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B020111 New Hanover County Board of Social Services 0 Meeting Minutes Multi Purpose Room A 10:00 AM -12:15 PM The New Hanover County Board of Social Services met in open session on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 10:00 in Multi Purpose Room A of the New Hanover County Department of Social Services. ATTENDING: John Craig, Chairman; Patrick Riley, Vice Chairman; Evelyn Bryant; Diana Woolley and Brian Berger ALSO ATTENDING: Christine McNamee, Assistant Director; Stephanie Monteath, Administrative Support Specialist The Chairman called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. Mr. Craig asked for a motion to approve the agenda. Ms. Woolley moved for approval of the agenda. The motion was seconded by Mr. Riley and passed unanimously. Ms. Bryant led the invocation. Ms. Woolley led the pledge of allegiance. CONSENT AGENDA • Mr. Craig asked for a motion to approve the consent agenda. Ms. Woolley asked that a "4" be added after January and would like the proposed changes to the In-Home Aid policy to be added to the minutes. Ms. Woolley moved to approve the minutes as amended. The motion was seconded by Ms. Bryant and passed unanimously. INFORMATION AGENDA No action was taken by the Board. STRATEGIC ACTION AGENDA Annual Report Patricia Robinson disseminated the Annual Report to the Board. Ms. Robinson reviewed the content and new layout of the Annual Report. Mr. Craig and Ms. Woolley asked for additional copies of the report. Ms. Robinson noted copies of the report are sent to other areas of local government. Strategic Planning Chris McNamee read the mission statement and reviewed goals and the journey of LBR. • LBR has been an effective tool to measure DSS' success. Angelina Bernard reviewed community partners of DSS; Sheriff's Department, ADR Center, Methodist Home for Children (on-going services and reunification services), Item 2 Page 1 Page 2 of 4 Carousel Center, volunteers (Senior Volunteers, LILAC Inc., Work First Participants, Faith Community Funds, and Good Friends), Vanguard Staffing, and a virtual worker (located • outside the agency) who processes all of the Adult Medicaid mail-in applications. The board asked how the kiosks are working out. Ms. Brantley said the majority of the 300 people who used the kiosk last month found it very easy to use. Mr. Craig asked if there would ever be a time that applications could be submitted remotely. Ms. McNamee noted that is the direction DSS is headed. Ms. Bernard explained that DSS produces a monthly show on Government Television wherein DSS is able to tell its own story. Patricia Robinson reviewed the LBR key. Karen Graham explained how coding services allows DSS to draw down funds and operate successfully. The Business Office makes sure that revenue is maximized through proper coding. Stephanie Monteath discussed Employee turnover noting the numbers were higher 2 years ago due to the ERIP (Early Retirement Incentive Program): Ms. Monteath reviewed the reasons for separation thus far in 2010/2011 and explained the process of filling budgeted and new positions. Ms. Monteath reviewed strategies to retain employees and improve morale to include restructuring and reclassifying staff to the areas most in need in the agency and looking at flexible schedules. Chris McNamee addressed the wait time. Mr. Riley suggested a banner be posted over the kiosks to draw attention to their availability. Ms. Woolley suggested that the 30 • minute wait time is unrealistic, and perhaps 45 minutes would be more attainable. Mc. McNamee talked about the process of "going paperless". Mr. Berger questioned the security of personal information such as social security numbers etc. Ms. McNamee noted DSS has myriad guidelines in place to protect identity to include encryption. John Ranalli reviewed Program Integrity and explained the process of investigating claims of fraud. Ms. Everett reviewed the goals for Work First. The program is meeting the bench mark for the annual percentage of able bodied Work First clients moving to employment and has met the goal for participants that found employment not returning to Work First. Mary John Brantley discussed the goals for Food and Nutrition Services and noted one of the program goals is to have applications be available on line and in other locations outside the agency. The program is exceeding its target by having 87.52% of eligible persons receiving FNS benefits. Ms. Brantley noted the Adult Medicaid is also exceeding its goal of 70% of eligible persons receiving Medicaid benefits. Ms. Woolley asked if more staff would be needed for this program. Ms. McNamee said of the 7 frozen positions be requested to fill, 1 would be allocated to Adult Medicaid. Alyssa Harrell of Young Williams noted that while not meeting the State goal yet, they are making progress toward the goals of collecting child support. Item 2 Page 2 Page 3 of 4 Kathi Heslin talked about training staff on aggressive application processing to help reduce the number of economic services cases denied for no verification. • Ms. Heslin noted the Child Care Subsidy numbers are not likely to improve any time soon as money is not available to fund the service and there are over 700 eligible families on the waiting list. Mr. Berger asked how much time staff spends on tracking down documents such as employment verifications and if there are any suggestions about how to get employers to take this issue more seriously? Ms. Heslin noted there is a number called "The Work Line" which is a good resource. Ms. McNamee noted it is easier for staff to make a few follow up phone calls than to end benefits and start the process over again. Ms. Woolley asked where Child Care Subsidy money comes from. Ms. Heslin answered Federal funds, State funds and Smart Start. Ms. Sprenger explained why indicator 2a continues to be a challenge. As adults have freedom of choice, they often chose to stay in an environment which is potentially dangerous. Ms. Woolley asked how many more staff are needed for Adult Protective Services. Ms. Smiley noted there is not a set number for caseload to worker ratio set by the state. Ms. Sprenger discussed the challenges of finding disinterested public agents even though often another agency is more appropriate due to mental health challenges etc. Ms. Smiley talked about what DSS is doing to decrease the number of adults who are repeat maltreatment victims, by educating the community and monitoring facilities. Ms. Smiley reviewed strategies employed to assist people in successfully staying in their home. Ms. Woolley complimented the community support service staff. Kari Sanders discussed indicator 3a, noting there is a significant decrease in the annual percentage of families with abused/neglected children who are repeat victims of maltreatment. Ms. Sanders feel the success can be attributed to increasing staff and decreasing caseloads, where social workers can spend more time with families. Ms. Sanders discussed indicator 3c (annual % of children with confirmed CPS reports who previously had an unconfirmed report) noting issues of families falling through the mental health cracks. Mr. Craig asked who sets the target for 3c. It was noted DSS set its own target here. Ms. Sanders lastly discussed indicator 3e: annual % of children who had a confirmed CPS report who were placed in custody of the department. Ms. Sanders noted DSS is meeting the goal. Ms. Woolley asked if a goal needed to be put in place to review • fatalities. Ms. Sanders noted it may be difficult to measure the success of a fatality review. Item 2 Page 3 Page 4 of 4 Brian Bocnuk reviewed the foster care and custody goals noting that safety, permanence and well being is the goal for this unit. DSS does a good job training foster parents about proper discipline and shared parenting. DSS is meeting the goals of not having children be victims of maltreatment by foster parents and keeping children from reentering foster care within 12 months of returning home. Progress has been made toward the goal of a child finding permanency within 12 months of a removal. Factors out of DSS control include issues of substance abuse and/or mental health, court system hold ups or finding relatives able to care for the child. Mr. Bocnuk talked about how Family Finding has been a successful tool to find relatives for placement. As well, Mr. Bocnuk discussed how establishing paternity is often key to finding a relative placement. Ms. Woolley asked if staff and money were needed to keep Family Find alive. Mr. Bocnuk said the staff is there, as we used existing staff during the pilot, and we hope to continue to use the Family Find strategies. Mr. Bocnuk noted DSS is meeting the benchmark for the LINKS eligible young adults being involved in the program. Mr. Bocnuk noted the LINKS program contributes to the success of indicator 4f; youth in foster care ages 16-18 avoiding high risk behavior. Mr. Bocnuk ended by discussing the progress made in the percentage of children in custody who were adopted within 24 months of removal from the birth home. Ms. McNamee closed by reiterating why LBR helps us to work smarter not harder and identifies the areas that need attention. LBR enables DSS to justify why and where we need money. As well, DSS had a 75% success rate this year in indicators. Overall, it's been a successful year. Ms. Woolley asked again that we increase the amount of wait time to a more realistic 45 minutes and in general to make sure DSS is not setting the • bench marks too high. Next Meeting Objectives Budget Retreat Additional Items As there were no further items to discuss as provided in G.S. 154A-98 to consider information that is confidential pursuant to G.S. 108A-80 and or G.S. 154A-98, the board by consensus adjourned at 12:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 6 14~*~ LaVaughn Nesmith, Secretary to the Board ohn E. Craig, Chairman Item 2 Page 4