Health & Human Needs Committee - Regular Meeting

We have a motion by Ken and a second by Phil to approve the minutes as they were presented, the June minutes. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Stay. Motion carried. Thank you. Do you want to enter? Well, we're going to welcome the board members way down here. Yeah, we have to go up here. No. Okay. All right. So we have a presentation this morning for Shea Yang for language access. And she's going to be working with interpreters during the meeting. So welcome aboard. I have to see if I can find, there you are on your screen. Thank you. Is she going to start? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. Yep.

Hello. Thank you for inviting me to share a little bit about language access. I am very happy to see our two interpreter who is also on here. They are from professional interpreting enterprise. Amy and Danelle are both on here assisting Alice. As far as understanding what is language access. So Dane County, we, Oh, Let me share my screen. I have a, see, I'm looking for the share button, sorry. Can everybody see my share screen there?

Yes. Shia, this is one of my questions. Do we need to pin the interpreters?

If the interpreters and the person that is needing interpreting can see each other, it should be fine. But if they're moving around as people come in, you may need a pin.

Okay. Can I just check, Alice and the interpreters, can you see each other?

Yes, this is Alice. I would appreciate if you could make the interpreter larger. She's very small on my screen. It's hard to see. So if you could spotlight her, perhaps, it would make it bigger on my screen, if you could do that. Thank you.

Like that?

I think she wants to go bigger.

I did hit spotlight.

I see the interpreter, but I can't see the PowerPoint now. OK, now I see the PowerPoint. I'm good. OK. I can see the interpreter, too.

Thank you. OK, perfect. Well, wonderful. So what we just did there is awesome. We're asking questions and we're helping each other to make sure that the interpreting works. So as far as what is language access, I'm going to start with a short riddle. Some of you may have seen this presentation already before, so you may know the answer to this riddle. But if you don't, think about it. It's a very cute riddle. What kind of lion never roars? If you know the answer, feel free to speak up.

Dandelion.

Some of us have been around the block a little bit.

So I heard dandelions. That is correct. So talking to others can feel like a riddle when people don't speak or understand the same language. So riddles are great examples of why it is so important for us to have language access. In Dane County, let me see if I can move this. Are you guys seeing this piece on top of here? Here.

Yes.

There. Okay. So in Dane County, these are the languages alphabetically of the different languages that we often get requests for in Dane County. So if you can see, there's quite a few of them. And why is language access? Why does it matter? It's a fundamental right in this country. It's a law within the United States. It's part of the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states all agency who gets federal money, you must help people in their languages with no exception at all. So Dane County, that's the reason why we offer support in all languages. It doesn't matter what door people come through. We are here to support them because we also receive federal funding. But not only that, the need is real. As you saw the full list of all the lists of the different languages that we had that I shared. In our US census, in the 2024 American Community Survey that was done, one in 12 people in the United States indicated in that survey that they do not speak English well enough to understand what people are saying. And that is over 25 million people who are missing out on really critical information. So when we get this right, helping people, what happens in our community is big. People get the help they need right on time. They can walk through the door, call, and get that instant help. Families trust us more in getting the help. The community is safe. They're able to call 911 knowing that somebody on the other half is going to be able to help them. They're able to report any abuse or understand any signs of warning. And kids can get enrolled in school. Parents can understand their rights and so much more. So what happens when we don't get offered language access? People start remaining silent. They don't talk, they don't speak, and that doesn't help our community. So understanding with language access, there are different individuals or professionals. that can offer that language access support. So we have bilingual staff that we have offered here within Dane County. So in the ADRC, we also have bilingual staff. We have Spanish and Hmong, which are the two top languages that are often requested for interpreting. And then we have interpreters like today. On our screen, we have two interpreters. And they're here for ASL, American Sign Language. And then we have translators who are people who do written interpreting or translation. So there are documents, papers that you're needing to share with families, people that comes through your door. We can translate that. And we have a system within Dane County that we offer all of these services and resources to everybody, any consumer within Dane County. As far as best practice for meetings, because the focus today is to talk to a group where we are actively needing interpreting within our meeting. So I'm going to focus more on that. And as far as interpreting for meetings. The little changes we do really makes a difference. But you speak clearly in a meeting. So all individuals in that meeting speak clearly of what you're trying to state, knowing that there is an interpreter. Pace what you're trying to say instead of giving that interpreter time to be able to interpret. Look at the person you're talking with, not the interpreter. they are the person that you're trying to talk to directly. And one speaker at a time, not multiples of people in a room. So in meetings, we're going to have debates maybe, we might have conversations that are going back and forth, but be mindful that the interpreters are trying to get that information across And their job is to try to interpret everything in that room so that individual who needs that interpretation, they're understanding everything that's being said in that room. So we have to be mindful when we have somebody who's needing an interpreter in that room. And use very plain language, not technical terms. Don't use jargons. Especially with different languages, your jargons or the different words that you use, it can come across very offensive in some languages. So overall, the interpreters are that bridge between two individuals or a group of individuals and your job is to make that bridge a lot easier for those interpreters so that they can get the message across to the person who is needing help with better understanding. And so this leads to, and my slides are very simple and short for today. If there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them at this time. But what can you start doing today? Ask questions. Do you need an interpreter? Don't wait until somebody is struggling and then figure out, okay, maybe we need to figure something out. Reach out for the help and support. Just like Jennifer, you did an awesome job with setting up the interpreters today. You know, it's about asking and saying, hey, I'm needing an interpreter for whatever you're needing it for. And use very plain languages during meetings, just kind of reiterating that. And then include translated material, so if you have a meeting and you're going to be going over a bunch of documents and information. If you have somebody who can't read English very well, we are welcome people to ask to give us those materials in Dane county. And we can translate that ahead of time, you can give that material to the person or. send out the materials ahead of time so everybody gets a chance to read it so that you're not translating on the spot. And that's pretty much it. My presentation is very short, very brief, but I hope that kind of gives you an understanding of what language access is. I don't know if there's any questions for me.

Any questions? Elizabeth has her hand up.

Yes. Oh, go ahead. Also, so does Alice. So just one moment.

Sorry.

Yes. Okay.

I'm sorry, who's going?

Let's start with Elizabeth. She came up on the screen first, and then we'll go to Alice.

Hi there. Hello, everyone. I don't really have a question so much. I liked your presentation, but I wanted to give you supporting documentation, if that's all right. I used to run a computer training program here in town, and I had a person who was hearing impaired, who needed to take one of my basic classes that was being used as a primary job access for the growing computer training and word processing at the time. And I was able to go to Dane County, get an interpreter for sign language, who came and then worked with us as we went through a basic class for word processing and spreadsheets. And the person got a job as a result of the class. And I was so proud to be able to provide that service. I actually had to go up against the... business owners who objected to me taking the opportunity to get the interpreter and when I printed off the law so I could prove to them that I was required to provide an interpreter. I won the argument and I was very proud to be able to do that. And it is something I've never forgotten and something I've been so grateful for the service being available so that not only could I give an effective training class, but that person could get a job to help them.

That is amazing and wonderful. And thank you, Elizabeth, for your advocacy and your support in that. And you are right. You know, once you lay down the information, the law supports language access across the board. And so that is amazing and wonderful. Thank you for sharing that story.

I just wanted to give you the supporting story. Thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for that. And yes, everything we do here at Dane County, all the language access services that people are needing, our staff that are needing, it is all free of services. And we want to truly support all of our residents in Dane County to have that, you know, equality of services.

Great. And then Alice had her hand up.

Oh, Alice, good. Yeah, this is Alice. Hello. Thank you for your presentation. And yes, you are absolutely correct. I did want to add something, though. I can't speak for spoken language interpreters per se, but often with sign language interpreters, having the materials ready before the meeting is very helpful. to learn names, acronyms, any other concepts or terminology that may come up during the meeting. As a new member, I'm still learning, obviously. So I'm learning what all the acronyms, et cetera, mean. And often interpreters, if they don't have access to that information, They might not know what it means right off the bat. So it is helpful having those materials prepared in advance and being proactive to make sure the interpreters can do the best work they are able to. So just throwing that out as an addition.

You are very correct, Alice. And thank you for adding that. because the interpreters, they are going through so much information and it helps them, especially with acronyms and terminology that we may not normally always use. But when you're with a collective group whose professionals in certain areas, you may be using terms that a normal person in the community might not be using. And thank you for speaking up and sharing to your group here of the things that you may be needing help or support in making sure that your interpreting and your meetings are effective.

Anyone else have a question or comment? No one here? Do you have any questions? Well, thank you very much, Shane, for being with us today. If there's no questions out there, then we'll let you go. You're welcome to stay if you want for the rest of the meeting. probably be pretty boring.

Thank you for letting me stay if I need to, but I have so much work to do. But if you guys, any one of you ever want to learn more about language access or just want clarifications on things, I know my presentation today was very brief and very short. in respect to your meeting and your time but you're always welcome to reach out we're happy to answer any questions or just to have more discussion and we do presentations all the time like this and we cater it to every group depending on who we're talking to but it was nice meeting everyone you all take care you too thank you okay

We don't have any action items, but one thing I want to do when we get down to future meetings and dates is talk about potential speakers for the coming meetings. And so I've got a few that I know of, and I'll give them to Jennifer. That's all for today because we don't have anything else on the list. The list didn't get put on there that I have. So anyway, I guess we'll do that under chair's report anyway. So Lynn is with us today. She was the one that actually kind of spearheaded. What's the word I'm looking for? I'm combining two words.

Spearheaded.

Spearheaded. There you go. the legislative meet and greet that we had on June 17th. So I'll let her give us a little update because some of you were not, well, the new members, unfortunately, we didn't have you appointed early enough to get you in line to attend. So Lynn will give you a little update on what happened that day. So Lynn.

Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see you. My name is Lynn Riley. and I am the manager of the Area Agency on Aging. We are co-located here at the ADRC. So good to see you all. I had the pleasure of being on a planning committee with several members of the ADRC board, including Esther, and a couple members of my own board. in planning an in-district legislative day that we held on June 17th at the Job Center down the street from here. We invited, well, I'm going to back up. Every other year now, our Wisconsin Area Aging Network, also known as WAN, So I struggled spelling it out, those acronyms. One hosts and helps plan every other year in a district-wide meeting up at the Capitol, an advocacy day, so that people can come and talk to their legislators. They have switched this year to that the even years when legislature is not in session, They're encouraging communities like ours to hold these in-district legislative sessions, and that's what we did in June. And so we hope to do this again in 2028. But next year, we'll be back up at the Capitol for Advocacy Day at the Capitol. So in this planning, we invited all of our representatives here in Dane County, And Lacey Fox is the previous Dane County lobbyist, was on our planning committee. She has now switched jobs and she is an executive assistant to the Dane County executive, Melissa Agard. But she was involved and helped us get all the invites out and the word out to the legislators, inviting them to this information session. And then, along with inviting them, we invited the Area Agency on Aging Board, the ADRC Board, and the committee members, and all of our senior center focal points directors. I think that includes most of the invite list. So we invited them to attend as well as local advocates to learn and speak out and be there for the question and answer with our legislators. We also planned for guest speakers to attend and talk. And those speakers were selected by word of mouth from area professionals to speak on the four topics that the Wisconsin Agency Aging Network, one, has identified across the state as our top topics to advocate for. And that was a vote done statewide by all the members of one. Those four topic areas were funding for the ADRCs, funding for falls prevention, funding for the senior nutrition programs across the county, and the Dane County Transportation Call Center. So those were the four topics that have been identified and that we chose to have speakers come and present on. So we had your very own Elizabeth come and speak on her lived experience with ADRC. And then we had somebody who received services out of DeForest. community center, the Cornerstone Community Center. It's a senior, um, center in DeForest. And, um, they had a man there talk about his experiencing, his experience receiving home delivered meals while he was caregiving for his wife and his wife had just passed away in January. So emotions were still very raw and he was, um, He brought us all the tears telling his story and experience with home-delivered meals and how much they meant to him and his wife. And then falls prevention, we had a speaker there, a woman who would identify as an older adult in our community and has been taking her own courses in fall prevention since she had a significant fall. And she's in senior parkour and leading some groups and just did a great job as well, giving her experience with the fall prevention. And then we had a driver actually, another older adult who volunteers with RSVP and does the drives for the transportation center. And she spoke about her experience as a volunteer and how much she gets to interact with the people who she drives and how fulfilling that volunteer position has been for her and how much she gets firsthand stories from people of how much that driving service meant to them. And so we had those four speakers, then we had the Q&A. And unfortunately, we only had about five legislators and staffers attend. But I think it was very, very impactful for those. And when we were leaving, Esther and I both kind of like, We're a little disgruntled about the attendance, but overall we had probably 50 people in the room. And Lacey Fox said of the people that attended, the legislators that attended, she said to Esther and I, you know, you really only need a couple champions and you may have got them out of this room and this session. So we think it was informative. We think it was impactful. You know, Elizabeth, I would welcome you to add anything on the spot here as one of the speakers there of what you thought of the experience and anything else, Esther, anyone else who was there would like to add, feel free.

I thought that the speakers that you chose were very well chosen and that I was very honored to be able to speak to the group that did attend. And I simply hope that what we said made an impact enough to affect the budgetary process.

Yeah. Thank you again for being there. You did a great job. Thank you.

Also, we had the county exec was there and the director of human services. So that was a big plus because I think they're well aware of what's going on out in the aging community. But here they heard firsthand what that meant to some of our county residents and so forth. I think that was an extremely important part of it, and I was happy to see. And they stayed. I mean, they went out a couple times to attend to something and then came back. So I think that that was – and as Lacey says, it only takes one or two people to be a champion, so we'll hope that. that we will, in fact, one of the things that I will do at some point when I get some time is to follow up with the legislators we had or talk to the current public, the current policy advisor and lobbyist for one to make sure she follows up with them even if I don't have an opportunity to. So I think it was very good. Ken.

Who were the legislators that attended, staff or the actual legislator?

The only one that I knew very well was the girl from the forest. I didn't bring the list of them. Do you have the list?

No, I was going to look at the name tags that we use. Maureen McGarble, was she there? No, I'm sorry. I should have known, but I should have had that in front of me.

Fairly new legislators, but I don't remember their names, and I don't know what district they were from. Maureen has been around for a while, and she's active, and I think, in fact, I know she was here when ADRC opened. She was one of the people who came for the open house, so... Yeah. I've got them at home. I just don't have them.

I'd be curious.

We'll get those and you can add them as an addendum to the minutes because we should have that and we will include it.

One thing before I go. When will you know about transportation? I wanted to be there, but we had a special celebration at the Senior Center. Transportation, as far as what What transportation?

For specialized funding.

Well, the budgets, you know, will be done. They're working on the state budget now. So, you know, the budget period starts July 1st. So, I don't know, but I won't promise you anything. Okay, thank you. I don't know what that will mean, so. I think one of the things that we may want to do is ask Nathaniel Brown to come and talk to us. He's the Dane County Transportation Manager.

Okay.

We'll look at that.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right.

Anything else, Lynn? Any questions? That's it. Thanks for adding about Director Schluter and Melissa Agard being there. That was impactful as well.

I'd also like to just say that Lynd and everybody that was running this particular legislative opportunity, it was so well organized and it was so well run. And I was really quite impressed with the machinery that went behind it. So thank you.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

Yes, Lynd did a fantastic job of keeping us all on track. getting anything, everything done. The only thing we had was a whole lot of extra food, but that's better to have more than, that's better to have too much than too little. So we'll, you can never have the right amount. That's just too much of a guessing game. But yes, I want to thank Lynn also for doing all this, because it's a big job to keep all those balls in the air sometimes when you're trying to get a, an event like that, um, planned and, and going. So, uh, again, thanks then.

You bet. Thank you. It was a good committee. Jennifer was on it too. All right. Thank you.

Um, okay. Next on the agenda, are you going to do this? I'm going to do this. I may need some help in pronouncing names. Okay. So next on our agenda is the introduction of the new, um, Board members, we've got three new ones. So I guess we can see you, so I won't have to ask you to stand up. We've got your names right alongside of you. Okay, first we have Alice Cora. Is that right? Is that how you pronounce it?

Yes, I can't exactly tell you if it's pronounced right because I've never heard it pronounced. But honestly, I'm not sure. I have no clue how to pronounce my last name. And I've tried to ask my parents that in the past. And yeah, it's just, you know, being deaf is being able to understand pronunciation is a little challenging. But again, I'm Alice Sikora. So I'm a resident here in Madison. I'm happy to be here on the board. as a representative from the Deaf community in Madison area and Dane County. There's a growing interest and a need for services for Deaf individuals in Madison County and Dane County, especially seniors. A few seniors have used ADRC services. So we're just trying to figure out a better way how to get involved. I used to be allied with the Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, ODHH, which is a state level organization for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing. I was a human services coordinator. I worked in mental health and various different health issues. And then I've moved on to form a nonprofit organization called Deaf Unity. It's a domestic violence and sexual violence agency that supports survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence that are deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind. I did that for several years. And then I did some consultation work with the office, hold on, I have to think of the acronym here, the Office Violence Against Women. That's under the US Department of Justice, the DOJ, working with language access issues. That was a huge project. I think it was about two years total for that one to develop training and a curriculum for that training around language access, what it means, how the laws apply, and just various different, you know, just like Shia mentioned today, similar. Also best practices in providing language access. I was also involved as a volunteer for the Mental Health Task Force, focusing on mental health needs and service needs for deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind individuals. So I've been involved in lots of different things over my time. And I mean, the senior citizen and the aging population seems to be very prevalent right now. So it's very important for our fellow citizens to have better language access overall, to be able to keep themselves healthy and safe and to be prepared as well for what's to come.

Okay. Thank you, Alice. We're happy to have you on board. Next we have Rick Marks.

Yes. Hello everyone. I'm Rick Marks. I am a resident of Dane County and retired from the city of Madison for public employment for my career. I worked for the water utility at the last couple of decades. I've been involved with unions ever since I started working in public employment and have been elected when I was within public employment. Now that I'm retired, I work to continue to support employees in the public sector and specifically with the city of Madison. I also am on a committee with the United Way, the People, Culture, and Rewards Committee to work on making sure that we do our best for the folks that support our community programs through the United Way, their staff. I also am a Oregon Village board member and want I don't have a real agenda for bringing to the committee here, but I am willing to do what I am capable of in helping be an ally for the folks that we serve in Dane County and try and spread the word of the benefits that we have available to those people in my community here in Oregon more specifically.

Thank you. Welcome aboard. Glad to have you. I'm sure we'll find something for you to do. Okay, and our third person is Erin Welsh. Erin, introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself.

Hi, everyone. I'm happy to be here. My name is Erin Welsh, and I am on the Dane County Board of Supervisors. I represent District 7. which is the near west side of Madison, so the Westmoreland, Midville Heights, Monroe, Vilas, and Nekoma neighborhoods. Part of my background professionally or my day job, I work at the Wisconsin Department of Justice in Crime Victim Services. So Alice, I recognized your name and Deaf Unity right away. I'm excited that we'll have the opportunity to work together here. But I work in Crime Victim Services. I'm currently the deputy director, but I've had a couple different roles here in the last 15 years. I worked for the Crime Victim Compensation Program initially when I first came here. Um, when safe at home, the address confidentiality program for the state started, I was the first director of that program and it was really exciting to kind of grow a program from scratch. Um, but since being in the deputy director role, I I've seen a lot of different ways that the, um, state administration of services, um, kind of plays out at the local level, which is what I hopefully can, can bring to the table, um, in a board like this and just really looking forward to, to diving right in. I, I love that language access was the topic for today. That's one area that we talk about quite a bit in our, in our work. There's a lot of gaps currently in the criminal justice system when it comes to language access. So I look forward to finding other ways and opportunities to weave that into the work that we do at the County. So happy to be here.

Thank you. Glad you're with us. Thank you for joining us. Any questions?

I know it's not on the agenda, but it would be helpful to them if they knew who we were.

You're absolutely right. Let's go ahead and start the introduction.

My name is Ken Golden. I'm currently retired from both being a member of the Madison City Council and from the state of Wisconsin Department of Health Services. My background is, I won't go through the whole thing because it's very sorted, but the last job I had for the last 15 years of my state employment was I was the manager of the community integration program, which was probably the biggest part of the Dane County budget until family care came along. In that program, I worked with people with developmental disabilities. and people with brain injuries. We had two federal waivers that I managed. I did the paperwork for Washington, and I also supervised about 25 people who were scattered around the state who were the most brilliant and wonderful people in the world. And over my desk, I had signs saying, I waste time, so you don't have to. And that was, I kind of did the bureaucracy for them and made sure that they had time to work with people and helping overseeing and doing that sort of stuff. Madison City Council, I did work quite a bit with the county because I was on the Regional Planning Commission for many years. I was chair of that commission for quite a number of years and on the Metropolitan Planning Organization for Transportation. On the council, my specialty was transportation, and everything I did has been undone. So it's irrelevant to talk about, and that's me.

Thanks, Ken. Phil?

Thanks. Hi, I'm Phil Saunders. I have been in Dane County 54 years now, although I'm substantially older than that. I'm both aging and disabled. Well, I'm not aging. I'm already old. I'm disabled in that I am what is called a recovering person. That is to say, I'm a drug addict, alcoholic, chemically dependent, whatever you like to call it, in recovery. And promote that shamelessly as much as is humanly possible. I do not represent a specific program because we don't do that. however i'm very much representing five eleven north carroll street which is the third oldest continually operating alano club in the world and it's conveniently loaded located right off the square at 511 North Carroll Street. We have meetings of all flavors. So we have AA, we have Al-Anon, we have NA, we have SAA, we have a new queer serenity group, we have a new spirituality group. And when I say spirituality, we're not talking about any sort of an established religion, but more of My particular caveat, we all in it together. Everybody that's in those rooms, everybody that needs to be in those rooms, and everybody that thinks we're whack job cultists because we are in those rooms, we all in it together. And I'm very grateful to be here. Thank you.

Okay, Jana, would you like to? I'm Jana Ma.

I'm the ADRC clerk.

Oh, that's brief.

Work for the county 37 years. Oh, okay.

Everybody knows Jennifer, but you probably want to introduce yourself. Hi, I am Jennifer Fisher. I am the manager of the ADRC. And we'll be connecting with the new board members myself or Bill Hoosier. We'll be connecting with you. Bill is The acting manager, I just came back from a medical leave and will actually be leaving on Wednesday for another medical leave. So you will be hearing from myself or Bill. And I've been the manager of the ADRC since we opened last. in November of 2012. Prior to that, I worked for the county in their long-term support waiver program for older adults and people with physical disabilities.

And I'm Esther Olson. I've been around for a while, and I've been involved in state advocacy and local advocacy and some federal. chaired the AAA Legislative Advocacy Committee for about 10 or 12 years. I sit on and currently chair the State Aging Advisory Council. And this is my second go around on the ADRC board. I was one of the initial people, but we had staggered appointments to stagger to get people in so we could rotate them off in a reasonable manner. And so I drew the short straw, so I only had one year, but I had enough time that I actually drafted the first draft of the bylaws for this committee. I did it on my way out to see my grandsons on an airplane flight once. And so I've been involved with AFC and been looking over Jennifer's shoulder for a long time, even though I haven't been sitting on the board and trying to keep everybody. I've tried to be a connection between all the pieces of the aging community and see that no one gets left out.

Excuse me, may I make one other note? I think it's very important that we recognize the fact that people are going along in their lives and highly functional. Then they retire. They've got too much time on their hands and drinking kicks in or, well, it's my medicine, my doctor gave it to me, so it's OK and so forth and so on. So substance abuse is a huge problem with seniors. And we're there down at 511's. and many other places around town, by the way, I might add.

Sorry about that. We don't have any board member reports.

We have the rest of the board members on the screen. Oh, we got Casey here.

Casey, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi, everyone. I'm Casey Thompson. I am a current secretary for the ADRC Governing Board. I think I've been a member since 2019. So going on seven years now. I am also a educator in the Madison Metropolitan School District. I'm a special education teacher and I work with our population that is more than likely going to qualify for some degree of lifelong care So they have a lot of interaction and they access the resources from ADRC. So my membership has always really been around trying to understand the breadth of services, how to make those services more available to my students, trying to keep up with the times. And similar to Ken, I started my work when the Dane County had its own funded system. And when we switched over to family care and Iris, that was just such a massive overhaul of things and That's when I had joined the board, just to make sure I could pay better attention to You know, getting connected to services and what was going to remain available. So primarily here to, you know, learn and advocate for the population that I serve, but help them also then better understand the service world that they are entering too. So happy to be a member and really happy to have three new board members join us. You all sound wonderful, capable, and we're excited to have you.

Thanks, Casey. Dave?

Sorry, I couldn't find the mute button fast enough. Hey everybody, I'm David Peterson. I'm technically a community member of the Interstate Governing Board. I think I've been on since this is the fourth year, but I'm also, in the time that I've served, I also ran and became a County Board Supervisor for District 36. So I'm one of those rare breeds. So as far as like community member versus County Supervisor, was I think for well over half the time was also the chair of this committee. But thank you, Esther, again for drawing the short straw. Appreciate that. But yeah, I was drawn to this committee because I have an autistic son. I have three sons all together, but wanted to stay close to the to this community and because he is disabled and a pleasure to meet you all and look forward to working together.

Thanks, Dave.

Elizabeth. Hi. Well, I'm no longer the newbie on the governing board. I've been on the board since last September. I'm a medical anthropologist. I'm a linguist and an IT professional and journalist. over my career. And I'm very proud to be able to serve as a medical anthropologist right now who also has a disability. I have a spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. And so I have used the ADRC ever since it was created. And I've used the services that existed prior to when the ADRC was created. And I'm very pro-ADRC because it has made such a difference in everyone's lives who needs to use the services that are offered. So with that, thank you. It's just an honor to be here and welcome to all the new people.

Thanks, Elizabeth. We have two other members. Geraldine left already, so we'll catch her next time. And Barbara Nichols wasn't here either. So we haven't seen her, though. Has she contacted her?

I reached out. I haven't heard from her.

Okay. So hopefully they'll be here next time, and we'll introduce them as they come. So we didn't have any board member reports that came in, right? Okay. So the manager's report.

I'm assuming you're going to do that. Yep. So hello, everyone. Just last month, Bill Hoosier was here for me because I was out on leave. I am briefly back for about two and a half weeks and actually go back out on Wednesday on medical leave. Bill will once again be the acting manager while I am gone and will be filling in my role as I am out. And so I will email out his contact information to everyone while I am gone. The ADRC continues to... answer the phone, we continue to meet with people. We had talked a little bit at the last meeting I was at in May about how we had adjusted our hours of operation. So we are now not answering the phone until 8.30. and are stopping our walk-in traffic at 4 o'clock. This was to help with the three vacant positions that we have that are frozen through the budget process this year, and then also to help staff in transitioning. The state had moved. all of the ADRCs to a new database system where we keep all of our case notes and records. And then starting in July, all of our staff have to do timekeeping in that system. So every 15 minutes, all of the workers have to document what they are doing and who they are doing it with so that we can draw down our funding from the state. And previously we had an Excel spreadsheet that each worker did every month that we then compiled and sent into the state. But starting in July, the Excel spreadsheet went away and we document in our case system those time increments. So adjusting our hours gave staff more time to be able to keep up on their timekeeping and records in their new system. So we are now doing appointments for meetings after four o'clock, which means if someone wants to come here to see us, it would be calling first to schedule an appointment. And as always, we will go out and see people whenever they want us to. And then we schedule those also for what is convenient to the person. And we had the month of May and June where our staff were actually double reporting. So they were learning how to do the new system and they were also still doing their old spreadsheets so that we could make sure everyone knew what they were doing, that the time matched, that they weren't not understanding something in the new system. So staff reported in the new system and the old system, and then we could compare the two systems to make sure it was good. Um, those two months of training went well. Um, and so now we're rolling in July in the new system and so far it is going well. Um, we, um, continue to be very busy in our phone center and in visits with consumers and also in people also can stop in at any time and see people without an appointment by coming into the ADRC. So that is kind of where we are at in terms of adjusting our hours. The public is now used to our adjusted hours and knows to ask for visits outside of that time. And then we will accommodate them that way instead of them being able to just walk in through 430. And That is our operating right now. We are still down our three staff that are frozen. We are hopeful with the budgeting for next year that we'll hopefully be able to fill some of those positions, but that's the next thing is working through the common budget process. Elizabeth, you have your hand up.

Yeah, I've got my IT professional hat on right now. And my question to you, I guess I'm also speaking as an anthropologist. The new timekeeping requirements on the system, it seems like hours have already been adjusted to accommodate it. What kind of burden has been added or taken away with the change in the system? And do you feel that this is a benefit or a detriment to the services that we're able to offer?

Oh, that's a good question. So the new database system that the state implemented definitely takes staff more time. So It collects more information, so we have more data on the callers, but there are more screens and different clicks to run through, and it is a state-owned system. So to make changes to the system or suggestions, we have to turn those into the state, the state prioritizes changes every year that they'll then implement. So the data system definitely takes more time than our old system, but it also is more detailed than the old system. So we have better data on callers and what people are calling them. about and the entire ADRC process. The time reporting piece, I'm going to say we're too early in the new system to tell because we've double reported for two months. We're just reporting this month. There were a group of ADRCs that piloted the time reporting. prior to it going live with the rest of the state. Those counties have reported the new system that they like the new system. I don't know if it necessarily saves time, but having it be in one place they enjoy. I don't feel like we have enough data yet to see if it's actually saving us time or not. My initial concern as the ADRC manager was that we were capturing our business correctly in the system so that we could draw down our contract funds from the state So those first couple months really comparing what people did in the system versus what was in their spreadsheet to make sure that they understood how the two cross referenced so that the claiming was the same so that we're not accidentally claiming something differently, which may impact the monetary drawdown. That has been going well where we're claiming like we have in the past. So I think time will tell as we continue to implement if it's truly a time saver or not. Definitely in May and June with people double reporting, it took more time because they're doing it in two different systems. But we needed that double reporting to happen to make sure that staff truly understood the new system and knew where to report their time and that they were reporting it in the right columns because different activities are a different drawdown from our state contract. So if it's a Medicaid-related task, We are also drawing down Medicaid dollars versus the state contract. And so those two months of double reporting, although it took extra staff time, was really important for learning.

Thank you. I hope that as you do get more data, I for one am quite interested in how this affects performance and whether the technology is a beneficial technology to track your time and to see monetary rewards from it. I really appreciate your very thorough answer. Thank you. And Good luck, Jennifer.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

This is Alice. I might be being naive here, but that data that you're referencing that is being collected, does that include demographics?

Yes. It does. So, yes, we do have demographics on our color.

Okay. So does it include things like language used? I'm just trying to think, you know, exact looking at how much money we have and how much is needed to compensate for things like interpreter services, if that's being considered.

Yeah, so it does. And so maybe what we can do in a future meeting is kind of go over what demographics the new system collects. And we can give some examples of past month callers, which I think would be helpful. And that being said, in August, Bill...

I did have another question. Oh, sorry. No, that's okay. So the walk-ins that you had mentioned, if a Deaf individual walks into your office, how is interpreting set up for that Deaf individual to be accommodated?

Yes, so when a person who is Deaf immediately walks in, at our front desk, we have a language access iPad that we can immediately call up an interpreter. And this is the same for someone who is deaf or whatever language they're speaking. We can initially call up an interpreter for a walk-in and use that interpreter on the iPad to initially address what the person came in about. And then depending on the situation and what's happening, we can then schedule an appointment with a set interpreter or use the online interpreter if maybe they just have a short, brief question. But that is one thing that is really wonderful is having that initial iPad that if someone comes in that needs an interpreter, we can pull one up right away. It works very seamless where we can see the interpreter, the interpreter can see us, and then schedule forward. I have to say that the iPad came out of us having walk-ins where we could not communicate with someone and then the need to find a workaround for that because it was very difficult. So this has been a really great piece of technology that we have been able to implement and use. And so it's always plugged in and ready to go at the front desk. And then can, because it's an iPad, travel to the room that you meet with the person, but it's there at the front desk to start and then just travels along. Thank you. Yeah. And so also for newer board members who maybe do not know, the ADRC also has on staff one bilingual Hmong speaking staff and two bilingual Spanish speaking staff. Those are the largest languages that we have interpreters for. So we do have staff who are bilingual and those are full-time staff that we have right now.

Great. Any more questions? All right.

Great. The only other thing I wanted to say is because Bill is filling in in August, we may not get data until September. Hopefully when I'm back, I'll work with Bill and see if he wants to do that in August or wait until I come back in September. So just want to give that little piece. All right.

Okay. Are there any other questions, Ann? We've got, we're okay to go.

Yeah.

All right. And the next item is future meeting items and dates. I guess, are we okay with this date that we have, which is the second Monday of the month at 3.30? The work continues to work.

It's August 10th. Yeah, so it's August 10th.

So the next meeting would be August 10th at 3.30 then. Works for me. And meeting items. So if there are things that you want to talk about at the next meeting, we can do it now or you can send Bill or myself a note so that we can get it on the agenda. I can't.

At our last meeting, I thought we had decided to have Dane County Transportation and possibly Medicine Metro as well.

I have them on that list. So we'll before Jennifer leaves, we'll have a conversation about that. I had Nick Musson from GWAR as the transportation person. There are three AAAs in Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Dane County, and then the rest of the state. It's called the Greater Wisconsin Area Aging Line. and resources takes care of the other 70 counties and then the tribes. Um, and so they have, um, a transportation, um, person who works with the Wisconsin Aging Advocacy Network. His name is Nick Musson. So I was going to ask if he would like to come, um, and give us a report at some point. So he's on my list. I have, um, Sarah Koenig, who was the state's nutrition director, I don't know, director or manager or whatever, to come. And Gina Shope, which is, she's the elder abuse manager. She gave a presentation to the State Aging Advisory Council last month, and it was excellent. It was very well done. And I think it could be very beneficial for us to hear on what's happening in the elder abuse community. And then also, I think somebody from housing we need to bring in. So that was my thinking for the next four meetings of speakers. So we could maybe have a panel discussion with Nick and Nathaniel. Nathaniel State, Dane County. And also the one other group that then missed was at the Dane County Transportation Board was also invited to the meet and greet. And I think there was another person there besides Nathaniel from that group. So that takes us to the end of the year. But if we can get all these people. But if you have... The rest of you have any thoughts about who you'd like to hear from, what other reports you'd like to hear from, what other agencies or whatever, please let me know or let Bill know or Jana, one of us, and we will try to get them scheduled and for meetings coming up in the future. Kim?

Some of the topics that you mentioned suggested to me that protective services of Dane County might be irrelevant pairing with elder abuse. I had a lot of dealings with them.

This presentation that I saw by Jenna was really excellent and it was broad, so I think it would be useful, but we can certainly look into that. Anyone else have any suggestions? Just send them to me or send them to the office and we'll get And we'll work on getting them lined up for coming to speak to us. So, are there anything else?

Okay.

Any other businesses allowed by law? I'm not ever sure what that means, but I don't think we should be doing anything that was against the law.

So, anyway.

And a public comment on items that are not on the agenda. I don't think we have any. Well, if the interpreters are public, I guess if they have anything they'd like to say. So if nothing more, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

To move.

Okay. Second. So we have a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. So if there's no discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Elizabeth, did you have something? Okay. All right. Opposed? Abstained. Okay. Motion carried. Thank you all for being here.