Health and Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, roll call. No sushi.

No sushi. Chairman Brennan.

Present.

Vice Chair Danford?

Here.

Commissioner Moeller? Here. Commissioner Vossing? Present. Commissioner Smithson? Here. Commissioner Meikland? Here. And Commissioner Wood has recused herself.

Oh, she snuck in.

You have a quorum, your honor.

Okay. So do I have a motion to consider the approval for the agenda?

Move

assume it's for tonight and not for the next ten years.

Yes. So this is you're considering the approval of tonight's agenda as well as the minutes for the meeting from 01/27/2025.

Thank you for that clarity. Because as I revealed, I need to make an addendum to last meeting. I aired, and I have to own that. I had said that Mackenzie Scott, who is a philanthropist, she's real, but I had erroneously stated that she had been married to Sergei Brin. That's not true. The ex wife of Sergei Brin is a woman named Anna Wodt is spelled W O J C I C C I. I think it's either Slovakian or Polish. I'm not sure. But anyway, she is not a philanthropist. But McKenzie Scott is.

In fact, McKenzie Scott is quite notorious. She has funded 2,450 nonprofit organizations over the past six years. And donations have been in the range of approximately $5,000,000 Some are a little less, but on average, that's the range. In June and July of this last year, she donated $2,000,000,000 And the Center for Effective Philanthropy has demonstrated that these donations have been transformative to the organizations they've been given to. And the quintessential feature that's part of it is that there are no strings attached.

Of the organizations, I think you will be interested to know that 44 were human services, 41% were educational, and 35% were health. And that is to remedy my error in the record and to add added information about her.

Thank you. Now we'll get back to the motion and the second for the agenda I and the

didn't officially do the whole

I had to do the

whole thing. Right. I haven't heard yeah.

All right.

I was like, I started. And then I

was like, oh, wait.

I move that we approve the agenda for today, Monday, 02/24/2025. And are they separate in regards to the previous

Okay. No, it's actually a motion for the consent agenda. So your consent is the agenda and the minutes. So you're making one motion.

And the minutes are from January 20 And

I think you all have a copy of the motions there. So you can actually just read right off of that.

I move that the Health and Human Services Commission accept the consent agenda as presented.

I'll second.

Thank you. Commissioner Smithson? Yes. Commissioner Moeller? Yes. Vice Chair Danford?

Yes.

Commissioner Vosson? Yes. Chair Brennan?

Yes.

Commissioner Meikland? Yes. Motion passes.

Moving forward, old business.

There is

none. We have any. We have some undefined issues, though, perhaps.

So we do have to stay with the agenda. So we don't on the agenda, there is nothing listed under old business. So if you want to discuss things in the future, we can add them to the agenda. But I think if you're going to go to a topic that we sort of ended on last time, it is item number four.

Consideration discussion of duties the commission is responsible for. Yes.

Okay. So we'll get to that. But let's stay under old business. There is none. So then you're moving on to new business.

Okay. New business? Do I have a motion to discuss 20 five-seventy six?

You don't need a motion for that.

Oh, I don't? Okay. No. Okay, I'm motionless. All right, presentation discussion of applicants submitted in fiscal year twenty twenty five for funding.

So I can pull the applications up on your monitors if you want. I don't know if you all brought printed copies. This is your time to shine for the meeting, because it's your time to discuss quandaries that you might have about the applications that came through. This is your time to share amongst each other how you want to move forward. We're not making any decisions tonight. This is just simply discussing all of the applications.

I would like to ask that we order them and we deal them sequentially so that we're not going back and forth and back and forth.

Absolutely. I would prefer that as well. If I can just have a moment. So they are listed on the agenda in alphabetical order. So if everyone is Okay with that, we would start with AJCDC.

Okay.

I

printed them, and they're not in my nifty little folder that I made. I'm like, oh.

May I

say a word?

Anyone else has

I just want to overall, when I was looking at them, I was kind of concerned that we didn't have more applications. And moving forward, I don't know if it's part of this board or something that we would address or take care of, or it moves to the city, or I'm not sure whom but for next time to somehow get out more word out there so we have more applications. Because there's a lot of money to be distributed, and there aren't as many as I thought. So therefore, some people asking for a really great amount. I have concerns about that. And because we have only five applications, I would like to see maybe in the future and I don't know if we're supposed to address that. Is this something that we can go look for? I don't think we can.

No. So we posted it on all four of our platforms

I know.

The website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. That's about all we can do. Okay.

And to address it, this was a discussion that came up when I was presenting the findings. And people on the council seemed to be dismayed that there weren't more applications. But I think the point that's being made here is that you can only do what it is that people apply And if they don't, then that's maybe a travesty. But nonetheless, that limits the choices that you have. And then with that, there are certain requirements that they have to have eligibility.

So that may tailor it down even more. So in some ways, even though this is meager, that is the reality of the issue. And I was kind of surprised, to be candid, on a personal level. There were two organizations that were pretty frequently soliciting funds. And they didn't do so this time. And one didn't do it last time either. So it's kind of a strange occurrence. And I'm not exactly sure why.

Okay. I just want to know, because when I was looking at it I'm the new kid on the block. So when I was looking at it, I was like, oh, there's only that many. And I was hoping there would have been so many more. And I know that you put it out all over the place, because

I saw it.

And I'm not a nonprofit. I saw it.

This is about typical. Last year, I think we only had seven. Seven.

Think it was

eight, maybe.

Was it eight?

I think so. Your honor, if I could just make one quick announcement. When you speak, if you could speak closer into the mics. And that's for everyone. Because if you're too far away, it doesn't pick up on the recording. And when we're doing minutes, we can't hear. So just try and always remember to speak closer into your mic. Not super close, because Ps and Bs

will bombard the place. Thank you.

I'm happy to start the conversation on the AJ CDC. I really like this group and the work that they do. I think it's meaningful work. I am a little disappointed that we're not helping more individuals. So I just had a couple of thoughts. I see that they have two new board members. And they didn't do any fundraising last year. So one of the questions that I had was, were there any fundraising events that they were planning for 2025 just to help increase some revenue for them. It looks like they have four different they have many partners within the community. But there were four specific community partners that donated $7,000 to them.

That's quite a bit

of money for just four. So I feel like they could probably if they did some fundraising, they could really increase their funds. So I'm just kind of curious about that. I was curious about the average cost per cleanup and then how many referrals in 'twenty four that they had versus how many that they actually did. And curious what their barriers to expansion were. Was it just the funding that was the barrier? Was it volunteers? I think they just provide a really great service. So I was kind of curious about that.

You know, I agree. I think they do provide a remarkable service. The problem I had was that they have, in this listing of individuals, those are several benefactors. And they count those as expenses. So, for example, they have tools.

And it's my recollection that they've previously reported that I think it was true value that gave them the tools, that donated them to them. And if that's the case, then that's not really an expenditure. Equally, they were equally donated some money to pay for the t shirts that they use for their Make a Difference Day. And they've listed that as an expense. And the last thing is just a technicality.

We were told that we had to approve funds that had direct consequences for the populace of Apache Junction, that they have a direct impact, not consequences. That's a bitter phrase. And I don't know that business phones do that, nor Zoom conference calling, nor web application, nor the, let's see, their Corporation Commission fees, their insurance payment, their TAC phone, which may I mean, that may, simply because it's a way of communication between the individuals and the Zoom conference software. And it just seemed that there were duplications. In other words, they talked about equipment on the very first page, on page nine of 11, per their pagination.

And what they have is shovels and gloves, three thirty five pull saw hedge trimmer, four twenty shovels and rakes, dollars $4.35. My thought are, except for perhaps the gloves, which still may have some durability, those can be stored. So I'm perplexed at why they're saying that they have other equipment that they've had to buy. On page 10, in the first quarter, they have I beg your pardon. Is it in the first quarter?

I just had it a moment ago. Oh, here it is. It's in the second quarter. It says Tools to Make a Difference Day event, eight and thirty three point four three. So I don't know how technically rigid we have to apply the rule that it has to demonstrate that it has a direct benefit.

They are getting funding from other sources, though. So if they're just being honest about how their money is being distributed, it's not saying which source it's coming from. So we have the ability to state what we want those funds to be utilized for. So if we want to say the funding is to go towards dumpster fees or things like that, we can do that, correct? Or am I Absolutely.

According to what I just saw, it said that 75% they're asking for $7,500 and that is 100% of their operating budget for the year.

Yeah, that's number five.

So what they're requesting means they would not have to have additional funding from other sources,

on number five.

If they've got funding to 7,000, it would be 500 short, but nonetheless.

Got it.

Yeah. I

think it's the last page, eleven eleven. Is that what it says?

Yeah, 10 of eleven and eleven of 11.

Oh, 11 of 11. They're requesting three fourth of the request at $5,625

But their operating budget exceeds that.

Honestly, when I read this through, it was a few days ago. But I was a little bit confused. Because then you look at number six, the acceptance of partial funding. Well, I mean, I guess it does make sense. Threefour of the planned neighborhood make a difference. Basically, they would be able to complete threefour. Mean, it is a great program. Guess we're just confused of maybe some of the information

on there. I think they probably just made a mistake on that final page. Because when you add up their operating budget, it comes out to over $14,000 And they're asking for $7,500 So

again, I just want to remind you all that this is discussion. Great questions. And I had a conversation earlier with one of the commissioners and just encouraged, keep your questions. Because at our next meeting is when the applicants will be here. And then you're talking directly to the horse and give the good answers that you're looking for.

But the one thing that I will also remind you of is that when it comes time to making the recommendations, that we are very, very specific about what needs to be offered from the nonprofits, and maybe not have such a broad definition in their contract that we drill down to exactly what you want to see.

And just a tangent so that we're clear, is our sum this year the same as the ultimate sum last year?

At this point, we are working with 90,000.

Okay. Yep. Okay. So it is elevated to that last

Yeah.

Okay. Thanks. Is there any further discussion about this particular organization and nuances to it?

Yeah. The only other thing was I had a hard time seeing exactly how many. They talked about the population of AJ a couple times, reported at 42,000, but how many and maybe I missed it they serviced. So I guess that would be something we would want to pin down a little bit of how many people in benefited from their services.

It is in here. I'm trying to find it. Okay.

I'm seeing on page six of 11, number five is giving the percentages. Yeah, that's just the population of 18.

It's on page five under number one. And it says, they cleaned up projects for one, two, three, four, five addresses and then three different neighborhoods. So that's why I was saying it's like limited assistance. So I was curious what the barrier was. Did they have more referrals than those five individual cleanup projects? And they just didn't have the funding for it? They didn't have the volunteers for it? Or is that like their normal? Do they only usually do a handful?

Great question. Yeah. And

I think to be clear on number five, if we add up these numbers, it would far surpass what it is that they've done. What they're saying is the individuals that they select are within this group that they've defined. Those are sort of general requirements to be a participant in those groups. All right.

Yeah, because if I recall, the code enforcement officers would contact them and let them know that there was somebody that needed assistance. I can't imagine there only being five.

Well, agree. I mean, I would think that there are more. And the other is that actually that's not all of it. They do do some things with Flatiron Park and with Silly Mountain. And so those are two entities that they do all sorts of cleanup and make it more amenable to the services it's supposed to provide.

I'm not sure. It becomes somewhat grandiose to say that when they get done that property values improve. Property values are predicated on the market at large and the general environment. So if you have people in the neighborhood burning down their houses, regardless of what you do to that house, it doesn't improve property values. So I'm being a little facetious. Okay. All right. Next. Okay.

Begin again, Holmes.

May I?

I have so many questions. So many questions. First and foremost, I would like services to exclusively be Apache Junction, not meaning that when people come from Tempe or other areas that they're serviced in Apache Junction. But these are actually Apache Junction residents who need the help, especially seniors and veterans. I know that this organization is very involved with the large organization where there are several.

And they're from Tempe and Mesa, and they meet once a month, I just want to make sure that if we designate money for them that it's in fact used in Apache Junction, they're not bringing people from other services from other cities to be serviced in Apache Junction. Because this money is for Apache Junction. And it's really not clear in what they say. It just says servicing. And it's a lot of money.

So that would be my first biggest concern. It really looks from what they say. It's more talking about what they call unsheltered homeless. And I really would like those services to be more the senior services, people who would need the extra money because they're going be evicted or things of that nature, again, and not necessarily a homeless coalition.

Yeah. On page five, they list really only one person that they really did do that. They paid for back rent and some rent going forward, a 67 year old gentleman. But they don't indicate how much they paid. And they also have a relationship with Motel six, I believe it is. And I'm not sure I saw a sum that they paid to Motel six for the services that they imply are there.

I would have to agree with that. I'm stumped on they paid for emergency housing or emergency shelter for five individuals. I don't know how many days, but that's what? The sum may be $100 a night, 500 for the five individuals. Even if they stayed for ten days, we're looking at $5,000 or whatever. But they're asking for $35,000 for hotel stays. So I don't know where they're anticipating to get that increase in volume. Agreed. Because that's such a big jump. And then when we're talking about the individual that got the rent paid for three months post and the back rent paid.

Well, let's say rent is $2,000 a month. I mean, you're going to eat up. That's $10,000 right there for one individual. If you want $35,000 for that, that's 3 and onetwo people that are going to get help. So how do you qualify for that? Is there

a cap for that so

that you're not spending all of your money in one place? I can see they could just burn through hundreds of thousands of dollars very quickly if they're going to be providing this type of service. I think it's a great service if it's done right. I'm just having a hard time understanding where we are now to where they want to be and how they plan on getting there.

Well, and they have no history. So there's nothing on paper, really. So they have no any financials from last year. So there's nothing to compare. And I'm just nervous about how many times I see homeless and not services for seniors. And I'm passionate about taking care of our seniors and our veterans, but not homeless that come in from another area, because that's not the purpose of this. And this group is very involved. It's called the homeless coalition. I had to fade there for a second. And it's a wonderful coalition, but it meets in Apache Junction. But it's all over the county and other counties. And my understanding is that should not be referrals from those areas to us. It's taking care of our people first in AJ. The money goes here.

Yeah. One of my questions that was generated by what I read on page seven was, do they receive any funding from Pinal County?

So if I can share just a little bit. They did apply for a grant from Gila River tribal community, maybe, for there was a $350,000 grant. I don't know exactly how much is this specific organization asked for. I think that was a lump sum that had to be dispersed, just like you are, with different organizations. That was when did she do that?

I think the answer comes to her in either March or April. I'm not sure. But something just to keep in mind.

And then I guess another question that I have then is, if they only receive $5,600 in funding, where does the rest of their funding come from? Are they really truly just counting on us? Where does their I don't see

I think it's the partnership that they have with these other entities, especially I think was mentioned on here.

They didn't outline how much money they received from them, though, to understand where their shortfalls are. I would like to better understand the money coming into the program. Because right now, it looks like only $5,600 is coming in. So I know how they're making this work, unless I missed it. Did you catch? No.

Didn't either. And that's a pertinent question to find. People ask, well, do you have alternate resources? And they didn't list any. And it may be just that they didn't quite understand that question. I hope not. But even simple things, like I need to understand what they mean by temporary emergency shelter, What does that mean? How long does that last? It seems rather nebulous.

And what's the criteria for that? How do they decide who does and who does not? Who makes those decisions?

And I have a hard time paying for people's salaries. They want money for case management salaries. And we're all here donating our time. I know. I saw that, too. Struggle with that.

Well, the minimum they'll take is $50,000

Yeah. I was going to point I was going to go after that one, too.

Thank you.

They're asking for $90,000 but the minimum they'll take is 50,000 or they're asking for 80,000 and we have $90,000 to give.

And what percentage of your agency's total annual budget is this funding request? 90%. Yeah. Yes, so it is there are a lot

of questions. I'm really glad you all asked those questions. Because I was looking at this thinking, oh my goodness, lots of questions.

I'm trying to remember. I think they were involved last year. Correct. But only a little amount.

Correct. And the major concern was exactly what we've already broached, that's that they were so heavily laden with administrative costs that that just outweighed

think they started up last year.

I feel it. It was like new.

Yeah, last year was their first year.

And so that's what really tainted their application. Because again, the assumption is that just like having sort of a structure, utilities, etcetera, that's assumed to be your responsibility. And then the rest is what's provided to the populace of Apache Junction. And you're right, Sandy, that the focus should be on the elderly, the displaced residents, etcetera. And I believe, when we last discussed the number of homelessness in Apache Junction, it numbered approximately 100,000.

But that was a year ago. So I'm sure it's increased. And I'm sure it's going to increase even more this year. And as I've given you this data from the Pinal County website, it demonstrates that there are 112,000, and a little bit, of individuals that are on access. If you're attuned to major legislation that's moving through Congress right now, there's a real move to cut Medicaid.

Those are Medicaid funds. That's a large proportion. And if you think about it, since Pinal County has four eighty four individuals, that's 23% of the population. Well,

I've always been a hard nosed. As you may remember from the last two years, I have a problem with giving them money that's going to go to salaries and admin costs. I think our purpose here with such limited resources, we need to put the money where the biggest bang is going to be. And I definitely don't see this organization as being that big bang for the buck.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a need. And the dilemma is, of course, the definition of these services, and especially how long is temporary. And is that an exercise of futility? Do they house somebody in Motel six for five days, and then all of a sudden they're on the streets?

Yeah, it's a stabilization piece that I want to understand. I don't mind supporting people in crisis, but there has to be a plan.

How long?

It's can be indefinite.

Ad infinitum ad nauseam, Okay. All right. Who's next?

Our next one is Overflow Missions.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

You skipped Boys and Girls Club.

I'm going back. Oh, Boys and Girls Club.

Sorry. And the hardliner in me comes out on that one.

And I do want to make one announcement on this one. We had a council member that wanted me to be certain to share with you that the local VFW did grant them $11,000 I think it was in November, October, November. I think it was from a fundraiser that they held in honor of Boys and Girls Club. And they were given $11,000

But I think if you'll remember last year equally, they had somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 that they got from an event. And I don't know if they listed that.

The yesteryear event? This year, it's an

800 Their annual gala. They bring in big bucks in that thing.

So concern is that this application is almost convoluted. In other words, there are areas where they bring up the Arizona Boys and Girls Club. And I get confused about whether or not they're stating that that is the state organization. Did you put that in there because you receive some sort of assistance from them? Because they get a lot of money.

I mean, if you look only on and they didn't label the pages. So in number seven, on approximately three pages in, what they list is that there are three entities, Star, which $2,000,000 Avondale Cup, dollars 100,000, Yesteryear, 40,000, and Connect Brunch, 100,000. So essentially, 2,240,000. Now, is that theirs? Or else, why are they listing that? I'm not totally sure. JULIE

was specifically last year.

It did. I not get us a breakdown of what component went to them. And unless I have it this year, I'm going to have a problem.

The only one that I know for sure, for sure, because I've heard people talk about it, is the yesteryear event, which will be held in April. I know for sure that they had it in the newspaper, Connie, who was the volunteer of Lost Dutchman Days, she is like I don't know her title. But they do that. And my understanding is that event itself for sure goes to Apache Junction. But the rest of it, I don't know.

So there's that. Plus, they have mission statements, but they don't tell us how they break that down. So for example, one of their mission statements is that keeping individuals in school, tracking them forward towards high school graduation and post secondary plan or placement. And it's been the history, at least for me in the three years I had before and this year, that when I tried to nail them down on how many people were graduating, the year before last, they had two. Last year, they had none.

And when I tried to press them generally, in dividing up the group from five to 18, how many are in each group and what age brackets are in there, and how do they retain them, they couldn't give me that. But they really admitted, actually, they don't have many individuals that are 16 and older. And I will own that my resources were limited. But I talked to two individuals that were high school teachers and taught advanced classes. So they were teaching juniors and seniors.

And I asked them if any of their students were involved in Boys and Girls Club. And they said, no. They revealed that that's too infantile for them. The orientation is not to their aspirations or their interests. So that's kind of alienating.

When they list other things see, this is where they contaminate stuff. So the Seidman Institute of W. P. Carey Business School at ASU is an excellent institution. And they found that for every dollar invested in Boys and Girls Club of Arizona, not I'm being too loud, guys Apache Junction, rendered a benefit of $15.6 Well, that's nice.

But we're supposedly trying to decide what's the best for Apache Junction. And one of the other pieces of data that I can't find, I find Fennell County graduation dates, I mean, data. And it's really kind of abysmal. It's 79%. I have no idea what it is in Apache Junction.

I don't. It would be really nice if we had the local high school tell us that and reveal what their graduation rate is. Because since they're saying that they deal with Apache Junction individuals, I think they even list that they, out of the three fifty youths that are at the club, 200 are specifically from Apache Junction. So you see it's about 57, they're right. But it doesn't tell me though, proportionately at which stages, since again, they divide them into groups by age.

And I'm wondering how many of each group is Apache Junction? Is it the younger kids or because there's nobody in the older group. So we can just categorically eliminate that unless that changes this year. But I don't have any they don't provide data that says that. Was my other tool? Well,

now. Maybe they'll have more information about high school because they moved the Boys and Girls Club from 4 Peaks area, Four Peaks Elementary, to the high school where their TLC program is, who was announced in Smiths. So maybe because it's centrally located right there at the high school, maybe they have more involvement. We'll see.

Good point. Yeah, good point. All right.

Can we scroll to the line items where they outline their expenditures for the year? I don't know what page it's on.

For the one that totals 739,558.

Is it towards the end? Yeah, right here.

So maybe as we're looking at how we want to disperse funds, or I'm just looking at this, and I don't understand what we're doing to support the kids. So I see salaries, professional fees, and contracts. I don't know what ERE is. I don't know what specific assistance for individuals is. That might be something. But communications, who's that with, supplies, equipment, rental maintenance, occupancy for rent, advertising, printing. I mean, I'm not here to support Boys and Girls Club. Like, I'm like, their program, I'm here to support the kids. So I don't understand what part of this is actually doing that. And I think we need more clarification from them. I don't understand what I'm paying for. I don't want pay for rent and utilities. I'm not paying for that.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting because you're right. There's this redundancy with contracts, philanthropy events, and they list several. But one is salary, so that's a disproportionately large $342,038

This is a big organization that has a parent company that they're only 1% of the parent company's operating budget. If they get into trouble, they've got resources. I can't imagine that they don't. So I really want them to be very specific on where the money that we would give them would go and how it would benefit our kids, not just that it's going to go towards their salaries.

And as I explained to someone earlier as a physician, in academic centers, when someone asks for funding, you ask them for a plan and you ask them for how it is that they deal with the metrics of it. How do you measure your success? And we don't have that in many of these, to be honest. I

hope these folks that are applying for money are listening so that they come prepared

for us. So I just wrote myself a note. We will get in touch with the applicants tomorrow and encourage them to watch this video, this recording. It'll be posted by tomorrow noon. And as well, offer an invitation for them for that next meeting that we have. So hopefully, they will come prepared.

That would be helpful. Thank you.

Almost this entire page does not look like direct benefits to the kids.

Just down below, probably the thing that would stand out is in the list supplies, equipment, rental, where it talks about meals, snacks, and equipment, maybe curriculum, different things for the kids to actually use. That would be maybe a little more appealing. But I'm thinking, if I remember right, I don't even I'm thinking that somebody else in the club, some higher up person puts this together. Was that right? Do you remember that from the last one?

Correct.

So they might have a little more info for us about Apache Junction specifics.

And they sort of label that. There is an individual name as being the prominent source in Apache Junction.

I do like where the partial funding it even

It's Angela.

Go down to fifteen. So, yes.

Yeah, Angela Davis is the one that's serving as a branch director. Fifteen, oh, okay.

Well, they're saying that they would accept a they would like a minimum of $15,000 I'm with her. Where is that $15,000 going to go directly to our kids? If we had a half $1,000,000 to play with, that's one thing. We got $90,000 to disperse. Like I said, we got to be careful.

We want to make the money go where we're going to get the biggest bang for our buck. And especially now with a lot of the budget cuts that are going on through their house, you know, this house and center are working on their budget bills now. A lot of services are going get cut. And that's where I think we can maybe fill up some of the small gaps of where we can help. But it has to be something that goes right directly to our kids or a direct benefit.

And there has to be some outcome. It can't just be sort of giving them

Yeah, how do

you and measure it? You've got to find out whether or not it's demonstrated to have some benefit to them. Their academics improved. They were less involved in dissocial behavior, like gang involvement, substance use, etcetera.

I'd even be interested in something how many kids did they feed?

Anything.

Yeah, because they provide meals for their kids. Okay, how many kids did you feed? How many kids did you keep off the street?

And I like the idea of kids having somewhere to go socially. You mentioned the social behavior because otherwise, we know with this generation, they need some encouragement there.

I mean, like boys and girls clubs. The boys club kept me off the streets for three years in Phoenix when I was a kid. So, you know, I do know what they do.

Yeah. Okay. Any other statements, concerns? Okay, moving forward.

How about now we do overflow emissions?

There we go. We overflowed right into that one. Overflow is interesting because actually this is sort of an indirect move with the Oasis Chapel of the Desert as they had applied last time. And that's what sort of honed in our limits as much of their request was all for structural issues. And so Are they the

ones that wanted the air conditioners? Yeah.

And so what in some ways, though, I felt that was the most possible direct impact, because they had the largest source of a cooling center. Remember, Genesis only allowed six individuals. And I think they had capacity for about 125 or more.

So they could come in and cool down in their building Correct. In the

what concerns me is probably linguistics. And I understand I'm a little pedantic. But they talk about providing a timeline for serving meals and stuff. And they do it four times a year. But it's really compacted.

They do that with what I bet is Oasis Chapel's feast issue. And so it's in May, August, October, and November. And they define, somewhat limitedly, but not cleanly enough, that they serve 100 to 200 people in need, quote, once a quarter. But that's not once a quarter. That's four times a year.

And it's a little generous to say that's quarterly. The other thing is, even if it was quarterly, what do people do that are in need of foods in the meantime? So the question that arises as to what exactly is imparted? They talk about at the meal proper, it's approximately $600 So if you do 600 times four, that's $2,400 And they're asking for $4,000 So it isn't that far off.

$5,000

$5,000.5000

dollars Okay.

And it's 50% of their budget. So where is the other $7,500 going, If it's only $600 $600 was the max. Dollars 400 to $600 four times during the course of the year. Dollars 5,000 is the request. 50% of their operating budget, so it's $10,000 So where is the other $7,500 going?

Yeah, I don't know. You kind of wonder

not seeing that.

And they say that required resources we serve 33% of the clientele from Apache Junction. Well, Okay, but does that mean 33% of the 150 are from Apache Junction? And that's probably it. I wish people would be cleaner about their data. That would be helpful.

That was my concern. Yeah.

I saw that, too. I was like, They are supplying dry foods. I would have liked to have known then how much is that costing them? How often are they supplying dry foods? What does that look like? Is it only four times a year? Are they doing it more often? And that's where the rest of the moneys are going. I just wanted some more clarity on that. And then if they are only doing it four times a year, how are they communicating that to the homeless? How do they know when to show up? I wouldn't know when to show up.

Would you?

No, no. And again, it is kind of interesting. It's really sort of truncated so that it's very condensed into May. And then what we have is the next one is in August. And then it's very condensed as it's October and November.

I guess you'd fast for the rest of the year.

Yeah, I'm not against what they do. I just wish it was something more consistent, something more regular, something that made a little it's four times a year. It just sounds like it's a volunteer effort. I don't know.

Four times a year doesn't seem like you're doing much you're going to have much of an effect, because a lot of people are going go hungry for that in between those meals.

I just don't know. How do you get 100 to 200 people there once four times a year? How do they even how do you reach that many people to know that you're even holding an event? It's not like you can mail out a flyer. I don't understand.

JULIE Unless what I'm misunderstanding, perhaps, is that when the church individuals showed up, they talked about their feast. And they lent to the idea that perhaps it was more frequently. And therefore, if it coincides with that, that may be the issue. But I don't know that. That isn't defined. And I'd like to have them define just how much food goes into a box. I even have that question, to be honest, for the food service that Eric runs here. Because I need to know, does that really sustain how many people for the two week period that they have maximal access to having that? Because they can only get it once every two weeks.

Yeah. And just to clarify, on the front page, does say they're requesting 4,000. But on the back page, it says they're requesting I five saw that. Yeah.

Well, you know how it goes. When you get to three pages or better, it's got to increase.

It's got to increase.

I'm terrible. That's bad. Okay, well. Oh, man. I'm getting in trouble now. Okay. The next one.

And now we're on to the food bank.

Yeah.

I got a question about the food bank. So in here, it says that they only feed 60% of AJ proper, and it gives zip codes of the other places, which are in Gold Canyon, Northwest County, East Mesa, do they get funding from those entities? Because I didn't see that in here. Like, we're feeding those zip codes, but do they get funding from those zip codes? Or are we funding those zip codes and why?

I know that one year when Eric came to present, he said that convenience factor of somebody coming from Gilbert to AJ for a doctor's appointment and they were here. But I don't know the likelihood of somebody from Apache Junction who needs food going to Gilbert or wherever. And I don't remember him talking about receiving funds. But there is like a partnership, so maybe. Because he's just one of under the umbrella.

Right.

Okay. Because I saw that they have to go through a qualification process to qualify for the food. So I wondered what that qualification looked like. And if that was the case, why I mean, obviously, they must be qualified if they're coming from Mesa. But I didn't know if Mesa was funding us to help support that, or if they just have the same thing except some of our people in Mesa. I don't know how that works.

As I recall, they're also linked by computer with the other food banks in the area so that they can only go to one food bank in a certain time period. They can't go to another one because records say, oh, you just got food two weeks ago or last week. That would keep me from going.

But that makes me feel a lot better

about That would keep me from getting in the car and hitting all the food banks all

the I

know Eric said they did that.

What's somewhat dismayed, though, is that their window of operation is really very narrow. It's two to four, four days a week. They have no operations on Wednesday nor weekends.

Part of the reason for that is they're a volunteer organization primarily. So they use those couple days a week to sort the food, get the baskets, get everything ready. And then a couple of days is when they pass out the food. I've seen their operation. Has anybody here actually been out to the food bank? It's pretty cool the way they operate. Yeah, no. I He does get a lot of efficiency out of what he has to work with.

Did anyone see a breakdown on the cost for the holiday boxes and the supplemental food program? I saw that they have over 40 seniors on a waiting list. I was curious about the cost per box, just so that we can help put that into our calculation when we're And trying to

as well, how long do people stay on the waiting list? I mean, do they rotate them?

Yeah, don't want to see any seniors on the waiting list.

That's my concern.

I'd Yeah. Like

to find out. I know last year they first started the holiday kid, the weekend program, the backpack program for the kids. And I'd like to see how many of those kids actually, how many kids actually took advantage of that. Because I actually like I like what they had, the way they did that.

So we could ask Eric questions. We could say, how long do they stay on the waiting list? If you had more money, would you still have a waiting list? Maybe.

Or do they prioritize? Does they that prioritize holiday boxes versus the student backpack food program? Do they shift funding to different buckets to help get these people off the waiting list? How do they prioritize their funding?

Well, or more exactly, who qualifies for a voucher?

Yeah.

One of the things that Eric broached when I went on the tour was that they had been given some ham bones. And they didn't educate people about that. And what they learned is that a given proportion were given to dogs. People just fed them that way. Instead of packaging together like a ham bone together with some beans or rice and other things

And a recipe.

Yeah, that's right, recipe. How to prepare it. That would have been really helpful. And one could argue that when we considered, for example, the request from Horizon and they wanted a refrigerator for the produce and they were only dispensing a half a pound of produce to every individual that they said they fed from their garden, it didn't seem that you needed a refrigerator. But shelving might work for dry goods.

And I would wonder whether or not maybe the emphasis should be on dealing with some dry goods so that they have a greater quantity. And therefore, they would be much longer available to the family. And I don't know how many they serve. They limit them to one box every two weeks maximally. And I don't know what that means. I assume the box sizes are different if you've got a family of four, a family of six, or a family of 27.

From what I understand, they are. They do base the size of the box based on the number of people in the household.

So I guess counsel had talked about maybe just allocating funds to them directly and not moving the food bank through this commission. But that direction wasn't they decided to Absolutely

not, yeah. Evidently not.

Say that one more time. I need to counsel said what? Do you recall that?

Am I making that up? I thought that at one of the last meetings, had said that because it took such a large portion of our budget that they had mentioned that they might just come out of a different pocket of money so that we didn't have to decide on this huge amount. We could focus on some of the little guys.

It came up last year. And city manager Bryant Powell said they would look into that and see what they could do. But I haven't heard. And evidently, they haven't. I do know that's one of the concerns. A couple of the council members that have spoken to me is they're almost like me. They'd rather just the whole 90,000 add the whole $90,000 to the food bank and the heck with the rest of them. Because my focus is on feeding people, the hungry. There's a lot of hungry people. Of course, these guys know every year I always put $90,000 to them and zero for everybody else. And then I end up compromising.

You gave a couple dollars Well, here and

end up throwing a few bucks here and there. My biggest if you're talking about the biggest bang for the buck, to me, feeding a hungry person is going to be your biggest bang for the buck.

Well, and back to if there's a waiting list and I know Eric will have an answer for us. If there's a waiting list, what do we need to do to eliminate that?

Yeah, right. Or to minimize it. Yeah. I agree. And what's a time frame for the waiting list? I mean, if somebody's been on the waiting list and he tells us, well, they've only been on it for four years. DELL: seems like that's I not like

also how the food bank has all these partnerships with the Parks and Rec, with the police department, the schools, and different things we know we're reaching the people of AJ.

Does anybody notice what percentage of their budget comes from us, is estimated to come from us?

I don't think that was on there.

Their annual budget is $2,800,000 2.7% of food banks 2025 annual budget is what they're requesting.

How much are they asking for from us?

75,000.

The 75,000, which is absolutely the lion's share. In fact, even the hyenas won't get fit.

You ever watch the lion

do their golf tournament thing?

Sometimes you put so much effort.

Appreciate that you guys enjoy my puns.

Terrible. We've to talk about your viewing.

At least.

And here's, with number nine, the superstition community is a big active participant in the annual Project CONNECT with the homeless coalition. And then also mentions partnering with the American Legion, BFW. So just hitting a lot of groups.

So relative to the population that they have to feed, though, it's interesting because on that very same area nine, they talk about 300 holiday boxes for families for Easter, fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Man, that's what percentage? Because it says families. So I don't know how many people that is, what percentage of their total number that they're responsible for, because they say statistically, they say that they serviced 26,331. Now, my question about that is, is that individuals or those repeat services?

And of that, they break it down so that, in addition, there are 8,163 children, 31% of what they serve, and 6,846 seniors. I'm sure there's just a lot more seniors in need than that. Isn't there something, though, that the food bank does with the multigenerational center one day a week where they have a meal for people?

I don't think they do that anymore.

I don't know if they do that off the top of my head, but I do know that they will they schedule trips. So like if you need a ride to the food bank, they do go there regularly.

Okay.

And then the third Thursday of the month is for seniors 60, commodity supplemental food program. Well,

that's helpful if people really know and didn't forget.

Well, the Multigen Center has a really good program for the seniors. And they will connect them to whatever resources they need, and including the food bank.

So maybe what's telling you is number five on the very last page. The amount we are requesting equals 2.7% of the food bank's 2025 budget. Where does the rest come from?

All the other partners that they have.

Some

Some of of it comes from their umbrella group that they belong to. And then most of it comes from donations from the other partners. So we would be like a junior, very junior partner.

Yeah, 2.7%.

I know for sure they're usually partnering with someone at some time or another where it's like, oh, we're having a food drive. And then there's also that high five where you can sign up for an automatic donation of every month for $5

That would be nice. All right.

I can't even wrap my mind around the amount of food that goes in and out of that building.

Oh, They move a volume of food.

Dollars 2,800,000.0 worth of food, and I complain about my grocery bill. I can't even imagine.

Any other discussion? Do we move on to consideration and discussion of duties of the commission? No,

think you had some other didn't you have some other sheets on there? You have some spreadsheets on there?

Think that was it for Oh, yeah. The

We're to the rubrics.

Then we go to the scoring sheet and the rubrics, yeah.

Yeah. Did you want me to pull those up?

I think it'd be a good idea just to To refresh? Yeah.

Because were they modified just as the application was?

Yes. We're trying to simplify

There you go. I think that's a joint. That's clever.

So as it stands, it's 201,500.

Yeah, they're asking for 201,000 total, we have 90,000 to disperse.

Right. Right.

I can appreciate optimism.

Pragmatism.

And then we just have our new application, which is very simplified, which was nice. And then our comparison table. And we cut off several years. If you remember, that went back to, I think, 2012. And we felt that those years weren't relevant. A lot of the agencies that were listed haven't submitted a request for funding.

They're bigger than us.

The denominator on here is what we actually gave them. They're asking for the top number.

The top number is what they asked. The bottom number is what we gave them. That's correct.

That's really good that you saw there.

And I do want to clarify for the record, Horizon Health and Wellness was granted $450 last year for shelving. And we did receive a letter from them. They felt that part of the requirement in the contracts stipulates that this is to be serviced to Apache Junction residents. And they need to send supporting documentation on their quarterly reports of how they're assuring that this is just Apache Junction residents. And they serve many homeless in this food pantry that they have at Horizon Health.

And they felt that they could not meet the requirements of the contract. And so I think it was in I don't recall when we got the letter.

So they didn't use the 400

They did not use the $450

Okay. That makes sense. I mean, one of the other concerns, of course, is that they really made that available to the clientele of that facility. And that's pretty broad because that's private pay and other. So you wondered. And as I said, once we calculated out what the sum of the total produce was per individual that they claimed would be in service, it came to a half a pound a year of produce.

So if they were awarded it and they didn't use it, so does that go back in the pot? That was It just white

rolls to back into general fund.

And

the same thing happened trying to think. So other side ministries only received funding for quarter one. And they basically couldn't make it as a business. And so they submitted a letter in February and said, we won't be submitting reporting documents. So that money went back into the city's general fund as well.

But that broaches the question. They've submitted again now. So they revitalized

Oh, have. Other side ministries is who Yes, I was speaking they about

apply this year.

The one this year is Off Overflow Mission.

Overflow Mission, you're correct.

Amy and I are having a struggle with the name as well. Not that it's a hard name. It's just

No, no, no. But they're so close. And the other group that I thought we might see again and we had directed them, I had, to look at the Arizona Department of Human Resources were the two officers from Washington State that were dealing with suicide.

That's the bigger than us.

Yeah. And one of the concerns we had there was that it seemed that a disproportionate amount of the funding was going to go to an individual who was from outside who was similarly going to give a lecture.

Yeah. The bulk of the money they were asking for was going to the speakers that they were bringing in, paying their expenses and paying. And I was definitely opposed to that one.

Yeah. No.

Like

me. No. But they did have some benefit because they were engaged with the cadet program for the police department. And the police department had offered, I think, per Jennifer, she said that they thought that it had been really beneficial for them. So I don't know if they continued or not.

But they're not applying this. They're not

applying No, this they did not apply. Okay. There is one correction that we need to make on this sheet, and that is for Community Alliance Against Family Abuse. Third line down, it's showing that they are requesting 75,000. That is just a figure from last year that did not get removed. They did not apply.

Okay. So CAPA is not applying this?

They did not. Wow.

That's interesting. Yeah. That's a new Leaf entity.

Hopefully, they're still servicing AJ because they provided a good service.

Yeah, they did. I mean, for abused individuals. My only concern was that they didn't find a way to segregate those people that were predators, sexual predators, and believe that, well, they've all been victims of that. Well, come on. Yeah, that's still a concern. And you'd think your liability would be sky high. Okay.

Okay. So now the next step for us is the during the scoring rubric then. Can we do that after we talk to them? We have them do their presentations?

I would recommend that because that way, hopefully, all of your questions will be answered at our next meeting. And then you can go back to your scoring sheet.

And then when would the scoring sheets be due to be returned to you?

So our timeline is the March 10 meeting we'll discuss as one of our agenda items in a moment. That is where we will interview the applicants. March 31 is where you will make your recommendations, your decisions here in a commission meeting. And then April 14 will be when Chair Brennan takes this to the council. And that way, it allows them three more meetings before final budget approval. So if they come back to you with some different recommendations, we've got time as a commission to rediscuss.

Okay. I don't believe in the documents that were sent to me. I don't remember seeing the rubric for this last piece.

So we did this commissioner's scoring sheet instead of the rubrics. If you like the rubric sheet, we can send that. No, no,

no, no. I like this much better. I'm just saying I only received the five documents. There were three, and it said plus two. And I don't have the scoring sheet or the other part in the documents that were sent to me.

Oh, Okay.

Yeah, I actually like this one better

than that one last year. Oh, yeah, I do, too. I think it's much cleaner. All right.

We can send these out to you.

Thank you.

Everyone has the applications, and you're good with those? Okay. So scoring sheet, comparison sheet.

How did you send those out? Because I don't recall seeing them. I might not

PDF.

The applications were attached to the agenda that went out on Friday. Thursday or Friday

of last I saw the agenda, but I didn't see any other documents. Can you resend those to me, please?

Yes. There's a link in there.

There's a link embedded in Yeah, it's embedded underneath. Okay.

It's not an attachment.

I'll show you how, Commissioner Danforth. That is probably how the link once you clicked on the link that was sent to you, this is what you got. And then if you go to the blue field, that will take you into all the documents.

There are boards.

Okay. All right.

Okay. Is it now time to move on to 20 five-ninety five?

So we are now going on to the consideration and discussion on other duties the commission is responsible for. I would like to just review a little bit. There were a few items that you had all brought to the table at our last meeting. The question was asked if there had ever been a public hearing. I think it was Commissioner Vosson that asked that.

We don't believe that there has. You certainly can do that during a regular meeting. Nothing states that you only meet during these four months to make the recommendation of funding of disbursements. If you look at code, at your duties, there are a couple of other areas that you can expand on. What I would suggest at this point is that we get through the funding recommendations.

And if you still have interest in looking further at what the commission can do to see more needs in Apache Junction, how we can better assist that, we could set a meeting for May, June, July. Nothing says that you only meet these first four months of the year. So there is no motion on that. It's just, if you're in agreeance, we will maybe at our last meeting, the March, we'll just touch base on this and select a new meeting date if you want to pursue that.

And last time when I was all alone up there no.

You did

a great job. Thank you.

I watched from home.

That's very nice. But what I like is that if other people have thoughts about what happened and you feel like participating, I think we can prompt the counsel to hear those other sentiments, if you will.

I know there was some discussion from Kalsami Solar and Councilperson Tess Nesser about tightening up the requirements.

Correct.

And I know Brian has talked to me about it before and sent Wells to test. They felt that the requirements were a little broad and that we needed to narrow up the parameters a little bit and be a little more specific about making sure that the money they're asking for and that we're awarding is going to direct need rather than air conditioners or new freezers or stuff like that.

And I think that's right. That was the thrust of our initial discussion, as I was saying. We were told that they had to have a direct benefit, not something even indirect, like some building that's being constructed and eventually it'll have services. No, that's not there. But it engenders then the issues around things like putting down insurance, phone bills, the Chamber of Commerce bill, etcetera. That does not directly benefit the community. I understand that it gives them, perhaps, some sense of legitimacy, particularly with the Chamber of Commerce. But let's be candid. That's more of a fee, correct? Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. Now my understanding is that when we look at their applications and what they're asking for, we can actually specify what we want our money to go to, right? If they list a whole bunch of things and says this is what we want money for, we can pick out one and say, this is where we want the money to go. Am I correct there?

As your commission liaison, that would be my strong encouragement, that you are as specific as can be. And I would like to elaborate that when they submit their quarterly reporting, they do have to submit backup that proves that what they served, who they served, how many they served, matches what is in the contract. And the contract is based off of their scope of work that they submit on their application.

And I don't mean to be pedantic, but I'd really like to have some metrics that say that this is how it benefited.

Would you stop using those big words?

Could be redundant and say pedantic means overly picky.

He's probably

But I am. And so, but I mean, really, we need to have some way of knowing whether or not it served a purpose beyond just some basic purpose. It's supposed to lend to some assumed improvement.

Well, you guys do ask for that, don't you? The city you guys actually ask for proof of what you guys spent the money on and what was the effects of

We do. But if we want to go back to and not to pick on any particular agency, but if we want to go back to Boys and Girls Club, they do not supply us with information that shows their rate of success.

Right. Okay.

That would be something that you would ask specifically that they would put in their presentation, which I believe they will.

Yeah, I'm hoping they would. Yeah. And just like we finally got the one group that does renovation in the community to say that they dealt with code violations. And this is how they validated that they did that because they passed code afterwards. It is an interesting dilemma. But it seems to me to be sort of just obvious. But somehow, it's a little nebulous.

What are the ramifications if they don't show appropriately how the monies were utilized?

We have communication with them, and their funding is not paid. So everything is broken into a quarterly amount. So if you're giving them $5,000 they're going to get what is that?

$12.50

dollars I picked a real bad number. My mind's not working. Yes, thank you. So they would get $12.50 dollars every quarter. Not until

If they can't prove to you that they spent that $12.50 dollars for what we designated, then they don't get the next three quarters or the next quarter.

We haven't had that happen yet because of follow-up and, again, sending them their contract and highlighting it in yellow that this is part of the contract. And if they don't supply that, they wouldn't get their funding. And we usually get it within a couple of

days. Very good.

And not to be a little suspect, is that cross validated? Yes,

it is. It is.

You go, using those big words

again. All right. So do we need to further there is a question. Let's deal with the elephant in the room. We have an individual that has been designated as being part of this commission and has

So I'm going to stop you, because that is not something that's on the agenda. I can add that to the next agenda if you'd like. And I do have answers, but I can't supply that now. It does have to be an agendanized item.

So it would be really better to roll that past legal counsel and find out, because it's my understanding from the rules that it said that if you haven't been here for three meetings in succession, there's no reason given. It isn't even one would consider that if you have a valid reason but you know that it precludes you're not being able to be without some sort of conflict of interest, then I don't understand how you can really fulfill the role.

So we've to put that on our next Okay.

Right.

And I can add that to our agenda for the next meeting, which is where we will interview the applicants. I'm not sure if you want to take time, tie up time for that, or if you want to wait until the last meeting in March.

My preference would be that we not discuss that in more public setting, because that's about an individual, and that's not fair to them. And hopefully, they'll have some retort. But I think we really need counsel to define, are the rules, what the rules state. Are we therefore not educating people that if you have a conflict of interest, then perhaps you shouldn't apply for this commission. Perhaps there's a commission that doesn't offer that obstacle to you. But that's just a thought.

I'm not sure. That's up to us, though. I think that's more in your guys' purview, isn't it?

It has to all go in line with code. So again, because this is not on the agenda, we can't really discuss it any further for open meeting law.

Right. Alright.

So hearing no rebuttal or rebellion at hand Rebellion. Do we do we have a a a motion to to adjourn the meeting?

No, we can't. So we have one more item, and this is to discuss the meeting for March 10.

Oh, that's right. We have to approve that.

And I will confess my error. There is another commission that meets on Monday nights at 06:00, And I neglected to know that, or pay attention to that.

05:30.

So 05:30, that's right. So we would like to keep the meeting for March 10, because there are other commissions that meet every night that week. What I would propose is a 03:00 meeting, but I'm not sure about Commissioner Smithson, if she can make it by three

That happens to be spring break.

That's what we

were hoping for. And

I'm not leaving town. So I

will be here. It was meant to be.

The stars have

been Thank you. We're talking at 03:00 on March 10.

It was a celestial event.

Yeah. There you go.

If we can if everyone is in agreement with that, then we will change that. And that's what we'll put on our agenda. And we'll post that. It's going to be a special meeting. Typically, we meet the fourth Monday of every month as our regularly tentative meeting when we have things to discuss. Because this is an additional meeting in the month, it will be a special meeting. But that doesn't really mean anything.

And this will be when we interview the applicants.

Correct.

So my only concern about that would be, even though we have a paucity of individuals applying, it may be an hour and a half to two hours long. Is that going to butt up against the other meeting at 05:30?

We're hoping that we'll be done by then.

Okay.

You've asked your questions tonight. Yeah. And I know when the applicants are here, further questions will be spurred. But hopefully, by them watching this video, they can come well prepared with a presentation that would cover most of these questions this evening.

So for convenience sake, do you send them a link to this meeting, or a reminder that you can watch?

We are going to send them a link, absolutely. So they can just click on that, and it will take them directly to this section where we talked about the funding applications. They won't even Yeah. Have to see the beginning part of the Nice. Pretty slick. All

right, then. I move that the Health and Human Services Commission have a special meeting be held on Monday, 03/10/2025 at 3PM in the City Council Chambers located at 300 East Superposition Boulevard right here in Apache Junction, Arizona.

Do you have a second?

Second. Perfect.

Okay. Commissioner Vosson? Yes. Commissioner Smithson? Yes. Vice Chair Danford? Yes. Commissioner Moeller? Yes. Chairman Brennan?

Yes.

Commissioner Meikland? Yes. Motion passes.

Right. Hearing no objection. Meeting is adjourned.