PLYMOUTH – How Chenango County decides to spend the approximately $120,000 in revenues collected annually from drunk driving convictions is still under review.
Town of Plymouth Supervisor Jerry L. Kreiner said he learned in committee last month that the discrepancies and potential distribution violations he presented in January would be discussed in a meeting between Chenango County Board Chairman Richard B. Decker and a representative of the New York State Association of Traffic Safety Boards.
“Jerry had some concerns that I felt needed to be answered. We are going to review the processes that the (Stop DWI) coordinator and the traffic board use to develop their budget and how they present it to the Safety and Rules Committee,” said Decker.
“I’m anxiously awaiting an invitation to that meeting,” said Kreiner.
Kreiner said nothing to his knowledge had transpired with the Stop DWI department or its funding policies since he first questioned them. As requested, he provided a detailed document listing his concerns, which included evidence that would preclude the Chenango County Traffic Safety Board from legislating the spending of drunk driving revenues. He further told the committee that Stop DWI’s charter mandates that its coordinator not be in law enforcement. The fact that some of the traffic board’s 15 members are retired and current police officers represents a conflict of interest, he said.
“They (board members) shouldn’t be voting on requests,” said Kreiner in January. “It’s this committee’s job to determine where the money is spent, not the Traffic Safety Board’s to hold votes.”
His concern, he said, is that 100 percent of the fines generated by the municipal courts are returned to the county as Stop DWI funds, but those funds are not being distributed back to the towns appropriately.
Kreiner said his research found “many issues that ought to be straightened out,” including board minutes that were difficult to obtain; board minutes that had been revised to omit funding for a computer for the Probation Department; overdue department budgets; $2,000 in Stop DWI revenues that were used for Chenango County Drug Court graduation ceremonies, including catering and engraved watches for graduates; a Norwich Firefighter’s fireworks display paid for with revenues; and reimbursements for a trip to a Drug Court event in Buffalo that the county’s public defender took.
Stop DWI Coordinator Jan Miles said Tuesday that she has been able to devote more time to preparing and distributing the organization’s minutes on time and had her computer repaired. She hoped to be invited to the meeting as well.
Traffic Safety Board Chairman Harold Ives said the board only provides advice to the Stop DWI coordinator. “We don’t legislate, nor do we intend to.”
Plymouth’s request in August 2008 for $800 per year for a software maintenance program was denied in November. Committee Chairman Alton B. Doyle said there would be “no way” all 21 townships in the county could annually receive the amount of money ($16,800 a year) to have the maintenance program in question. All but four towns currently have the New York State CourtRoom electronic tracking system.
Kreiner also said he was not notified within a reasonable amount of time to appear before the board to present Plymouth’s request (a step in the process that he questioned) and, when he attended a second meeting, was surprised to find that business was conducted at a restaurant.
“These meetings should be held in the County Office Building to make it easier to get information. They should be public,” he said.
Stop DWI revenues have been used to afford patrol cars for the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Norwich, the Village of Greene and the Town of Sherburne. Revenues have also been used for a camera for the New York State Police and to offset the cost for an assistant in the Chenango County District Attorney’s Office.