Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

After I call your name. Vice chair White?

Here.

Commissioner Fan? Here. Commissioner Gosal? Here. Commissioner Hayes?

Here.

Commissioner Pearlman? She is late. So commissioner Rashid?

Here.

So there is one set of minutes to approve this evening. Please take a moment to review the December 1 minutes in front of you. Just Oh,

they were in any they were in

any Okay. So any discussions about December 1 minute? Is there a motion to approve the December 1 minutes?

So moved.

And the second?

A second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye. Aye. Mhmm.

December 1 minutes are approved. At this time, we are taking oral communication. Staff will call the names of people in order they have signed up either online or in person. Members of public may speak during one of the tonight's oral communications for up to three minutes in purse per person or agency program. After everyone who has signed up to speak has been called, staff will ask if there is anyone else who would like to speak. Staff, can you please call speakers for oral communication? We

do not have anyone signed up online or in person, but if there's anyone in the room or currently online that would like to speak, please raise your hand. Okay. Okay. We have a gentleman here. You can go ahead.

I don't need a mic.

Use the mic so that the, she can. Okay. I really like that.

Said I used to set up these things. Hi. My name is Chalimboy Washington. I am a neusis of the city, and I saw the the name of the board. I'm wondering who you guys are. You know, what what what what is the function?

Ah,

okay. Whoops.

Sure. Oh,

okay. Okay. Understood. Understood. Yeah. I'm, a new, citizen of Washington State. You know, I've never been to the West Coast. I've never been in Washington state. So that drop shipped in from Austin, Texas. So this is the most moderate, climate in The United States. I have multiple sclerosis, so anything that's really hot or really, really cold, Texas is obviously killing me. So hi. So far, my experience with you guys are just first this Pacific Northwest in general. Wow. It's freaking incredible.

The mixture of cultures, language. It's like going to New York City Oh, yeah. But on the West Coast. So I'm like, yes. Despite that, the negative thing that yeah.

Definitely negative thing is I was not prepared for the racism at all. It was like, oh, what? They didn't advertise this I'm just you know, on the TV and the movies, you don't hear that. In a very, very, very, very weird place too. So despite that, I'm loving it. You know? So it's not like people are people. People are people everywhere, so no hating on that. But this place is good for my breathing. It's for my literally, my the the air quality is wonderful.

I'll get offline because I'm sure I'm just mumbling by now. But, thank you.

Okay. If there's anyone else in the room or online, you can raise your hand. Okay. You can go ahead, chair.

Major Inman, do you have anything to share?

I do not. Just happy New Year. Thank you.

Happy New Year.

Do we have any commissioner's report?

I can say that Delfina, Phetri, and I did the parliamentary, training at the December, and we all pretty much enjoyed it, didn't we? I think it was very inter like, very interesting the way that they presented it. And I was telling Chris that if it ever comes back around this way, like, highly recommend it because it was just a great way to see how boards and commissions can run. And then the other boards and commissions were there too, so that was neat. Yeah.

Any

staff reports? So new business item. We will start a new year business with off officers election. The Human Services Commission by law state that commission shall elect chair and white chair and any other officers the commission deems necessary for a term of one year at the first regular meeting in January of each year or as soon thereafter as feasible based on seating of newly appointed members. The election process shall be accordance with the Roberts rule of order newly revised.

This process identifies that nominees will be voted on the order in which they were presented. As soon as one of the nominees received the majority vote, the current chair will declare the person elected. No votes will be taken on the remaining nominees for of office of chair. Commission members must cast their vote either a a or no. For each nominee, failure to cast vote mean that your vote will be counted in the affirmative.

So nomination for chair are now in order.

I would like to nominate commissioner Fan for chair.

Anyone else?

I like to nominate a commissioner firm for chair.

K.

Both.

Continue. Yeah. I nominee Angela Fan too.

K. There any other nomination for chair? So hearing no further nomination, nomination of commission of chair is now closed. We still have to vote. We vote on nominees in order. So please signify your vote with saying aye when a question is called. First and the only nominee in commission member for chair is commissioner Fran. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

This

is five in favor or all six? Six. Okay. No one is against. Seven. Seven in favor and zero against. So thank you, commissioner. This concludes the officer's election for chair. Now I will newly elected chair takes the gavel and proceed.

Yes. Or And we can just hand the gavel to get to that point easier.

Okay. Yeah.

I'll just do the gavel. Okay.

That's good. Alright. Thank you. So let's see here. Now we're gonna do nominations for the vice chair.

Can I can I I nominate commissioner Hayes for vice chair?

I nominate commissioner Hayes for vice.

I nominate to Chris Heith. Vice

Oh, are there any other nominations for vice chair? Hearing no further nominations, nominations for vice chair are now closed. We will vote on the nominees in the order that they have been presented. Please signify your vote by saying a or no. The first nominee is commissioner member Hayes. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed, say no. The vote is in favor for commissioner Hayes for vice chair.

Yes. Yes.

Oh, the ayes have it. That's the wording.

Very good.

Commissioner member Hayes is elected vice chair.

That's us.

After all this.

Oh. Yep. Yeah. Same. Same. Same. Same. Chair

Fan, could

I just interject with a note of gratitude for commissioner Singh and commissioner White for your years of service of chair and vice chair? We really appreciate you both very much.

Would anyone else like to say anything to Jimmy or Angela? Jimmy, thank you so much for being our chair for the past couple of years. Really appreciated your leadership, and I'm glad that you're not leaving. You're just moving seats. Right? Okay. And, Angela, thank you so much for being vice chair. Very, very, very, very glad that you're on this commission and very thankful that we got to do some great funding together. So thank you so much. Anyone else?

Thank you, one of you, for leading us for two years. Thank you. Thank you.

The next item of business is a presentation on probation services in community court. I will now hand it over to the probation manager, Craig Fritz. Hey, Craig. Welcome. And you're welcome.

So good evening, everyone. I know some of you at the table, but not all of you. I actually work very close with Tony and Ruth and these wonderful people to my left and right here. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yourself, or do you want me to do it on

the side?

I'll do

it at

the Okay.

Yeah. So

So just later?

Yeah. Just so you

can go. Perfect. So like you said, my name is Craig Fritz. I am the probation manager for the city of Bellevue. I have been here close to two years.

I also moved here from Texas, from the Houston area, and it is I was just there a couple of weeks ago, and it is very, very hot. It was it was about 80 degrees the whole time I was there. So appealing to some, but not for those of us that lived there all our lives. So, so what I have been invited to do, this evening is give a presentation on probation services and then also, our recently, implemented community court. So, and the reason yeah.

There we go. So presenting to, this commission, and and just looking at the agenda very briefly, we'll talk first about probation services and then the the Bellevue Community Court and Resource Center. So I one of the things that I did wanna include is I think reporting to this commission benefits us because we are two divisions within the same city and within the same department, which is, of course, parks and community services. But our the work that we do, I believe, collectively impacts marginalized populations within the city. So I think there is definitely a lot of alignment and similarities with what we do.

Our work at the probation division intersects greatly with access to essential services, behavioral health needs, economic insecurity, housing instability, something obviously that, this commission and and Tony and Ruth and the entire division do wonderfully. I met Ruth before I even started, and I thought that this was human resources. So I, you know, learned very quickly what, you know, what it what it actually is, and, I just, it's it's it's incredible. I've been in this field for twenty plus years, and and just the the dedication and the appreciation for everyone in a community really, yeah, just just makes me smile every day. It's it's so it's such an honor to be a part of such an incredible organization and department and and division.

So just quickly, kind of a probation one zero one, if you will. What is probation? Probation is an alternative to incarceration, and I'm preaching to the choir a little bit here. But, instead of instead of being sentenced to jail, individuals are referred or sentenced to probation. Within the city of Bellevue, and I'll go a little bit into our partnership with King County here in just a little bit.

But all of the referrals that we get are misdemeanor level offenses, so they are not anything above a misdemeanor. So we don't go into felonies. That, of course, is taken care of taken care of, excuse me, at the superior court level. And then, of course, there's DOC and federal probation, but we are at the district court level. It is different from parole. All my life, I've gotten, you know, how's parole going? But parole is actually not probation. They are in incredibly different. You hear them spoken about a lot together, but probation, the way I've always thought of it, probation is sort of preincarceration or in lieu of incarceration. Parole is is post incarceration.

So a lot of the reentry programs that you hear about are kinda at that parole level. So once somebody is released from incarceration on parole, they have parole supervision, which is where that comes in. So probation is a period of supervision that is served in the community. One of the greatest benefits is that clients are able to continue to to work. They are continue they are able to continue to provide for their families.

They're able to continue going to school. They're able to continue doing all of the things in the community involvement with their family members, different things like that while they are on probation because it is done, obviously, within the community. It is also a source of accountability and collaboration through their routine connections with our staff, which include probation officers, program coordinators. The they're able to maintain that accountability and complete their court ordered requirements and and tasks and orders that they that they have been ordered to do by the judges. So quickly, our partnership with King County District Court, as many of you are well aware, the city of Bellevue does not operate its own court system.

In other words, we do not have a a municipal court system. We don't elect our own judges. So we have I don't know how long ago. Many, many, many years ago, we entered into a contractual agreement with King County, to serve, clients who are charged, with offenses in Bellevue. And it is done, I won't go into details, but there's a general administrative order that is that is kinda part of that contractual agreement, as well as a an MOU, that kinda spells out everything that that is expected and then that, know, you should be provided and so forth.

Looking at our numbers, these are our kinda just some statistics. I I love statistics. Part of me does anyway, but these are just the the number of referrals that we have gotten over the past five years. I was able to collect everything from 2025 for this presentation. So as you can see yeah.

What does it say that see the bar on top? It's covering a word.

Oh, it is Should know, but I didn't quite There

we go.

Thank you.

Yeah. So, five year trend of of clients referred, to probation over the past five years. So in, looking at the chart, there's obviously a a pretty significant upward trend, over the past five years. Looking at just the numbers specifically, there was about a 22% increase over, twenty twenty four, 48% or so over 2023, a 123% growth over 2022, and then finally, about a 215% increase, since 2021. And that, of course, is looking at that common denominator of what we got in 2025.

So as you can see, very significant upward trend, that has been taking place, over the past five years. We all know Bellevue is a growing city. A lot more people come here to, you know, to to play and to study and to work. So we I think that is certainly a contributing factor to the growth. And then also, there have also been some increased investments in in other public safety, police, which generally, in one of my very first criminal justice classes, we learned that, you know, people think that if there's more police, you know, crime rates will go down, but sometimes they do go up because there is a a higher presence.

So and then, you know, just just an overall, you know, growth as we have, gone over the past, five years. Looking at just a couple of more statistics, these are our percentages of, probation referrals by reported gender for 2025 as well. And the that blue number is 25.8. It's kinda hard to see there. This is the our 2025 referrals by reported race.

So we do we are able to collect that data and, you know, look at, you know, the the reported race of those that were referred to us. And we do take a lot of that into consideration when we are providing different, you know, classes and and and different things like that. So, yeah, that is there. Tony, do you want me to pause still?

I just

think there was some I think there was some Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You should've you should've told me that you should've told me that earlier.

I'm just kidding.

I think there are I I will disclaim or I should have disclaimed before. There are a lot of times when people do not report their their race or their gender. So a lot of we are certainly working on that. That is something that I've been talking about for the past, what, couple of years. So, yeah, there are some some blanks, but yeah. So that could account for the the 100%. So, yeah, no worries. Yeah. Sure.

Bring forward to probation correlates with the growth of court cases we refer to King County?

I would say it's I I would say there's probably a pretty direct correlation. I I haven't done I haven't looked at growth, like, outside of of Bellevue specifically. So I I couldn't answer specifically to, like, other other jurisdictions or other cities. But I would I I would I would imagine that there's probably a direct correlation in in growth, that same kind of upward trend in the others in the others as well.

I I guess my question is is the growth in referral to probation because we're seeing a growth in cases in Bellevue, or is it because the courts are referring more cases to probation?

Sure. I and I I I do think that there from what I hear from the judges and the and the the King County court stuff that we work at over at our courthouse, I think they have seen a huge influx of of cases as well. And then also not to, you know, not to to boast or brag, but I think we I think we have a really good division, and I think we offer really great services, and we have really a lot of success. So I think that lends, you know, itself to to more referrals, you know, just because of the of the outcomes and, results that that we see with our success. So

Okay. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you.

Just one question. If you had a chance to compare your pre COVID case referrals to the post COVID case referrals They to see where they

Yeah. And I almost included 2020 because I I think there was a I can't remember exactly if it was '19 to '20 or twenty to twenty one, but they were they were higher, and then they dipped in in 2020 when when COVID happened. And I think that was obviously just because court was not happening. You know, court was, I mean, I wasn't here, so I can only speak of what I knew in my old department. But the dockets were backed up.

You know, they they spent, you know, two or three years trying to get caught up, but we did see a kind of a dip and then a slow well, pretty significant gradual growth, you know, back up. But I I without quoting statistics, I we, in 2025, were much higher than we were even pre COVID. We were not near that level, even before COVID happened. So hope that answers your question. Yeah.

Awesome. So common barriers and challenges faced by clients. I think, again, this is something that that we all see. Accessibility clients face just a myriad of environments where, you know, that are not accessible to their needs and to their situations. They face overall negative impacts and perspectives where, you know, various disabilities are concerned.

Economic factors, many are trapped in in financial hardships, you know, due to job availability, qualifications, transportation, child care, housing, disabilities, public assistance programs. You know, just the a lot of times with a DUI, for example, they get their driver's license taken away, you know, for a, you know, maybe a lengthy period of time or a, you know, shortened period of time. But, you know, they do that, and then, you know, the courts also require them to do all of these other things. You know? So it's it kinda puts them between a rock and a hard place.

Do they, you know, abide by the law and not drive without a license, or do I satisfy my court requirements? You know? So it's that kind of hardship that we see there. Education and employment, many of our clients, unfortunately, haven't had access to education opportunities or employment opportunities. And I I prefer to say haven't had because, know, that is one of the things that we like to focus on is is helping them connect those the bridges there to get those resources, you know, to the education and employment that, you know, that they desire.

Housing, obviously, affordable housing, a lot of them don't have access to that. Language access, many clients are in need of services that are not offered in their primary language, and I'll I'll hit language access a little more in just a little bit. And then transportation. You know, compared to where I came from, you know, this is like a just, you know, for lack of better words, transportation heaven. You know?

But I understand that even, you know, some people here, you know, still have have concerns with transportation. You know? Our our office, for example, is is on the South Side of town. We're over at the courthouse in the Bellfield Office Park, And we don't have a bus stop that comes right to our door. It's it's down the street.

But we found out last year that Bellhop now has comes down to that area, so that was certainly something that, you know, we very quickly printed out, you know, little flyers and put them on everybody's desk for, you know, for the bellhop services. So that has really helped out with with the transportation barrier there. So, again, what benefits does probation provide to clients? An ability, like I said earlier, to maintain presence in the community, and, of course, the avoidance of incarceration. It allows them to continue in their daily lives, continue to to work, to go to school, to, you know, maintain that presence at home.

One of my favorites, if I am allowed to choose a favorite, is the access to resources, services, and treatment. They were able to provide a lot of the services that, clients are in need of. We are very fortunate to provide in house, at our office, and I'll go over that in a second, a little in a little more detail. What I what I discovered, and I think what is is pretty obvious in a lot of situations, was that, you know, clients were ordered to do different things by the judges, and then they said, you know, here's your list. Now, you know, go find them and go do them.

You know? And they could be something could be done in Seattle, you know, that my treatment might be in Renton. You know, I might have something over, you know, in the Eastgate area or something. You know? So what we what I've tried to do, is really condense everything down to our office.

When I look at Tony because I I have all kind of ideas in my mind, but I'm taking one thing at a time. And then, of course, going kinda with that is the availability of local programming. Again, they are literally able to walk out of the courtroom door and kinda do, like, a u-turn into our office, and that is where we are to provide those services. And all of our services are offered at at no cost to the client. So, that barrier was removed in August, I believe.

So almost. 2024. Yes. I'm I'm still, like, January or December 31 here. So benefits to the community, that is something that we always, always, always, always like to think about and look at.

It does result, probation itself does enroll result in enhanced accountability of clients, which in turn does result in increased safety. We, again, work with them to ensure accountability to make sure that they are abiding by the terms and conditions of their probation or of their court order, which, again, results in increased community safety for all of the residents, for the victims of of the of the offenses and so on. There is an overall cost savings to the city. We are, again, are able to stabilize them through, you know, the the supervision, the accountability, the connection to the services. And, of course, that in in most situations, I'll say, does decrease repeat law enforcement context.

We, over the past several years that I've looked at, have had really, really, really low recidivism rates within the city of Bellevue, which, of course, is is what we what we wanna see. And then reintegration measure that.

Because you're talking about the individuals that commit crime in the city of Bellevue.

Mhmm.

But they might not be residing in Bellevue. Are you checking to make sure that they have no criminal record anywhere in the country?

Yes. Well well so and help me out here because I may be I may not be clear. But what we look at, we we look at recidivism rates of of crimes that are committed within the city of Bellevue, and we look at recidivism rates that are committed, or for offenses that are committed anywhere. So the the the low number is is the one that is within the city of Bellevue. The the anywhere number is is also relatively low.

I think it was around 15% or so the last time we did it. And that is looking at the a three year period. So we we look at, you know, the past three years, and then we we do a a sample, and we we do go through each of those criminal histories to see if there were any any new offenses through that three year time.

But you take a sample. You're not looking at the whole

We we don't.

List?

We don't. It's a it's a it's a pretty big list. So so but

It is a manual process. There's no way to run a recidivism statistics, so it's taking a client. So they take a representative. They try to make sure the clients are representative of crimes and other demographics, we and use it as a sample. But that sample has produced relatively stable results, in the almost eight years that I've been here, which seems to be indicative that it's it's giving us a good sampling of our overall clients. But, yes, we maintain both. The repeat offense in Bellevue or repeat offense anywhere. It gets higher if you go outside of Bellevue, but it's all still lower than, more generalized recidivism statistics.

And the three years because probation is usually three years?

We I think that was just established as a kind of a marker, I guess. Or

Yeah. Some of the others we've compared to actually only do a one year recidivism rate, and we wanted to go longer than a year. So we picked three years.

My other question is that so Bellevue has the the this program, probation program. What other cities in the area have that? Does it?

Pretty much well, so the interesting thing is that King County does have a probation department or probation division. And they they have, and it took me a really long time to understand this, so I'm gonna try to explain it to where it makes sense. But King County has probation officers in Redmond, in Shoreline and well, not in Auburn anymore because Auburn is is transitioning to its own municipal court. They have probation officers in Seattle. But those are they're they kinda work like at a satellite office, if you will.

So they're they are part of the King County probation department. They just work in these outlying cities kinda around us. There are some of the ones that come to mind. Like, Des Moines has its own municipal court and probation division. Tukwila is is another one that comes to mind. Auburn will soon. Kirkland has its own. Redmond has King County probation officers there. So it's different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Depending on on what cities you look at. So yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. So yeah. So, again, just reintegration of individuals back into or into their community. And, again, that kinda goes back to that, you know, just being able to continue with their lives. Our probation officers and program coordinators, they take on the roles of of collaboration.

Again, just meeting with clients each month or, you know, more often if needed to make sure that needs are being met, that requirements are being satisfied. We do, you know, evaluations. We do risk and needs assessments on on some of our clients that that were are required of them. And then we also really, rely heavily on evaluations from external providers, substance use, evaluations, mental health evaluations because that does assist us with supervising them to making you know, to make sure that they are connected to the services. Investigation, we look at client backgrounds.

We look at criminal histories for different reasons. We also look at, you know, their their instant offense or their current offense to see if there's anything that might be there that we might have gotten from the police that will help us to better supervise them. Of course, we do ongoing monitoring to make sure that there's accountability and adherence to the court orders. Referrals, you know, if if if we don't have what a client needs, we we make that external referral to, you know, somewhere that is local, preferably, or at least local to their residents. Because sometimes, you know, they may not live in Bellevue.

They might have just committed their offense in Bellevue, so they might live in Olympia. We have clients that live down in Olympia. You know? So we try to obviously meet them where they are, you know, instead of saying, hey. You know, come up.

You know, make a two hour drive for a thirty minute appointment. You know? So, and then, of course, reporting. We maintain a very, close, you know, communication, a very close partnership with the courts. So we are often reporting to the courts not only violations, but we're also reporting, you know, compliance, letting the judges know that they are, you know, compliant, that they're doing well.

You know, we do updates at different at different junctures along the way as far as reporting to the court scope. So just some of our our program offerings, we do alive at 25. This is alive at 25 is a defensive driving course for individuals 24 and younger. I think the youngest I've seen come through is 16, So I haven't seen anybody younger than that. There might have been in the past, but we have had some that were 16 and, of course, up to 24.

Coping with anger is is our anger management program. So a lot of clients who were charged with sort of assaultive offenses, but not domestic violence, are referred to our coping with anger program. Domestic violence, moral recognition therapy, that have that's our DVMRT. That is our our lengthy. It is about six months.

It's a program that they attend once a week. And those, of course, are mainly domestic violence related charges. We have a defensive driving course, for anyone who is 25 years of age and up. So we do offer that. Gateway is kind of our in house resource, connection.

So we are able to sit down with with clients who, who have needs identified such as insurance or housing or, I think, employment education. You know? So we we work with them on on that. The license support program, we have a program where we sit down with clients and look at their driving records. If they have a suspension, we, you know, we help them to, you know, make the phone calls to the to the court or, you know, to the the other municipality where the suspension is to see what needs to be done.

And, you know, a lot of times we, you know, thankfully, are able to say, well, we have a a defensive driving course here. Would that suffice, you know, for, you know, some a little discount on the ticket or in lieu of the ticket or the fine? We have a resource closet. It is literally a closet that we have over at our office, and it is chock full of snacks and and food and hygiene products and clothing and shoes and water and backpacks and umbrellas. And, you know, so any of our clients that need anything there, we welcome back, and they are able to kinda shop, you know, on their own.

Well, with us there, obviously, but, you know, they're able to look for, you know, whatever they need. One of the just two or three weeks ago, I think, we had a client who was coming to the courthouse for a trial, and and he didn't have any any clothing. He was incarcerated, so we were able to help him get dressed up and and be able to present himself in a in a in the way that he wanted to present himself in in the courtroom. So that was really nice. Sergeant Burgos helped us out with that.

So that was, yeah. It was a it was a good moment. It was it was really powerful. And then something for nothing, the last one on there, that is our our consumer awareness or anti theft plus. Yeah.

Are the classes in person or virtual or both or depending on the

Both, but a very small percentage are virtual at this point. We we maintain the availability of virtual classes because, again, we wanna meet clients where they are. We don't wanna, you know, create another barrier for them. So, the client that I spoke of earlier that lived down in Olympia, I think we did some virtual services for her. The judges prefer the in person, but the the judges are are certainly amenable to to virtual if, you know, if the client needs it.

So we you know, and and and just because somebody might live close doesn't mean they don't have, you know, that availability of the virtual service because, you know, we realize that the transportation might be an issue. Even though they might live across the bridge in Seattle, it may be very, very difficult for them to get there. So we kinda look at it on a case by case basis and and really, you know, talk to the client and and, you know, meet them where they are, you know, to accommodate them. So Bellevue work crew. This is our division's community service, if you will.

It is an alternative to community service, but we do community service within the city through the work group program. It can also be done as an alternative to confinement. A lot of times, clients might be ordered to, complete two days in jail, but the judge will allow them to work two days of of work group. We partner with, a lot of the other parks divisions around the city. Quite literally, the parks, a lot of times, is is where we go.

But we do a lot of work at the Blueberry Farms at Kelsey Creek, Mercer Slough, Winter's House. Everyone loves going to Kelsey Creek because I get to to work with the animals. So the work crew program is is something that has really, I feel like, benefited kinda everyone involved collectively, you know, because it does allow an opportunity for the clients to to get their community service obligations done. But then it is also benefiting in many ways the various parks entities and and, of course, the city as a whole. We do work crew every Wednesday and every Thursday, so we are we we do it consistently.

And that is one of the things a lot of times that clients give us feedback about, unfortunately, is that, you know, when they go out to to try to do community service on their own, and it's completely understandable, but they are not able to, you know, fulfill their hours as quickly as they as they would like. So we provide that pretty much in any type of weather. We, you know, we continue doing it year round. And, you know, if if there is, you know, inclement weather, of course, then we we do cancel or we try to find something indoors for that. But the work group program is, again, yeah, just this is really, really, really cool.

We also do electronic home monitoring. At the at the pretrial level, this is mostly continuous alcohol monitoring. So it is done through the bracelet, which is the transdermal alcohol device. So that does monitor alcohol use through or transdermally, if you will, with the with the skin. And then we also have portable breath testing devices, which is the the handheld that gives them a, like, an alarm, and they even get a text message, I believe, to submit a a breath sample at random times throughout the day.

And then we also do electronic home monitoring as an alternative to confinement and incarceration. This is mostly post sentence. So once one is sentenced to probation, then they, if if is a requirement, then they they have to fulfill those obligations. And that'll also is done with the bracelet. So and it does have GPS, capabilities if if it's requested.

So, generally, what the what the electronic home detention is doing is it's it's essentially home home incarceration, if you will, but they are required to be at their home. But the judges do allow them to fulfill obligations that they might have in the community, like jobs and school and, grocery stores and, you know, picking up children from day care or school. But we work very closely with the clients just to make sure that they, you know, stay in compliance with all of the all of the conditions and the rules set forth by the by the judges. So diversity, equity, and and inclusion within our division. Language access, I kinda hit on this earlier, but we, we do make sure that our clients have access to every program that we offer regardless of their primary language.

So we do that a lot with, the language line, and then also in person interpretation services. And just as an example in compliance with with title six, last year, we were able to, and I don't think this is inclusive, but, we were able to offer in Cantonese, Farsi, Mandarin, Mongolian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tigrinya, and Vietnamese. And and those were all in person. So we, you know, we we take essentially what we have, and and we work with an interpreter to make sure that the client is successful and connects, you know, with us, through an interpreter to complete, again, whatever class. You know, it's not you know, we only have it for these.

You know, it's it's all of them. So diversity in our probation team, we are a team of 12 individuals. We have very diverse experiences, genders, languages, and races, even with with a small group such as that. We do exit surveys for our clients who are are discharging off of probation, for them to be given an opportunity to provide any feedback. We look at, performance measures, the statistical outcomes, and the recidivism rates and so forth.

We do that every year. And then, of course, we do ongoing training, as as much as we can, you know, because there's always developments and the latest, you know, to to be to be trained in. So we're constantly looking for, you know, any opportunity that we can for for that ongoing training. Okay. So transitioning quickly, to community court.

This is, again, something that is super, super, super dear to my heart. I spent the last ten years of my career in Texas working with therapeutic courts. And, I think probably from day three, I was asking Tony, you know, is there are there any treatment courts here? Or you know? And and then we did finally, I shouldn't say finally, but, we did, get the with the assistance of King County, get the community court up and running, earlier this year.

So, community court, just to to clarify, it is a King County program. It is the Bellevue Community Court, but it is, I guess, sponsored or or run by King County. They have different community courts in the area, and and we were fortunate enough to launch the one here in Bellevue back in in July. The steering committee started to meet back in February. We were involved with that, and then we did have the launch date in July.

Then we had an open house, I believe, in October. It is held at the library here, and the presiding judge is, judge. She is a King County district court judge, who actually sits over at our courthouse. So she is the, moving to the East East Side presiding judge, yes, is her official title, but she is the one that that, presides over community court as well. So, essentially, community court is built on the foundation of being a a meaningful alternative to the traditional court process.

Its focus is to address underlying issues that that a client might be facing to, again, remove as many of the barriers as possible for success moving forward. The goal is to increase safety for all, including, of course, the community members, and, again, enhancing that access to supportive services, accountability, and early intervention. A lot of the community court clients that we see, it might be their their first offense or maybe their first offense in in a decade or two decades. So it is that kind of that early intervention stepping in to make sure that, they are connected to to what they need, you know, so that there is not recidivism later down the road. And it is, of course, a a deep collaboration between several community based partners and, the criminal justice system.

And I'll, dive into that a little bit deeper here in a second. It is a a very collaborative model. I think that's one of the most amazing things about or one of the most amazing components of community court is the collaboration. So it is, again, a King County district court program, but we do collaborate, of course, with, well, the city and then the community and then, the King County Library System, which has been just amazing, from from day one. Everyone, of course, brings very unique perspectives, very unique resources, and strengths.

And, you know, in doing that, we're able to provide a a more restorative approach to justice. And, you know, just you know, physically, the library being where it's at is a is a huge strength because it's just down the road from the transit center, and, you know, it's it's very centrally located. They have a great space. And, I mean, it's it the library is just welcoming overall. So it's been a a really nice space.

And and that is one of the, I guess, primary components, I guess, of community court anywhere is that it's at it's held at a location outside of the court house or outside of the courtroom. And I think most of them in this area are at libraries. So we were fortunate that, the one here, had the, you know, availability and space to to work with us on this one as well. City of Bellevue involvement, specifically, the, you know, deputy city manager, Jen C. Atkins, from the city manager's office was instrumental in in in worked with us from the beginning on the steering committee.

The Bellevue Police Department continues or they, you know, started with us, and they continue. They provide security at the library week after week after week. Never never an absence of the police department, which is incredible. It's it just the presence just shows such an incredible dedication and passion for for what's going on. The city attorney's office works very closely with the with the courts and the public defense team for you know, to bring in clients to process referrals, to investigate referrals, and so forth.

The homelessness outreach program or the outreach team that is here in the city of Bellevue, they too are there every week. And I will say they are probably one of the most visited resource tables at the at the resource center. And I think they've been able to make, quite a few connections just in that in that one location, since we've been there, starting in July. And then, of course, the the probation division, we, again, were have been an active partner since the beginning, you know, on the steering committee. We are able to offer participants access again to all of our classes to, you know, the different skill building programs that we have, any support services, you know, that that clients might need.

One of the most popular from the probation division has been the work crew program. They, as part of their community court agreement, do have to do community service, and a lot of them, almost all of them, I believe, that have had to do community service have done it with us, through the work crew. And, again, there's that appreciation for the consistency and the routine, you know, not having to go out and and find it on their own. They can, you know, come over and see me at the resource center. We get them signed up.

A lot of times, they go the very next day to get their one day done, and then they satisfy that condition. So quickly, just the community court participants. As I mentioned earlier, the clients are approved by the city prosecutor from the city attorney's office. It is tailored or, you know, only those pretty, you know, nonviolent misdemeanor cases are the ones that are eligible for community court. Different offenses such as, trespassing, disorderly conduct, theft, drug possession, you know, those types of offenses are what we see in there.

Driving related cases, so, like, your DUIs, your reckless drivings, and domestic violence cases are not eligible for for community court. So and that is that is the the current offense. It doesn't necessarily capture, the history, but that is, you know, the the current, you know, offense that they're being referred for. Benefits of community court, of course, to the clients. It is an alternative problem solving approach to the traditional court process.

Again, that really, really focuses on, you know, any underlying concerns or underlying issues or underlying needs that they have. So it's a it's it's you know, when I say group effort, is certainly a group effort of of many participants. And and the focus is, of course, on the client and that early intervention, in getting them connected to what they need. It is, of course, also a benefit to Bellevue residents. It enhances there's that public safety component.

You know, we address the low level offenses through the the different problem solving and, you know, restorative approach. And it does, you know, give clients the opportunity again to maintain that sense of continuity in their community, in their home, in their job, in school, you know, and so forth. And then benefits overall to to city operations, it does, you know, in many ways reduce future involvement in the in the criminal justice system, which is a a plus. And it does allow for, you know, cross department coordination with with the different partners, you know, not only within the city of Bellevue, but also, you know, with all of the external partners. Again, King County, the library system, and all of the providers that come to the resource center.

And then finally, the community resource center itself. I have a lot of favorite things, but, again, this is another one of my favorite things. The resource center is held in conjunction. It is a component of community court. It is, every it's now Thursday.

We we did have community court on Tuesdays, but it's now transitioning to Thursday starting this Thursday. But every week from 01:30 to 03:30, the resource center is set up. And, again, it is happening simultaneous to community court itself. One of the very best things about the community resource center aside from all of the obvious benefits is that it is available for any resident, of the community, not just those who are in community court. So anyone can come into the library, can, you know, get connected with a with a navigator, and that navigator helps them to, you know, find the resources, that they that they are in need of.

So, again, just to, you know, just to kinda heighten that up. I mean, that is a very important point that I I hope a lot of people aren't misunderstanding out in the community, but I I think we should continue to, you know, share that message that it is for anyone and not just community court participants. So they you know, again, you can see the slide here, food. The Salvation Army, has literal, hot lunches that are sent over to the resource center every week. So people come in and are able to get food, not only for themselves, but for their children, for their grandchildren, for anyone in their family.

Health care, like I said earlier, the housing, the homelessness outreach team is there. A lot of people have gotten health insurance at the resource center through that connection. Mental health and substance use services, programming such as what we offer, transportation. A lot of people will come in, and they're able to get bus passes on the spot or they're able to get an ORCA card, you know, that they that helps them. They also offer virtual services at the community resource center.

So if somebody's not able to actually make it to the resource center, they can they can dial in, if you will, and and speak to a provider virtually. And then there's just, you know, so many other, you know, just essential resources. And, again, you know, just to highlight, I think one of the one of the keys is, you know, that central location at the library because it has really been, you know, just incredible to see the amount of people that come through, and they're able to to access it, that are able to get there and not have, you know, again, another barrier that is that is put before them, you know, because they don't have, you know, their own reliable transportation. Yeah. It's just it's it's been wonderful, and I know that it will continue to be I know that it will continue to expand and grow, and, you know, more and more people will will benefit from from it being there.

So that's all I have. Thank you.

So do we have a court in Bellevue, or do descendants have to go to Seattle for the court hearings?

So we so Bellevue doesn't have its own municipal court, but there is a courthouse, which is, down in the Bellfield office part. On the I said the the southern end of town the other day, but somebody was like, no. That's not the southern end of town. So I'm still learning. But it's it's south of downtown. Yes. It's it's just past all of the the hotels and and all of that. I don't know what else is over there. South. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The coffee shop is over there. Yeah. But it's it's that is the that is a courthouse, and that is where the the two King County judges that are assigned to Bellevue, that's where they

Very

very where they work from.

Great. Thank

you. You're welcome. Thank you. True.

If someone is on probation or completed probation work, does that show up on a background check for employment?

It so it depends. I'm still I'm still learning, and you might be able to help with this too. But, not to put you on the spot, but I'm still learning I I was actually talking to a client about this today. So a lot of our there's there's different types of supervision. So there's what they call a judgment and sentence, which is a a conviction or a finding of guilt.

There's also a deferred sentence where they essentially enter into an agreement, like, through a court order. And if they complete everything successfully, they will then sentence the case once it's done, and it's oftentimes a lesser sentence than what they would have originally gotten perhaps. There's deferred prosecutions where the, you know, again, the same kind of contract or court order. And if they are successful, if clients are successful, the the prosecutor's office will not even prosecute. And then there's also an SOC, which is a stipulated order of continuance.

So that is essentially just staying the proceedings, basically, but there's that, again, that contract or that court order that oftentimes if they complete that, it's, dismissed. So I say all of that to to share that, you know, I a lot of times charges are dismissed, but that doesn't mean they fall off the record immediately. You know? And and, you know, that's always been one of the unfortunate things about, you know, even I mean, it's it's it's incredible to have a charge dismissed, but a lot of people don't go down that far on the background check if if that makes sense. They just see that that arrest, and, you know, that's that's where it stops.

And I think that that's one of those kinda economic barriers that a lot of our clients face is because they they they can't get jobs. They, you know, they might have, you know, been in a job for ten years, but then they get an you know, some sort of an offense and, you know, they can't even return to what they were doing before, you know, because of the the new charge. I always encourage clients that I that I talk to and that I work with who are doing job applications to, like, really, really read what it says. Right? A lot of applications say, have you ever been arrested for an offense?

And, of course, you know, anyone who comes through our doors would have to truthfully and ethically say, yes. I have been arrested for, you know, whatever offense. A lot of applications, the client I was talking to today, for example, his application asked, have you had a conviction for? But he is on one of those stipulated order of continuance. So he and I smile because it's it's you don't wanna lead them in the wrong direction, but he technically has not been convicted of an offense at this point even though he has been on probation.

But I I am no lawyer, you know, so I often encourage them to talk to their, you know, attorneys and and get feedback on that. There is and, I'm I haven't been in Washington long enough to know how the process works, but there is, the ability to get offenses removed or to get, you know, records sealed. A lot of times, though, that doesn't mean that they're gone, you know, from every space. You know, they're a lot of times still there. And employers oftentimes will do kind of a level of background check that's closer to what even we do, you know, in the criminal justice system.

So it's that kind of stuff is still there. So I think the again, you know, just encouraging clients to to speak with their attorneys and, you know, really, really, really read the fine print of, you know, the application or whatever they're filling out to see what it's asking. And then also just to be honest and open, you know, because a lot of times we've had clients who were, you know, open about it, and the employer was willing to give them a chance, and they've worked there for five or ten years. You know what I mean? So

So the biggest difference between community court and regular court is that the judge and the court officers help kind of guide the defendant into resources to address underlying underlying root issues?

So I I I think it's I think in that situation with that question, it's beneficial to say that that both the probation division and community court do the same thing. And, you know, as far as guiding them to to resources and services treatment regardless of, you know, whether they're on probation or in community court. I think one of the biggest differences is that it is a or a couple of the bigger differences with community court is that they're not reporting to a probation officer. They're not making that that monthly contact. They are only reporting to community court once a week.

So it's it's a more, I guess, judicially involved type of process versus probation. So over on the probation side, they're coming to see us once a month or, again, however often they are required to come in. Whereas with community court, it's kind of an earlier intervention to where they, you know, they they meet with a judge on a weekly basis. And and sometimes, and I didn't share this in the in the presentation, but they might have their clients who have come through community court might have their case resolved in about three months. So it's very quick.

It's it's very in fact, I don't think they offer any higher than four months, I think, is the kind of the target. So a lot of them, you know, they they display and present that that early progress and that early completion, and so they are essentially into community court and then out. So that's kinda I would say the biggest difference would be, like, the reporting and then also the level of judicial involvement. Yep.

Yeah. The reason I asked is, it sounds like there's a lot more resources and a lot more guys into community court.

Yes.

And I'm curious why we don't also do that for other crimes at a higher level.

Sure.

And it's yeah.

Yeah. No. I love that. And I I really I appreciate that immensely. I I think just by design, that's what community court is.

We have since community court started up and since the resource center started up, we have advertised it for our clients as well. And, you know, so we because they are residents or, you know, members of the community, so they are also, of course, eligible to go over to the resource center, every week if they need to. But, yeah, I would love I I I think short answer would be just staff capacity. Like, we don't have the capacity, unfortunately, to do all of the things that, you know, might be offered or provided at the at the resource center. Believe you me, if if I could and if Tony would let me, I would have all of it over at the probation division.

But right. Yeah. Tony would not say no for sure, but it would it would be a a funding, you know, thought, of course. But but, yeah, I I think that's again, just to highlight the the the so many benefits of the resource center is that it is, you know, a service for all. So even though, you know, clients may not be in community court, we can still say, you know, hey. Go over to the library on Thursday at 01:30 and go to this table and, you know, see if you can get help with, you know, getting health insurance or something. So yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for that.

How are you able to not have the resources no. How are you able to have them free since last or since August 2024?

So we you wanna help

with that?

It's been so long since we're

Absolutely. Because it's exciting. So as we came into our budget process for '25 and '26, of course, you have to look at all of your revenue sources. You have to look at all of your costs. And after doing some data analysis, we realized it was costing the city more to collect fees than what we were bringing in.

So between the staffing time, and the investment in, some full time staff that were in charge of that, and we do serve an increasing number of clients, that are living in poverty. And so even before we charged on a sliding scale. But charging does not mean that you collect. Charging does not mean that people can pay. And so when we were charging, a significant number of our clients would leave with debt that they owed towards us, which is is challenging both for them and for the city.

The city, you know, it was anticipating the revenue, and clients are left who are obviously already struggling, and now they have debt and perhaps debt collection happening. So when when business numbers demonstrated this is costing us money to do this, it was approved to say, then let's not cost ourselves money to do that anymore with the recognition of the equity impacts that that would have for our clients as well.

And it does all of the, and Tony always shares that so eloquently, so I wanted to make sure if she to give her the chance to. But it it all of our services do come from our our internal budget or our division budget, and I think it's the general fund, that it comes out of from the city. But, yeah, a huge, huge, huge barrier was removed with that. So

Any other questions? No? Thank you so much, Craig. Thank you so much for being here.

Appreciate it. Yeah.

Yeah. We're just going straight to the reminders now. My goodness.

And I mean, I was

As a reminder, our next meeting is on Monday, January 26. The next day, January 27, the commission's funding recommendations go to city council for discussion and approval. The chair will be representing the commission, and all commissioners are welcome. You know? Let me add that to my calendar right now. And anything else for the good of the group? No? Okay. Well, this concludes our meeting, and we are adjourning at, let's say, 07:15. Oh, there you go.

Thank you.