On February 13, 2018, the Board of Supervisors referred to the Public Protection Committee (PPC) a review of the production of the County's Multi-Agency Juvenile Justice Plan. The plan is due to the state on May 1 of each year, as a condition of Contra Costa’s annual funding through the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) and Youthful Offender Block Grant (YOBG).
At the April 2018 meeting of the PPC, staff was directed to return at a future meeting date with information regarding the Juvenile Justice Commission (JJC) and the Delinquency Prevention Commission (DPC), and at the September 10, 2018, meeting of the PPC staff presented a summary of the JJC, the DPC and the JJCC.
Also, at this September 2018 meeting staff was directed to return at the October 2018 meeting with the steps needed to consolidate the delinquency prevention functions of the DPC and JJCC. Staff was also directed to return with information on the membership of the JJCC to allow the Committee to better assess the need for additional seats.
Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council Membership
At its October 1, 2018, meeting staff informed the PPC that Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) § 749.22 establishes the minimum membership of the JJCC. Per WIC § 749.22, the JJCC "shall, at a minimum, include the chief probation officer, as chair, and one representative each from the district attorney's office, the public defender's office, the sheriff's department, the board of supervisors, the department of social services, the department of mental health, a community-based drug and alcohol program, a city police department, the county office of education or a school district, and an at-large community representative. In order to carry out its duties pursuant to this section, a coordinating council shall also include representatives from nonprofit community-based organizations providing services to minors."
The PPC then directed staff to prepare an action of the Board of Supervisors (BOS) to combine the functions of the DPC and the JJCC, and add to the statutory membership of the JJCC to thereby collectively include:
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Chief Probation Officer,
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District Attorney's Office representative,
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Public Defender's Office representative,
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Sheriff's Office representative,
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Board of Supervisors representative,
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Employment and Human Services Department representative,
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Behavior Health representative,
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County Alcohol and Drugs representative,
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City Police Department Representative,
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County Office of Education or a school district representative,
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County Public Health representative, and
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Eight community-based seats, including a minimum of two representing nonprofit community-based organizations and two youth-aged community representatives (14-21 years old).
At its December 4 and December 18, 2018, meetings, the Board of Supervisors, by Ordinance 2018-30 dissolved the Delinquency Prevention Commission, and by Resolution 2018/597 added seats and duties to the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council thereby increasing its size to 19 members by newly adding one (1) representative from the County Public Health Department; three (3) additional at-large community representatives; and two (2) at-large youth representatives. With the dissolution of the DPC, the reconfigured JJCC assumed the obligations and duties previously assigned to the DPC.
The matter was then referred back to the PPC where it was further considered by the Committee on March 11, 2019, to accept a report on the County's JJCPA-YOBG Consolidated Annual Plan, and where staff was given the direction to develop a recruitment process for the now vacant at-large seats that were newly created by the BOS.
The PPC then determined to proceed with an 8-week recruitment and selection process for the vacant seats using this timeline:
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April 1: Issue Press Release advertising vacant seats
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May 24: Application Deadline
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June 3: PPC Meeting Interviews
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June 18: Board of Supervisors consideration of PPC nominees
The Office of Reentry and Justice (ORJ) issued a Press Release and distributed it both through the Office of Communications and Media and the ORJ’s email networks.
At the June 3, 2019, PPC meeting, public interviews were conducted with the 21 applicants attending the meeting either in person or via teleconference. After the interviews, the PPC members recommended the following six (6) individuals be appointed to the JJCC by the Board of Supervisors:
|
First Name |
Last Name |
District |
City |
Designation |
|
Jonathan |
Bean |
3 |
Antioch |
At-Large Community Representative
|
|
LeDamien |
Flowers |
1 |
Richmond |
At-Large Community Representative |
|
Stephanie |
Medley |
1 |
Richmond |
At-Large Community Representative |
|
Tamisha |
Torres-Walker |
3 |
Antioch |
At-Large Community Representative |
|
D'Ana |
Clark |
1 |
Richmond |
At-Large Youth Representative |
|
Journey |
Horacek-Lee |
3 |
Antioch |
At-Large Youth Representative |
Given the exceptionally high level of interest and quality of applicants, at the conclusion of the interview process, the PPC indicated a recruitment process would be conducted in the near future to fill two (2) seats for representatives from nonprofit community-based organizations (CBO).
At the June 18, 2019, Board of Supervisors meeting, the BOS appointed the individuals identified in Attachment A to serve on the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council with their appointments effective July 1, 2019.
There are currently two vacant seats for representatives of nonprofit community-based organizations. At the July 1, 2019, PPC meeting, the Committee approved the following recruitment schedule to fill these two vacancies on the JJCC:
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July 16: First Day of Application Period
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August 16: Application Deadline
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September 2: PPC Committee Meeting – Interviews (rescheduled to September 30, 2019)
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October 8: Board of Supervisors Consideration of Nominees
Staff was also directed to contact the previous JJCC applicants and invite them to participate in the public interview process for the two nonprofit CBO seats. |