To: Harris County Commissioners Court
Through: Jim Bethke, Interim Director, Pretrial Services
prepared
Prepared By: Mai Ly Vong, Executive Assistant II, Pretrial Services
Subject: Position Request - New Positions (51) and Funding Request
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Project ID (If applicable]:
Purpose and Request:
title
Request for approval of four positions effective July 31, 2021 and 47 positions effective August 14, 2021 for a total of 51 positions to meet the department’s operational needs.
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Background and Discussion: Based on the department’s identified budget priorities and funding approved on May 11, 2021 (Item 167), we are requesting forty-seven (47) Pretrial Officer I positions and four (4) supervisor positions. As the courts have requested, thirty-eight (38) of the Pretrial Officer and three (3) of the Supervisor positions will be committed to placing a Pretrial Officer in each of the Criminal District Courts and the County Criminal Courts at Law and providing for appropriate supervision. The remaining nine (9) Pretrial Officer position and the remaining Supervision will be used to reduce the increasing electronic monitoring caseloads.
[INSTRUCTIONS: In this section should concisely provide any background and analysis that the Commissioners Court needs to fully understand the action being requested. Please limit background to 3-4 sentences and include any reference to when this item was previously considered by Court. Background should include reference to study or order that led to this item or if the item is a result of compliance with any specific law or statutory requirements.]
Fiscal Impact: The funding amount was granted by Commissioners Court and allocated to be used for the positions indicated. The estimated financial impact to the current fiscal year and subsequent fiscal year are detailed below.
[INSTRUCTIONS: A short description of the cost of the request and where you are requesting funding from. No more than 2 sentences. In addition please fill out the table below. This includes financial impact to the current fiscal year and subsequent fiscal years along with the source of funding (general fund, grant, etc.). If the amount is within the current budget, please indicate the amount from ‘Existing Department Budget'. If all of or part of the request is a new expense, please indicate funding source in the space provided.]
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Fiscal Summary |
|
Expenditures |
FY 20-21 |
FY 21-22 Projected |
Future Years Projected [3 additional years] |
|
Service Impacted: [Please provide service or division where expenditure will be used]* |
Pretrial Screening/ Defendant Monitoring |
Pretrial Screening/ Defendant Monitoring |
Pretrial Screening/ Defendant Monitoring |
|
Existing Budget |
$18,429,465 |
$20,422,266 |
$61,266,798 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
$0 |
$0 |
|
Total Expenditures |
0.00 |
$20,422,266 |
$61,266,798 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
Existing Department Budget |
$18,429,465 |
$20,422,266 |
$61,266,798 |
|
Please Identify Funding Source (General Fund, PIC, Special Revenue, Grant, Etc.) |
General Fund |
General Fund |
General Fund |
|
[INSERT FUNDING SOURCE HERE]* |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$18,429,465 |
$20,422,266 |
$61,266,798 |
Alternatives: The current alternative to court representatives is to continue drawing from Pretrial Screening and Defendant Monitoring Division staff to meet court demands, which takes employees away from compliance monitoring duties and erodes the quality of monitoring. The current alternative to increasing staffing in the Electronic Monitoring (EM) Unit is to maintain the same number of positions despite an EM caseload that has risen from an average daily population (ADP) of 392 to an ADP of over 3,000 in the past 12 months.
[INSTRUCTIONS: In this section you should briefly discuss any viable alternatives, including the benefits and consequences of each. Include subtitles on the first line of each alternative to identify it. If appropriate, the financial impact of each alternative can be discussed. If taking no action is a viable alternative it should also be discussed, including any financial or other impacts that would result.]
Alignment with Strategic Objective: The additional positions will help the department meet the following strategic objectives: timely response to court needs (SO 1.1), provision of appropriate levels of monitoring (SO 3.1), working toward optimal unit caseload sizes (SO 3.4), and timely response to noncompliance (SO 3.5).
[INSTRUCTIONS: Please write out the Department Strategic Objective impacted by this item.]
Attachments: Forms 3441 attached.
[INSTRUCTIONS: Please include a list of backup for this item with a short description of each if more than one.]