Human Services Board Meeting

hsbminutesnov2011.pdf (25 KB)

MINUTES
SAUK COUNTY BOARD OF HUMAN SERVICES

Meeting: November 7, 2011, 5:00 p.m., County Board Gallery, Baraboo, WI

Members Present: Alexander, Bowers, Dippel, Fordham, Stoeckmann, Vertein, Lombard

Members Excused: Fabisiak, Sinklair

Members Absent: None

Others Present: Orth, Brattset, Box

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

Motion by Bowers, seconded by Dippel to adopt the agenda. Motion Carried.

Motion by Lombard, seconded by Bowers to approve minutes of the previous meeting. Motion Carried.

Public Comment
None.

Communications:
Orth read a letter from a consumer which was commending social worker, Mary Sorenson for services to this individual’s mother. Bowers indicated to please tell Mary Sorenson thanks for the good job.

Business Items:

A. Review and Approval of Monthly Vouchers: Box reviewed the monthly voucher report. Salary and Benefits were down due to decreased pay checks in this time period. Administrative line was down due to last month’s payments. Community Living and Support was down due to decrease CLTS Waiver expenses to third party payors chanding. Community Residential was down due to several provider adjustments and payments. Community Treatment was down due to holding a payment to a provider due to staffing shortage. Institutions were down due to decreased Winnebago/Mendota and expenses to UW Hospital which occurred last month, but did not occur this month. Energy Services were decreased due to last month paying three months. Motion by Stoeckmann, seconded by Vertein to approve vouchers in the amount of $944,263.87. Discussion: Bowers asked if the Institution funds reflected in the Monthly Voucher Report is accurate compared to budget? Orth indicated that yes, it is accurate, but Box noted overall budget for the year may not be as noted in the Monthly Voucher reports as there is somewhat of a delay in Institutional bills. Bowers as if W-2 was over this month? Box indicated not really due to expenses which are reimbursed later and not reflected in the voucher report. Motion Carried.

Department Updates:

A. Income Maintenance Regionalization: Orth spoke about WCHSA negotiations and contract with the state. A response to a draft will occur within several days. Orth reported that there are some problem issues to include that the State wants a single audit for each consortium when the counties already do these audits, counties want performance standards to be monitored for three to six months and be advisory as opposed to penalties, the county has asked for language which would allow for 30 day notice for the potential of discontinuation of services and also disputes with an administrative review process plus a Circuit Court option rather than just administrative review with the Secretary of the Department. After discussions on these issues there would be a face to face meeting with DHS and WCHSA to discuss these issues. WCA/WCHSA will have a meeting on December 4 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the Mead Hotel in Wisconsin Rapids to discuss Income Maintenanace contract details.

B. TMG Committee: The report on the progress of the TMG Ad Hoc Committee will occur after the next meeting( 12/6/11) . There was a motion made and tabled at the last TMG Ad Hoc Committee meeting to maintain Board Committees and to consider empowering the functional group to work in a way that focuses on Departmental collaborations.


C. WCA Legislator’s Day: Lombard reported having attended the WCA Legislator’s Day. Two issues that were discussed were: Income Maintenance and Child Support funding. Lombard further indicated that she wrote five to six follow up letters following the meeting and subsequent thank you notes which also reviewed the discussions and summary that they had made at the Legislator’s Day. Lombard indicated that it was well worth attending overall.

D. Department Staffing Changes: Orth reported that two Economic Support Workers had transferred from Economic Support. One worker went to Human Services Access, and one worker went to the ADRC. This opened for an Administrative Support Staff to post for the Economic Support Worker position. In addition, one person posted to the other position from the Clerk of Courts. Lastly, the Support position which was assigned to Economic Support will be retracted back to the Administrative Support role within the agency and Orth noted a project position for an Economic Support Worker will be pursued. This will result in an increase in federal reimbursement rates and will save approximately $6,000 of levy costs.

E. 2012 Budget Proposal: Orth noted some concern over the proposal to attach 3% vacancy rate to the four largest departments in the county, rather than having the county, in general, maintain this factor. This move could take about $141,000 out of the Human Services budget. This is not good in that it could present a challenging fiscal picture given the volatile lines that Human Services deals with. Fordham noted that the issues has been brought up before and the effort to make this change is different for each department with no real benefit to the county. She indicates if having one pool for the county works, why change it at this time, with no anticipated benefit.

The next meeting of the Sauk County Human Services Board is scheduled for Monday, December 5, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Motion by Bowers, seconded by Stoeckmann to adjourn. Motion Carried.




Andrea Lombard