Superior Court II Judge Joe Sutton (L) looks on as Superior Court I Judge David Cates addressed the Kosciusko County Council regarding staffing changes necessitated by the new Rule 26 law. Photo by David Slone
Superior Court II Judge Joe Sutton (L) looks on as Superior Court I Judge David Cates addressed the Kosciusko County Council regarding staffing changes necessitated by the new Rule 26 law. Photo by David Slone
AWL To Operate Under Contract With County
The financial relationship between Kosciusko County and the Animal Welfare League is moving from charitable to contractual.
During the special county council meeting Thursday night to discuss 2020 budget items which were continued from Monday night, County Administrator Marsha McSherry asked that the line item in the county commissioners’ budget for “animal shelter – capital” be decreased by $250,000 and the line item “animal shelter” be increased to $150,000 from $120,000.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said, “So roughly we’d be decreasing the one account – the full amount, the $250,000 –  but adding to the other account.”
He added that AWL would be removed from nonprofit status and enter into more of a contractual agreement.
“It would be kind of like, by the dog or cat,” he said.
He said the county has had several meetings with the AWL to negotiate the new agreement.
The AWL takes in about 1,600 animals per year. It went through its budget process to figure out its true costs, Groninger said. “... The city of Warsaw is being asked to do the same thing as far as their costs for their animals they are bringing in,” Groninger said.
He said the county will pay for all the animals that not only its animal control officer brings in to the AWL, but also those brought in by anyone in the county to help fund the AWL’s budget.
He roughly estimated the city and county would be about 35% of the AWL’s budget. “It’s still a fair amount that they’re doing through donations. This is an increase, obviously, from what we’ve done in the past, but with the present situation and how things have changed and they’ve got a new facility, they’re really trying to rectify a lot of the sins of the father, maybe,” Groninger said.
He said the AWL hasn’t always done things the way they needed to be, but they really know their costs now instead of guessing.
Councilman Mike Long asked if the county’s money was only for the AWL’s operations. Groninger said it was and not for capital toward any building, and it would be paid quarterly. But the first year – 2020 – the county will commit to a maximum of $150,000. For the next two years after that, as part of a three-year agreement, the county will pay $175 per animal that the county’s animal control officer takes in and $75 for each animal from someone else other than the officer.
The county will still have an animal control officer, but once the officer drops the animal off at the AWL, the county and animal control officer’s responsibilities end.
Any vet bills, boarding, euthanizing, or other services will be the responsibility of the AWL.
Councilwoman Kim Cates asked what was the biggest cause for the county to go from spending $67,000 in 2019’s budget to $150,000 in 2020’s budget. Groninger said as AWL walked through it’s costs, they figured out their true costs were about $282 per animal. The county just gave an amount to the AWL as charitable giving before.
“They figured out they were way undercharging for what services they were providing,” Groninger said.
He said the AWL had been losing money for several years before they built a new facility.
Cates said there were other nonprofits in the county that affected people and their budgets have been slashed and are struggling to meet their budgets.
Councilman Ernie Wiggins said the difference with the AWL was that the county was state mandated to provide animal care. The monies to the other nonprofits was just from the generosity of the commissioners and council.
Groninger agreed the services were mandated and, “Yes, it’s a huge increase. Do I like it? Not really. But the alternative, we’ve looked at trying to do some other avenues with some other vet care and some other things to help us try to be able to maintain what we need to. It’s really going to be a hassle and could cost the county more money. The nice thing I like about it is, it’s a fixed cost (for the county).”
Council President Sue Ann Mitchell said the county over the years has spent “many dollars” on fixing the AWL’s building and other expenses that made the $67,000 pale in comparison. Those repairs were paid out of maintenance money.
Groninger said if the county had to run the shelter itself, it couldn’t afford to operate it. “We do not want to run that,” he said.
The Kosciusko County Probation Department will get a new officer in 2020 after Judge David Cates further explained Thursday to the county council how Criminal Rule 26 will affect the county.

During a budget hearing Monday, he asked the council to reconsider their decision to not approve any additional probation officers for 2020 because of a state mandate. The wage committee made a nonbinding recommendation to the council on new employees and wages, which also didn’t include any new probation officers.

According to information online at www.in.gov, Rule 26 states, in part, that “if an arrestee does not present a substantial risk of flight or danger to themselves or others, the court should release the arrestee without money bail or surety subject to such restrictions and conditions as determined by the court except when: (1) The arrestee is charged with murder or treason. (2) The arrestee is on pre-trial release not related to the incident that is the basis for the present arrest. (3) The arrestee is on probation, parole or other community supervision.”

Thursday night, Cates reminded the council that several years ago when he came before the planning committee, with Rule 26 coming into affect, he said he would need three new adult probation officers and one juvenile probation officer. Beginning this year, there was one additional juvenile probation officer and one adult officer, both have worked out very well, he said.

“We still need the two. And here’s why,” Judge Cates said. “Criminal (Rule) 26 was not a local initiative, it is not a local initiative. This is something mandated by the Indiana Supreme Court and codified by the legislature. It is something that becomes effective in our county Jan. 1, 2020.”

He said the concept is pre-trial release.

“We have competing constitutional perspectives here. One is that a criminal defendant, a person accused of a crime, is innocent until proven guilty. Second is, people are entitled to bail for most crimes – not talking murder or treason – but for most crimes. We also have to keep the community safe. So we have competing interests here,” Cates explained.

“With Rule 26, bonds – technically bail – remains an option. However, it has to be based upon an evidence-based risk assessment approved by the Office of Court Services. The Office of Court Services is an arm of the Indiana Supreme Court. The only such assessment of which I am aware is called the (Indiana Risk Assessment System Pre-trial Assessment Tool),” he said.

The IRASPAT is a list of questions to be asked, to gauge the likelihood of an arrestee’s failure to appear and danger to the community.

“From that verified score, there is a matrix and the matrix is largely something determined by local judges,” Cates said. He there is a team going to Indianapolis Oct. 4 consisting of law enforcement, prosecutor, judicial and probation staff to make sure that matrix is properly developed so “we can proceed. When you look at that matrix, you look at that crime and that determines the level of pre-trial release. It may be (own recognizance), it may be cash bond, it may be some sort of monitoring.”

IRASPAT requires a certified administrator. The only people in Kosciusko County that are certified administrators are probation officers. He said the county’s current number of probation officers already “have higher caseloads than what they should” and they also monitor offenders.

“With Criminal Rule 26, they’re going to have to administer the test,” he said.

Nine counties have already piloted the process. Of those, Cates said, one uses jailers who have been specifically trained to administer the test, which he said came with some inherent conflict; and one county created an entirely new office of pre-trial services, which he didn’t advocate for.

“Which leaves us with our probation department. They’re the folks that are trained to do it, they can do it,” he said, but he wants them to monitor offenders as much as possible which is why more probation officers are needed to administer the test for the pre-trial release.

If offenders are assessed correctly, and pre-trial defendants can be released and monitored, the system could free up a conservative estimate of 50 beds at the jail, Cates said.

He said the county’s options were to do nothing and live with what it has, but the probation officers will be required to administer the IRASPAT and that will take away their time from monitoring offenders; the county could create a new office, which he repeated he was not suggesting; it could hire and train additional Community Corrections officers, which will take time;  or it could add additional adult probation officers, which was Cates’ recommendation.

Cates said Rule 26 is something that was being imposed upon the county and will involve some additional services for pre-trial.

Councilman Mike Long asked if it was still a pilot program or come Jan. 1 if became a full-time program. Cates responded it was a pilot program now, but on Jan. 1 it becomes effective in all 92 Indiana counties.

Long asked how Rule 26 would affect the revenue to the county.

“To the extent that cash bonds are posted, and then utilized to pay court costs, to pay public defender fees, to pay alcohol and drug programs, to pay fines, to pay restitution. To the extent that we are no longer receiving those cash bonds, those cash bonds would not be available for those programs. Now that doesn’t mean they can’t be assessed, they can still be collected, but that’s largely going to fall upon the county,” Cates answered.

He said most of the people arrested in Kosciusko County are on misdemeanors. Most misdemeanors, if not all, will be, at least initially, an automatic “out on their own recognizance” with no bond whatsoever.

After the council approved the new probation officer, Council President Sue Ann Mitchell said that as far as full-time new county employees for 2020, it was up to 12. Of that dozen, all but one were for the departments in the Justice Building.

“Does that tell you where our expenditures are? Does that tell you that we spend an awful lot of money on trying to take care of those who are doing bad things? It’s kind of an eye-opening thought when you think about it like that,” Mitchell said. “So because of those people that do bad things, that causes us to have to spend more money across the street (at the Justice Building), we’ll have to be looking at taking  the money from the (Economic Development Income Tax) and moving it from EDIT back into the general fund.”

The council approved moving $2 million from EDIT to the general fund for budgets and other increases.

The council also approved a new investigator for the prosecutor’s office as longtime investigator Sam Whitaker is retiring at the end of the year. Starting pay will be about $48,000. With the new investigator, County Prosecutor Dan Hampton will have two investigators in his office.