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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Services Board - Minutes - 12/6/2016BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING County Board Room December 6, 2016 Board Members Present: Lona Schmidt, Pat Carver, Larry Fickbohm, Jim Crandall, Rusty Williams, Rachel Coughtry Board Members Excused: Phil Milam, Fred Strand, Kent Seldal Others Present: Elizabeth Skulan, Nikki Revak, Jeanine Spuhler, Anita Haukaas, Jeanine Spuhler, Call to Order and Introductions Williams called the meeting to order at 5:10 p.m. Review of the October 27, 2016 Meeting Minutes Motion by Crandall, seconded by Carver, to approve the minutes as presented. Motion passed unanimously. Public Comment – Limited to 3 minutes per person None Program Presentation – MYWICHILDCARE, Economic Support Manager, Jeanine Spuhler Spuhler gave an overview of the MyWIChildCare program initiative that will start in February 2017. Each month Wisconsin Shares assists approximately 27,000 low-income families pay for child care so the parent(s) can go to work or school knowing their child(ren) are in a safe, nurturing setting. Subsidies are loaded onto their MyWIChildCare Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, so that the funds go directly to the childcare provider. The EBT card will only work for childcare payments. This promotes parental/guardian responsibility for child care payments and mimics the process for parents who do not get subsidies. The difference between the total cost of childcare and the amount of the subsidy is due to the childcare provider by the parent. The more the parent/guardian knows, the better their childcare decisions can be. There are three ways for provider payment: a Point of Service device ($14 monthly rental fee) located at the childcare facility; an electronic benefits transfer on-line; or a transfer of funds processed over the phone. Each parent/guardian will have a unique pin number to access benefits. The state distributed information to all parent/guardian daycare recipients and daycare providers in early December. Monthly Section Reports Support Services – Nikki Revak Completed staff evaluations last week. Worked on the Aging and Disability Resource Center of the North (ADRC-N) Dementia Care Specialist (DCS) 2016 Budget with Barb Peterson, ADRC-N Coordinator. The Alzheimer’s Association of Wisconsin was previously the employer of record for the DCS/. They are no longer interested in holding the contract. Peterson solicited proposals from other interested agencies and Northland Counseling submitted a proposal Peterson plans to accept. The Annual Support Staff Holiday luncheon will be on December 13. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room December 6, 2016 2 Aging & Disability Services - Carrie Linder Completed staff evaluations. Evaluations for new staff are due every quarter for the first year of employment. With over 60 goals/categories needing to be rated in the evaluations, the evaluations are very time intense. Memory Screens took place in November. Linder completed over 40 screens herself. It was an eye-opening experience with a significant number of abnormal screens. The agency feels that the annual Memory Screens are extremely important public service. Screens identify and refer individuals with memory loss so that they may seek early treatment. Karen Bodine, Social Worker Aide, participated in the Red Cliff Health Fair. Bodine presented a Health Literacy Workshop on how to read a medicine bottle. There were 12 individuals present. Completed interviews for casual drivers for the Home Delivered Meals and Family Services transports. Hired three additional drivers. Received a grant for $750 to purchase shelf-stable emergency meals for home delivered meal recipients. Staff delivered one hundred, three meal shelf-stable kits were to seniors. These meals ensure that when weather prevents delivery of Home Delivered Meals, seniors will still have access to a nutritious meal. In the process of completing paperwork for 2017 Contracts. Family Services – Anita Haukaas Juvenile Intake Worker Crystal Clark-Gregoire resigned on November 30th. Clark-Gregoire accepted a position with Bad River. Clark-Gregoire indicated that Bayfield County does not offer enough paid leave time to meet employees’ needs. Bad River indicated that they will work with her to ensure she has adequate time off. Haukaas reported that she assisted Clark-Gregoire to accrue comp time and flex her schedule as needed. However, she noted that when a family is in distress due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g. the illness of the employee or a family member) it is not possible for an employee to accrue compensatory time or flex their schedule to make up unpaid leave. Mary Anich requested the assignment of Juvenile Justice and Juvenile Intake duties. The position posted is for a full-time Child Protective Service and Juvenile Justice ongoing worker. Interviews for the Family Specialist position were conducted on Monday, December 5th. References are in process by the County Administrator’s office. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room December 6, 2016 3 The state conducted a Permanency Round Table meeting for two cases (three children) for Red Cliff tribal placements. A plan is in place to move forward to afford these children more permanency. A Truancy Meeting is scheduled for December 8th to review the current policies with local school district representatives, court staff, local law enforcement and Bayfield County Family Services staff. After the meeting, the Washburn School District will solicit recommendations for change. Due to staffing shortage, one resignation and one Family Medical Leave, Haukaas has taken on a few cases recently to assist with the workload. The cases include those for other counties that Bayfield County is providing courtesy supervision and for interstate compact agreements. Haukaas will complete her last Supervising Safety class next week. The training has been very beneficial and practical and relate to what Family Services staff do on a daily basis. Safety training will be available for one day in January for front-line staff. Haukaas, Skulan, and Community Comprehensive Services (CCS) staff attended a meeting with Community Continuous Care of Wisconsin staff to work on issues that have occurred with CCS consumers. Statistics: At the end of November, there were 57 Juvenile Justice referrals from law enforcement. The total referrals in 2015 were 60. Economic Support Services – Jeanine Spuhler Completed staff evaluations. The state mailed postcards to consumers that have not applied for WHEAP in the last two years. This was a reminder to consumers that the program still exists and encourages them to apply. On November 1 open enrollment for health care insurance began. Enrollment ends January 31, 2017. This is a very busy time of the year. Over-time was available throughout the Northern Income Maintenance Consortium (NIMC) to help balance the increase in workload. Great news to report, NIMC has secured funding through 2017 for the Limited Term Employee in the Economic unit. NIMC is making changes to the Call Anywhere software. The state is automating the electronic signature statement so staff will no longer need to read the statement. This saves time and promotes consistency. Monthly Reports Monthly reports reviewed and placed on file. BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room December 6, 2016 4 Currently, even though expenses are higher with Mental Health Institute costs and out of home placements costs, DHS should be within budget. 2017 Annual Department of Transportation Application and Plan – Review and Approve Application and Plan Linder reviewed the 2017 allocation and plan. The plan added a Mobility Management (Bay Area Rural Transport) project. The project will assist new riders to use the bus. The Mobility Manager provides individuals with education on how to navigate the system; call for a ride, pick up and/or drop off. The 2016 Transportation Plan included funds for a small van to transport veterans, who cannot take the regular veteran shuttle bus, to and from their appointments and for recreational use. The project ended because the Veteran’s Service Officer did not develop a survey to solicit veteran input on the need for a van. Plans are underway to implement a Transportation Survey in Bayfield County to identify underserved areas. Requests for Proposal(s) to conduct the survey and survey completion will occur in 2017. The implementation of changes identified in the survey should begin in 2018. The last transportation study was complete in 2007. Motion by Coughtry, second by Fickbohm to approve the 2017 Annual Department of Transportation Plan. Motion passed unanimously. Customer Satisfaction Report – Aging and Disability Resource Center of the North Skulan reviewed the ADRC-N survey and noted that the consortium as a whole did extremely well and Bayfield County received higher marks than the other four counties. The report validates the quality of service we strive to provide is available to consumers. The focus in the future will be to continue to improve outreach and customer service while maintaining the standards reflected in the report. 2015 Provider Excess – Request to Return Funding New Horizons North, Inc. Community Support Program Skulan reported that during the 2015 single audit, DHS staff met with the Bayfield County auditor to discuss the excess NHN generated in service programs. It was determined that because Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) is 100% funded with state and federal Medicaid dollars, all excess funds were recouped in early 2016. However, because the Community Support Program includes a 40% county match, the provider is allowed to retain up to 5% of the revenues generated annually, but cannot exceed an aggregate of 10% of annual program revenues. In the past, DHS should have tested each program independently. Skulan issued a letter to New Horizons North requesting the return of excess 2015 funds. The committee reviewed the worksheet that calculated the excess generated over the last five years. It was determined that this must be corrected going forward. The letter Skulan issued to BAYFIELD COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES BOARD MEETING Bayfield County Board Room December 6, 2016 5 New Horizons North requested repayment of $31,420 because the retainage exceeded the allowable 10% aggregate cap. Meeting Start Times – Revisit 5:00 as meeting start times Chair Williams proposed that during daylight savings time, the months of November through April, that DHS Committee meeting begin at 4:00. Williams also proposed that committee meeting in May through October begin at 4:30. There was some discussion. Motion by Schmidt, second by Carver, from November through April 4:00 p.m. start time; from May through October 4:30 start time. Coughtry and Crandall opposed. Motion passed. The Department of Human Services Board may entertain a motion to move in and out of Executive Session pursuant to S19.85(1) ( c ); considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Motion by, Crandall, second by Carver, at 6:06 to go into executive session. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by, Schmidt, second by Carver, at 6:23 p.m. to go out of out of executive session. Roll Call Vote. Passed unanimously. Discussion and possible actions(s) regarding Executive Session. Motion by Coughtry, second by Carver, to direct DHS Director Elizabeth Skulan to solicit data to develop justification to reclassify the YTSW position from a Social Worker I, Grade J to YTS, Grade I, prior to recruitment to be presented to the Personnel Committee no later than June 1, 2017. Motion carried unanimously. Other (Informational Items) A. Doing More with Less: State Revenue Limitations and Mandates on County Finances – [http://www.NACO.org] November 2016 – Wisconsin Profile Excerpt B. Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, Where are all the Social Workers Going? [http://www.governing.com] November 17, 2016 Future Meetings A. January 26, 2017 B. February 23, 2017 C. March 23, 2017 Adjournment Submitted 6:31 p.m. by Nikki Revak, Financial Manager