Human Services Committee

hsbminutesjune2014.pdf (31 KB)

MINUTES

SAUK COUNTY BOARD OF HUMAN SERVICES

Meeting:                                            June 9, 2014, 5:00 p.m., Room 213, West Square Building, Baraboo, WI

Members Present:                            Scott Alexander, Andrea Lombard, Joan Fordham, Peter Vedro, Thomas Kriegl, James Bowers, Beverly Vertein, Julie Fleming

Members Excused:                          John Miller

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 Joan Fordham, seconded by Andrea Lombard to adopt agenda.  Motion Carried.

Motion by Scott Alexander, seconded by Beverly Vertein to approve minutes of the previous Finance Subcommittee meeting on May 5, 2014.  Motion Carried.

Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by Joan Fordham to approve minutes of the previous Human Services Board meeting.  Discussion.  Peter Vedro requested for future agendas if there are action items could the agenda be arranged to accommodate if he needs to leave early.  This will happen on a rare occasion.  In addition, Peter Vedro noted that the previous board meeting minutes reflect that he left at 5:50 p.m. on May 5, 2014.  Motion Carried.

Public Comment

Cindy Jones, Sauk County Department of Human Services CSP social worker spoke briefly about encouraging board members to vote yes on the compensation study.

Communication

Mental Health/Substance Abuse Assessment:  Brattset briefly reviewed the prototype for the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Assessment being developed for use in the electronic medical record.

Mental Illness and Violence Article:  Orth referenced an article by Dr. Bill Swift, consulting Child Psychiatrist and a number of board members commented on how good this article was.

Business Items:

Review and Approve Monthly Vouchers:  Box distributed and reviewed the monthly voucher report (see attached).  Several line items were explained.  Motion by Beverly Vertein, seconded by James Bowers to approve the monthly vouchers in the amount of $985,039.20.  Motion Carried.

Accounts Receivable Report:  Box reviewed the Accounts Receivable Report (see attached), including overall summary, Collections, and graphs for aged Accounts Receivable and Accounts Receivable by Funding Source.

Approval for Collection Requests:  Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by James Bowers to send 19 accounts to Credit Management Control in the amount of $7,746.00.  Motion Carried.

Monthly Reports:  Box reviewed the 2014 Alternate Care Statistics Report (see attached) and Volatile Line Report.  General discussion of early intervention and cost effectiveness as well as better outcomes reflected in the report.

Year End Final Numbers:  Box distributed the 2013 Year End Final Total Agency Summary.  Explanation of revenues and expenses that made up the final 2013 year end favorable balance of $2,541,119.48 was given.

Transfer to General Fund:  Motion by Andrea Lombard, seconded by Joan Fordham to return $2,541,119.48 to the General Fund.  Discussion.  Thomas Kriegl asked if a share of the carry forward go toward homelessness programming.  Orth stated that in the 2015 budget a proposal which will be reviewed in July 2014 at the Human Services Board will be proposed.  This will be built into the 2015 budget.  Further discussion occurred.  Joan Fordham indicated that if a request were put from the carry forward in 2014 it would require full board action.  Motion Carried.

Approve 2014 Purchase of Service Contracts:  Box reviewed the 2014 Purchase of Service Contracts (see attached).  Motion by Joan Fordham, seconded by Peter Vedro to approve contracts as noted in 2014 Contract Report.  Motion Carried.

Appoint Rick McKellar to the CCS Coordinating Committee:  Orth noted that the CCS Program requires a Coordinating Committee with consumer participation.  Motion by Beverly Vertein, seconded by James Bowers to approve Rick McKellar to the CCS Coordinating Committee.  Motion Carried.

2015 Budget – Programs and Priorities Review:  Orth reviewed Form 1 (from packet).  Each service area was reviewed with discussion of priority for each area.  These included:  AODA, Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (this may include additional departmental resources to support this project), Crisis Program (no anticipated changes), CCS (continues to grow with full reimbursement projected to occur 7/1/14), Kinship (maintain as currently used), Energy Assistance (projected to remain the same), W2 (no longer at Human Services), FSET (regionalized by State), Child Care (maintain as previous years), Income Maintenance (increase resources for next year, possibly by 1.0 FTE), Birth-3 (continue as provided), Family Support (continue as provided), CLTS (Board was reminded of increase 1.0 FTE in 2014 with full use of resources and should diminish waiting list), CSP (maintain with transferring of some cases to Comprehensive Community Services-CCS), Alternate Care (increase services in some areas, but decrease institutionalization), Family Partnership Initiative (maintain as contracted with Lutheran Social Services), Resource/Access (no changes anticipated), Supportive Home Care (no changes anticipated), Community Options Program-COP (no anticipated changes), Long Term Support/Adult Protective Services (no anticipated changes), Youth Services (no changes, but possibility of returning 17 year-old with potential increase in resources from state to support this), Child Protective Services (may need increase in resources due to projected five year increase in cases served, anticipated potential 1.0 FTE increase), Families Come First (continues with no changes other than infusion of state grant-$60,000 for increase in service delivery in this program), Family Care (stable with buy down contribution).  Economic Support – Orth reported that there has been significant turnover, seven positions in the last three years and three positions in the last several months.  This has resulted in a challenge to provide services in a timely and accurate manner.  Orth explained that it takes about a year to fully train Economic Support workers and to fill caseloads.  Caseloads are still about 800 and the supervisor has been overwhelmed as a result of this situation and replacing these positions.  Orth noted that the Dane County Consortium will provide some assistance in the near future, however, they do not do Family Care cases, but can help with other cases until staff are trained.  Orth indicated that for 2015, he will consider a 1.0 FTE increase which would consist of 50% supervisor and 50% caseload.  Furthermore, Orth indicated that there is a priority for nursing home cases and that a newer worker is doing better with these and the plan is to get through cases and new workers will be able to handle issues as they get to a higher level of expertise.  Some discussion occurred about perhaps increasing more than 1.0 FTE.  Orth indicated that he would like to build 1.0 FTE increase into the 2015 budget and allow staff to develop a higher degree of expertise to prior to increasing FTE to more than 1.0.  This can be monitored throughout that year.

Department Updates:

Shared School Social Worker Position:  Orth spoke about the email that he had forwarded to Peter Vedro regarding the social worker position.  Peter Vedro indicated that the position has been filled, but still thinks that future discussion could occur regarding the nature of collaboration between Sauk County Human Services and the school district.  Some discussion occurred regarding the ongoing discussion of this being more directed at collaborations and perhaps less focused on a position.  Peter Vedro indicated that these discussions should continue to occur.  Brattset indicated that there will be continued forums throughout the county for school districts to share information and collaborations and those school districts are always invited to collaborative forums at Human Services when approved by family to discuss challenging cases.

WCHSA Spring Conference:  Orth distributed the WCHSA Spring Conference summary (see attached) submitted by Andrea Lombard.  Andrea Lombard briefly summarized the conference and described it overall as a very favorable experience.

Compensation Study:  Orth spoke about the previous discussion of the challenges within staffing Economic Support as being an example of the importance of board members supporting the Compensation Study.  Discussion.  Thomas Kriegl was concerned that the proposal lacked some accuracy.

Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee:  Orth noted that they are still in the process of negotiating hiring a Criminal Justice Coordinator.  In the meantime, a Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee meeting will occur sometime in the near future. The hope is that this position would be hired prior to that meeting.

Agency Trauma Training:  Brattset reported that Human Services Department has recently gone through training provided by an expert in Trauma Informed Care and that this training was generally received as favorable by staff.  This training is considered a baseline for staff understanding trauma.  In addition, there will be training within 2014 to discuss specific challenges the agency can face in aligning services to be better trauma informed.

Public Comment

Cindy Jones, Sauk County Department of Human Services social worker indicated that she wanted to advocate for two positions, rather than one in Economic Support.

The next meeting of the Sauk County Human Services Board will be July 7, 2014 at 5:00 P.M.  Motion by Joan Fordham, seconded by Andrea Lombard to adjourn.  Motion Carried.     

James Bowers