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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Services Board - Minutes - 2/25/2016BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room February 25, 2016 Board Members Present: Jim Crandall, Lona Schmidt, John Bennett, Pat Carver, Rusty Williams, Kathy Wendling Board Members Excused: Kent Seldal, Deb Pyne (phone trouble), Fred Strand Others Present: Elizabeth Skulan, Sarah Traaholt, Anita Haukaas Call to Order and Introductions Williams called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. Introduced minute taker, Sarah Traaholt, Clerk, to group. Review of the January 28, 2015 Meeting Minutes Motion by Carver, second by Schmidt, to approve the minutes as presented. Motioned passed unanimously. Public Comment – Limited to 3 minutes per person None Program Presentation – Aging and Disability Services – Carrie Linder Cancelled Monthly Section Reports Support Services – Elizabeth Skulan for Nikki Revak Revak and Support Staff are working on closing out 2015 fiscal year, and starting the 2016 fiscal year. Economic Support Services – Elizabeth Skulan for Jeanine Spuhler Welcomed back worker from Family medical leave. Happy to have them back! Spuhler attended a mandatory Wisconsin Home Energy Plus (WHEAP) conference three days last week in Elkhart Lake. The conference was informative and worth the time out of the office. Spuhler is waiting for the annual Keep Wisconsin Warm funds allocation. Historically the allocation has been around $2500. Although this is a small amount, it still has a significant impact to a small number of households in Bayfield County. On-Demand interviews were implemented in the Northern Income Maintenance Consortium (NIMC) on January 11. Call time has increased, but so has customer satisfaction. Callers are able to complete their applications and interviews from start to finish in one call. On-Demand is in its infancy and the kinks are still being worked out. The on-demand requirement has universally increased the amount of time that NIMC staff must be on the phone. This is causing some turn over in NIMC counties. Milwaukee is next in line to pilot On-Demand. Economic Support workers are working hard, and impress us with their resiliency, sense of humor, and their commitment to helping the public during another difficult transition. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room February 25, 2016 2 Family Services – Anita Haukaas Meth has become a serious problem in Bayfield County and statewide. Helping families with this addiction consumes considerable resources. The drug is highly addictive and generally requires significant treatment as well as lengthy abstinence prior to success. Social Work Aide, Richard Kamm, has begun making the initial calls to child welfare families to offer services. This allows Social Workers more time to work directly with youth and families. Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) program up and running and taking referrals. Chally Topping, the Red Cliff Indian Child Welfare (ICW) director has resigned. Family Services staff is actively working with Red Cliff on ICW intake. Staff has been busy conducting Child Protective Services investigations. Haukaas is reviewing how Iron County structures its use of Safe and Stable Family funds to see if their plan can be used as a template for Bayfield County. Haukaas has been reviewing and completing 2015 financial reports for Family Services. Family Services has been working well together as a team. Aging & Disability Services – Elizabeth Skulan for Carrie Linder Aging and Disability Services and Family Services staff is teaming to meet the needs of a very complicated Children’s Long-term Care (CLTS) case. The child, who is extremely medically fragile, is being placed out of home and the currently CLTS allocation will not cover the child’s cost of care. Linder has petitioned the state for additional funds and is cautiously optimistic that the state will find additional funds. The county will still need to provide funding for any room and board costs associated with the child’s care. Linder reported that she and social workers Michele Reiswig and Cheryl Hanson have been working together to address the needs of three adult clients with mental health issues who were previously served by the Community Options Program (COP). COP is no longer a funding source for adults with mental health issues and supportive home care, a service that was provided to all three clients, is no longer an allowable cost for the new funding stream. Linder, Reiswig & Hanson are reassessing the clients’ needs. Their goal is to transition the clients to other programs and resources, possibly CCS, with alternative services that better meet their needs. Monthly Reports Financial The monthly reports were reviewed and placed on file. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room February 25, 2016 3 Staffing Updates Recruitment is complete for a Home Delivered Meal Van driver, to replace Clare Hintz. Five interviews will be held tomorrow. Staff participated in county wide training on sexual harassment, tuition reimbursement and bullying in the workplace. Some staff have already requested tuition reimbursement and received approval contingent upon meeting the conditions of the policy. DHS staff was invited to attend Active Shooter training in Ashland County. Some DHS staff is registered to attend. If feedback from the training is positive, Skulan will see if Mark is interested in replicating the training for Bayfield County employees. We are currently focusing on improving staff safety and security. All main entry doors to DHS are now locked. Skulan will distribute an e-mail to staff this week listing a number of security/safety measures either suggested by employees or law enforcement. Long-term and short-term goals are being identified. Comprehensive Community Services 2015 Update Haukaas, Revak, Skulan, Ashland County staff and New Horizons North (NHN) staff attended a meeting to discuss the annual CCS reconciliation. During the year, New Horizons North was asked to provide financial information quarterly. The information was not available as requested in spite of frequent attempts by Ashland and Bayfield County staff to obtain it. At the end of the year, it became apparent that the state interim rate for CCS substantially exceeded NHN costs. The administration at NHN tried to make a case for retaining funds above their costs. However, we have been very clear, and the state has confirmed, that retainage is neither acceptable nor allowable. An invoice will be issued to NHN for the estimated amount of revenues paid in excess of cost for 2015, which is estimated at approximately $85,000. Comprehensive Community Services Medicaid Audit – January 1, 2015 to October 31, 2015 Update We have not yet received the results of the audit. Award of Youth Aids Emergency Funds 2015 Bayfield County was awarded $3,111 in Youth Aids Emergency Funds for 2015. Senate Bill 326 Update – Proposed Changes to Expand the Reporting of Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect to Law Enforcement The Senate did not consider the bill during their session. Aging and Disability of the North (ADRC – N) – Notice from Sawyer County A letter from Sawyer County was provided in the packet. Crandall explained that five counties – Ashland, Bayfield, Iron, Price and Sawyer are included in consortium that makes up the ADRC - N. Since implementation of the ADRC, two counties have habitually under budgeted their costs, then at the end of each year, request that costs in excess of their state allocation be paid with other regional revenues. In 2015, three counties were provided with additional state BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room February 25, 2016 4 funding for unbudgeted costs. The three were then asked to contribute half of that payment to a contingency fund. Doing so “de-federalizes” the funding and allows for funds to be retained in a risk reserve or contingency account for the ADRC - N. The 66.03(01), an intergovernmental agreement, that all five counties used when setting up the ADRC – N indicates that all parties will abide by the consensus of the group. This letter is not in accordance with the spirit of the agreement and is causing some discord and mistrust. The letter will be addressed in an upcoming ADRC – N Governing Board Meeting. Red Cliff AODA Contract 2015 Update A letter from Redcliff and an e-mail from Mark were included in the board packet. The contract rate for services provided from March to December of $40.00 per hour was verified. Apparently a number of Medicaid eligible clients were included in the initial invoices, but should not have been. To date, there was no bill to DHS for remainder of 2015 and we do not expect one. It was reported that Red Cliff has or will soon be submitting an application to become a certified CCS program. Tribal members would then have a choice of CCS providers, either Red Cliff or Bayfield County. 2015 Wage Schedule Update Mark Abeles-Allison & Kris Kavajecz provided a brief presentation on wage schedule at the DHS all staff meeting. They provide information related to the process for developing the new wage scale and information on Carlson-Dettmann Consulting. Staff is allowed to file an appeal if they do not feel that their positions have been rated correctly. Four DHS staff has started appeal process. Skulan will review the appeals by March 21, 2016, before they are submitted to the County Administrator’s office. The County Administrator will discuss any appeals with Carlson – Dettmann. Carlson-Dettmann reviews the appeals, rates any updated job descriptions, and recommends any changes. Their recommendations are then presented to the Personnel Committee for their consideration and action. Other (Informational Items) A. Email Regarding Flexible Work Schedule – The flex schedule is working out well in Family Services. Future Meetings A. March 24, 2016 B. April 28, 2016 C. May 26, 2016 Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 5:08 p.m. Submitted by Sarah Traaholt, Clerk