 Gallatin County DUI Task ForceMinutes
November 17th, 2004
2nd Floor Conference Room, Al Stiff Professional Building
5:30 to 7:10 PM
Members:
Susan Wordal, City Attorney’s Office
Shanda Smith, County Health Department
Bob Larson, Citizen Member
Mark Daugherty, Citizen Member
Jessica Kay, MSU Community Outreach
Price Klaas, Citizen member
Guests:
Teresa Flannigan, Community Corrections
October Minutes Approved: Mark moved; Shanda seconded.
Introduce Price Klaas – new youth member
New Business:
Teresa Flannigan presented on the function of Community Corrections. The underlying concept of her program is holding an offender accountable for their actions, to repair harm to the community, the victim, and to the offender themselves.
The group discussed Justice Councils and how they work; and the potential impact of Community Service work on DUI offenders. At this time Judge Snowberger is making the referrals to the Justice Councils and they are concentrating on second offense DUI’s and misdemeanor property crimes.
Council members sit around a table with the offender. DUI offenders are told how their community doesn’t want them out there drinking and driving. Before the meeting, Teresa interviews the offender and types up a 2 page summary about what happened, who was effected, an action plan and goals. The intent is to help the person to get on with their lives, and not re-offend.
For community service, prosecutors make the recommendation to the judge that community service be used in lieu of jail time. Susan says she is recommending this consequence more and more often for DUI offenders. Community service is more flexible than the sheriff’s work program in terms of location and times worked – they can choose their own job. Teresa said for some people it’s the first time they’ve been held accountable.
Susan said she’s giving 100 hours of community service to some offenders. Price described the positive impact being sentenced to community service at the Battered Women’s Network had on her. Jenna said she has used community service volunteers to put up posters around town and to update the reference binder of articles from local media relating to DUI, substance abuse, and criminal justice issues.
Halloween Masquerade Ball: Jenna read a letter from Steve Wagner describing both the successes and challenges of hosting the ball, and thanking the Task Force for their donation.
Drunk and Drugged Driving Month: There will be a proclamation presented to the Commissioners at their meeting on December 7th.
Jessica Kay, Director of Community Outreach at MSU, presented a chart showing the growth in rider ship with Cat Cab. There were 295 rides given on Halloween weekend.
The service runs from 10 PM to 4 AM Thursday thru Saturday. There are still problems with funding – they hope some day to have an endowment fund that would support the program. Teresa suggested they try the Montana Community Foundation for funding.
Jessica thanked the Task Force for their continuing support. Jenna asked for a PDF with the rider ship numbers to post on the DUI Task Force site.
A discussion about reworking goals and objectives for the state was tabled for a future meeting.
Jenna reported that one of the student resource officers at BHS, Steve Keim, borrowed goggles from the office to use in demos for Red Ribbon week. He will keep the goggles for in-classroom demonstrations.
Finances
First quarter of fiscal 2005 – Jenna showed an informal financial statement – The Task Force is in a strong place fiscally for the first time in several years. She urged the group to begin funding projects and showed a draft of a new “mini-grant” funding request. She will email that to Task Force members for input.
Susan motioned that the Task Force set aside $2000 for holiday overtime patrols – whatever funds are not claimed for patrols by December 7th are to be expended for a social marketing campaign over the holiday season. Jessica reminded us to consider the Exponent for ads, and Price suggested the Hawk Talk. Mark seconded the motion – the motion carried.
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