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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Services Board - Minutes - 6/23/2016BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room June 23, 2016 Board Members Present: Lona Schmidt, Pat Carver, Deb Pyne arrived @ (4:07), Larry Fickbohm, Fred Strand, Jim Crandall, Rachel Coughtry arrived @ 4:07 Board Members Excused: Kent Seldal, Rusty Williams Others Present: Elizabeth Skulan, Nikki Revak, Jeanine Spuhler, Anita Haukaas Carrie Linder Call to Order and Introductions Vice-Chair Crandall called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. Introductions were made. Review of the May 26, 2017 Meeting Minutes Motion by Strand, seconded by Fickbohm, to approve the minutes as presented. Motion passed unanimously. Public Comment – Limited to 3 minutes per person None Open the Floor for Public Hearing Motion by Schmidt at 4:03, second by Carver, to open the floor for Public Hearing. Motion passed unanimously. Opportunity for Public Comment on 2017 Budget and/or Bayfield County’s Policies and procedures for Equal Opportunity in Employment, Service Delivery and Language Access. None. Review Written Comments Skulan reported that Provider Input for the 2017 Budget Session went out on May 27, 2016. Notices were in the local papers. To date, DHS received three written responses.  Center Against Sexual & Domestic Abuse (CASDA) – Kim Marble-Follis  Mash-ka-wisen Treatment Center – James W. Mallery II  Kinship recipient - Kathleen Claremboux Program Presentation – Welcome Home Veterans Pilot – Economic Support – Jeanine Spuhler Spuhler reported that the Welcome Home Veterans pilot is an approach to use Federal Low Income and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds to provide housing and/or energy assistance to Veterans experiencing homelessness, based on income eligibility. Funds are available for: first month’s rent, security deposit, and crisis assistance. The grant will run to the end of September. To date, Bayfield County has not received any referrals. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room June 23, 2016 2 Monthly Section Reports Family Services – Anita Haukaas The Family Treatment Court grant funding expires on December 31, 2016. Haukaas will meet with Criminal Justice Coordinator Brenda Spurlock to discuss how to pay for the Parent Mentor position in the future without treatment court funding. Samantha Hedican, Family Treatment Court Parent Mentor, submitted her resignation. Her last day will be July 1, 2016 Marathon County issued an e-mail seeking retired and/or Child Protective Services workers as their workload has vastly increased with cases of drug-endangered children. Bayfield County has also seen an increase of cases of drug-endangered children. An increase of Methamphetamine use is the likely cause. Bayfield County is working with NorthLakes Community Clinic HOPE Program to refer individuals seeking treatment. The Mental Health 2016 year to date expenses increased dramatically compared to last year costs. There has been an increase in institutional placements. Costs are already higher for the first four months of 2016 that they were the entire year of 2015. (Haukaas left meeting at approximately 4:30.) Aging & Disability Services – Carrie Linder Elderly Benefit Sheila Mack has approximately 20 vouchers left from the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program. Mack will distribute the vouchers prior to their expirations date in October. The state increased funding to serve three additional children from the DHS waitlist for Children’s Long Term Services (CLTS). The funding is approximately $16,000 per child and is for 2016 and beyond. The Family Support Program (FSP) ended December 31, 2015. The Children’s Community Option Program (CCOP) replaced the FSP but program requirements have changed. Bayfield County is still seeking answers for clarity on program parameters. Aging and Disabilities Services Specialist Lindi Olson started work on Monday, June 20th. Olson will shadow and train with Jack Holevatz. Jack’s last day is July 8th. He is moving from the area to pursue his Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy. Courtney Ramacke accepted and rescinded the offer of employment as a Social Worker Aide in the Aging and Disability Services Section. The hiring panel will conduct interviews for the position with three new candidates tomorrow. As this is a new position, hiring the right candidate is more important than just filling the job. A Board Member suggested Indeed.com for the job posting. A grant received from Security Health and Marshfield Clinic will enhance DHS prevention programs for seniors. The grant is for $25,000 and will run from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. This grant is in conjunction with Bayfield County Public Health Department. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room June 23, 2016 3 Support Services – Nikki Revak The final Aging and Disabilities Resource Center of the North (ADRC-N) 2015 Expenditure report completed for the state. Financials will be reviewed at the June 27th ADRC-N Advisory Committee Meeting in Cable. Staff continues to have issues with readable faxes from the DHS main copier in the mailroom. Neither CenturyLink nor Ricoh repair staff believes it is their issue. The next step in the process is to have Norvado check the phone line in the PRX system. In the meantime, staff is dealing with the wavy lines on the faxes; or if the faxes are not legible enough, the fax machines in either Economic Support or Aging and Disabilities are used. Fiscal staff is gathering data for the first phase of the audit. Auditors will be here on the week of July 28th. Support staff completed the physical asset inventory in DHS. However, with the recent flurry of three staff moves, support staff will need to update the inventory. Economic Support Services – Jeanine Spuhler This week Management terminated a Limited Term Employee in the Economic Support Services section due to repeated disciplinary issues. Funding is secure for the position until the end of 2016. There is potential for continued employment dependent upon the state budget. Right now, existing staff in the Northern Income Maintenance Consortium (NIMC) absorbs the additional workload. However, the increase has a negative impact on customer service and performance standards. Recently, the NIMC counties hired nine new staff. Directing remote workers creates a challenge to NIMC supervisors. Making staff feel connected and part of the bigger picture is difficult. Spuhler is mentoring a NIMC staff person located in Forest County. They are meeting via a video connection and this is a change with how NIMC does business. Spuhler plans to do an actual face-to-face meeting sometime in July with the worker from Forest County. In Bayfield County, 59 households received eligibility letters from the state to participate in the Summer Fill Program for propane. The State determined the eligibility list. Eligible households would make a $50 payment to their propane provider and then would receive an additional $250 from the state towards their propane fill. Monthly Reports The monthly reports reviewed and placed on file. Missing in the Training report, Sheila Mack will be traveling to Green Bay for a mandatory training on June 27th and 28th. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room June 23, 2016 4 2016 expenses will potentially be over the DHS expending authority. To date, there have been more Emergency Detentions and Institutionalized placements in the first four months than in all of 2015. There is also an increase in out of home placements and costs. A review of projections scheduled for the July meeting. Skulan reviewed the memo to County Administrator on the unaudited 2015 Budget. DHS is well within its budgetary authority. 2017 Budget Preparation Memo – June 6, 2016 Skulan reviewed the memo from the County Administrator and his directions for developing DHS 2017 budget with a zero percent increase. Given the excess in 2016, this is acceptable. Family Care/IRIS 2.0 Status Update – June 9, 2016 Letter to Joint Finance Committee from Department of Health Services Secretary Kitty Rhoades Skulan reviewed the letter from Department of Health Services Secretary Kitty Rhoades to the Co-Chairs of the Joint Committee on Finance. Rhoades requested the withdrawal of the FamilyCare/IRIS 2.0 proposal. Citing comments, feedback and concerns from providers, advocates, legislators and consumers. DHS Software Update Skulan reported that Revak and Accounting Technician Kathy Wolfram traveled to Hurley and participated in the demonstration from Clinical Data Systems on their TCM software. TCM is clinical software that begins with a consumer intake and builds from an evaluation to services then payments. The system does not include a general ledger; a budget; or contract monitoring. It does not appear that TCM will meet the needs of DHS. Revak spoke with another county that currently uses TCM in their Human Services Department and uses New World as their county fiscal system. That county stated they have had TCM for a few years and finally hired a technical person that will assist them with the set up. DHS plans to incorporate a minimum of $45,000 in the 2017 budget for the purchase of new software in 2017. In the interim, DHS is working with a different software vendor, CWCODE, and is waiting for a Letter of Assurance from CWCODE’s Attorney to ensure that DHS can contract with them for technical support of Visual WISSIS (VW). Right now the plan is to keep the current VW software until DHS finds a suitable replacement software program. Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) Update Skulan reported that DHS is still waiting for a reply from the Office of the Inspector General on the appeal filed by DHS. Bayfield County Administrator asked that Skulan accompany him to meet with the New Horizon’s North (NHN) Director and NHN Board Chair to discuss the CCS program. The vendor still appears to be confused about the correlation between: allowable expenses; the interim reimbursement MA billing rate; and what the 100% reimbursement of allowable expenses really means. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room June 23, 2016 5 Close the Floor to Public Comment on the 2017 Department of Human Services Budget and Regarding Bayfield County’s Policies and Procedures for Equal Opportunity in Employment, Service Delivery and Language Access Motion by Carver at 5:08 p.m., second by Strand, to close the floor for Public Hearing. Motion passed unanimously. Other (Informational Items) A. Notice from Governor Walker regarding Secretary Kitty Rhoades passing B. Memo to Mark AA regarding 2015 Budget Future Meetings A. July 28, 2016 B. August 25, 2016 C. September 22, 2016 Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 5:09 p.m. Submitted by Nikki Revak, Financial Manager