Health & Human Needs Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Thursday, May 7 meeting of the Dane County Board's Health and Human Needs Committee. 05:34. Can folks on Zoom, hear me? Supervisor Danzler giving me a thumbs up. That's great. Committee members, if you're able to, come off camera, please do so. And we are going to have Amanda call the roll. Thank you.

Supervisor Glaser? Glaser here. Supervisor Weigleitner? Here. Supervisor Walsh? Here. Supervisor Huselman?

Here.

Supervisor Kabizi?

Here.

Supervisor Dansler Junior?

Here.

Super Jackson? Uh-huh.

Not present yet. YTP member Sai Kindakuri?

Present.

And YTP member Soha Gandhi? Not present, but I know

they were having issues logging on, so Soha will probably be out shortly. But we do have quorum.

Okay. Thank you. And I I do believe supervisor Jackson will be here shortly. My name is Heidi Wegleitner, and I am the assigned convener this evening. We do have elections on our agenda, but the practice of the committee has been to sort of ideally call nominations and have elections when all committee members are present. And given that supervisor Jackson is on her way, I'm wondering if there's any objection to moving on with the agenda and coming back to item B after all our committee members are here and supervisor Jackson is present. There any objection

for that?

I think we can do it without objection. Is there any objection? Not seeing any objection. We will go on to item c, which is consideration of minutes. From our 03/26/2026 meeting, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved, Dansler Junior.

Moved by supervisor Dansler Junior. We do not need seconds under county board rules, with our standing committees. I am wondering if we have any corrections, Amanda. I recall that I spoke with county board staff related to these minutes ahead of our last county board meeting. I'm wondering if you also had communication with them.

Mhmm. Do you remember?

It was related to this the I think it's d one.

Press 302. I did speak with Kayleen. There was a question about how we moved it. I did speak with Kaylene about because what we did was we motioned moved the original resolution, and then I had chimed in and said, don't we have to move the sub? So then we moved to move the sub, and then we moved the sub. But she checked over the minutes and said it was okay how it wasn't there at that time. This was back on the April 16.

Okay. My and supervisor Limelender is no longer on this committee, the maker of the motion. My recollection is we passed the approval, and we had to move reconsider to reopen the item, which is why this was a little confusing. Welcome.

That's why it's on there three times because we moved for just the regular resolution, and then I mentioned that there was a sub. So we moved to reconsider, and

then we moved the sub. Okay. Yeah. Reconsideration is not a word in the most you know, in this in the minutes Mhmm. Which is, I think, maybe a little confusing.

I

think the minutes I I think to accurately reflect the action, the minutes should say a motion by Rylander to reconsider motion carried unanimously, and then the motion was to recommend this the sub. Right? And then approved. I I would suggest that we move to postpone this to our next meeting to check with council and our county board staff to make sure this is accurately reflects the action of the committee. Is there any objection to that?

Seeing no objection. This the minutes will be postponed to the next meeting of health and human needs. And now supervisor Jackson being present. Is there any objection to moving back to our earlier item? Election of officers, item b.

I'm not hearing any objection. Okay. We are on to item b, election of officers. B one is election of maybe perhaps if because we're a brand new committee, before we do elections and now that everyone's here, I wonder if we should just do a round of introductions for each other. I think most of us have met, but we have also have staff here and some new committee members.

Does that sound okay? And I can start. My name is Heidi Wegliener. I represent District 2 on the Dean County Board. This is my eighth term serving and my seventh term on this committee. And I've been honored to chair the committee the last two terms. So I work in my day job as a legal aid lawyer, primarily in housing law matters. And so I've worked a lot on housing and homelessness issues in my time on the board. And then I'll pass it to my left. Well,

my name is Goodwill, like the store. And, I represent District 16, which is the Far East Side Of Madison and part of Sun Prairie. This is my first term, and this is my first committee meeting. And, my day job, I'm in human resources and with a clinic, a local privately owned clinic in Madison. And, yeah, I'm excited to be here to learn a lot about So yeah.

Welcome. So thanks,

I'm Jeff Glaser, District 8, which is the West Side, Southwest Side Of Madison. So if you know where Vitens is, that starts my district, and it ends on the other side of Elver Park. This is what my third term. I have been on public works and P and F before this, so I am just continuing my merry-go-round and

slapping duties.

I feel a little bit like a like like an intern or something where you go work in each department for a little bit just to see which one you like, except mine's taking me, like, twelve years. In my day job, I am, I'm a lawyer. I work for, the University of Wisconsin Law School where I teach in a clinical program that provides, free legal services for start up businesses. So I work in business transactional law and entrepreneurship, particularly in food systems. So anyway, that's me.

Great. Welcome.

Hi, everyone. Erin Welch, supervisor for District 7, which is the near West Side of Madison. This is my second term on the board and second term on health and human needs. My day job at the Department of Justice for the state is in crime victim services. So I kind of bring that lens to this work as well.

Hi. I'm Lisa Jackson. I represent District 26 in Middleton, on my day job. This is my actually, my second term as a supervisor, my second term on this committee. I'm really excited about that. And my day job, I am a service facilitator and a care manager for CCS and CCI.

Great. Glad to have your experience again. And supervisor Dantzler.

Good evening, everyone. Donald Dantzler. This, newly elected to, District 33, which is the the southern half portion of Fitchburg, and a little bit of kind of, Oregon. And then, professionally, I work, for One City Schools. I'm our senior vice president for strategic partnerships, and then I also serve on the, the city council in Fitchburg representing District 3 that kinda overlaps with the the county board district. And my first time on this committee, so happy to meet everyone and work with you all.

Excellent. Welcome. Supervisor Heuseman?

Hi. I'm supervisor Heuseman. I represent District 27, which is the Northern part of Pittsburgh. So I represent King James Way neighborhood, Allied Dents Marsh area, all the way through to Traceway, and then newly annexed, Southfield neighborhood up in that area. By day, I'm a stay at home parent of four teenagers, one soon to be not a teenager, in his twenties, who attends Madison College. And this is my third term on the board as well as on this committee. Thank you.

Thank you, supervisor Hazelman. And then we will well, Amanda, do you wanna introduce yourself?

I'm Amanda Vernia. I'm an administrative assistant to the director of the Department of Human Services,

and I staff health H. Gen. Sorry. I'm in about three years now staffing.

Yes. It's great to have you. You'll get a lot of emails from Amanda. Pay attention. Communicate with her if you are expecting any absences or being tardy. And I think we will do staff introductions because a bit later as they come up because we have a number of business items on our agenda, and we'll be hearing from staff to provide us with information related to those items. So let's get to elections elections of officers. And the first one is chair. Is there a nomination for chair? Supervisor Welsh.

I would like to nominate supervisor Wekleinner. Thank you, supervisor Welsh. And I accept. But are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Hearing no other nominations, nominations are closed, and there being one nominee, I think that is a election by acclamation or something to that effect. If anyone has any objection with that, let me know. Thank you very much. And I just would say I really try to be accessible and available as much as possible.

If you have any questions, I really want to support your work on the committee. Don't hesitate to reach out to me, and happy to provide info, connect you to the right staff, or provide guidance if desired. Alright. Let's move on to election of, vice chair. Is there a nomination for vice chair? Supervisor Huseman.

Yes. I'd like to nominate, supervisor Welsh.

Supervisor Welch is nominated. And are you are you nodding along with that? Are you okay with that? Okay. It's good to know. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Nominations are closed. There being only one nominee, Supervisor Welsh is elected by acclamation. Congratulations.

Thank you for stepping into that role. Thank you. Typically, the chair and the vice chair do meet the week before every Health and Human Needs Committee meeting. So maybe before we leave tonight, we'll check-in about scheduling that, making sure it works for you. But do send Amanda any ideas you have related to agenda items.

I'm talking to the full committee here because in setting those agendas, we want to make sure we are being responsive to needs of the committee, the interests on issues, background training, particular items. So don't hesitate to reach out. You can communicate that to myself or Amanda or I'm sure Erin as well. Okay. Then we already dispensed with the minutes, and we have no fund transfers tonight.

So we're on to referrals of resolutions and ordinance amendments. This is e, and we have one, two two CCS contracts. But I'm gonna invite director Schluter up to the table here because, typically please come forward. Yes. Typically, this committee, we well, we take public comment on an item, and then I generally ask staff to sort of introduce it so we can have some more informal staff discussion, background questions, of staff, and then we will take up motions.

We as a standing committee, we can operate a little less formal than at the county board floor. With that said, do we have any registrants on item e one or e two? No, chair. Okay. Super director Schluter, what we have been doing is committee because we've seen a lot of these comprehensive community services contracts come to our committee, which is great, new providers in the CCS network.

But because they're so similar, we usually take them up together so we get that background information together, ask questions together, and typically entertain a motion to approve together. So with that, do you wanna provide some background related to these 2025 resolution three ninety eight and twenty twenty five resolution four zero four, the new CCS services, one with unfiltered therapy and one with HBO therapy, both in the department's Behavioral Health Division.

Yep. Thank you. And welcome to all of our new supervisors, and welcome back to supervisors that are old friends. And we're we're glad to have you back.

And do take a minute to introduce yourself if you want. John Schluter,

human services director. Coming up just on a year. So relatively new, but not so new anymore. But, yeah, it's a it's it's been a pleasure to be in Dane County. I come from the federal sector for twenty where I was there for twenty two years.

But I started in Dane County and as a Dane County employee, and so I'm really coming back home. So resolution twenty twenty five res three ninety eight is authorizing a new comprehensive community services CCS contract with unfiltered therapy. Yeah. This is within our division, DCDHS, health division. So we have several different divisions, and I'm gonna try to say the acronyms out because I know that we have some new supervisors.

I'm gonna try not to do shorthand, but stop me if I did I do. So we call it we're shorthands the b BH Behavioral Health Division. These resolute the re resolutions for new CCS contracts, the comprehensive of comprehensive community service contracts with new providers on unfiltered therapy, the CCS contract. Contracted providers receive reimbursement for all valid and billable activities that are performed in service of participants. For this reason, a maximum dollar amount is not included in the CCS contracts.

Medicaid funds, are matched by the state of Wisconsin, fully support the CCS program. This agency will join a network of more than a 140 providers, I think we're at right now. Wow. We're serving the more than 2,800 participants of all ages across Dane County. So what the reason that we have such a large network, as some of you know, who work with CCS providers, the more CCS providers that we have, the more options that our community have, the people that need these these services.

It also makes wait times much lower, and it gives them a broad scope of opportunity to be seen by different kinds of services that might be available. So because they're fully funded by Medicaid in the state of Wisconsin, we continue to add as many options so that our community, our consumers have as many options as possible. So we do try to grow, and each of those will so you'll hear this a lot and our our talk on this and adding new CCSs a lot, and that's intentional.

Thank you. And I wonder, if division administrator Todd Campbell is, I see, on the Zoom, who, oversees the behavioral health division. Welcome, Todd. For the benefit of our newer committee members, can you just give a brief overview of what CCS is?

Certainly. Thank you for the opportunity, and good evening, supervisors. My name is Todd Campbell. I am the behavioral health division administrator. I've been employed by Dane County since 2008.

I've been a division administrator since 2018 and administrator for the behavioral health division, when it was from the time that it was formed in the 2023 budget. Nice to see all of you this evening. CCS, comprehensive community services, is, budgetarily our largest program, in the department, and it is what the state calls in their impotent bureaucracies, psychosocial rehabilitation program, which is a way to say that, CCS essentially helps individuals find their own path to recovery. As director Schluter mentioned, there are close to, we're getting close to 3,000 participants in this program. You work primarily with a service facilitator.

Thank you, supervisor Jackson, for fulfilling that role. And the service facilitator builds helps you to build a team around you to help you on your path to recovery from, a substance use concern or mental health concern that you might be you might be struggling with. We serve, people across the lifespan, youth and adults, and it is a voluntary program and receives rave reviews. And I'll be happy to give you a little more detail on that at perhaps a future meeting.

That's great. Thank you. And I was thinking about that. And and when you said it's now the biggest program budgetarily, I'm like, well, that really is warranted then. Do think we should, at an upcoming meeting, have maybe a little more comprehensive discussion overview of the program and some emerging issues and things that we've seen.

We added some positions in the budget, and I think there are ongoing objectives to reduce barriers to the CCS program, particularly with folks who have more barriers in accessing services overall. So thank you for that. Are there any questions for staff about the program or RES three ninety eight or RES four zero four specifically?

I do.

Supervisor Obizi.

So, director, so the funding comes from Medicaid. So

okay.

That was all I wanted to know.

Medicaid and the state of Wisconsin. The state of okay. It's matching dollars with the state of Wisconsin. Okay. So there's no JBR impact or sorry. General purpose revenue impact. No no levy impact.

Okay. Thank you.

And that's why we were able to add positions in the 2026 budget. And they were not and they're still moving forward because of that full funding from outside of county. Okay. I'm not hearing any questions. Is there a motion to recommend approval of resolution three ninety eight and resolution four zero four?

So move. Second.

Moved by Jackson. Is there any discussion on the motion? I guess yeah. I'll save this for a different time. Seeing no objection, the motion carries unanimously, and the resolutions are recommended for approval to the county board.

Then we are on to twenty twenty five resolution three ninety nine authorizing a contract with Catalyst for Change to operate the off the square club program in the Dane County Department of Human Services behavioral health division. Do I have any registrants on this item, Amanda? Sure. Okay. Director Schluter, do you wanna give some background here?

Yeah. Resolution twenty twenty five res three ninety nine authorizing a contract with Catalyst for Change to operate the off the square club program. This is also in behavioral health division, so also in Todd's division. This resolution authorizes the department to enter into a new contract with Catalyst for Change so that there can be a seamless transition between providers that will help keep the off the square club continuously operating. The current provider provided us, the department, with notice that they intended to end the operating operation of their program effective April 30.

Catalyst for Change has been part of the CCS provider network through a contract with the department for over the last five years. Given the importance of the service to our neighbors who have serious mental health illnesses, many of whom are homeless or at risk of homelessness. We needed to do our best to maintain continuity of operations for this program. We were fortunate and thankful for Catalyst for Change for stepping up and forward to answer this call with such short notice. And I believe supervisor Weig Leitner, you queued up a couple of questions.

I know that you might have have those, And division administrator Campbell can help field those for you. Okay. So so the so the last yeah. I'm sorry.

Well, one question is it it does seem like if my understanding is correct, this did not go to RFP. Correct?

This actually did go to RFP last year, in this service, which is a a day center service. We had two operators, and we were able to successfully negotiate a contract with the with one of the operators. And then the second, application, they're in the in the first case in the case of the first contract, sorry, that was the winner of the RFP. And so they were awarded, the amount of funds to the extent that, you know, were reasonable to operate that particular program. We went to the second provider of the RFP, the provider that came in second place.

We had extended conversations and negotiations about how to make, the pro program work under the funding constraints that were the that were present. And in the end, that operator decided that it was not possible, and that's that's what prompted their notice, to the department to end on April 30. Because of that, situation, we did go back to, the the winning bid to see if that provider also wanted to operate a separate day center downtown. I'm speaking of Porchlight, and they operate

Oh, okay.

Day center, which is significantly off the square. And so we, felt it important to maintain a presence, in the downtown area. And, they came back and said they they were unable to make that happen. And so in that situation, purchasing regulations, we were in, what's called an open market, situation where we could, seek out any qualified and willing providers to provide the service under the constraints that we had and in the same vein as the RFP that we did offer. And so those are the conditions under which Catalyst for Change is gonna be assuming, this contract.

Thank you for that clarification. So there were two under the RFP, there were two contracts awarded, one with Portrait for Safe Haven and one with LSS for Office Square Club. And LSS, you couldn't come to an agreement with, and Porchlight said we can't do both places. Did I understand that right? Okay.

That's correct.

And it's allowed under the rules because you weren't able to get to that contract. This this does still involve a disruption in services, but probably would, I guess, shorten the time for disruption of services as opposed to going out to RFP again. Right?

It does. Catalyst for change is not able to begin their services until the contract is is signed. So mid to late May, is the timeline for that. And so with the LSS providing their notice, effective April 30, there will be a gap in services. All of the, folks who frequent off the Square Club, they were notified.

We worked with those individuals on transitions that they were interested in during those times, and they're aware that Catalyst for Change is, expected to come in and to resume those services and to notify folks of it. We're they're going to operate out of the same location in the basement of the Grace Episcopal Church. So, all of those you know, the environment will be consistent, and so folks will know where it is they need to go and about when when they'll need to attend or if they're if they want to.

Thank you. That was my you answered my last question, which was location. I recall it. I thought it was at St. John's, but maybe that was years ago, and it's since moved to Grace Episcopal when space freed up there. Okay. Well, thank you for that information. Are there other questions related to res three ninety nine? Well, I guess I I have one more. I envision I've never been physically present there, but the off the square club in my mind was well, it's I got the word club in it.

So I sort of have, like, a clubhouse sort of culture and a smaller sort of space that is attractive for the folks who use it because it's it's not like going to the beacon where there's so many people, and it can be very hectic or just you know, there's just a lot of people, a lot of noise, and uses going on all at once. Do I have that right? Is that is that what it is? And and do we think it it I'm not has Catalyst ever done anything like this before?

You're exactly right. It is a, a less stimulating environment than than the beacon is. And it, they also provide more, personalized intervention with individuals who are, struggling with mental illness. And and, a lot of folks do find that much more comforting and more comfortable. It is a more sort of collegial, atmosphere.

In Catalyst for Change, as director Schluter noted, they they've been a CCS provider for us for five years, and they've really, they've grown, they've blossomed, and they've carved out a niche in in serving folks who are struggling with, homelessness and, in are insecure in their housing. They they, go to a lot of lengths to work with individuals who are in that circumstance and struggling with a mental health issue. And so they they're very experienced in this in this population and have done an excellent job as a CCS provider. This will be a new environment, a drop in center, as with the Alpha Square Club, but it is a similar population to who they've been working with.

Thank you. Any other questions? Alright. Seeing none, is there a motion to recommend approval on resolution three ninety nine?

I move.

Moved by Abizi. Any discussion? Oh, I think this is I just say the important thing, and I'm you know, I appreciate the effort to minimize the disruption to participants. And great to continue to partner with Catalyst. So we'll be voting yes.

Any further discussion? Not seeing any. Is there any objection to unanimous approval? Seeing no objection, the motion carries unanimously. We'll move on to, I think, it's e four twenty twenty five resolution four zero eight, authorizing a purchase of service contract with sorry. I just reloaded my WizzHOPE for room and board expenses in behavioral health division again. Director Suter.

Thank you. Twenty twenty five resolution four zero eight, authorizing purchase of service contract with WizzHOPE for room and board expenses. This resolution authorizes the department to enter into contract with WizHOPE for the funding of room and board expenses. These expenses will be paid on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries who are in residential substance use disorder treatment at WizzHope and our Dane County residents. Medicaid is only able to fund the treatment portion of related expenses, which creates this vac this vacuum, this need for this type of contract.

This agency has two locations. The closest is in Broadhead, and it's called Woods Crossing. We have also previously used their other facility in Waukesha known as The Grove. I asked for an idea of how much we spent in this category in 2025, so that's not exactly what we'll see this in '26. But last year, we spent 997,000, in the room and board portion of this contract.

Great. Thank you. Are there any questions for doctor Schroeder? I am not seeing any questions. Is there a motion to recommend approval of resolution four zero

eight? Mhmm.

Moved by supervisor Glaser. Any discussion? Seeing none, is there any objection to unanimous approval? Seeing no objection, the motion is approved unanimously. And we are on to twenty twenty five resolution four twelve, which is accepting the opioid and stimulant unmet needs SOAR four funds from Wisconsin Department of Health Services, also in our behavioral health division. Amanda, do we have any registrants on this item?

No, chair.

Thank you. Director Schluter.

K.

Twenty twenty five resolution four twelve. This resolution adds a $142,000 in grant funds from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Depart DCDHS, Dane County Department of Human Services has received these state opioid response, SOAR, funds since the grant began in 2017. Dane County was ranked in 2037 as the second highest need county in the state for this grant. That ranking is based on data points such as the number of people receiving county substance use services, the number of hospitalizations, and the number of deaths related to substance use and other factors.

So again, in 2017, we were ranked number two. For this round of funding, because of the collective efforts of everybody over the years, Dane County now ranks number 20 on that list, so from two to 20. The funds from this grant will be used for peer support and recovery coaching services through a contract with safe communities and to help fund substance use treatment for Dane County residents.

Okay. Thank you. Other questions? I guess the the resolution is really short, and, the fiscal note as well, it says this is already budgeted. I wonder if we we you can tell us where it's budgeted, what it supports.

Todd, can you help me out with that?

Take that? Yeah. Yeah. We do have, in this budget line, in the adopted budget, we had 30,000, budgeted. The grant came in higher than that.

And so the the 142,000, that's being added in. And so, we do have already plans for use of this money. It was, included in the grant application that we submitted, to the state. And as director Schluter mentioned in his remarks, 90 a good portion of that, about 90,000 of that will be going to, safe communities. They have been receiving SOAR grant been part of this SOAR grant application for since about 2022 that helps us to to spend those spend those funds and provides a good service to the residents of of Dane County.

Most of the remaining funds will be used to pay for medications that are used by medic medication assisted treatment programs, that serve uninsured individuals. So it helps to provide those those medications, folks who have an alcohol use disorder or an opioid use disorder will benefit from this.

I'm sorry.

Not alcohol use disorder, just opioid use disorder for these funds.

Is this item then connected to the safe communities contract addendum that's later on in this agenda in that sense, or is that different?

It they are connected.

Yes. Okay.

I I was just like, are we gonna see something else? And then I'm like, oh, wait. I think it's right there.

Yeah. Yes.

Okay.

That's right.

And then the okay. And the other part is medication. Is that what you said?

Correct. That that's part of medication assisted treatment programs that that do serve uninsured individuals. Most of those

The county administers?

Yes. When those program so largely, it's it's WellPath working in the jail, and then, there is I'm sorry. We have another program that's escaping me at the moment. We're actually, it's Compass. It's UW's Compass program, that serves uninsured individuals as well as individuals who are supported by Medicaid.

Okay. Are there other questions? I'm not seeing any. Is there a motion to recommend approval of resolution four twelve?

So move.

Moved by supervisor Welsh. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing no hands, is there any objection to unanimous approval? Seeing no objection, the motion carries unanimously, and we'll move on to twenty twenty five resolution four sixteen accepting funds from the state of depart State Department of Children and Families to support child care administration in our Department of Human Services Economic Assistance and Work Services Division. And I know we have division administrator Sean Tessman, who we'll get to meet in a second.

Welcome, Sean. Director Schlitter, do you wanna introduce this item and then introduce Sean?

Mhmm.

Thanks.

Of course. So twenty twenty five resolution four sixteen. This resolution authorizes the contract and funding to support our childcare functions in EAWS, which is economic and work support. I'm sorry. This is an annual process that you're seeing for the first time due to new Dane County ordinances about funding sources.

This contract supports EAWS economic support staff who help people sign up for Wisconsin Shares, the DCF subsidized childcare program. This funding also supports our contract with four seas. Four seas is community coordinated childcare who do all our childcare resource referral and certification work. The pass through state and federal funding in this contract is $1,600,000. So the money that we're accepting, the pass through money, is the 1,600,000.

And Sean Tessman is our I'm sorry, our division administrator. Sean also used to serve as the director for human services. So is, somebody that we lean on quite a bit. For those of you that are new to the HHN, Sean runs the job center over on Aveburg Avenue, but does so much more. So I'm gonna pass it off to Sean to introduce herself.

Hello. Good evening. Thank you for the introduction. Yes. So you'll be seeing me as resolutions come forward related to what's called the capital consortia. So that's a primary function that I oversee. Capital consortia is a group of eight counties, including Dane County as the lead. And together, we administer all the eligibility functions for for Medicaid programs, food share programs, and child care programs. So, you'll see me for those related resolutions as well as the one that you have before you tonight. Nice to meet everybody and to make your acquaintance, and, certainly available for any questions that you have about the resolution before you right now.

Great. Thanks so much for being here. Does anyone have any questions?

I do.

Yes. Supervisor Abizi. So

thank you so much, Sean. I just wanted to understand, Is does this just go to staffing? Is that the main?

Yes. The vast, vast majority of this 1,600,000 goes to support salary and overhead for our frontline staff who are the people that take the phone calls and process the eligibility applications for the child care program that's known as Wisconsin chairs. This funding also does support a contract with four c's, Community Coordinated Child Care. And if you're familiar with that entity, they actually help people find child care in the community and they help promote the development of additional child care providers for Dane County. But aside from that contract, most of this money goes to support staff that are doing this work.

Okay. And is it okay You can. To let the committee know that I'm a beneficiary of this? I'm a purchase what's the word? Participants for Medicaid, but it won't affect my voting.

In the child care

No. Program? Okay. Never mind. No.

No. I think okay.

Yeah. No then. So my next question is so Dane County, so this group of staffs, they determine the eligibility. It more of I mean, I'm assuming based on guidelines that is provided by the states. Right? Okay.

That's that's correct. Yeah. There's federal and there's state regulations that govern the federal funding source that allows for the state contract with us. So there's federal regulations and state regulations and state law that articulates what income eligibility guidelines are, nonfinancial eligibility guidelines are, and it's our job to take applications and process those in a way that is in alignment with those policies and procedures. That's correct.

Alright. Thank you. No more questions.

You're welcome.

Thanks. Gina?

Do you have any idea of how much how many how what the benefits are that our community receives, you know, that our that our staff help process claims for? You know, look. So what this $1,600,000 investment, like, what the benefits of the community is? And I'm sorry for putting you on the spot if you don't have that.

I don't have that. I mean, the amount of the subsidies vary. I mean, we have about 1,200 people that are receiving this subsidy each and every month. And, you know, it really does enable these working families to hold down employment, go to school, get training, and everything else that they that they need to do to support themselves and and live a full life here. But in terms of, like, the value of those child care subsidies, I don't have that off the top of my head. I'm sorry. It's a lot.

Yeah. The 1,200 families is a lot. Mhmm.

I've got one question. The Wisconsin SHARE's program is like a entitlement program. Anybody who is eligible is able to get in and receive the benefit?

That's correct.

That's correct. And you said there's 1,200 participants in Dane County right now?

That's correct.

Do you have an I'm just curious if you have an assessment of if that 1,200 matches. Like, how that mat like, is there a lot more people that are eligible that don't participate? Do do you have a sense of that? Like, do you know, like, the eligibility population versus the participant sort of numbers?

I don't have those numbers sort of quantified, but I can tell you that the State Department of Children Families for many years has been doing a lot to try to drive up the number of people that are actually accessing this as a resource. So they've been trying to make the policies more friendly to people who are working families requiring less onerous levels of documentation for eligibility. For example, requiring less verification of child attendance, like on particular days as opposed to a child actually being enrolled in a different child care setting. So they worked really hard to try to basically promote this program. One of the biggest barriers that we hear about over and over and over again is just the lack of providers.

It is still, you know, for good and necessary reasons, somewhat of a barrier to make sure that somebody can actually be called a certified provider. Right? Health and safety requirements, background checks, making sure that it's gonna be a conducive and educational environment for the children in their care. But there has been a dramatic decrease statewide and fewer and fewer childcare, facilities being available. And, obviously, in order to qualify for the program, you actually have to have your child enrolled in at least a certified level of provider.

So they're also working a lot on the provider side too in terms of trying to promote things like, payment portals that make it easy to receive money and easing up on restrictions for, for getting that subsidized payment. So it's definitely an underutilized program, I would say. That's very fair to say, and it's true not only here but across the state, and something that's been an area of emphasis.

Thank you. Mhmm. Any other questions?

I do have one more. So, in terms of staffing, are there, like, shortage of staffing due to funds, Or is this so would this probably help to recruit more staff? Or

Yeah. So I presume your question is more about the provider side. Right? Not not necessarily the county staff that are doing the eligibility. Is that your is that the interest of your question?

County staff.

Oh, county staff. Yeah. Actually, you know, we're we've we do really well. I mean, Dane County employees are are, generally speaking, well compensated and well supported, and we have a great benefits package. And I we just I think, heard the analysis on this.

In my division, we have very low turnover. So I think we have less than 4% turnover in the last year. So, and that's due to a lot of things, that I'm that I'm proud of and that I have direct control over as well as a lot of things that I don't. But, we have, great staff and long tenured staff and, a lot of people that work child care cases that speak Spanish, for example, for Spanish speaking families, and Hmong staff, you know, to help with our Hmong speaking families. So we're not experiencing shortages in terms of that.

That's not a barrier for us at this point. You know, obviously, you know, consistent with the budget picture of the county overall, we're definitely facing some vacancies right now. But to this point, it it has not affected customer service or operations.

And and this money is going to fund existing staff, right, not to to add staff?

Correct. This is a federal funding source that gets passed through to the state and basically goes to support the bottom line of what we need for our salaries and our fringe for our existing staff.

So am I assuming this size are is already in the budgets?

It is already in the budget.

The budget. Yeah. Okay. Mhmm. Okay.

Boring. We built our budget with the assumption. Correct.

All right. Any other questions? Appreciate that background. It's good to hear about some programs that we don't hear about too often. We'll take that opportunity when we can. Alright. Is, not seeing any other hands. Is there a motion to recommend approval of resolution four sixteen? So moved. Moved by supervisor Obizi.

Any discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion, is there any objection to unanimous consent? Seeing no objection, motion carries unanimously. We are on to 2025 resolution four twenty three, approving Dane County municipalities to continue membership in the Dane County Urban County Consortium in the department's housing access and affordability division. And we have division administrator Casey Becker from with us as well. Do we have any registrants on this item, Amanda? No, Chair. Okay. Then Director Schroeder.

Thank you. Resolution four twenty three. So this resolution updates the cooperate the cooperative agreements Dean County has in place for 16 of our CDBG urban consortium communities. This action is necessary in order to ensure that all 59 cooperative agreements Dane County holds with its urban consortium communities, are all uniform across the board are all the same. The variation between agreements emerged over time due to a number of factors.

One example of the variances was that agreements that already were in place automatically renew on a three year cycle. Any new incoming HUD requirements are adopted via an amendment. If a community left the consortium several several years ago and then came back and rejoined, their agreement could look very different than a community that remained in the urban consortium the entire time. So this helps unify and make all of that consistent. So periodically, this adjustment will ensure that there's consistency, which is a best best practice, of course.

Anyone that's available

nope.

See. I'm sorry. I was taking notes, and I put it in the wrong line. So but I'm gonna introduce our division administrator for housing access and affordability, Casey Becker. So Casey is involved.

She over helps oversee programs that bring in a lot of housing and urban development money in the past few years. They've been able to work with the community and the board and the executive to build new low income housing. And, also, they help oversee people that are that the Casey's division helps oversee people that are housing insecure. So the tiny home communities, the different shelter, the new men's shelter, the investments that we have in those different those different places. That's within Casey's scope of responsibility.

So I'm gonna pass it over to Casey.

Hi, Casey. Thanks for being here.

Hi, everybody. I don't know that I have much more to say other than I'm excited to to meet our our new health and human needs members. Thanks for allowing me a little bit of time to introduce myself. As director Schluter said, the housing access and affordability division manages contracts and grants related to preventing and ending homelessness, increasing access to affordable housing and homeownership, and then we also have supports for economic development as well. We have three major sources of funding that we manage: our county general purpose revenue or tax revenue.

That's where the majority of our funding for housing and homeless services is invested. Over 80% of the almost $6,000,000 that Dane County invests in that area goes to support emergency overnight shelter and the Beacon Day Resource Center. We also have a really robust capital fund that we manage with dozens of projects all across the county. We have a great website that goes into detail about all of the projects that we've helped support, and we're gonna talk about, some projects related to that fund in a little bit here too, but those are county capital dollars. We have around a $100,000,000 that the county has invested in that area to, allow for the creation of new brick and mortar, multifamily rental housing, single family homes.

And, as director Schluter mentioned, it's also been helpful in supporting the development of tiny house villages and acquisition and rehab of existing affordable housing so that we can maintain, the affordable housing that we have, as well. And then finally, the funds that were mentioned, our community development block grant funds are in this particular resolution. We receive those dollars from the US housing and urban development department or HUD. And, Dane County is an urban consortium, entity, so we receive about $2,000,000 annually from HUD, for a number of different programs that get invested in our urban consortium communities, a number of them that you'll see in the resolution that's before you. We have, we recently achieved for the first time ever a 100% participation from the communities that are in our consortium.

The only community that is not is Madison, the City Of Madison, and that's because they receive their own community development block grant allocation that they manage and grant out to different nonprofits and entities in the City Of Madison. So Dane County's funds go to the communities outside of the City Of Madison, but in Dane County. Some examples of how those funds are put to work in Dane County are, mortgage reduction programs, could be a home I'm sorry, home rehabilitation. You know, for older adults, maybe they need to put in some accommodations like a grab bar or a ramp. We have some programs that can help with that.

It also goes to a lot of agencies, like UNITOS, to provide some of the supports in the community for survivors of domestic violence. There's transportation programs in Stoughton that get support from those dollars. So they really get put to work in a lot of different ways, throughout Dane County.

I think one of the impressive things that I found with housing the housing division, and I forget what the exact statistic is, but Dane County realizes more the investment in this group of people. They bring in federal dollars and more than any other county in Wisconsin. Dane County takes advantage of those federal dollars through matching dollars. And so the infrastructure that we've developed in Dane County, we've just been able to pull that lever more often and more frequently and build more affordable housing than many of the other communities in Wisconsin. So it's really something to be proud of, and it makes Dane County different.

Thank you. And it's definitely needed. I'm I think consistency is good, and I I'm glad that we're getting all these well, especially with 100% participation, which is also great, and getting everyone on the same contract. And, you know, one of the things that I think is really important is that when you're getting this federal money, there are a lot of the certifications that the county makes and that our member consortia need to agree to as part of this contract. And one of those things is affirmatively furthering fair housing.

And we have a lot of disparities in housing access and in homelessness across different protected classes under the Fair Housing Act. And it's really important that these obligations are taken very seriously. So as part of, like, the CDBG Home consolidated plan process required by HUD, there's a part called Completing an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing. And I was wondering I know we've had conversations in the past years about division capacity and, you know, where we're at with our analysis to impediments and in terms of, like, how deep of a dive we're doing or where we're at in that planning process because it's really important and is a whole undertaking. So I just was wondering about that as we look at you know, this on page six when it says, you know, part of what these counties these municipalities are agreeing to is to permanently further fair housing and not impede our efforts to comply with our fair housing certification.

And so understanding what our impediments are so that we can work with these municipalities to reduce and eliminate them are really important. So I was just wondering, Casey, if if you had a sense of what where we're at with analyzing those impediments.

So the that is our next project that we're turning to to to begin working on. Our, our five year consolidated plan was a was a significant lift, and that came before everyone, to the county board last year.

Right.

And that we wanted to, we saw that as kind of a a lead into updating the impediments, study. And then this project that you have before you updating all of our agreements was something that that became a little more urgent because we'd gotten some feedback from HUD and from our own our own corp council, that we that we needed to make sure that we completed this project and that we had all of our agreements updated. So now that those two major pieces have been executed, assuming that they pass the county board process, our next undertaking will be, beginning that work to update that piece, and it's likely that we will have to engage in some way with, possibly, with a consultant. I know that our staff, they've talked to other, consortium, recipients in other parts of the state who've recently gone through this process. And so we have a a game plan that we're building and how we're going to engage in the process and and and get that work started.

So it's something that's been on the list, and it's something that we also really wanna get started on, and we're in a position to take that on next.

Okay. Yeah. Great. Looking forward to hearing more about that. Any other questions?

I do have one question.

Supervisor Abisi.

Do I tried to look for the city of Sun Prairie. They're not on here. Is that could you explain why? Or if there's a reason, I don't know.

Yeah. Their agreement is one of our agreements that was recently updated. So they're already on the the most recent version of this agreement. They would have had that done, I think, maybe the they would have had that done maybe a couple of years ago during our last renewal period. So the list you see in the resolution, those are all of the communities that need to have the the new updated agreement.

Oh, okay. So those are new members or updated membership?

Yep. Some most existing members, but all of them need to have this version of the agreement on their books so that we can have everybody in on the same they I don't wanna say, that they weren't the agreement was the same. It's just that it was amended every year. Now we have everything spelled out in one place, in one document for all of the communities. So everything's in a consistent format as well. So these communities did not have this kind of format for their agreement, but they were following all of the the updates in rules and regulations that HUD has been passing over the years whenever we did our our renewal for our communities.

Okay. And, thank you. Also, in terms of just for my own understanding, when the funds come in from from HUD, how how is which what is the determining factor of which community that will go to or that goes to?

So it's based on, the amount of money that we get is based on how many communities are members of our consortium, which is based on how many residents in those communities would qualify for the services, how do we take a look at census data, and and things like that to see how many low to moderate income residents, live in these communities. So that's how we get our allocation amount. But then after that, we go through an annual request for proposals or RFP process that our CDBG staff in my division lead along with our community development block grant commission. And so we'll have a, an open process where agencies and nonprofits can apply for those funds. Municipalities are also eligible because we some of our money is sometimes used for infrastructure projects like libraries, food pantries, senior centers, things like that.

So we'll release, applications for all the different categories of funding that are eligible under the $2,000,000 that we get, and then those nonprofits and municipalities will apply. The, the community development block grant commission has a review process that they go through to come up with recommendations for, which agencies and projects should get funded. And then when they approve that, that list actually comes to the county board for your final approval. And so, the process for this for the twenty twenty seven funds, so for next year's funds, has just kicked off. So you all should be seeing those recommendations later on this summer.

And so it doesn't the amount of money doesn't break down, exactly for each of these communities. Like, a community doesn't get a set dollar amount because it goes through those, it largely goes through nonprofits that are applying for projects services that they wanna deliver. But the the key to being a member of our consortium is that if you are not, like, let's say, just as an example, the village of Oregon was not in our consortium, then an agency that's providing services that are funded with our community development block grant dollars can't serve the residents of Oregon with those dollars. So that's one of the ways that those communities benefit from being a part of our consortium is that their their residents can be eligible for the programs that those dollars fund.

Okay. Thank you, Forrest.

Thank you. Any other questions? Not seeing any. Is there a motion to recommend approval of resolution four twenty three?

So moved.

Moved by supervisor Obisi. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing no hands, is there any objection to unanimous approval? I see no objection. The motion carries unanimously, and we'll move on to twenty twenty five resolution four twenty four, approving agreements for an affordable housing project at 810 To 8 I'm sorry. 1810 To 1814 Greenway Cross in Fitchburg, also in our housing access and affordability division. Amanda, do we have any registrants on this item? No, chair. K. Then director Schuder.

Thank you.

So resolution four twenty four, this is one of the exciting projects that, Casey was talking about. This resolution authorizes one of several agreements awarded through the inaugural round of funding under the non low income housing tax credit, allied PHTC capital fund that was launched in 2025. Over $1,200,000 would be awarded to Sunnyside Development for the acquisition and rehabilitation of 16 of a 16 unit affordable housing project in Fitchburg. 10 of the units will be income and rent restricted to those earning less than 50% of the area median income. Two units will be set aside for referrals from the community by name list for households experiencing homelessness.

The number of the project has committed to permanent affordability, which is secured with a ninety nine year land use agreement. And, again, this is in case use division.

Great. Thank you for that. This is very exciting. Casey, I wondered if you wanna just, supplement with any sort of detail overall about this new funding stream and that you know, I when developing this initiative, I think we we were expecting you know, we weren't really sure what to expect because we knew that there was a need for different types of affordable housing projects other than just housing tax credit, but we weren't really sure what that was how that was gonna come in in the form of applications for these funds. So it's really exciting to to see that there were applications and and we're to the point of reviewing these contracts.

But just wonder if you can speak at all to that process of kinda developing the application and and what came in and what was awarded, what was maybe ineligible, that kinda thing.

Sure. So this is one of, I'd say, probably two two major funds for those capital dollars I referenced before that help support the development of affordable housing in Dane County. This, fund is new, and so this is the first round of projects that, are are getting awards from, from this fund. And I guess to to to give a little bit of background to distinguish it from our our main fund, we have an affordable housing development fund. The last several years, we've had quite a we've been, you know, really fortunate to have support from the county executive, county board, to have a lot of money that we can grant out through that fund.

We had $20,000,000 available. As as, chair Wegleitner mentioned, that fund often, pairs the county's dollars with low income housing tax credit projects that, are get those tax credits through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority or WIDA. So the money that the county is putting in to those projects is a a small slice of a really large stack of, various funding sources that an affordable housing developer is putting together to make that development real. And so this fund or I'm sorry. And so that fund is new development, new construction.

You'll see a lot of units, you know, forty, sixty, 80, sometimes over a 100 units, and the county contributes to to those becoming a reality with with our funds. This funding source, $8,000,000, was specifically for projects that do not use the low income housing tax credits. And the goal of this fund was to lots of different, lots of different targets. It was to, preserve housing, existing affordable housing. It could be projects that were low income housing tax credit projects that were reaching the end of that low income housing tax credit designation, and maybe the owners wanna reinvest in that property so that they can extend the affordability of the project.

We have one of those projects that applied this year. From Movin' Out was a low income housing tax credit, project that out that moving out is reinvesting in and using some of our money to reinvest in so that we can extend that affordability period that otherwise would have expired. We also have a project that came in that you'll see in the next round of resolutions that is a a smaller development of affordable housing in Waunakee. It's a new build. It's about 16 units, if I'm remembering correctly.

And then you have some of the you have projects like the ones that you see before you tonight that are, projects where to be able to realize, to be able to realize their goal of of maintaining their affordable housing. There's, some rehab that's going on in these projects that will, enable them to continue to provide affordable housing for the tenants that are gonna live there either through sustainability improvements or or things of that of that nature. So us being able to invest dollars in the preservation or the the rehab or the extension of affordability or even the new construction of smaller scale affordable housing projects that are not connected to this larger, more complex, low income housing tax credit system, really brought a lot of variety forward. And I think, I'm excited to see what the next round might look like. The the minute this round closed, we heard from a lot of folks who had said like, hey.

You know, I'm really looking for a fund that will help me, you know, acquire units or help me rehab the units I have. So I think there's, I think there's a lot more need out there, and, we're excited to to rerelease these funds this year and, and see what what new projects come in. But, I don't recall that there were any any projects that weren't eligible that came in, and it was it was a really interesting mix of of projects that we did get. So, I'll leave it there and see if folks have any questions. But that's the the two major funds and kind of how they how they complement each other.

Did, like, the was wondering. Did the Odyssey, like, student housing project apply?

Oh, that's right. They did. I don't recall the details on that one, so I don't wanna misspeak.

Okay.

But you're right. They did. And I don't recall if there was an eligibility. There was

a if I recall what I heard correctly, it's sort of a threshold eligibility.

Yeah. That might have been

I think. So but the the leftover funds then would go out to RFP be put out for RFP this year. Right? Because there's about 4,000,000 left in the allocation?

Correct. The the remainder of the funds for this fund and then also our funds for the affordable housing development fund for this year will go out later on this summer.

And and before those go out, you'll come to the committee to talk to us. Right? I think so. We you. Well, I'm inviting you, and I

It sounds like that's an invitation.

Part of something we count on. So Alright. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Supervisor Heuseman.

Yes. Thank you. So for this particular project, this is a rehabilitation of naturally occurring housing at this point? Yes. What happens with residents of those apartments while this rehabilitation is going on? Like, I guess, or is it you know, are they moving, or are they you know, what options do they have while this rehabilitation is going on in their apartment, or are they having to move and find tenants once they're done? Thank you.

That's a good question. I know we had invited, Sunnyside Development to attend tonight. I don't know if they ended up registering.

Oh, I do see we do have a representative. I'm sorry. I didn't know that they were on I'm here in person and not on the Zoom. But Paul Schechter from Sunnyside. I guess I would if there's no objection, invite Paul Schechter from Sunnyside to be promoted to answer questions as a committee. Is there any objection? Okay. Welcome, Paul. Thanks for being here. Did you hear supervisor Hussleman's question? Do you wanna introduce yourself and then entertain questions?

Sure. I can I'd be happy to answer that question. So this is primarily Oh, no. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. I you can repeat it if you'd like, but I I did hear it the first time.

Oh, I just wanted you to introduce yourself, Paul. Thank you.

My name is Paul Schecter. I'm the executive director of Sunnyside Sunnyside Development, and I'm opening my my full oh, sorry. New new laptop. And, yeah, I'm happy to answer questions. A affordable housing nonprofit.

Thank you. Supervisor Hueml Huezelman had asked about occupants, residents of the this particular building and Right. What the status is and if they're displaced or So

one big difference between LITECH and non LITECH projects is LITECH Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Tip because it has an outside investor who's very risk averse, they typically involve full gut rehabs of all the units. Whereas with projects like this, because we don't have a risk averse outside investor, we only need to do rehab where it's needed. And so we had a building inspection, and the building's actually in in wonderful shape. There was many offers on it, mainly from out of state investors who would have increased the rent significantly.

And so by purchasing it, we're able to it's an anti gentrification measure primarily. However, our mission is also environmental sustainability, so we're going to be doing a number of green rehab options, including solar, heat pumps, added insulation. That's most of that is in mechanical spaces or on the roof or outside. So there's very little actual rehab that will be happening inside the units. And so we don't anticipate any displacement.

The only, aspect inside the units is installing the indoor portions of the heat pumps, which will take, a few hours in a single day.

And under Wisconsin law, a new owner takes subject to existing rental agreements in place. So there can be continuity in terms of just because there's a new owner doesn't necessarily mean there's people are kicked out. They still have their rental agreement.

Right. We're not displacing anyone. In fact, there was we inherited a couple vacancies, and we have a homeless vet moving into one of them next week.

That's great. Thanks so much, Paul. Supervisor Huseman, did you have any follow-up? Or

No. I really appreciate that this project is happening and not displacing people that

It's a little hard to hear you. Can you speak up, I

said I really appreciate that this is happening in this area. It's definitely needed. With the renovations that you guys are doing, are you anticipating then utilities for these residents would be more affordable since it sounds like it'll be a little bit more energy efficient?

It will certainly be more energy efficient. We're hoping that the utility rates will won't go up, but there's unfortunately, natural gas is cheaper than electricity, but it has fossil fuels. So the transition to heat pumps might be a slight increase. It will depend on if we can offset that with increased insulation and air sealing. But, also, none of the residents are currently on energy assistance.

And those that are eligible, we plan on getting them on energy assistance. We're also hoping to install, EV chargers for every stall and offer that for free to residents who choose to, utilize it with an electric vehicle.

Thank you. Any other questions? Well, I also I I just want to recognize you, Paul, as a really a champion of, the county pursuing, different funding stream outside of just funding the LITECH projects and looking at other models of providing affordable housing. So I know it's been a long haul and a lot of advocacy, but it's great to have you here tonight and these projects coming through. So thanks for all your work to to get here.

My pleasure. And and thank you for being an advocate as well.

Is I just had one quick question. Mhmm.

Yes. Supervisor Dancellor.

Not for Paul or anything. Just about, like, procedurally voting on this topic. Is there any conflict of interest given I serve on the common council and kinda already knew about this project, or or is that fine?

Well, so this is an agreement for funding, county funding. Don't I'm not your lawyer, but I don't perceive a conflict because it guess one question is it's seeking city approvals right now or something like that? Or no. I think that the decisions the city makes are different than the decision the county makes, you know, because the county usually with these projects, we're talking about funding and not, like, land use. Right? And so I think they're kinda different questions that can be different answered in the relevant bodies, if that makes sense.

Works to me. Just trying to be transparent. And if anybody had an issue with it, just wanted to put it out there. But if there is none, that's fine.

Yeah. I appreciate that disclosure, supervisor Dansler. And as you probably remember from our first organizational meeting, we added disclosures and abstentions, or I forget what we call them, recusals or disqualifications or something to our county board agenda. We have not yet passed an amendment to add it to our committee agendas, but I think we probably should because we obviously talk about a lot of things here too just for consistency. But but that doesn't prohibit anyone from making a disclosure regardless just because it's not on our agenda.

And and if you wanna explain something and give your colleagues a chance to express concern, I think, that would be in order. So thank you for your transparency. Any other questions? If not We do have one. It for Paul?

It's for Paul.

Okay. Go ahead.

Thank you so much, Paul. So once this is all done and it comes to fruition, how would would are there, like, wait lists of people trying to get into those housing yet, or is it more of or is it do do you then source residents and be like, hey. There's this place available. Come live here. Is that how that works?

Well, we have Brohan Management and Consulting, longtime property manager in Dane County that is doing filling vacancies. And we have an affirmative marketing plan that advertises them in areas that eligible families may reside. We had a vacancy recently for quite an unaffordable rate for a two bedroom, and we had a a family that had, I believe, a combined salary of around $35,000 apply and was accepted recently. So that that's how it it's done. Hopefully, that answered your question.

There's there's a ton of interest, and it's not hard to find eligible families.

Okay. And, hopefully, in the future, it will be hard to find eligible families. Right?

I agree. Mhmm.

Optimistic outlook there. I guess I have a question. I have and I'm not sure there's much we can do about this at this point. And I regret that it's just being observed by me now. But the contract the full contract was not attached to the legislative file.

It's just a cover page in this item. And so I I'm inclined to I I think that we are we should probably postpone it to our next meeting, which is May 21, I think. Is that right? Yes.

Two seconds, I'll triple check.

And I just

Twenty seventh.

What? Twenty seventh. Wednesday, May 27.

That's when we're meeting next. Okay. That's weird. And then we get back to the board in June. So I I don't know if that's did you we do have an executed contract. Correct? Yes. Okay. And I don't feel like I have a lot of discretion here. I was searching for the code provision, but we definitely have had a practice always in this committee of not moving forward these contracts without having them attached and noticed in the registrar's system.

So I apologize that I'm I I would be asking the committee to postpone this, which would delay by a couple weeks when it would potentially get final approval from the board, which I'm expecting. But I just wanna do you see any major crisis emerging because of that, Paul?

Well, it would we have contractors who are ready to begin construction in early June. So it would delay that. But It

is what it is. I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah. I don't know why. It's just the cover page. I think all the other contracts are attached in our other resolutions for this, but this one, for some reason, is not.

Is it I I do see the signature there. Are you sure it's just the cover page?

That's what's in the register. Is anybody is everyone seeing the same thing I am?

I am, but I'm also not sure why it's just the cover page either.

I looking on the back. Yeah. In the agenda, it's attached. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong one. No. No.

If you open it, it says cover sheet. Yeah.

Maybe I clicked on the wrong.

Mhmm. I'll put

I scrolled down

for a second. In the chat to what

I'm seeing.

You're right.

Okay. Are there any other questions for Paul?

So in terms of postponing, what is the what is in the contract that is that will make it a a break or, you know, like, that'll make it a big deal?

Or, like,

what what do you look for in a contract?

Is there I mean, typically I mean, there's a lot of boilerplate stuff that's the same in all these contracts, but there are different provisions related to tenant protections and tenant screening and sort of what the kind of rights and responsibilities are and commitments may be related to services that are in in schedules that are attached to the boilerplate contracts. And you you'll you'll see some of that in those other contracts. And so I'm just So given our practice and given the way the county board has moved in the direction of really making sure that our standing committees have all the information they need at the time they vote, I just don't feel like comfortable. As much as I love No.

That's absolutely

right. I just it's it is what it is.

No. Absolutely. And I think in in law, I'm assuming without a contract, they can run. They can do whatever. Right? And there's nothing bound.

Well, this contract is not binding. It's all contingent on approval from the county board. Yes. So it you know, I appreciate that Paul's got contractors ready. But, like, you know, until it's final and and approved by the board and and not vetoed or anything like that, then then it it's not binding on the county and that money doesn't flow. So supervisor Huzamin?

Yeah. I was just gonna add that's also a transparency with the public and those that are affected by these contracts so that way they can see everything and have an opportunity to come and ask questions themselves of our committee or developers or whoever being a big point of why we I I believe we've had a resolution that made it so that they had to be attached. Correct? I'm trying to remember the last two terms because I think we had it so that way they were now requiring that these contracts be a part of our agenda for public transparency.

Right. I I am pretty sure that's required in standing committees as well. I I was searching for it in chapter seven, but I am not finding it. Certainly, is true for the county board. And I think there's like a three day advance notice requirement, but it has always also been the practice of this committee, even before it was any ordinance requirement.

Thank you so much. And yeah, I do agree with Coster Bonheit.

Are any other questions for Paul? Okay. Thanks for being here, Paul. Apologize for the oversight. Any other questions for staff? And is there then a motion to postpone to the committee's next meeting? Moved by Supervisor Jackson. Any discussion? Is there any objection to the motion? No objection that resolution four twenty four is postponed. Okay. On to twenty twenty five. I guess, I think both these are in here. Right?

Yeah.

They are good, right? I I would suggest then that we talk about these together and entertain a motion to to approve both of them. But I just wonder if staff have any other specifics or if we have any other registrants on these items. What's that? No registrants. Okay. And I I don't know. Is Paul still on? Paul, Sunnyside, I feel like might be involved in one or one or both of these two. Is that right or no?

Sunnyside is involved in one other one, the Zapata Cooperative.

Is that the Jennifer Street one?

Nope. I'm involved in Jennifer, but that's not

Would you like to offer any additional information to the commit? We have 722 Moreland Road and 911 Jennifer Street that we are gonna discuss. And if I just wanna give you the chance to address either of those and answer any questions about those if you want to. Okay. And if the committee is okay with that. Any objection from the committee? Okay.

Sure. Both of these are housing cooperatives, which is a unique form of affordable housing. And both of them are projects that are almost finished but had a small gap near the the end of

the project.

Zapata, a brief summary, was a I'll call it a McMansion. It was a oversized building, single family home with a six car garage. And we with funding from the city of Madison and other sources, converted it at the request of a brother and sister from Mexico who lived in the in a coop in Madison and didn't see any representation from their culture in in those co ops. And they it was their idea to do this project, and we joined with them. And today, it houses about 14 people.

So it's it's much better utilized. The primary language spoken is Spanish, and it's especially with ice and whatnot, I in the making headlines, it's a sanctuary for for many people, and it's a community, and it's very affordable. Rents are $460 per month, including all utilities. And the the other project on Jennifer Street is a little bit bigger. It is quite a drawn out project.

It's been going on for five years, and that's because there were a variety of different sources, and they all had different requirements. And it was challenging to have all those requirements, marry up together nicely. But it is now almost finished, and we're having to replace one of the sources, the historic tax credit, with the county funding, hopefully, if this passes. And that project will create three units for Briarpatch youth, three units for that are fully ADA, and it's close to net zero, and it's just an inspiring nice project on the Near East Side Of Madison.

Well, that is great to hear. These are really exciting projects. And it does anyone have any questions, Paul, about projects? Alright. Well, thanks again. These ones seem to have all the required contract pages attached to LedgerStar, which is a relief.

Oh, they do.

They these these ones do. It was just that earlier one that don't didn't.

Okay. So

Okay. Yeah. Which is just weird. Are there any other questions from the community of staff? Staff, did you wanna get Casey or John, did you wanna give any other background on these? Or

Resolution four twenty six, that is it would approve $88,000 as as we've been talking about to support cooperative housing for the rehab of the 12 unit the 12 units that we were talking about. It's also permanent affordability secured with a ninety nine year land use restriction agreement.

Mhmm.

And resolution four twenty seven, the funds are supported. The funds support the rehab of the 15 units that we were just talking about. 12 of the units are affordable for households earning 50% of the area median income or less, and three of the units are specifically targeted to households experiencing homelessness. This project is also committed has a commitment to permanent affordability with secured ninety nine year land use restriction restriction agreement as well.

I have a question related, I think, for Casey related to the LURA and the affordability, restrictions. So, like, how does that is there, a particular definition? Like, when looking at affordability in a more SRO or co op model, is that is there a a schedule for that? Like, I mean, it strikes me that 460 a month for rent is, you know, much lower than what we would think of as the rent rate for a 60% unit. But also sorry.

But also, we are all talking about a different living environment as well. Or, you know, it's more of a shared space. So I just wasn't sure. And maybe, Paul, I don't know if either of you can answer that question. But I think, like, in the context of WIDA, everything is very, like, cookie cutter, and we're talking about, you know, I don't know, efficiency or one bedroom or two bedroom. But in in a in a coop situation, I wonder how that's, like, measured or I'd happy to it. Purpose of our at it. Okay. Go ahead.

So, officially, SRO max rents are 75% of the efficiency max rent.

Okay.

So it's kind of one level lower. But those are maximums. They're not minimums.

Right.

So you don't and in Dane County, those maximums can be oppressive.

I'm just not used to people not charging the maximum.

Well, it's it's a co op. So that's the the elegance of co ops is they're they're owned by their members, so they would only charge what what is required to pay the mortgage and the light bill and everything else. And currently, that number is $4.60. It will increase, I'm sure, as inflation goes up, but there's no landlord extracting profits or anything like that. That's one reason why I personally like co ops and why it's been a durable model in Madison for about a hundred years, and all of the rents in the co ops are very cheap.

This is fantastic. I I feel like the county has tried to, you know, for 14 years, look at supporting co ops, but I think this is the first time we're actually successfully, hopefully, doing it. So, thank you for that. And and I appreciate the answer to the question. Any other questions? Alright. If not, is there a motion then to recommend approval of res four twenty six and res four twenty seven?

So move.

Moved by supervisor Obisi. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing no hands. Any objection to unanimous approval? Seeing no objection.

The resolutions pass unanimously and are recommended to the county board. Thank Now, we have before us twenty twenty five resolution three thirty four authorizing new harm reduction specialist positions for public health Madison Dane County substance use prevention and harm reduction unit supper. Suffer? Supper? This item has not been to this committee before.

It was at the county board, and there were some concerns expressed there by supervisor Rose, and we had some discussion with division director Arielle Smith, who I see from public health, who is on the call, as well as director Department Director Janelle Heinrich. Thank you both for being here. I'm not going to ask our Department of Human Services to speak to this because this is outside their department. But I also am, like, a little bit surprised to see this on the agenda because I I was. Anyway, when we checked in and met last week, it it was not on there, and I, missed it being added.

So I will say that I'm I appreciate that, our public health, leadership is on this call, and I wanna provide them the opportunity to provide any updates related to this resolution. And and I think that issues that had surfaced since the time this idea had first been initiated in the summer of twenty twenty four, I think, to where we are now and some of the city attorney's legal guidance to the public health department that has seemed to have limited the scope of service and utilization of these services, unfortunately. So anyway, I'm unsure how I feel about taking action on this item tonight. But because director Heinrich and director Smith have been waiting so patiently and are here, I want to make sure to get the most up to date information from their perspective related to this resolution and the the funding allocation that the county board has made and has sort of been in process in various forms of authorization for over a year, I think, or many, many months. So Janelle or Ariel, do you are you able to speak to this?

Hi. Good evening, everyone. Janelle Heinrich. I'm the director of public health medicine, Dane County. For those of you who are new, as supervisor said, we are not generally here in front of you as a health and human needs committee.

We report to the board of health as the dual only merged organization between the city and the county, and then from there back into, generally, the county board, excuse me, and the common council. So I guess maybe, supervisor, it might be helpful if I just spoke to the history a little bit with more detail to provide context of why we are where we are. So as you mentioned, I think it was fall of twenty twenty four when there was a resolution passed by the county board to create three positions within the health department to work in our on our super is the what you were referring to. The substance use prevention. Yes.

Super. We're we're fun with our acronyms. Excuse me. Substance use prevention and harm reduction team. That's where, the unit in which our syringe services or harm reduction efforts, fall in addition to, alcohol, work related to alcohol, misuse and policy related to alcohol, THC, and other substances as well.

Excuse me. And we so we, at the time, were not very resourced to provide services out of both of our East Washington and South Madison office locations. And so the request in conversations with supervisor Rose and other members of the opioid subcommittee and were a desire to invest some of the Dane County settlement dollars into programming. And so at the time, there was a resolution that created these three positions. As you mentioned in the last over the course of the last eighteen months and in the last couple months in particular, we've we we do seek and receive legal counsel from both the city of Madison as one of our governing entities as well as the Dane County board, our Dane County council.

And on this topic, the guidance falls to the responsibility of the city of Madison. So we were reviewing some of the supplies that we offered within that program, and it was determined that we needed to make a pause and have some additional legal review about the ability to continue to offer that, which has result resulted in a reduction in, the amount of clients that we're seeing and the supplies and, that we're able to provide to individuals in the community. So that is where I think the conversation landed. I, unfortunately, was not able to be at the county board meeting that it, I believe is what ended up referring this to this body. But, director Smith, division director Smith, was there, and I know was speaking with you about, kind of some of the programmatic changes and where that led to, perhaps not needing the same capacity with for these positions as we, thought that we did when that resolution was initially created in the fall of twenty twenty four.

So I think, Ariel, is there anything I missed that you'd like me to add? I think that kind of is a rapid fire summary of the last eighteen months leading to us being in front of you tonight.

Yes. Thank you for that additional detail. And the reason I found it appropriate, I think the county board agreed to refer it here is because of the Health and Human Needs Committee's role in creating a subcommittee to provide recommendations related to the opioid settlement funds use. And and a subcommittee that I've been serving on and Director Smith's been serving on as well. And there's been some twists and turns in terms of, like, the the way we're moving forward with the funds in terms of, you know, right, there's a opioid settlement coordinator that is was added in the budget and and I think hopefully hired or about to be hired or something like that.

And we've had a lot of discussions and are evaluating a proposal for a needs assessment to inform the allocations for the opioid settlement funds. So it felt also like given this legal counsel and sort of the maybe reduction in utilization, Do we still is this still the right amount of money for this service given where we're at in the process? So I I guess I still have some questions about that, and I I don't know that we got that it's we have real clear direction about that at this point. I guess one thing that might be helpful to know is, like, what are the hours for harm reduction services, like, you know, needle exchange and the the type of services that public health has been providing at its clinics? What are the hours right now?

And what what services, maybe a little more specifically and particularly towards opioid use, are being provided and and kinda, like, what's what do you think the the need is staffing wise to given where you're at right now with services? Does that can you answer that?

Yeah. I'll let Arielle jump in as the director that oversees this area of of work more intimately. Thanks.

Yeah. So I think I think I captured all of your questions, so let me know if I missed one. But, right now, our syringe services program, which is our harm reduction direct service program line, operates out of our East Washington office, and our Atrium office, both starting at 8AM to 4PM. Originally, when we started this resolution, we were seeing higher instances of client volume and had done, I believe at that point, around four point in time surveys that were indicating people expressing need due to other services around access to clean supplies, reducing hours of operation in the area. So coming to our locations and asking or expressing their need being outside of the 8AM to 4PM structure.

Currently, in the program, we have 1.5 FTE to operate our two locations.

And so So it's eight to four Monday through Friday?

Yes. Eight to four Monday through Friday currently at both locations. So we have two separate locations.

How is one person in two spots at the same time?

This is our problem.

So we have one

this is our problem. We have one one point o that staffs our East Washington office, and that's, like, that's their permanent that's their forty hours a week. The point five that we have also right now is covering the forty hours a week at our Atrium office, but really is supposed to be a position that is engaging in creation of our navigation services that we have not been able to kind of pay full attention to and support clients in the way in which they have been asking and desiring to be better connected to, other resources in the community, whether treatment or otherwise, whether that's housing or other types of support. And so to be frank, we're kind of robbing Peter of, hey, Paul. That one point o or that 1.5 FTE is not enough to fill what essentially is a bare minimum need for two point o FTE.

And I'm sure as we all know in the room, that doesn't include time off. That doesn't include when somebody is sick. It leaves us with a significant gap. Oftentimes, we are either having to pull staff from other areas in order to not disappoint clients who were really counting on our services being open that day, or we have also had times, unfortunately, where we have just had to close a location because we don't have enough staff, to cover it. And so with that, we had asked for the three point o FTE positions originally to, one, give us actual sustainable staffing for the two locations that we operate and for consideration of expanded service hours.

That being said, I think one of your other questions you had is what is the kind of change in client volume that we're starting to see due to what Janelle referenced as a pause as a legal review is happening regarding the supplies that we offer, and we have seen a significant decrease in client volume. One of our locations was averaging on day seeing anywhere from 60 to 70 people a day, and now that's averaged to 20. So it's really hard for me to say at this particular point in time if we really do need that three point o FTE because if I'm going off of just today, the answer would be no. But, you know, knowing that the city attorneys are doing a little bit more review and examining kind of what the policy implications of that are, it's hard for me to predict what the future will will hold for us. What I can say is that our staff have done an incredible job with this program and supporting clients within the program, in a way that it has really become one of the primary we've become one of the primary service providers in this area.

And so upon exploration with some other partners, who do offer the service, we have come to find that it's really more ancillary, and more ad hoc. And even when it is offered, it's definitely more within the vein of a singular purpose around preventing communicable disease. And while that is meeting some of the needs of the clients, that we see, we have gotten some pretty strong feedback that it's not maybe meeting their holistic needs. And so we do have some, you know, potential staffing implications if we don't figure out our model and structure. Unfortunately, maybe needing to reduce the capacity even further than it is right now for our service delivery.

It does sound like there's quite a bit to kinda be reviewed and figured out. On the one hand, I feel like there's still people using important lifesaving harm reduction services through public health, and there are not enough people currently working those hours, right? 1.5 in two different spots. But also, seems like the examination of the structure is a little broader than that as well. And so making a change without knowing what that additional organizational change might be might not make a lot of sense either.

What what do you think your timeline would be like? I I'm I'm trying to think. I I feel as though we probably should be postponing this item to a future date. I'm just trying to maybe get some feedback on when would be a good time for us to know if if we're if there's a substitute that makes sense that includes increasing staffing but not three FTEs or, you know, some increase in staffing, but maybe one of the three FTEs is the position looks a little bit different or is a little I don't know. But that's that's kind of what I'm wondering, like, how much time do you think your review process will take?

And, I mean, does it make sense for us to put this back on on May 27, or we could certainly and and, like, obviously, there's other considerations related to the opioid settlement subcommittee and and whether, you know, a needs assessment is gonna inform other, you know, additional recommendations. So I'm I'm thinking maybe June might be more appropriate. I don't wanna push it out too far, either so we lose track because this is really is important. But what do you think?

Yeah. I think that I definitely think maybe a few months. I think coming back in June, even maybe early July would be helpful. We just removed the supply a few weeks ago. And so based on our trends and patterns, I'm not totally comfortable making a determination on staffing needs based on client volume without more than a few weeks of data.

Ideally, I would love to at least hit the six week threshold, and I believe we're in week three, four. We might be in week no. Three. We're week three. So that would be my ideal, and then I think I could probably speak to this a lot better of kind of what we're seeing from a more stabilized client volume perspective.

And I would like to see and maybe hear a little bit more around where our department is going to intersect and be most helpful with the settlement coordinator, especially in regards to a needs assessment. One of the things that is very important to is making sure that as a part of that needs assessment, we're doing a complete harm reduction systems assessment. I know that director, division administrator Todd Campbell and I have talked about this quite a bit around the service provider aspect. And while they do an incredible job managing service providers within their contracting arena who may provide SSP services or syringe service programs, We don't know about the total landscape for anybody that the county is not funding. And so we'd like to get a better handle on that data and really see how that can help inform and influence both how we structure the needs assessment as well as, any potential kind of already in the move funding decisions like this one regarding need and scope with the harm reduction services specific to SSP.

So I think that would probably be my preference.

Okay. I I see that we are currently scheduled to meet July 9, which is about two months away. I which feels like a decent date certain that would provide more time, but but also be in advance of the budget process. And also give, I think, the Opioid Settlement Subcommittee a time to reconstitute and also think about this and how it fits into recommendations that they're preparing and things like that, we are preparing. So does that seem reasonable to you, Director Smith? Yeah?

Yes.

Okay. Does anyone else have any questions for?

I do have one question.

Go ahead, supervisor Obizi.

So in terms of the funding, so the two this funding, is it just for county, or is it between county and city? Or are their responsibilities from the city?

Yep. Good question. The way the resolution is written currently, it is just funding coming from the county to support these positions.

And what would the city If I could

jump in supervisor, because this is funding from the opioid settlement and only the county received those funds. The city of Madison did not. So, though we are jointly funded by both the city and the county, our intergovernmental intergovernmental agreement or IGA also indicates that each unit of government can, fund things independent and fully from the other should they want to, whether that's from levy or other funding sources such as this. So there is no paired funding because of the nature in which this came through the county only on for this particular topic or these positions in particular.

Thank you. And is this a onetime or is this a permanent position?

They would be considered project positions. Project positions. Yep. So contingent upon funding.

Okay.

Good questions. And, you know, I've been on the board since 2012, and I'm still trying to unravel the mystery around our joint, city county public health department. And I'm hopeful. I think I've talked with Arielle about this, but maybe at some point we would have a committee of the whole meeting or some sort of special orientation to demystify the how it works because of the intergovernmental agreement. It it operates differently than every other county department because of that.

And and it's actually, like Director Heinrich is the oversight there is the Board of Health, not other departments. So anyway, are you open to that, Janelle, coming to talk to the board sometime? We're always Yeah.

Absolutely, supervisor. We've we've had different orientations to the department with different, at different times, so happy to do so.

Okay. Thank you. It's been, like

I don't

know. The intergovernmental agreement's, like, from 2007 or it's it's, like, couple decades, you know, old. And and, anyway, there is can be very confusing. And

Does he have a I'm sure it's not forever, so it comes back.

Well, we I mean, it has. Anyway. That that's, I think, one of the questions is if there's maybe some

Okay.

Clarity that could be achieved

with that.

Okay. Well, thank you. I'm not seeing any other hands. Really appreciate your you being here and providing this additional information to us. With that, would there be a motion to postpone this item to our 07/09/2026 meeting? So moved. Moved by supervisor Welsh. Any discussion? And is there any objection to postponement of res three thirty four? Seeing none.

Motion carries unanimously. Alright. We are getting there, you all. We have two contract addendums before us, and I know director Schuder can help us get through these. The first one is 2026 human services contract, addendum zero zero one, consolidation of emergency overflow shelter funds. Amanda, do we have any registrants on this item?

No, chair. Okay.

Director Schluter.

Right. ISCA, double o, one, human services contract addendum. This, ISCA consolidates two funding streams to support emergency shelter voucher programs administered by Arbor ENT, doing business in our community as as EQUIS. EQUIS is q u u s. The vouchers provided provide hotel shelter for unhoused individuals who need shelter during, inclement weather events such as extreme heat, thunderstorms, tornadoes, or cold.

The funds will be added into an existing contract with Equus to provide overflow hotel shelter for families with children when the shelter is full for the families.

Thank you. Are there any questions? Is there a motion to recommend approval by supervisor Jackson? Any discussion? Seeing none, is there any objection to unanimous, approval of the motion? Seeing no objection, motion carries unanimously and onto 26 HYSCA zero zero two addendum to safe communities contract.

So, VISTA, double o, two. This is an addendum to the department's contract within safe communities that adds 90,000 revenue from the state's opioid grant response for grant. These funds will support a portion of the peer recovery coaches employed by safe communities. Through lived experience, shared understanding, respect, and mutual empowerment, the peer recovery coaches at at safe communities help people become and stay engaged in the recovery process and reduce the likelihood of relapse and overdose. Thank

you. Are there any I didn't ask for registrations, but I'm assuming there's no registrants. Okay. Sorry. Is there any are there any questions for director Schueter? Not seeing any. Is there a motion to recommend approval or approve, I think, with these? Because they're financed too. But right? Yeah. But it doesn't come to the board.

Probably the wrong person to ask.

To approve is there a motion? Supervisor Welsh moves. Any discussion? Being none, any objection to approval? Seeing no objection.

Motion carries unanimously. We are now on to g one. This is a bid waiver that's being presented for information purposes because we get sort of a courtesy presentation of bid waivers in case we want to, I don't know, provide any input to the finance committee who has the authority under the ordinance to approve them. I am employed by Legal Action Wisconsin, which is the legal services provider entity under this. And I am not going to participate in discussion even though we don't I don't think we're gonna take action on this item.

I'm gonna hand over the chair to to supervisor Walsh, vice chair for item g one. Didn't think I'd Sorry. I should have given you a heads up. It's an easy one. We don't have to take any motions.

Okay. 2026. Wait. Nope. Yep. 2026. Mhmm. Presentation 004. Bid waiver. Not gonna read the number there.

GWAR, GUAR, legal service provider admin, 97.

Turn over to you. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. And then I'm gonna also, at the end, if it's okay, introduce our division administrator for this, Angela Velasquez.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Dane Dane County so the presentation, double o, four. Dane County is contracting with the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, GUAR, to administer older Americans Act funded legal advocacy services for older adults in Dane County through original legal services contract awarded to legal action of Wisconsin. This purchase supports legal services associated with the county's elder benefit specialist programs program and allows the county to participate in coordinated multi county service model for the 71 Wisconsin counties outside of Milwaukee. So Angela Velasquez can provide additional context about Angela runs the ADRC, the aging disability resource center. And it's just another tremendous program, and Angela is another fantastic leader.

I do wanna say that about you're not you're meeting you're meeting just a handful of the division administrators in human services. Stepping back, we have 850 staff. We oversee approximately 45% approximately 45% of the levy in Dane County comes to human services, and we oversee we have 400 contracted vendors that we work with. And so a lot of what we do is contract management, but the services that we provide in Dane really reach every single corner and helps many, many people. So we've kind of been hearing that throughout the night, but I did wanna highlight that you're not gonna hear from all of our fantastic leaders.

Right now, I'll let Angela introduce herself and tell you a little bit more a little bit more about what she does.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for your, sticking with it, for this length of time. This one has been a a real humdinger of a you know? My name is Angela Velasquez, and I am the division administrator for the disability and aging services division. That includes children with disability services, adult protective services, the Aging and Disability Resource Center, and the Area Agency on Aging. I've been with Dane County since about 02/2013, but been the division administrator since 2022.

I've worked three counties in Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania, North Of Philadelphia, and then Cleveland, Ohio, and now the great state of Wisconsin for the past, cannot believe, gonna be thirteen years. So having said that, the bid waiver before you this evening, the bulk of bid waivers were presented by Michelle Dickinson, I believe in April to this committee for your information and consideration. This one came in later simply because the mechanics of how the program would work were not clearly defined between the two entities with whom we would want to contract. Prior to 2026, the federal Older Americans Act, which is the funding stream for legal services for older adults, would directly provide the money from the federal government to the state. The state would match some of those funds and they would enter directly into a contract between the state and GAR, the Greater Wisconsin Area Agency on Aging.

GAR is one of three area agencies on aging in the state. Dane is the other, and Milwaukee has their own as well. The federal guidelines changed at the end of twenty twenty five and informed the state of Wisconsin that they could no longer enter into a direct relationship with GAR as the sole provider without the other area agencies on aging having access to their funds and making that determination as well. So this is the first year in which we have decided because the amount of dollars, what these funds do is we have three elder benefit specialists that work in our area agency on aging, very senior, highly trained individuals that work with people over age 60 who are having disputes or disagreements with their benefit programs. Could be Social Security, could be Social Security disability, Could be their health care system.

Could be that they're facing eviction. Anything that would negatively financially impact an older adult can be served through those elder benefit specialists. They work with them to the degree at which they're trained. However, often not often, but in many cases, there will be legal action that needs to occur and therefore needs the services of an attorney. Previously, again, the state gave the dollars to Guar to hire their own attorneys and manage that for the rest of the state.

Now they've divvied up the money to Milwaukee, to Guar, and to Dane to make that determination for themselves in terms of who will provide legal services. I need to stress the amount of money that we're talking about that we get to hire attorneys that may need to represent more than a 120,000 older adults here in Dane County is a whopping $19,564. So you can imagine how much legal services that would purchase for Dane County. So in order to stretch those dollars, 71 of the counties came together, Guards, 70 counties and ourselves, to issue, and GWAR issued an RFP, a request for proposal for the provision of legal services when they are needed for older adults to resolve these disputes. We're pleased to say that the RFP went out, the request for proposals went out, it was reviewed, it was scored, and the procurement that was decided was to do to award the contract from Guar on behalf of the 70 counties 71 counties to legal action of Wisconsin.

What our dollars do are what we are proposing is that we have a bid waiver because this is a unique buying, opportunity that we would not otherwise have by simply putting out $19,000 to hire an attorney to represent all of our people. So it provides a unique buying opportunity amongst 71 counties in order to obtain the legal services that we need to support the elder benefit specials program here in Dane County. The reason it is a bid waiver is because it is a unique buying opportunity. Over the course of the five year contract, the $19,564 equals a total of 90 some thousand that is on the bid waiver that is in front of you. That contract would be renewed each year based on the satisfaction of the arrangement and the services provided.

Those dollars go to GAR, in order to administer the program for us. And quite frankly, I don't know how they're gonna do it, but we and the aging community across Wisconsin work together to try and solve the problems and provide the greatest number and amount of services that we possibly can. So that is the purpose of this bid waiver that will then go before public personnel and finance and for approval at that level and then be able to enter into that contract with GAR and the other 70 counties. Any questions regarding the purpose or the intent?

Thank you for that overview. Any questions?

So, thank you so much, Angela. My quest so the $97,008.20. I'm just trying to understand how what that money is for. And then I I mean, I I understand the 19,500. Right? So plus, is also 19,500. Is so so how do we what is 97? Like, could you ex reexplain that?

When when the request for proposals went out, and we typically do this as well in Dane County, we award the the the the bid. The the winning bid is generally awarded a five year opportunity contract. So that $19,564 is five years worth of buying this service. That's how you get to the 90 some thousand. But we we renew the contract and only pay Guar $19,564 each year based on performance in terms of the services we're receiving as part of this group agreement with the other 71 counties to provide the legal services.

Is that helpful?

Yes. Thank you. That was thank you for that simple math. And, so that money is given to Guaya, which then where does the legal Wisconsin come in?

They have the contract, the direct contract to serve all 71 counties to include Dane County with legal services through legal action for any of our older adults that require representation by an attorney to resolve their legal issue.

Oh, okay. So so that fund would so would be enough for them, or it's just that they charge for minimal, they're gracious enough to charge minimal?

They they put out an RFP with a a total amount of the 71 counties combined, and legal action proposed that they could meet those needs. They've already begun to provide the service, and we are highly satisfied with the results that we are seeing for the, I would say, less than 10 Dane County older adults that require that level of attorney intervention on their behalf. So there's never enough money in the legal services program from the federal Older Americans Act. It is the one of the least funded programs, but it is one that we are consistently working together across the state to do advocacy on the federal level to increase the amount of dollars that are coming to the state of Wisconsin. Unfortunately, it's based on population data.

The formula that the feds use is based on how many older adults are in the state of Wisconsin. And quite frankly, between the last census and this census, Wisconsin has lost a percent of older adults. However, they're booming, as you have heard, and, the number of of is approximately one one in five, soon to be one in four Dane County residents will be over the age of 60 by 2040.

So 60 is the age as

60 is the age, and

there is no no fee charged for the service, and it is not income based.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

No. Just one quick addition for like, in Prince in principle, we are moving we're we're trying to put fewer and fewer items through bid waiver process, and that has been intentional based on comments, feedback from the board, feedback from the community. So bid waivers are really the exception to the rule, and that's because we want to encourage a competitive process. We want new vendors to come in. We want it to be a competitive market.

And, also, bid waivers also allow in unique situations, as Angela pointed out, the opportunity to continue really, like, really good relationships that are that are cost effective for the community where we know we we know we couldn't get this amount of service for these dollars. And so this allows us to continue those relationships without without interruption. Okay. So this is a really good example of where we would pursue a bid waiver for the benefit of the community.

Thank you.

No other questions. And being a nonaction item, I will yield back to the chair.

Thank you.

Okay. So, director Schluter knew this was gonna be a long meeting because we haven't met since March, and there was obviously a lot of resolutions that had to get through our committee. So I did say he could feel free to kinda do the high level points on these items so that we we weren't here really late. So I guess I'll turn it over to you, director Schuder, for a brief update related to to budget 20 27 prop. Certainly, in future meetings, we'll get much more in-depth on this topic.

And then also, I just was looking for, again, very brief status reports on overflow shelter RFP, involuntary intoxication and treatment readiness RFP.

Okay. So in like, as as chair, we're glad there

Mhmm.

You're gonna get way more we're gonna be more in-depth in the future, and this is gonna be a very high high level overview of where we're at. We're doing report outs of where we're at with the budget. As the largest department with the largest budget, there's a lot that we have to do. So we used an analogy of a freight train. It is gonna take us longer to slow down and stop and adjust and pivot and then ramp up again because we are 850 people on the front of this freight train, and then our department has 400 cars, 400 contracts that are behind us.

So slowing down and adjusting will be challenging. And so because of that, when we learned that there was gonna be a real hard budget, we started slowing down at the beginning of the year. We put hiring freezes out across the the county had a hiring freeze. We went even further and said, we're not putting forward any hiring exceptions until we know what our portion of the budget deficit is. So we've made for anything that has it that that has a connection to county levy, county GPR, general purpose.

So we haven't had hiring we haven't brought on new hires. The only exception with that is our Badger Prairie nursing home facility. That has an exception for a variety of reasons right now. But one of the big ones is that they generate a huge amount of revenue for the county. And an example of that is, you know, 22,000,000 just came in from last year through the reconciliation process from Badger Prairie from Medicaid balancing, and that was applied to and helped the entire county picture for went towards the deficit.

So slowing down and stopping the hires would impact our ability to collect those funds. So it's not a smart So that's our one that's our one big exception right now for hiring. We met with the division administrators over the last couple of weeks. Just continue talking about strategic reductions and priorities. We wanted all of the division administrators to be on the same page and to look at what to cut in the same way.

So that's something that happened in the last couple of weeks. We don't have our portion of the def the county's deficit yet. We know it went from 31,000,000 to 15,000,000. But because we're the largest, we're we know that we're in a position of having to cut the most, and it could still mean staff reductions and attrition, like, firing and reductions in force. So we are not making other decisions.

We're just assuming that all of our contracts are gonna be smaller or the same, and our team is operating. It hasn't changed its model until we have the actual number of what our deficit portion is. We are going to continue operating as if this is gonna be a really tough year. And so our leadership team is putting together individual plans. Many of the team are coming up with worst case scenario, medium worst case scenario, and, you know, just the the lowest.

So we have staggered different plans. And as I said, we're patiently waiting final allocations. We do have some concerns that were raised by division administrators about backfilling filling hires because we they they have there are certain mandatory mandatory jobs, mandatory responsibilities, then I have a freeze on all positions. It's their concern is that they need to get people in training. Otherwise, six months from now, we're not gonna be able to meet those mandated services.

And I feel for that, and I understand that. And, also, I can't commit just bringing somebody on and having them leave another job and then firing them in a few months, like, that's not conscionable. So for right now, we are making the decision to still pause until we know what our full share of the deficit is. Another big thing that we're doing in human services that's gonna be repeat for some of you, but I'm trying to put level set with everybody, is that we continue to make progress on space reductions. So there are buildings because we're the biggest, we have the most rental, the most space, most we are consolidating.

And there are two buildings and spaces that we're consolidating out of over the next couple of years that's gonna realize savings. And one of them is our aging and disability resource center. We're going to exit that lease. But in order to do that, we need to do some construction and building in the job center. So we're gonna move from one space to another. We learned recently that it might take us a little longer to do that move, so that's something that's different because we need to meet certain federal

we need

to meet certain grant requirements for to draw down money from the state. And one of those grant requirements is that you have to be a certain number of steps away from a bathroom in order to serve aging populations and individuals with disabilities, and we don't have that. And so we need to add a a single stall bathroom, and it could slow us down because we weren't anticipating having to do that project. But it is we're still moving forward. The other thing that we're looking at is, you know, because there's telework is a big is a lot of people telework in the county.

We are going to be moving to shared spaces, sharing offices, sharing cubicles. That's something that I've shared with the team. The the human services committee is, you know, we started at the top. I don't have an office. I have a shared space.

My office is an office that's shared with and the expectation is at every level of the organization, we are eventually going to be moving to that, which is gonna help us do the right thing and get out of more the spaces that we don't need. We're gonna do everything that we can internally, but it's only 20. What we have internally as I said, the freight train of human services is the 400 contracts that are behind us. Only 20% of what we do is within administration, within human services. The 80%, the bulk of what we have is in contracts.

And so even after we cut and do all of the adjustments internally, we know that there are going to be contract cuts. But there is a real there's an intentional there's an intentional action, intentional focus to cut also within our department before we take those necessary actions on contracts. So

I'm sorry. Did you just say that you do not have your own private office?

I it's a shared space now.

Okay. I wonder if that's the case for any other department head. I I have some concerns about that, but we could talk about that separately.

So I have it when I need it. I have a desk, and I have the door, and it's still the office. But it is also a shared space that can when I'm not because I'm out in the community, I'm in you know, I'll be at the ADRC or I'll be at the job center or I already was not physically. I was everywhere. Like, today, I was in three different locations, but I wasn't at Northport.

Because that was happening a lot, that was also a reason that I felt it was, you know, it was really needed. So that wasn't anything so and and I think that's something that we're seeing with with our staff that telework. You know? If we try to be thoughtful about it. If you come in every day, maybe you do get your own space. You don't do get your own cubicle because you don't telework. But if you were only coming in two days a week, the expectation will be that you share with somebody else. Okay. Do you do you

think that would that be a model for other departments? I

would I I would not wanna put my counterparts and make decisions for the other departments. I know that we're we were looking at spaces and buildings and consolidations a couple of years ago, do the work that my my one of my predecessors, Sean Tessman, she put together a plan of action. So we were ahead of some of the other departments.

I mean, the reason I say it's I will better it's it's better to look at those versus putting contracts.

Right. And that's exactly so it's and that and it's people. So people and contracts and services to the community, they're at the front. This space, if we're going to like, if if telework is here to stay, if it remains, that the space and the physical space matter less. It depends on the job, but it matters less.

And we hadn't moved forward to realize the savings of the spaces to come up to what the current reality is, and so that is a significant adjustment. And, also, even after we collapse those spaces, it's only a million dollars, and and it's only it's only a million dollars of savings a year. Our budget is 300,000,000. Right? But it's still something that needs to be done, and it's a it's the right move. But, again, just to kinda put it in context, it's not gonna solve our bigger problem.

Are there any other items you wanna discuss for the budget?

Nope. You just asked for treatment readiness, and I have that. And if Casey is still on, I might kick kick the last update over to her. So treatment readiness so last so you asked for an update on treatment readiness. Last fall, we issued an RFP, the request for proposals for what the department called the link, which would have been a treatment readiness for those struggling to provide struggling to provide a safe place to stay, those who are struggling with substance use and or met and mental health concerns.

And it would the link would have provided a place to assist in their recovery. Out of that request for proposals, we did not receive any applicants. Without an RFP, the department's now in a position to have an open market. So that's something that Todd Campbell referred to earlier. So the open market situation allowed us to go out to the community and look for other qualified and willing camp applicants for service that we we needed.

Human services reached out under open market rules to a number of different agencies, and we continue to be in discussion with a couple of those agencies that are still expressing interest. Todd has been in contact with them, and we are encouraged by their response and their interest in providing the service so far. So and then the other piece of that is, you know, one of the contracts that you put through tonight, was a contract with Wizhope. So that is, you approved earlier tonight. That'll help balance some of the needs in the community.

It provides more residential bed treatment in Dane County. So as we work to bring back the treatment readiness with these other potential partners, that WISSHOPE contract will also help to that help help us help us serve that need in the community.

Is that I'm sorry. That's funding that was the detox contract that's now going to WizzHope for residential treatment?

No. That was a different it was just it was a different contract that was approved Oh. To the Okay. So

so so the RFPs for the detox. Right? That used to be Telerion. Telerion. Yeah. Okay. Alright.

Okay. So TBD Yep. Still talking to people. Yep.

We have two that we're talking to. So that's the short of it. Okay.

Casey, do you wanna give a brief update of just anything related to overflow shelter RFP? I think it had been maybe issued in March or something and where that stands.

Yeah. So excuse me. We, sent an intent to award letter to Madison Street Medicine, and so we have entered into contract negotiations with them. And if those are successful, they'll be our partner in, in developing the overflow shelter program and and opening that up later on this year. As, as some folks might remember, we have a pretty tight timeline for this project.

We have around $400,000, I think it's $440,000, to support a seasonal shelter to assist with, serving, people who identify as men who are not able to get into the new purpose built men's shelter that's gonna be opening up later on this year. So that'll, be a seasonal shelter in the winter months, through November through March, and, we're in the process of looking for a space that that shelter can operate out of. We do have some, some leads that we identified before we released the RFP. Now that we have an agency on board, we'll work with them to hopefully bring one of those spots to reality. And, we are still on target for that November start date, but that's assuming we find a space.

We get the approvals for, being able to use the space in the way that we want. There will also be a contract that needs to come before you all as well. So we don't wanna put too many carts before the horse, but that that process will have to be complete as well. So still lots of lots of things to complete, but we're taking the next really important step and optimistic that we'll be able to have that resource this winter.

Great. Thank you. Any questions?

I do have a question. So the you said for folks that identifies as men, what about those that identifies as women?

There's a shelter that The Salvation Army operates that, they, typically have enough capacity to serve the number of people or the number of women that need their shelter. The reason why we have an overflow shelter for, folks who identify as men is because the the purpose built shelter that's gonna be opening later on this summer is, it has a smaller overall capacity than what our community is used to. The reason for that is that, when the shelter was originally in the planning process, it was actually, it would have accommodated at that time the number of people it needed to. And in the time from planning to the shelter getting built, the number of people experiencing homelessness in our community and throughout the country has increased due to the economy, rising rents, housing crisis, any number of things that are putting a lot of pressure on on on folks and on systems. So, that shelter will have a a capacity of 250 people.

Our current shelter is seeing, around 350 folks per night. So the overflow shelter is meant to help folks who aren't going to be able to get into that that new shelter. But we don't have those, strong capacity issues with the shelter for single women.

Okay. And, so you the funding, I'm assuming that you said 440,000 is already set aside for this. Okay.

That's correct. It was included in the 2026 budget.

Okay.

Other questions from supervisors on the committee or our YGP member? Okay. Thank you, Casey. I appreciate that initiative moving along. I need to apologize to council president, alder Espritin Madison, who had registered on this item. And I forgot to, I think, ask for registrants. Do you see Or president Madison on the Zoom? She wanted to speak. I if there's no objection, I'd like to provide that opportunity to her since she had registered, and I didn't ask and know that she had wanted to comment. For this item?

I think so. I'm not sure, but she is. She messaged me.

So I do have her over now.

Oh, okay. Alright.

Can you all hear me?

Yep. You got, five minutes, and then we can ask questions.

Gotcha. Gotcha. I'll be fairly quick. First of all, I just wanna say, thank you to supervisor Wegletner, and if I'm always messing up your name. So Heidi and then director Schlutner and Casey Becker for meeting with me a couple days ago about needs in my district.

I represent District 17, which on which is on the Far Northeast Side Of Madison or Far East Side, which encompasses the Easttown Mall area. And so I just wanted to share with this group because I know you all are making some tough decisions, having some tough conversations about, you know, the budget situation. And I wanted to just bring your attention to at least one population that I rarely ever see centered in some of the these some of these discussions. And I just wanna change that both in the city and in the county. So in short, my and I I do wanna just give because I'm very nerdy about numbers.

The shelter is averaging about 270 folks per night, and I will forward the chart I asked Sarah Lim to to to create from our last meeting, but I'm just very nerdy about numbers. I'll make sure I share with share that with y'all. But back to the Easttown area. The area of the district has a bunch of, I don't know, five to seven or so very low cost motels. It also, of course, houses the Zion Road temporary men's shelter.

The Bartolon shelter will be in the neighboring District 12, so sort of on the back of Rindell Park. As I shared in that meeting, which also include Catalyst for Change for a couple days ago, There are folks who are basically trapped in those motels up there. They cannot get out for lots of reasons, mostly because they cannot save, because they're paying these high sometimes very high motel rates, especially for the event that's coming into Madison. Even the lower cost motels will raise their prices. Spokes are also, you know, if something happens with a job or something and they miss some hours, that may cause them to not be able to afford a full week.

So you have folks who are who are trapped in those motels. You have families trapped in the motels, but you also have single black men trapped to the motels. Black men are overrepresented in our shelter population, in arrest, and in the opiate crisis. And they are sometimes can be, it is the most challenging to get resources for them for lots of reasons, but I am not seeing them overrepresented in those who have moved into housing or who are more stable now. And so as you make these tough decisions, I'm not asking you to a degree to go and create something new, but how can we better align the resources and providers that already exist to prioritize those folks, those especially I I wanna make sure I don't miss.

Individuals who are trapped in motels with no kids are also just as equally hard to find resources for because often times programs require you to have kids or be a couple with kids or some sort of family dynamic in order to apply. Well, if you're single with no kids, it gets really difficult. If you're a single black man, it's even more difficult. So as you make these tough decisions, as you have these conversations, you're always welcome to hit me up. It's just district seventeen at city master dot com.

I will absolutely give you a tour of the district, talk talk with you about what's happening in the area, walk and talk with you. I do it often with Alders as well. So it is important to me that this body understands that population and that pocket of the district because it is super underserved, And they're in particular, I'm very concerned about, the poor outcomes for black men dealing with several challenges in that pocket. So that's my two cents.

Thank you. Are there any questions for council president Madison? Alright. Well, thanks for joining us. Sorry. I missed your registration earlier.

I I do have a question.

Supervisor Obizi? So,

thank you so much, President Madison. So my question is for Casey. So we're looking at for the RFP for overflow, do you would there be any limitation in the contract negotiation that maybe that could impact some of these individuals that, president Madison spoke about in her district?

Well, I guess it would so if it's a matter of the service itself, which is the overflow shelter, folks who folks who are self paying in hotels, there'd be nothing preventing them from using the shelter system if they wanted to. We would not be allowed to change the focus of of what those dollars, the overflow shelter dollars, are intended to be used for, which would be for the an overflow shelter program. So, for example, if, we couldn't enter into negotiations and say, and, also, by the way, we would like you to, have a separate service to provide case management to people who are self paying in hotels. We would not be allowed to do that, because of the the authorization for these funds in the budget. It was specifically for an overflow shelter operation, if I'm understanding your your question correctly.

Yes. So thank you. So, for question for president Madison. So you talked about individuals, like, in the motel. Maybe they can the because of the cost. So, do you foresee any potential limitation that those individuals might not be able to access benefits that the county provides?

So I think part of the limitations for for them being able to access resources is just the sheer number of folks who need resources and the lack of long term supportive case management, for example, or supportive services. So that's why, for example, in our call, I asked Catalyst for Change to Joint because they are a street outreach group that does a really good job of helping folks move from homelessness to housing, but not just you know, when you go from homelessness to housing or motels to housing, they are staying with you, you know, for a little bit longer to help you maintain your housing and be successful in your housing. So for example, a reoriented of resources might mean that there is an on-site like, how the county has joining forces joining forces for families. So for example, could there be a day where a case manager from joining forces is also on-site, in the motel area, for example, just to, you know, reorient how they may receive services?

Okay.

Hopefully, I'm at hopefully, it makes sense. But you know how to reach me, and I'll I'll do you know, I could explain more.

Alright. Thank you.

You're welcome. Supervisor, is your question for council president Madison or staff? Or

It was just a new

What's that? We're we're on, like I I think sort of, like, on public comment on items on the agenda or director's report. So I'm just trying to keep us in order here.

Yeah. I was just gonna say that

Is this a comment or a question? Or

It's a comment for the last question. Just that We

don't have the issue of the hot

Okay.

Hotel services on our agenda, so I don't think we should be getting into a discussion about something like that. I think if you have questions for the speaker, that would be fine. But I don't wanna stray afield from our noticed agenda in in terms of debate or discussion. Does that make sense?

Yep.

Okay. Are there any other questions for president Madison? Okay. And I think then that concludes the sort of director's report and public comment on that. And then we have future meeting items and dates on our agenda.

Thanks for listing all of them and sort of some of the slated, committee reports that we have scheduled. If, like I said, you know you're gonna be gone or something, it's really important. The sooner, the better to notify Amanda so we can make sure we have quorum. And if we need to do any rescheduling of meetings, we can we can try to get that done so we can get our business taken care of. And if you do have specific items you'd like to see, either, you know, presentations on topics or, you know, programs, divisions, do do let us know.

We can try to make that happen. We just need to give our presenters sufficient notice to prepare. Chair? Yes.

Sorry. I just want

to point out because the returning out of habit just a reminder, our next meeting is actually on a Wednesday. Oh, right. Normally on a Thursday, but our next meeting is Wednesday, May 27. Same time, same place.

Thank you. So you if you've already put all your Thursday recurring events in your calendar, make sure you get that Wednesday one in there. Good point. That has tricked me in the past.

I also get the new board supervisors, the calendar invites and all that Great. After tonight. Thank you.

Are there any is there any public comment on items on the agenda?

No, chair. No?