State cuts spark local debate over youth court

WASILLA -- The State of Alaska Department of Education denied a grant request from Mat-Su Youth Court for $40,000. That rejection was the biggest of a few recent cuts to the program that have sparked discussion locally about who ought to be paying for the youth court. Grants to the program were rejected on more than one front. Mat-Su Youth Court's current budget deficit is $70,000 to $80,000 dollars, according to program coordinator Lisa Albert-Konecky. The deficit is about half of youth court's budget.

The city of Wasilla has been carrying Mat-Su Youth Court on its budget as a city department. The Mat-Su Borough and city of Palmer also fund youth court, but the bulk of youth court's funding comes from state grant sources. Mat-Su Youth Court is a nonprofit with a board of directors, but has not established itself as an independent agency. Instead, the program operates under the auspices of the city of Wasilla, which has the legal ability to accept and spend grants on behalf of the program.

The youth court's adult administrators -- the equivalent of 2-1/2 full-time positions -- are technically city employees and their offices are in Wasilla city hall. Those and other "in-kind" services provided by Wasilla -- such as accounting, telephone and insurance -- make up about $45,000 per year of youth court's $160,000 annual budget. The borough contributed $20,000 last year, about 12 percent of the program's budget. The city of Palmer contributed $4,000. The Palmer number was based on how many teen-agers who reside within Palmer city limits participated in the program.

"The dilemma has always been; is this a city function or is this a school district function?" Mayor Sarah Palin said during a city council budget session Monday. "The issue should be a little bit heightened as we face this [budget cut]," Palin said.

Albert-Konecky, and Wasilla police chief Don Savage both said last week that they were researching ways to appeal the education department's decision. By this week the appeal seemed dead in the water.

"The state wants these programs to be funded locally," Albert-Konecky said Tuesday at a Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting. Youth Court was not on the assembly's agenda Tuesday, and after waiting through other assembly business for the open-ended "person's to be heard" agenda item, Albert-Konecky and a small group of youth court supporters left, but said they would return Thursday night. This newspaper went to press Thursday morning, so reporting on that lobbying effort cannot be included here.

Youth court administrators met with Mat-Su Borough School District administrators about finding a home for the program there. That solution seems unlikely because it would require the school district to take on youth court's staff as district employees, according to Albert-Konecky.

Anyone searching for local funding for Mat-Su Youth Court will have to clear the political hurdles associated with the overlapping jurisdictions of the borough and two cities and of election-year politics. This is apparent whenever borough assembly member Dan Kelly speaks before the Wasilla city council on any issue in which Wasilla and the borough share responsibilities. Kelly is a candidate for mayor of Wasilla, a race that will be on the city's October ballot.

Kelly told the city council Tuesday that it wasn't likely that the borough assembly would commit to more than the $20,000 it gave to youth court last year. He also said youth court was asked last year to prove that it could raise money on its own.

"We told them not to come back year after year unless they could show that they could go out and raise some of that money on their own," Kelly said, adding that he couldn't predict how much money the assembly would commit.

Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and city council member Dianne Keller both asked Kelly to request more funds. Kelly said he would at the appropriate time in the budget process. Kelly also said he thinks cities are the appropriate place for the program to seek funding.

"[Wasilla and Palmer] receive [sales] taxes from a large group of people that are not living in the cities," Kelly said. Kelly said the borough assembly was trying to make budget cuts on a number of fronts and he didn't think it was appropriate for people outside the core area to pay for the program.

"I just want you to know that it's not Dan Kelly telling you 'no,' it's just that there's a struggle that is there," Kelly said.

Mat-Su Youth court's board members include local attorneys, two judges and members of the law enforcement community. Retired school principal Peter Burchell is also a member of youth court's board. Burchell -- who is running as an independent candidate for State House district 14 G -- plans to lobby the borough assembly for increased funds.

Burchell said his message has two themes. First, during the last 15 years the borough has funded a number of agencies targeting adolescents and children, such as the two alternative schools, Saxton Youth Shelter and The Children's Place. Burchell said it's also appropriate for local governments to fund Mat-Su Youth Court. Burchell's second theme is "pay now or pay later," he said.

Programs for children and adolescents offer early intervention that could keep adolescents out of detention facilities such as the Mat-Su Youth Facility in Palmer and McLaughlin Youth Center in Anchorage. Between room and board and education those detention facilities cost around $70,000 per inmate per year, according to Burchell. These figures may not be far off according to Ray Michaelson, superintendent of Mat-Su Youth Facility. Michaelson said it costs $125 per inmate per day for room and board at that facility. Michaelson added that educational programs for the facility are provided by Mat-Su schools -- another $66 per day for education and counseling would bring the total to about $70,000 per year.

"I can send any of these kids to Harvard for the same price as McLaughlin," Burchell said.

The youth court's budget -- prepared by City of Wasilla accountants -- includes breakouts of in-kind donations, which, while not exactly money, do count as revenue toward the program's bottom line. Wasilla's $40,000 in-kind contribution appears there along with a contribution of $12,500 for courtroom space from the Palmer District Court for youth court trials. Perhaps more interesting is the value placed on volunteer time contributed by teen-age members of the youth court. The kids who prosecute, defend and sentence their peers volunteered time worth $15,500 last year.

Last weekend some of those same volunteers held a car wash for the $160,000 program at the Wasilla Police department. They raised $580, which is about .0036 percent of the program's budget.