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Dylan Reingold County Attorney William K. DeBraal, Deputy County Attorney Kate Pingolt Cotner, Assistant County Attorney County Attorney's Matters - B.C.C. 03.18.14 Office of INDIAN RIVER COUNTY ATTORNEY MEMORANDUM TO: Board of County Commissioners THROUGH: Dylan Reingold, County Attorney QC) -- FROM: Kate Pingolt Cotner, Assistant County Attorn DATE: March 12, 2014 SUBJECT: Legislative Update Regarding Cost -Sharing Proposals for Juvenile Detention Care Centers BACKGROUND: Section 985.686, Florida Statutes, currently states that the State of Florida (the "State") and all non -fiscally restrained counties that do not provide independent detention care for juveniles or contract with another county to provide such service ("Participating Counties") have a joint obligation to contribute to the financial support of the State's juvenile detention centers. The contributions made by the Participating Counties, however, have historically been skewed in large part due to an obscure calculation that was created by Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice ("DJJ"). In June of 2013, Florida's First District Court of Appeal (the "Court") issued an opinion which found that DJJ had exceeded its rulemaking authority when it promulgated its set of rules to implement Section 985.686, Florida Statutes. As a result, the process for calculating the shared costs associated with the State's juvenile detention centers was found to be invalid. In response to the Court's opinion, DJJ formulated a new methodology for calculating the Participating Counties' share of the actual costs associated with the State's juvenile detention care centers. The Governor's office, however, determined that DJJ misinterpreted the Court's opinion and under -charged the Participating Counties for fiscal year 2012-2013. In January of 2014, DJJ reinterpreted the Court's ruling and determined that the State is only responsible for the costs associated with any violation of probation (VOP) days and contempt probation days. The Participating Counties, therefore, are responsible for all of the remaining costs associated with juvenile detention care centers (an estimated 57%). This reinterpretation has been incorporated into the Governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 2014-2015. Approved for March 18, 2014 BCC Meeting County Attorney's Matters COUNTY ATTORNEY Indian River Co. Approved Date Admin. e 3//a 1 Co. Atty. 1,t .. 3 J Budget ; '► , t i,? Department Risk Management --- 169