Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-24 Commissioners Meeting TUESDAY, June 24, 2025 The Franklin County Commissioners met on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, with the following members present: Dean A. Horst and Robert G. Ziobrowski. John T. Flannery joined remotely. Commissioner Horst welcomed Controller Harold Wissinger. He then presided and after calling the meeting to order, a Moment of Silence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, proceeded with the business of the day. Assistant County Administrator John Thierwechter asked to remove agenda item 4.05, the agreement with Penn State Harrisburg. On a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski, Seconded by John T. Flannery; the Board unanimously approved to adopt the amended agenda. The minutes of the June 18, 2025 meeting were reviewed. On a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski, Seconded by John T. Flannery; the Board unanimously approved the minutes. Chairman Horst called Prison Board to order at 10:10AM. Prison Board was adjourned at 10:11AM. There was public comment from Valerie Jordan who thanked Commissioner Horst for giving her the phone number for Community Connections. She just met a homeless veteran on extremely hot outside. She also mentioned that she has been trading emails with Bill Everly, Chambersburg Councilperson. She googled and found want to say that she was misled, but she was never told it was a state law and she was here a few months ago and agreed with Allan Coffman that maybe a countywide assessment should be done. She now wanted to retract that statement becauseshe thinks Mr. Coffman, being on the Chambersburg Borough Council for many years, and Mr. Everly, the same, could reach out to Representative Kauffman and Senator Mastriano to raise the cap. She was also reading a public document from the state about the state police. They are also capped and because Chambersburg has grown by 20% in five years the cap. We are in need of, according to the document, we are in need of in this state an additional 1000 more state police. She knows the Republicans are hard pressed to try to save dollars, but this is also hiring people with good benefits. She wants to put people to work and that the Board should rethink the countywide assessment . On a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski, Seconded by John T. Flannery; the Board unanimously approved all consent agenda items to include: All bills presented and ordered paid in the amount of $678,307.84. Lease agreement between the County of Franklin and Beverly Court LLC for the HUD Permanent Supportive Housing Lease Program that covers total rent plus any landlord-covered utilities at a cost of $10,200.00 for the period of July 1, 2025 through July 1, 2026. The County holds the lease with the landlord and the participant subleases from the County. Program participants are responsible for any utilities not included in the lease rent, up to 30% of their adjusted gross income. Participants are linked with supportive services and case management to assist them with maintaining permanent stable housing. This will be paid from the HUD grant. Engagement Letter Acceptance between the County of Franklin and Maher Duessel CPAs at the request of PEMA to audit the program financial statements and specified supplementary information of the Franklin County 911 Program for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2024 in conformity with the reporting provisions of PEMA on the regulatory basis of accounting. Audit reports are expected to be issued no later than December 31, 2025. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Environmental Systems Research support the ongoing collection, maintenance, and analysis of critical geographic data essential for multiple county departments and operational processes. This platform plays a pivotal role in daily county functions, including property assessment, parcel mapping, addressing, maintenance of key datasets in compliance with NextGeneration 911 mandates, municipal support, and public information services. It also enables advanced spatial analysis and mapping requests from law enforcement, county agencies, and external partners. Maintaining and leveraging the ESRI Enterprise platform enhances the Coun capabilities, facilitates the development of customized GIS solutions, reduces field data collection and paper use, and significantly improves staff productivity by streamlining key workflows at a cost of $60,194.83. The cost is allocable to various Funds; $48,954.771 will be paid by the General Fund. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Master Mechanical Corporation for the replacement of the existing kitchen HVAC unit, which is the original system installed at the time of construction and has reached the end of its service life. The replacement will consist of a modern split HVAC unit designed to provide both heating and cooling to ensure year-round climate control in the kitchen area at a cost of $223,796.00. This will be paid by the General Fund. Commissioner Horst stated for public awareness this was a bid that the Board of Commissioners approved on May 28 2025. Agreement between the County of Franklin and Urban Design Ventures for professional services to complete an environmental review for the FY 23 CDBG acquisition project at a cost of $10,000.00. This will be paid by the Community Development Block Grant. The Board reviewed regular agenda items. Mr. Thierwechter provided a high-level overview of each of the actions. Mr. Thierwechter introduced Sean Crager, Franklin County CIO, to explain the quote for approval from CDW-G to purchase phone equipment necessary to migrate to Microsoft Teams at a cost up to but not to exceed $86,421.50. This will be paid by an allocation across all operations. About 68% is estimated to be paid by the General Fund. Mr. Crager stated that we have migrated from Google for Government to Microsoft365. Part of that was a collapse of our telephone environment and our email environment. Microsoft365 brings those advantages together and he was there for the final part of this project. They had gotten a blanket approval earlier but have the specifics now on the cost of the hardware devices needed for the new phone system. The cost of $86,421.50 is significantly less than when the project was first startedwhen looking at upgrading the original phone system that was going to cost about $150,000 for the hardware itself and another $300,000 for the services to get it done and they were able to bring those costs down to the $86,421.50 because they are a converged product they are spending $150,000 on the implementation of the Microsoft email and telephone system. The other big thing they were able to do to bring down the hardware costs was the utilization of headsets and getting away from telephones that sit on a desk. They did take into account where a traditional phone would still be needed to not interrupt operational efficiency but if a consideration could be made to move to a less expensive headset verses a handset on the phone and they were able to do that. Approximately 340 of our employees moved over to the headsets which brought about a significant savings of about $49,000.00. This purchase is through CDW-G off of an approved government contract and was able to negotiate that price down because of the volume that is being purchased. The government pricing would have been around $100,180.00 and it was negotiated down to $86,421.50. They were able to take advantage of the government pricing but leverage volume to bring the pricing down even more. Another reason they choose CDW-G was their quick turn around time for delivery of the hardware in less than a week. Commissioner Horst asked if the end of life of the telephone system had a date or is it already passed. Mr. Crager explained that we would hit that date at the end of June for mainstream support as we have had this system since 2011 and got good use out of it over those years and technology has advanced quite a bit since then. Some of the major advantages we will have moving to a new system is full on cloud based support so we local servers and the actual phone system itself will be in the cloud environment which will be redundant and managed by the large cloud provider which will reduce our down time here in the County and hopefully eliminate a lot of our phone issues. Commissioner Horst then asked if on the new phone system if there is an end-of-life cycle as well. Mr. Crager explained that by moving over to Microsoft365, there is a concept called Evergreen which in the past you would install Office 2010 and in ten years or so they support it anymore. Because we will be on subscription based everything is hosted in the Microsoft cloud and they are constantly upgrading the features, functions, and security and this E ever really expire. Hardware eventually will have to be replaced but we will use the hardware until there is no operational value. Commissioner Horst then asked if there is any type of warranty that comes with it. Mr. Crager stated that it does come with a warranty, Commissioner Horst then stated that he has been asked by different departments if they can keep their existing phones and equipment but asked Mr. Crager to state for the record why. Mr. m and technology. VoIP was just becoming a mainstream feature and cloud-based telephone. This new equipment is now based on the modern technology it. Commissioner Ziobrowski asked if the 340 people moving to headsets, do people typically wear them all the time or only when the phone rings. Mr. Crager explained that it is really a personal preference. want it to mess up their hair and will only use when needed. When he was the Chief Technology Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, they moved everyone over to Teams as well with headsets. He has seen a lot of different ways that the headsets are used. If up to do what you need to do and not neck cranked at the side trying to hold a phone. They have also heard from some people the options for the wireless headsets will allow them to serve customers better by, being able to retrieving information without having to put the phone down and service people at the desk while being able to answer calls and things like that. Commissioner Ziobrowski then asked if wireless would be an option. Mr. Crager stated yes, they gave that as an option. The least expensive was the wired, then the wireless option, and two different phones that were based upon job functions. Commissioner Ziobrowski stated that there are a lot of folks that work in cubicles and in order to ear headphones and listen to some music or whatever because there's action going on and some people are more easily distracted than others. Can people use these headsets for that purpose? Can they also bring in some music or something so that they are not disturbed or are they one use only.Mr. Crager stated that technically they are capable of doing multiple things. At the end of the day a headset a headset with a speaker on it. No different than when you buy a cell phone, except these have a little bit more comfort with padded ears, but could they be programmed so that people could listen to music the purpose, instead of having speakers on their computer kind of blaring out and like you said in a cubicle environment, the headsets could be worn then to communicate and listen to that training. Commissioner Ziobrowski said it was good to have that flexibility and it will be our internal controlsthat would determinewhether people want to listen to Led Zeppelin or whether they want to concentrate on that. On a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski; seconded by John T. Flanneryapproved the quote. Mr. Thierwechterintroduced Warden Heather Franzoni to present the Jail program to keep everyone well acquainted with the different programs with their emerging trends, topics of interest and any concerns they may have. Her presentation was made a part of these minutes. Commissioner Horst first thankedWarden Franzoni and stated that she just proved why she was the correct choice to run the jail.He then asked about the statisticabout the age groups and incarceratedthat was 36, is that increase dueto recidivism or issome of it or a majority. Warden Franzoni stated that some of that is recidivism. The acuityof an individualjust keeps recidivatingas they agebut some of it is just looking at re-entry barriers gets larger and people being able to maintain without having to come back to the jail.She thinks that recidivism barriers and re-entry barriers touch all of those age groups. But she would have to say absolutely just recidivism and being able to survive in re-entry and on supervision is probably a good chunk of those.Commissioner Flannerythanked the warden who hasgreat passion for the job and he remains confident and hopes the community understands that he believes the Franklin County Jail to be one of if not the bestcounty jail in the state of Pennsylvania.He then told Warden Franzoni to keep up the good work. The meeting was adjourned at 10:51a.m. on a motion by Robert G. Ziobrowski; seconded by John T. Flannery. John K. Thierwechter Assistant County Administrator FRANKLIN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ____________________________________ Dean A. Horst, Chairman ____________________________________ John T. Flannery ___________________________________ Robert G. Ziobrowski (Disciplinary, Protective Custody, Security, Medical, IMPORTANCE OF MULTIPLE HOUSING UNITS Segregation Status Inmates Medical Isolation, Pandemic Isolation, Mental Health)House Alone/Rec AloneKeep SeparatesClassificationWork ReleaseInhouse Work CadreMale/ FemalesMedical Needs DEMOGRAPHICS CASE ANALYSIS 54 Correctional Officers3 Treatment Directors1 Education Director1 Records Supervisor 6 Correctional Treatment Specialists3 Records Specialists 1 Administrative Assistant (Court Liaison)1 Treatment Clerk1 Property Clerk (ONLY COUNTY STAFF) CURRENT JAIL STAFFING 1 Warden3 Deputy Wardens1 Major1 Captain11 Lieutenants1 Business Manager1 Accreditation Compliance/Training Coordinator if someone is at the confirm or deny (CHRIA) & CJI to CJI. will be released on a juvenile. have a public inmate look up tool release mugshots does not can not CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD INFORMATION ACT FCJ FCJ has a Central Booking unit with a PSP Livescan/CLEAN terminalFCJ is fully CJI compliant and is audited by PSPAll FCJ staff, contractors and vendors are required to complete CJI Training & be fingerprinted. This allows staff to have unescorted access Staff are only permitted to FCJ. No other information would be released over the phone. No information FCJ ------ - 25 HS school year had - ORASTCUFrom the beginning of 2024present, the GED program has serviced 84 inmates and has graduated 9 inmatesThe 202418 serviced and 2 graduates. Individual Treatment PlanningRisk AssessmentsChaplain/Religious Services Volunteer ServicesEducation Services TREATMENT SERVICES MRTVictim ImpactHealthy LivingSucceeding Under SupervisionDrug & AlcoholLife SkillsJob Skills Correctional Treatment SpecialistsTreatment DirectorsWork Release Availability Evidence Based Treatment Groups Occurring) - DATA FROM MAY 2025 individuals have diagnosed Mental 219 - Out of those 219 individuals; 35 have been diagnosed with a SMI 48 individuals were noted to have both Mental Health & Substance Abuse concerns (CoIn May 2025Health disorders and/or are experiencing acute mental health concerns SUBSTANCE ABUSE & MENTAL HEALTH JAIL TO COMMUNITY TREATMENT recovery efforts both during and after a jail stayCurrently individuals are offered: Vivitrol, Methadone, Subutex, and SublocadeThe program provides licensed D&A treatment via a MH Clinician The most recent success rate of the program is around 65% Coalition: Franklin TogetherCommittee (Meetings Held Weekly @ FCJ) ENTRY & PREPARING FOR RELEASE - Case Review TaskforceFCJ Treatment DepartmentAPO Institutional DivisionOther Agencies As Needed ReEntryReEntry RE Payroll Release Conduct Warrant Searches atProcess Releases Manage Inmate Trust AccountsProcess InmateTrack Inmate Movementcustody z½à½¤ā½ā FCJ RECORDS DEPARTMENT Pæ ʝʛʝʟ Ĉн G/Y z½²ìý·ā 4½ú¤ýĈå½æĈ úýì²½āā½· ʜʲʟʡʡ /ìååÒĈå½æĈā ¤æ· ʜʲʟʤʣ Process Commitments/IntakesSchedule Transports W/ Outside Agencies Compute SentencingCollect Court ordered buccal DNAProcess posted bailProcess Civil Complaints by the Inmates' Multiple Disciplines - Recertification of Academy Policy Updates & RevisionsPowerDMSNew HireField Training ProgramInstructor CertificationStaff RecertificationBasic Training Academy Standard Operating ProceduresTraining (National Commission on ACCREDITATION & TRAINING Monthly Prison BoardExtra Ordinary Occurrence ReportsCensus of JailsAnnual Survey of Jails CountyStateFederalTitle 37NCCHC Correctional Health Care)PREA Accreditation Compliance & Training CoordinatorTracking and ReportingInspections & Audits Primecare provides the following services: INMATE MEDICAL SERVICES MedicalDentalMental HealthSex Offender Treatment JTCT Management & Treatment Medical services are contracted through Primecare Viapath - ) OMSe Keefe Keefe - - Viapath - Primecare - CGL Summit Foods - - OUR PARTNERS IN CORRECTIONS Food Service Maintenance Medical Services Commissary/Vending Services Accounting/Banking Software Inmate Phones/Tablets Offender Management System ( CURRENT JAIL INITIATIVES Security System UpgradeKitchen Equipment UpgradeContinuous Jail Renovation Field Training Program QUESTIONS