Social Services Board - Regular Meeting

It's 04:00. We'll go ahead and welcome everyone to the October Department of Social Services Board of meeting. Thank you for all the staff and everyone that's here. Thank you, director Hunt. I know probably what that traffic on 40 And 26, and thank you that you made it here safely.

Thank you very much.

We have the agenda before us. Are there any corrections or anything that you'd like to see? If not, I'd call for a vote.

I make a motion that we accept the agendas outlined. I second the motion.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed, like sign. Everything passes. Ms. Murray has been so gracious on 09/24 to send out the minutes from the September meeting. I think Ms. Suzanne has gotten them now.

I have read them, yes. Thank you.

Thank you for fixing my email.

Sometimes technology has issues. Are there any discussion about the minutes? If not, I'll call for a vote.

Make a motion to approve the minutes as submitted. Second.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed like sign. Next item on the agenda is the adoption of the proposed rules of procedure update. Just quickly, mister Williams is not feeling well and he will not be in attendance. After I spoke to him, we do not want him in attendance. Bless his heart. He's not feeling well. But he should be better tomorrow, hopefully. And so just to bring to the board's attention, the biggest change that there is is about the elect attending the meeting electronically.

And so with that being said, if we adopt this new rule, what would happen is you could participate electronically as a board member. Your attendance electronically would count for attendance plus you would be able to ask questions, participate in discussion, but by participating electronically it would not count toward a quorum and you would not be able to make motions or vote on motions on the table. That is the biggest change. So with that being said, if there was questions that you would have, we may want to consider not adopting this and holding off for any other questions you may have for mister Williams. These proposed changes is coming from our attorney who strongly suggests that this is the route that we go.

What is the will of the board?

I think it would be helpful for him to be here to explain this because I know you and I both had questions about this. Mhmm. And he explained it to us, and I think him providing the context for why it is what it is

Yeah.

Is helpful as well as just the explanation because it is. It does seem like it's contradictory when you read it.

The words that I use were it scrambled my eggs and I need him to fluff it up to make me understand it. Just a second. So with that being said, would you like to make a motion that we table this to the next meeting with the county attorney present?

I would like to make that motion.

Would there be a second?

A second.

All in favor, aye. Aye. I'm sorry, was there any further discussion? Just so that everyone would know, these changes have been emailed to you and the proposed changes mister Williams has emailed them out and I tried to make sure they was forwarded. So if anybody from the staff wants to see them, you we'll be more than happy to provide them to you. Ms. Kim should have them. Hopefully, they came to you also.

And I think it showed the changes in red so it's easier to read them and see what the differences were. Were they not? Yeah. Then looking at this and trying to figure it out.

And like I said, mister Williams' explanation, we may not all jump up and agree with it but I do kind of understand it. Best way to avoid it if once we and if it's adopted, attend in person. As long as we have a quorum in person, business can carry on. Alright. Next item on agenda. Do have any public comments? No

public comments.

Alright. Have the personnel report. Director Hunt, I hope she's had a chance to correct catch your breath for a minute.

Yes. I have

that's like.

We've already looked at the report in advance, so so we're good. Before we look at the data on the personnel report, I'd like to point everybody's attention to the people in the room. And do the managers want to tell the board who they are? Okay. Alexis Husky. Hello.

Hello. Alexis. She came to us in on September 22. She was at Cleveland County DSS family insurance family insurance Medicaid worker, and she's now in family insurance Medicaid worker with Rutherford County.

Wow. Thank you. Mhmm.

Hello. And

everybody's been safe. And then we have Melissa Gilbert. She started with us

about two weeks ago? The fifteenth. Oh, month ago, yeah.

She's been in the secretary of field for five years and she worked with human resources in Shelby. I forgot where it was for ten years prior to that.

So we're just snagging everyone from Cleveland County, aren't we? Did you

bring friends?

What what part of

human resources did you work at?

I worked for a subcontractor at PPG.

Okay. Your face looks very familiar.

You know what? She looks a little bit like Amanda McGee. Don't know Amanda, but she looked very She looks really Me too, I just realized that's what it is. You look Yep.

Well, since y'all saying people look like somebody, she look like Shonda Rhimes. Oh, yeah. From Scandal.

Oh, he does.

Oh, when I looked up, I'm like bless your young

heart. No.

Bless your young heart.

I know he remembered your name.

It's a that's a good thing. That is a good thing.

Just so you know, this is the board and they are a pivotal piece of the work that we do. They support us. If there's questions that they have, they do that. They are Thank

you all for being a part of Rutherford County.

Did you move to Rutherford County?

Has anyone ever stayed

I remember.

Yes. Yes. We

okay. We've had we've had a couple of Good meeting both of you. Thank you. You're welcome. You. Absolutely. Alright. She's gonna go Google that. If you'll go ahead and review the personnel report for September, and let us know if you have any questions.

Biggest one, forty two eighty six. Take care now. Is it just they they got a caseload of 10 with that much time and 44 seventeen's got a bigger caseload with less time. Happening with them on

that? Area?

CPS. Oh,

CPS. Okay.

I guess I'm just looking at numbers because they look like they're doing the majority of the work.

So that was he's no longer with the agency, but he was a frontline person. He worked at assessments. What was the other number you compared?

4417. 17 more cases in half the amount

of Yeah.

So let me Okay. Either one of them or what is the other one. Okay.

That'll explain.

Right. So the $42.86, when a person turns in their notice Mhmm. We really want them to get their work done, complete their assignments, try to close as many cases as they can so that the next worker will have a smooth transition. So they end up working overtime to get that done so that they can leave within those couple of weeks that they're giving us for the notice. So that's why you see a lot for September.

It was working over. And we approved that. Well, there was already overtime because there was only just, like, three people on the front lines, which is CPS assessments. But for this particular person who went to went to work with one of the places I was telling you about that's taken six other workers, that was one of them. And most of them gave us very two week notices to get started with with the other place, so they needed to work over. Did did

that mean that they didn't really keep up what they were doing?

Not necessarily. No. So for the one the 40 two eighty six, this individual didn't mind staying over till the work was done. This individual, which is why the case looks like it

does

because you continue to work. You do documentation. You know, you don't stop at five. There was a lot of situations too where this individual was also pulled up to backup duties with our on call, but 4286 don't work. And so the other one you compared it to, there was some struggles along the way. So which is why you noticed that the case load is higher and the

Yeah. One of the one of the the persons that that you're that you're speaking of, we did not confirm their permanency because of that. So we did not approve permanence for that particular person.

It's kinda scary. Oh, I can't say it no different. It's scary that that's happening. That this person has 10 cases or caseload and they're gonna leave and they're supposedly working over, hopefully they just didn't stay over, you know, was there some follow through to make sure that whoever they was caseloading was taken care of properly and they just didn't close out a case?

So about the the 10? Yes.

I mean, what I'm looking like, okay, the 27 and they got forty eight point five three hours. Mhmm. Okay. So it sound like, okay. I'm gonna get through quickly and I'm just on this side looking at numbers. And then you got the 10, well, I'm gonna take my time. I'm gonna milk this a little bit. I got two weeks and I know I'm going out the door. They can't fire me. Was there a follow through to make sure that the cases were closed properly? Whoever they were supervising not supervising, whoever they were looking after was properly taken care of?

Did they have more cases than this? And by the time we got this report, they closed out a bunch.

They basically have more cases than 10.

Okay. Mhmm. And and, also, let me also explain about the the one that has the least amount of cases. They were not doing all their work. Other people we had contract workers providing assistance, which is the reason why we did not approve permanence for this person. We had contract workers assisting because they were not able to get the work done.

You're talking about the one The and six.

No. No. The other one. That's that's why that's why there's so little little time there.

That's why there's less time. They doing comparable things?

She said cases.

They what? Were they doing comparable things?

Yes. She said? Okay. They were doing comparable things.

I wanna

make sure it was one a supervisor and one wasn't. That's why I'm, like Mhmm.

Yeah. Yeah. They were doing comparable things. So And and and the good thing is that you do have have people that are they they're conscientious about their work, and they want to stay over work the overtime so that when they leave their cases, they can come back if they want to. This particular person came to my office and said that this is my last day, got everything caught up.

The only reason why I'm leaving is because of pay. Mhmm. That's what that person said. And and I said, well, because you've done a great job closing out your cases, certainly, you're back. So if it doesn't work out, come back. He closed

out a lot is what you're saying. So it's definitely more than 10 that he had. Okay. That yeah. Just looking at that, I agree with what Leon was saying. But

Don't don't forget. All I can go by is the numbers that's before, and I'll always say that. Whatever's before me.

Right. So

why do some people

have zero caseload training? There

are lots of circumstances, things that we don't know.

And that's what this is about. So I'm happy for the questions and so is Tiffany.

And you're down a certain number of positions as well. So you got some that are having to burn it up. Right. Doing double time. I

know you've probably said this before. What is the and I know it varies from situation to situation depending on the number of kids in a case, but what's the general optimal caseload that you want to see your workers have?

So for assessments, the policy states of 10 or below for assessments and for in home services 12. That's when you can do good social work. Not saying that they're not doing it, but it's hard with case loads like that. But right now, we have three assessors on the front.

So that tells you something about this particular worker that we were talking about. And when you see cases that are up that high, it in CPES assessments, it means that they're holding on the cases and for some reason, they're not closing them out. And it sends a red flag because we get reports every month. And we go over those reports and we will say, what is going on with this case? So when we realize it, then if they're still not closing them out, then we have to call in other people to to assist. And then at at some point, we have to realize that maybe this person this this job is not for that person. They needed probably doing something else.

We just don't want any kids to fall through the cracks.

Alright. I totally agree with you. Absolutely. That that is the one thing that that we work hard to do and that keeps me up at night. We're writing policy and proceed we're writing procedures right now for our policies that we feel like will help with that.

How long is our probationary period now?

Six months. We can take it up to a year. But I've learned that if things aren't happening the way that they should in about six months, that's a really good sign.

It's easier to do it then than it is to wait.

Learn that the hard way. Cut your losses early. Learned that the hard way.

And the foster care and adoptions, 3179. Is that an employee that left? Triple digit number, 3179.

No. This employee has a lot of kids that's not in the county. Okay. A lot of road time,

travel time,

just about his entire caseload is and he takes time off, but he keeps it right back.

So miss Dodd, is

it kind of safe to say

those with even the numbers 60 and above cases out of the county, is that what could possibly do with them also?

Correct. And we have so many more kids where they're having to do run these visits and working after hours a lot, running the roads.

May have to go to the other side of state on some of those.

And some out of state, is that because they're in a special group home?

Yes, ma'am.

Mhmm. Mhmm. There's also a part of policy that says that children should be in the most appropriate placement if they have an identified need. We're not supposed to just put them anywhere. We're supposed to put them in a placement that meets their needs.

And sometimes that means out of state. We're hoping we do better with that.

And Alabama.

So they have to go like to Alabama to see? Now

we have come up with some creative things to partner with Alabama to see if they will see our children for one month, but it's like you're not supposed to go over one quarter without putting your eyes on that child even if somebody else did. Mhmm. So they still have to go.

We've also partnered with other agencies. So like if Gaston County has a kid in Alabama, they may see our kid for the first two months and then we'll go the next two months. So that's how we've been trying to cut some of the cost.

What kind of service home is it in Alabama?

Board have any other questions or discussion about the person I have before?

I was thinking about the psychiatric facility. What's the average length of time someone usually stays there?

So a PRTF can be up to six months, but they like to continue to because if those behaviors are changing, they want to get them leveled down. But it could be longer depending on their behaviors, but they they don't like to keep them too long. But the program can be up to a year, but they don't really like to keep them that long.

And you've seen success after they come back?

No. Because they end up right back in those facilities, the ones that we've had so far.

On this exit survey result, is this for a month, or is this for, like, a year? How long is

this period?

This is all the numbers that Kayla gave you. I don't think that that's a very comprehensive report. I I spoke with Kim on the way down the road, and she said that Kayla had the numbers, but I don't even understand those numbers because they're too broad. Yes. That's the word. Yeah. They're too broad. So and it's not on the I was gonna add

it to the director's report, but what I'll do

is get, for example, where the broad ones are. We can actually make it more specific and put the reasons up under there because stress can be anything.

Yeah. Because I I forgot which board member asked for this. First of all, thank you for having me. You're welcome. But I think it would be more advantageous if it was, like, a month or something like that.

To say that this is for the I think I told her for the last year. Okay. I think, but it's not written, so I can't be sure.

Yeah. Because I'm like So I know we ain't had no 10 I know 10 retirements probably in a year. But

It's yeah. I I think I told her for a year, but but let's have it nice a nice written report with the the timing that it is Yes. With what stress really means.

Is it

stress of the job? Is it stress of home life? Is it work life? You know? So I I I think there needs to be a little bit more specificity to that report. So we'll we can we do produce it again next month?

Oh, yes, ma'am.

Okay. And we'll put that on the direct I think I

asked for that when we were talking about

You did. Yeah. So we had Thank you for it. Pretty welcome.

It would be good to know, too, not specifically where they go to or did they leave to go to another DSAS or did they leave to go to private sector, that company? Sometimes you can see, as far as retention, you can see if we're losing it to Cleveland County or those type That's

what needs to

be in that report, and that's also part of the report that the county manager and HR director wants as well. So we're actually developing and we have to have that ready by January.

We're doing better with retention. Believe it or not, I don't know, four years ago, just in protective surgery, we were like 45% turnover. I know that sounds crazy, but it was 10% in the surrounding counties, but it was at that time, it was about 45%. It was high. Mhmm. Which is high anyway in child care or or a lot of positions. But

Child care services is the one, though.

Yeah. It is.

They they usually the longest they normally last is on the average is two years.

And during that time, I counted out by 35 people, and I bet you close to half of them have gone to work for another DSS. Mhmm. You know? But they it comes down to tax dollars and more tax revenue you have, the better salary you offer in the county. I bumped them to magic pay scale. That's why I want to

Keep a calling up the

go to

these larger counties, but it's a hard harder to in volume. So

Plus, lose two hours a day driving.

Yeah.

Just wonder why did the people say they came here from Cleveland County?

Alexis Husky said it was not an environment that was conducive to her beliefs in Cleveland County.

She come at the same pay?

Very similar. Melissa had went to work for clerical in the count in Rutherford County. No names. Oh, sorry. No problem. And where she was working, I think it closed something happened where it closed or she wasn't in or something. Okay. Her Cleveland County time was prior to her five years of clerical. Oh, okay. That's five years ago.

It was just interesting that we had them coming from Cleveland County.

Anything else on personnel?

No. Don't have anything else.

We will recognize Ms. Price for the budget discussion.

You have your funds report in front of you for

the period ending 09/30/2025. On page two,

your contribution from funeral fund is at

28.62%. For the three months ended, we should be

at 25% spending. We're at 28.62,

which is 3.62% over budget for your administrative expenses. On page three, your program expenses is at 21.73, which is 3.27% under budget. Total budget on page nine, flip the very back is at 224.86% of spending which is point 14% under budget. So, we're just right at budget for the total budget. There were there's no lines over budget this time that was not over last month.

So, everything that was over budget last month is over budget again this month. Basically, most of em are one, you know, invoice being paid, and we've already paid that for the year. Most of those with our insurances and our software and that type of thing. Yeah. Our temporary salaries and our salaries over time. Those are those we broke out the the pay for the seating for the children. You see, we spent about $10,000 so far with children sitting with children this year So far in just the three months. Mhmm. So that's a big big issue. You know trying to find placement with those with those children.

And then in our programs our foster care is is right at you know, 37% spending on state foster care, kinship foster care, that's on page six and seven

and our four E foster care is at 30% spending.

So, we should be at 25% right now. So that's what's driving. So right now we're we're still right at budget, but who knows the foster care being

at 37% spending already. So

Anybody have any questions? Anything?

Look odd to anyone.

Spending

We have a fiscal monitoring coming up this year, so we didn't have one last year. We so this year, we'll have our fiscal monitoring, our single audit we passed, but fiscal monitoring will be up yet that they've that we wouldn't get any funds. So far, we're we're getting our funding. So, and I just, I think, take it day at one day at a time. So.

Yeah. I don't know if there's any updates on that. We'll we'll let you guys know. Any funding but right now, we're getting everything.

Any board have questions or comments for Ms. Price? We recognize director Huntergan for service report. On

page 10, you will see the services report. Report. These are the all the services that we offer through our department, and we have the date of year data, and then, of course, the month previous. So let us know if you have any questions about our data.

Our children in foster care just keeps going up. Would you refresh my mind? Deciding to gather participants. What's that?

So that took the place of the it's a tips map training that they do to get parents licensed to be foster parents.

Okay. Mhmm. Is that kinda what Mosaic is doing? Mhmm. Something like that?

No. It had to be somebody who's trained in tips map Okay. In order to take the hopeful foster parents through the classes.

A trauma focused.

What is children legally free? What's that mean? So that means that they are able to be adopted, meaning the process paperwork has been filed, and they are ready to get towards adoption and just finding them wrong. I think that's what it is. Okay. Approval for adoption if they

hadn't hadn't finished the That paperwork. Right. Okay.

If they're free for adoption and they get adopted, can the parents come back after a period of time? No?

Once they're legally free and they're adopted, that's it.

When you get to the director's report, you be talking about state of the government? So we'll just hold off.

Sometimes it changes by the day, so I just have to tell you real time.

Board have any questions about the service report? Comments? Questions?

No.

Just looking at comparison from September 24 and '25, CPS reports total, the number is higher, but the screenings for now is higher. That's really depressing.

There's a lot of crisis intervention. Mhmm. It's a.

We did add the conflict of interest cases for you, board chair.

See that. Yes, ma'am.

We just

got a new allotment in August from our federal funds for the energy crisis program and in August, it was pretty hot. So a lot of people applied for cooling. Okay. And now it's getting ready to transition into heating.

Does. The

difference between the September 2024 and September 2025, is policy changed to where you didn't have to have a health crisis to be eligible as long as you met eligibility standards for income, stuff like that, you could be eligible to receive and not have to say, okay, this is gonna affect me because of this.

So you have a much broader pool of people. Yes. Yeah.

So you're a lot more people eligible. Okay. That's why they're more this September than it was in September.

Thank you. That context makes a big difference in what that number looks like. While

we while you're talking, I just wanna say welcome back. She had back surgery.

Don't lift over 10 pounds. Any other questions or comments on the service report? We'll go on to program updates. Social work, miss Dodd.

So for me, I really don't have a lot of updates. Just that women still learn path and sleep program and getting ready to jump into the healthy goo and all those trainings and learn about the new things that's coming. And that's pretty much it. Trying to get some applicants. We're having a job fair Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week. So I'll be sitting out in the lobby at DSN. If y'all know somebody, them to come see me. Other than that, that's pretty much it.

This crazy question when you're talking about job fair. Do we reach out to the community college in different places like it? Isothermal, Cleveland, Blue Ridge, Westin?

Were there last week on the ninth. So Linda, Amy and Kayla, they sent out all the flyers and all that stuff and I sent it to every board I'm on and sent it out all over. So, hopefully, we'll have.

So are you looking for people with with degrees and without degrees?

For me with degrees. Yes, ma'am. Well, yes.

For me, it it have to be degrees. A bachelor's or Either.

Then what's sad, you could get an applicant that fills it out and within that six months, they don't work out.

Right. That's the trouble I think that all directors are having is qualified applicants. Ones that I I mean, know that you can have a degree and then not necessarily be in social work, and you still have the passion for the work. But a lot of times, we just don't get the qualified people, and then they're in a work against, which means that they're making lower money. Mhmm. So if something dangles at them that's higher Mhmm. They're gonna run away. Because the work against is how long?

Three? A year? A year. Year.

Bumps every year. It bumps up every year. So a person starting as a CPS assessment worker, which also we call front lines or a foster care social worker or an adoption social worker. They don't their position is a social worker three, but if they're in a work against, which means that they don't qualify on paper, but they have a degree Mhmm. Then it it will take them three years to make that step one. Mhmm. Three. Oh, it's a long time. Mhmm. It it is.

Mhmm. And they would

And and no offense when I say this, but but our younger generation, they're real they they want it quicker. Mhmm. Much quicker. Willing to wait. Mhmm. So it's true.

That would be good for someone that has a degree but is not in social work related field if there's an internship, maybe they just work for six months on an internship or something and then they will qualify less than that three years.

You talked with Doctor. Queen over at the college. We met him. They're looking at doing some apprenticeships rather than waiting for the child to finish school to go to work. They're wanting to get it on the front end and if somebody's got the skill set, you can get them on the front end while they're in school and hire a man where they're already becoming part of you and can when they get to a degree, they can, you know, already be involved and that kind of thing. Okay. They're just starting some of this, but it's very innovative, very so doctor Quinn, he's the new vice president of college. He was hired probably two months ago.

Okay. That's

good. But you have a relationship with him. Scott Queen.

Yeah. Yeah.

We went to school together. Yeah.

He's from he was at Blue Ridge and lived in Hendersonville. And this really sharp guy.

He is sharp.

Yeah. That's That's just an idea. May talk to them. It might not work in some positions but you might be able to bring them in at an entry level position and then, you know, already be here and you can see their work skills and their habits and all that kind of stuff.

That's good in food and nutrition also. Was thinking about your program as well. And you do have a relationship with some of the colleges maybe like at Gardner Webb and different places for interns.

We've been having some of those. We also do the state because they have heard our cry. So there's a partnership with Appalachian, Western, Garden Webb, UNC Asheville for social workers. So they call you and ask you if you're interested, that's just part of what the state is doing to try to help us. And so if if a person lives in this area, wanna work in this area, they send them to us for internship.

So we've had we've had a a few. We're trying. We do have out now hiring signs. So I haven't asked if anybody's walked in yet. Do you know? Okay. But that really, that was the now hiring signs helped with economic services when we needed to do Medicaid expansion. We needed 12 workers like right quick and in a hurry. We put those signs out and those people started coming and saying, what job you got open?

What's the turnaround time usually from the time you post, you receive applicants interview and hire now. Is there a kind of a window you all try to

Oh gosh. There's probably what average would you say? Because it just depends. Because if they're like out of state applicant,

you have to wait for that state to send the criminal background back. If they're in the state of North Carolina, doesn't take as long, but those out of state, especially South Carolina.

I think on average you're able to get somebody started within from the time they apply within a four month period or

Well, we now now we have done it pretty quickly. We really needed someone because we can as long as we tell them that, you know, your your hiring is contingent upon the completion of your background check. If it comes back, and we've had that one time, took a drug test and it wasn't clean, so we had to let them

go. Gotcha.

But, yeah, we can can and that's what we do. We don't we don't wait. No. We just go ahead and have them come in so they can get started, and we can get them signed up for pre service. That's been helpful.

When Tiffany and her team, they're working on retention and recruitment plan. So for for child welfare, but there's also one that was used with economic services. So, hopefully, we can blend that, those two together and come up with something to to get some workers. Short of calling people with other count from other counties that are saying, hey. You wanna come work over here? Which has happened. We don't do that though. We don't do anything that.

There's a lot of people moving into Rutherford County where they don't not move in here in some very key positions too. I mean, living in I know situations where they're living in Durham and working here and working from all these kind of, you know, just a lot of new people having to get very creative to get the type of talent they need. They're willing to do a lot of different new things.

Any other questions for Ms. Dodd? We'll go on to economic services.

It was not a guarantee if the government continued to shut down, to be shut down that the FNS benefits would be paid to clients starting in November, and it did ask the states to start holding their cycles that would send to the payment vendor, not to start sending any for November. So that's a little concerning and it's concerning for our workers and it's also concerning for clients as well that depend on those benefits. That's big news for us right now while we're waiting on. And also that could affect the sixty seven cases of WorkFirst if they're not going to pay food nutrition services highly possible. We haven't heard any word from that, that it won't pay the WorkFirst benefits either.

How many folks do we have about depending upon those benefits?

We have sixty seven cases. Sixty seven cases in WorkFirst.

Maybe I didn't answer that. If the government holds the money, no payments goes out in November, how many citizens of Rutherford County is that affecting?

Food and nutrition services? 12,000.

I'm sorry, say that again?

Over 12,000.

That's what

I thought you said. It's right around 6,000 households, 12,000 individuals and 67 cases and it's a little bit over 100 individuals for work first. Now, I have not heard that for sure, but typically, work first will follow suit for food and nutrition services. It's $2,000,000 right at $2,000,000 a month for food and nutrition services paid out. So if they hold November, not only affects the Food Nutrition Services clients, but it also affects the economic growth or economic tree for Rutherford County because the effect is per dollar spent out in nutrition services, it affects the county by an average of $1.5 to $1.8 per dollar spent.

So you're looking at over $3 to $4,000,000 of economic impacts to the county.

If they continue to hold the money, does that affect the 23,000 plus that's on Medicaid?

Different funding streams.

I haven't heard anything from Medicaid yet about how federal shutdown will affect that.

I just hope we keep going because 12,000 is enough.

Flow over to my side, and we will see reports go up.

Which will flow over to

the doctor's offices when people start dealing with the stress of it. Mhmm. Yeah.

And the sheriff's office.

Mhmm. Mhmm. And if you guys will just keep right where you are, Susan, and in the director's report at the end, just you can just glance this page because this is some of what she's talking about and see if you have any questions because this is like the same thing. And when this came out I just went ahead and wrote this up because I knew a board meeting was coming.

You're talking about page 15?

Page 15, yes. And two, people who really don't do this every day and understand what it is, this description helps you a little bit more.

Any of Ms.

Effley, do

you have anything else? Does any of the board have any questions or comments for Ms. Effley? So we'll flow right back to Director Hunt with the directors report.

Okay. And so let's just kinda stay right here and you let me know if you have any questions. This is really basically the same thing. So if you want to just know that it's it just explains it a little bit deeper for you, and then I can go on with the other things because it's it's this came out October 10.

So I'm gonna say this, kinda make this statement not basic for the ones in the room, but for the ones that may be listening online and will listen to this later. If there are payments that's not going out, it is not the Rutherford County DSS that's doing this.

That's correct.

This is the shutdown of the federal government, and y'all are just following their directives.

Right.

And there's nothing we can do until the government opens back up.

That is correct. And that is part of the impact that you're going to the people are going to be angry with the people that they can be angry with, which

would hit us at the local level.

And that is going to happen.

And see from a board standpoint, we may get citizens Yep. Emailing, calling. Mhmm. They're not doing nothing over there.

That's right.

We're gonna have to refer them to their senators and everybody to

Right. That's right. Well and it it's exacerbated by the fact that the cuts that have already happened have affected our food pantries. Mhmm. And they don't have as much food to give away. Mhmm. And so I think that's one reason why it looks like your numbers went up for applications in September. That's one the things that we're hearing is that when folks are going to the food pantries, what they're getting is nowhere near what they were getting in the past. So it's we're going to see a lot of people impacted by both things and it's alarming.

So we're hoping that when they come to the table around the twentieth that something will happen. I think that's our hope.

Don't know how this could work. Would it

be

beneficial looking forward? Let's say like if the government still says shut down. Beforehand have some type of communication with media to say, hey, this is kinda give folks some kinda heads up. I know if you're not looking in certain places, you're not gonna see the information.

Right. That's on page 17. But They're they're already talking to us about it. Epass, text alert for anyone who has cell phones, direct mail, social media updates, and the directors are asking that the state step up and assist the local governments on making sure that this information gets out and that it just doesn't hit local government. So because that's exactly what's gonna happen because you're right if people don't know. So if if it happens, they're supposed to really get very aggressive with getting the information out.

We don't want it to happen on November 1 when they go to the mailbox. There's nothing in there.

Right. Right.

Because next thing know, the security at DSS, they're gonna be working. Yeah. Yeah. Them folks are gonna be showing up.

Yeah. Yep. That's right. To so when you

when the different DSS agencies got together and made that request to the state, how soon did they say they would turn around to produce that media messaging to start going out?

They haven't responded yet.

So as a local DSS It was

on Monday. Yeah. As a local DSS, as

a director, are you and forgive me if I sound clueless when I ask this because I don't know, like, what permissions you have. Are you allowed to make a video that goes on the DSS page explaining So what this yeah.

Yep. We we are.

We use social media quite frequently to

do stuff. Mhmm. To give. Yep.

I don't know with something like this what the parameters might be because of the groups working together in the state.

So We can. Mhmm. Yeah. And this is what they're saying. Because it this information came from the state about how we can make sure that people get this information. But again, the directors association is saying, what are you telling us what to do, but what are you doing? Right. What are you gonna do? So there's no response yet. So well, instead of just contacting the state each person, we go through our executive director who is Charnice Branson and we give her the information and then, she takes it back to the state and then, you know, and that's just a a very structured way to get our information to the state. Which is why I asked what

the hierarchy is and what they want you to do individually with the DSS. You.

Hey. If no other questions about that, we'll we'll we'll leave that and see what happens. I think they're supposed to the government's supposed to meet again on or about the twentieth is what I'm hearing. So we're hoping that something happens. And with Medicaid, remember, those changes were supposed to happen around October 1. This is what you're seeing on the director's report and of course, Governor signs, you know, they got together and said, oh, just wait. Just wait. Let's let's not do anything yet in North Carolina. Let's just hold up. So right now, we're in a holding pattern, and nothing has changed with Medicaid.

So just want you to know that. Also, your second bullet under the director's report is there are all staff meeting is in November. And this month, Tiffany and I were were meeting, and we were talking about our staff meeting. And Tiffany said, why don't we just do something for Thanksgiving? Then we found out it's adoption awareness month.

So we're very excited about it because anytime that we do some adoption awareness things, we can pull money to to have have a dinner or as long as we're making sure that adoption information gets out to the public. So we're so excited about that. That's November 17, and we're inviting all of you to come make lunch with us. Suzanne and her team will be there giving us a little training in between.

What's that date again, do it?

It's The nineteenth. Oh, the nineteenth? Where did I get the seventeenth? Don't know. Nineteenth on a Okay. Well, on a Wednesday. It's the board meeting date as It's at 01:00.

At DFS?

No. Sorry. Senior center. Yeah. We don't have a spot that can hold all of us. One of these days, we're gonna get that done.

Forgive my absence in advance. I'll be in Lake Lure

out of school. Oh, okay. Alrighty. So the next on the agenda is we did meet with the sheriff's department and Pam, I may ask for your assistance just a little bit with with the budget part. One of the things that the the board addressed us with, which was definitely appropriate, was why are we paying two sets of security?

And I think we pretty much explained that we really needed someone there the whole time. But in checking all of this, we realized and Pam, tell us about the tell the board about the the budget and the position and how it's relative to where the person is located.

Just in the fiscal manual, it states that we can claim reimbursement for the the deputy as long as their office is either in in our building, their desk is in their building or either they're supervised. Well, they can't be supervised by us as the sheriff.

They have to be

supervised by the sheriff's department since with for that deputy,

I don't know all the

explanation of that but but they can be have a desk in our in our office and once they have the desk in our office, then we can claim reimbursement and pull down those funds. It used to be both but now they've changed it to either or. So, they don't have to be directly supervised by us. They are indirectly but they don't have to be directly supervised by us to pull down the funds but they can as long as they have a desk in our office we can pull down those funds.

So can pull So we

get 50% reimbursement for that salary and benefits.

Silly question, but you know I asked silly question. Do they just have a desk or are they actually sitting at the desk at times?

Sitting at It's the like our social workers. They have a desk there, they come in, they check-in, they get what they have to do for the day and then they're out. They might not be in that desk thirty minutes.

Right.

Same way with that deputy. She might not be there fifteen, twenty minutes but she has a desk there. She comes in. She checks in. She was there. I saw when I went to the front desk one day this week. She was there at lunchtime, so she's checking in. You know?

She's in there. She's As of September 26, she's she has been there in the office upfront. Mhmm. You know, her presence is seen by people who who come in there, which is kind of what we wanted in the first place. And now we can actually draw the funds down the way that Legally. Legally. I I was gonna say legally, but I

Without any Without any any Without any any issues.

And does that I'm sorry. Go ahead.

I was just gonna ask what would the job functions be other than serving the papers?

Just security. Just there on-site. When she's not serving the papers, She'd just be there on-site or if anything happens or if the social workers need anything or she needs to go out with the social worker, some of those things.

Because please understand, security that's there from eight to five do not have the even though they are sworn deputies Mhmm. In the capacity that they are working, they cannot arrest people. Right. They can only detain. So they're gonna have to the police gonna have to call the police, but because they're working as a security officer. But I think by being able to draw those funds down, it doesn't look as bad with the money that was being paid out.

Mhmm.

Plus she can now focus when she's out getting the paperwork served that needs to be served so that yeah.

Right.

The security pieces, if she's on campus, then security is automatic because that deputy is wearing the badge. But we've got somebody on-site to take care of security now.

Is

Your discussions you've had, go Very well. Well.

Went very well. Our discussion and our meeting was on September 26, and the action items is that the sheriff and Captain Ellis would ensure that the deputy is assigned and off is is that that is assigned to an office at DSS and will coordinate with the IT department for any type of supplies or equipment that she needed to get her work done. And then I of course, made sure that she had everything that she needed in her office. Our attorney, Richard Williams, did finalize and circulate the amended contract language, which is in here for you to look at. Haven't signed it until we spoke with the board to get your permission or your approval.

Then, of course, we are going to monitor because now that child welfare is also going through e courts, and e courts is different because it's child child support too. So it's just different. And we're not sure what that means for her job in terms of civil. But since we've got everything straightened out with drawing down the funds, I think we're I think we're good. Gotcha. Yeah.

So were those funds being drawn down previously? They were. And so we're out of compliance with what was supposed to be happening to draw down those funds?

No. Well, not really. So let me explain. She would come to the office and she would be in her car, which she is on-site. So, you know, in talking with other directors, you could pretty much, you know, explain that away if an auditor asked. But really and truly to and we did have our our person come down, our liaison, financial liaison from the state and she said, Nisa, yeah, you could probably explain it away if you needed to that someone was on-site. She was in her car but she needs to have have the desk. So you can tell tell her what does she say.

I mean, the desk was always there. She just didn't didn't come in. She just didn't yeah.

She just stayed in.

So, I mean, it's just like a like I said, the social worker is there. Yeah. But, you know, she didn't actually come in, but she is coming in and, you know, checking in and then getting what she needs and going out. I mean, she was there. She just would go straight to child support and see what they had. You know?

The demeanor better perception?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

That's good.

Much, much better.

That seemed to be a big part of the Mhmm.

Yeah. Is she Much better. Much, much better.

She's never she she's been given that directive from her superiors and she's had to have firsthand discussion regarding that to get it to

Yeah. Just mean, we just let them know it's not us just being petty. It's just a physical thing, you know, and it's required. Yeah, it's a requirement. And just for us to draw down those funds, we just have to step jump through these hoops

to draw down the funds. Money for her to be here. Yeah. And that's what we expect

to Right. And and just like I I told him in the meeting, said

She needs to be building relationships with everybody in the building, needs to be knowing everybody's first name on a first name basis. Mhmm. She needs to know what each you know, for child protective services, she needs to know what all those things and she may not because she came in from another department where she didn't do civil. Mhmm. So there's an educational process that may be good for her too other than just going out and serving a paper. You know? But that's good.

Well, she is she's

I was concerned about that, paying out the funds we were and

Yeah.

We were not really getting what we needed and we had to make this exception and hire security to make up for her not doing what she's supposed to do.

It was a legitimate concern. It legitimate, without a doubt. I knew

And we're getting attention now. That's good.

And I knew that security needed to be there. I I tell you, economic services, they they're happy.

That's right.

So much appreciated.

Director Hunt, if I may draw something to the attention that you might want to recheck with mister Williams on. Okay. The wording probably needs to be changed a little bit.

Okay.

It's under the the one section that was amended. Okay. Agency shall not utilize the DSS deputy during the designated workday for duties other than set forth herein except emergency situations. She's gonna be pulled at different times. And what I mean by that, the current deputy that we have is a female deputy.

Mhmm. If a male deputy stops a female, he is going whether it's the sheriff's office or police agency, they are going to request a female deputy or a female officer. Okay. That is not an emergency situation, but that is a reason. There are some legitimate reasons for a female deputy, which we currently have at DSS, could be pulled to assist other officers. That right there is like, unless it's an emergency, they can't pull her. Would you check with mister William? Is there a different way to word that?

Is there is there another word that you would use that I could tell him?

Well, it says well, you got shall not.

Right.

Shall not is

You got

You you can't.

But it says except in emergency situations or and what you just said.

What what is the or?

Well, that's what what is that

what you would add? Like, are you saying they shouldn't be able to pull her when she's Well,

that's what

that's what this is saying is that unless it's an emergency, you shouldn't pull her from normal.

K. You just thought of a situation that they could. So And they are. Would you right. What would you add in here that I could But

I'm asking, are you saying that they should or shouldn't be able to do that? Said they can Well, let me change it.

That's fine.

Okay. Okay. Let let me ask you this way. Because this deputy wears a badge, they're going. I'm just sorry. They're going. If she's going from point a to point b and something happens, there's a crime afoot, as the word said.

She's going.

You know what?

If it's an officer worth their salt, I'm sorry. They're going.

But is that the agency asking her to go? That's what it's

saying. The would do it is if I've got miss Porter stopped on the side of the road and I need a female search. I'm a ask for a female. Hey, is do we have a female on duty? Whatever female is officer on duty because this officer has county juries is going.

Right. But that's not the agency asking for it anymore.

Yes. Is. Agency means sheriff's office.

It is gonna be the sheriff's office.

Well, it's talking about DSS.

It's it's changed the language to refer to DSS as DSS sheriff's office. Yeah.

When you look at the actual MOU, agency is the sheriff's office.

Yeah. That's the confusing part then. Right. Yeah. I'm still stuck on DSS.

So so what I'm saying that shall not

Okay.

Is like they nobody else can use this deputy. Yeah. But at different times, they're going to call that officer. If that could be cleaned up, you know, the the main or the this officer's main job now is to making sure the paperwork that she's been assigned is taken care of.

What if we took what if he I'm just asking just just in case. What if we took because you wanna have something that you some feedback that you'd rather give him than he write something then we come back with something else. What if we took emergency act?

Even if you go something like primary duties and responsibilities is once you read the rest of the service of the civil process assigned. The deputy can assist other agencies as needed. And if you put kind of an as needed, is

your

primary responsibility is what you got. You go sit at that desk every once in a while. You're going out serving paperwork. Not only serving paperwork, that deputy is serving warrants also, taking people to jail because she's serving child support warrants and different stuff like that.

In child support. Yeah.

But there's gonna be times this officer will be pulled to assist other agencies.

But do you think he can put parameters around what need means?

That's why

That's it. For an officer that needs a female officer to

search him.

Yeah. Good at and if they're in proximity to x y z happening.

Opens it up.

And then it's been an emergency.

Yeah. Well Right.

I I know you're saying that. I know you're saying that.

Excuse me. We talked about this, though.

But that officer is gonna go.

This is what we talked about. So and that's probably why he put that because we talked about it. Remember when we talked about

He he was in the meeting.

He he was in the So tell them what our LBL, our liaison, told us about being pulled.

I mean, she just they just said I mean, even Kevin Ellis and the sheriff said, I don't care what you wanna say even though, you know, you're paying for it. She if she's going riding by and she's gonna need help, she's gonna she's gonna go.

Yeah.

If there's something going on

Right.

She's gonna go because that's what her main duty is for. If there's an emergency,

she's to go. That's probably why he said it because the sheriff and the captain were in the meeting. And But I I and I

can't see what you're saying.

I see why you're saying that.

Emergency situations, and not all the cases will be emergencies.

And that's reason I'm saying when it says shall not, this officer is not gonna do anything unless it's an emergency.

But that's kind of the language they're putting in there because that is Yeah.

But they talked about

Overall, that is what we're wanting her to do. Yes. But And then the sheriff's gotta have he's gonna have an under I know what you're saying.

And and they don't wanna pull her unless it's an emergency situation. That's But what you could argue

that any call that comes in to 911 is an emergency so she could go to anything.

But they want her to stay where they Right. First to pull down the funds, she really does need to be obligated to us except when the sheriff's Under like

this contract we're the top priority for her. She's pretty much our deputy.

Correct.

That's what I'm saying. Primary duties. But if because once it's signed, we're back in that same spot again. But it just may be worth mister Wheaton, there's some way that, you know, the primary duties is this. But every once in while, this deputy may get called to a situation that's not an emergency.

I think you could add an example in this

I I

don't think it's wrong. And that's a great example that you gave. Because that's the An big example of a situation could be Yes. Just add an example. That's helpful.

That's why you put parameters on it so that you understand what you're talking about because this is so

broad. Covers DSS and the MOU, but it also looks out for the sheriff's office that we can't go back and say, sure, if y'all keep using this debt to debt. And then when you meet back with captain Ellis, hey, you you're gonna find the numbers that's being served. We can always pull a service report on the office to see what kind of calls that they are answering, being pulled away from. Like, just food for thought because

Yeah.

We wanna make sure going forward because

we just keep So

I will reach back out to attorney Williams about that and see maybe we could just add a couple of examples of what emergencies could mean and add that one. Because that's that I think that's one that would be typical since she's a female.

But that it happens every day. They're asking for a female officer.

They got more than one female officer.

I was getting that asked.

I'm getting away from that. The

sheriff's office is getting ready to have two on the road, but they don't they work differently. Rutherford has none. Spindle has one. And then sometimes there's no female's office available.

And then Forest City

Forest City has one or

two, something like that.

It'd be good to have an understanding that, you know, however they put this language that she used to be here and we want her here unless it is really an emergency.

And they and they were all for a

all poor at

1100100%. Percent.

Oh, it it works. Then you get somebody like me asking questions.

That's

okay. But that's okay because if you're asking the question, somebody else is probably thinking it.

It's just the cover cover itself.

Yeah.

What else you got direct to that?

I have so we have that and and I'm gonna ask Rich Williams about it. We also want to present you with the annual report. We're not saying that you have to read it all today, but we wanted to give it to you to see if you have any questions before we present it to the commissioners in November.

Can can we put it this way because this is the first time I've seen it?

Yes.

If we have questions, would the board be inclined to email Director Hunt directly? Because this is a good bit of reading.

It is. And there will be some numbers that you may have questions about as you look at the graphs. I want to give kudos to Kim. She put

this

together. Before it was Kim, it was me. And I'm not as good as she is, so I would have to I would work all night trying to get this done. I just wanna say thank you from the bottom of my heart for for putting this together. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And and you've done a marvelous job. It's marvelous. So it's it has our goals in here, and I'll just give you just an overview.

This is our fiscal year twenty four-twenty five. Sometimes it takes a little time for the numbers to come down. But you will see it in graphs, but you will also see it written. It has all of our services, and it will give you a we're looking at a three year trend of how things are happening. So you will see 2022 sent to 2025. So we've tried to do that. We actually looked at it as a team to see if we found any discrepancies. We found a few, and we we corrected them. So we have worked together as a leadership team, and it went really, really well. We added some things that happened in the last fiscal year, which Hurricane Helene.

So that's in here. Our DSNAP, we talked a little bit about that. Then you have all the programs and what they look like and and the dollars spent. So you may have just, you know, questions about how local government spends and how how those monies are coming down. We did have two grants that that we're just gave you some updates on with pickle pickle legal services.

It's actually preventing children from coming into foster care. It is absolutely amazing. You know, when they were not able to get to go out and get attorneys to help them get custody, they can do it now. So their grandparents now are able to go get custody and I have to try to pay for an attorney for money that they don't have. But that prevents them from coming into foster care.

So that's been wonderful. Our opiate settlement funding through preferred choice is going very well. You will see some accomplishments on page 24, and some these things that's happening agency wide. And I'm probably that there's there's a lot going on in our agency that I'm sure that we didn't have probably left some things out but I feel like we're doing a lot of work. There are some our goals, strategic plan that goes into 2028.

We we talked about our strategic plan. We didn't put everything in here that we're doing, but we feel good about our goals. We all went over those at our at our last last management team meeting, and we are really getting some things done and putting some things in place. So we're we're excited about our goals and making those happen. Last page is the leadership team. We we left Rhonda Roop on here. Oops. Well, I guess I can't say that name. She's no longer here. She retired.

We left her on here because she was part of this this that fiscal year. And if anybody knows of anybody that's interested in becoming a child support supervisor, tell them to hit me up. Mhmm. We still have not replaced her. The money people say the money is not not enough, But we're still looking. That's another reason why we're doing our equipment plan.

And you're presenting this to the commissioners on November meeting?

I'm looking, yeah, once you guys are okay with it, not before. You it's it's up to our board to be okay with anything that I present. You got this board comes first. So you'll just kinda review it. And if you have anything, get it to Leon. Leon will get it to me.

That's what I was getting ready to say. You gotta just Yeah. But

I wanna go ahead and get it to the I need to It's okay. How how soon do you think it'll take you to review this? I know that I need to have it uploaded and sent to the commissioners a good ten days in advance.

Can the board, if you have any questions, concerns, comments, maybe by the twenty second, which gives a week

to review? Does that work for you, too?

Okay. Works for me.

I'll take your place on the twenty second.

Any other thing, Director Hunt?

Oh,

I yes. Well, can you tell them? So there's a program called the Family Institute, and they selected six people across the state that have done things. They had different categories and I was selected for as as a family innovator because of the house. And so they had us come down to take two people with me.

Kim wouldn't go because she nominated me. So I asked her to go, but but I I took my husband and my sorority sister and my grandson. We all went to Duke the Endowment Center in Charlotte. And so I got that award, six of us did, and we got a a stipend as well. Which was? You know, you should you never get money. Yeah. I was like, what? Money? Awesome.

Okay. So so so yeah. And the story is online, and they chose they chose the story to put a video with it. So whenever that comes out, I'll let you know. Very good.

One thing for the board if you didn't see it, the last page of Director Hunt's report looks like it's from the Apex Security.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yep. These are just because the board, you know, approved this, I just need to know what's what's going on and what what they're seeing, what's happening. So they present a report to me, and I pass it on to you. So these are some of the things that they're doing.

And the conference that I'm in today was a gift from Benchmarks. I didn't know all the special guests, but and everything was free. The room, which is a huge suite. Anybody wanna come over? I mean, it's I got plenty of room. But but that that that was an absolute surprise and a blessing. So and they were actually when I went last year, they were responsible for us getting the the collaboratory grant that we have right now. I don't

think I put that in here.

So anyway, so hopefully, there will be more grants coming since I'm there again this year getting to talk talk to folks, but we'll see. But whatever I I do and whatever I get, I bring it right back to the agency because our agency is so worth it, and our team is amazing. I definitely couldn't do this work myself, but thank you for allowing me to be away, all of you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Anybody with objection? No.

Is there anything else to come before the board?

No. Just good job, Kim, for doing the nomination and congratulations. Oh, thank you.

Congratulations. I

appreciate that.