Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right. Well, good morning, everyone. And welcome to our Health and Human Services Committee meeting this morning, this Monday, October the 5th. And I'm going to call this meeting to order officially. And the first item on our agenda is to, yes. Chair Mayer, did you have a question? Chair Mayer, did you have a question or? Okay, if not, we'll move on. And so the first item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from our Health and Human Services Committee meeting on June the 15th or from June the 15th. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? I'll make a motion. Evans? Do I get a secon

And as you share, Ben, I'm just going to say we've got three items on the agenda, and we're going to try to split them up evenly and go about 40 minutes for each presentation. So, Ben, you take it away whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Ben, for that. Commissioners, tell me if you have some questions or comments at this point.

Okay. Okay. That's fine. I think one thing, Ben, to make clear, and I think you're saying is if, and I know it's a big if, if the error rate can stay below 6%, we would not have to pay any benefits amount. Is that right? Am I hearing that correctly?

Right, the admin cost, but not the benefit cost. And there's two differences. There's an admin cost and a benefit cost. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. All right. If not, any other questions, then let's proceed.

And one other thing to mention with our current budget is And I know our commissioners know this, but for any public who may be listening, wasn't the amount about $8 million that the General Assembly took from us from sales tax to allocate to other counties? And that's something that routinely happens. Can you speak to that?

And there's no indication that that will change now because of these SNAP issues. Is that correct?

Okay, thank you. All right, feel free to go ahead. All right, let's see.

Tony, can I just interrupt for just a second? Does QC and QA mean quality control and quality assurance? Is that what that stands for? Okay. And the board may know, but could you briefly go over NCFAST for everyone?

Thank you. And so the plan is to keep NC-FAST, but just try to improve it and streamline and make it as efficient as possible. Is that right?

Thank you for that. Let me just pause to see if any other commissioners have any questions or comments right now. Anyone else? Okay. We're not seeing any. Feel free to go ahead, Tony. Thank you.

So even if we make improvements, it won't matter? Is that right?

All right. Thank you for that. I see Manager Ellis has his hand, and then Chairman. Go ahead, Manager Ellis.

All right, then. Okay, Chair Miles, go right ahead.

Yes, good morning, and thank you, Tony, for the presentation. Now, I'm trying to make sure I'm understanding here. Each county has got to worry about that error rate, but then the state error rate is what we are basing it off. So even if we bring our rate down and the rest of the state counties are up, is that going to still affect us to have to make?

And I get it, and I appreciate that clarification. It just seemed like that other counties could not be putting forth an honest effort, but yet still we would end up being penalized because those other counties have not stepped up to the plate in terms of trying to make sure they bring their rates down. So that was my concern, and you've clarified it for me, and I appreciate it. So that means that we're hoping our colleagues around the state are stepping up to the plate as well.

Yeah, thank you for that question, Chairman. Dwayne, I see your hand up. Go right ahead.

Thank you so much, Tony. That is so much to manage. And I just can't tell you how much we appreciate you and all of our staff. And just thank you, thank you, thank you for trying to keep up with all these details and changes. Our time is about up, commissioners. Any last questions or comments before we transition to our next topic?

Well, again, thank you again, Tony. We'll look forward to more updates. Hang in there. I just know you are very much appreciated for all you and your staff are doing on behalf of our residents. Thank you so much. Bye bye.

Yes, welcome, Catherine. We know you and some colleagues from your cooperative extension are with us next to talk about food security, which ties right into the SNAP conversation, doesn't it? So go right ahead, Catherine.

Thank you, Catherine, and welcome, Trevor and Carlos.

Thank you for pausing there, Trevor. Commissioners, do you have any questions or comments? Trevor, one question I had was about just making sure that the food is getting used and it's any assistance provided with how to prepare or cook or Things like that. Could you speak about that just to make sure that the food is being used as effectively and efficiently as possible?

Great. Thank you for that. Commissioner Adams, go right ahead.

Yes. First, welcome to White County. We're glad you're here. I did want to talk about the produce box delivery. That was a very hard program to give up because when we started it, it seemed so innovative and there was so much research about In other places, when the folks who got the produce boxes, their A1Cs dropped after a year, their blood pressures went down, just so many health benefits. The folks, but unfortunately, it's a very expensive program. And we were using ARPA dollars and we're transitioning back to more of our typical operating costs. baseline. Do you, the folks who are no long

Yeah, and I know the match at the farmer's market, we were invited by the North Durham farmer's market that's only every other week to come and see their match program. And I had the opportunity to do that. And it was amazing. You know, I was in the tent for probably an hour chatting with the folks and hanging out. Then, of course, I had to go shopping. But I was noticing the people coming into the market. I would say well over half. were coming in to get the Matchbox before they went shopping. And it was very exciting to see people using it and people excited about going home with their veget

Yeah, this was actually an LGBTQ market. Who knew? Right. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. That it was, you know, I didn't even know such a thing existed till I got there. And that was really exciting to see. And of course, it's in a. a lower income area of Durham. So there was a lot of people who had walked up with their little shopping carts and, you know, that was just good to see. Yeah.

Very good. Thank you for sharing that, Commissioner Adamson. Commissioners, any other questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, feel free to go right ahead, Trevor.

Great. Thank you, Carlos. Commissioner Thomas, go right ahead.

Thank you so much. Thank you for that information. I just had a question about the listening sessions. I'm just wanting a little bit more information as you prepare for those, like the communication plan around when they're happening, where they're happening, where are they happening? Who's involved in those? I know you talked about stakeholders, but what kind of stakeholders or what kind of community members or who? Just wanting to get some more information on those listening sessions that are being convened early next year.

Thank you. That's helpful. The reason I asked the question is because one of the things Carlos had said is thinking about people who are currently involved, right? And usually when you have a group of people who are currently involved and they're telling their network, you're still only capturing a smaller group because I'm going to tell my friend, but we generally are in the same circle or the same friend group. And so, especially with what folks are experiencing in community and what we're seeing with benefits being cut, all of those things, I'm just trying to make sure that other people hav

Thank you for that, Catherine. You always do such a good job. I appreciate the articulation of that value partnership that you made there and the intention. that you expressed to continue the connection, especially with municipalities. I think oftentimes when people hear about us doing this work, when I say people, I mean community, they think that we do it alone, but it's absolutely crucial that we do it with our partners, but also with our municipalities. So thank you very much for that articulation.

Agreed. Very good. Great question and great response. Any other questions or comments, commissioners? All right. Well, we will look forward to hearing more. One thing I did want to ask, with the programs that you all mentioned under the slide that was talking about the ARPA Food Plan program investments, are those continuing through 2026, through this year, funding?

Right. So as I did the math, it looks like that's a total of about six point six million dollars total for those investments. So that's important because I know within your plan that's coming, we obviously want a dollar amount so we can think about. funding options and possibly I'd really like the private public public private partnerships that you were talking about to see if our business community could possibly help us they may what they may well be partners in this work so we'll look forward to hearing more okay so if no other questions we're going to move on to our next topic thank you Ca

Thank you, Miss Tamika. What a wonderful presentation. And I appreciate your energy and compassion so much in serving our children and families. And thank you for just being with us this morning. So I want to take some questions or comments now. Chairman, I'll go ahead and then Commissioner Adamson.

First of all, good morning, Tamika, and great presentation. Love the information that you are giving us today. And the most important thing that we know this, we got continued to support, and that's the kids that's involved here. I think at the end of the day, that's what this is all about. So again, we just appreciate your presentation today. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, exactly. Go ahead, Commissioner Adamson.

Thank you for doing this presentation today. I didn't realize, you know, I had gotten a briefing on this program what feels like 100 years ago. But we, I didn't realize folks who were not recipients of some type of benefits could use it. This is a fabulous service. But I understand that Sometimes people who get child support orders on them are very unhappy, especially if they have went some period of time where they didn't have to pay their child support. So what safety measures do y'all have in place to make sure the folks are safe who have to enforce these orders? We used to... I used to see

But how do we ensure that these folks are safe with people who are very angry and possibly volatile?

Thank you very much. That's good to know.

Yes, that is good to know. Very good question.

Tamika, I really like the way you've introduced yourself as the friendly child support lady or our friendly child support lady. So your demeanor comes out as being very authentic and compassionate. And so thank you. I had a couple of questions or comments. First of all, I really appreciate the father engagement work that's going on and continues to go on. I think that's so important. and I saw the picture of your child support team, so I was going to ask how big is your team? So it looks like it's several members based on the picture that you showed. Is that right?

Okay, great. And then, you know, we hear about continuing shifts and funding at the federal level, but with the federal staff, funding for this program has it remained relatively stable or have we had any cuts cuts in this program from the federal level it is it is very stable no good good well that is definitely good news and in terms of your services i know you said they're in the downtown area are any of the child support services provided at our regional centers or because of court situations is it primarily in downtown raleigh

That makes sense, but I appreciate the video option. It sounds like you're trying to be as accessible to our residents as possible. So those are all the questions I had. Commissioners, any final comments or questions before we sign off? All right. Well, thank you again, Tamika and all of our presenters. We appreciate all the details and the great information you shared. And commissioners, take a break and we'll have some affordable housing updates. Ben, did you have anything else you wanted to share before we signed off? Okay.