Human Services Board

hsbminutesmay2013.pdf (31 KB)

MINUTES
SAUK COUNTY BOARD OF HUMAN SERVICES

Meeting: May 6, 2013, 5:00 p.m., County Board Gallery, Baraboo, WI

Members Present: Scott Alexander, James Bowers, Beverly Vertein, Andrea Lombard, John Miller, Thomas Kriegl, Ruth Dawson

Members Excused: None

Members Absent: Mark Detter

Others Present: Orth, Brattset, Box

Chair Alexander called the meeting to order and certified compliance with the Open Meeting Law.

Motion by James Bowers, seconded by Thomas Kriegl to adopt the agenda.  Motion Carried.

Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by Ruth Dawson to approve minutes of the previous meeting.  Motion Carried. 

Public Comment
None

Communications:  
None     

Business Items:

A. Review and Approve Monthly Vouchers:  Box distributed the Monthly Voucher Report (see attached), and noted that Administration was up due to payment of the Hope House annual contribution.  Institutions were down due to Mendota/Winnebago credit for referrals received.  Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by James Bowers to approve the Monthly Vouchers in the amount of $950,987.62.  Motion Carried.

B. Quarterly Reports:  Box distributed the 2013 Alternate Care Statistics (see attached) and reviewed budget compared to actual.  Total alternative care and regular foster care, treatment foster care, as well as juvenile corrections.  James Bowers indicated that 2013 numbers appear low.  What is the downside of this?  Orth indicated these are volatile lines, but they are good numbers at this time.  Credit to staff in their efforts to keep children and families in the community.  At this time the monthly volatile line appears to be at budget, for the most part.     

C. Final Year End:  Box distributed the final year-end report (see attached).  The report is post audit including a favorable total of $1,406,486.51 with 2012 remaining carry over minus carry forward requests approved equaling $1,058,761.51.  Ruth Dawson asked where insurance coverage for employees would be listed.  Box indicated this would be on the Salary and Benefits computation and would be reflected in the total carry forward.   

D. Presentation-Youth Services Unit-Tim Green:  Tim Green presented on Youth Services and reviewed services as well as community based services.  Tim Green spoke about the statutory requirements in addition to staffing configurations in order to deliver services.  Evidence based practice, including COMPAS assessment was discussed.  Andrea Lombard asked about COMPAS being state funded.  Orth and Tim Green indicated that it is a state funded initiative at this time.  John Miller spoke about school and the Sauk County Adolescent Needs Program (SCAN) and Tim Green reviewed the general population and census in this program.  Tim Green reiterated that there are many intelligent kids that have made bad decisions but in recent years there seems to be an increase state-wide of younger mentally ill challenged special education children.  The relative age in SCAN is much younger, as reported by Tim Green.  James Bowers spoke briefly about education and changes in school services regarding mental health issues and reiterated that the earlier treatment is obtained the better it is.  James Bowers also talked about efforts in the school system that have been effective with fifth and sixth graders doing better when they go to middle school.   Thomas Kriegl asked about reducing numbers on juvenile delinquency as having an impact in the adult system to include a reduction of incarcerated adults.  Thomas Kriegl also spoke about the LaCrosse program and the challenging ages of 18-20 as individuals transition to adults, which is a critical issue.  Tim Green spoke about transitional skills and attempting to work with youth as they go through this process as a goal for the future as it applies to evidence based practices.  Ruth Dawson asked if the COMPAS programs were evidence based?  Tim Green indicated that the COMPAS assessment is an instrument that is the basis for evidenced based practice recommendations.  

E. Resolution Commending Mary Stout:  Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by Ruth Dawson to approve the resolution commending Mary Stout (see attached).  Motion Carried  (James Bowers was absent during this motion).   

F. Resolution Commending Karen Fabisiak:  Motion by Thomas Kriegl, seconded by John Miller to approve the resolution commending Karen Fabisiak (see attached).  Motion Carried  (James Bowers was absent during this motion).

G. Governor Walker’s Decision Regarding Enhanced Federal Medicaid Funding-Supervisor John Dietz:  John Dietz approached the Board and spoke about wanting to have a resolution regarding the Governor’s decision to opt out of Enhanced Federal Medicaid Funding.  This would cost the state about $100,000,000 in the first biennium and possibly as much as $400,000,000 in four years.  John Dietz described that in other states, such as Arizona, they have evaluated this and have revised their decision to opt out of federal payments.  In addition, these states have drafted a clause that if the federal government was to decline payment in the future that the state would not assume financial responsibility for this federal government fiscal obligation.  John Dietz further described that there is an assumption that many people will not reach poverty level and it will increase the number of uninsured.  He further explained that counties could potentially draft and adopt a resolution to forward to the Governor’s office which would state that they would encourage the Governor to accept the federal Medicaid dollars.  Andrea Lombard indicated that she could not support this in any way with the federal debt at 16 to 17 trillion dollars.  She stated that she has little faith that residents would be served better if these monies were accepted from the federal government.  Obamacare will force middle class to pay more of the bill.  Thomas Kriegl indicated that he thought Andrea Lombard was misguided in regards to the federal debt as there needs to be a view of the long term fiscal picture of the debt as compared to Gross National Product (GNP), and when this is done, it is considerably lower than as is projected.  In addition, Thomas Kriegl indicated the federal debt should not be the reason to not support this initiative to have the Governor accept the federal dollars. Andrea Lombard noted that this is a three year funding and the program will grow, therefore the state will have to get more dollars.  Ruth Dawson indicated that Wisconsin has an extremely liberal Medicaid plan and it is the Governor’s desire not to have people dependent on the government.  Motion by Thomas Kriegl, seconded by James Bowers to have Orth work on a resolution to have the Governor accept federal Medicaid dollars through the state.  Roll call vote:  James Bowers, aye; Scott Alexander, aye; Beverly Vertein, aye; Andrea Lombard, nay; John Miller, aye; Ruth Dawson, nay; Thomas Kriegl, aye.  Motion Carried.  

Department Updates

A. Human Services Redesign:  Orth referred to the enclosed handouts explaining Human Services Redesign proposal (see attached).  He spoke about state-wide revision of Human Services to allow counties to work closer together.  Andrea Lombard expressed concern that it is dependent on the counties now, but it could be mandated at some point.  Orth indicated that the language is focused on being the choice of the county and that this is a better option than what is currently occurring.  Examples of which include the Economic Support redesign.  

B. Human Services Collaborative:  Orth spoke about the concept paper at the state level collaborative (see attached).  This will be considered by WCHSA.  Thomas Kriegl indicated that this looks like a good model to get input from all parties collaboratively.    

C. County Wide Strategic Planning-Mid Term Assessment:   Brattset spoke about the strategic planning exercise completed by the county board.  The items submitted by the Human Services Department had high priority as rated by the full county board.  Further actions by the county board will attempt to differentiate which initiatives and begin to speak about specific action plans as it relates to presenting these to Departments. 

D. WCA Call for Resolutions:  Please see attached Human Services Resolution referenced in handout.

E. Human Services Day:  Orth indicated that he thought the day went well. Senators Schultz and Brooks were present.  Other Senators had staff who were very attentive in discussing issues.  Andrea Lombard indicated that Bill Orth from Human Services and Tom from Child Support spoke on departmental issues respectively.  Andrea Lombard further reiterated that she thought the process went well. 

F. Citizen Member Vacancy:  Orth spoke about Julie Fleming, a retired school social worker with Reedsburg and a licensed clinical social worker, having submitted her name for being accepted as a citizen member on the Sauk County Department of Human Services Board.   Motion by Beverly Vertein, seconded by James Bowers to accept Julie Fleming to be a citizen member on the Human Services Board.  Motion Carried.   

The next meeting of the Sauk County Human Services Board will be June 10, 2013 at 5:00 P.M.  Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by James Bowers to adjourn.  Motion Carried.     

Ruth Dawson