Court services warns Clean Slate Act may create unintended, costly data gaps for risk assessments

Court Services staff told the committee that the Clean Slate Act — which eliminates certain records after a period without new arrests — could unintentionally remove records used in the county’s mandated pretrial risk assessments.

The administrator explained that the risk-assessment tool the office uses relies on a small number of questions, and the removal of past records (such as failures to appear or prior offenses) could change someone’s assessed supervision level. That change might render the current tool invalid or less predictive, creating additional workload and costs for the county to update assessment instruments or processes. The administrator characterized such outcomes as possible "unfunded mandates" because the county would have to absorb the cost of revising or validating tools after a law takes effect.

Board members pushed back and sought clarification about the statute’s intent and operational implications; staff said some consequences are only clear after implementation and data review. Several board members agreed the county should push back on unfunded mandates when possible and that committees should identify issues early, but the meeting concluded with no formal policy action on the Clean Slate Act itself.