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CONTRACT K-1516-37: A CONTRACT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF NORMAN, OKLAHOMA, AND CROSSROADS YOUTH AND FAMILY CENTER, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $235,200 FOR THE OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE COMMUNITY INTERVENTION CENTER FROM JULY 1, 2015, THROUGH JUNE 30, 2016, AND BUDGET APPROPRIATION FROM THE SEIZURES AND RESTITUTION FUND BALANCE.
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BACKGROUND: The City of Norman juvenile program in conjunction with the Crossroads Youth and Family Center, Inc., (“Crossroads”) was awarded a federal and state grant from the Office of Juvenile Affairs (“OJA”) to implement a Community Intervention Center (“CIC”) in early 1997. Originally, this was a pilot project and the City of Norman was one of five cities to open a CIC. This program began in October of 1997. The CIC is housed in a building owned by the City and located at 1900 West Robinson in Westwood Park.
The CIC is a multi-city collaborated project. The federal money for the program was originally “seed” money to start the program. By design of the grant, the federal funding ceased three years after the inception of the program. Funding for the program is now from the state through OJA. Since that time, the CIC program has been very successful and has been considered one of the premier projects of OJA. The CIC program was the first program to have a partnership between a local government, the state government, youth service agencies and law enforcement.
The purpose of the CIC is to provide a community based location for law enforcement officers to take juveniles who have been apprehended for committing an offense that is not detention-eligible, for the purpose of holding, supervising and releasing the juveniles to a parent or guardian as appropriate. The goal of the program is two-fold: To maximize police officer productivity by returning the officers back to patrol duties as timely as possible and to have a consistent entry for juveniles into the juvenile justice system where they can be offered social services and be evaluated for needs.
Under the administrative rules adopted by OJA, the juveniles may be held at the CIC for up to twenty-four (24) hours until a parent, guardian or responsible adult can be located. If a parent is not located within the 24-hour time period, the juvenile is transferred to the Emergency Youth Shelter, where deprived children are held. While at the CIC, information for court and social service referrals is gathered. Upon arrival to obtain custody of a child at the facility, the parent or responsible adult must sign a promise to appear in court with the juvenile. If a juvenile misses a court date, both the parent and the juvenile may receive additional citations and/or have a warrant issued for their arrest under City ordinances. The CIC, in conjunction with juvenile municipal court programs, has been an important tool in dealing with juvenile crime in the community.
Prior to the CIC, police officers were delayed several hours at a time, trying to contact and wait for a parent to take responsibility for an arrested juvenile. The CIC allows an officer to release the juvenile defendant to their custody. This allows the officer to return to patrol within minutes. The current average time an officer spends dropping a juvenile off at the CIC is 15 minutes or less. The current average time the juvenile remains at the CIC waiting on a parent or responsible adult to pick him or her up is 6.43 hours. For a 12-month period, this time savings, on the part of the police officers, is 3,114 hours and is valued at $84,148.
Both the CIC and the Emergency Youth Shelter are operated by Crossroads Youth and Family Services, Inc. Each project has different funding sources and budgets. Funds from any contract or grant earmarked for CIC operations or the Shelter cannot be diverted or comingled.
A previous requirement to receive the federal and state grant funding was for the participating municipalities to contribute a percentage of matching funds for the program. After the federal grant funds were discontinued, OJA, through state appropriations, provided the majority of the funding for the CIC program. Although the state technically no longer requires matching funds, they strongly encourage financial contributions from each of the municipalities. OJA has indicated that funding participation by the benefited cities will be a factor considered in future reapplications for funding. Practically, the cities’ matching funds have become a necessity for continued use of the facility as state and federal funding has decreased. In prior years, the contributory funding from cities of $95,000, has previously been split between the City of Norman - $40,000, Moore - $40,000, Lexington - $5,000, Noble - $5,000 and Purcell - $5,000.
DISCUSSION: In FYE15, the City approved Contract K-1415-19 with OJA which provided for the funding and operation of the CIC. That contract with OJA contained an automatic renewal provision for two additional consecutive 12-month periods following the FYE15 contract. As in years past, the City then subcontracted with Crossroads to operate the CIC as outlined above. OJA has elected to exercise the first renewal option in K-1415-19 for FYE16 by issuance of a FYE16 change order. The total authorization for FYE16 is $235,200, which is $175,200, the same amount awarded by OJA in FYE15, and the increased City contribution of $60,000.
For FYE15, the State Legislature made reductions to agency budgets across the state, including OJA. Originally, the proposed funding reduction to the CIC budget was anticipated to be 1.75% or less than $5,000. However, at the conclusion of the OJA budgeting adjustments, the reduction to the FYE15 CIC budget totaled $69,887. As with FYE15 funding, this reduction significantly impacts the viability of the CIC. When funds were originally decreased by OJA, Crossroads began working to restore state funding to prior year levels and, while efforts have been made throughout the state budgeting process, funding for FYE16 remains at the FYE15 level. As a result, the additional amount of $20,000 provided by the City of Norman for FYE15 will also be required to maintain the schedule and staffing for the CIC during FYE16.
As in the past, to receive this funding from the state for this program, a municipality must demonstrate its ability to provide the services required under the OJA contract. As discussed above, the method utilized by Norman of demonstrating the ability to provide required services under the program is to contract with a designated youth service agency, such as Crossroads.
If the City no longer desires to operate the CIC in this manner, then the City may decline to approve the contract with Crossroads and so notify OJA. However, as was noted above, the CIC, operated by Crossroads, not only better allocates the time of law enforcement officers, but also serves the community by allowing youth to be professionally assessed for needs and then reunited with responsible family members should the youth find themselves involved in criminal activity.
Contract K-1515-37 is between the City of Norman and Crossroads Youth & Family Center, Inc., for Crossroads to continue to be the service provider for the Community Intervention Center. Crossroads will be responsible for hiring employees and running the day to day activities of the CIC. The City owns the building used by the CIC and the agreement continues the lease of the facility for $1 per year. In addition, this contract also commits the City of Norman to provide funding of $60,000 toward the continued operation of the CIC for FYE16.
From 1997 until fiscal year ending 2008, the City’s matching portion of this grant had been previously budgeted in either the Legal Department Professional Services Account, General Fund Professional Services Account, or Police Department Professional Services Account. During the fiscal year ending 2008, Council requested that the matching funds from the City for this project be removed from the regular budget and later appropriated out of the General Fund balance as the contracts came before Council. However, in this fiscal year, it is staff’s recommendation that the $60,000 matching funds portion of the grant to be paid to Crossroads Youth and Family Center Inc. be appropriated from the Seizures and Restitution Fund Balance/Unreserved Account (025-0000-253.20-00) to Other Professional Services Account (025-6035-421.40-99).
RECOMMENDATION: Staff has reviewed and recommends approval of Contract K-1516-37 with Crossroads Youth and Family Center to continue operations of the Community Intervention Center, as modified for FYE16, including an appropriation from the Seizures and Restitution Fund Balance/Unreserved account (025-0000-253.20-00) in the amount of $60,000 to Other Professional Services Account (025-6035-421.40-99).