Social Services Board - Regular Meeting

Call this meeting to order and welcome everyone here. First item that we have is the discussion and adoption of agenda. Board members, if I could, please. We have one item on the agenda that was there, the adoption of proposed rules of procedure. I'd like to remove that item after speaking with the attorney and him presenting me with some more legal stuff. The court system is still up in the air about it. If you'd like, I can have him address it. But with your consent, we'd like to remove this item from the agenda until he can

Do you need a motion for that?

Yes. Yes,

we would need a motion.

I make a motion that we postpone that.

Remove that from the Remove

it and postpone it until A

second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you.

Now, we have the discussion and adoption of the agenda with the one item removed. What is the will of the board?

Can I make a comment here?

Yes, ma'am.

Are we going to discuss the contracts?

That that that will come up. Okay.

It just doesn't have to be on the agenda. That will come up under the directors.

I've put it under the directors. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Well, I'll make a motion that we accept the agenda.

I second.

Any discussion? All in favor, aye.

Aye. The

minutes have been sent out previously to all members. Hope you've had a chance to look at them. I will call for a motion of the adoption of the minutes from last meeting.

I'll make a motion that we adopt the minutes from my last meeting.

Will there be a second?

Yes, I second.

Any discussion? Call for a vote. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comments? Who who who do we have public comments?

DSS Rest? We just stand up

and see what we want. Hold on one second, ma'am. What what will I we will allow you three minutes to address the board. Please note that we will not be giving any feedback back but we would definitely be listening, okay? Yes, ma'am. Who do we have first? Please state your name, please.

I'm Elaine Connor, and I'm a receptionist with the income maintenance unit at DSS. And we wanna address the the security officers that have been put in place. So I worked for DSS eleven and a half years, eight years in reception. We're the initial point of contact when everybody comes into the office, And And

to

day. So they put in

a that. A lockdown button, and they put badges on the elevators, and that gave us some feeling of of security. But with them adding Allen and Bruce on-site is giving us a a feeling of security. We they communicate with us daily. They go through in the buildings and speak to all the workers every day.

It gives professionalism. They change their times that they walk through and the past that they take. So if somebody was watching, they they wouldn't be able to exactly pinpoint where they're gonna be, what time they're gonna And they have observed our surroundings. They have made notice of things that are lacking in our security and made suggestions on that. Compassionate for the homeless people that come in.

A lot of them wanna stay all day long and sleep or whatever. They're compassionate to that, but they also help us maintain the business atmosphere that we need. They go outside before we leave and sit in the parking lot and watch us exit the building just to make sure everybody's safe. Getting other vehicles. So, we welcome this this added benefit for VSS and we're really pleased with them and we thank you for your time and support.

Thank you, ma'am.

My name is Brittany Logan. I work in the food and nutrition office at the Redford County DSS and I've been there about seven months and I also want to reiterate what miss Elaine said and add to it. When I think of Allen and Bruce, Batman and Robin comes to mind. Not only do they work great together, but the confidence, pride, and integrity they put into keeping all of us at DSS safe. Not only do they take pride in what they do, but they show more initiative than your typical security officer.

The smiles, good mornings, how you doing, do you need anything, etcetera, etcetera, means a lot and lets us know that they care. Employee safety and well-being has been their top priority since the beginning. Whether it is an irate client, someone that is not supposed to be on the premises, or just simply someone having a bad day, we can always rest assure that they are already on top of things and ready to jump into action if need be. When it comes to the panic buttons that some of us do not have, that is where Batman and Robin's case come in if they are always ready to deescalate any situation that may arise. They are the eyes and ears that DSS has needed for some time.

Thank you. I'm

Hannah Wright. I'm income maintenance in the family and children's home on the 2nd Floor from these ladies. But I have been at DSS since 2015, and prior to that, I worked emergency services. So I know these two guys on the other side of the radio. So no one and seeing their faces come around in the mornings, I feel like I have a relationship relationship with with them.

Them. But everyone in our department just said that they appreciate knowing that they are on-site if need arise. Because in the past, before we had them, we had several incidences where we didn't have that, and we had where plants wanted to stay in the office two hours, basically, just not liking the policies that we are going forward. But that's just what everybody in our department feels. They love having them. And working, I also worked in a county where we have bulletproof glass and I just know if we don't have that at our agency, at least we have them on-site to help us. Thank

you, ma'am. We have anyone else for public comment? I learned this from commissioner King. Do we have anyone else from public comment? Do we have anyone else for public comment?

We will now have the personnel report, director Hunt. Is there a way on here to deviate conflict cases? Or to know how many cases you're having to deal with for this conflict? Because that's one of the things in the financial report. You're feeling a good bit for that.

Not conflict cases. What?

Can I can I say something?

The conflict cases that were, I think, mister Godlock speaking of, you're talking about in the legal line where I had said the the legal line was up due to conflict cases. That's for the contract for our attorney. We contract out our conflict cases to the attorney

to a different attorney.

How many cases are we having to send out for for various reasons?

Yeah. Because that's not on the personnel report. That's not personal. I personnel. That's our attorney contract. That's

we could probably take a guess at it. Conflict is is things where there may be a social worker that's related to someone in the agency or either they're on on our staff. That would be a conflict and I don't know. I I think white off I would say for cases that are kind of conflict five maybe.

Is that it just depends on what area. Okay. So because

my husband is talking about he's talking about Josh's Josh's conflict. Yeah.

No. I'm not just talking about Josh's. I'm talking about

But, I mean,

in what cases But what you're

talking about in the budget, that

Yeah. The attorney. That would make me think about it. Yeah. Because you not only would have your attorney, you would have whatever caseworker that we're having to bring in that's not a part of DSS. Right. And We have to contract with a different worker.

Right. So for conflict cases, we we there's no charge.

There's no

charge but because we just we do theirs and they do ours. There was one that we paid for because they couldn't do it. So, in order to move the case along, we actually paid for a contract person to go to the other county to do that case but that's that's an outlier that's like once in a blue moon but we don't we don't have to pay for conflict cases. And but for Josh. Josh. For the one that you saw in the legal line, there are some cases that are conflict for him. And we have someone else that we contract with when it's a conflict for our attorney.

Got one other thing. It's another book. What are we doing? Because are we doing something aggressively to try to shore up these vacant positions? Because every month, every week, what what are we doing up on that?

We are. We're excited about what we're doing. For one, we have started using ND. We were not using that until this year. So we are using Indeed.

We're using word-of-mouth to get the word out. We also have some now hiring hiring signs that we're gonna put out again that that work real well with this. For us. And also the state I just actually talked with them just a little bit ago about workers that that that just resigned but there is a workforce development team for the state that is actually going to assist. They're working through the universities to try to workers to the counties.

Any any other questions? Do

you get some entries? Mhmm. Look at

And how many of those wind up, like, they graduate, staying and taking a position?

We've had a couple. Maybe, yeah, maybe about since 2022, I can think of three that intern with us and ended up getting the job.

Are they paid interns?

It's it's of their schooling. So, you know, we don't pay it. And

there was a time that the school was no longer promoting children's services because of how how things have changed so much because we used to have the collaborative, you know, and then it was, you know, when they were in school, they could go through the collaborative and get their pre service and come straight out of school with their degree and go right into children's services and being able to work in the field. But, you know, with the things that surrounding children's services right now, we hadn't really got a push from the schools. The schools have started promoting more so medical social workers going into the hospitals. So that that that has hurt

us Mhmm. A lot.

Can I ask about the paid because some do paid internships as well?

Mhmm. That too. While you guys are still continuing to look, please do that, but I do have someone back here that I would like to introduce you to, if that's okay. I'm

a social worker at ESS in in home.

And how long have you been?

Just got hired this month, September 2 I started.

And what's your background?

I used to

be a CNA. I've been a CNA for six years and long term in nursing home. Mhmm. So I really work more elderly, so this is something new working with kids and families. You're welcome. Thank you. Welcome.

And let me just say while while they're still reviewing the personnel report, you guys are welcome to stay. If you like, we would love to have you there, but you're also welcome to leave. You can choose either one. Okay. And still on the personnel report. Any other questions?

Just

wanna say thank you for adding this at the bottom showing the difference month to month with staffing, the fires, and people leaving. Thank you.

We wanna give it up for Is

that okay? I know you did it. I know we had said Kayla would work on that, but thank you. All you

have to do is tell her in. Yes.

Anything to ask the question, hon?

No, not not for the first. No. Before I I do want to let the board know about some recent resignations. We have had this week within the last we've had four resignations this week. Now, let me explain where ir own.

To bit to get The state. Okay. The child, yeah. The the child child, they call it CFSP. Is is the state and so the state has contracted with elevants.

Slash healthy blue. And this is the project that is going to bring more funding for our foster children, especially the ones who have mental health issues. So that's what that is. So they had 400 workers across the state that they had to hire in seven regions. So we're Region 2, and five of our workers are now working for them. Why? They pay how many? Six. Six? Oh, I got a button.

Six. Why? Because they're looking for adoption slash foster care knowledge, DSS. DSS. Two, they pay 15,000 to $20,000 more than we're paying. Three, they don't lose retirement. This is the state umbrella. So it's still the state. You're not on call. Sign bonus. You get a sign on bonus. You cannot blame these workers for walking away from child welfare, which is very difficult. Child welfare is

hard. Mhmm.

So I'm not happy. I've been talking to the state today about it because they get us to sign the MOU or MOA. And when they get us to sign it, they want us to make sure that policy is good. But then there's a program that you guys have, and you dismantle our adoption and foster care program. And then we're supposed to still follow policy. It's just gonna be difficult to to do it. So I've already talked with them about that.

It's difficult, difficult, and and I I I understand the frustration. But if we, in Rutherford County, aren't recruiting, retaining as best as possible, then we fall into some of these other counties where the state comes in and takes us over. Yeah. Well It's hard. It fall it falls up on y'all's shoulders.

It it does. And and right now, there's no way that they would do that because our numbers look too good. And economic services, the numbers are good. In adult services, the numbers are good. In child welfare, the numbers are good. And that's what they're looking for. That that that's what they have. I I I know for sure that we need to clean some stuff up because that's just the way it is. But right now, we're fine. But with all of these open positions, I don't know how much longer we can be fine.

So but it I did anticipate. So in in in anticipating it, one of the things that pulled Tiffany in and that we have done is we have vamped up our contract workers. I mean, we probably have more contract workers than anybody in the state. How many how many would you say that we have now?

I'm sure we got about 10. Maybe more than that. Maybe more than that. Probably. But they also

You would probably know because you do the contracts.

I'm just saying you're

trying to

think I can't I can't

remember about that.

Social services, employees.

I'm sorry. Yes. Well, they have worked at the department, but they also work full time jobs. So sometimes that can be a little hard too. Right.

But they had to

have some knowledge.

Correct. Right. And so we hire the people who already have the knowledge to do contract work that just wanna make some extra money that are already vetted by the state because you can't just come in if you don't have your pre service training. So, that's important too. So, we we hire those and we just started ramping it up and thank goodness because now, we can have those folks that we can reach back to when we need to.

So one of our workers that does the 18 to 21 program that we live it with adult services because we knew that they needed more in adult services. We're able because we were thinking ahead. We're able to utilize that position over on the foster care side. Although we moved it over to adult services just just because we saw what was happening with adult services. So, I'm not happy.

We're not happy. It makes it makes me nervous but we are prepared. And we just wanna make sure that you guys know when you when you see those numbers coming in, that's what it is. They took I can't say they took, or I guess I can. Two supervisors between the two of them, 20 between the two of them. They took a note worker who'd been here twenty years. Again, you're not losing anything, and you don't have to be on call, and you don't have to worry about the risk of a child dying.

Well, that's saying a lot of positive things about Rutherford County.

I told Tiffany that this morning when we talked. I said, well, you know They want the best. Part of it is yeah. Part of it is complimentary. The other part is not. But so when you see those coming in, that's what it is. But we are gonna make sure that people we're gonna hopefully, they'll still do exit interviews just so we could get any feedback that we need. Anything you wanna add to that, Tiffany, part of the personnel report? That's pretty much it. Kayla, anything you wanna add? Okay. Personnel report who who

So have they begun their new position?

No. But the reason why you saw so many applications, so many resignations this month is because there is a training that there, you know, I mean, I'm kind of up on this. It's it's part of the state. So, there's a training getting ready to happen. So, I think they're just trying to get everybody in and ready for the training. So, your conversation with the state, what was the response? We'll we're sorry. We'll see what we can do.

That happens all This the

is the right to work state. There's nothing we can do about it. Already know that part. But I just needed them to know through the Directors Association that this is this hurts when you're dismantling programs. Right. So just to let you know. And so and with that, I conclude the personnel report. Thank you, Director. We have some staff here and they came to just support for the meeting. So I just want you guys to know just in case you need to ask them any questions.

So just to let everyone know, we have a panel here. You know it though. Oh yes, ma'am. Okay.

I've met them a ton.

Okay. I just wanna say that since we were at the personnel report, but we can certainly go to the director's report for that.

Ms. Price with the budget, please.

Okay.

If you look at your financial report on page two, at the top of the page, the highlighted contribution from general fund for your administrative expenses for the two months ended 08/31/2025 is at 13.52%. That is 3.15% under budget. We should be about at 16%, 16.75% at this point. Go to page three at the bottom. Your contribution from general fund for your programs is at 9.06%, which is 7.61% under budget.

At the very back, the last page, page nine shows DSS fund at 16.39%, which is point 28% under budget. So we're right at you know, we're right on budget, right where we should be for the two months ended. On page four starts your administrative expenses. The line that is we broke out separated the line out for salaries, overtime, and holiday pay. You'll see that mister Hundern had asked that we do that last month.

So the salaries over time in that line is just the amount that's been paid to workers for sitting with children. So you've got total amount that we paid so far this in the two months is $5,703.57. And then the holiday pay is just that's what we normally just had budgeted in that overtime line, and that's where they the workers get 50 or $100 based on what holiday it is. So we've only had one holiday this year, is July 4. So we've got $50 in that line.

So that the only thing that's in that salaries overtime line now is just the salaries for sitting. And, you know, so that's that's what that $5,700 is. Your salary is temporary, which is your next line down, is over budget. We're at 30% on the salaries temporary, and that is where we are paying those contract workers out of. We have several contract workers, and they asked me how many. And I just right off the top of my head, I cannot remember. But I'm pretty sure we got about 15 or 20, but on the whole agency

And this is where you can move money from We can

move money, yes, from salaries, regular. If we have lapsed salaries, which, you know, we're at 13.6% in our in our regular salary. So we're, you know, 3% under. So we've got about 100,000 right now in lapsed salary. So we're good right now to cover the temporary salaries line if we go over in that line.

Yes. Then the professional services legal, which is down just a little ways toward the bottom of the page, that line was over this month, and that was where mister Godelot was talking about the the conflict cases. That's where we've paying the actual contract attorneys to do conflict cases, to do TPRs that Josh and his team can't get to, other things that his team, you know, can't get to where we've got some money in that line to cover some of that. So of those that invoice that was just paid was for two months, and we just paid it this month. So that's why it's a little little over two for the month the monthly.

So then everything else in the on that pages was over or excuse me. There's nothing else over that on that page. Go to page five. Almost to the bottom of the page is your rentals line. That was over this month, and that is just our rental again for our mail machine. We pay that quarterly, and that's why that's over budget. And then your day sheet software at the bottom of the page, that one that invoice, you'll see this. We paid this month. So that's $7,011.96 was we budgeted $7,012. So we that there's nothing else that will come out of that line that show why that's showing a 100% spending.

And then if you'll turn to let's see what page we're on. Adoptions. Assistance vendor payment. We're on page seven. Your adoption assistance vendor payment's almost down the bottom page, three quarters the way page. We're over budget in that line, and that's just based on children's needs. Any adoption children that have been adopted that might need some special needs things that we pay out of that line. So we'll get reimbursed for that. That's 75% reimbursed. So all the other lines that are over, pretty much over last month, just a lot of them, one invoice payments.

Foster care, you'll see we're already at 24% on state, 25% spending on kinship, and 19% on four e on pages six and seven. So just kinda have to look at our foster care again because, you know, we're over last month.

So

or last year. Excuse me. So trending that way again this year. So does anybody have any questions? See anything that looks out of the ordinary.

Even though the foster care and the in other words, our over budget, we're still under budget for the total. So we're we're we're still

plugging right along.

Excuse me. Anything? I

have a question. It's actually it it it may be appropriate another portion of the meeting. Mhmm. But how somebody gets referred to special adult day care. So that's something we can talk

about under programs. So how do

they get referred to? How do they get into that? If It's not a budget question. That's why I saying if you wanna address it later, just wanted to say it before I forget it. Is the

mommy, I can address it. Hold hold

on one second. Anything else on budget? Let's go to programs.

Thank you.

That's why I said it.

Let's go to programs.

Afraid I'd forget.

Alright. So in regards to that question, so if a report is made and accepted and we can well, even if it's not accepted, we can still do community referral. So if it's accepted and we can do their referral to get them into those programs. Mhmm. And even if it if it's a screen out and we can say, okay. Well, let's do a

If you'll look for August 2025 for the services report and just let us know if you have any questions.

What decision? Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

I was looking at the CPS report.

The total from 24 to 25, my heart dropped. Is there a special reason?

Normally, we see our most high support for school is back in. Yes, ma'am. So I don't know what would be the reason, but yeah.

Was there a gap period during Halim? Like, when everything was so disrupted, you could schools out and things yeah.

It's in September. So

It's good, but it's it's good, but it's kinda scary. It makes you think were people not following these mandated reporting? Well, thank you. Because that is a big drop. Mhmm.

So I wonder what was happening in 2024. That's not happening in 2025 because

can

certainly look into that.

Now those foster homes that were relicensed, are they new or are they just

coming back? Just relicensed.

Okay. That that's what I

was like. Yeah. Relaxing. Okay.

I just wanna make sure. Do we have any idea when Mosaic Hope is coming on, singing to help with that?

With improvement?

Their new place.

And I and I think that they're changing their mission just a little. Okay.

That's a different move on. For another board. Yeah. Does the board see anything or have any comments about the service report?

Tell me again

about adult protective services, a community referral. What

and report our concern where they feel like an an adult is being abused and neglected or while abused or exploited or anything like that, caretaker neglected, anything like that. And if it doesn't meet the definition to say that because it has to say, is this adult disabled? Yes or no. Do they have someone that's willing to protect them? And that could be a yes, but it could still be some concerns, but don't meet the full this is enough for a report. So what we could do is we could we will make that a community referral, and they'll go out. They they'll talk to the adult about the concerns. And if the adult says, no. Get off my property. I don't want you here. Then we just leave. But you go out and just give them referrals to assist them whether it's get mental health services or

What about someone that lives by themselves that might be a danger to themselves or others? Is that a referral to DSS?

It's definitely concerning. Yes, ma'am. I would make a have somebody make a report. I

was going to ask, is there just thinking about your question about that change in numbers, is it possible to pull it by the referral source? Like how the report was called in

for

children? Because I think, you know, when you're asking about people not following mandatory reporting, then, like, maybe that's a comparison to see where all the calls came from in August 24 versus August 25. And

I was just, you know, reviewing the numbers. When we looked back at August 2024 and children services, those reports, step one thirty nine, and then you look at the subsidized childcare. Mhmm. That's high. You look at

you look at the crisis intervention program application taken.

So I I I do think that's about Helene. When was Helene?

September. September. So this wouldn't be But if

you think about too, though, all of the different resources that became available, all the different money that became available in the community after Helene that people were receiving that they wouldn't have received. Like, wonder what difference that made in, like, stressors in households and people behaving differently or people being transient and moving from place to place.

That is something to consider though because of these numbers are kind of high. Would love to know what that data really is. I mean, look at the childcare numbers. Right. I was looking

at that too. I'm wondering if there's a correlation between those things. And I wonder even with the school system, how many, like what the student population is this year versus last year.

And look at the Medicaid transportation.

Six zero five to four eighty three. Yeah.

Something was happening. I

mean, we should jump up and down when the numbers go low, but when they go low, it makes you wonder.

You make sure yeah. You just wanna yeah.

What's going on?

Well it's important to know the context behind numbers because it's always more nuanced than just what that shows. And

this is our quantitative data but there's always some qualitative data that goes with it.

Any other questions or comments about the service report? We'll now go to program update, social work, miss Dodd.

So I don't have a lot of updates. We are, you know, trying to stay positive in the midst of, you know, what director Hunt talked about earlier in regards to resignations and positions and things like that. So just still trying to stay positive and know the work has to be done. And like I said, we are meeting state mandates and policies, and we've had some good reports. We are seeing families timely. Adult services had a good report. The only thing that was a mark one mark on theirs was the supervisor wasn't giving herself credit for talking to her. She had put it in the record. So that was a really good report. Children's services, we're seeing our families.

So we've had some good reports, but, you know, a little down right now. But I think that, you know, we'll be fine. We'll ensure that, you know, we're still doing what we're supposed to do, meet mandates and policy. Learning all the new systems, path and see. APS is getting a new system, and the Healthy Blue will be a new system. So just learning all the systems and getting trained. And other than that, we're trucking along.

Any questions or comments for miss Dunn? We will now go to economic services. Miss Vicky Harden?

Yes. Hi, Vicky. Hi. Y'all bear with me. So we don't have a whole lot of things that as far as updates in economic services. I know director Hunt's already spoke about the CFSP. Of course, you know, that's a new managed managed care plan that's coming in. It's gonna cover our foster care and adoption populations. And it's gonna be managed by Blue Cross Blue Shield under the the name Healthy Blue Together. And it's a potential children and family specialties plan that benefits our North Carolina Medicaid enrolled children, youth, and young adults currently and formerly served by North Carolina Child Welfare.

And we're set to launch and go live December 1 with that. Up until that that go live date, the potential beneficiaries will continue to receive their current services and benefits through Medicaid direct just

like they are today.

And we got Tell me, what's gonna

be the change when you go to Blue Cross and Blue Shield?

It's just going under the The service provider? Yeah. Under the change

for the client?

Well, there'll be there'll be services I mean, as far as their managed care coverage and everything is gonna go under the healthy group together. They'll be the entity that will manage those services for them just like our other managed care providers now are.

And for children services, it's gonna be really good. It's gonna be the one piece is right now who we're under partners is we only have that 08:30 to five where they're assisting us with finding a placement for our kids to have their issues. This system is 247. So they keep going. They keep assisting us with finding placement. So we have a transportation piece now that we can utilize and get a reimbursement. So but as far as the plan, it's just, you know, that yeah. It's gonna be it's gonna be a benefit. And they're

gonna bring someone to the office that will actually be based at DSS. Mhmm. Probably one of our our It will be. You know? Yeah. It will be.

I believe that fake pale a big one for me.

Right. So yeah. So it's it's it's gonna be so so good for our kids. And it remember, you guys probably heard that sometimes in order to find appropriate placement that's going to assist the kids with their diagnosis, sometimes we have had to send them to other states. Right. This is supposed to rectify that. Okay. So that, you know, so that's going be easier for our workers. Uh-huh. So, we're we're we're hoping for the best. They pumped a lot of money in it and but our foster children deserve it so that they can really do their best to try to manage that stress that they already have by getting them some some help.

And we got a few breadcrumbs regarding the big beautiful bill at our last economic service call. Again, we don't a whole lot of details, but just, you know, they gave us a little bit to kind of make us ponder on. There's gonna be some changes made for the immigrant Medicaid policy, and that's going into effect 10/01/2026. They talked about a work requirement or a community engagement, and that's going in effect January 2027. We're going to six month CPs for our MXP population, and that's supposed to be effective 01/01/2027, which means workers are gonna have to review those cases twice a year.

We Tell what MXP is.

That's our Medicaid expansion program, the ones that cover the population that are not age blind or disabled and they meet the income requirements, citizenship requirements. There's going to be new limits on our retroactive coverage. Currently, have we can go back three months prior to the month of application for our expanded Medicaid population. They're only going to be able to go back one month prior to the month of application. And all other programs are going to a two month retroactive coverage.

So that's going to be a change from our current policy. And the states talked about, you know, there are a lot of things behind the scenes. You're going have to update forms. You're going to have to update the system. So it's gonna be a lot of work going forward, but they just kinda give us just tidbits just to kinda let us know what was going on. So

No major payment changes that

clients are receiving now because of the expansion. Some might receive lessors.

They didn't really touch on that too much. So, I'm not a 100% certain on that.

And Okay. That's about to get

right now for the updates and economic services.

Thank you, ma'am. Any questions at the time? Thank you. Director's report.

I've already told you about the updates from the state. That's basically all I want to talk about. But I do want to address the board about our two contracts that looks like we're doing things simultaneously. But I wanted to to explain that and Pam Price is here to assist me with that regarding the budget. We do currently have a contract with the sheriff's department where our contract specifies security and it also specifies delivering civil papers to our clients with child support.

And we also have a contract with Apex. And so when we decided to do this contract with Apex, it was because of all we kept for two years, we kept a list of all the safety incidents that happened. Candy's youth, it happened a lot over in Building C, which is our economic services area, but also child welfare as well. So we kept that, and all of those things hit my desk. And the only thing we could do was, you know, we would call the sheriff's department or the person that was under the contract.

And they would come, but at the end of the day, they're off delivering papers. So the contract right now is working for the civil papers part, but it's not necessarily giving us what we need for security. And this is the reason why we brought APEX down.

I'm gonna turn it over

to Pam, and she will tell you the the differences in what those contracts are. Because before we called in APEX, we did a neutral cost, which means that I found the money from another department where that put a position was gone. And in doing the research, we realized that the numbers hadn't changed, that the program was still functioning without us replacing that position. So that is the money that we moved over to use for this contract. So it did not cost us any additional money.

However, we do want you to know that the contracts when when you see the the price on the contracts because the state offers 50%, we're not paying that whole amount. I think that's how the contract got started with the sheriff's department in the first place because if if they were to go to work with the sheriff's department, it's money for money but if they were under our umbrella, supervised by us and our department, we get a 50% reimbursement for the state. So, the position that looks like it's total package benefits of $77,000 it's $38,000 So, it's only half of that. Do you want to add to that? That's all.

Okay. Yeah. And the same with Apex. Their their contract is 50% reimbursed by the state.

Approximately 50. Sometimes some months, it's a little higher based on what our overhead is and how many bill you know, what bills we've gotten, how much, you know, we claim. So usually right around 50, you can average for the entire year.

Yeah. And security is important for us and the workers and we appreciate the sheriff's department. We do and they come when we call them but having Apex there from 08:30 to five, we don't have to wait to get someone that's delivering papers. We have someone that's there, and they've already made lots of changes and have already made a significant difference since they've been there.

These difference I heard you say is the sheriff's department. They did the civil papers. Mhmm. So could that be a part time position?

Yeah. It it it could. You mean, like, half? Just just do the simple papers. Yeah. That's something to consider. It could be.

See, it goes back. Oh, it's just that it's

not part of what they do anyway without PSS paying them?

I just wanna mention this.

Yes. Okay.

It is it is what they do anyway, but I wanna I just I just we have we have the largest or the second largest in the county. And the fact that we do pay someone, we can get those papers delivered as soon as possible and we can get people served so that nothing lags. And I think that is the biggest part because it helps keeps our numbers up, especially with child support. When you see all the money that we have collected, it's because the child support parents have been served. I'm afraid that if we don't at least continue the the contract at least for that portion, that it gets in the stack with everything else.

And I I feel like it will it will cause a delay in getting those papers served. At least right now, we we know that that's what they do and they're gonna get it done.

That's the reason we originally contracted years ago with it. It was to have someone on-site. In the fiscal manual, it states that for us to claim a salary, that person should be on-site and supervised by the director for us to claim that salary. So really, that person is supposed to be in the office doing what the director has asked him to do. Not I mean, of course, they can help with the sheriff's department if if they have it. But most of their time was supposed to be or is supposed to be in the office before we can really physically claim this without an audit exception.

So the the issue goes back to on 12/20/2024, this contract with the sheriff's office was signed. And it seems like it was signed without discussion because there's not an issue with what Apex is doing. You've had workers to attest to that. We've got documentation to attest to what Apex is doing. Apex has one job per their contract.

Even though it's six or seven pages, they've got one job, security. That's it. They're doing a phenomenal job from everything that I'm hearing you see. So Apex is not an issue. I think you're gonna have to go back to the table with the sheriff's office because part of the piece with the sheriff's office when the report that I've got right here, then you can't fuss about the sheriff's office because it says the sheriff's MOU provides a deputy for subpoena delivery and occasional security presence.

Occasional is when she show up. She the officer is able to show up. The word here is occasional. Even in the contract, the deputy can't be on-site serving papers when they've gotta be out in the community. You can't have both. But we're paying full price.

Yeah. But their office is supposed to be there, they're supposed to be supervised directly from her. That's what the physical manual is.

So if that's the case, then they're not under the direction of DSS. How are we getting 50% reimbursement? Because, I mean, I see it from the sheriff's office standpoint also. This is not Apex. Apex is fulfilling their contract. They're providing security. But when you look at the contract with the sheriff's office, I am not bashing the sheriff's office because I know what that deputy is out there doing. Mhmm. The deputy is serving paperwork because you can pull the numbers. But if you're gonna say that the sheriff's office is not doing security, then they're not gonna be serving paperwork because they're gonna be on-site.

Then unless it specifically says that the deputy has to be in the building, as long as that deputy is in their car, they're on-site. They could be at Building A, B, or C. They may not be in Building A. How are we going to do that? Because like I said, I know we found the money for to pay for one position, but we got 13 open positions.

I mean, I've gotta look at it that way also. We're getting paperwork served. Then you have to think if this position with the sheriff's office is done away with, that's going to lower a person that the sheriff's office has dedicated to serve paperwork specifically for DSS. We can't have it that way either. But we're still spending a lot of money.

Would they have to be full time in order to get state reimbursement?

No. They don't have to be full time. They just have to have an office, be supervised by the DSS, be housed. If if they're housed there, but, I mean, of course, they can't be out in their office while they're serving papers. I I understand that. They've gotta have an office Right. To be housed at DSS. Any any position that is claimed on the fiscal lane or in the fiscal manual that's claimed on our reports has to be housed at DSS.

That's my understanding. There is an office for that deputy somewhere in the front office back there. So they have an office. Right? They just choose they just choose not to utilize it.

Correct.

I mean, you see how I'm I'm on both sides of fence.

Mhmm. Yeah.

I'm I'm looking at numbers. I'm looking at pay. I understand the sheriff's office standpoint. I understand what what we've got in place with Apex, which they're fulfilling their one line to provide security, eight to five. Then when they're up here, there there's a specific part for that. So no issue with APEX. But I think there needs to be further discussion with the sheriff's office because what I've got highlighted here on the whereas is and what we've what was signed on the twentieth is not being fulfilled.

And and I want the board to understand what happened and and what what we did. I did have a conversation about being on-site and I you know, there was a little pushback because that that was the car thing. You know? And then I talked with Pam, and we're like, no. This position really needs to be on-site.

Well, as the incidents kept coming, I felt to take care of the people. That's that's my job. And so while this while this papers were still being served and we were not getting at least what we needed for security because they were out serving papers, that's when I decided to do something and bring Apex in for the workers because it was too many incidents coming in and and nobody was people were not safe. They didn't feel safe. And when one person retired, she said that was one of the reasons why she retired because she didn't feel safe.

So I I just I did we we did talk about that. We did have a meeting about it. The person prior did have an office there. So so this is something I think that we do need to come to the table, back to the table and and and discuss.

Yeah. But it's it's in place. It gives a thing. I think conversation needs to be had with the sheriff's office. There's no issue with Apex. I don't think anybody has an issue with Apex. No. Because they're doing their one line of what they've been contracted to do. Sheriff's office has a two legged prong.

Mhmm. And and I think that in their defense, we have a fiscal manual. And Pam knows a fiscal manual, but she's been doing this for many, many years. But that that piece on fiscal manual, I think it's just inferred that you're supposed to be on the office because the last person was in the office. It it was never never really an issue. That person's office was there. But I think it's but when you read the contract, it doesn't specifically say that. You're right. It really doesn't. And I think that the next time we do the contract, if we already go there because right now we have security.

And we're good with it. But if we were to ever do that, we probably need it need to specify that.

Do you feel like the person is being supervised by you from the sheriff's department? Is that person being supervised by you?

I'm I'm I'm gonna say yes to to to to a certain degree. I'm gonna say yes because they they sign in with our eye reception every day, and I and and she does come to the office every day. So and when I, you know, when I need to talk with her, I'll I'll call her. She calls me back. So

you know?

It goes back. There was two things in the contract for this particular position with the sheriff's office to provide civil service. Check. They're doing that. Mhmm. But that security piece, we got Apex now. And how are we getting full how are we getting reimbursement when I'm here you saying that they're not maintaining their office, they're not under your control. Think you need to go back to the table with the sheriff's office and somehow renegotiate this contract or this MOU.

Right. Well, because the wording, like, conflicts in different places where it says that they're only assigned to DSS unless it's an emergency where they're pulled away. But then in other places, it's very vague and says they're out doing civil service unless called by the DSS director. So there's not consistency in the language. So I think that's why yeah. Yeah.

And I'll tell you this.

Why there's been wiggle room. Right.

Any officer any officer worth their salt. I don't care what they're out there doing. If there's a call for service and they're close to it, they're going to respond, which is gonna go against what's in this contract Mhmm. Under expectations of the DSS deputy while on duty. They are going to go to that call Mhmm. Which is gonna be in conflict with this. The way it's now because of Apex now, this needs to be relooked at even though we're still paying full price. Mhmm.

We agree. We we we totally agree with that. And we will do that. Just wondering if the board wants to be with me when I talk with the sheriff's department. I mean, just just asking.

I'd be more than happy to see it on it because I can see both sides of

it. Yeah. I I agree. And I'll

get clarification from our LBL, our state partners, on exactly what I mean, there's other agencies probably has the same situation, so I'm sure there's probably other contracts to say.

You know? Yeah. Mhmm.

So I'll get clarification just to make sure Alright. Before you talk to me.

Okay. So and I I I can get with and sheriff and come up with with the time and let you know.

I think security is more important now than ever. Exactly. Which is

the reason why I went ahead and did

And think do can people that in I

the police. I mean, I mean, I mean, what am I gonna do? You know? So I yeah. We we really needed security there. And when I tell you I'm happy, they have cut my work. I I'm not kidding. All that stuff came to my desk, and I was supposed to figure it out. And so And if

I may, what may need to be taken out of this is that security aspect. If they're on scene, if they're there, they're automatically going to do security. Mhmm. But because it's in here, and this is why we're saying that we bought Apex on, Mhmm. It makes the sheriff's office look bad. And that's what that what we're trying to do.

Yeah. And that no. We're not

trying to And then when we've got the civil piece of it, if they are assigned to civil, I understand, you know, they're they're doing that.

Well, I.

But if you get that.

Let me mention one other thing because this is another reason why we are going to meet with the sheriff's department. It's because we're now going to E courts. And e courts who's who who's serving e courts? I mean, so so so e courts, rather than having there's a change. Correct. The okay.

Right. Correct. The we will be responsible for serving getting services to the families now is what I understood at the mock trial we had

a few weeks ago.

So that's gonna probably put more on needing her to the sheriff's department to do those, get those notices out to the families. That was one of the things that they talked about at the mock trial TriNet.

Yeah. Because it's gotta be a sheriff's deputy that makes the return of service.

Right. Which which which means that we do need we we still need that person on-site especially because of the fiscal manager especially because now they're going to be not just child support but they're gonna be serving papers for child welfare as well.

So that that's why I think you need to sit down at the table with the sheriff's office to rediscuss this because as it is

It's not working.

It's not working, and we're still paying full price. Mhmm.

What does that increase in in serving papers look like

with that new addition? Oh, it's it's going to go up because now that now at the courts, I

think Double their amount of work, triple what's the estimate?

I would say double. That's just for me. That will probably need a question that Josh would need to answer.

Yeah. And we we are looking at other counties to see what they're doing so we can make sure that so get with Josh. Ask him to quit. He he and Sheila are actually going back and forth. Mhmm. Would ask another county, but we need to know what the increase is. For the county that's already doing it. And

so those we can look at. For those that's not familiar with e course, Rutherford County is one of the last 13 counties to come on board. Right. So there are some other counties that's already had to deal with this. Mhmm. But whenever you can get that meeting set up, I hope I'm available, and I'd love to sit in on it.

Okay. Well, we would we'll we'll just work around your schedule

because I I think it's a great

idea to have you on there. Any other comments that you guys would like to make about security,

in I the

think my partner Allen gave you our assessment last time and just urge take that into consideration.

You.

Allen Harden also former retired deputy, worked for Apex. We've worked well with the sheriff so far. What I mean, he's allowed us to keep our radios so we have contact because we are both active reserves with the sheriff's office, but we have to draw that line between security and debt. But we're the sheriff's allowed us to keep that. DSS has a couple of body cameras. Jay has got us iPads, refurbished iPads to be able to view video and stuff. We've got everything in place. We got it in place this week. I've gotta get with sheriff's office to have me set up the body cameras. Just a few aspects.

One, I'm gonna harp on cameras. I can't believe DSS doesn't have cameras. From working ten years security at the hospital, from working bailiff at the courthouse, and all the cameras, when I got to DSS, I'm like, where's the cameras? Huge, huge problem that needs to be addressed when it can be. A few things going forward, they put the bus stop there. And like one of the ladies said, we have, you know, a heart for the homeless. But you get people in. You know, they use bathroom. They get a drink of water. They charge their phones, set over there for a while.

You know? But if you got two or three people trying to sleep in the lobby, you've got some of the homeless people who are scary and some of their gestures and some of the things they're doing through clients that's coming in to the staff. So with that bus stop there, our homeless I mean, we show up for work or somebody's sleeping in front of the door. That's happened multiple times in a couple of months. We've been there. Happened yesterday. Yeah. I mean, you know, the ladies are coming. Hey, they're out here doing this. They're, you know, they're just scary to us.

So that bus stop is gonna add I understand that probation is possibly moving. If you ask the ladies like Elaine in Building C, the amount of time that before we got there, the amount of time that they've called probation to help them and not call law enforcement is tremendous from talking to the probation officers. If they leave, that's gonna leave just us. So there's a lot of reasons, I think, for the security, whether it's Apex or whatever you do. But I I really didn't when I when I went there, I thought when they take someone's children, I've been there on the law enforcement side, and I know how bad it can be.

And I'm like, that's why I'm here. And I've got there, I've realized that's been the smallest part of everything that we've had to deal with. But looking forward to any questions you have and Dee Dee and the rest of them have been overwhelmingly helpful and great. About any of you come down there and check out our office and what we got set up. I'm really proud of the program we have set up.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Do you guys have any questions for me? Sounds like you're doing a good job.

Glad you're there. Can I I'm sorry? Can I say something? I do I just don't know. Like, has made things more efficient. Like, because I know when there's security issues, a lot of people would come to me. And instead of trying to figure out if Kaylee's available or then call communications, I have one number I know I can call and there's someone there. So, that has been a very nice change.

I'll go

back and reiterate. The issue is not with Apex.

I just wanted to.

The issues with the contract with the sheriff's office. It's got to be relooked at. Yep. Because I'll say it again. We're paying full price. And we're not getting full service.

Oh, you called Apex Security a lot. But did you call the sheriff's department their security as well? I mean. I used to. That's what I meant before they came.

Yeah, I would have to call communications. Yeah. Or.

Did you? If it was bad. Did you get response? So.

It was, I mean, we would get a response, but it may not be timely. Like, I mean, it may take them a while to get there.

I think

the biggest issue, if officer Waters is a guilty or she's in Caroline serving a paper and then somebody comes in with a problem, you know, the staff's scared and they want an answer right then and they've gotta wait twenty or thirty minutes before she gets there because she comes in and what she typically does and I we work with

Let's let's don't talk about it. Okay. A a specific officer.

Okay.

If happens, we're here. We'll take care of it. You know, she said call me anytime you need it if you think it's gonna be bad. So we're working well with the DSS officer. But it's just it's a time it's a time factor. Yeah. I mean, we're 578 square miles.

That's are you allowed

to detain people until law enforcement gets there? No.

Yes, ma'am. For any felony, damaged property, assaults, we can detain. Detain. We have everything that our officer has. We just can't arrest. In other words, I can detain you. I can cuff you. Law enforcement officers arrive. They will make a decision whether to arrest or not subpoena us as witnesses.

And if I could add one thing, we can't put a number on it, but just us being around, I feel that we have deterred a lot of things. Like I said, you will never know what you deter because you're deterred but like one guy came in today, he had this big coat on, gloves, and he had a motorcycle helmet on. Didn't take it off. So I stepped out there, and he looked at me, and he took the helmet off. He realized, you know

I look questionable. I look questionable.

Mhmm. So, you know, I didn't think he was gonna you know, he he wouldn't make any kind of gesture or anything like that, but I think just having us there, we avoid problems that he'll have.

Well, even something like that where there's not Valentine on his part, but just based on what you described emotions get heightened and things escalate unnecessarily where it may have just been a low key exchange otherwise. But yeah. So that makes sense.

Went and got the forms and started stacking. They'd be out there where I could be seen.

Anything else, Dorothy?

No. That's that's all we have.

You do have one line like that. Update from the state.

Oh, that's when I was talking about the I've already talked about it. Oh, okay. Yeah. The Healthy Blue and all of that, yeah. There's there's nothing else. That's a big, beautiful bill and we're we're gonna manage that as best we can.

Is there anything else from the board? Our next meeting will be October 15. There's nothing else. I'll ask for a motion to adjourn.

I make a motion that the meeting adjourn at

05:18. All

in favor? Aye. Is there any discussion? All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned.