Health and Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

It's the prescribed time. It's the 03/31/2025. And this is the meeting for the Health and Human Services Commission of Apache Junction to assess various funding and make some definitive decisions about that. Pledge of allegiance.

Chairman Brennan.

Present.

Vice Chairman Danford.

Present.

Commissioner Moeller. Present. Commissioner Vosson. Present. Commissioner Smithson. Present. Commissioner Mike Lind. Present. Commissioner Wood.

Present. You have a

full quorum, your honor.

Absolutely. Full house.

Full house.

Yeah. We might win. Okay. All right. Let's see. Consent agenda. Can we consider approval of the agenda for

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

Commissioner Meiklend? It was? Okay. Thank you. Roll call? Thank you. Motion passes.

Okay. All right. Next on the agenda is consideration of approval of the special meeting minutes of March 1025. Do I have a motion to accept those minutes?

Actually, your honor, the consideration of the approval of the agenda and the minutes were both rolled into one under the consent approval.

Perfect.

You.

All right. Okay. Consideration of fiscal year twenty twenty five-twenty six Human Health Services funding recommendations to be presented by city council at 04/14/2025, work session. Do we have a motion for funding recommendations?

So here's where we're going to start the discussion on each of your personal recommendations. I once again have the spreadsheet that the clerk in the past had used. We'll just go through that. And if you want to just each person go down the line and give me your numbers, I'll plug it in. And then after everybody has given their numbers, then we can come back and dissect how we need to.

If you don't mind, I'd like to be mildly preemptive.

Attorney Stein, I asked a question about the funding process. And he gave me a remarkable sort of response. And I'd like to just semi paraphrase it.

Mr. Chair, you mean Mr. Stern, right?

Mr. Stern. Okay. You said Stein. I didn't know who that was. I

beg your pardon. Okay.

Thank you.

Just clarification.

That's clear, Mr. Stern.

Okay. So generally speaking, city code requires that nonprofit organizations show its use of the funding would benefit residents rather than non city residents. That's a critical aspect of this, as it's been in debate for some time. In addition, the conducted public hearings are to determine the needs of the city residents and provisions of human health and services to care for the elderly, the disabled, etcetera. Client service information is as it is applied to residents of the city only.

And a detailed accounting of the expenditures of city funds is required in order to determine the agency's compliance with the provisions of the contract. And that really is, in essence, the summary of that.

Yvie, if you want, we can continue.

Okay. Ms. Wood, would you like to start with your recommendations? Yes.

For Apache Junction Community Development Corporation, I recommend $5,000 For Begin Again Homes, I recommend no funding. For the Boys and Girls Club of East Valley, I recommend $15,000 For Overflow Missions, I recommend no funding. And for Superstition Food Bank, I recommend $70,000

I'm sorry. Give me just a minute to fix my sheet. I didn't realize that this was not all on here. My apologies.

That's easy to fix.

You were at 70 on Food Bank, is that right? Okay. Moving on to Commissioner Wilson.

For AJCDC, I recommend 5,134. Begin Again Homes, 5280. Boys and Girls Club, 3586. Overflow, 1000. And Superstition Food Brink, 75.

Okay. Chairman Danford.

For AJCDC, 7,500. Begin Again Homes, 5,500. Boys and Girls Club, 5,500 Overflow Missions, 4,000 Food Banks, 67,500.

Okay.

And then we'll

move on to Commissioner Moeller.

For AJ Community Development Corporation, dollars 6,000. For beginning in homes, 25,000.

I'm sorry, dollars 25,000? 25,000. Thank you.

Boys and Girls Club, 20,000. Overflow Mission, 4,000. And the Food Bank, 35,000.

And Commissioner Smithson?

Okay. For AJ CDC, 6,000. Begin Again Homes, 0. Boys and Girls Club, 20,000. Overflow Missions, 4,000. Superstition Food Bank, 60,000.

Did you say five-zero for Food Bank? 60. 60. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Mike Lind.

Okay. So for AJCDC, 7,500. Begin Again Home, zero. Boy and Girls Club, 2,500. Overflow Emissions, zero. And Superstition Food Bank, 80,000. We can give more than they ask for, correct?

You can give more than they ask for, as long as the total doesn't exceed 90,000.

And

Chair Brennan.

Absolutely. Okay. So Apache Junction Community Development Corporation, 5,000. Beginning at homes, 1,000. Boys and Girls Club, 15,000. For overflow mission, 1,000. And for the food bank, 68,000.

Okay. Okay, so now is when you get to start hashing,

discussing. I'd like to qualify why I did what I did, all right? For Apache Junction community development, I thought they were a very worthwhile cause. But the issue of insurances and funds for the Chamber of Commerce, etcetera, they don't meet the criterion that we set forth at the very beginning as our sort of premise to what gets funded and what doesn't get funded. And that's why I came up with 5,000 as a result.

The beginning in homes, I was very questioning their need for funding. They had claim that they were to eradicate homelessness one person at a time. They had all sorts of issues about expenditures. And in one instance, they had an individual that was 67 years old. And if they had been here, would have been able to ask, that seems kind of interesting that that person was allocated several months post due payments for either rent or mortgage, whatever.

But I was wondering whether or not at that age that person qualified for Medicare, for Medicare, whether I mean, sorry, Social Security qualified for veterans benefits or other benefits that could have been there and were they utilized. And ultimately, because it was left nebulous, how many months that individual received subsidy in that way. Because I thought that was essentially the only person that they really delineated as having received those sorts of funds. In looking over another part of their proposal, I think, unless I'm conflating things let me look they have down that let me see if we

can get homes where it is sent to Brennan.

Here. They have down that since January 2023 to the present, more or less I mean, they submitted the applications they served 179 people. Well, you do the simple math, that's approximately seven individuals a month. And they had requested almost the entirety of our funding at 80,000. So I just didn't understand how that exactly would warrant that sort of funding.

And I have no way of knowing because of where they're at. They have one affiliation with a food bank in Gilbert called Midwest Food Bank. They also have an affiliation with a new leaf. And I'm quite familiar with a new leaf. I was their medical director for several years.

In fact, I erroneously concluded I had to recuse myself when it's been over ten years. So there was that. And at last, there was just some ambiguity about whether or not the individuals were clearly from Apache Junction or not. And the last part was that they had allocated funding for a living format with a hotel, Motel six, I think. And they never listed how much that cost them and what was allocated relative to that.

So that was why I decided on only $1,000 Boys and Girls Club. Boys and Girls Club has a real place. But I've asked over and over since my tenure started now, I'm in my fourth year for some sort of information about progression. And as I pointed out in the discussion that took place on question and answer, that two years ago they had one person that graduated from high school. And I went to look for today the normal graduation rate for the state of Arizona because they came forth and said that eighty two percent of Apache Junction high school students were graduating.

Statistically, nationally, females are graduating than males. We have a bad history of dropping out of school prematurely. And their funding was really a request for mentorship for teaching and obviating all sorts academic deficiencies. And I thought that was newsworthy I mean, not newsworthy that was worthy of consideration. But the problem was that when we talked about their format, your format was overly a shotgun.

You have Boys and Girls Club of Arizona. And when you really look at that, that includes 35 subsets because it includes Yuma, many facilities in Phoenix, etcetera. So that information was kind of interesting, but it was just sort of conflating issues about what it is that you do because it serves no purpose in elucidating what it is that the specific facility in the city or does. In addition to that, there was the issue of just how many people are truly graduating. And we talked a little bit about two things.

We talked about EVIT and whether or not there is an active process in trying to get people involved in that, because I think that's a very worthy program. As I revealed, it was via my medical directorship at a new leaf that I gained some insights into EVIT. And quite candidly, I was very impressed with that program. They are quite successful. And let me tell you, there are people that graduate from that program.

When I was ending my residency, I made a phenomenal $15,500 a year in my moonlighting, added in about half of that again. And they're coming out with the possibility of making $185 an hour. Okay. Enough of an ad for EBIT. Overflow emissions.

The problem I had with overflow emissions is they told us that they had quarterly events. I think they misconstrued four times a year as quarterly because they were predominantly over the summertime and then loaded well, I think one was in May, one was in August, and then there were two that were right next to each other in October and November. And they had approximately 600 people total that they fed. But they also referenced that they provided snacks and other things. And again, I have no way of knowing how many of those individuals are truly individuals that are residents of Apache Junction versus not.

And I'm sure that it wouldn't be appropriate to card people at the door. But there's got to be a better way to sort of know that detail and to see if it's effective. And I'm sure that eating something is better than nothing. But four times a year does not seem like a very robust intervention into some needs that people have because of food deficiencies. Lastly, the superstition food ban.

Eric did a pretty good job coming in and countering some of my concerns, even recognizing that I was concerned about hot dogs for fourth of July because they aren't the most nutritious meal. But they are certainly very emblematic of the celebration. And with that, coupled with the awareness that the vast majority of the individuals that you have are indeed Apache Junction residents, that's why I gave you sort of the lion's portion of that sum. So that's my rationale for why I decided what I did.

Okay. Whoever wants to go next?

I'm happy to go next. So AJCDC, I really like the work that you do. You provided six quarters of financials. When I averaged the cost out, you had about $6,000 in admin expenses and about $3,500 in actual work. It's really top heavy on the admin side because of the insurances and whatnot that you have to pay.

So really suggest more fundraising and whatnot to cover that. But gave you the $5,000 and then had some wiggle room with some other things, so increased that to $5,001.34 dollars For beginning in homes, that was interesting. So kind of in line with what Chairman Brennan said, you know, your income last year was low, looks like. And then you had five emergency hotel stays, but you're asking for 35,000 this year. It's kind of a big jump.

Eviction prevention will eat up all of your money with just one person. So if somebody's three months back rent and that's $2,000 a month, you're already at $6,000 plus current month. That would be another 2,000 That's $8,000 right there. So I can see why you're asking for a lot of money because you could really blow through your budget relatively quickly. So because of this, I do support emergency shelter, housing, or whatnot.

I would have liked to have seen you support more than five individuals with that. I don't know how long they stayed. But I googled motel six, and it's $88 a night. So I figured if we multiply that, by sixty days, that's $5,280, and that's how I got to that number. That will provide eight people who can be put in a hotel for a week at a time each at that rate. And last year, you only did five, so it's almost 50% more. That's kind of how I got to that number. Boys and Girls Club, the request was for salaries, and I really can't support salaries. But, you know, of the line items outlined in the budget, specific assistance for individuals impacts our youth the most. And that provides reduced club fees and organized sports that are paid for on behalf of the club.

For such a big organization, I would have liked to have seen that line item be a little bit more. But it was only $3,586 So we're not really supporting a lot of folks that can afford some of these extra benefits. And that's what I decided that I would spend the money on, that specific line item that impacted the kids. And then overflow missions, it said that they were spending 400 to $600 per meal. I chose $500 per meal once a quarter.

That's $2,000 So I thought, well, if I do half of that, that's $1,000 And that's how I got to that number. I would actually prefer to see that go to emergency food boxes because I don't know how effective having one meal a quarter is, unless I totally misunderstood that. So that's why I came up with the rest of that. And then the balance went to the food bank, because everybody needs to eat. So that's how I came to my numbers. Numbers.

I can go ahead. Okay. I'd like to say, as I missed the last couple of meetings, I did review the live streams to catch up on the questions and the responses. When it came to how I came to my conclusions with AJA's CDC, I do believe that they do important work for the health and safety of our community. I did see that there was some difficulty of weeding out what was used from the Health and Human Services grant versus other funding.

So that's kind of where I came to the $5,000 amount. When it came to Begin Again Homes, I'm not a housing expert by any means. But from my professional experience within the field of social work, I do know that there is a lot of structure and benefits around housing programs. And I appreciate the fact that they participate with HMIS, but there are some programs related to HUD that it didn't feel like they were participating with. And I was just concerned that they're not maybe utilizing all the resources that are out there in the community.

And I just didn't see how the money would be used effectively. When it comes to the Boys and Girls Club, I do see an impact. They have some evidence based and measurable things that they look at. It is a challenge looking at who is served within Apache Junction versus other communities, which is a challenge with a lot of applicants. I do not mind necessarily funding for staff.

I do think it's a challenge as far as dividing out who that staff is really serving. But I believe that the product of Boys and Girls Club and that service is the relationships and the mentoring. So that's why I went with the $15,000 For overflow missions, I was concerned from reading their proposal. It really felt like it was leaning into those quarterly meals, which meals are great. But within our community, I don't know that if four times a year is going to make an impact. So to my mind, I diverted that funding over to the food bank, where I feel like it's making a bigger impact.

Okay, thank you. Anyone can go.

Don't have anybody talk at once.

I'll go ahead and go.

Okay.

So with AJ CDC, I just felt like everything combined, they could make really good use of this money. And maybe not exactly what they're asking for, but the benefits to the health and happiness of the community, whether it's looking at better yards and bringing people together to do good things. I don't know. Anyway, so I felt like they needed a nice amount there. Begin Again Homes got rather confusing in my mind of whether or not the money would actually go towards, as it's been mentioned, people here in AJ.

And I know that they've got a lot of things going on with their program, too. Boys and Girls Club everybody knows. I definitely want to see the kids in our community taken care of. And as long as it goes towards all the appropriate things, I think that's a nice, solid amount. Overflow missions.

I think they've tried hard to make do with what they have and get out there and service the community. And then, of course, the food bank they reach out and touch so many, so they need a good, solid amount, too, to work with. Short and sweet.

Thank you.

May I

go in reverse? So I'm going to start out with the superstition on food banks. The reason why I even upped the amount is Eric said something that really touched me. He said that he would increase his backpack program for the kids for their food on the weekends if they had more funding. And I would really like to see that expanded, because there were so many children in need, especially on the weekends, who could

use that food and take it home.

So that's why I gave an overflow amount for there. Overflow emissions, I don't know that that money is necessarily going to be

used in Apache Junction. And that's

kind of what we're looking at. Boys and Girls Club, they get a ton of money from all sorts of different funding. So just giving them what was left over from the top amount, beginning at homes, I don't think that what she proposed it was unclear to me as well. Is that money going to be only in Patchy Junction? Are there people going to come in from other areas? Those questions were really never answered after, so I'm not really sure. So I went with zero. And then AJCDC, I know they do great work, because I've been on their cleanup committees. And I would like to encourage them to even do more. Our city, so many places where the neighborhoods need to be cleaned up, they can't afford, and the codes, and so forth. So that's why I did what I did.

Thank you. Excuse me.

I'll go ahead and go next.

Excuse me.

For the AJ CDC, I went with them because I think that's something that is an opportunity here in Apache Junction that I don't know if there is another organization out there that does it. Beginning in Homes I don't have any education personally or experience and knowledge of where to go to get housing. And I was hopeful for them, because they are a newer organization, and they seem like they branched out and knew some other organizations that could help them. So I was hopeful for them. Boys and Girls Club I do believe that they are a necessity for our community, in addition to any kind of parks and recreation.

And I think that it's more than just a day care. The overflow mission I know that they work with Desert Chapel Community Church here, which I think does fantastic things. So I am hopeful that they would expand and grow a program, even though that they are I feel like they're located out of Mesa. But they did talk about the benefit of a patch junction. And then, of course, the Supertition Food Bank everyone needs food.

I started mine off as usual, giving the food bank everything and nobody else anything. And then I spent two hours last night, in the middle of the night, reworking the numbers over and over again. All of these are worthy causes. And I do think that most of the money is going to our area. But unfortunately, we have such a small pool of money to play with.

You got to try to figure out the biggest bang for the buck. So I did allocate 67,500 to the food bank, would be the lion's share. And I'm playing a numbers game. AJ, CDC, and overflow missions, they were asking small amounts. So I decided to give them the whole amount. And then basically I started dividing the rest of it between what was left. The Scrooge in me of the past was kind of softened this year. I didn't want anybody to walk away with nothing. But I do feel we are trying to get the best bang for our buck. And like I said, I spent two hours in the middle of the night trying to figure this out.

And that was in addition to other time. That's where I'm at with it. And I'm willing to see what everybody else wants to do. And as usual, I'm willing to trade.

Can I talk for a second? Is that Okay? Doctor. Brennan, when you presented it to the board last time to the city, were there specific questions that you're thinking about as you go through this? Because you're going to be doing the same thing.

That's what propelled me to ask Counselor Stern and he was stern with me about correcting his last name that they really were very focused on a more direct format. And my question to the counselor was, am I being overly pedantic and literal in the sense that I know I know those words Very particular and overly precise about the issue of direct because Boys and Girls Club had a really sort of direct process relative to the mentoring of individuals. That was there. But the problem was we've been discouraged to deal with salaries per se. And yet I saw that that was beneficial because they were, if you will, they were providing the benefit of the program.

And it had real outcome. You could measure those things. You saw progress and other things. And hopefully, they'll be a little more focused on in the future. And as much as you've avoided grades, I really would recommend that that would be a nice cross validation.

So that was what I was moving towards. And Joel really helped by giving me this one piece that I'd like to add into the record when it's done, because that helped me define a little bit better that that could be used in that way. It was direct enough. But that there were other things that were sort of administrative functional things that didn't I mean, you have to have insurance to be able to function. And you have to have insurance to avoid getting sued.

But at the same time, the insurance doesn't directly lend to the services that you provide. They allow you to provide those with less angst about what might happen, but they don't directly do that. And so you look, Joel, like you have a question.

Oh, no. I'm listening. This is fascinating. Okay. So

that was the thrust. I have nothing to sort of be critical of your program whatsoever. I think that you serve a purpose. I wonder about some of the bins that are left for a weekend because, obviously, you see people on occasion pulling up to some large shopping center and dumping their garbage out back. And who knows where they're from?

So that sort of lends to the idea, is that really Apache Junction individual that's doing that? And I don't know how you'd monitor that. And you certainly wouldn't want some sort of field camera there and do some sort of identity check. It's just those nuances that are there that are really difficult. And I understand that because I get to present this to the counsel, I'm going to be queried about those things in exactly that vein.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

As we work to identify the recommendations, can we average out the columns so that we can get a better idea of where

So

we

that is not my expertise.

Yeah. You would just click on the

bottom, add formulas.

Then Commissioner, is your speaker is the green light on

when you're speaking?

Who are you speaking to?

Who are talking to? You were talking about Commissioner

Joisim, right? It's difficult to hear you folks talk. You're not close enough to the microphone.

You hear

me right now? Make sure

your green light's on on the actual microphone. Then speak into the microphone.

Yeah, what's on? Okay.

It might just not

have been close enough

to you.

Thank you. I felt like you got good projections.

So that's considered a negative defense mechanism. Projection. You're putting in somebody else something about you. That's psychiatric

Well, while they're working on that, I would like to address the issue of salaries and admin costs versus direct benefit. I know we want to see the money go directly to where to be used for citizens. But at the same time, and admin actually allow other monies to go to those people. So that is a fine line we have to walk. And that's where some of the mental gymnastics comes into play.

This money going to pay a salary? Yeah, but on the other hand, if that salaried person wasn't there, would that be getting what they needed? So that's something we do have to consider, that maybe salaries and structure, infrastructure, while they're not directly giving delivering a bang for the buck, they are indirectly delivering that bang.

Agreed. Because sometimes if you don't have the salary to pay the staff, then they don't have that program.

Exactly.

I just have a hard

time believing Boys and Girls Club wouldn't have the salary to pay their staff when the AJ program is 1% of their operating budget. I just want to throw that out there. I know it's a really good program. In terms of salaries, I would really want to allocate funding to maybe just specific line items that really are impactful to the kids.

My understanding is we can do that. We can actually assign a particular line item that we want the money to go to, right?

So I'm not sure if you've all had a chance to look at your motions. But we are asking that you read the name of the nonprofit, the dollar amount that you're recommending, and the specific project or the specific purpose. So there is no doubt. Okay. And that will be determined after we do option one, two, three, four, five, if we need to. Hopefully we can get through with just one.

Okay. I'll start. So AJA CDC, 5,000. Begin Again Homes, 1,000. Boys and Girls Club, 15,000. Overflow Mission, 1,000. Food Bank, dollars 68,000.

Are you making a motion?

No, no. She said to Okay.

Where do you tell me the options now?

Yeah. Okay. So

I think what she's saying is when we come up with the amount as a group, and then we need to give it for the specific project of, like for AJCDC operating. But we're not there yet. She wants to

know where we want to fluctuate some monies. Because right now, we already know where everybody specifically wants it.

But we need need to have to some it.

We're actually developing options now that we will vote on to determine which one we're going to go with. And then we determine where the money's going for that.

I know. Yeah, I was just thinking, because he read it back through.

So, Doc, option was basically option one was basically your line.

No, I'm sorry. I misunderstood because we had a question about speaking in the microphone, whether or not Evie was saying that maybe they didn't pick it up in the back when I made my choices and the amounts. I wanted to be clear that that was recorded. But now is the time to negotiate, if you will. So we have averages, and that's nice that it came about. And so I'd like to have a motion to recommend a discussion of the amounts and how to reconcile the diversity that we have in funding options.

So, your honor, if I may, it does not require a motion. Anyone can start to discuss if they've got a change with their thoughts.

So I think that the variance for AJ CDC is very minimal. We have between 5,000 and 7,500. So that might be the easiest one to settle on first. I think where we see a much bigger discrepancy is with beginning in homes and with Boys and Girls Club, anywhere from nothing to 25,000. So maybe we start focusing our efforts on shoring that up a little bit.

Well, would like to propose that option one is basically the average. Start with that one first.

Okay. Something happened.

Yeah, that cleans it up a little

bit so that we can look.

Wow. Okay.

I think you got the number transposed under the food bank.

Yeah, you do.

Oh, thank you. Where would you like the last dollar?

Give it to the food bank. If I recall correctly, last year, city council had a hard time with the funding that was allocated to Boys and Girls Club, where they had a lot of questions about it just because had a large parent organization, and they do have a lot of funding nationally or whatnot. So do you you're the one that presented last year. I just watched the video. I mean, do you think that there's going to be concern about almost $12,000 out of a budget of 90,000 being allocated to that?

I don't think so. I think a very rational argument can be made that there is a need to pay for individuals that are going to actively mentor. And their purpose is to try and improve academic performance across the board. And that could be measured. That is a fundamental attribute of the program.

And I don't know that I would get a lot of pushback from that. I think where I'm going to get pushback are in the two areas of Begin Again Homes because of the nebulousness about what exactly is the criterion for involvement and how you judge whether or not he's successful. So, for example, the individual that was 67 years old, they paid for numerous months of whatever it was, rent or house bills or whatever. But I have no knowledge as to whether or not the subsequent effect was that he was then stabilized enough to continue to sustain that. Hopefully, that's the purpose.

And that might be I'm speculating. The question that's going to be posed to me is, so how do you know that this has purposeful benefits with some sort of sustainability? The same is true, I think, with overflow mission. Again, there was some distortion in the sense that they talked about quarterly meals. And it isn't.

They really are rather constricted to, as I said, I think one was in May, another one in August. And then, finally, the last two were very close, October and November. So that's not quite quarterly. But irrespective, that's four times a year. And that's not a very sort of robust intervention in food shortage issues.

And I think Eric's done a good job of demonstrating that they do expand certain things. There was an interesting article I'm getting to a tangent but an interesting article about promoting longevity. And the article essentially said this. We need to be very cognizant of converting our dietary intake to more whole grains, lean meats, like fish and chicken, more vegetables, and more fruits. And actually, even the protein that's there in meat and fish and chickens ought to be relatively small, probably along the size that you get in a European meal.

And so it's like five to six ounces, not some 27 ounce sirloin steak

or

something like that. So with that in mind, I think that there are going to be some issues about whether or not people are better equipped and knowledgeable about dealing with diets that include grains and legumes and things like that that really give them protein, nutrition, and other things at a real bargain price, relatively speaking.

Would we be comfortable allocating $1,000 to overflow missions for emergency food boxes?

You mean rather than two?

Correct. Because see, I thought overflow missions like piggyback or partnered with the Desert Chapel Community Church. So I didn't think that that was specifically their program. I thought it was something that they partnered together with those four big meals.

JOSHUA That's something that we didn't clarify, to be honest with you, when we funded that church. And they talked about having a feast. That's what they called it. And the implication was that it was weekly, but I don't think it is. And it may be just this four times a year or whatever it is. I'm not sure. So that's something that could be ferreted out. But it's not going to be available to us now to be able to decide with. We won't have that information.

If we were able to add that specific project to their funding, I would feel much more comfortable allocating funds for whether it's emergency food boxes or the availability of a food pantry, something that's an ongoing support to the community.

So the real issue is because we're deciding on funding, and I suspect we can determine by labeling what the funding is, in our opinion, more beneficial to the community at large. So what are you recommending relative to the sum? So for example, in let's do overflow missions, it's continuous. Right now, it's 2,000.

So for option two, I would say 1,000.

Okay. And then what sort of

For emergency food boxes.

Okay. Okay. Any further discussion of that? Any any reason to not consider that as a viable option? Okay. Alright. So we've whittled down a thousand.

I was a backbencher last year when you presented to counsel. And as I recall, some of the questions centered around, one, the biggest bang for the buck directly helping our people. Then the other question that did arise was Boys and Girls Club, while it's a great program, has a lot of external funding. And since we have such a limited pool of money to deal with, is it fair to give them that much money and shortchange some of the other groups that don't have access to other funding? So I think that's something we need to consider.

Can I give a retort? Yes, indeed. In fact, one of my concerns was that in some of the prior years, there was no openness, no candor, no forthrightness about exactly what sort of funding. And I remember right after we discussed the allocation of funding, you all sort of had a windfall. You had like $250,000 in some event, gala event, that came to you.

And it would have been nice to know that. Nonetheless, I think that as we look at and if you'll narrow down your proposal so that we see specifically what it is that the Apache Junction Boys and Girls Club has as assets available to it and other expenditures. Because when you tell me that the W. P. Carey Business School, which is very reputable, very reputable, that they say for every dollar invested in Boys and Girls Club of Arizona, there's a $15 return.

Well, that's nice. But I don't know if that's exactly a sort of apples to apples issue with the facility here. I'm not trying to disparage the facility here, but I don't know if there's that sort of return on investment, if you will.

I don't know. I have to seek counsel on that because I'm not sure. We do have other entities here that would like to speak as well.

Well, I think right now, though, you're just discussing among yourselves. Right. So when you want to open it up to everybody else, you can do that. But you should all be allowed to speak. Okay.

Thank you.

All right. So I would like us to retain at least this sum of $11,655 for Boys and Girls Club. Yes, they do have all sorts of external funding sources that are larger than any other organization that we have on this board now. But at the same time, I think that there is some merit to looking at whether or not we have a more knowledgeable base of civilians in this community.

I think where I'm struggling is that when I look at the line item breakout of where the funding would what it's being utilized for, whether their budget I mean, I see travel, meetings, conferences, advertising, printing, publications, rent, utilities, building, supplies, equipment, maintenance, communications, professional fees, salaries. There's very little line items that I mean, I get that's all necessary to support a program. But if we're being asked to really support the specific needs of the individuals, the only line item here that does that is the specific assistance for individuals, which focuses on those with financial hardships and covers expenses. So I guess maybe that's where I'm struggling with Boys and Girls Club. It's just how the money is allocated and kind of the rules that we're supposed to be following.

But I think as we've discussed, we can make that DELL: the requirement.

But it's only $3,000 in that line item, which is

For that one line item.

For that one

line GREGORY the mentorship was the one that they wanted $35,000 for staff salaries to do the mentoring. So it could be specifically labeled for those two purposes in general, because I agree with you. They have added resources that could cover those other costs. It's just a matter of juggling your budget and how you deal with that.

So for an option two, can we do $10,000 Do you want to do 15,000 What's the group thinking?

Let's plug in $10,000 for now then on option two, since we're still just in the beginning of this process. I'd like to

balance of 71,500 to disburse between beginning in homes and food bank.

I would like us to see to hit the $70,000 for the food bank, just because I feel like that backpack the two backpack program expansions, I think, are important for the community. And the mention of potentially increasing the fresh fruits and vegetables with those senior commodity boxes, I think, is a good need to make sure our seniors are well fed and not just fed.

So you want to see option two at 70?

Yeah, for the food bank.

And we can put the remainder there.

Yeah, the remainder. Okay.

So we now have two options.

I think that's pretty good.

I'm fine with option two, the way it stands.

Any further discussion or modifications to the funding as you see it? Okay.

I'm good with option two.

Okay. Do we need a motion to accept option two or not?

I think at this time, because we do have some voices that want to be heard in the audience, that they could come forward.

Yeah, I suggest you allow whoever wants to speak. If they're with an organization, they can speak. Okay. This is not a public

hearing, so they have to be

with the organization if they speak.

Yeah.

Not just a member of the public.

And I believe that all five organizations are here tonight.

Evie, do you want to choose the order?

I can. Eric, do you have anything you want to say before you leave?

No, not really. I mean

He's like, I'm on the spot.

Yeah.

So thank you guys for taking so much time to really look into the depths of all of our applications. So obviously, you guys are being very favorable to the food banks, so I appreciate that. If you have any questions, I would be most interested to answer those from you guys right now before I have to leave to my next speaking engagement.

I just want to say backpacks, backpacks, backpacks.

Get the food

to the children.

So the full funding would allow me to expand the backpack program to the other two schools, which is Peralta Trail and Avalon Elementary Schools. So we are shy of those two schools. It's a crapshoot. When we open up the registration to those schools, it could be two students that can enroll or it could be 500 students that can enroll. We really won't know until we open the enrollment to those schools with the backpack program. So that's why I was asking for the full funding in order to be able to offer that program.

What is the cost of the backpacks?

So originally, when we kicked off the program, it was about $30,000 We have since stopped buying the items already boxed for us. We now buy 12 pallets of the individual items. And we come in every Wednesday. And like an assembly line, we box them ourselves just to save on the cost. This last year, we spent about $22,000 between the backpacks itself and the items that go in the backpacks.

I was just curious about the backpacks themselves, how much of these

So the backpacks themselves, we spent about $500 per school, which is it's those little string backpacks. It's not like a Jansport. It's like a very plain Jane vinyl backpack. We didn't want it to say food bank or anything on it because we don't want that stigma amongst the kids. Actually, the schools call it the snack club. And so the kids are part of the snack club. And so they're not embarrassed to have those backpacks. They are part of the snack club.

So they get snacks on the weekends. Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. Thank you guys for your time I and do have to leave. So thank you guys again.

And I think we have one other person that's here tonight on a time commitment. So if I could call Maggie Baritzia up with Begin Again Homes.

I'm Maggie Baritzia. I'm the founder of Begin Again Homes. And I am very apologetic for all the confusion and certainly unclear communication around what the organization wasn't set out out to do. So formally, the former president, Cheryl Biglow, has since stepped down from her role in the organization. I founded it two years ago with the vision of providing gap housing for people who were taking advantage of HUD vouchers.

Because there oftentimes is a significant delay, that can get very complicated for people. And then they tumble into homelessness or being unsheltered in a way that is potentially unnecessary if we had some place to get them out of the heat, get them under a roof, and look at their whole situation. I have another business in AJ, and I was building it and encountering many parents with children that were homeless. And one in particular well, two but the one where the mother was living in a dumpster and the nine year old was going to school every day. And she had been evicted, and they could not get their selves together to get a first and last month deposit.

There are other organizations like CAHRA that can do that. But if you can't get online and you can't answer your phone all the time because you don't have access to electricity, it's just kind of mind blowing that this can tumble. These are people that are the mission of the organization was to help people that are economically distressed very temporarily. These are not the chronically homeless, drug addicted if there's issues with the law, we were not set up to address that. The vision was to find some sort of home, duplex of some sort, where we could put a family for a short length of time that was waiting for a voucher and just make sure that that process connected.

Especially with what's going on right now in the government, it's not likely we're going to get the kind of federal funding that we would ever need to buy a location. So what this has resulted in is summers of just putting people in Motel six, where we have a relationship, to get them out of the heat. And then hopefully, following up and connecting them with services.

You know, you have affiliation with New Leaf. And as I've revealed, I was a medical director for them for some time. They have a men's facility that's right off of the freeway in Mesa. And then they have a woman's facility way on the West Side over in Glendale. But they also have La Mesita for families. And that takes some time. So how available are those assets to you?

They're not. I mean, we've applied for many unless you have three years in a nonprofit tax returns to show and a certain amount of money in the bank, we're pretty much eliminated right out the gates to get a certain amount of funding. But in my research years ago, that was one of the locations that we looked at. And there are many available in AJ that provide wonderful services. It's just connecting them. How do we get the people most in need, those parents with children that are not going to answer a survey? They don't want to be counted. They could lose everything so quickly, but they're not going to raise their hand. And what we were finding was there was this big disconnect. We would love to get them in there, but that's, again, a process.

And because of the no camping laws, they were scattering into the desert at night, and there was loads of health issues. Was a little boy named Sebastian that almost died behind the antique shop. And when the police said, what do we do? They put him in the hotel with the angel the rescue angels with wings. What's it called? The police force has a nonprofit adjunct to it that will pay for things like that. And then the next day, we had no place, no guidance for them. Sent them to Phoenix. They were going to separate the two parents from the little boy. They ended up leaving and hitchhiking to Prescott. A year later, they're back down here. So it's really just like, how do we create a focal point where the desert is a death trap in the summer to get those in need under our eyes so that we can kind of really assist them on the path to these other services that are wonderful.

So as you use these temporary services, like Motel six or what have you, then I perhaps erroneously concluded that you were waiting for Section eight housing and stuff like that. But that can be eternal.

No, not so much Section eight. We try to verify that someone has an exit plan. And what this has ended up being is we've helped a lot of veterans that are waiting to get into veteran housing. But we just don't let anybody in without a plan. If a young girl, and it's like, my aunt is coming back to town in a month, and I know she's going to let then we will connect with the aunt and just make sure that that happens, that transition. Because the desert is fatal in the summer, and there isn't anywhere to get out of the heat consistently.

I know you mentioned that you are an entry point for balance of state. Can you tell us a little bit about what that looks like?

So what that has looked like was Cheryl was primarily kind of the head of that, and she was doing a lot of the she did all the training, and she was fielding those calls. I don't know, from my hands on experience, I don't know what that looks like.

Do you participate in the housing calls?

Cheryl did, yeah. My president did, yeah.

But would you be doing that going forward?

Is that something We're in giant flux right now. So yeah, we have I started this thing, and then I am a single parent of two young kids. And I have a business, so I handed it off. And I think I probably took a step way too far back. So I am on those email lists. We do the Pinal County housing. I'm on that. And I see them, but I was always letting her do them. So I will likely step in, yes.

And I really do appreciate the work you do. It's very important, but I know that it's also very complex.

Yeah, and it is. It's very confusing. And Cheryl really had her boots on the ground, so she knew everybody. And so when I get the emails and say, hey, what do you know about this person, she could just, off memory, tell me what they had done so far, they were prone to A, B, C. And so she was helpful that way. It was she was it was just kind of her time.

Maggie, can I ask you, when you do your application process, or you do your intakes, who specifically does that now, or will be doing that? And again, will those be A. J. Residents only, or are they coming in from other cities?

So in this, it's really hard to say residents only, because they don't have a residence. So a lot of the times they are here, like this woman I was just speaking to, she's from another area. And so if they have started a process, say, in Casa Grande, then we will help them get back on track in that process or from another state. But it's really difficult to track all that. So we have the HMIS system, where we enter people, we can kind of back check some of their information.

But without a location because right now, this is very piecemeal for us until we have a location. So it's just like, how much information can we get? Do we trust this person that the situation is what it is? And we've made some mistakes, And we leave people with health issues. If it's critical health issues, we try to just get them out of the heat, get them back on track with doctors, diabetics, or have been a big problem in the summer for us. But the vision and the mission of helping parents with children has not happened yet.

Okay. Yeah. I meant to ask as well, you mentioned your relationship with Motel six. Can you tell us approximately how much that costs per night to house someone?

Yeah. It's a little bit deeper than the veterans discount. So when we last set it up, it was 80

ROSE: dollars a night. JULIET That's R. Not quite a big discount, is it?

Well, was a couple of years ago. So hopefully it's held. I mean, hopefully it's held. No, it's not. But they just like to know that there's somebody consistently going to take those rooms, especially in the summer that are quite quiet.

So if there's any other questions, but I would say our vision, as stated on paper, is, I think, out there in the future. What we're able to do right now until some larger funding comes through makes this all very nebulous,

for sure.

I think that was one of the things I identified was in the proposal, you had mentioned a minimum funding amount of $50,000

Yep. I did not. Yeah, think yeah, I didn't. So that was a mistake. I think that Cheryl had thought that there was more available, because that was one of the sources of contention was her frustration. And when I realized the amount that was available, it was like, woah, what was that? What was that?

Bet you could still provide services with a smaller amount.

Yeah, because we don't have a location. Mean, even $1,000 gets us a number of stays throughout the summer. And that's why I'm in a bit of a panic, as it gets

hotter. Understandable.

And one last issue, because you're right. You're in the formative stage. Have you contacted ASU and see whether or not there's a graduate program that would have students in their master's, for example, really chomping at the bit to try and write proposals and other things. And I've championed Mackenzie Scott because she's quite a philanthropist. I mean, I don't know exactly what she got from Jeff. But somewhere in the neighborhood of in excess of $40,000,000,000 And in the last five years, she's donated $19,000,000,000 of it.

Okay. Well, yeah, I was on the board of directors for the Chamber of Commerce in AJ, and one of our members was at ASU. And we did talk about this nonprofit, but he did not refer me to anybody. I would be open to that for sure. So Myra Garcia, she used to run the food bank years ago. She's a grant writer. So she's now on board to write some grants. That's her career. So she knows what she's doing much more than Cheryl and I did. Maybe we'll have some luck.

Just off the top of my head, I would suspect that the social work department you might have better knowledge would be very, very receptive to those sorts of formats. And maybe you'd find some graduate students, people working on a master's in social work, very willing to participate in helping you get some added funding that's going to be consistent. And I think that right now we have a real issue with governmental funding because it's kind of nebulous of late. But I think that people like MacKenzie Scott and others who have robustly funded people and it's been quite effective, in fact.

Yep. Those kind of connections are critical when you're at this stage. So waiting for a miracle.

There you go.

You may also just some unsolicited advice. Access has recently designated Solari to manage the permanent supportive housing program and does some outreach programs. And you may connect with them, and they may be able to assist you with some.

Can you just say that again? Because I don't have any paper up here, I'm thinking about I'm like, Mackenzie Scott, what is

this Solari thing? The agency is called Solari.

Okay, Solari.

They're a statewide agency, and they were given a grant from access for it's called I'm going to get it mixed up H2O. Okay. H2O, water, sure. Housing to opportunities.

So that's it. Am available for questions, but I am very sorry that this has been so confusing. But we'll get there. Hopefully I'm still here in twenty years saying the same thing, I'm begging for money.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. And next, I think we have Denise Carter here from Overflow Ministries. Just because you seem to have more questions for that, and several for Boys and Girls Club. So we'll get Liz up next.

Hello. Hi. As you know, I'm Denise Carter. So thank you for this opportunity for Overflow to submit the application. What questions do you guys have for me?

How many emergency food boxes did you give out last year?

It was over 1,000. I can't remember the exact number, but it was over 1,000. I did resend my information. I could pull it up for you.

I just wanted a rough estimate.

Do you know roughly how much those food boxes cost?

Well, we average it we try to put at least 22 pounds of food in a box. Box. That's how we kind of like average it. And we have certain items that we put in a box. We always put peanut butter and jelly and bread. We always put rice and beans. We always put macaroni with spaghetti. And we always put tuna fish. Like, those are the main items that always go in the bag. Because if they don't have peanut butter is something easy to do.

And it still has the protein. And then we use the tuna fish, because they can use that with the macaroni, or they can use that with the meat sauce. So those are the basic items that always go in our bags. Then if we have anything extra, then we add it to the bags to get it up to 22 pounds. So it just varies. Those items might cost us about $12 because it's usually like $1.25 for one item, because I shop at the Dollar Tree and Walmart sometime.

How are those items dispersed?

Well,

do those we go yeah. I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Oh, so what we do is we pack the bags up, and we work with another organization where we just go to them and we give them the bags, the food bags. And they have already let us know what people are in need of the food boxes. So they already screen them. And then they'll contact us. Or I have an average of, like, one place I always give 25, because that's the average that we could do there. And then for another place, it's like 5 a week. So it's about 20 a month. Sometimes it's a little bit more, it just depends. And then we also have people that might contact us on the side and say, hey, I need a food box.

And these are A. J. Residents that are getting the food boxes?

Some are A. J. Residents and some are Mesa.

Do you know kind of what that split looks like?

Well, right now, it's more of Mesa than A. J. We do more feeding, hot meals, and snack bags in A. J. But we do more food boxes in Mesa. But the hot foods are always out here. Our goal is to partner with one of the senior citizen homes in Apache Junction, so that way we could do emergency food boxes out there as well. So we're working on that. That's a work in progress. And I know someone had mentioned we have been working with Desert Chapel Methodist Church.

We started working with them by accident. We just happened to find them in 2018. So when we originally started with them, we was only able to do one meal a year. Because at that time, we started out as a five zero one(three) in 2016, but we wasn't getting any funding. So a lot of that was coming out of my husband and I finances, but it was something that I knew that I wanted to do. So now we have established ourselves where we could do it four times a year. And I know you guys mentioned the dates well, the dates are kind of wrong. So, what we have planned is we try to do it more or less around the holidays. Like, we have our original one is like May 31 that's going to be coming up. And we do it around Memorial Day because a lot of people don't want to feed then.

So, we are picked that day. Just like July 5, we are picked for the holiday. And November for Thanksgiving. Because a lot of times, being that we used to sign up for organizations, those slots are always empty because most people are spending time with their families. So the dates that you guys have right now are really the incorrect dates. But I did send another presentation over and went over it and put the correct dates on. So the dates that we have on there now is basically because of the holidays. And we would like to do more. I would love to be able to feed every month. But again, that takes more money.

And right now, we know that we can budget in at least four times a year. We might be able to fit in five, but if we can get more money, then we could do more work. So, goal is to be able to we would like to do it once a month. And we would like to be able to pick a senior citizen community in Apache Junction, and we would like to be given them food boxes weekly. That would be my ideal goal.

So, would then the senior citizen boxes be in addition to homeless, or in place of

No, will be in addition. So, we will continue what we already do. We won't take away from what we do, because my focus and my plan is to serve the homeless and give out food boxes to anyone in need of a food box. And then we also used to do the backpack program, like what they did. We did that for a couple of years at Mesa. We worked with Imagine Prep School down in Mesa. We started a program there. So we were kind of like sea starters in different places. So even when we do food boxes, sometimes we would do the snack bags as well for the weekend snack bags. And I see that the gentleman was talking about that.

So that would be something we might think about doing again in the future. So we would like to cover the seniors, the children, and the families, and the homeless people. Because they all are very important to our society. So we can get a hand on we might be a small organization, and I know we compete in with a lot of bigger organizations. And sometimes we do get the short end because we are smaller, but we've got a big heart. So my heart is not going to change whether I get $1,000 or $10,000 I know what my purpose is and what I was called to do. Any other Thank

you so very much.

You're welcome. Have a good day.

LYNN You too.

BURNHAM: And next we have Liz with Boys and Girls Club. LYNN BURNHAM: Hello, everybody.

My name is Liz Byrne, I'm the Vice President of Regional Impact for Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley And the Apache Junction Club, the Superstition Mountain Club, is one of the clubs I directly support. So first of all, I want to commend all of my fellow nonprofits in the room. Obviously, we are all doing something important. And I just want to say just hearing your guys' stories is very powerful. So thank you.

I'm honored to be in this room with you all as well as the counsel. A couple of things I want to address and then to answer any questions you guys might have. Kind of the common things I'm hearing, are completely understandable, number one is kind of the bang for your buck idea. And I'm sure that all of my fellow nonprofits in the room are doing amazing things and serving a lot of people. Just to break down some of the figures of the amount of residents that we're serving at the Boys and Girls Club. So we have three fifty club members that are attending the club annually. So that's either summer camp or during the school year. And of those three fifty, roughly 200 are A. J. Residents.

So the ones that are not A. J. Residents are mostly attending in the summer, and that is because their parents work in Apache Junction. We actually do have some non residents who choose A. J. USD to send their children to school. So they maybe live in Mesa and they commute. So the majority of our kids go to AJ Unified School District, but not all their parents are residents, just so you understand that. The other kind of common denominator I'm hearing is the funding and the kind of the confusion about an organization like Boys and Girls Club, which is so nationally recognized. We are one of the most nationally recognized nonprofits, and we're lucky to be that, which gives us credibility, right?

But it's a very common misconception that because we have this national parent organization, that we have this kind of unlimited source of funding. And that's really not the case. We do get pass through funding from Boys and Girls Club of America. We actually have to pay dues to be part of Boys and Girls Club of America to maintain our charter. So that is what makes us and to maintain our charter, we have safety recommendations and guidelines that Boys and Girls Clubs of America sets, as well as you know, there's specific board requirements and all kinds of things that go with that.

But it's a very common and I don't blame anybody for having this misunderstanding. But because you're this organization that's so nationally known, that funding just kind of comes at you. We are lucky to have so our operating budget at the Apache Junction Club is about $750,000 give or take. The other thing I want to acknowledge is the amount of salaries. So, before I was in the role I was in now, I was writing grants.

And this is always the hardest thing to get fun in, is just operating dollars just to keep the lights on or to keep the people paid that are running the programming every day. The line item for salaries is the largest chunk of our overall operating budget of our organization, which is 32 clubs, as you mentioned, including Kingman and Yuma and all over Phoenix Metro. Over half, I believe, is staffing. So it's one of those things. Our assets, our most important asset, are the people in the building. I was a club kid. I'm an Arizona resident, native, and I went to the Boys and Girls Club. And the programs were kind of a secondary importance for what happened. The people in the building are what I remember. They are the ones who made the biggest impact.

That mentoring component is so incredibly important these days. We've got kids who went through a pandemic. They talked about this last time where they are really suffering with the academic side of things, of math and literacy being a huge deficit right now. But it's also the emotional side. There's a higher rate of anxiety and depression and self harm. And those things are happening in our clubs. And it's the people in the clubs that make the kids feel safe, that make them want to return. So, the reason that we're asking for the funding specifically for salaries is because our people are an asset. And specifically, our club staff in the Apache Junction Club, some of them are staples who have been there for decades, you know? They're very important.

They really care about this community. And they really care about the kids within it. So that's kind of my speech. But I'm here for questions if you guys have got anything. Thank you all for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

And then lastly, we do have AJCDC representatives if you have any questions for them.

No, it is obvious where I stand on AJ CDC. Think you guys are doing a great job. And I think you definitely do provide a service that is needed. You know, we've got to take care of our old folks.

So I guess as we look at option three, do we want to make any adjustments to beginning at homes?

After hearing all the presentations here, am still going for option two.

It's hard when we have a set amount of funding. Do we take it away from?

That's the hardest part about this is we have such a small amount. We really do have a small pool to give out and it gets hard.

Can we get sort of a reading of the consensus on option two?

Your honor, if I could just make a quick suggestion. If the major consensus is option two, the brave one will be the motion maker stating the agency name, the dollar amount, and the specific purpose. So just keep that in mind when you make the motion. And then we'll do a roll call at the end.

And thanks for clarifying that last point that was an issue

Commissioner Visson had as well about being specific about the allocation.

Well, guess for starters, what's the consensus on option two?

I'm yes. I'm good with yes.

My bleeding heart. You did such a good job. Would anyone consider option three doing 7,000 for the CDC and 2,000 for begin to get homes?

I would.

$9,000

for Boys and Girls Club and $2,000 for overflow missions?

I would.

And keep that there. We'll just put that as an option three, and then I'll be done.

Although that's not ideal in the perfect world, because we're limited to 90,000, it does make me feel a little bit better. So I like option three.

Okay. But as we went through all of these machinations and other things, are there any restrictions specific to the funding? That's what we talked about. And there was concern about some ambiguity and not leaving that open so that it can be used for other aspects of a program. So in particular, with Boys and Girls Club, there was an issue about specifying where that money would go to. Do we have a proposal to name that specific aspect of the Boys and Girls Club?

I was the most vocal. I mean, at the very least, I would like to cover the I'm trying to find my notes here the 3,586, that line item for specific assistance for individuals for financial hardship. And after that, I don't have any specifications for the rest of the funding. But I don't want to complicate things either. Mean, the group is comfortable with it going to the salaries component, then it's not a hill I want to die on tonight.

So the sum has been whittled down some. I mean, I wanted 15,000 because I thought that that would be a little more adequate to what their needs might be. But I really very strongly believe that education is liberating. And therefore, the mentorship so whatever other sum isn't there, believe those two aspects of the program are very prominent. We talked, though, about whether or not there were issues with the ACE questions, the Adverse Childhood Experiences.

I don't know if you've had an opportunity to see that TED Talk that was from 2016 by J. D. Vance. It was an interesting statement in which he went through a plethora of things that his community held. And there were real deficits for him.

But it was that social currency that he was able to fall back on with mentors, both in school, but as well in the military. He was a marine. He was an enlisted marine. And it's a pretty rigid format, but he found that not to be just something that structured him, but gave him purpose and ambition. And lastly, for someone who's got some concerns about DEI, he invoked DEI and said, jeez. I called my mom and I said, mom, it seems I benefit by being poor.

There we go.

Any other specified designation for funding? Alright. In the absence of that overwhelming silence, and Paul Simon isn't here to sing about it, Maybe we just need to vote on accepting option three.

I move that the Health and Human Services accept option three as we move forward. I don't know the verbiage. I apologize.

I think you each should have a motion sheet there. So it's item number three.

I move that the funding for the Health and Human Services for fiscal year 2025 to 2026 be option three. And then do I say the amounts? Yes. For AJ CDC, dollars 7,000. For Begin Again Homes, dollars 2,000. For Boys and Girls Club, dollars 9,000. Overflow Missions, dollars 2,000. And for the Superstition Food Bank, dollars 70,000.

And then my last request will be on any of these that you have specific purposes. For instance, what I heard for Boys and Girls Club was the mentorship program and the hardship. I'm not sure what the verbiage is. I don't have that application here. And I'm just using that as an example. I'm not putting words in your mouth. But that's what we're looking for so that when Chairman Brennan does recommend these amounts to the council, it's cut and dried, and they know exactly what is expected from these each of these organizations.

Well, I'd like to suggest that the food bank would be for the backpacks.

Well, not all of it, right? Just a portion of it?

Well, he said basically that the money he's asking for now would allow him to expand that backpack program.

$90,000 is all going to backpacks?

Well, he's only asked for 75.

But

I think

he said $90,000 was like 2% of his annual budget or something.

Wait, no. The sum we have is $70,000 $90,000 is the full sum.

I believe he said

it was $20,000 to fund the back tax.

That's

correct. Makes more sense.

JULIET think that's right.

That's what

he said.

JULIET the contingencies on the $70,000 would be that $50,000 would be allocated to the program's standard distribution. But another $20,000 would go specifically to backpacks to deal with weekend issues for students.

Could we say to expand? Because they already have an existing program. To expand it, specifically to these two schools that I Can we expand it to that?

And then I would say for overflow emissions, the specific project, I would just want to make sure that the $2,000 is going to be spent on Apache Junction residents, whether it's hot meals or emergency food boxes. But they're able to show us that those resources were going to the community.

And as noted for Boys and Girls Club, the specific areas of funding go to mentorship and to the Hardship.

Hardship.

The hardship program. And do you remember the proportion? Is it about a third?

Who's that?

Did you say 3,000 for hardship, 6,000 for mentorship?

It sounded like right. Okay.

Alright. AJA CDC, any specificity?

No? We're good with the ambiguity.

Do we want to

It says operating expenses for HACDC.

I know they mentioned focusing more on properties and neighborhoods. Do we want to specify that as opposed to parks just because it may be more about health and safety doing homes and neighborhoods? Or leave it open?

You might want to leave it open just because if the referral base isn't there, then the money wouldn't be able to be utilized.

And I think that they really do get some added, both acknowledgment and contribution from the community because of their Make a Difference Day. And that deals with parks and other things more than a residential setting, per se, or even a community, a rather limited community, a little segment of the populace. So I don't know that we need greater specification than what they're concurrently doing. Anybody have any objection to that?

No. In the application, it just says operating expenses.

Okay. All right. Okay. Any other specific allocations for what? Beginning in house,

I don't think we touched on that one specifically, right?

Should we specify for emergency housing while waiting shelter access for AJ residents?

You know, that be a good sort of qualifier.

Although she did say it was really hard to prove their residents. Because they don't have that.

JULIE JULIE Motel

six is an right?

JOSEPH You know, I may get

some pushback on that relative because to it's supposed to be specifically for the benefit of Apache Junction residents. And so

I suspect we could

sort of be quasi legalistic and say that all efforts should be made to make clear that it's to be used for Apache Junction residents. Efforts to confirm that would be a requirement.

I think that's important.

Okay. All right.

Very good. Thank you. Now I just need a second.

I'll second.

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

Yes.

Commissioner Voisin? Yes. Commissioner Wood? Yes. Commissioner Meikland? Yes. And Chairman Brennan?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Okay. All right. Moving forward, I've got a little queue here. It says liaison report. Ask KV if she has anything to report.

I have no report, your honor.

Okay. In light of that, then I adjourn this meeting at seventeen thirty seven on the 03/31/2025.