Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Juvenile Drug Court Grant topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Oklahoma County commissioners discuss DOJ juvenile drug-court planning grant, defer decision to Jan. 29
Summary
County leaders heard a presentation from the district attorney's office on a U.S. Department of Justice planning grant to study a juvenile drug court, discussed match requirements and governance questions, and voted to defer action to the board's Jan. 29 meeting.
Oklahoma County commissioners on Jan. 22 heard a presentation from the district attorney's office about a U.S. Department of Justice planning grant to design a juvenile drug court and voted to defer any final action until the board meets Jan. 29.
The DA's office told commissioners that the notice of funding opportunity requires a letter of intent by Feb. 5 (practically Feb. 3 to allow 48 hours for vetting) and a full application by Feb. 19. Assistant District Attorney Eric Motzinger said the first-year award would be $100,000 and that the grant requires a 25% match for year one (about $25,000), with in-kind contributions allowed from partner agencies.
The proposal under discussion would be a developmental planning grant, intended to bring together government and private partners to design a juvenile drug-court model tailored to Oklahoma County rather than to implement the program in the first year. Motzinger told the board: “Between today [and] February 19th, the actual grant application deadline, there is still a lot of work to do. There's a lot of day togethermen to do. There is a lot of discussion with both internal and external partners to do.”
Commissioners and staff pressed on several points before deciding to delay action. Board members asked which entity must be the applicant: the DA's office is not an eligible statewide applicant under the grant rules, Motzinger said, so the county would likely need to be the applicant and therefore would be responsible for entering the partnership agreements. Commissioners also sought clearer projections for long-term program costs beyond the three-year grant window and asked for more detail on which local partners would participate.
Staff and DA representatives said the planning year is specifically intended to develop those partnerships, the program model and budgets. Madison and other DA office staff said they had begun outreach to likely partners, including juvenile-justice stakeholders and public defenders, but that many details remained to be worked out prior to a full application.
After discussion, a commissioner moved to defer the matter to the board's Jan. 29 meeting to allow staff to return with a more developed application and budget projections; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote.
The board did not approve a letter of intent or the full application on Jan. 22. Commissioners and DA staff said they will continue working on partner agreements, match commitments and cost projections ahead of the Feb. 3–5 and Feb. 19 federal deadlines.
