Hampton Roads Regional Jail Finance Committee Meeting 08/2017 ATTENDEES, Quorum was met ● Brian DeProfrio, City of Hampton - Board Chair ● Dale Moreno, Medical Director ● April Green, Health Services Admin ● Deanna Isom, Accounting & Budget Manager ● Debbie Hand, Director of Finance ● Ronaldo Myers, Superintendent ● Cliff Hayes, CIO ● Allen Archer, Assistant City Manager for Newport News ● Bob Greis, Deputy City Manager for Chesapeake ● Linda Bryant, Assistant Superintendent ● Lori Peters, Regional Manager for CCS ● Tony ____ Accounting Manager, CCS Minutes ● ● Asst. Superintendent, Linda Bryant ○ Alerts finance committee (FC) that the board motioned to have staff work w/FC to anticipate medical and future costs in order to forecast medical expenses. ○ Announces the new [since Jan. 2016] medical contract. Explains that previous (during J. Mitchell’s stay) contract was a “pass-through” contract. As of Dec. 2015, in part on the advice of consultant Rick Morse, we have been operating with a “cost-plus” model w/ an anticipated operating expense of $435,000 per month. ○ This method permits the jail/taxpayers to cover the costs and ensures that there is less opportunity for medical contractor to cut corners to save costs. ○ This new contract w/ CCS has jail leadership more directly involved. Moving forward, the jail and CCS want to reconcile true-ups quickly, so that there are no longer any lingering disputes, as there have been in the past (summer 2016). True-ups will be done by the 2nd month after the bill is due according to new contract. ○ In Feb. 2017 renegotiated contract w/ CCS for a 1 year term. ○ Linda makes a note that eventually the Board members are going to have to make the ask to the public (city council members) to ask for more funding in order for us to provide adequate mental & medical care. She suggests that the city leaders will have to reach out to city councils to make an increase of approx. $8 more a day. Also suggests that we educate the public on the need specifically concerning our population. ○ If we get sued b/c of something that the medical provider should have done, CCS can indemnify us, and we can sue them. Superintendent Ronaldo Myers gains the floor to discuss cost control. ● ○ Work with judges/jurisdictions to advocate that certain inmates shouldn’t be in jail b/c of nonviolent crimes and severe medical issues. ○ Superintendent says that is hard to control cost b/c the jail accepts whomever the jurisdictions send over. The superintendent notes that the jail admin is doing everything they can to control costs, but it is difficult to anticipate costs b/c of the jail had no control over who comes in and when. Asst. Superintendent Bryant: Cost control tools currently in place. ○ High-priority transfers, state sponsored inmates. ○ Went from 250-112 out-of-compliance inmates. ○ Sought reimbursement from DOC, several hundred thousand reimbursement per year (upwards towards $ 1 million) ○ Dr. Moreno brought in to perform surgeries & train staff. ○ Telewound is working well (per April.) ○ Fixed previous issue with off-site billing. Went from Cigna to Optima took CCS out of managing. Going back to Cigna/Optima. ○ Working to get more inmates out of the jail that have low level parole violations. ● Board Chair asked for clear, succinct description of where we were (financially and with the med contract) and where we are today in comparison to before. Board agreed HRRJ staff has adequate cost control measures in place and is exercising reasonable measure to control medical costs without affecting patient care. ● Mental Health/ Medical Care Update: April Green ○ Currently we have 5 mental health professionals for 520 people. We have only 1 psychiatrist – hired in March. We need more. 1 Substance Abuse professional for a total of 30 hours. Superintendent Myers approved CCS recruiting for a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner for an additional 20 hours per week. ○ April noted that there is an average of 2 officers going out p. m. The need to have officers make hospital trips, has a negative impact on the number of officers actually in the jail. ● A request was made for a single slide/PPT slide to present to city councils in order to build a case & sell the idea of public safety and jail needs to the population. A point was made that the DOJ staffing analysis will paint a good picture of staffing needs. ● Superintendent regains the floor to discuss staffing needs. ○ DOJ/DOC will be conducting a staffing analysis for the jail which has not been done before. The analysis will assess staff needs based on what tasks need to be done within the jail and for the inmates (some tasks will be outside of the jail, such as hospital watches). ○ We are currently short-staffed at the jail w/ only 265 staff. ○ Superintendent notes that the staff have gotten used to operating an unsafe jail and that they have done the best they can, but in the event of any major incident, the jail would not be able to control the situation. In order to operate efficiently and safely, the jail needs more staff. ○ Superintendent Myers notes that Interim Superintendent authorized $256,000 in comp time payout in Jan.,Feb. 2017. ○ The issues w/ short staffing is due in part to the number of TDOs & hospital trips which are happening every other day. ● ● ○ Asst. Superintendent Bryant stated that Board of Corrections voted on July 28 to approve the DOC staffing study. ○ Superintendent Myers answered a question in reference to retention rate: 16% ○ Overtime was $132,000 over a 28 day cycle last month. Cliff Hayes gained the floor to discuss security system. ○ Currently in need of an updated security system, although we just purchased a new one a few years ago from Sierra. ○ Sierra slowly started to be less responsive to maintenance requests and there was a backlog of about 35-40 submitted work orders. The company eventually went out of business. ○ There are currently 500 cameras in the jail. Last week 65 went down and this is a consistent problem. ○ The jail is planning to take legal action once the assessment of loss/unfinished business is done. A 3rd party did an assessment of outstanding issues which totaled $120,000. ○ Cliff stated that he contacted, on an emergency basis, an outside security company with whom he is familiar, and they were able to fix the backlog issues as well as offer insight and fix the broken cameras. ○ The jail consulted w/ the same company to troubleshoot other security system emergencies and will be looking to bid for a new security contract with a new company. There is the hope that the IT staff for the jail will be more involved in the entire process. ○ The point was made that the amount of $120,000 might in fact need to be higher including the costs of having to get an entirely new system. Debbie Hand asked for appropriation of funds from reserves to fund the grant until the quarterly reimbursement in the amount of $136,000, the same amount that was requested and approved by the board last FY. ○ It was determined by the board chair** that the board did not need to take any action on it because the account would balance itself out. Going Forward - Next steps ● The decision was made to wait until the staffing report was complete before a price point was suggested to city councils for increase ● Superintendent Myers clarified that the board would like a, “medical mock-up”/ visual representation at the next board meeting ● Deanna Isom was formally introduced as new Accounting Manager