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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDSS Board minutes 082018MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES August 20, 2018 1 THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MET ON MONDAY: August 20, 2018 at the Hillsborough Commons, Hillsborough, North Carolina. BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MEMBERS PRESENT: Tamara Dempsey-Tanner, Ann Wilkerson, Earl McKee and Pat Garavaglia. GUEST: None. BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MEMBERS ABSENT: Susie Enoch. STAFF PRESENT: Nancy Coston, Director; Sharron Hinton, Human Services Manager; Lindsey Shewmaker, Human Services Manager; Crystal Mitchell, Human Services Manager; and Duston Lowell, Program Manager. I. Call to Order and Introductions DSS Chair, Tamara Dempsey-Tanner, called the meeting to order at 4:16 pm. II. Board Comments Tamara Dempsey-Tanner provided a client-centered handout on Medicaid Transformation. III. Public Comments None. IV. Agenda Changes None. V. Action Items On a motion by Pat Garavaglia, the Board approved the minutes of June 1, 2018. Ann Wilkerson seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. VI. Items for Discussion and/or Decision 1. Election of Chair/Vice-Chair and Reappointment of Board Member Pat Garavaglia nominated Tamara Dempsey-Tanner to be reappointed to the Social Services Board for a second term. Ann Wilkerson seconded the nomination. The motion was carried without dissent. Pat Garavaglia nominated Tamara Dempsey-Tanner to be Chair of the Social Services Board and Ann Wilkerson to be Vice-Chair of the Social Services Board. Ann Wilkerson seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. 2. CIP/LIEAP Outreach Plan Tamara Dempsey-Tanner moved to approve the 2018 CIP/LIEAP Outreach Plan. Ann Wilkerson seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES August 20, 2018 2 3. Medicaid Updates Nancy Coston gave a brief overview and handout of the Medicaid Transition to Managed Care. Counties and clients will transition in several phases and families with children will start enrolling in 2019. Older adults and adults with disabilities will begin enrolling at a later date. Tamara Dempsey-Tanner noted that she thinks the State has learned some lessons from the divestiture of mental health and has plans to roll this out slowly. She added that there are metrics that are built into this to try to ensure that clients receive appropriate levels of service. Lindsey Shewmaker informed the Board that the agency passed the Medicaid report every month of FY2017-18. 4. MOU/Performance Measures Nancy Coston discussed having a joint meeting between the Board of County Commissioners and the Social Services Board related to the MOU and performance measures sometime in January. The county now has a signed copy of the MOU. Staff will start bringing data to future meetings for discussion. The County Manager has been very understanding. 5. NC FAST Changes Crystal Mitchell presented an update on the child welfare implementation of NC FAST. The State has been receptive to feedback from the pilot counties and is redesigning pieces of NC FAST to make it better and easier for staff in child welfare. There are Joint Application Design (JAD) sessions that county staff have been attending to look at some mockups of the new functions and features. Further rollout is currently on hold until the new functionality is implemented in the system. 6. Holiday Program Plan Sharron Hinton informed the Board that staff are starting to work on plans for the holiday program. Wish lists are going out to social workers soon and will need to be turned in by the end of September to make sure that lists can get to sponsors as early as possible. The Toy Chest will be impacted by the closure of Toys R Us since they were the major support of Toys for Tots. The County Manager has approved Jeans for Joy starting in October which should bring in additional funds for the program. Staff are looking at the weekend of December 16th for Toy Chest. Sharron Hinton asked the Board for feedback on reducing the number of hours or the number of days for the Toy Chest. The Board shared concerns about reducing the number of days but suggested reducing hours and using more volunteers to alleviate some of the burden on staff. 7. National Night Out Staff held a very successful national night out event at Gateway Village Apartments. Staff members grilled hot dogs and gave out toys and books to children. This event was a collaboration with the Health Department, Housing Department, Hillsborough Police Department and others. 8. Director’s Report MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES August 20, 2018 3 Duston Lowell is retiring at the end of this month. Wanda Johnson is also retiring at the end of August. Janet Sparks, the Child Support Director, is retiring at the end of Aug ust as well. The Social Services Institute will be held October 17th-19th in Hickory, NC. There will be a special session for Board Members and there will also be a number of sessions related to Medicaid, Child Welfare, and Adult Services. There will be a Back to School Ice Cream Social on August 25th for foster parents and foster children. The Fall job fair will be at University Place on Wednesday, September 26th from10am-2pm. There will be an employer breakfast at K&W Cafeteria prior to the event. VII. Announcements Pat Garavaglia moved to adjourn the meeting at 5:43 pm. Ann Wilkerson seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. Submitted by: Nancy Coston DSS Director Tamara Dempsey-Tanner Chair