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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDSS Board Minutes 032111MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES March 21, 2011 1 THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MET ON MONDAY: March 21, 2011 at the Hillsborough Commons, Hillsborough, North Carolina. BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MEMBERS PRESENT: Claire Millar, Arthrell Sanders, Albert Williams, Valerie Foushee and Pat Garavaglia. GUEST: None. BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MEMBER ABSENT: None. STAFF PRESENT: Nancy Coston, Director; Denise Shaffer, Assistant Director; Joyce Lee, Business Officer; Sharron Hinton, Community Services Manager; and Lindsey Shewmaker, Human Services Planner. I. Call to Order and Introductions DSS Chair, Pat Garavaglia, called the meeting to order at 4:02 P.M. II. Board Comments Pat Garavaglia shared a letter from the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners thanking the Social Services Board for the meeting. III. Public Comments Todd McGee and Lisa Nolen attended from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. IV. Agenda Changes Nancy Coston added an Executive Session to the end of the meeting. V. Action Items On a motion by Albert Williams the Board approved the Minutes of February 21, 2010. Claire Millar seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. VI. Items for Discussion and/or Decision 1. Budget Nancy Coston presented the proposed FY2011-12 budget to the Social Services Board. She highlighted the revenue and expenditure changes. County costs have increased by $289,312. Although expenditures have decreased, revenues have decreased more substantially. The summaries show breakdowns of the different line items for both revenues and expenditures. Ms. Coston pointed out the grant expenditures for the Homelessness Grant and Justice Partnership funds. These are listed separately from the general agency expenditures because they are tracked MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES March 21, 2011 2 differently. Ms. Coston highlighted budget issues. The expenditures in the budget have been decreased as much as possible. One of the increases in expenditures is due to social work positions moving from the Department on Aging. The two positions will be located at the Senior Centers and will provide access to both DSS and Aging services. Valerie Foushee stated that the Board understands and appreciates the practicality of having a one-stop location for seniors in Orange County. Ms. Coston noted the new system should be in place by the beginning of next fiscal year. Sharron Hinton added that interviews are being finalized for the positions. The addition of a Food and Nutrition Services outreach worker also caused personnel costs to increase. There is offsetting revenue for this position. The 401k has been budgeted back in for the county. The health insurance increase estimates are also included. There have also been reclassifications that happened after the budget was approved last year. Ms. Coston added that many revenue reductions have impacted the budget. The General Assembly has not adopted a budget but staff included cuts the Governor’s budget recommended. Child care subsidy funds have been reduced again, and the administrative funds have been reduced from 5% to 3%. There are two new revenue sources. The agency has proposed to run Smart Start subsidy for next year and that revenue has been included. A decision should be made on that proposal next week. The agency budgeted 5% for administrative costs for these funds. Additional funds were also included for a Food and Nutrition Employment and Training Program. This will enable clients who are Food and Nutrition Services recipients to receive training for employment. This program will be combined with current efforts at the Skills Development Center and other work-readiness programs and will use existing staff resources. Ms. Coston added that expenditures were reduced with the knowledge that revenues are down. Pat Garavaglia asked for clarification on the MANNA Food Bank revenue source. Ms. Coston responded that this is the revenue line item for the Food and Nutrition outreach worker. Arthrell Sanders asked whether there were still concerns about Adolescent Parenting. Ms. Coston replied that the funds are still included in the budget, but there has been discussion at the state level to cut this funding. Ms. Coston stated that one of the two areas of greatest concern is staff. They have had to sustain serious increases with no relief. The other area of concern is child care subsidy. The lack of child care subsidy undermines most of the other programs run by the agency. The Work First participation rate has fallen due to lack of child care for parents seeking services. While the agency has tried to find additional resources for this year to piece together child care for the extremely vulnerable, there are major concerns about next year. Ms. Coston further stated that working parents in Orange County have little hope of obtaining child care subsidy at this point. She added that staff moved $50,000 from the county-funded emergency assistance program to child care subsidy for next fiscal year to help cover these needs. There are no other major changes this year because the agency cut staff and contracts last year. Expenditures were reduced and revenues increased wherever possible to make up for state and federal revenue cuts. Ms. Coston pointed out other pages of interest including the organizational chart and the list of MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES March 21, 2011 3 increases and decreases greater than $5,000. Ms. Garavaglia asked how Volunteers for Youth is associated with the agency. Ms. Coston replied that there is a grant for justice programs that funds several nonprofit organizations. The funds are in another account outside of the Social Services’ budget. Ms. Hinton added that Volunteers for Youth receives funds for juvenile crime prevention. Ms. Garavaglia asked whether the costs for IT support will decrease or stay the same. Lindsey Shewmaker replied that the costs will stay flat or increase at a slight rate over time. The contract provides ongoing system maintenance for IT software. Albert Williams asked whether the Adolescent Parenting Program deals with the whole family. Ms. Coston responded that the whole family is included, and that often the grandparents have an active role in the upbringing of the child. A major component of the program is the family environment. Claire Millar asked about the increase in the contract amount for the Family Violence Prevention Center. Ms. Shewmaker replied that this year the contract amount includes the total dollars available for family violence prevention even though the agency only pays the center for counseling services. This is really a result of the county’s request that the contract amounts equal the line item amount. Ms. Garavaglia asked for clarification on why the school social workers in Orange County are supervised by Social Services but not the ones located Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. Ms. Foushee responded that Chapel Hill’s social workers are funded by the district tax. Ms. Coston added that since Orange County does not have a district tax, the social workers are funded via a special funding source through Medicaid. The school pays the difference between the Medicaid reimbursement rate and the cost of the program. Ms. Foushee added that there is a similar relationship with the Health Department to fund school nurses. Ms. Coston pointed to the workload measures in the performance summaries at the end of the budget for additional information about increases in caseloads. This is another indicator of the struggles staff are having keeping up with their workload while maintaining morale. She noted that a lot of staff and agency resources are used in child welfare and adult protective services. Even though those case numbers are small relative to public assistance, they are very time-intensive. The demands for agency administration have stayed fairly constant, but the staffing levels are lower after last year’s cuts, which has created some problems. The other program areas have had few changes since last year that will impact the budget. Ms. Coston added that the agency continues to look at ways to innovate. Ms. Foushee noted that the budget looks pretty lean. She added that there is minimal change in the net county costs. Ms. Coston stated that management is concerned that if anything goes wrong, there is little room in the budget to handle problems. Ms. Millar asked whether the current vacancies will have to remain vacant. Ms. Coston responded that they do not have to stay vacant, but various issues, including a six-month hiring freeze, have delayed filling several of them. Ms. Coston stated she hopes the county will not make any additional cuts. Ms. Foushee stated that the BOCC has serious interest in social safety net issues and will do what it can to protect these services. Ms. Garavaglia asked to add Social Services’ role in emergency preparedness to a future Board Meeting. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES March 21, 2011 4 Claire Millar moved that the Board recommend the proposed FY2011-12 budget as presented by staff to the Orange County Manager. Arthrell Sanders seconded the motion. Valerie Foushee abstained. The motion was approved without dissent. Ms. Garavaglia asked for Board feedback on the outside agency summaries. Ms. Foushee asked whether Ms. Millar and Ms. Garavaglia had thoughts they would like to share with the rest of the Board. Ms. Garavaglia noted that they felt that most of the agencies did good work and had a reasonable application. There were two exceptions that they felt should not receive additional funds—Child Care Services Association and JOCCA. Ms. Foushee also asked whether Ms. Millar and Ms. Garavaglia had thoughts about the increases requested by most of the nonprofit applicants. She also noted that BOCC members had expressed concerns about the amount of government funding in some of the nonprofits. Ms. Millar responded that some of these should be funded by the county, specifically Alternative Sentencing, because they are important and do not have alternative funding sources. However, some of them do not provide much service for the funding received and those funds could be redirected to other agencies. Ms. Coston added that the directions are to rate the program, not determine its relative worth compared to other programs. The relative worth of the program and duplication of services would be good discussions to have but are not scored on the current scoring chart. Ms. Garavaglia added the loss of funding to effective county programs, like Adolescent Parenting, should be considered when funding nonprofits. Arthrell Sanders moved that the Board accept and submit the outside agency summaries and scores to the County Manager’s Office. Albert Williams seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. 2. Director’s Report Nancy Coston noted that she had a good meeting with FRIENDS about the Food Bank and related issues. She has not heard back from the Food Bank, but there is no current backlog of food for Orange County. There are still some questions about the future and potential collaboration on distributing the food. Chris Nutter has said that she would intervene to set up a meeting at the Food Bank. April is Social Services Appreciation Month. The staff meeting scheduled for this month is being moved to April. The agency would like to try to do some sort of morale boost. Ms. Coston added staff really appreciate door prizes. Pat Garavaglia noted that she could probably help with door prizes. The meeting is set for April 15th, but the time is yet to be determined. 3. Executive Session Valerie Foushee moved that the Board enter into Executive Session pursuant to GS §143 318.11(a)(1) pursuant to §108A-80(a). Arthrell Sanders seconded the motion. The motion was carried without dissent. VII. Announcements The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 18, 2011 at the Hillsborough Commons, Mayo Street, Hillsborough, North Carolina. On a motion by Valerie Foushee and seconded by Arthrell Sanders, the Board adjourned their regular meeting at 5:22 P.M. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES March 21, 2011 5 Submitted by Nancy Coston Director Pat Garavaglia Chair NC/PG:brs __________________________ Approval Date