Note: The raw transcript indicates the meeting was called to order on July 20, 2025, but the provided timestamp is July 28, 2025. The following summary uses the July 28 date as instructed.
The Butte-Silver Bow Study Commission met to hear from misdemeanor probation officers, discuss public outreach strategies, review draft materials, debate the structure of fire services, and set dates for open houses and a formal public hearing.
Okay, I'll call the July twentieth, twenty twenty-five meeting to order. And uh we don't have Kim Cohn here tonight to do our roll call, but if we could um please just go around and say your name and that you are here for the record. We'll start with you, Ms. Casey. Lori Casey. Cindy Purdue Dolan. Thank you. Um, Ms. Shaw and um Mr. Seppin are excused for tonight. So if we can have our Pledge of Allegiance and prayer States of America and for which it stands. Thank you, Kido. All right, well, thanks for having us first. My name is Mike, and this is Rachel. We are both misdemeanor probation officers. Um, we'll just kind of give you a little rundown of what we do. So misdemeanor probation for the youth silver bow was started in 2010. Um at the time it was placed under city court, and it started with one whole officer. So and it continued that way until what 2023? 2023. So then that's when Rachel joined. I started in 2019, Rachel in 2023. Um, so just the basics of probation. It's just a form of community supervision. Uh it's typically ordered by a judge at the time of sentencing is an alternative to incarceration, just keep people out of jails. Everybody knows how overcrowded it is. Um probation, it's designed to promote public safety while providing the probationer with an opportunity for rehabilitation. It's also intended to serve as a meaningful punishment that deters criminal behavior and to achieve cost savings, as I said in comparison to keeping people locked up. Um probationer is typically required to report to either myself or Rachel on a regular basis. Uh there's certain conditions, um, rules that they have to follow. So just an example, some are abstaining from alcohol and drug use. Uh they gotta obey all local, state, and federal laws, um, any kind of counseling that's court ordered. Um, examples are like domestic violence counseling, um, any kind of chemical dependency treatment, just things of that nature. Um, then we also supervise making sure people uh if they're ordered restitution for theft charges, uh criminal mischief charges, vandalism, stuff like that, so that way they pay, make whoever the victim is whole again. Um and a big part of it is community uh service. So a lot of times people instead of getting jail sanctions or sentenced to custody, they're released to us and they have to complete community service. So it's a way of giving back to the community. Um Rachel will kind of get into that a little bit more. Um we average probably 40 to 50 um per officer, so we're close to about 100 total people on probation, and that number's just going up. It's not slowing down. Um we also supervise the participants in the DUI court and the veterans treatment courts. Um another thing we do, you might have seen them around town is we place vehicle boots on cars, the vehicle mobilization devices. So that's we oversee that program as well. Um community service, Rachel tell you about that. So with the community service, we um oh I'm sorry. Hello. Okay, so with the community service, um, that was a main part of why my position was created. Um it provides alternative sentencings to reducing jail overcrowding and alternative alternatives for those who are indigent and cannot afford, have the ability to pay the fines. Um we've done a lot of um cleanups in neighborhoods, alleys, um, basically anywhere with outside services that need help. We've done the highway cleanups, we've done a lot of parks, um, the food and clothing drives.