The Sauk County Board is slated to consider the creation of a new committee that would oversee and coordinate the county’s criminal justice system into the future.

During its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night, the board will consider a resolution that would establish a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.

Last year the board formed a panel of local officials and county supervisors that was asked to study the county’s justice system and make recommendations for improvements.

The group, which began to hold meetings in September, determined that in order to qualify for grant funding, the county must create a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. The new panel would include a wider array of representatives from the justice system.

The council would consist of three board members, a circuit court judge, the public defender’s office, a probation officer, a school district representative, a domestic violence professional, a local police chief, a physician or nurse familiar with addiction issues, a private defense attorney, a citizen at large, and designees of the sheriff and human services director.

The group hopes to incorporate programs that have been statistically proven to rates of recidivism. Such programs typically involve treatment for offenders with drug or alcohol problems as an alternative to incarceration.

The county board has set aside $150,000 for planning and startup costs associated with the justice panel’s recommendations.

Pay increase for officials

The board also will consider a proposal by its finance and personnel committees to provide 2 percent raises to three elected county officials in each of the next four years.

The proposal would bring the salary for the clerk of courts from $62,932 to $68,121. The coroner’s salary would rise from $50,648 to $54,823. And the sheriff’s salary would increase from $84,413 to $91,371 over the next four years.

The county board voted in 2010 to freeze the salaries of the three partisan offices through their current term. The proposal up for consideration Tuesday also would decrease the three officials’ health care contributions from 15 percent to 12 percent.

In other business Tuesday night, the Sauk County Board may take action on:

• The adoption of fees for the county’s Aging and Disability Resource Center.
• Approving the repeal and recreation of the Town of Fairfield’s zoning ordinance.
• An intergovernmental agreement and bylaws for the newly formed Great Sauk Trail Commission.
• Accepting donations to the county of more than $93,000 as well as non-monetary gifts.
• Authorizing the Sauk County Treasurer to convert a limited time accounting assistant position to a full-time accounting assistant.
• The adoption of an updated comprehensive Sauk County outdoor recreation plan.
• The authorization of a $62,000 state grant that will require a $12,000 match from the county to fund a human services program designed to assist the families of troubled children.
• The authorization of a $279,500 contract with Intrado, a Colorado firm, for the purchase and installation of a new 911 system. The expense was budgeted for 2014.
• The authorization of a nearly $15,000 contract with Revcord for the purchase and installation of a 911 recording system.
• The renewal of a nearly $411,000 contract with the United States Department of Agriculture for the lease of office space in the county’s West Square Building in Baraboo.
• The authorization of a nearly $150,000 contract with MSA Professional Services of Baraboo for maintenance and water monitoring services at the old Sauk County Landfill.
• The acceptance of a $5,000 offer by the Town of Franklin to purchase a 15-acre parcel within the town that the county took ownership of due to $3,000 of back owed taxes.