DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
October 2, 2007
Administration Building Conference Room 300
MINUTES
Committee Members Present: Carl C. Danberg, Commissioner; Tom Carroll, Deputy Commissioner; Rick Kearney, Chief of Bureau of Prisons; Rodney Gibbons, Chief Information Officer; Noreen Renard, Chief Bureau of Community Corrections; Ed Synoski, Deputy Principal Assistant, Management Services; Alan Machtinger, Director, H.R. & Development; Joe Dudlek, Chief of Inspections; Kathy Mickle-Askin, Director of Training; Joyce Talley, Chief of Bureau of Management Services; Janet Durkee, Deputy H.R. Director; Joe Paesani, Deputy Principal Assistant, Community Corrections; Dan Cox, Director, Emergency Preparedness; John Painter, Chief Media Relations, Rich Seifert, Deputy Principal Assistant, Bureau of Prisons; Debbi Craig, Planner V; Aaron Goldstein, Deputy Attorney General; Linda Riddagh, Comptroller
Guest:
N/A
CALL TO ORDER
Carl C. Danberg, Commissioner, called the meeting to order at 9:03 a.m.
STATUS OF THE DEPARTMENT (Commissioner’s Comments)
Motion to accept the last month’s minutes by Rich Seifert and 2nd by Tom Carroll. Approved
Building Security: Carl addressed with the Executive Committee our need to recruit additional staff for the contact list with Security. Carl opened the floor for additional suggestions on how to handle coverage. Several suggestions were made below:
- send out Admin Bldg e-mail asking for volunteers to be on the contact list
- the possibility of records being manned 24 hours
- MCI covering the security calls
An e-mail will go out to Admin Bldg staff asking for volunteers with a responding end date. Training will be set with Security and volunteers will be contacted of the training.
Webb Conversion: The Conversion is well under way. To date we have not received any negative publicity.
Budget deadlines:
- 2 up and 2 down list
- priority list/performance measures are now due
- agency accomplishments are due
Tom Carroll, Deputy Commissioner:
1. Management Development Training, waiting for applications to come in.
2. Met with NIC Contact, Mike Dooley, he wants to kick off the Management Development Training program early December.
3. Question was posed if we had any action plan on how to respond to applicants who were not selected. Each applicant will receive a personalized letter from the Commissioner.
BUREAU REPORTS
Bureau of Community Corrections, Bureau Chief Noreen Renard:
1. Sex Offenders: Aaron and Noreen met to discuss issue related to Interstate Compact.
2. PERB still not ready to make a decision.
3. Suggestion from the community surrounding Webb was to use ankle bracelets on tier III offenders.
4. Ankle bracelets update; Rick Figeuelle is working to identify offenders eligible for ankle bracelets.
5. We are also working with Verizon on getting phone lines set up rather than using cell phones.
6. Suggestions:
· using P&P Officers in the institution to help identify inmates eligible to use ankle bracelets
· MIS to run report of offenders who will be released in the next 180 days
· BCC would like to have a report 30 days prior to release to Home Confinement so that arrangements can be well under way before the release
· Types of reports need to be identified as to what the needs are
8. Things have slowed down a little.
Bureau of Management Services, Bureau Chief Joyce Talley
Building update:
1. Medical, food service and records are just about finished moving into the new areas.
2. MIS and CNTI bullpen areas are being worked on and should be done soon.
3. Thursday of this week and two days next week, CVOP inmates will be here to help with repainting offices and moving.
New Phone System:
1. New phone system for both the new and old part of the Admin Bld is scheduled to be installed and up and running by Monday, October 8th.
2. Sign up sheets for training on the phones is located at the receptionist desk. Carl stated that he wanted the phone to be answered by the fourth ring, so if the receptionist is busy on another line and can’t pick up the line that it rolls over to another person to be answered. Joyce states that we should not have that problem with the new system since a lot of the lines will be direct call lines.
Room assignments:
Room assignments have changed since the original plans were laid out. Sticky notes with the name of the new occupant have been placed outside of the doorway as to make everyone aware of the new room assignments. Request was made for an updated floor plan to be sent out for all at the Admin Bldg.
Bureau of Prisons, Bureau Chief Rick Kearney
1. Count is down at HRYCI, there is no one sleeping on the HRYCI gym floor at this time.
2. DCC is very close to completion of suicide training.
3. Continue to do suicide training.
4. Gearing up for Emergency Preparedness Training all over DOC.
Aaron: nothing
Rodney:
1. Medical module implementation scheduled for Monday, Oct 8th.
2. Tom and I met yesterday to submit names for the MIS Steering Committee. Committee consists of Tom Carroll, Debbi Craig, John Smart, Medical member TBA, Jody Wedel, Rich Seifert, Alan Grinstead, (Rodney, Tim Isaacs and Jose Colon will act as support to the committee). Debbi to Chair the Committee.
3. With regard to the Reporting meeting, Jose points out that we need to be specific in what we are looking for in: types of reports, formatting, etc. Rodney will establish a meeting date that will include Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Chiefs, Deputies, Planning and Medical.
4. Utilization of grievance procedure question discovered at PREA meeting. Rodney and Rick met and discussed the concern and decided a work order needed to be submitted allow for the scanning of documents that support the early denial of a Grievance by a hearing officer. Currently the hearing officer is not recording the grievance into the system because they have not met, in the hearing officers opinion, the basic requirements for submission of the grievance.
Linda:
1. Maureen Querey of OMB: the merge for Community Correction Facilities has been accepted by OMB, but may change as we go through the steps of the budget process.
2. Name of new merged facilities:
· New Castle County Community Corrections
· Kent County Community Corrections
· Sussex County Community Corrections
Dan:
1. A little over 1100 people have been trained on the Emergency Preparedness Policy.
Ed: nothing
Joe D: nothing
Debbi:
1. PREA (exec session)
2. Pleased to have a new employee Gary Coy on board.
3. Working on getting interns in here to work on special projects
Joe P: nothing
Alan:
1. Correctional Officer Staffing:
· CO vacancies are 160, which equals to 8.6 %
· Current CEIT Class 172 will graduate on November 9th
· New CEIT Class starts on October 16th, graduates on December 21st
· By New Years the vacancies should be down to 125
We need to continue to push for new employees to keep up staffing.
2. SB 36, there is a hearing scheduled for October 18th which Alan plans on attending.
3. Considering physical fitness becoming part of the prescreening program for CO series.
4. Recognition Plans: Committee is making progress.
5. HR/EDC Annual Affirmation action plan is on your desk. OMB is aware we are finished.
6. Plan to include 247 as part of the interview process.
Janet:
1. Job fair is scheduled for November 3rd.
2. Continue to advertise and market for Maintenance/Food Service.
3. Diversity Coordinator Interviews are scheduled for Oct 3rd and 4th.
Kathy: Nothing
Rich: Nothing
John Painter:
1. Cleaning out general Commissioner E-mail account. The account had been started back in February and no one was aware the account was active. Started with 175 e-mails and I am now down to approximately 45 e-mails. So you may be getting some surprise e-mails for follow-up with old dates.
2. Starting up the Media tours again. Who should be included on the invitation list?
OLD BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
1. Project Life: tabled. Rick Kearney to look at materials.
2. Women working in Correction & Juvenile Justice: Carl wants to send some talented females from DE DOC to this conference next year.
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
None
Closed session opened 10:33.
Motion to Adjourn: Tom Carroll, 2nd Aaron Goldstein. 11:08 a.m.