Bid fails to keep Waukesha County girls detention unit open
Waukesha - An attempt to reverse Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas' budget proposal that would close the girls' secure detention section of the Juvenile Center failed to win support of the County Board's Health and Human Services Committee Thursday.
Supervisor Janel Brandtjen, chairman of the committee, proposed a budget amendment that would restore funds for the operation, but her motion failed on a 3-4 vote in committee. She said after the meeting that she didn't know whether she would independently pursue the amendment with the full County Board.
Vrakas proposed closing the unit because the number of girls held at the center has dropped to about 30 a year, compared with 127 a year five years ago. The budget calls for contracting with Washington County's unit in West Bend for the service, with transportation back and forth provided by Waukesha County.
Health and Human Services Director Peter Schuler defended the closing, saying he saw no change in the trend toward fewer girls being held in secure detention. He also said that "Washington County will do a good job."
Contracting for the girls' detention space would save nearly $200,000, according to Vrakas' budget proposal. Some of that would be used to fill other gaps created in the health and human services budget, including replenishing funds for programs aimed at keeping troubled youth out of more expensive correctional and residential care facilities.
Brandtjen had proposed paying for the restored program with $52,200 in general fund surplus, by trimming juvenile placement prevention programs in the department's budget, and by assuming more juveniles from other counties would contract to use Waukesha County's Juvenile Center.
County Board Chairman Jim Dwyer, who rejected Brandtjen's attempt to limit his comments from the sideline, vehemently backed Vrakas' plan.
"There should be no question about what we're doing," he said, repeating statistics showing declining use of the facility. "Shame on us for not looking at this sooner."
Supervisor Kathleen Cummings, who supported Brandtjen's amendment, said she'd like to hold off on the closing at least another year.
"I'd rather measure twice and cut once," she said.
She questioned why a Juvenile Center study committee wasn't allowed to finish its work before Vrakas' budget made the recommendation and why she couldn't get minutes for the committee.
She also wondered if other units of the center would be closed in the future, diminishing the need for locating a new health and human services building close to the Juvenile Center and, by necessity, on part of the county's landmark Moor Downs Golf Course.
