GARRETT COUNTY FAMILY VIOLENCE COALITION Minutes of Meetings The next FVC meeting will be at 9:00AM at the GC Department of Social Services on April 13, 1999

Attending: Kellie Warnick, Department of Social Services; Bob Stephens, GC OCYF; Henry Brown, Department of Social Services; Linda Spassil, Dove Center; Lisa Thayer Welch, Garrett Co. State’s Attorney’s Office; Mary VanSickle, GCMH; Phyllis Trickett, GCCW; Randy Resh, MSP – McHenry Brk; Melissa Hinebaugh, Housing Dept. GCCACD; Peggy Nelson, GCFVC Coordinator; Rick DeWitt, Department of Social Services; Lt. Larry Gnegy, Sheriff’s Office; Elaine Gast, MNADV; Jennifer Pollitt, MNADV; Lucia Ayers, Community Representative, Fran Homer, Department of Social Services AmeriCorp

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, April 13, 9:00 a.m. at the Garrett County Department of Social Services.

Lisa Thayer Welch called the meeting to order.  There was not a quorum present to approve the February 9, 1999 minutes.  Mary VanSickle suggested the minutes be accepted as printed.
 

Committee Reports:

Professional Awareness Team:

Lisa Welch reported that the Professional Awareness committee will conduct a grand rounds session for the Garrett County Medical Community on June 18, 1999 with Dr. Michael Weddell from Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland. The community service building has been reserved for the entire morning.  Additional activities may be arranged.  Information will be forth coming.  The next Professional Awareness meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 22 to be held at the State’s Attorney’s Office.
 

Public Relations:

Peggy Nelson reported for Lyz Biser that Garrett’s Promise will sponsor an “Adopt a Grandparent” programs in April with several nursing homes and in the expanded community in Grantsville.

Lyz Biser secured monies to cover the remaining slides for the Garrett 8 Cinemas.  Checks may be made out to the Department of Social Services.  At a previous PR meeting, it was suggested that we find out how much it would cost to produce posters that could also be displayed in the lobby of the theater and in other locations.  The slides are on the screen for such a short time.  Lyz had reported that McClarin and Williams charge $10 for the first poster, $1.10 for each additional poster up to 100 posters. 100 or more posters would cost $.65 a piece.  June Hesselbach suggested another community group might produce the posters at a much smaller cost.  June would report at the next PR meeting.

Lyz Biser has 10 safaris scheduled by March 11.  The next PR committee is scheduled for March 22 at 9 a.m.

Data Mart Team:
There was no report from this committee.

Strategic Planning Team:

Lisa Welch reported that the Strategic Planning Committee met three different times in the past month.  The plan is not making major changes to the present structure of the coalition but putting specific goals and objectives on paper with measurable outcomes.

Maryland Network Information:

Elaine Gast thanked Jim Hovis and Lucia Ayers for attending the 1999 Domestic Violence Memorial Service held on February 8, 1999.  She distributed handouts with a comparison of individuals killed by county.

Elaine Gast and Jennifer Pollitt updated members about legislation still in debate.  It is important for individuals to offer support or opposition particularly HB 264/SB 407 requiring respondent to surrender firearms.  For law enforcement, the removal of guns creates a space problem and who will maintain the firearms.  There needs to be some form of protection to hold the police officers harmless for the storage of the firearms.  It was suggested that law enforcement units contact Cynthia Golomb, Legislative Counsel, at 410-531-1619 with concerns.

Elaine also reported that the MNADV secured a federal grant for $50,000 to plan for training in rural counties about domestic violence.  She reported that there would be seven (7) focus groups called to collect information from one another about domestic violence in their areas.

Jennifer Pollitt reported that a language line with 144 language capability for non-English speaking victims of crime.  The translation calls go through AT&T.  Rick DeWitt asked if we could access that line if we were to have a customer in need for translation.  Jennifer responded no because of the cost.  But agencies could work on their own with AT&T.  Their office has been trained to work with the deaf community using the Maryland Relay system.

Continuing Business:

Shelter Update:

Linda Spassil reported three families still at the shelter.  One family is waiting to get into their own housing.  Linda has the next three slides for the Garrett 8 Cinemas from McClarin & Williams.  The slide depicting child sexual abuse will be shown in April and the slide depicting rape in May.

Good news!  The administrative staff of the shelter has secured three small offices on the second of the AA Realty building next to Food Lion.  There will be three new telephone lines installed.  They move on March 15, 1999.

There will be an open teen dance on Friday, March 19th at Northern High School from 8 to 11 p.m.  Jim McFarland and Carson Yoder are sponsoring the dance to benefit the privacy fence around the playground at the shelter.  These two gentlemen are the sponsors of the truck show scheduled for August 28 – 29, 1999 in Grantsville.

The “Clothes Line Project” is something Linda started in Allegheny County.  Victims paint or print their own picture on t-shirts.  The project would add new work each year.  It is hoped that the t-shirts would be displayed at the April 26 presentation at Garrett Community College.
 

Garrett County Sheriff’s Office:

Lt. Larry Gnegy reported six (6) DV complaints, four (4) DV assaults, seven (7) DV Ex Parte orders, four (4) DV Protective orders, two (2) arrests for DV and one (1) arrest for violation of restraining orders.

He also reported a training at a Hospice meeting on April 22 at 6 p.m. at the Community Education building at the hospital.  There would be a covered dish supper before the training.  The Dove Center would be part of the training.
 
 

Maryland State Police:
1st Sgt. Resh reported for Jim Hovis that he received two (2) DV complaints resulting in one (1) arrest.  There were nine (9) complaints resulting in nine (9) arrests in Allegheny County.

Jim Hovis is pleased with the court response in both counties.

Lisa Welch reported a meeting on March 17th Jim Hovis and the Barracks commander to plan for follow-up Pro-Prosecution training for state trooper staff with possible emphasis on the supplemental form.
 

Department of Social Services

Henry Brown reported that Garrett County had been chosen as the pilot county to develop a policy and plan for educating and training organizations on Domestic Violence in the Workplace.  The Governor signed legislation that starting in July State agencies would develop a policy on Domestic Violence in the Workplace.  A team of staff at GCDSS has been working on such a policy and procedure manual.

Garrett County Memorial Hospital

Mary VanSickle reported that the hospital is exploring a screening form to be used in the Emergency Room.  Such a form may be very time consuming.  But the taskforce is looking at other issues as well.  Other counties have an on-call person to respond to Domestic Violence assault patients.

Data Collection Report

Peggy reported that since January 1, 1999 she received 52 copies of the reporting form.  Eighteen (18) reports were reported incidents  prior to January 1999.  There was one (1) report for October, two (2) for November and fourteen (14) for December 1998.  Reports included six (6) from the State’s Attorney’s Office, two (2) from the State Police, one (1) from Parole and Probation, four (4) from the Sheriff’s Office, three (3) from DSS, one (1) from GCMH, and one (1) from Mettle Workers.

Beginning in January, there were twenty-three (23) reports in January and eleven (11) in February. There was one (1) report for October, two (2) for November, and fourteen (14) for December 1998.  Reports included five (5) from the State’s Attorney’s Office, six (6) from the State Police, two (2) from Parole and Probation, twenty (20) from the Sheriff’s Office, and two (2) from DSS.  Nine (9) reports were the same reported incident from two different agencies and one (1) report was the same reported incident from three agencies.  The victim from one incident was a male and one other report was from and elderly women by her spouse.  Substance abuse was reported in 20 incidents.
 

 New Business:

Lisa Welch announced a meeting and informal training with the County Commissioners about the Coalition and the issue of domestic violence in the county.  The Commissioners were asked to name a new representative to the Coalition from their office.  Commissioner Gregg would be interested but their public meeting day is Tuesday.  Lisa recommended that a District Court staff might be considered as their representative.
 

Lucia Ayers announced that the LMB and DSS are jointly writing a federal grant that would jump-start the interagency data collection project.  She asked for a letter of support from the Coalition.  Lisa Welch agreed to write the letter.  She also announced that there are three other counties trying to set up a data collection system (Allegany, Washington and Frederick counties).  Frederick County has set up a system on Access starting with law enforcement that uses first and last name of the victim.  Law enforcement records are public information whereas other agencies do not have authorization.  Lucia suggested that the Executive Committee might want to have a meeting with Frederick County or to try a conference call to gain information about the similarity of the projects.
 

Announcements:

Lisa Welch was asked about a representative from West Virginia at this coalition meeting.  She again responded that she had not been able to directly contact the person in charge of the Domestic Violence council.  Lisa stated that the WV Director is responsible for a five county area.  We would be most interested in representation from the law enforcement arena.  Lucia Ayers stated that she knew the part-time person in Preston County.

Lucia has been given monies from the Commission for Women to update the “Pathways”
pamphlet.  It was requested that it not be published until after new legislation was completed in April.  2,000 copies were printed that last time at a cost of approximately $1,200.

Lucia Ayers announced the State Conference on Child Abuse to be held on April 22 at the University of Maryland at a site in Laurel.  Garrett County will offer a workshop on the “Caring Kids Program”.  Registration is limited to 750 persons.

Peggy Nelson will ask Mark Moynahan and Bill Flockhart to come to the April 13th meeting to talk about the data collection progress.

The meeting was adjourned.