Social Services Board - Regular Meeting

04:00. We'll go ahead and welcome everyone to the November Department of Social Service board meeting. We'll call this meeting to order. We have the agenda before us. What is the will of the board?

I make a motion that we accept the agenda as outlined.

I second that motion.

Any discussion? Call for a vote. All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Next item, we have the adoption of the minutes or the approval of the minutes which have previously been set out. I hope everyone's had a chance to look over them. What would be the will of the board?

I make a motion that the minutes be received.

I'll second it.

Any discussion? Call for a vote. All in favor, aye. Aye. The next, this is something that we have held off on a couple times. Last month, we tabled it until this month to make sure mister William was available. The adoption of proposed rules of procedure have been sent out previously. And if you need to know the significant change, mister Williams could address anything there. The biggest thing about it is having members physically present in the room. As long as we've got three in the room, that's the biggest thing, to have a physical quorum.

Mister Williams, would you like to touch on anything else with that, sir?

No, sir. Mr. Chairman, I do think that's the most significant change. The the existing rules of procedure this board operates under are based on a set of suggested rules of procedure from the school of government that frankly has, I think, obsolete about three editions ago. And so there have been a lot of updates and changes in the general statutes that would be, in some cases, required of local boards, in most cases, just more or less just to say you could do a practice that has evolved.

The most significant of these is the treatment of electronic meetings, which was something the board would not have even considered twenty three years ago, I think, when that addition of the rules was being considered. I I know it's a confusing topic because the law right now is very unsettled on it. I'm available to take questions about that as you wish.

Anyone have any questions? I think you Well, I know you explained it to me in a way that

it made sense. Can you just explain because it sounds contradictory when it when it talks about the forum and can and can't bar

forming. So right now, what I suggest now, I am suggesting that the board consider and with one big exception, which I'll go over, these proposed rules would require physical presence either for quorum or for voting. That's not what I originally suggested with my first set. So I I think that that a lot of the contradictory part was based on my original suggestion, which was to require physical presence for quorum, but not necessarily for voting. But since that first set of rules, another court case has come through that has thrown this even more into disarray, more to the point still the government has updated their suggestions by a coach canon.

And I think the wise course would have played this very conservatively, which is to ensure that the actions of the DSS board are never called into question, then I would recommend that physical presence be required either for quorum or for voting purposes. Now there is provision in here for electronic meetings for two purposes. Someone wishing to join in by phone, for instance, can still join in discussion. They could discuss the topic as a full board member. They would not be able to either count as quorum or vote unless they were physically present.

The the other grand exception is in the event of a a governor's state of emergency or general assembly state of emergency. There the statute does provide that, for instance, we have another instance like COVID or more recently here locally, the hurricane Helene situation, if we're unable to meet physically and present, if the governor declares a state of emergency, then Zoom meetings, for instance, can be permitted. We there will be a set of rules that these rules of procedure will set into place in that case to follow the statute and be able to proceed on a a Zoom meeting kind of situation. That good at it?

That's even better than the last time. Fair enough.

If I could add, in my time on the board, I think it's only been at least one time that we've not had a physical quorum present. Mhmm. You know, we've all signed up to be on the board, and we should try you know, life is gonna lie. So I think it's a good thing to try to be physically at the table for these meetings. Any other questions for mister William? What would be the will of the board?

I think a motion that we adopt mister Williams' suggestion for the rules.

Adoption of proposed rules of procedure.

That sounds even better.

Yes, ma'am.

Second.

You got a second? Any further discussion?

It's just actually been put in law. Yeah.

Well, no. You're deciding that by by this motion, in fact. You have an existing set of rules and procedure that you are following right now.

Right.

I would propose that if you adopt these rules, that if I have a suggestion to amend this, to make them effective at the next regular board meeting so there's no confusion. Gotcha.

What do you do? I mean, most boards I sit on, they they do Zoom meetings. They there's all these options. Okay? Because everybody has different circumstances.

If this were a straight appointed board, for instance, the rules tend to be a lot more relaxed. This while it is not a an elected board and it is not strictly board, DSS board, has some governance over DSS. Hiring and firing of directors is a pretty important asset. For that reason, there is a higher standard that would be wise for DSS to adopt. And right now, as I say, there are court cases involved, which has thrown the entire question of electronic meetings in doubt for governing boards, which is why I'm why I'm suggesting that you take a much more conservative stance on it until that gets resolved.

How if you've got people on phones and they're in a meeting, they're talking, there's documentation and all that, why are they doubts?

Because the the courts mostly because the North Carolina Supreme Court within the last year has struck down and said an electronic meeting was not valid. Then well, I say that was the court of appeals. Excuse me. The problem is the state supreme court did take it up, then did state that they were upholding it, but it was not precedent, which is a fancy way of saying, we have no idea what they've just done. They upheld the fact that the court of appeals struck down the the invalidity of a board action done by electronic meeting.

But they said but nobody should rely on this ruling, which if if they would pick a lane, we would know how to proceed in the way. We just don't know. We don't know what the courts are gonna do. This runs very contrary to the post COVID belief of school of government, of county attorneys, local government attorneys in general, we felt a great deal of acceptance had come into place in the law for electronic meetings. And then court of appeals pretty much pulled the rug out from under us, and the Supreme Court declined to clarify.

We just don't know. And if we don't know, the risk is if you rely upon an electronic meeting for a significant action of DSS board, it's at risk of being struck down in the future. The safest thing to do is let's just do this the old fashioned way, at least until we get the courts to come in and clarify or or the general assembly pass a new statute either way.

So, mister Williams, if I'm hearing you correctly, even if we adopt this right here, if the general assembly comes in differently and allows electronic meetings, we could always come back and change it again?

Rules of procedure are this board's rules. You decide by simple majority vote. This is not a it's really just a simple resolution of this board to agree to abide by these rules. You can adopt them, change them, amend them at any time. Simple majority vote. Okay.

Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? I call for a vote. All in favor, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Take care. We're at the public comment section. There was two other ladies that had come in. Are y'all wanting to speak? Okay. Just kinda let you know how it's gonna go. You'll have three minutes to address the board. Please don't take it personal. We will not give feedback. We will listen, but we've not we will not be giving feedback. Okay? But we are listening. If we're looking down, we may be typing on the computer to take notes or something like that. First up, we have miss Ashley Earl.

That it, miss Sarah? Thank you. Miss Shannon Kennedy. Hi. So

I also am a supervisor. I've been with our agency for seven years in protective service, I'm a bit nervous at public speaking, so forgive my shakiness. But I'm really just to, you know, kinda support and advocate for what Ashley said that, like, in the seven years that I've been with our agency, maybe the last two years, there's just been serious turnover rate and I, you know, I am unfortunately one of the supervisors who have put in a notice effective Tuesday. I'll be with a different you know, place but the point is like, my fear is the liability of what happens if something is missed because there is simply just not enough statue overseas cases that we have and this is no disrespect to Dee at all but like they just feels as if there's no plan to address the turnover at all and this directly impact children going into foster care, children being reunified with their parents or their, you know, birth families and it just seems that there's just a constant window of, you know, we have a worker that comes in and it seems promising but there's not enough time to train, to equip them with the appropriate skills to work with the clientele that we serve and then, you know, the naval even we have to just restart that process all over again and it it is seriously hurting our long term workers and it's hurting the children in this county and that's what I care about the most is that our children that we are supposed to be here to protect get the the services that they need and they deserve and it it feels very ineffective right now.

So, we're we just want to advocate for hopefully some type of change.

Is that it, miss Kennedy? Yes. Thank you. Ms. Dana Davis.

I have been in social services for close to twenty years. I am a new supervisor but I've been with Rutherford County for almost four years now. And I'm just gonna throw some numbers at you because I started out even here on the front line, and then I went to adoptions, and now I'm I'm a supervisor. The state says that an assessor should not carry more than 10 cases at a time. How many?

35. They're carrying 30 to 35. That's frontline assessment and investigations. Social workers walking into homes determining whether or not it's safe for a child to be there. So that's three times what they're supposed to be carrying.

For foster care, you are only supposed to carry 15 children on your caseload. We've got 30. I've got workers that have 30 and someone else just two more just quit, and they had 30 children apiece, and we simply do not have the workers to cover that. And foster care is the other line of going in and making sure that the homes we place these children in continue to be safe, continue to be appropriate so that we don't end up in the news with a child with a chicken around their neck, You know? And and all of the horror stories that that we hear.

I do adoptions. We're down a worker. I've got two workers that are carrying the majority of a caseload. So and most of our clients, a good many of them are out of the county, foster care. They're out of the county. We're and we're not talking an hour. We're talking two, three. We've got a sibling group of five that's four hours away that we are required to see monthly. So, we're at a critical point. It's it's not that we're struggling. We are at a critical point and it's more than just a critical point for the workers. We are responsible for these children. So.

Thank you, miss Davis. Miss Cox?

I'm on Dana. I gotta stand up so everybody can see me. I am coming to you from the inside out and the outside in. I worked with the Rutherford County DSS for nine years. I worked for them. I worked with them and for them for a total of twelve years. My heart goes into this work. And if I can get everybody to look at this group right here, they are tired. They are overworked. They are underpaid.

They are not support they do not feel supported. They do not feel validated. They are going and working hours upon hours going into these homes. Supervisors because the case because the staffing numbers are so down. Supervisors are not just doing supervision.

They're carrying case notes. They're doing home visits. Your program manager who's not here, but I'm gonna speak for, is doing home visits, is doing scheduled visitations. She shouldn't be having to do that. And as a board, at what point do we change the direction to help them?

I've been where they are. Their families, they sacrifice them because they're always taking care of somebody else. It's not a staffing issue as much as it is a child safety issue. I work for the Guardian Adlato Program. I am in these exact same homes. I have children. Not only do they experience trauma from being removed and being in foster care, But how about every single social worker that changes? They've got 10 to 15 different social workers in a lifetime of a case. They feel unheard. They can't trust anybody.

What are we going to do? I am worried. My heart breaks for all of them. My heart breaks for the families because regardless of how they got here in DSS's hands, whatever mistake they made, whatever decision they made, they're here and they deserve respect. They deserve time.

They deserve attention. And then babies 100% need support to feel loved, to feel heard, and to feel respected, and they're not. And my fear is that it's gonna take a social worker getting hurt because they have been threatened and safety is not taken serious or a child is gonna die before somebody steps up and says, this is enough. I plead that changes are made. Thank you. Thank you. Which

leads us into the next item on the agenda, the personnel report. We'll look to director Hunt. So Wait a minute. One second. Did you wanna say something in public comment? I think you came in later. I will. I I well, I knew the the other folks was here and they said they didn't, but you came in during the time, and I don't wanna not give you the opportunity to speak if that's what you came to do. You've got three minutes.

Three minutes?

Yes, sir.

I'll give a perspective of coming from different states.

Would you state would you state your name, please?

Oh, James McKnight.

Thank you, mister McKnight.

I believe we have a lot of resources. I don't think all agency has. I do believe where I'm seeing North Carolina where we're losing people and it's a problem throughout the state. It's a state that are paying. We're not we're not in parity with some of the other counties.

And so when these workers come in and they get some training and we invest in them, guess what they're doing? They're going to shop the counties. And that's what that that's what they're going to do. And so when they transfer over, we have them free service and all the training that we give them, they save that money. So, you can look at it whatever way but the longer we can, we have an ascend to keep these workers, bring em in here.

This community is going to thrive off of that But it takes a lot to teach de escalation, rapport building, trust in our communities. They need to learn to trust us. We have people here that they can do that with. We just need our workers to stay and have a mission statement.

Thank you, sir. I didn't want you to leave and say we didn't give you a chance. Now we'll go back on the agenda to the personnel report, director Hunt.

Okay. On the next page, if you'll look at pages a and b, this is a personnel report, and it basically shows a rolling a complete balance of cape and caseload sizes, vacant positions, and any type of movement of employees. And if you'll just review these pages and let us know if you have any questions.

Just make sure the ones with zeros are the new workers that are learning. Mhmm.

And foster care, the $31.79, what is that? It's just so out of white with the rest of them as boys.

That that's the one that has the children that that's far away. So it's that's that's the comp time that's been accrued because of the travel.

And so are any of the ones

that have lower numbers per caseload, like five, three, two? Are they newer people who are just getting up to speed? Is that why their numbers That's correct.

Okay. That's correct.

And the clerical high number is that they are the sitters, right, with the

Yes. Yes. Some some prefer to be paid and some prefer the comp leave, so it's their choice.

What's the furthest away that we have a kid in foster care?

Alabama. Do we have one still in Alabama?

There is one in Virginia. Okay. Seven hours. I

was here, and I wasn't when I heard that, I wasn't sure if it was ours. They said that was there's a worker that has to get on a plane sometime to go.

In where? Rhode Island. Mhmm.

Why? Is that a special place for special type channel?

Or with Tiffany not being here, and I don't know who can answer that question without saying the person's name.

So the one in Virginia is in a psychiatric residential treatment facility. The one in Rhode Island, we don't have to go and see that child. We have an interstate compact on the placement of children. That child is in foster care, is in a family placement. That's why they are there with the children that are in psychiatric residential treatment facilities. We cannot utilize ICPC because if a child is in a mental health facility, they will not do it. They will not oversee. We have to go and see that child.

Psychiatric I have two. Residential. Two two of them. We had to

I have yeah. We just have

two people. I have to sign up on them. So That's the closest facility for children?

Basically, anytime that a child goes into a specific placement, we have to try to make sure, that their needs are met. So we look at the placements that will most likely meet their needs. And so whatever is closest that would meet that child's needs, whether it's psychological needs or mental health needs, then that's how we do it. You know, we actually have a liaison that is through our LME that helps us determine what placement that would be and which placement best meets their needs.

I know you talked before about having contractors and people from other agencies who can come in and help support with low staffing. And are there provisions for, like, like what does the state consider a crisis inflection point? Where you're allowed to maybe take different measures to fill positions if it's a temporary basis to make sure that kids are being seen? Like is there anything like that that exists?

The state will not really come in and do anything unless we are in a what they call a corrective action plan where they've had to turn over the agency to the state. That's when they will come in. They do set standards and numbers, but there's not any county in the state who's operating at the standards that they have set. This is something that all the directors argue about. We talk about those things because they hold us to their standards.

But because of the crisis, and there is a crisis all across the state, not just Rutherford, there is a crisis and a shortage in the workforce and child welfare, and they know it. We've discussed it with them, and they they've also heard about what's happening with the exodus we had in foster care. So they've heard about that too. So, no, just bottom line, you know, when you're looking at what needs to happen, that happens on the leadership level. And there are things that we're contracting with Vanguard who's sending someone.

We don't waste time in terms of make sure those jobs are posted. There's been no time wasted on that. We call Deborah immediately. She approves it immediately. We we put it out there immediately.

There is one big difference, though, that I really want everyone to know is that now there's fingerprinting. That came out of a house bill, one one of one of the bills that became effective October 1. So although we've had eight people ready to come to work, we've had to wait on fingerprinting. So finally, we've got five that will start December 8, but we were waiting on fingerprinting. And that's taken almost another three weeks to to get at where where people are waiting in. Sometimes they'll call and say, well, you know, I'm gonna look for another job. You're like, wait. No. Wait. So that's where we are.

I'm just curious. Where they're being fingerprinted at?

The through the sheriff's department.

Why would it take three weeks?

Because it might not take it takes three weeks to go to the FBI and come back.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Just Yeah. I'll do it. I mean, it's nothing that's called you know, so nothing that's called me.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's yeah. Just for everything to happen.

The the process. Okay. Yeah. The process. It sounded like it was taking that long to get them fingerprinted. I'm like, okay. I'm sorry.

Should I I said

background checks and all that.

Yeah. Yep. Mhmm.

Okay. Yeah. I can see that.

And that is and and it did for example, things like drug screening, we will say, okay. Come on. We'll wait on the drug screen. If it's if it comes back and it's not if it doesn't work, then, you know, we're gonna ask you to leave. So but we can't do that with fingerprinting. So that's just just the way it is. So we can't even get people started. And then once they get started, they go through preservice. And now preservice is almost twice as long as it used to be. It's eight weeks when it used to be three.

So there's just a lot going on, and there's a lot that we're doing behind the scenes, you know, to just try to make sure we're we're doing contract workers where Vanguard is supposed to be sending someone. They're just waiting on a reference for a foster care worker. What is Vanguard? Vanguard is is an an agency that hires social workers to fill in the gaps when DSS needs workers. So we are contracting with them to to send people. So we're not we're we're and, yes, I'm losing sleep over it. Most definitely. So More expensive. Yeah.

Is

Is it possible to like and forgive me. I don't know. Like every credential is that you have to have to do your job. So say, for example, that there are private social workers who have private practice. Are they ones that you can contract with that you could do recruitment among the state social work association to see

if If they're pre service certified, you have to be certified through preservice through the state of North Carolina in order to touch families. There there are some things that you can do, like sit with the kids and some of the things that that I've considered, like, you know, visitation or supervising or something like that. But to really do social work in North Carolina, you must be pre service certified. It's called pre service training in child welfare in North Carolina. So that's one of the the biggest things in order to supervise or in order to be to be a

social worker. Just seems if it's a statewide crisis, the state could step in and help make some

provisions to help. Been been there done been there done that. A lot of times when there's a crisis, you know, they'll sometimes they waive some things, but that's mostly in economic services. I've never really seen them waive anything in child welfare. I'll be honest with you there. They have waived it in economic services.

What does it cost to send someone through pre services?

The amount of money? You know, there is there is an amount out there. I don't know what it is now because it's now eight weeks. But I can tell you this. If you wanna multiply it by what they normally get paid for eight weeks of being gone, that's the amount that I would put on it. Because that's that's really what it's costing because we don't get I mean, we're we we don't have them for that long. They are helping a little bit in terms of how we can now code. They used to not even do that, but now the coding does help a little. In terms of where the funding stream comes from and whether we get some reimbursement.

Are there county to county compacts like you said that you have with other states where that could be something that there's counties that are at a fuller level can help.

We do. One of the things that we do that's from from county to county is we have pulled on their after hours worker who who when they're doing after hours work, they work seven days on and seven days off. So we're pulling on the one that's the seven days off to come and do work for us. So we're we're doing that. And then we're also partnering with other agencies if there's, like, a conflict of interest or if if there's a case that that we need to share or so we're we're kinda doing that too.

I mean, sometimes it doesn't always work because they feel like they're overworked too. I I don't know of any agency in this county in the state that is operating on, oh, I only have 15 cases because that that's that's what it says. That's not anywhere. And it's very it's very sad and this work is very hard.

On the vacant positions, what is an IMC two?

Income maintenance case worker two. That's an eligibility worker for things like Medicaid, food nutrition services, or work first.

If you're down eight workers, how many is in that department?

Probably about 50.

About 50? Okay. So that's that's hurt, but it doesn't hurt as bad as

Right. Correct.

The CPF's level. Okay. Okay.

The qualifications to become an incoming caseworker is much less stringent than becoming a social worker.

You just look bad on numbers.

But Mhmm.

Okay. Thank you.

And, like, they don't have

to trust me. No. Yes, ma'am. It is a hard situation where they're at, especially with the changes coming, but nowhere near those sacrifices that

Yes, ma'am. They're one thing.

Are there other supportive roles that I know you you started to talk about that, that people can play to step in Mhmm. And do certain tasks that you don't have to be a social worker to do that would support them in the meantime?

That is correct. Actually, I actually talked with one of the supervisors about it in Tiffany's absence. I said, you know, normally, would talk to Tiffany about it, but I'm talking to you about it. So I did talk with one of the supervisors yesterday about some of the things that that we can do that this is. And, of course, we had a staff meeting today, and I think you heard me say that we're all in this together. So there may be some activities that you're going to be tasked to do to help the foster care unit that is in crisis right now. And so those are some of the things that I've just written down on paper, just thought about, and just bounced them off of the supervisor.

How much does any of it take place on the weekend? Like, any of your work? I'm sure it's case by case basis, but is there a lot of activity on weekends? And I'm wondering, even like school social workers, if they wanted extra time and could go through the training at some point? Know, just building a backup and reserve for not just now, but.

Well, you cannot become you cannot go through the training unless you are hired by a department of social services or unless you've gotten some preapproval through maybe a group home or or or something like that. That's the only way that you can actually get into the program. Okay. So, you know, we have like, for example, one of the things that we did is is our we had a links worker that we also sent through pre service. Okay. So but but they kinda sorta have to be, you know, a local government social worker to get to be to get that state government training. Okay.

Any further discussion, comments, questions on the personnel report?

We go on to the

I I do want to mention this as part of the personnel report. If you go to b one, this is what the board asked for. It's just, you know, more information on the exit surveys and why people are leaving or why they have left. If you will just kind of review that and let me know if you have any questions.

Biggest thing I'll say is looks like it's the workload stress work life. That's the biggest thing where

That's correct.

At first, we thought it was for other employment. Mhmm. So that's definitely gotta be looked at. Has to be addressed to take care of the workers so they can take care of the kids.

That's correct.

Are those mostly from the social service workers or is it a combination of the

It it's a combination. This is every this is everybody. Yeah. So it's just wondering

how that would break down with economic services because the Medicaid, you said that was real stressful as well, home workers. Yeah.

Yep. So yeah. So if you can see see it, it's almost half of that workload stress, work life balance that know, the things that we've heard in public comments. And the next one is, of course, compensation, and you heard that one too.

Anything else from the board on personnel report? We will look to miss Price for the budget.

Okay. Here's your financial report. This is forty four months ended 10/31/2025. You look on page two, your contribution from general fund for your program or excuse me, your administrative expenses is at 32.76%. We should be at 33 and a third. We're point five seven under budget for your administrative expenses. Page three at the bottom of the page, your contribution from general fund funding programs is at 22.8%. You should be at 33 and

a third.

That's 10.53% under. And your very last page, total budget is at 32.79%, which is point 54% under budget. So we're just right at budget still. It's a good thing. We're not way under, not way over, so we're we're good.

On pay going back to page four, the there's the professional services other line, which is almost at the bottom of your page. That line is over budget, and that's due to paying the security contract invoice. We will move funds from regular salaries. If you remember, we're we're held in position over another funding to cover that. So, it's it looks like we're over in the professional services other but we'll have funds to cover for that security contract.

Page five, At the top of the page, the professional services childcare admin. That's our day care invoices when we contract out for day care. There were two invoices paid in this month, so that's why that's a little over budget. We're at 35%. We should be at 33, so we have two invoices paid. Travel, you'll see what we're talking about travel. We're already 50% almost of our spending. We should be, you know, at 33%. So that again goes plays back to your out of town travel, your pre service. When you're talking about Lee was talking about salaries, you've got workers staying in hotels all week long for eight weeks.

You're paying for three meals a day, most of them. So that's why our travel is, you know, way over as well also. Then utilities, that's a little over, and that's just due to the power bill for the lighthouse d. We've had good new was kidding. Good more mini kids in the lighthouse this time. So this month. So that's it's a little over. So and then that's the only lines that are over this month that were not over last month.

Does the board have any questions for miss Price? Thank you, miss Price. You're welcome. Go back to director Hunt for the service report.

I would like for all of you to look at our October service report. These are all of the services that are mandated through our office at the direction of state and federal government, and let us know if you have any questions. While you're looking at it, I I know that you can see it, but as you can see, there have been additional reports coming in through CPS, our intake unit. So last month, we had 89. This in October, we had a 126.

So more reports are coming in.

With schools in full swing, could that be a possibility

That is possibility. Absolutely. You know, summer, it falls off a little. But then when school gets really started, especially that month of September and October, you're gonna see a little bit more reports.

So you have more during the holidays, December?

You know, it just depends. One of the things about reports during the holidays is that a lot of them will come in for different reasons, and they were maybe that, oh, we don't have enough food or we don't have enough toys or they took the toys and they sold them, things like that. That that that's been the norm. So so we'll we'll see what it looks like this time. But sometimes Christmas time is a time that people are normally chill.

They're normally chill. Let's hope that that continues to happen.

Your Medicaid cost is up tremendously last year. Medicaid monthly cost trips. That's a normal

variant.

Any other questions, comments about the service report? I see some intently looking board members. Board good?

I'm still replaying a lot of that. Sorry, that's what the intent.

I didn't want to move on until I saw that relaxed bra.

Sorry.

We have to come back. We're going to program updates. Miss Dodd is not with us today. We'll look to director Hunt for the social work report.

Alright. And since we do have some some of the supervisors here, feel free if you want to chime in. I'm certainly okay with that in miss Dobbs' absence, but I do want to say that we are working very, very hard to meet all of the standards that we need to meet. We are doing things to try our best to get social workers in here. The hardest part is that people are not applying for these jobs.

They are not applying. And it's a workforce crisis, and it's happening everywhere. And this is the thing that we talked about at the Western Regional Meeting, is how do you get people to apply for the jobs. We've had supervisors positions open, and people are simply not applying for these jobs. So, know, the state has sent us literature that we can send out to to the public.

One one of the things that we're doing because it's Adoption Awareness Month, we are putting up a billboard. It will be up probably next week and or this week. This week. But it says adoption awareness, but it also says that we're hiring. We've also put out now hiring signs, hoping that people will come in and apply for the jobs.

We are getting more applications for economic services. However, but for social work, they're slowly trickling in. And in some cases, we are having to hire people that are not as qualified as we would like for them to be. So that's what we're going to report there. But we are our last two consult meetings with the state for adult services and for children's services did prove, and and our last set of reports that we looked at, we're doing very well.

It's the the the the strangest thing. Now people are overworked. Please don't please don't think I think I'm not saying that. But we're just surprised that that that the standards and the reports look as good as they look, and we're gracious. I mean, we are just so incredibly appreciative of the work that they're doing, and that just that's because our supervisors are out there doing the work too, and that's why our reports are looking as good as they are. So I just want our staff to know that we are appreciative of them and your hard work and that there is plan in place. Dee. Yes.

Do you know if there's a decline in the number of individuals majoring in social work in the universities?

Yeah. One of the things that you and you probably heard Tiffany say this before is that in a couple of the universities, people are saying do not go into child welfare. They have actually said that inside the classroom. So there is a decline of people going into child welfare. There used to be a program through the state where if you got your social work degree, your MSW I can't remember the collaborative that they would pay for it. But the collaborative is not happening right now. So that's another thing that we used to depend on because then we could have that person for at least three years. So, yeah, there's a decline without a without a doubt.

Let's cross the behavioral health workforce. Yeah.

And that's all we have on the social services side. I'm I'm sorry. The social work side.

When I asked before about are there supporting things that you don't have to be a credentialed social worker to do to support them? Ashley raised her hand. Is she allowed to speak?

Of course. No. Okay. No. No. Sorry. Okay. Didn't know. Okay. That's why I asked.

You you that conversation can happen later

Okay.

Outside the board meeting. What's that?

I don't know how y'all get too much into.

Do you do sign on bonuses? That's part of my what I'm gonna ask the the board, but we do not do sign on bonuses. But I do want to ask the board at some point if we can offer some bonuses for the people that are doing two jobs. I did ask that before when CPS was in crisis, and we were able to to do that. And so we are going to ask that again.

Of course, that's a question that I have to get with Pam on that we you know, I'm certainly, we're gonna follow the rules. But I just want the board to know that that is something that I would like to consider because they are working hard, and they are doing two jobs. And we have budgeted for that.

Let let me interrupt you. Okay. We're stay with the agenda. That's Yes. An item for another topic. Great great thing to think about.

Okay.

It needs to come back with us with details so the board can consider it's not time for discussion upon it. Is there anything else on the social work? Thank you. We will look at miss Epley for social economic services.

The government shutdown did affect food nutrition services for the clients and political. And at first, they put out that the food nutrition services was not gonna be an issue, and we expected a mass influx of Can you talk a little louder? Clients that was upset. We hardly got anything. Then they said it was gonna be 50% reduced, which if you had heard that and didn't know how the policy was, you would think, okay, I'm gonna get 50% of what I would normally get.

Well, it wasn't that way. It was they changed the maximum allotment table by 50%, which means that once you do the calculation and you compare it to the maximum allotment, wherever you fall in that calculation is what your new allotment would be. Well, the the public don't understand how that works, so they were more upset about not getting the full allotment or half allotments than they were of not getting any. Since then, the government has opened back up and issued full benefits and they were slowly being awarded to the residents to most of the clients in Redwood County has received that now. One good thing about this continuing resolution was they funded the USDA for a full year.

So even if the government does shut down again in January, the food stamps will not be affected. Yeah. That was a big thing. Also, for the HR one changes coming December 1, the able-bodied adults must start working. That age limit changed from 54 to 64, but there is other policy in the food nutrition services that if they meet an exemption with work registration, they could still be eligible at age 60.

So really and truly the way it's working, most of our residents won't be turned off if they're age 60 instead of going to the age 65. So I'm hoping that makes the people that would have been ineligible that'll make that amount go down from what we were anticipating. Then alien or immigrant status immigrant changes is they're working on that, and I'm not sure if that's gonna go into effect or striving to get that into effect for December 1. We have not seen the communications about that, so it's possibly that might be extended out to January 1 before the illegal immigrants is affected. And that's all I have.

If I'm reading this right, it's saying that the able-bodied adults, as you said, 18 to 64, must work at least eighty hours a month?

Mhmm. Twenty hours a week.

What is it now? Do you know? How much do they have to work now?

That didn't change. The ages changed.

Age. Okay.

Yes. The the ages was 18 to 54. Meaning, once you age reach age 55, you didn't have a work requirement. The difference is that age is going to 65. And also, if you had a dependent in the home, any child or dependent in the home that was 18 would make you eligible. That age has changed to 14.

They're gonna put more work on y'all?

Mhmm. There will be a lot of churn, meaning the clients will be terminated once they have got their three free months, and they'll come back in and meet an exception that would make them eligible again. So the application churn will increase.

Any other questions, comments, anything from the board for miss Effley? Thank you. We'll go back to director Hunt for the director's report.

Okay. Just a couple of things.

There is a feasibility study going on to determine whether it's a great idea to become a health and human services consolidation or not. They actually are and, of course, our county manager did tell us about it, and he said that they would be reaching out to us. And, of course, they did. If you would turn to page 12, Jay Vincent and Scott Boyd came to our office on October 29, and I gave supervisors an opportunity to come, and they filled the room in talking about that. So they identified the strengths of DSS.

We talked about the challenges, which, of course, we did mention staff retention and difficulties, low salaries. You can see that. And then they actually wanted to know a whole lot about collaboration. And we told them that our collaboration between counties, between agencies were just excellent. Information technology, our sheriff's department, finance transit.

We told them all about that, and we also told them that we had a good working relationship with the public health department. So that's all there. And I'll wait. I'm gonna skip number two, and I'll go on down to to the next one. There is an invitation at the end of your report for our Christmas luncheon, and we'd certainly love for you to be there. Leon, if you can, we'd love for you to be on the singing committee.

You can go.

And also, the last the last bullet here is a grant award. We did receive a grant from Gateway Wellness Foundation of $108,100 dollar food line gift cards to be distributed to clients that were experiencing food insecurity because of the ongoing government shutdown. Of course, the government is now open. So we've got until May to dispense to dispense all of the cards. So we are, as an organization and as an agency, deciding on now that that things are open, we're we're coming up with avenues or the best way to make sure that we're we're doing what we should do and that we're giving the cards to the people that need them most.

So we will continue to work on that. We're gonna talk a little bit more about it, and we're gonna get in touch with Josh Kennedy to ask him what what what type of since the the government is now open, we're gonna ask him if he has any additional ideas because we wanna make sure that we're giving this due diligence and that we're doing the right thing with it. And then, of course, going back up to number two, we did talk with Richard about making that change in the MOU between the sheriff's department and DSS, and it has been completed. And, of course, we wanted to present it to the board before it is signed. I think that was under article one section five.

I see we never changed that word except in emergency situations. I thought we was gonna change that wording.

I did too. Did we not? Is is this the right one? This is not yeah.

It it can't it can't be.

No. Because we we is Richard here? Yeah. We took that one out, so this must not be the correct one. But we are okay. I mean, there there is one that took that one out. Right, Richard? We took out that word emergency, and we just said except in situations that necessitate removal of the DSS deputy.

If you'll forward it to the board and we can see it, that way we know we have the exact wording. Because I go back again, that deputy will be used Mhmm. If she's he or she's going past the call Mhmm. They're gonna honor the badge more than they're gonna honor working at DSS.

That's right. That's right. And Richard was okay with that one. I remember him sending the email back to me with with with that one. This is just probably the one that was on there the last time, so we apologize for that. We will send you the correct one.

Thank you. You're welcome. And

then, of course, there is our security report that's also attached and you guys can let me know if you have any questions about that.

While the board's looking at that, I want to make sure the board is aware that under that feasibility study, that if the county goes this way and it becomes a consolidated health and human services type situation, the board would be dissolved and everything would come under the county manager and the board of commissioners. So I reached out to mister Garrison today. They've not received all the information back yet, so it's we're still doing business as usual. How is looking at this report, how is the security going at the facility?

It's going very well, and I'm going to y'all.

I don't know if I'm doing

very well. No. I I knew she was gonna answer, but I'm I'm looking I'm looking at y'all.

Faces. Yeah. Susan can answer. No. And Susan yep. And he's based at your your office, which yeah.

We actually had a situation where

a little bit louder.

We had a situation where a client was visiting the office quite frequently, and he has been trespassed. So we went through Richard and he ok'd the trespassing plan that we have. So we have trespassed this person to not be on the property he's escorted by DSS or can do it mostly by telephone.

Well, we got one concern. You know, I look at it from a law enforcement standpoint on Number 14 where the officer talked to the subject over the phone and advised him that if he came to the facility, he would be arrested. Apex Security cannot arrest anybody. He could possibly be arrested, so they want to check their wording up on that. They can call for the actual officer to come to look at it and possibly arrest them. Apex Security can detain, cannot arrest. So that's kind of a misstatement right there.

Yes. I'll educate them. Well,

they know it's I'll educate It's

probably just wording.

The wording. It's just the wording.

They know. Yeah.

It is just the wording. And we

meant to say could instead of would.

Yes. And because

Detained and

The public will Detained. Look at this, and the public will read this information. Right. And with everything going on with Apex and the deputy being on scene even more, I just like the board to know security is being taken serious at DSS. It is not being overlooked.

At different times, director Hunt has called me and asked me about a situation. I said, call the officer, the actual officer with arrest powers and let that particular officer do report. So I don't want anybody to think that security is not being taken serious. And if somebody has other concerns or anything, please bring it to our attention.

What does number 17 mean?

When they developed a plan to paint.

They probably meant cope. Mhmm.

Caught up with

They're probably missing

something else. Like, what is that?

This was when the government was shut down, and we anticipated being irate clients.

They I understand now. Just that made me go, am I missing context? Come over to DSS.

We're just thank you, for just supporting us on the security thing. It has been a blessing. Thank you very much.

They do this security report. Could we see a specific we don't have to have details of the report, but but specific to how many reports that officer is doing that we're paying for a month.

When you say reports

They do a lot.

Does that Well, I'm talking about Apex has got a number of reports. I wanna see what that officer is doing report wise.

Ain't that what they gave us?

Mhmm. Well,

if there's a one for

Yeah. They this is, yeah, this is why they give it to us. Are you talking about, like Yeah.

I'm talking about we've got Apex here. There's security.

This is Apex.

This is Apex.

Right. But you've got the officer that's working here monthly that we're paying the salary on.

That request.

I wanna see

What she's doing

with she's writing.

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Got you. Okay. Yep. We we can cert we can certainly do that. Tell you what what we did do is, of course, she does a lot

of the

civil orders for us. Yeah. But when we knew about the government shutdown and it it's it's as soon as all of this started happening, we actually pulled her and sent her over to Building C to just be extra support. Of course, she she wasn't needed. Thank goodness. But but, you know, when when we need something or when the social workers need her to go out with them, she does that.

Gotcha.

While while they're still on campus, she can go out with the with the social worker. So so she's doing that too. So I don't know if you wanna copy up how many times she goes out with social workers.

Just to just, like, just to see the volume of

Okay.

How many, like, these guys that shows specifically what they're doing.

Okay.

We wanna see specifically what she's doing.

Thank you very much.

I just think it's important.

It it is. And that is actually happening at our last last meeting. There she's documenting some things. And Captain Ellis did mention that that they had some things that that she does and how many orders she does and that he he would give to me. So I'll try to have that at the next meeting. Kim, if you write that down so we can get that from Captain Ellis because yeah. Because we did tell them ask them for that.

Because what would what that would happen with on the sheriff's report, the total for one month was, like, 298 civils served. How many were served by r four fifteen?

Mhmm.

Right. Which is that officer which would kinda help. Then what else did she kinda do?

Right.

Yeah. Okay.

Because like I said, I know she's doing a lot of visiting with and it's sometimes it's not just that officer. If she needs more, she has more there. Mhmm. So is that kind of what you're asking about?

Yeah. Okay.

We can we can do that through

Just cabinet so we we know, you know? Okay. We've got an agreement with them. So

Yeah. Thank you very

much. So

but we certainly have felt safer. I can tell you that. Because all this stuff used to come to my desk. All these one sixty four that you're seeing, they all came to my desk. So

It'd be good to see, departmental wise or departmental, what turnover radius in each department and that kind of thing.

Okay.

Because I know the big different ones vary. Okay. It's good to know that and

It is.

Okay. Where we need to concentrate on and all that kind of thing.

Okay. Alright. So we've got that down to just to maybe take in that that report and breaking it down by department. Mhmm. And you mentioned that too. Mhmm. Okay. I thought that's doable. I'm not sure if the expert report yeah. We can because we know the person's name.

Just so you all know that this has been an an ongoing concern with social services for a good while, not just here, but it's it's a statewide. But I know about four years ago, the child protective services, it was at 45%. And we've done some better with that. But we just really need to get into the nooks and crannies of what's going on, but it it's this thing hits the problem statewide. Yeah. Matter of fact, nationwide.

Nationwide. Yeah. Yeah. It's just hard, and the issues today are different than they used to

be. Oh, yeah.

You just have

a lot more problems.

Forty years ago, I was going in people's homes for, you know, hitting their children or drinking too much. Now they're doing meth, and they had meth labs. And, you know, it's just and then it's like everybody's toting a gun. I mean, it's just it's just different and it's scary.

What I find interesting is, you know, they have to depend, the workers do, when you go out. You don't have a weapon on you. You're going into some situations that are real, real dangerous. And I know they've come up with some alternate things, you know, that you might have with you, you know, if you're bee spray and you name it or whatever. But I mean, just you've gotta be really careful. Y'all go into some really terrible, terrible situations. You run into dogs. I mean, you run into all kinds of you just don't ever know what you're running to.

Board have anything else for the director's report? Do we have any announcements to come forward? Just wanna remind the board, is it December 5 Pleasant View Community Church on Michael Drive, 12:00? If you get opportunity to come, the food is wonderful. Entertainment is great. Mhmm. And you'll get to see the folks that are doing doing the work that are there. We would appreciate it. And be able to tell them thank you.

Coming if you can. That would be great. We would so so appreciate that.

If there's nothing else, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Would there be a second?

I'll second.

Would there be any discussion? I will call for a vote. All in favor to adjourn, aye. Aye. Opposed, like sign? We are adjourned.