Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012.10.15 HHSC MinutesMINUTES OF THE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION City Clerk Conference Room 300 E. Superstition Blvd., Apache Junction, AZ October 15, 2012 - 4:00 P.M. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: ANDREW WHITENECK, CHAIRPERSON JODENE WEETER, VICE CHAIRPERSON ROBERT MAYO RANDY MULLEN STAFF PRESENT: KATHLEEN CONNELLY, CITY CLERK JAN MASON, DEPUTY CITY CLERK COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: CHRISTA RIZZI 1.Call to Order/Roll Call. Chairperson Whiteneck called the meeting to order at 4:18 p.m. Deputy City Clerk Jan Mason called the roll and advised Commissioner Rizzi would be in as soon after 4:30 as she can. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly commented she is driving a school bus and has to deliver the children.She has asked if they could start the meetings at 4:30 or later.It was explained to her that there is an executive session tonight in here and they start gathering in about an hour. 2.Discussion on FY 2012-13 funding applications and procedure for reviewing applications. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly briefed the commission on the item. She stated she is giving them the applications received by the January 31 deadline.There are no new agencies applying.They have the food bank, boys and girls club, Community Alliance Against Family Abuse, East Valley Adult Resources, which is the senior center program, and Mountain Health and Wellness which used to be Superstition Mountain Mental Health.This year the city council allocated $85,000 in the budget so they have $5,000 more than the last few years.However, the requests exceeded that, totaling $122,500.They have to pare off $37,500. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 1 OF 8 Chairperson Whiteneck stated no problem.It would have been a challenge if they had requested less. Vice Chairperson Weeter commented they get to take these home and read them. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated that is correct. Commissioner Mayo commented it looks like basically everybody except the food bank requested the same amount as they did last year. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly commented or close to it. Commissioner Mullen asked what happened to the money that was not used from last year. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated it goes back into the budget.It is in the contract that it is up to the city manager to make a determination.She asked if they wanted to go through all of them and give a status report. Chairperson Whiteneck requested she do so. 3.Status report of FY 2011-12 funding recipients. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated there were no problems with the food bank whatsoever last year.This year they are requesting $25,000 for basically the same stuff, electricity for cooling and storing and such.There were only a few problems with their reporting and they always put out more many than they are given by the city.They have other funding sources.Their reports far exceed the level of service that the city is funding them for.There were no problems with the boys and girls club. They made use of the funds.They are much improved at covering the kids within the city limits.She had no reporting problems with them this past year.They are requesting $30,000 for basically the same after school program.Now that they have moved to their new location their attendance has gone up considerably.They are busier than they ever were before. Vice Chairperson Weeter commented they were anticipating that last year. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 2 OF 8 City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated they were.There was a little bit of a ruffle about 3 months ago.They got some new, enthusiastic staff and board members that put out a flyer that suggested that the city's programs and school district programs were deficient and that they were the better resource for after school programs.It caused a bit of a ruckus with our parks and recreation staff because part the boys and girls club brings the kids to the multi-gen center.They were badmouthing the parks and recreation department yet using their facilities.That has since been resolved.Community Alliance Against Family Abuse was her problem child.The commission allocated $14,500 to them which is $3,625 per quarter.They were okay the first quarter, the second quarter they were not.They submitted names that were outside the city.She gave them an opportunity to correct that and give her other names.They never did that.The third quarter they were fine, the fourth quarter they were terrible. They filed late and she was not able to resolve things with them until July 24 which is already into the next budget year.She spoke with one of their board members last week to get a sense of what is going on.Since the beginning of the year they have had significant staffing problems.The director was let go. The finance manager was let go.There were significant performance issues.They have now brought in Elizabeth Garman. She was the statewide domestic abuse coordinator.She is now their chief executive officer.She asked about the city's money and was assured they did an audit on the city's money and other grants.They were also behind in filing on other grants.They brought in an attorney to do an investigation.They might want to interview them and ask some tough questions.She hopes this will not happen again. Commissioner Mayo commented this is similar to what they had last year. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated it was but even worse.She did not know who to contact because the names kept changing. There was a Kayla, then a Becca, and every other time there a different program manager.They could not keep straight the city's quarters which are based on fiscal year versus their quarters which are based on calendar year.She would get their documentation in and the dates would never match and they would have to redo it.She finally got that straightened out after several months.It is her understanding that person has since left and she will have to start all over again. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 3 OF 8 Vice Chairperson Weeter commented she will have to get them trained. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated there are two concerns. First of all it is public money, not just our money but other agencies.Second of all the people they are serving are vulnerable.Their best interests need to be taken care of first and foremost.She has been assured that is now in the works. She asked if they are inclined to interview a board member or two to let her know and she can arrange for that.The East Valley Adult Resources/Senior Center had no problems.They had originally in January put in a reference in their packet to transportation funding where they might be short.Since then other transportation funding has been made available to them. It is no longer part of their request.There were no problems with Mountain Health and Wellness.It was an okay year other than Community Alliance Against Family Abuse. Vice Chairperson Weeter commented they cut out several last year that had applied.They said no and they kind of put them all together. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated they did not get any from outside the city or any unusual applicants this year.Maybe they realized it was not in their best interests to do so. Chairperson Whiteneck closed the discussion and moved on the next item. 4.Selection of future meeting dates. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated last year they met at this meeting and decided who they wanted to interview.They then selected a date to interview the applicants and then they actually considered how they wanted to divide the money up at the same meeting.She did not know if they wanted to do it that way again or do something else. Chairperson Whiteneck stated he would like to have one more meeting like they had last year.They can discuss what they have.Between the meetings they can review what they have and get some preliminary ideas on what they want to say and how they should allocate. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 4 OF 8 Vice Chairperson Weeter commented that will be after they have all read them and done their homework. Commissioner Mayo asked if they wanted to talk to anybody.He believed someone was in for the food bank last year. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated they met with several people last year. Commissioner Mayo stated he believed Community Alliance Against Family Abuse was here, too. Chairperson Whiteneck commented they actually saw them all. They do not have any new board members to introduce to them so he does not see a need to interview them unless someone has a specific issue they want to address. Commissioner Mullen commented he thinks they need to bring Community Alliance Against Family Abuse in for sure.There is $3,000 that went back to the general budget that could have been allocated to another nonprofit that could have used that money. Vice Chairperson Weeter agreed. Commissioner Mullen commented that bothered him a lot. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated there are two issues.The contract says that the city manager decides where it can be used.Secondly, the last incident happened so late it would have been physically impossible to feed it back in to the system and give it to somebody. Chairperson Whiteneck suggested they bring two board members in from Community Alliance Against Family Abuse to talk to them. Vice Chairperson Weeter commented they need to be pretty wordy about their concerns.They need to hear it and they need to be on top of their people that are taking care of it. Commissioner Mayo asked if the difference between our fiscal year and their fiscal year is a big part of the problem. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated she thinks the person who handled the responsibility simply did not realize there was a HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 5 OF 8 fiscal year versus a calendar year and they needed to match things up.They had never been exposed to that concept. Vice Chairperson Weeter commented she kind of felt like when they met with the young woman that she was young and new. There was general discussion as to who attended last year's meeting on behalf of Community Alliance Against Family Abuse and who is still there. Commissioner Mullen commented last year they gave them 100% funding. Chairperson Whiteneck commented that is because their service is the most dire. Commissioner Mullen commented that they then did not use all the money they were given. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated they are provided with maps as part of their contract package and they are told to call us if they are not sure.It is not until she gets their funding request, 10 days after the quarter ends, that she had to call and tell them that North Signal Butte Road is not in the city, and that is one of the addresses. Vice Chairperson Weeter commented her guess is that she was just not aware of all the things that went on in her job. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated she did not know and she is not even sure how many people are there.She is now dealing with Becca and she did talk to the new director last week.She was hesitant to continue providing the addresses because of the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence.She told her she has no other way to reconcile giving them the funding unless she can confirm the addresses.She told her that Mountain Health and Wellness provides the addresses and never the names, and if someone were to come in and request the addresses they would redact them so they would not go to the public.She was okay with that. Chairperson Whiteneck suggested the select a meeting date. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 6 OF 8 City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated Jan is on vacation next week.The following week October 30 and October 31 are available. There was general discussion on which date and time they would want.The general consensus was October 30 at 4:30 p.m. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly asked if they wanted to interview all of them or just Community Alliance Against Family Abuse. Chairperson Whiteneck stated just the one. Commissioner Mayo commented they seem to be the one with the problems and the one they need to talk to. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated the other ones are fine. She does not even notice if there is a change in staff or they have vacancies because whoever comes in appears to be appropriately trained by the person that is going out.She commented she would have felt differently if she had been told they were going through some changes but because of the legal issues they could not share any information.She found out about well after the fact.She asked if they wanted to interview them at 4:45 so that they would have some time to talk. Chairperson Whiteneck stated that would be fine. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly asked if they wanted anything else from them other than a couple of board members and if they wanted additional financial information. Chairperson Whiteneck stated an organizational chart might help so that she knows who is where and how to contact them. Vice Chairperson Weeter asked if there was anything else she would need. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly commented if you look at their list of board members it shows Rebecca Rios as a state senator and she has not been a state senator for quite some time.Their board member list is out of date. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 7 OF 8 Chairperson Whiteneck called for a MOTION TO SET THE MEETING DATE ON OCTOBER 30 AT 4:30 P.M. Vice Chairperson Weeter SO MOVED. Commissioner Mayo SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated they would bring Community Alliance Against Family Abuse on October and ask for a couple of board members. 5.Adjournment. Chairperson Whiteneck adjourned the meeting at 4:35 p.m. /2 Andrew Whiteneck Chairperson Kathleen Connelly City Clerk HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION MEETING OCTOBER 15, 2012 PAGE 8 OF 8