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BURLEIGH COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICE BOARD August 27, 2015

The Burleigh County Social Service Board convened at 3:30 p.m. on August 27, 2015, in the Tom Baker Room at the City/County Building. Present: Kathy Mayer, Doug Schonert, Gladys Cairns, and Betty Day Also present: Kim Osadchuk, Sandy Johnson, and Tayonne Mannin Absent: Jerry Woodcox, July 30, 2015 MINUTES: A copy of the Board meeting minutes from Thursday, July 30, 2015 was previously emailed to the membership. Chair Cairns asked if there were any additions or corrections to the minutes.

Motion by Kathy Mayer, second by Betty Day and unanimously carried to approve the minutes of the July 30, 2015 meeting as emailed.

FINANCIAL REPORT OF SOCIAL WELFARE FUND AS OF July 30, 2015:

Balance on hand beginning of month $ 4,215,383.14 Receipts during month 329,331.66 Expenditures during month 457,071.51 Balance on hand end of month $ 4,087,643.29

OLD BUSINESS Doug Schonert called that he would like to bring up as old business the burial policy. Mr. Mike Nathe had contacted him and would like to approach the board and discuss the burial policy. Good Afternoon for the record Mike Nathe Bismarck Funeral Home, as Mr. Schonert has said I had a situation this afternoon with a county burial and how we have done it in the past when we have met with the family who does qualify for a county burial their eligible for probably no more than $2100 to be applied towards a funeral. And I was here years ago, several years ago when we worked on this where the family was allowed to add more money on top of that to bury a person at a casket service. $2100 is enough for a cremation service for a funeral to be done. But quite frankly funeral homes we can’t cut a casket service for $2100. $1500 or so in that area is just cemetery costs alone. Much less the funeral home costs for the vault, or the casket or anything like that. So for the last number of years and I’m trying to remember as I stood up here when this was all decided maybe 6, 7, 8 years ago so we have been operating in that mode that family qualifies the county pays the $2100 and for casket service the family is free to add some more on top of that. And typically family members don’t add $10,000 more they only add enough to get what they want to have just a basic service. Well we had a family go down today to be qualified and was told that if qualified the county would only pay for $2100 and the family was not allowed to add anymore. And obviously the family is upset they are mad at us because quite frankly we gave them wrong information. It turned out to be. So, I talked to the case worker. I talked to Kim and they told me that the policy had changed back in June, June of this year, June 25th. The problem was the funeral homes were not notified. I had no clue. I had asked Kim why and she said they hadn’t sent us the letter yet so two months later injuries and death still happen each day here. So I called Commissioner Schonert and Commissioner Woodcox and had a discussion with them and that is why I am here today. I guess I am asking if the Social Service Board would reconsider their actions from June. Again we as funeral home directors are not looking to make money on these things. We are looking to cover our costs and quite frankly you can’t have a casket burial for $2100, without the funeral homes taking a loss. And, this is the exact same conversation we had 6-8 years

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ago. Exactly the same one so that’s kind of where I am at right now. I just wanted to bring it to your attention. Doug had suggested I come down and we talk about it. Doug Schonert - Madam Chairman when he contacted me I told him to my recollection I didn’t know that it had been changed and I guess it happened in the June meeting and I was absent at that meeting so I did not know this changed. I didn’t have a problem with the way it was but I guess I will turn it over to the other board members to explain why the reasoning for it. Kathy Mayer-Well there was a committee formed through the Eligibility department. Which I did attend the committee meetings and my understanding and our discussion was around would this cover the funeral home costs. We were aware of the fact that some folks are not, well are against cremation and prefer a traditional burial and I guess my understanding was at the end of our committee and we could certainly have those that are here from eligibility address that as well. My understanding was that it did that it would cover the cost of a very basic funeral whether it be cremation or burial. Mike Nathe- I guess I would ask Kathy was there anybody from funeral service on that committee? Cause I know myself. I was not contacted nor Mr.Eastgate, who is here in the room was not contacted. Again nobody from the industry was contacted to see if that would cover the costs. And we could easily Bob and I could sit here and pencil it out right now and show you it does not cover the cost. Not remotely. Not on the casket side of things. Cremation side it’s no problem. Like this family this morning felt if it’s not going to cover and if they can’t contribute to upgrading to a casket service their forced into something they don’t want which is cremation. Which is against their wishes. Kathy Mayer- “Can I ask this just for a point of reference. How much more is a traditional or a bare bones type of burial with a casket, vault and cemetery plot? How much more is it than the $2100? Mike Nathe- Well looking at the cemetery costs alone it would be close to $2000. By the time you buy a grave, graves are around a $1000, to dig and close a grave in Bismarck is $800-$1000. Then on the funeral home side you are looking at a casket, a vault a very basic concrete vault that a cemetery requires is $1100-$1400 for that minimum vault and then there are numerous caskets that one can choose from, but what we call a welfare casket is probably between $600-$800. Then you have the services of the funeral home and staff to embalm the person, for all the equipment, vehicles, the time to rent the chapel all those sort of things. So it can add up, way up. And what we do lot of times even when the county pays $2100 and the family contributes we discount a lot of that to bring it down. So we don’t say hey the funeral is eight grand the county is paying $2100 you have to pay the difference. We will discount that down so the family doesn’t have to come up with a boatload of money. Quite frankly and a lot of times when families pay and when I say families I mean friends and relatives are kicking in to help these people get what they want. Kathy Mayer- Prior to the change in policy the cap was still $2100. The only wording that was changed I believe is that, and the rational is this… is if people could afford a full service funeral then perhaps the county shouldn’t be paying $2100. Mike Nathe- Kathy I totally understand and I get that and the rational I think that makes some sense. But when you are looking at the deceased or the spouse of the deceased and I mean that is who we are looking at for eligibility correct.? Kathy Mayer- confirmed that this is correct. Mike Nathe- And a lot of times it’s the brothers and sisters that are willing to kick in some of the money. Again, the brothers and sisters aren’t brought into the eligibility formula, they are on the outside and are willing to kick in there so again under cremation services that families who want cremation that’s just their choice and $2100 is fine. I mean quite frankly the way we did it before was working just fine until the policy changed. I’m not here asking for more than

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$2100 or to raise the $2100. If you want to great, I’d take it, but how we were doing it $2100 with the family being able to contribute is working just fine. Chair Cairns called for any further discussion. Mr. Nathe expressed that Mr. Eastgate may want to say a couple words. Bob Eastgate- Thank You, for giving us the opportunity to visit with you and just be able to express a little about how we feel about this to you as a board. You have got a budget to deal with and you have to manage all these other expenses and every program that is being presented to you to try to manage. I have always felt that as funeral homes we are just in a really unique situation, because families you know…. who’s choosing to have to come to a funeral home. It just happens. It’s going to happen to everybody. Like my dad used to always say, the death rate, you know what it is. It’s a 100%. And so were going to have to take care of these folks, isn’t it true? I have always felt there is the ‘worthy poor’ that need help and it’s not in my opinion fair or proper to have a family feel pushed into going with cremation just because of their budget. When they might have really strong feelings about having an opportunity for burial and a viewing and so on that might go with that. You know in terms of the money aspect of things Mr, Nathe is right we have expenses that would far exceed the $2100 that we are currently allowed and it’s always been that way. I, frankly, was not aware that you could even add to the $2100, I just knew that we were going to have to accept what the county was willing to pay to that family and I understand what you are saying that if the family has an additional $5000 to add to whatever that package or funeral price might be, you might as eligibility workers say well then why are we giving you the $2100, makes sense. But every county has also got the right to choose how much they are willing to contribute for that burial and what’s happening to families. I feel is then when they come and meet with the eligibility worker they are having to go through this interview process to justify why they need some help and it just starts everything off on a real negative right away. So I know you have to have a consistent policy. I again, like I said, I didn’t understand that I mean the family could contribute over and above the $2100, but what I am seeing and is happening a lot of times is first of all I feel like $2100 is low. Ward County is paying $2800. And then what’s happening is that they start with the $2100 and then you start deducting off of that if they have $500 in their checking account or something else and then the county is paying us maybe $1500-$1600 whatever it is they come up with. Again, we’re in a unique business because we want that family to come in and we want them to be well served. We want the worthy poor to be well taken care of and to feel like they are able to honor their loved one even though they didn’t have the financial assets to do that. And I would say that any of the funeral homes in our community feel that way and that also I don’t want the friends that come to that funeral to feel like “oh you can sure tell that was a welfare funeral”. Okay and they don’t and I can honestly say that when they come to our funeral homes that they don’t have to walk away and feel like that was a funeral that was a welfare funeral. Because they are going to be well served and well taken care of. I think that the county has the funds I would hope in the budget as I was looking at your minutes from your June meeting it looks like you spent about $14,000 you have allocated for 20 funerals for the course of a year with the budget of about $42,000 and you spent $14,000 of it through June. There could be this mindset that funeral homes want to make as much money as they possibly can and all this. I think that is incorrect. I visited with an eligibility worker within the last 6 weeks and she referred to a funeral that was over $6000 as being ‘elaborate and over the top’. I think there is that mindset out there and I think it’s incorrect and that’s where I am coming from. Our position as you know with our company and frankly I didn’t even know that you had had this change in policy either. I didn’t know there was a change in policy 7 or 8 years ago. I don’t know if there is anything sent out at that time either, but I would say that you are actually going to find that funeral homes are pretty easy to get along with and that we want to help with the process and we want to help make it work. I mean this is our community. We live with our friends and neighbors here and this is what it’s about. We want to get together with you to come up with a solution on this. I don’t know if the way the process has worked so far particularly with us not getting notification and not being involved in the decisions or just helping with it was really that beneficial. I would like it to be mutually beneficial.

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Chair Cairns- If I’m correct Mr. Eastgate were talking about that what you are thinking is that the base is too low, that’s one thing and second, you are thinking that we should allow family members to increase it to pay into. Is that the two things here? Bob Eastgate- Here’s the way I kind of see it and I don’t know if Mr. Nathe and I are in total agreement on this because we haven’t had the opportunity to visit about it. Because I didn’t even know about it until Mike contacted me and let me know. In terms of cemetery costs I feel that that’s an obligation that the family just needs to come up with somehow and I can’t speak on behalf of the cemetery. I only know what we need to do as a business or as a funeral home. So I feel that if a family is able to come up with their own cemetery costs and come up with what is referred to as ‘cash advances’ you know that is in terms of pastors, flowers, music the newspaper and all those other extra expenses like that. That is always something we have expected a family to be able to come forward and do. And I think 99% of the time they can. In terms of the funeral home, yes I know as Mr. Nathe said that we are at $2100 we are losing money. And that is just the facts, that is the truth. I could pencil out and bore you with those figures but that is the truth. Chair Cairns- Do you know what Morton County is paying? Bob Eastgate- You know I guess I don’t. For some reason I was going to say $2500 and there are a number of other counties that have got higher amounts than we are at in Burleigh County. I don’t know what they all are, but we did at one time know. Chair Cairns- Thank you I am sure that both you and Mr. Nathe understand that we have a Burleigh County budget that we have to deal with. And the funeral costs are, they do have to be eligible so we do have to go through a process of interviewing or else we wouldn’t know if they were eligible. But obviously we can’t change that policy today at this meeting without revisiting it. I believe and I will suggest to the board that we will take it under advisement and take a look at it and perhaps expect that by our next meeting in September that we will take another look at it to do some evaluation of what’s happening around us with the other counties and see if we can make the policy more clear or if we need to change it. Then we’ll vote on that. Doug Schonert- I would just like to speak to it. Like I said I wasn’t here at the June meeting so I didn’t really understand that it had been changed at this time. But I am going to go way back to when it was changed to what it was previous to that and that was done in the 90’s. I do remember the discussions were that the funeral home costs kept going up and they would come to us almost on a yearly basis and say we need to have more because our costs are higher. That’s when the discussion got into cremation. Cremation was fairly new in the area at that time and they said well for set costs we can have cremation and then if they wanted more than that then the family would have to do it. And I remember it as being a County Commissioner and Board Member at that time thinking, boy if you tell people that they are going to have to have cremation, we are going to have this room full. We never had one phone call or one person come forward but we went forward with that policy for all these years and it seemed to be working well and I don’t know the money that you would save if the family can’t afford it or don’t’ have enough money to come up with that $2100. What you are saying is that you aren’t going to pay for it unless it’s cremation right, but if its cremation we’re still going to bury that person or have a funeral, is that correct? Chair Cairns- Maybe we need to have Lori Clark come up and talk to us about it. Doug Schonert- Well what does out policy read right now? Chair Cairns- Because I don’t have the policy in front of me. Lori Clark- Well basically the policy we went under the premise that we aligned it with what other counties are doing. We did contact Morton and Cass and we went a lot with what Cass County is doing and there again, they say the favored method is cremation and also that the premise being if that the family can kick in money, then really should the county? Because we are supposed to be the payer of absolute last resort. In other programs if we have family members kicking in to support a family that is living, we would count that as income. So if I have a family of food stamps and the family is constantly getting money from outside family

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sources that’s a countable source of income and that would be counted in their budget. We looked at that same premise when we look at burial. Doug Schonert- Well I guess I have some issues with that. Like I said if I would have been at this June meeting I don’t know if I would have favored this I would have had to be forced into it. I’ll go along with what you are saying, if we would reconsider or review it and go from there. Chair Cairns- We will talk to the committee that worked on it. We are really talking about that we are indeed the payor of last resort. Doug Schonert- But you are saying then is and what I heard Mr. Nathe say is you are almost requiring them to have cremation. If the family can’t afford to come up with the $2100 then you are saying that they have to have cremation even though if they are against it. In some cases it’s not just family like you said, it’s friends and whatever that kick in. I do know of one circumstance of something like that. Several years ago we kicked in a few dollars as friends because the family couldn’t afford it and they wanted a funeral so we did help and we were friends we weren’t family. And there were several friends that did that. That’s just one time that I did that, but I do remember doing it. Lori Clark- I will tell you we have a responsible relative policy when it comes to burial and we are very generous of not looking at those responsible relatives when we look at their circumstances. I mean we don’t look at every penny or every asset they make. We are very generous in that regard and we have looked at being generous on that side to not destitute the rest of the family. But, I really think the premise is from the Century Code is to be the payer of last resort. Chair Cairns—Thank you, I will take all of that into consideration. Do we need a motion for moving? Since nothing is changing, no motion is needed for a revisiting of a topic. NEW BUSINESS Director’s Report: Kim Osadchuk referred to her written report as was distributed. Staff Update:

We currently have one Eligibility Worker I positions open and will be scheduling more interviews soon.

We recently hired two Eligibility Worker I positions and they will be starting August 31.

We are in the process of filling our full time Social Worker III position for our In-Home Services program.

We recently hired our Human Service Program Administrator I for our daycare licensing program and she will be starting September 21.

Eligibility: Our Eligibility Unit has been keeping very busy this summer and will have a busier than normal fall. The eligibility workers have to attend a day training in our new MMIS program that is anticipating rollout in October of this year. They also have another two day training for the new Eligibility system that rolls out in December. Eligibility staff are also gearing up for LIHEAP season that starts September 1 with applications. There are many new staff that have to be trained on this and each Pod has decided how they want to handle these applications. Some of the eligibility supervisors and workers went to United Tribes orientation in August for two days. This was an outreach effort for BCSS to reach the individuals at the school wanting to apply for any of the programs. This was to help alleviate our front desk and waiting room area so the college does not have to bring in a bus full of individuals needing to apply for benefits. The workers were able to answer any questions and be more readily available for clients during this time. The Eligibility staff also participated in the Project Service Connect held at the library on August 20. They received very little traffic from this event but did give out some information to a few individuals. A few Eligibility workers will be setting up a booth for the Veteran’s Stand Down event at the Amvets on August 27.

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We sent two eligibility workers to the National Eligibility Worker Conference in San Antonio in August and they will be presenting to the Board about their experience. Child Welfare: Due to recent legislation, we have some law changes in regards to Human Trafficking. Our court orders as well as our affidavits have to change some of the language in the order to reflect the recent law change. We do anticipate a few issues with this until all parties are familiar with the changes. There was also a change with the age in independent living. The age change is now 14 years of age instead of 16 years for services to be provided to assist youth in making the transition from foster care to independent living. 2016 Budget: We have our finalized budget that was presented to the Commission on August 19, 2016. I will have Tayonne speak to you all regarding our final 2016 budget as well as our cap that is now state law. You all have a handout in your packets of how we allocated monies for this next year. Employee of the Month: We had an individual from the community give kudos to a worker and we felt she deserved to be our Employee of the Month for September. Stephany Wyffels is our employee of the month for September. This is what her client had to say about Stephany:

Ms. Wyffels is my case manager for the childcare assistance program and she has done a phenomenal job at it. When I first applied for the program it was an extremely stressful time as I was transitioning from active duty military to civilian life as a single father and full time student. Due to the various military and veteran benefits I was receiving filing out the online application alone was a nightmare. Ms. Wyffels simplified and almost completely de-stressed that process for me. Since then she has continued to provide the highest level of service and support, every exchange I have with her is friendly, stressless, supportive, and informative. It’s because of this that I feel I have such a high level of trust and respect for her. And it’s those types of qualities that make asking questions, admitting you don’t understand something, or even sharing personal information such as income a slightly more comfortable experience. In today’s world where customer service is often lacking and customer complaints often flow in excess, I really wanted to make sure that someone was aware of Ms. Wyffels exemplary performance.

Directors Evaluation: The evaluation of Kim our director, Thank you all for completing that process it is always important to have our director know how we are feeling about how she is doing with her job. Gladys went over some highlights of the evaluation. The overall appraisal for Kim is: frequently exceeds performance expectations. Comments include: there has been such an improvement of the operations of Burleigh County Social Services and many of the changes have come with not little pain, but maybe a little big pain but she has been very professional throughout that process. Another comment is that we are grateful that she chose us too, as we chose her to be our director. Good evaluation. Keep it up Thank you very much. No further comments from the board regarding the evaluation. National Eligibility Worker Conference Presentation: Cindy Timm: Hello, I'm Cindy Timm and I'm an eligibility worker in Pod A. I work with family medical, child care assistance, and starting this year, LIHEAP. I also work Pod D cases while they are short staffed.

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Thank You for allowing me and Kari to attend the NEW Paths Convention in San Antonio. What a powerful and rewarding experience. The theme for this year's conference was "Honoring the Past; Embracing the Future." The message being conveyed throughout the conference was change is coming and how we need to invest in our employees; promote flexibility; promote overtime to decrease stress, and recognize and reward employees. One thing all workers have in common is being overwhelmed at times, trying to do the best job we can for our clients. Sunday started with registration, exhibits, vendors and a silent auction. That evening was a reception and live auction to celebrate the 40th anniversary of NEW Paths. It was also a time to network with others. Nineteen states were represented. We had 8 reps from ND; 6 Eligibility Workers, our regional rep and 1financial worker. Monday, our keynote speaker was Tim Gard: Finding Happiness Isn't Rocket Surgery. He is the best motivational speaker I have had the opportunity to listen to. He states, happiness can be found in anything we do. We are to start every day with a smile...and get it over with!! Humor is not malicious; it's contagious. It also helps with fatigue and stress in the workplace. Kari will give more information on this speaker. My first session was: Welfare Reform...How Other States Do It, featuring Minnesota and Texas.Minnesota has newer systems that sound pretty amazing. Once you enter a client's demographics into the system, you never have to do that again. Their systems talk to each other and no matter what program they apply for, once you key in their case number or SSN, the system auto populates their information. It lets you know what programs they could be eligible for. Right now, in our office, we have to key demographic information into each system and when we have big families, and numerous programs, it is very time consuming. Texas has 8,672 eligibility staff. 3.7 million people receive SNAP. Over 4 million receive Medical Assistnace. They have approximately 62,000 TANF recipients. Texas invests in their workers. They promote flexibility in the office and overtime, either comp time or wage. They believe if a worker needs to finish up a case and it's close to 5, they should be able to complete the case before they go home. When they return to work the next morning, they can start fresh. They also promote recognizing and rewarding their employees. It can be as simple as a "good job" or high 5. Investing in your employees keeps turnover low. I attended: The "C" Word, Cleaning Up the Dirty Language of Change.

1. Define It 2. Do It 3. Defend It

Change is inevitable and can cause fear and stress, but also acceptance. Model what you want others to do, get people talking about it. Identify change leaders in your area. Understand the vision; it determines your success. Communicate often, openly, powerfully. Walk the Talk. Recognize and Reward. Create quick wins for immediate success. Early wins motivate staff. Talk it, Share it, Plan for leadership. BE WHAT YOU WANT OTHERS TO BECOME. Tuesday morning I attended CMS, (i.e. Centers for Medicaid Services). Since the start of ACA, there are approximately 11.7 million people served in Medicaid and CHIP. Some of the challenges all states face are system capacity, transferring information from one system to another, determining household size and what income is used. We deal with delayed reviews, and clients who don't report timely. CMS is also hoping to change the perception from "welfare" to an insurance policy." We talked about what is working and what is not. All states seem to have the same difficulties and/or successes. My afternoon session was: The Art of Communicating. The high point of the session was trust. Trust is a by-product of good communication. It shows you care, you're genuine and you follow up your actions. Mean what you say...say what you mean. Compassion and understanding are key to successful communication with "delicate" clients. We need to be pro-client. My final session Wednesday morning was: Managing Professional Growth. The main focus was training. Almost all states and/or counties have trainers whose only job

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is to train new workers. The majority have an 8 or 12-week training session for new workers. At the end of their training, they are tested. If they pass, they become eligibility workers with a case load. If they don't pass, they are let go. Those counties also have a one-year probation period because they know you cannot learn this job in 6 months. I came back revved up and motivated and have shared my experience with co-workers. You come home with a renewed understanding of the job we do for our clients. Everyone should have the chance to attend an upcoming conference. THANK YOU!! Kari Richey: NEW provides eligibility workers to make professional connections and to be part of

something BIG. I was able to share my passion for work and people and discuss the

importance of my work with others. I was empowered to greater serve my clients.

Tim Gard was the keynote speaker for the NEW Conference and made a huge positive

impact on many. He is a Certified Professional Speaker and started us off with his

presentation titled: Happiness Isn’t Rocket Surgery!

Tim describes the health side effects of an eligibility worker’s job like: fatigue, sleep disorders

and psychological issues. Eligibility Workers are at Risk of Compassion Fatigue:

Pressures Start Right Away

He said it was the most stressful job he ever had

If a mistake is made it affects lives - every decision is connected to a face and family.

The pressure to be perfect is Giant – Extreme attention to details

Workers are unable to speak to friends or family about their job

People yell, Tim said he cried and saw incredibly sad things everyday

As result: Eligibility workers burn out and leave or burn out and stay, they suffer due to lack

of resources, they are never caught up, there is no sense of accomplishment, there are

stupid rules and changes, there is a poor public perception of our work. We lose so many

workers because of this or they quit and stay.

Tim explained how a worker in TX quit and moved to ND to be a pig farmer. He and his

coworkers said ‘Good for her!’ and unfortunately that is what we say when we lose a

coworker.

Realities of work

It’s a truth in Social Services that when the economy gets bad our business goes up.

Desperate people do desperate things

A Duke study finds: 20% of the people are totally honest, 20 % are quite dishonest,

and 60% are honest depending upon the situation

Every day I need to put on my game face and assume the best will happen

I am careful to not place my values on others or diminish anyone

People are either eligible or ineligible – not personal decision

Always assume the best and dwell on success

Most normal people cannot do this work

Tim encouraged us to define a new work environment with a comic vision:

Reality does not exclude happiness

I have the right to pursue happiness even at work!

Happiness is a journey and not a destination

One way to conquer stress is to be really good at what you do

Change perception of stress, it isn’t what happens to you it’s how you respond

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Use humor to help yourself first and then share it!

I can make a difference one person at a time

Burn bright and don’t burn out.

Jason presented about change and how we need to clean up the dirty language of change.

We are presented with so much change as eligibility workers and so many fear change, but

we can look at it in a different way.

Jason stressed how important it is that we remember we are not our job. He said when we

leave the office to also leave our work self. He even handed out little red clown noses to

wear on your way home from work so each time you look into the review mirror you

remember you are no longer a worker.

The best session was with Carol Reggins – speaking on a Leader of One

She discussed values and how that affects our work. Values are based on our own personal

ethics and our values then influence our decisions. In the work place you need to know your

core values and then have the courage to act on them and on behalf of the common good of

our clients and the agency. In this session I was given a chance to assess my own personal

core values. Top American work values include: confidence, optimism, vision, responsibility,

and being detail oriented.

Carol stressed how one person can easily make a difference and be a leader of one. Have

you ever tried to sleep in a room with one mosquito or one fly in the room? . . . One person

can make a difference

Ethical Behavior can be modeled: A professional tone needs to be set; workers must define

and align personal values with agency values, and recognize ethical dilemmas and act

appropriately according to policies

The NEW Conference was a wonderful professional opportunity to network with other

workers from across the states and also collaborate with my own regional representative

Susan. There were a handful of us from the Midwest that would gather daily and share our

discoveries from each day’s adventures in our different sessions or simple conversations that

happened in the hallway pertaining to our policies and systems we use. The conference was

phenomenal! Please keep this opportunity, for other workers, in the budget to improve our

floors professionalism and overall moral in the work place. Thank you

Sharon Dockter Presentation: Challenges When Working With Clients Experiencing Being Homeless and Providing In Home Services There are challenges that exist when a referral for In Home Services lists the family as being homeless or staying in a temporary location. The CPS workers struggle to conduct a complete assessment when families move from place to place staying with friends as long as they can before moving to the next place. Oftentimes families will stay in unsafe situations when they are desperate for a place to sleep and the children are exposed to many unsafe variables. Camping and tenting are common and one family reported their teenage daughters being approached for sex at the campground. Many of our clients that have a place to stay, live in inhumane conditions with mold and plumbing issues. They will stay in an unsanitary hotel that charges over $1000 per month. When they cannot pay the bill they are locked out of their room. When they are out they lose all of their possessions and if they cannot pay up in a certain amount of time. They lose whatever was in their room such as birth certificates, driver’s license and social security cards not to mention all of their belongings. This is very tough on kids who may have had a special toy or blanket. Moms have lost their purse with everything in it. It is difficult to locate and connect with those families because they may not have a working

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phone and the worker does not have a place to drop into or send a letter. If they are staying at a shelter and you have not met them yet, it is difficult to leave a confidential message. When children and families are attempting to gain services or get a job and they do not have a telephone of their own, a huge barrier exists. They may leave the number where they are staying or of a friend or parent aide for providers and employers to call back and they may not get that message timely. There are barriers to economic assistance programs when there is no current address for applications. Many of the families we work with are only a paycheck away from being homeless. If a loss of income is followed by a loss of housing, the family experiences a great deal of stress and may turn to unhealthy coping methods like alcohol and drugs which may lead to child neglect and abuse or domestic violence situations. When a family does not have an address, they cannot establish busing to school for their child. The school system offers taxis to school for homeless but if they miss their ride a few times, they lose the taxi. Although there are apartments for rent in Burleigh County, finding an affordable place and passing the background and credit checks can both be costly and challenging. Many landlords will not allow persons with a felony on their record to rent from them even though they may have a job and not be a danger to society. Coming up with rent and deposit to get started is also difficult for many. The shelters have noticed that more persons seem to homeless all the time. Case managers and parent aides try to assist parents with getting into shelters but some don’t show up for their intake appointments. The shelters say some people are way too proud to ask for help or don’t want to follow the rules and expectations of the shelter. Shelters have breathalyzers, curfews and expect adults to be looking for jobs consistently and applying for housing assistance programs. For some people, life is not about four walls and a 40 hour work week so they prefer to stay from place to place. According to a staff member at Missouri Valley Homeless Coalition, it has been her experience that 80% of people who experienced homelessness do not seek services for help. Some people either have family support or too much pride to ask for help or they are unaware of services. Our community does not have a system in place to offer shelter to persons under the influence and that contributes to the lack of stability for children when they have to move from place to place. In home case managers have difficulty tracking those families to offer services and support. It is not uncommon to receive another CPS report early on in a case or even before meeting the family when they are homeless. Reports may come from schools, family members or the community at large. In home services can be challenging when there is not a home. Tayonne Mannin Presentation:

At the July meeting the board was presented with the preliminary county budget

worksheet that was used to determine the overall budget limitation for the 2016 social service

budget. When finalizing this form for submission to the state we determined that there were a

number of costs associated with social services that historically have not been reflected in the

social services budget as they have been paid through various other available county funds.

These costs have since been identified and included in the state’s budget calculation

worksheet to address our precise budget limit and these costs have also been added to our

social service budget for the 2016 year.

The various costs that have been introduced to our 2016 budget include the costs of

employee service awards, county vehicle costs, FICA tax expenses, and professional liability

insurance expenses. The inclusions of these costs provide the agency with a state mandated

budget limitation of $7,704,440 which the agency has met with our preliminary 2016 budget

request of $7,704,435. Our budget request in the amount just below our budget limitation was

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reviewed at the initial County Budget Hearing last week.

A. The decrease in the Program Expense amounts in the first section of the preliminary

budget handout identifies four of the program areas that will be funded by the state in

2016. The four programs are Medicaid Foster Care, Foster Care, Subsidized Adoption,

and Service Payments to the Elderly and Disabled.

a. In 2015 social services had budgeted for an anticipated expense of $1.2 million

combined for these programs.

B. The General Assistance budget for 2016 will see a slight 3.45% increase in the

budgeted amount for a total amount of $45,000.

a. This $1,500 increase is reflected in the medical assistance costs associated

with the General Assistance budget to reflect the increased amounts we have

seen in recent years for these services. So far in 2015 we have paid just under

$1,000 toward these services.

b. The remainder of General Assistance budgeted amounts will remain the same

as in prior years and a breakdown of these expenses has been made available

on Page 2 of the budget handout.

C. The Grants and Other Services amount includes Safety Permanency Funds,

Emergency Shelter Care and the Juvenile Diversion Project through Youthworks as

well as emergency overnight foster care placements and the Region VII Foster Parent

Recruitment Project. Project breakdowns are available on page two of the budget

handout.

a. The 14.9% increase for this other services amount is due to the increase in

liability that social services has recently seen in regard to emergency foster

care placements.

b. All other budgeted expenses in this area have remained the same.

D. Other Client related Services has decreased by nearly 50% primarily due to the

legislation's impact on program funding.

a. The state will no longer be billing our agency for Targeted Case Management

services provided by our social workers in the Children & Family Services Unit.

b. We have also reduced by 25% the cost of our County Funded In-home Services

given our decline of program participation.

E. The administrative expense section identifies the reminder of the expenses that have

been eliminated due to the state’s additional program funding for 2016 as the state will

no longer be billing our agency for computer program costs or SNAP/EBT costs.

F. Page 3 of the budget handout also identifies the remainder of the administrative

expenses budgeted for 2016 which will represent the overall 10% increase in this area.

a. Of these administrative expenses there is reported a net salary increase of

$128,071 due to the anticipated countywide participation in overall salary

increases.

b. There also is a significant increase in the fringe benefit amount. This increase is

due not only to the 15% increase in health insurance rates but also due to the

fact that we are now reporting in our budget over $350,000 in FICA tax

expenses that were previously provided though other funding sources.

c. Durable office equipment is budgeted for an increase of $17,555.

i. This budgeted amount will allow us to move forward with our paperless

project throughout the agency and equip the remainder of our social

welfare staff and unit supervisors with document scanners.

ii. To coincide with our paperless transition we are also budgeting to

replace a number of outdated and undersized computer monitors in the

social welfare unit to aide in the advancement of our technological

efficiencies throughout the agency.

d. The next notable increase is an $1,800 increase to the registration fee account.

i. This increase is in regard to our All-Staff Presentations. Kim has been

able to secure various guest speakers already in 2015 to present to our

entire department at our All-Staff Meetings. These presentations have

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been very well received by the agency and are something that we would

thoroughly like to see continued in the future.

e. We have also budgeted for an increase in our tuition reimbursement for 2016.

i. We have increased our budgeted amount to $8,000 given the interest

that a number of our current employees have expressed to further their

education into the social work field in the upcoming budget year.

f. The next significant increase is found with our liability insurance amount.

i. This amount has increased by $34,000 due to the inclusion of our

professional liability insurance expense that was previously budgeted

through other funding sources.

g. The last significant increase to review is our capital outlay expense. This budget

item is planned to increase by $8,160 in 2016.

i. We have budgeted for a typical 4 year computer replacement plan for

2016 which will include 18 desktop computers.

ii. We have also budgeted for two additional laptop computers to be used

for our eligibility unit. These laptop computers are intended to be set up

in kiosk locations made available for use by our clients. Anticipated state

reimbursement for this expense is 60%.

iii. We have also budgeted to provide our unit supervisors with tablets in

2016 to help facilitate their departmental responsibilities and improve

their supervisory efficiencies. The tablets provided to our eligibility unit

will also provide additional accessibility of equipment allowing our

eligibility worker trainer to facilitate the classroom and computer training

for our eligibility workers.

h. Also identified within the administrative expense breakdown are various

expense areas in which we have projected additional cost savings to allow for

the growth in some of the specific areas that we would like to promote in 2016.

G. Represented on page 4 is our anticipated revenues in the amount of $1,676,409 for

2016.

H. In summary, our preliminary budget of $7,704,435 provides an overall decrease of

7.41% or a decrease of over $616,000 from the $ 8.3 million approved budget from

2015.

ADDITIONAL BUSINESS: None REVIEW OF BILLS: Bills numbered 69638 through 69700, for August were reviewed by Doug Schonert and signed by Chair Cairns.

Motion by Doug Schonert, second by Betty Day and unanimously carried to approve the August bills as presented.

MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED TO THE BOARD: Agenda; July 30, 2015 Board Meeting Minutes; Director’s Report for August 2015; Burleigh County Director 2015 Performance Appraisal; Burleigh County Social Services Fiscal Year 2016 Budget; Supervisors’ Meeting Minutes for August 3rd 2015; Social Welfare Report with spreadsheets for July 2015; Travel Expense Report. NEXT BOARD MEETING: Thursday, September 17th 2015 at 3:30 p.m. in the Tom Baker Room at the City/County Building. ______________________________ ______________________________ Gladys Cairns, Chair Betty Day, Secretary