Committee considers Village Reach report and a motion to fund a dedicated data coordinator for justice measures

At its July 8 meeting the Whatcom County Legal & Justice Systems Committee reviewed Village Reach's six-month final report on performance measurement for the county's justice implementation plan. Dean and Bernie summarized Village Reach's recommendations, which include near-term steps (within 6 to 12 months) to designate a dedicated operational role, establish shared indicator definitions, conduct a next-generation Sequential Intercept Model workshop, and begin operational reporting with currently available data; longer-term items (12 to 36 months) concern building linked cross-agency systems and data sharing agreements.

Dean emphasized that ‘‘the notion is that will not happen if we're trying to get that done by basically borrowing bits and pieces of time from the various staff...and it needs a dedicated role that coordinates and operationalizes that plan." Committee members agreed that implementing the recommendations requires staffing, IT upgrades, cross-agency data-sharing agreements and funding. Several members raised concerns about county budget constraints and the county's ability to assign or hire the technical staff needed to move the plan forward.

Steven moved (and later amended) a motion to "recommend to the task force and to the behavioral health committee the adoption and implementation as soon as possible of designating a single full time position to coordinate the scope of work in the Village Reach report." The motion was seconded. During discussion members asked for clarifying language, reserves on funding, and additional time to review material. The transcript records that at least two members voted against and multiple members voted in favor; however, the record does not provide a full roll-call tally of the final vote or a written approval on funding sources.

Committee members directed that the data workgroup's recommendation be prepared for distribution to the IPRTF and the behavioral health committee, and discussed drafting a letter to the executive's office urging funding and designation of the operational role. Members repeatedly requested the committee emphasize that the scope will require county funding, and several proposed adding a caveat that current county budget levels are insufficient to implement the full plan.

Next steps recorded in the meeting: the data subgroup will finalize a recommendation letter for the IPRTF; committee staff will circulate the Village Reach report and the subgroup's proposed language; and the committee encouraged early outreach to municipal and county IT and data staff to scope technical needs and costs.

The committee also approved Wendy Jones as a co-chair during the meeting.