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2018-08-16 Agenda Review NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 34 AGENDA REVIEW MEETING, AUGUST 16, 2018 PAGE 173 ASSEMBLY The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners met for Agenda Review on Thursday, August 16, 2018 at 3:30 p.m. in the Harrell Conference Room at the New Hanover County Government Center, 230 Government Center Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina. Members present: Chairman Woody White; Vice-Chairman Skip Watkins; Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, Jr.; and Commissioner Patricia Kusek; and Commissioner Rob Zapple. Staff present: County Manager Chris Coudriet; County Attorney Wanda M. Copley; and Clerk to the Board Kymberleigh G. Crowell. Chairman White called the Agenda Review meeting to order and announced that the purpose of the meeting is to review and discuss the agenda items for the August 20, 2018 Regular Meeting with discussions as noted: Staff Update: Update by Judge Corpening on the Refresh of Safer Schools Task Force. Judge Corpening stated that before providing the update he wanted to make the Board aware of an action he took in court this morning. He ordered the County to pay for the commitment of a child to a level four psychiatric residential treatment facility. It is an option for dispositions in delinquent court but is not taken lightly when done. He has never before ordered the County to pay for a service like that. This is a recurring problem and this was not a case where the child needed to be placed in DSS custody. The mom is fighting and advocating for her child. The child, who was charged with a misdemeanor larceny, ran away from a level three placement after being stepped down from a level four placement. She has been detained at the county detention center since May because approval for the recommended level four placement has been denied by Trillium. Strategic Behavioral Center in Brunswick County is willing to take the child. Application was made with Trillium, it was denied, and is on its third appeal with Trillium. There are also about six or seven children in DSS custody that the County is paying for treatment because Trillium denied the recommended level of care. This is a statewide problem, not just a Trillium problem. The County has spent about a quarter of a million dollars from the general fund to help pay for the care of children when Trillium should have covered it. If it continues, he suggested the County reduce the funding to Trillium by the costs it is incurring for this. Regarding the basis of the denials by Trillium, Judge Corpening stated Trillium says they are an insurance company and these children qualify for a lower level of care. The child from this morning was stepped down to a level three from a level four and then ran away. She has been denied placement at every level three placement available in North Carolina. He does not know what else is available and he cannot send her home as it is not safe. His concern is that when they cannot get these children into care, particularly those who are on the run or at home and not doing well, is that they may harm themselves or others. Chairman White asked if the County can negotiate the coverage or if there is any form of leverage other than withholding budgeted funds to encourage Trillium to pay for the recommended care. He would also like to know if the County could request Trillium to explain their position. County Manager Coudriet stated it is the decision of Trillium when using state or Medicaid funds to determine whether or not they are going to approve a level of service. Over the last year or so, when the court decides a child needs treatment at level two, three, or four, and it has been denied, the County has been funding the services. It cannot negotiate around Trillium and pays the prevailing rate that is setup by whichever insurance company sets it. An option could be to invite the Trillium director to explain the decisions to deny these levels of treatments, but the County cannot force Trillium to pay. Regarding the protection of the identity and age of the child, Judge Corpening stated she is fifteen years old and her identity is protected, but there are other two mothers who are upset and may share their information with WBTV in Charlotte. When asked if this is Trillium’s strategy to make a point about state funding, Judge Corpening stated his perception of Trillium’s process is that they try to save money and kids are negatively impacted because of it. He reiterated it’s not only Trillium and it has been a statewide issue for the last five years. Chairman White stated the denial of funding for the recommended level of treatment is a similar battle seen in private centers as well and parents are left without options. Judge Corpening then provided the update regarding the Safer Schools Task Force. It was created in 2013 following the Sandy Hook incident and the task force is comprised of members who focus on the safety of the whole child and that relationships change people, not programs. After the school safety roundtable, the group met six to eight times for about two hours each time to review and update the 2013 recommendations and then bring recommendations to the Commissioners and the New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) Board of Education about next steps. His focus today will be on recommendations that potentially would affect county leadership and government. He is working with the NHCS Superintendent on the Board of Education part and everyone will get the entire report. The 2018 recommendations include four areas: mental health and special needs, school climate and discipline, physical security and emergency preparedness, and substance abuse and gang intervention. The group’s recommendations on the mental health part is to fully implement the School Base Mental Health Initiative (SBMHI) adopted by the NC Department of Public Instruction last year. That was a mandate to the schools to develop a plan for meeting the mental health needs for every child in our schools. The task force recommends delivering mental health services in every school, as well as develop a behavioral health specialist support team of five people, including the supervisor, to help implement the behavioral plans. One of the needs is NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 34 AGENDA REVIEW MEETING, AUGUST 16, 2018 PAGE 174 to provide youth mental health first aid training to teachers, staff, and volunteers so they can assist the children immediately. The task force highly recommends the County and NHCS leadership develop a strategic plan with the goal of meeting national staffing recommendations to include school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and nurses in a sustainable manner. The task force also recommends developing policies to address re-entry and transition, developing coordinated care plans in schools and the community to coordinate care among mental health support professionals, and funding of the community agency staff for direct support services for dropout prevention for marginalized/disadvantaged students (Community in Schools). Judge Corpening shared information regarding the positive progress seen in the form of the school safety summit, the partnership with Community Justice Services and NHCS, new School Resource Officer (SRO) positions (trained), new mental health counselor positions, and increased physical security progress. Other positive reports are that NHCS received a grant for $1.5 million by the Empowering Youth Engaging Schools (EYES) for anti-bullying, the graduation rate is high, restorative justice is occurring in the school system, NHCS participates in the Sandy Hook Promise, and conscious discipline is being practiced. The key takeaways are that school safety needs to be a constant conversation, strategic planning is required in order to meet needs in sustainable way between NHC and NHCS, and recognize that we are all responsible. Chairman White asked Judge Corpening to briefly speak about the Misdemeanor Diversion Program (MDP). Judge Corpening stated the program is operated under Community Justice Services (CJS). Youth that are 16 and 17 years old have the opportunity to have a pre-arrest diversion. The Raise the Age legislation will not be effective until December 2019 and until then 16 and 17 year olds are still tried as adults in the criminal justice system. It’s an opportunity for law enforcement to make a referral to this program without having to arrest the youth. A requirement of MDP is that the youth must attend a mock trial to see what might have happened had they been arrested and gone through the adult criminal court system. It is also mandatory that the parents attend the mock trial. After the mock trial, Judge Corpening speaks with the youth to ask how they felt about it, discuss the future, the public defender speaks, and it is a powerful experience. Chairman White stated it was a great opportunity for the youth to have a second chance and asked that the schedule of court dates be shared with the Commissioners if they want to attend. Chairman White thanked Judge Corpening for the update. Staff Update: WAVE Route and Governance Report. Chief Financial Officer Lisa Wurtzbacher introduced Director of Strategic Analysis Ryan Gallivan with TransPro Consulting and stated that he would provide a report on the WAVE route and governance report. County Manager Coudriet stated that the full report was provided to the Board via email on August 10, 2018 and the focus today will be on objectives one and two. Mr. Gallivan stated that the County and City of Wilmington jointly commissioned the study of WAVE Transit’s performance and perhaps the future road map looking at two particular objectives: 1) short-term efficiencies and 2) long-term governance. His focus today will primarily be on the short-term efficiencies objective. Under the short-term efficiencies objective, the annual ridership for FY 16-17, which includes all forms of service provided by WAVE Transit, was about 1,417,954 million. There was a peak in 2012 with a small decline in total ridership from that point on. The majority of the service type ridership is approximately 70% from the community fixed routes and 25% via the Seahawk Shuttle. The annual operating budget has stayed roughly the same, peaking at $8.6 million in FY15-16. County representatives desired to have information particularly on the fund balance. Several years ago an interlocal agreement was executed between the County, City of Wilmington, and WAVE, with one of the conditions being that WAVE needed to maintain an annual fund balance of 8%. The trajectory of the fund balance has increased, and in 2017, the fund balance the highest level was at 6.8%. Before the interlocal agreement, the fund balance was running it the negative. Mr. Gallivan reviewed how WAVE Transit compares to its peers in a peer comparison analysis. This information compares the research to other transit agencies in such areas as customer boarding per revenue hour, average miles between vehicle failures, operating expenses per revenue hour, annual fixed route ridership, average daily boarding, cost efficiency, and route performance. One of the common questions being asked by the County and City of Wilmington is why there is a trend in the decline in passengers. Mr. Gallivan said this is a national trend and there is a study being conducted to investigate the factors. He reviewed several short-term efficiency opportunities in order to focus on maintaining the routes with higher productivity. This can be done without spending more funds, but rather reallocating resources from lower productivity routes to higher ones. He recommended the County, City of Wilmington, and WAVE Transit continue these discussions to coordinate how they will take next steps and create a strategic plan that includes performance monitoring and reviewing the funding. Chairman White thanked Mr. Gallivan for the report. Consent Item 4. Adoption of Resolution for Donation of Used Clothing to United Way. In response to Board questions, Chief Communications Officer Ruth Smith stated the clothing contains the former Inspections Department information. It was felt it could not be worn here locally with the old information as the department is now known as Building Safety. The labels on the old clothing are difficult to remove and there are missions that take place overseas who could take the items to donate to other countries. NEW HANOVER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BOOK 34 AGENDA REVIEW MEETING, AUGUST 16, 2018 PAGE 175 Consent Item 6. Approval of AmerisourceBergen Grant Award of 2,000 Drug Deactivation Resources. In response to Board questions regarding a lawsuit between the County and AmerisourceBergen, County Attorney Copley stated her team spoke with the attorneys representing the County in the opioid lawsuit and confirmed this would not be a conflict of interest. Consent Item 7. Acceptance of Equipment from Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) and Saving Animals During Disaster to NHC Sheriff’s Office. In response to Board questions regarding why the addendum stated the trailer could only be used for animal services, Chief Deputy Ken Sarvis said there is a local non-profit organization in the area who provides these services during disasters. The organization felt the trailer was better utilized for the Animal Services Unit since it contains materials for that purpose. After vetting and researching how it has been used in the past and stocked, the only use of the trailer for the Sheriff’s Department would be to have it used for animal services. Consent Item 10. Adoption of Budget Amendments. In response to Board questions regarding the budget amendments, Chief Financial Officer Lisa Wurtzbacher stated the budget amendments are needed yearly for the roll-over of purchase orders, contracts, and a grant that didn’t finish in the previous year. Regarding the room occupancy tax budget line, Ms. Wurtzbacher stated this is for the rollover of the re-nourishment project for Wrightsville Beach. Staff Update: EnerGov. Chief Information Officer Leslie Chaney provided an update regarding EnerGov. The contract was awarded to Tyler Technologies EnerGov in the spring of 2017. The scope of the project includes all the processes that are involved in the land development and building processes within New Hanover County plus code enforcement activities in order to establish one central repository for all records. The key goals include a customer centric system that provides 24/7 transparent access to projects for our customers in one location, centralized intake for all development and building activities, and the replacement of various disjointed systems in several agencies. The project officially kicked off in May 2017 with a project team of more than 50 members from various county agencies, the City of Wilmington, and Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA). External stakeholders (builders, architects, engineers, etc.) have been instrumental in the design and testing of the customer portal. Ms. Chaney stated the foundation of setting up the system is complete and all the processes that will be available have been defined and configured within the system. The full system testing is underway, commercial processes were tested over the last three weeks, and all the feedback for corrections and modifications have been th received. Residential testing began this week and commercial contractors will be coming in on August 17 to test the customer portal and will provide feedback. Testing will finish by the end of this month. All corrections and modifications requested during testing will be addressed and re-tested before end-user training starts September th 17. Ms. Chaney reported that there are seats for approximately two-hundred people in end-user training. Training will be built around standard operating procedures developed by the Building Safety Department to ensure a consistent customer experience and quality product. The Communications and Outreach Department is working on a communications plan to keep staff and the public informed about our project as we near going live. Contractors, th builders, etc., will be invited for training the week of October 8 and at that time, we will assist them with setting th up their portal accounts and the use of the new system. The system is scheduled to go live on Monday, October 15. Phase 2 of the project will begin in November with an emphasis on code enforcement and processes currently being th done manually or in other departmental systems. This phase will conclude around June 30, 2019. Chairman White thanked Ms. Chaney for the update. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Chairman White adjourned the meeting at 4:52 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kymberleigh G. Crowell Clerk to the Board Please note that the above minutes are not a verbatim of the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting.