Karen states has been reaching out to corporate sponsors regularly to see if they would like to participate in the Fall Conference.
Education
Troy Hatfield reported that he spoke with Bill Watson (President of IACCAC) about the proposed 2023 partnership with IACCAC to have a leadership/management institute in 2023. He stated that Bill spoke with his executive board and they were in favor of presenting it to their full board for consideration. We should know more about this proposal in July/August.
Anthony Williams reported that he sent out the registration link for the 2022 Fall Conference (September 7-9, 2022 French Lick) to the board members to test it. He also sent a skeleton schedule and reported that Dr. Koch from Austin, Indiana will be the plenary speaker. There will also be some extra break time to increase traffic in the corporate sponsor hall and an expanded lunch hour on Thursday so we are not pressed for time. By consensus, the Board also decided that Gold Sponsors (top level) will receive free electricity, if needed, at their booths. Any others will need to pay for electricity on their own. Anthony has also booked a closing speaker that he heard at NADCP. He has requested that each Board member help at each breakout session to ensure speakers have everything they need and there are no issues to resolve. He’ll send a sign-up to the Board as time gets closer. The Judges Conference is in South Bend the exact same three days that we’re in French Lick, which means most of IOCS staff would not be able to join sessions. We have four sessions for each of the breakout times and the deadline is this Friday for session proposals. Anthony reported that he would like to see more topics in juvenile and there are only two topics on pretrial. Anthony was asked about a legislative session because IOCS didn’t offer it during the Justice Services Conference and he said he asked and IOCS plans on doing it as a webinar later in the summer. It was asked if we create a separate registration for associate members similar to how we have a registration and membership option for probation officer members. The consensus from the Board is that we will. There was a suggestion to have the “new” Kristin Banschbach to do a session on DOC/Community Corrections/Grants Q/A along with a meet and greet and Anthony will inquire. We are not sure about menu for Thursday yet. We also had discussion about break services and water There was a suggestion to ask a vendor to possibly sponsor break service and have it in the vendor area.
Susan Bentley asked the Board if we could provide scholarships for registration ($200) to a handful of probation officer members for this year’s conference. Discussion held and the Board discussed adding hotel to the scholarship. Rebecca Schrock made a motion to have a drawing for FIVE currently paid probation officer members to provide free registration and two nights hotel for the POPAI conference in September from five separate counties (random drawing and first person drawn from each county would win). Motion was seconded by Heather Malone. Motion passed unanimously and Troy Hatfield will work on getting an article written for the website.
Chief's Executive Committee
No report.
Juvenile Delinquency Alternative Initiative (JDAI) Update
No report.
Probation Officer Advisory Board Update
Shannon Chambers and Heather Malone reported that the last meeting was on April 19, 2022 and it was a quick meeting. POAB is looking at revisions to the academy/orientation educational videos. They are looking at possible changes to the safety and security guide, looking at PSI updates and standardizing the legal history section. They are also looking at an orientation packet for new POAB members. Their next meeting is on July 12th via Zoom and Troy Hatfield will be invited to talk about the PO Salary Scale. Because Heather Malone is term limited she will no longer be the POPAI Board representative on POAB after September. Lindsey Villalpando expressed interest in the position when it becomes vacant.
Election
Since the last Board meeting, District 3 representative Megan Eakright resigned as she left her position as a probation officer in Wabash County. The vacancy notice and application was posted on the POPAI website and we will take applications until June 30th to represent Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Elkhart, Fulton, Howard, Kosciusko, Marshall, Miami, St. Joseph, Tipton, and Wabash counties.
Rebecca Schrock reported that notice of intent to run for elections in September was posted on our website later than what the Bylaws state in order to have the posting for the minimum number of days. The Election Committee met with officers not up for election this year and the remedy that was decided by the committee was to leave the posting up and extend the deadline the number of days it was posted late. The committee will complete their work verifying the slate in a shorter time period and still present the slate on time as required by the Bylaws.
Positions up for election: President, Secretary*, Districts 2*, 4, 6, and 8*.
Those with an (*) have members who are term limited and cannot run for another term for the same position.
Awards and Recognition
Bob Schuster reported that the nomination forms for the annual awards will be posted in July on the POPAI website.
Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council (JRAC)
Troy Hatfield reported that the last meeting on the Council was held in-person on June 3rd.
He stated the Local JRAC Workgroup reported that annual reports were submitted by 87 of the 92 counties so far and IOCS is working with the remaining counties to get them turned in. There is a directory of Local JRAC contacts on the Local JRAC website. The website also has a process for requesting technical assistance. IOCS is working with Mimi Carter and the Center for Effective Public Policy to design TA for counties.
IOCS is also working with CEPP to help guide a focus group of four counties to look at behavioral health needs for criminal justice populations in communities. Information from these focus groups will help inform possible legislation next session. The four counties are Porter, Hendricks, Bartholomew, and Hamilton. Troy reported that he raised the concern that if information is only coming from these four counties who are relatively well resourced and advanced in the EBDM process, then they will be missing the perspective of small, rural counties that face quite different challenges with behavioral health than these four counties. CEPP responded to say that they would attempt to gather information from rural counties as well in a different manner. Their target date is to get a final report by the end of September.
Invitation letters were sent to all counties about the Behavioral Health Summit on October 21, 2022 requesting that each county send a nine-member team to the summit. After the deadline passes to register, IOCS will evaluate to see if they can accept additional attendees beyond the nine members.
There were two pieces of legislation that requires JRAC to weigh in on recommendations and that is HEA 1075 and SEA 9. HEA 1075 deals with recommendations on Community Corrections Advisory Board membership and SEA 9 deals with electronic monitoring standards. A working group is being convened to start discussions for recommendations. Troy Hatfield stated that he volunteered to be on the working group.
HEA 1359 establishes a Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee with many tasks. The Executive Committee of POPAI agreed to recommend POPAI member Nichole Phillips be appointed to that committee and that recommendation was accepted. Their first meeting will be on June 29th. There will also be several sub-committees doing work throughout the year and will likely need members to help. The POPAI Board can send recommendations if we have members who want to volunteer to work on sub-committees.
Of the member reports, the representatives from the State Budget Office and the Association of Indiana Counties said the final totals to be distributed from the opioid settlement is being prepared by the Attorney General’s office. Money will be disbursed to every county and most municipalities with specific uses designated for the funds, which includes criminal justice initiatives. This money will be spread out over 18 years.
The DOC reported they received 261 grant applications for 2023 totaling $87.9M and their spend plan is $63M plus reversions from the previous year for 2023. In 2022 they were able to give out about $73M in funding and they hope to do the same for 2023. They will be meeting with stakeholder groups to discuss funding and the grants and hope to announce the amounts funded in July to help locals prepare for their local 2023 budgets.
IOCS reported they are also working on 2023 grants and will attempt to have decisions some time after DOC announces their grant funding. They also reported that it is likely they will be able to offer one more year of SIM grant funding.
The next meeting of JRAC will be on Friday, July 29th at 1p EDT.
Legislation
Troy Hatfield asked if any board members have created new policies based on SEA 9 and the electronic monitoring notification requirements to please share them among the group as some counties have been requesting assistance in this area.
Bylaws & Strategic Plan Ad Hoc Committee
The proposed changes to the Bylaws will be posted on the POPAI website in July to prepare for the annual meeting in September though they only have to be posted to the membership 30 days before any vote to change takes place.
Race & Gender Fairness Commission
Lakisha Fisher reported via email that she attended the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and presented on Indiana’s process with achieving racial equity in the courts. The conference was help in North Dakota. NCRGFC provided a significant forum for discussion and critical dialogue regarding race, ethnicity and its intersections in the court systems. The forum allowed conference participants to find effective strategies, promote access, and cross-cultural understanding in the courts. Lakisha drafted a summary of her experience and sent is to the POPAI Board. Contact Lakisha for more information about her experience.
Budget Ad Hoc Committee
No report.
Old Business
Discussion was held about the Leadership and Mentoring Project and it was decided that the Board will continue to look for possible initiatives in this area in the future, but will no longer be actively pursuing any kind of relationship with Brian Riggs. Those who were supposed to participate had been notified that we will not be able to continue with this project.
Troy Hatfield reported that he is working on a new draft of the Probation Officer Minimum Salary Scale proposal based on the new survey that went to CPOs. As soon as the draft is complete, he will send it to the Board for review before it is published on the POPAI website.
New Business
Troy Hatfield asked the Board to consider the possibility of paying for 25 of our members to attend the next APPA virtual conference similar to how we’ve done in the past using a random drawing if we have more than 25 members interested. Susan Bentley made the motion and CJ Miller seconded that we spend up to $2,250 to register POPAI members for the next virtual APPA institute using a random drawing, if APPA will permit it. Troy Hatfield will work on the details and get it posted to the POPAI website if it can be offered.
CJ Miller asked the board members a general question to see if any counties had school based probation officers in place. Rupert Strawbridge mentioned that he believes Harrison County still does this.
Next Meeting
Next meeting will be on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. EDT at Hamilton County Department of Probation Services and via Zoom.