Health & Human Needs Committee - Regular Meeting

The first item of business is consideration of the minutes. So I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes. I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second. Therefore, we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as presented. So is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Obstained motion carried. Thank you very much. Presentations. What we have today is a ethics video on ethics training that the county has asked us to present to our members. So if we got it figured out here, we'll let you see it.

The issue of ethics is unfortunately never black and white. And it's going to require a lot of discussion, either internally with yourself, if it's something that you want to take on yourself, or if you have questions about what may be an ethical issue, to reach out to me or someone else in my office. These questions, you can tie yourself up in knots about them, but there's a kind of a quick test that I will show you at the end that should kind of help you guys kind of go through them as we proceed. But let's just go ahead and get started. So ethics, again, the purpose essentially has always been to prevent undue influence, self-dealing, and disappearance of impropriety. Also, to help the public, the constituents believe that they have some confidence in what we're doing here, right? That the decisions are being made based upon what they want, what they've asked for you to sort of look out for, rather than for something more provincial in your own interests. The ethics ordinances that we have come from state law, and we've also added additional ordinances ourselves. They're straightforward, but again, modern day experiences really change how they apply to your specific case, given They're all coming from different backgrounds, different employers, different connections in the community. Madison and the Dane County area is not very large. So there's gonna be a lot of kind of crossover effect between your role here and your personal roles at home. All right, who? So ethics rules apply to all County officials that include to you as elected supervisors, as well as County employees. We're only gonna talk about those rules that apply to you though tonight. So what? In general, they seek to prevent the county officials from using your office or position for any personal gain. They try to prevent you to ignore, they want to prevent you from ignoring any conflicts of interest, and they wanna prevent you from being inappropriately influenced. All right, so Wisconsin Statute 1959 is the code of ethics for local government officials. These apply to everyone statewide if you're in a municipality. And the number one that falls underneath this is that you cannot use your office for private gain, right? The language here specifically says you can't use your office for personal financial gain or for anything of value, quote unquote, or for gain of your immediate family member or for an associated organization. That's state law. You cannot offer or receive anything of value, which means you can't solicit or accept from any person anything of value if it could reasonably be expected to influence a vote or an action. Our ordinance has gone so far to define what it means to be anything of value, and essentially breaks down to something, anything at all, that has a value of $13 and above, or $39 yearly. So the bar is extremely low, right? And so this goes back to kind of we talked about originally, Supervisor Iker kind of brought up this idea of disclosures right and this idea of it's better safe than sorry to make sure that you know if you do feel like there's something of value out there that you just recognize it as such and you take the action that's required. You also cannot take action on a matter which you have a financial interest. Right, so you can't take you can't vote or take any official action if you are your immediate family member and affiliate organization has a substantial financial interest in the matter. We define substantial financial interest as anything that you have to disclose in your disclosure forms when you when you have filed on the county clerk's office. You cannot use your office to create a substantial benefit for yourself or your immediate family or an organization you're associated with. Immediate family means a spouse or domestic partner or any relative receives half more of your financial support from the officer that's in question or provides half or more support. And then associated with an organization is actually somewhat limited. It just means you, it implies to you or your immediate family that serves as a director, trustee, or controls at least 10% of a business's equity, or if you serve as an authorized representative. So that's one of those rare situations where your membership in an organization isn't necessarily going to be triggered as something as you have you being associated with under the statute, as long as you're not a board member, a director, or someone that's authorized representative in it. cannot take action on a matter which you have a financial interest. So if you're faced with this, you must not, A, participate in any discussion, deliberation, or vote, And you have to ask to be recorded as abstaining. What often gets missed when an elected official realizes there is a conflict, they believe that, well, I'm going to go ahead and abstain. But before they do so, they're jumping in and talking about the matter and putting their two cents in. And that's not really what the statute contemplates. The statute requires it contemplates someone making the decision, OK, I have a conflict here. I need to sort of step back and not get involved. But you have to do that from the beginning. You can't just assume that your abstention is in and of itself sufficient to avoid any potential ethical conflicts. I'm gonna shift to now our Dane County chapter nine. It's local ethics code and incorporates what we just talked about under statute. But it also adds a few other things. We've added a few years ago a requirement under ethics code to prohibit elected officials from engaging in sexual harassment or discrimination on a various basis. Interesting quirk that many organizations have is that those sexual harassment policies or that those policies that prohibit sexual harassment, the laws that prohibit kind of discrimination, the organizations tend to focus the application of those, the implementation of those on employees. and often forget that elected officials don't really have a direct connection to it. So in order to remedy that a few years ago, we actually added that as part of the ethics code for county officials. You cannot use or disclose information that you gained in the course of your service unless it's already in the public record. If it's going to somehow result in you gaining something of value. Again, more than $13. You cannot use your office for influence or gain. You know, this is very common through a lot of ethics goals throughout the country. That's kind of sometimes called the, don't you know who I am rule. You know, that someone's going out there saying, you know, I think you're going to want to do this for me because I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm a very important supervisor on the county board. So that's unlikely perhaps, but it is something that a lot of jurisdictions have adopted. YOU CANNOT USE, THIS SOMETIMES COMES UP, YOU CANNOT USE ANY COUNTY PROPERTY FOR EITHER PARTISAN OR NONPARTISAN POLITICAL ACTIVITY UNLESS THAT PROPERTY IS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE ELSE IN THE PUBLIC. THERE IS NOT A SPECIFIC LIST OF PROPERTY THAT WE HAVE IN OUR ORDINANCES, BUT IT IS, THERE IS A LIST OF PROPERTY WE HAVE IN OUR ORDINANCES, BUT IT'S NOT INCLUSIVE. SOMETIMES WHAT COMES UP IS, YOU KNOW, THE USE OF E-MAIL, LIKE COUNTIES PROVIDED E-MAIL FOR PARTISAN OR NONPARTISAN ACTIVITY. That tends to be an issue sometimes, and that should be avoided because that would be considered a county resource. Anything that you can access because of your role as a supervisor is a county resource. Section 928 deals with a kind of specialized situation with supervisors who happen to represent private interests before a County entity. If anyone falls in that camp, please reach out to me individually. I can sort of guide you through it. Our ordinance is kind of acknowledged and that might be a possibility. And there are certain exceptions that where we could sort of investigate to see if whether or not you can take advantage of to still sort of meet your private responsibilities, but also not run afoul of the ethics code. THIS IS SOMETIMES CALLED AS LOG ROLLING. YOU CANNOT TRADE YOUR VOTE FOR OR AGAINST AN ITEM FOR THE VOTE OF ANOTHER SUPERVISOR ON A DIFFERENT ITEM OR FOR A MODIFICATION TO AN ORDINANCE AMENDMENT OR RESOLUTION OR IN EXCHANGE FOR A VETO OR NON-VETO OF AN ITEM BY THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE. SIMILARLY, YOU CANNOT ACCEPT ANYTHING OF VALUE LIKE FEES OR EXPENSES FOR AN ACTIVITY UNLESS YOU CAN DEMONSTRATE THE ACTIVITY IS NOT RELATED TO THE USE OF COUNTY TIME OR MATERIALS AND THAT THERE'S NO RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR OFFICE. That second one is the big exception to that one are actual and reasonable speaker fees like honorariums. Our ordinances recognize that in many ways those kind of assist the county. Those are for the county's benefit, not necessarily for your own personal benefit. There's also an exception in our ordinances to reflect that certain political committees regulated by Chapter 11 can provide such fees to you. It may not accept anything of value which consists of transportation, lodging, meals, food, or beverage, or reimbursement. But again, you can accept these items if you can show that it was received primarily from the benefit of the county, like I mentioned. A good example or a good sort of category of those exceptions would be if you were to receive the benefit, if it would actually Prevent the county from paying the expense. Instead, so a good example would be if someone were to say, we're going to want you to in a conference, we're going to make sure your meals are paid at that conference, the county has a per diem that they would have to pay otherwise so often our employees can take advantage of that so that the county itself doesn't have to pay out for the per diems that would be permitted under the ethics code. THERE'S ALSO AN EXCEPTION HERE FOR PAYMENTS FROM POLITICAL COMMITTEES KIND OF SIMILAR TO THE ONE WE JUST DISCUSSED. NOW DISCLOSURES SECTION NINE POINT THREE SIX EXPLAINS THE REQUIREMENTS YOU MUST FOLLOW IF YOU IF YOU RECEIVE ANYTHING OF VALUE AND HOW TO DISCLOSE I WILL TELL YOU THAT THE PROCESS IS SOMEWHAT WONKY IT REQUIRES YOU IF YOU DECIDE I THINK THERE'S A PROVISION THERE THAT SAYS IF YOU DECIDE TO KEEP IT YOU NEED TO SUBMIT THE VALUE OF WHATEVER THE THING OF VALUE WAS TO THE TREASURES OFFICE AND THE TREASURES OFFICE THEN NEEDS TO KEEP A RECORD OF IT My editorial statement of that is it just looks bad. So really consider whether or not it's worth taking advantage of that process and talk to me or someone from my office if you are considering that. The Incarnate Ordinances 9.60 and 9.61 deals with the statements of economic interests, which I think many of you have already completed. And then this last one is in red because I wasn't sure that their body was going to adopt the changes we just made to disclosure. So we're going to go to breaking news here. Thanks to all of you. and spend a little bit more time about this new ordinance that everyone has passed. I'm going to read it just kind of, I don't want to bore everyone, but I think it's helpful just to sort of read it out loud and then give anyone a chance to sort of ask questions about it. I will be upfront and say, this is new to us as well. Oftentimes these ethics rules, we get a good sense as to how they're going to be applied after some unfortunate first issues come up. But I want to sort of be able to sort of address any kind of generalized questions tonight and then sort of focus my research afterwards if there are some questions that we should kind of look into after we discuss them today. So as we mentioned before, so Section 1 deals just with disclosures. And it's basically in your case as a supervisor who has or whose immediate family member has a substantial financial interest. Let's take that separately. That one we've already discussed. That's anything that you've already kind of disclosed in your economic interest. Or a personal interest, we've also discussed this, that could be anything above a modicum of a contact between a business, political association, family member, whatever. So it's really low bar. That in a matter pending before you, right, then this ordinance requires you to disclose it. And again, and I really, I can't stress this enough. I think the practice should be better safe than sorry, right? Because even if it's not a real story, the failure to disclose might make it a story, and it's better just to disclose it if you can. I know as this gets kicked in, once this kicks in, and many of you are gonna have questions about it, because we haven't had to do this before, I'm happy to discuss those with you offline. And if there is some kind of general guidance that comes from those discussions, I will provide it to the board. Number two deals with abstentions. And as we talked about before, this one requires kind of a higher bar, a higher level of inquiry for members of the body. So the county official shall abstain from discussing deliberating and voting on the matter under consideration if they or an immediate family member has a substantial financial interest again, we know what that is. or a personal interest but here's the qualifier right both of those or either of those I should say. are need to be to the extent as judged by you as a supervisor and again if you have questions, please reach out to me or someone from my office. that those interests you believe conflicts or appears to conflict with your official duties or would impair or reasonably expected to impair their independence of judgment or actions. Again, this is a brand new rule. I invite anyone that feels if there's something like in the agenda that's coming up for your first meeting after this one that you feel, hey, this might be something that I need to abstain on, please contact our office. Quite frankly, these discussions have been occurring for many years with me. A lot of members kind of reach out because of their employment or they just want to make sure what should I do here. So I'm happy to answer those questions moving forward. I will invite questions afterwards I guess but let's move on but please write them down if you have any okay no private interest in public contracts so our ordinances say you cannot participate in the making of a contract in your capacity as a board member if you have a direct or indirect financial interest in the contract so essentially If you have any skin in the game about a resolution that authorizes a contract, then you should abstain from voting on it. Now, the flip side of this one is a little bit more complicated. However, you cannot in your private capacity negotiate, bid, or enter into a contract which you have a direct or indirect financial interest if you are authorized or required by law to participate in your public capacity in the making of the contract. So the example that comes to mind is one that was written in an AG opinion many years ago where there was a town member, I believe, who was a member of a committee that ultimately would vote on recommending whether or not land should be purchased. This town member owned some land that the town was interested in purchasing. This town member negotiated with the agency or not even agency, like the member of the town board that was kind of in charge of kind of soliciting and acquiring that land. Then when the deal came up before the committee that he was in, he abstained. He thought he was fine by doing that. This statute, which is a criminal actual family statute, does prohibits you from doing that. So the way I try to think about it is that whereas the one previously comes into place when you just happen to see a contract that you have some direct or financial interest in, you can abstain and step away because that is affecting you and your public capacity and your official capacity. What you can't do, though, is be the initiator of the negotiations or engage in those negotiations at all. And by the time, and if you do, by the time that contract comes back to you as part of your official duties, it's too late. You've already committed the felony violation, honestly. You know, I don't, I can tell you that this is probably a criminal statute, hasn't been used in many, many years, but it is, it will put you at risk. So my big takeaway here is, if you have something that you want to negotiate with the county, you should really think whether or not that is something you want to pursue. Because the minute you start negotiating, if it ends up coming back to you, the violation might have already occurred. And again, if this ever is a possibility, please, please, please reach out to me. I am happy to go into a lot of discussion, a lot of inquiry with it about it. My office is here to sort of assist you with all of these. There are other prohibitions that other state laws come into play too, which is one is you cannot be employed or appointed to a new position or an office that was created during your term in office. So if... This seems unlikely given our budget constraints, but if we were to create positions in the 2027 budget, and you thought to yourself, I really wouldn't mind doing X for the county, you would not be eligible to apply for that position and hold that position under state law. This other one is another criminal statute. You cannot intentionally fail or refuse to perform a known mandatory non-secretionary duty within the required time period. YOU CANNOT TAKE ANY ACTION THAT YOU KNOW IS FORBIDDEN BY LAW TO DO IN AN OFFICIAL CAPACITY, AND YOU CANNOT EITHER ACT OR BY EMISSION EXERCISE DISCRETIONARY POWER INCONSISTENT WITH THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A DISHONEST ADVANTAGE. That language is kind of broad. And again, it will have to be a situation where we look at what the circumstances are, and then we kind of go over that statute together to see whether or not it applies to your specific case. But it's essentially trying to prohibit the misconduct in office. And it goes, it requires sort of investigation to your intention as to why you took action or you didn't take action. So it's really fact intensive as well. So I imagine all of you are sitting back saying, like, I've heard a lot of words being thrown at me, and I still don't know what to do if something were to come up. And that is a fair, fair criticism. There are a few things that I can try to point to you to sort of guide you a little bit, at least in your initial inquiry. One is, what's the nature of the decision that you're about to vote on, right? The reason why that's important is if you are going to make a decision that's a little bit more quasi judicial one where like you're applying a specific set of facts to whether or not you're going to take an action. that's a bigger deal that's a situation where I think you should really reach out to our office sooner rather than later, and so we can discuss it because there's more of a possibility that's going to be an ethical issue for you. Ask yourself, does it matter involve a public contract in which I have a direct or indirect financial interest. Again, air on the side of being careful. Reach out to our office. We're happy to answer those questions. And then simply, does the action affect myself, a member of my family, or an organization with which my family member or I are associated? Again, all of these, in many cases, if any of these are yes, that I think should inspire you, unless you're confident in your decision to reach out to our office to have a discussion about it. I promised you there is one piece of practical advice that I always tell people, and it's this one. Does it pass the smell test? Would you be comfortable if you...

Bill just suggested that we could send it out to the entire board and you could watch it if you want to see that last 30 seconds or whatever is missing. Lisa, were you able to hear the presentation? Do you know how to unmute yourself? Are you on a laptop or a

desktop or is Lisa a current county board member right she's our county board rep right can anybody answer that question right Sarah Lisa is the uh technically the board representative

And she's heard it already in the board. Okay.

So then that means she would have heard it already is what I'm trying to say.

So the motion stands and we will need a vote. All in favor of the motion? Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Abstained? Okay. Thank you. Phil is missing. Who else is missing? We must have one more. No. And then Barb, Barb Nichols, but we haven't seen her in a while. Jennifer's going to check on her. Barb Nichols. She hasn't been here for a while. No.

She doesn't reply back tonight.

Okay, that's a different, we should be following up to see what's going on, right? So we'll have to send it out then, or you'll have to send it out to those members that are not here. Okay, so let's move on. We don't have any action items. So the chair's report, I forgot, last week I was going to ask Lynn Riley if she could be here today to bring you up to date on the legislative event that's coming up on the 17th, but I forgot to invite her last week, so I'll have to do it. so i think we're set to go um we had a meeting on thursday last week i think and um i think we've nailed down everything so it'll be june 17th from one to three at the um at the job center and we have four speakers who have been invited there'll be um because constituents from out and, you know, there'll be people out in our viewing area that have been asked to speak on specific things. And it was decided that the four issues for Dane County would be ADRC funding, meals, home-delivered meals, especially, transportation and falls. And obviously falls was the third in transportation with support. And so there will be presentations by these four people. And then the rest of the time will be spent talking with with the legend. So I should back up and talk about who's invited the board Our board here is what I hope to see all of you there. It's critical. We really need to talk with our legislative group. The senior center directors have been invited. The AAA board with all of their committees members will be there. And then specific people who are speaking on issues. I'm looking forward to this because I think it will be an excellent opportunity for us to speak to our elected officials about the needs of the community, the needs of the older Americans and the disability community so that we can speak with them about what those needs are and how they can be helpful in the future in funding issues for that. So I'm hoping that you'll all be able to attend. We will have cookies, lemonade, and coffee. The Job Center? Job Center and down the road.

Down the road, yeah.

The reason we look there is This room was really too small. The other thing is that it's on a bus line, so transportation was important.

I'd like to mention I'm one of the speakers.

Oh, okay.

So, yes, that's true. I forgot that you're going to speak. Yes. Thanks, Elizabeth, for reminding us. You're welcome.

What is your topic you're speaking of?

Because I'm disabled, elder, and use the ADRC. So I'm going to write about my experience and my pride of being on the governing board.

Okay, great.

So one more thing, Esther. When you were talking about specialized funding for transportation, would that include paratransit disabled people? Yes. 8521?

No, that's natural. Okay, what is 85? 85, well.

I believe it does, but let me. Let me ask and find out for sure.

Okay, because they are really, really bad now.

They're sort of, you know, they take you somewhere and leave you for hours now. Yeah, no, I think that's, I'm sure that's part of it. And Nathaniel Brown, who was the county's transportation person, is, has been one of our committee people. And so he will be there that day. So, you know, I'm, I think the answer to your question is yes, but I don't always remember the numbers because I don't see them enough and work with them enough, so I don't think the answer is yes. But I will follow up, and if it's not the answer, then I will let you know. So is there any questions? Sorry, I'm losing my voice here. Any questions on this event? Casey.

Two questions. First, I just wanted to echo, I think, the importance of having specific conversations about metro paratransit. I think people have a lot of constructive feedback about the city bus system. I think our constituency is going to have much more specific feedback on the paratransit system and especially its recent systemic overhaul. There just seem to be many more challenges than there were in the very recent past. Um, so I just want to echo that to provide more emphasis to it. And then second, um, uh, attendance for the event. I would like to be there for it. Are we hoping that as many members can be, you know, present as possible? Okay.

I should say. I would like to say expect it to be there, but I can't tell you.

Yes. Are we offering a virtual option? I plan to attend in person, but I'm just curious if there's a virtual one too.

No, we're not going to have a virtual option.

Understood.

Okay. To do that, it was something that was talked about, but it just wasn't something that was feasible. I mean, we didn't have a lot of money to do this, so we didn't hire all these professionals to get it all done.

Ken? I'm concerned that we don't have the right people here for Madison Metro, and I say that I was on the Transportation Commission in the City of Madison for 25 years, and I was involved in the initial designing of the old paratransit system, and I retired right at the point when the family care came in, and when this new system that the current city administration put in. And I know that that current system is very different. I had heard whether it was good or bad, but I knew it was different. My experience, I used to call the county person into our meetings because they didn't know enough about Madison Network. If we expect the legislators to hear things about Madison Metro, we should at least try to invite the Madison Metro person in. On the other hand, their funding is very separate from the county's funding. So we would be essentially bringing in a competitor. And I don't think funding necessarily is their problem, but at any rate, This is a constant problem between the two systems not knowing enough about each other. And so if we get deeply into Madison Metro, it's going to be sort of unfair that they're not in the room. On the other hand, I want them in the room. So I'm just throwing that out because it's a mess and it's complicated. And I appreciate Casey wanting that in, but this might not be the right meeting for it.

I appreciate that perspective. If we can't speak to it and help people solve those problems, at least just giving them the space to air them and maybe they're documented. I hear you on the component of not having the appropriate representation to know what a solution could be to some of those problems.

The county used to contribute a certain nominal amount to Madison Metro that used to fund sort of the public education and communication component of Metro and the paratransit system. But it was a fairly nominal amount, both from the county's perspective and from Metro's perspective.

Well, Nathaniel Brown will be there. He's the county's transportation person.

And there is a position

statement that has been done on the transportation issues and what the needs are, and that's out there online if you want to go and look at it. I read it right before the meeting. Oh, okay.

And I wasn't really impressed with it, I have to also say, but I'm not going to, I feel bad.

It's too late. That's right.

If I can make a suggestion that the papers that we have our state perspective statement. Right. And Dane County is real different from the.

Yeah, it doesn't address the county.

And I'm just, I'm wondering if there's any possibility of putting some very minimal local statistics together so that, you know, because when you talk about, for example, ADRCs, well. The need, what's Madison, what's Dane County's need in ADRCs compared to the rest of the state? I don't know it. Some kind of statistics that anchor things in the current. I just had a communication with our newest state rep, Renuka, and it wasn't personal, it was on paper. And I started thinking of when I was a rookie alder and how stupid I was. and how when something came in, I didn't have the hooks to hang it on, and it was nice to have, how does it affect my district? How does it affect Regent Street? How does it, you know, things that I'm familiar with, and if we could have something, again, I don't know if it's possible, it's a week away, so it's pretty, whether staff could possibly bring some local statistics that you might already have for all I know.

If I can, I don't know if it's appropriate for me to. So from the ADRC, that is our plan is to have for the past year, how many phone calls we've taken, how many enrollments, those type of, and for AAA, they were going to have how many meals, home delivered meals for Dane County. So we're going to have that.

That's what I meant. This stuff, I was like, who cares? And I was like, what is Rhineland? Why am I listening to this? I put myself in Renika's role.

Well, all of the legislators, it'll be your big county legislators.

Well, right, but some of them are more experienced. That's my point. She's very good.

Your question does bring up something that I'd like to see us think about, and that is the county's budget. And and what our needs might be from the county. And I think for a lot of years, I chaired the AAA's, Legislative Advocacy Committee. And I did all the work with the county and as far as the county budget. And I have talked to Jennifer and to Lynn, that I think there are some things that maybe we could look at together that we maybe should be going to the county some ways to do this and that I will plan to have a meeting with the two of them at some point and talk about this and see what do we in the county budget will start is done in October. So we've got a little time Um, to be thinking about and, and, you know, finding out what the needs are and, and from the standpoint of what the county would, you know, what's the county's responsibilities, um, and put together some package, a package of requests. Now the county board and Dave can certainly, um, confirm this. They usually don't like to see any more than two or three items. coming forward. So that means an issue of prioritizing. And one of the things that we used to do with the aging office or the AAAs was that we would get the senior senator and the focal point directors together and fight out, you know, what's going to be our priorities and go, I would like to see that go one step further and have the ADRC and the Aging Office work together to go forward with whatever the requests will be. Now, of course, the funding situation is entirely different between the two organizations, but I think there are ways that we can work together on this. So I will be, once Jennifer is back, I'm gonna see if I'm gonna look into getting together with the two managers and taking steps to move forward with working with the county execs office and with you know, with the county board to see what kind of funding needs are needed. So keep that in mind.

i have my hand raised um i'm just gonna say um i kind of feel like we're going into the weeds here um i think the most important thing is like focusing on next week so i just want to make sure we're all on the same page about what's going on next week so next week and correct me if i'm wrong i will um I will just state what I think I know is that we have the position papers and for each position topic we have a speaker about each topic. And then we will have time to discuss things with the legislators and the purpose of this is to cover things the scope on the county level so, for example. that wouldn't be feasible to have somebody come in to talk about the city transit because this is supposed to be county wide is that um is that it's just really a county a county-wide event in which we address the positions and any other positions that come up in discussion after each of these individuals on certain topics present is that a good summary of what's going on at the meeting

Yeah, it's certainly in regard to the state budget. At this point, it doesn't impact the county budget. At this point, we'll be talking with the state legislators, but we are talking about the needs of of Dane County.

Yes. So the legislators that are going to be at this thing, it's not just county officials. We have state representatives at this thing too, who represent Dane County.

These are, there are 17, we have 17 state legislators in Dane County.

Okay.

Okay. I thought these were county reps. Okay. Yeah. So this really is in regard to the state budget and what the asks are going to be that the ADRC networks are looking at. And in fact, just last week decided to add transportation to the aging network because both our whole thing county And Milwaukee County listed them as important issues, and so it was added. So there are now four items that have been prioritized to go forward with the request for state budget. So that's what we're talking about. The county, and we'll be with the county board on the county budget. That's what I'm talking about with mentioning to Ken is that I think we need to start looking at that once we're through with this event. And maybe in July, we start talking. And when Jennifer's here, and I don't know if Bill wants to take it on or not, to talk about budget issues, but as to what the needs are in the ADRC and the aging needs are in Dane County that should be fulfilled by the county budget or should be a part of the county budget.

That is after this. I mean, this main thing, the focus that we're focusing on first is discussion with state legislators and the state looking at things from the state level as people who live in Dane County. Okay, got it. Okay.

I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone by email or telephone. on what you would like me to speak on when I'm speaking for the ADRC next week. I'm writing it all up and I was going to submit it beforehand and I'll be at the practice session on the 15th. But I want to make sure that I cover all the important bases that ADRC would like state legislators to know. I can speak from my own experience and my usage of ADRC, but I want to make sure that I'm presenting all of the aspects that we would like to have presented to the legislators.

That's an excellent idea, Elizabeth. I'm sure that you've had plenty of experience in order to write in support of ADR funding, but other folks may have some different thoughts. and it might be worthwhile covering them.

Yes. Please contact me so that I can include that in my short speech.

I don't remember who the other folks are that are presenting. I should have brought that with me. I don't remember the names. But we do have a speaker on each of the four issues that will be talking about their experience and the experience of others that they know regarding those topics.

Mine was just really broad because I'm just supposed to speak about my experience with ADRC. So I just wanted to make sure that that was specific enough to cover what we feel as a board is important to be said. And yes, I've got experience that I'll speak to and give my background, but I want to make sure that I've covered all the bases. And now I'm a little insecure about that after listening to this conversation.

Well, I think you decide how much you can do within the timeframe that you have to do it and speak to what you know best. We do have a written testimony from someone in regard to their relationship with the ADRC. And I will be reading that in addition. So there is information coming to the legislators through that. It was an excellent letter of testimony. And so we're going to include it in what we do, what we present. So I don't think you should, you know, don't worry about it. Talk to... you know, talk to your experience as to what it is that you've experienced with the ADRC. And you probably have had as much experience as anybody, but, you know, it's kind of broad.

Yeah.

And others, you know, if they have some thoughts they want and they can send it to you, that would be good. But I would say don't, Don't agonize over it. Speak to it from your heart. That's what you need to do.

All right. That's what I was planning. Okay, good. Thank you.

And Casey, I guess we'll talk about paratransit when we get to county issues. And so... You cannot let me off the hook on that one if you want.

Is there going to be an agenda that like everybody at this meeting, like a schedule, like we're going to hear from these speakers and on this topic, like a write-up that everybody like gets when they get there so they know what's going on?

There will be an agenda. There will be the handouts, all of the papers, all of the position papers.

Okay, thanks.

There is even a practice on the 15th. We're going to do a go through it beforehand. So it's, I think, being well planned.

Great. I think those of us who aren't on the planning committee sometimes get a little out of the loop of what's going on. So thank you for letting me know.

Yeah, Bill just pointed out that it's not an open hearing. So You know, we will. It's going to be the speakers. And then after we hear from them, people will have an opportunity to talk one on one with the legislators. We only have an hour and a half. Right. Yeah. An hour and a half. So from one thirty to three, from one to three, one thirty to one to three. So we don't you'll be amazed at how fast that time is going to go.

legislators or the staff or both?

I can't tell you that. I know that we know what areas are being, who's coming from what areas, but whether there'll be staff. Now, we're fortunate in that the county lobbyist, who's no longer the county lobbyist, but who was, but who agreed to work with us on this while she was here, has that has said she's following through with it. She's working with us. So she's been our conduit with the legislators. She's been the one working with them and trying to get them all to come. At the meeting last week, I think we probably had maybe half or a little more than half that had responded. But hopefully, hoping we're going to have at least a staff person from every one of their offices. And sometimes the staff person is better informed than the legislator is. So I don't ever feel that talking to the staffer is a letdown because often you'll find that they are much more knowledgeable about it. And they're the ones who are going to We're going to see that it gets taken care of. So it works fine to talk with a staffer. I don't know what we had for number two models.

I think that was a trainee or something good.

That, you know.

Is it a training? I think so, yeah.

Esther just put the napkin in the Alzheimer's.

That's what it feels like.

It's just a training. It's just a training that she wanted.

And I don't remember getting any details on it. No.

I didn't get any details on it.

Oh, okay, I remember now. There's going to be, I can't read this thing from over there. Apparently there was a one, part one was already done, but this is the second part of a presentation by Dr. Chin from the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. And it says in our partners Aging and Disability Resource Center. So there's going to be a webinar, right? Is that what this is? A webinar, does it say anywhere here? On Friday, June 12th from 9.30 to 11.30. It's called Navigating Alzheimer's Bookmarker Testing and Results. And so there's an open invitation to anyone who would like, oh, it's a Zoom, who would like to attend and it'll be live streamed. So you can register at adrc.wisc.edu slash hlwmci-june2026. We better send that out to you. We'll send that information out. the link to that in case you're interested in going to that. It's free. It's a Zoom. And it sounds like there must have been a part one. And now this is a part two. It's in partnership with the Alzheimer's Research Center on the campus. So any of you that are interested are welcome to attend.

We'll get the link out to you.

and register if you're interested. Okay. We'll send it out. Okay. Okay. That's all for me. The board members have any reports? Anybody have anything? What did you last month we talked about something I said you needed to talk to Casey about the education.

Casey doesn't remember either.

Casey wasn't here. That was the issue.

We haven't cropped it.

I'll have to go back and look. Nobody got back to us.

Nobody got back as to what they, any of the members.

No one did.

Okay. Well, okay. What would it be on the agenda? Education.

It was something about education, but I don't remember what it was. Was it in the minutes? No, all I knew was just talking about it. It was something Ken was interested in, and I told him if he was interested in it, it was his responsibility to bring it to the board. And he might want to talk to Casey about it.

It has something to do with transitions.

Yeah. So you better think about what it was you wanted the board to pick up.

Casey, help me out here.

Anyway, again, if there are things that the board members see that they really want to bring here, we need to hear from you as to what it is. And then we can put it on the agenda so that it doesn't get forgotten. And it can come up and be discussed. But it was something that Ken was concerned about, and it was nothing that had ever been discussed, at least that I remember, in regard to transitioning students.

Does that mean that we have to invite Bill Hoosier back as our interim kind of director for the meetings here? Because he is also an expert in transition services for the school-age folks.

That is true, Casey. Thank you.

But you weren't here.

I was not here. I don't know what the topic was. But anytime you have, you know, specific information, I'm more than happy to share that about transition. The only note I have is special ed funding. That's all I wrote down.

Oh, Ken, you were present for the presentation, right? That we had from Tiffany Shano, Nancy Moffenter. Yeah, would that, it was a follow-up kind of question or comment or... something from that presentation could be well if you think of it it sounds like you got to email janna and we'll get it on the agenda for further exploration i'm not there yet so okay um so we'll come back around does anyone else have anything to report you have anything from

Jennifer's surgery went well. She's recovering and we hope that she will, or she hopes to be back by the end of July. As far as ADRC specific, their county budget stuff continues. We still have four frozen positions that will remain frozen.

Is that a general county-wide?

freezing hiring freeze yes there's been a general county-wide hiring freeze so nobody's picking on us no no it's across the board for any yeah for for the most part um and other than that we are running busy and doing well okay um future meeting dates and items do we have any items for the next

i don't know if it's the next one but given the earlier discussion about metro special transportation and paratransit perhaps having a joint presentation by the county transportation person and by the if they still have a point single point a person uh used to be a supervisor covering paratransit to basically explain what both systems cover and what may be not covered well or should be covered if they just get a better idea of how this is put together specialized transportation and paratransit and metro paratransit and i think that's a good idea

I've been using them since the nineties and rely on them when I need it. So I'd be very interested in that.

Okay.

And I would be from the county who would be, I don't know the people anymore, so I can't really tell you. I would, I would go through the mayor's office and, and, or go through the, the Metro director.

Well, maybe Nathaniel would probably be, maybe just to talk to him about it. Yeah, I just, I haven't kept up.

You know, I was exiled, so I...

Does that sound... Yeah. So we'll talk to Nathaniel. He was here, what, three, I mean, maybe six months ago. Maybe it's time for him to come again.

If there's any assistance in terms of... sort of defining the agenda item a little more, I'd be more than happy to come in even and talk about it.

Well, let's see.

Well, I don't know how the metro now uses the new system to where it serves and where it doesn't serve.

I don't know.

I live in the city, and I don't know any of it. Yeah, he would be the point person. Yeah, right. The Dane County Transportation person would know who to contact.

We'll just ask him to come. We'll see if he has time for the next meeting. If not, I might have to move it down. But I'll ask him if anyone else he thinks should come.

Yeah, maybe an earlier phone call, face-to-face phone call or whatever you call it with him, you and I and staff and then bring Metro in so that we have a better idea of what we're building the item.

So is there any concerns out there Casey, I know you have one. Sarah, did you have the things that we need to talk to Nathaniel about to make sure he covers?

No, I just say it's a good idea. Have a representative from Metro Transit. Have a representative from the county.

Find out who they are.

Ask them to speak. That's all I ask. Okay. Casey?

I can maybe put together just like a short like list of maybe concerns or conversation topics to send over. Because, you know, thinking off the top of my head, it's just like I know anecdotally the wait times on hold with paratransit have like doubled and tripled significantly. The amount of time it takes to schedule rides with them has pretty much doubled. That's the on-call time with them. And then it sounds like how the reports and the manifests get sent out to the contractors that they work with. are not consistent. So different providers are kind of getting different sets of information to work from. So those inconsistencies when they are talking to the consumers, for instance, like a rider is supposed to approach a vehicle, a driver is supposed to say the rider's last name, And then the rider is supposed to confirm if they are indeed that consumer. It's flip-flopped between the agencies where the agency, another one will say the first name, not the last name. So it's just kind of these consumer inconsistencies or inconsistencies with consumer usership that are sowing a lot of confusion or causing a lot of missed rides, delayed rides, and therefore the dominoes fall.

It would do that in... We may know more after next week. We're going to hear from a person that's there to talk about a presentation on transportation.

From experience, making sure that the federal requirements are part of the presentation. Those are very critical and it was always challenging for paratrans to meet them 100% of the time. When it gets down to 5% of the time, it gets really problematic. But knowing those in the room, oh, wait a minute. Aren't you supposed to? Let's start every question with that.

I'll leave that to Bill's staff.

We'll take your questions.

agenda for some time in the future.

Is it appreciated if I send you a list of those concerns? And also, I would like to submit a couple like appreciations too. I mean, it's a valued service. We just want to see it improved. That's all.

Sure. I think anytime the board has things that they'd like to contribute, I can do.

I'll direct that to you, Esther. And I guess Bill, for now, include you on that with Jana.

Yeah, well, they should go, yeah. They can go to Bill or to me, to both of us, whatever. Send them to both of us with a copy to Jana, and we're covered. Can do. So our next date is July 6th. The second of the month?

Yeah.

Yeah. That falls on the 13th.

Oh, the 13th. We're that far down. Same time, same station. Is there anything further to talk about in regard to meetings?

Okay. So any other business by law? I've never understood what that meant. I guess we don't have it. Any public comment?

So we don't have any public out there, so we're all right. So I will entertain a motion for adjournment. I have a motion. I have a second.

I can second.

Okay, Casey seconds. So any discussion? Probably not. Anyway, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Abstained? Motion carried. Thank you all very much.