Sedgwick County budget recommendations include funds to reopen boys ranch or alternative options

Retiring Sedgwick County manager William Buchanan presented a list of preliminary budget recommendations for 2016 Tuesday that included money to treat juvenile offenders inside the county.

The document says it would cost $1.9 million to either reopen the Judge Riddel Boys Ranch or to pay another provider to operate a youth residential center.

It also offers an alternative program for youth offenders in light of changing juvenile justice policies from the Kansas Department of Corrections and the 2016 Legislature.

With the alternative program, Buchanan said, the county would hire a couple of employees or a small team to deliver behavioral programs for all correctional youths in Sedgwick County. It would cost about $1.4 million less than reopening the boys ranch, which the county closed last year.

An alternative program “ensures that (one person) gets the appropriate amount of dosage and intensity different than what (another person) gets,” Buchanan said after the meeting. “You address each issue appropriately, and not one size fits all.”

The county is awaiting updated policies from the Legislature on the juvenile justice system, Buchanan said, so the alternative program would be temporary until more information becomes available.

Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Richard Ranzau, who supports reopening the boys ranch near Lake Afton, said he would like to see more details about the alternative program.

“To me, it could be a very innovative, exciting way to address the issue,” Ranzau said after the meeting.

Ranzau said he doesn’t see any immediate problems with the proposal but that the commissioners will work through it as they approach the budget adoption date in August. As for the youth residential center program, he said he values both in-home and out-of-home services for youth offenders.

“Both are necessary,” Ranzau said. “Sometimes the home is the problem. Sometimes kids need to be drawn out. We have to approach the problem from multiple aspects.

“Of course, in-home can be less expense, but at the same time, we want those out-of-home placements to be as effective as possible.”

Commissioner Tim Norton voted to close the boys ranch two years ago because, he said, the state was cutting its support for the program and because the county was putting significant amounts of money into repairs.

“We know there’s probably times when the family situations … is what cause the problem in the first place,” Norton said. “I tend to lean toward the family engagement model, keeping them in their homes.

“I think there’s plenty of placement beds if we really need them for somebody that just needs more supervision than they can get at home.”

For now, Norton said, debate on options for the youth residential center will continue.

“I’m willing to debate and talk about it,” he said. “I never want to shut that down. I just see a different way of handling the problem.”

Buchanan’s list of budget recommendations comes early, partly because he retires next week from his position of 24 years and partly because the commissioners wanted to participate in the budget process earlier, he said.

“I thought it might be helpful to present this to you so that you have some concepts and real concrete proposals,” Buchanan told commissioners at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

The commissioners said they were thankful to have a framework for the budget, which will be shepherded by acting county manager Ron Holt until a new manager is hired.

The county staff will present a recommended budget July 15 and commissioners will host a public hearing July 29. A second public hearing will be Aug. 6, and the final budget will be adopted Aug. 12.

The recommendations also include $3 million for a law enforcement training center that would combine the training of the sheriff’s office with the Wichita Police Department. So far, the county has discussed moving its aging training facility to soon-to-be-vacated Southeast High School; Wichita State University, possibly as part of WSU’s Innovation Campus; or the National Guard building near the I-135 and K-96 interchange.

The training center was originally designated to cost $30 million, with the city and the county each paying half of that total. But a down economy led the city and the county to consider other options.

“The training needs to be together,” Buchanan told commissioners. “There’s benefits to sheriff and city training together.”

To reduce a projected $10.3 million deficit in 2016, the recommendations include a one-time reduction in workers’ compensation charges, which would cut $741,695, as well as the elimination of Affordable Airfares funding – the county’s subsidy for low-cost carriers, specifically Southwest Airlines – which would save $875,000.

The proposal also would eliminate funding for three Metropolitan Area Planning Department programs, which totals $150,290. The programs are historic preservation, environmental review, and bicycle and pedestrian master plan implementation; the city will be the sole provider of funds to those programs.

To increase revenue, Buchanan recommends transport rate increases for emergency medical services and fee increases for pathology and toxicology services at Sedgwick County’s Regional Forensic Science Center requested by out-of-county agencies.

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 10:23 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County budget recommendations include funds to reopen boys ranch or alternative options."