Dane County  
Minutes - Final Unless Amended by  
Committee  
Commission on Sensitive Crimes  
Consider: Who benefits? Who is burdened?  
Who does not have a voice at the table?  
How can policymakers mitigate unintended consequences?  
Tuesday, November 19, 2024  
8:30 AM  
Hybrid Meeting: Attend in person at the  
Aging & Disability Resource Center  
or virtually via Zoom.  
A. Call To Order  
Call to Order: Chair Pellebon called the meeting to order at 8:33 AM  
Attendance: Joe Aguilar, Virginia Gittens-Escudero, Nela Kalpic, Jennifer  
Ginsburg, Interim DCDHS Director Astra Iheukumere, Amy Scarr, and Priscilla  
McCarthy  
9 -  
Present  
SHANNON BARRY, AMY BROWN, BETH FREEMAN, VANESSA STATAM, DANA  
PELLEBON, KRISTA EWERS-HAYES, ERIN WELSH, MOLLY CARADONNA, and  
MATTHEW NORDQUIST  
1 - SHARYL KATO  
Excused  
Absent  
1 - ANTHONY GRAY  
B. Consideration of Minutes  
MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 17, 2024  
2024  
MIN-281  
Attachments: Meeting Minutes 09.17.2024  
The Minutes were moved by BARRY, Seconded by FREEMAN to approve the Minutes.  
The motion passed by a voice vote (9-0).  
This resolution was approved  
C. Action Items  
D. Presentations  
1. 2025 Budget Discussion with County Executive Agard and DCDHS Interim Director  
Iheukumere  
County Executive Agard was unable to attend the meeting  
DCDHS Interim Director Astra Iheukumere spoke on the 2025 Human Services  
budget that passed through the Dane County Board of Supervisors and the  
Dane County Executive's Office. The highlights of the budget included  
Disability and Aging Services, Housing Access and Authority, Language  
Access Coordination and Employee Health Records in Human Services.  
E. Reports to Committee  
1. Agency Updates  
Nordquist reported for Madison Police Department they are looking to move  
to a specialty model, they will now have an individual unit Sensitive Crimes/  
Family Justice East side and West side. Lt. Nordquist will be falling off of the  
Commission and Lt. Greg Esser will now be on the COSC representing MPD.  
Welsh reported for Health and Human Needs Committee they will be looking  
at getting housing contracts in place this year. We will carefully watch what  
HHN does for Housing Navigation this year.  
Gittens Escudero reported for UNIDOS, they are preparing for next year, they  
are fully staffed and going through the budget process and meeting with  
leaders in the Latino community and are looking to do more with the  
community this year.  
Brown reported for the DA's office, they are training new hires in the Victim  
Witness area, LTE crime response specialist has been posted. CARES team is  
doing a lunch and learn program during November. Revisiting Hate Crimes  
policies and procedures, looking at a T Visa program for Human Trafficking  
victims, seeing if this is something we can bring to Dane County. The Alliant  
Energy Center held a Mass Violence Preparedness and planning team,  
survivors from the Parkland School Shooting were there to help.  
Barry reported for DAiS, fully staffed on Programming Side, hiring for a  
Development Officer to help fundraising services. Releasing a new court  
watch report the first week of December, there have been some concerning  
things with judges this year (Ex: Judges not following through with stat.  
requirements with injunctions but have also seen positive changes as well).  
Planning for 2025, hopefully passing budget soon and are able to minimize  
staffing cuts and reorganizing. 2026 will be a challenging program year as  
funding will diminish.  
Statam reported for Anesis, discussing the outcome of the election within the  
community. Central Hispano is partnering to help with home ownership. They  
are working on how to support community members with new needs and  
changes to crisis drop in services so community members can connect to  
Anesis.  
Caradonna reported for UW-Madison (Chancellor's Office), launched the  
campus CCR, watching what happens with the Dept. of Education after the  
new president is in office. Increased focus on violence prevention training in  
the community. Student Government and UW are looking to hire two mental  
health providers and hope to be hired in December.  
Ewers-Hayes reported for Dane County Sheriff's Office, Amendment proposed  
for a new Human Trafficking Detective provider. Collaborations are  
happening with smaller office's to ensure that victims are being paired with  
Victim Services Providers. Threats of mass deportation are being discussed  
within the department and in the community.  
Scarr reported for Domestic Violence in Later Life Conference was on  
November 1, 2024 (350 attending), and had a great program about Safety  
Planning that was needed in the community. 2025 planning is focused on  
Financial Abuse Specialist Team and are hoping to expand FAST to five  
different areas in WI. Hoarding Abuse Task Force is taking a step back and  
seeing if they still need to meet or are these needs already being met  
internally.  
Freeman reported for Adult Protective Services, expansion for APS is greatly  
appreciated, they are looking to hire many new positions. APS is moving to  
the Aging and Disability Resource Center, all of DAS should be housed  
together now (except disability services). Victim advocates are fully funded  
by levy funds, so there are positions that we will not be in danger of losing.  
Dementia stabilization unit will hopefully grow over the next few years, we  
don't have a great comprehensive response in place now and are feeling the  
effect of the community.  
Pellebon reported for RCC, are working to expand the 2025 budget to include  
expansion for Mental Health specialist, full client services director, a couple  
advocate positions they are still working on filling. CCR for SA/DV is not  
meeting until January, working on a plan for next year and what topics to  
meet on.  
2. CCR Updates  
CCR Updates are added in under Agency Updates per Chair Pellebon's Request  
3. Legislative Announcements/ Updates  
Welsh reported for the Department Of Justice (She is the Deputy Director of  
Office of Crime Victim Services), the DOJ budget will go fourth to the  
governor will request for budget to the Legislature. Victim Service funding  
(approx. 66 million), the reason this is higher is because of the VOCA funding  
reductions on a federal level. Seeking for State of WI to step in and make up  
for reductions on a federal level, it may not increase in the future. The state  
has been able to award 26 million for funding and it's now down to 13 million  
over the next 3 years, statewide agencies are feeling this cut deeply. Hoping  
to get support on this topic and continue stressing this is needed for all victim  
services. This will carry over and give stress to other areas of victim services.  
F. Future Meeting Items and Dates  
1. Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 8:30 AM  
G. Public Comment on Items not on the Agenda  
H. Such Other Business as Allowed by Law  
Chair Pellebon spoke on an alarming issue: there has been an individual who is making  
claims of Sex Trafficking that include the head of certain organizations, members of the  
COSC have been mentioned in these claims. Chair Pellebon has spoke to Law  
Enforcement about these accusations and is working with LE to keep the members safe  
and keeping the individual out of the system if possible.  
Erin Welsh has nominated herself to be the Co Chair, we will vote on this in  
January. We will also be looking at what do we need to focus on in 2025 and  
what can we have as actionable items? Looking at including the DCDHS Director  
more throughout the year instead of the end of year budget update.  
I. Adjourn  
A motion was made by FREEMAN, Seconded by BROWN, that the meeting be  
adjourned at 9:34 AM  
This resolution was adjourned  
Minutes respectfully submitted by Priscilla McCarthy, Pending Commission approval