Social Services Board - Regular Meeting

It's 04:00. I wanna welcome everyone to the December Department of Social Services board meeting. I'd like to call this meeting to order. We have the agenda before us, but we do not presently have a quorum in the building. So what we're going to do, one of the members that is en route that will constitute a quorum would be here about 04:15.

So we're gonna continue on with we have the first two items on the agenda, action items, which we're gonna have to skip over to the action. We have a quorum in the building. So I'm gonna skip down. We want to welcome our newest board member, miss missus Lynn Hoppes, who has been appointed by the North Carolina Social Services Board. Miss Hoppes, would you like to say something?

Hi, everyone. I think I know most people here. Mhmm. Worked with many of them for many years, and I'm excited to be appointed to this position. I hope my knowledge in working with the agency can help with the understanding of some of, you know, the charts here.

Like Leon said, do you understand what this means? Yes. I do. I understand some of the the deficits within the agency and and the challenges that you have, and and I'm hoping I can can bring some things to the table and listen to concerns and and hope that I'll be a positive force here with you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you, miss. If I'm not mistaken, didn't you retire from DSS after so many years?

It's twenty eight years.

Twenty eight. So we're very happy to have you aboard. Miss Hoppes has been appointed because sitting to my immediate right is miss Georgia Steele who has come to the end of her term. It actually happened about June. But until we had somebody to replace miss Steele, she had she's graciously stayed aboard for the board to keep us going. But, unfortunately, all things must come

to an end. After

six years, the you're appointed for three years, and you can be reappointed for another three years for a total of six. And after that, you have to rotate off the board. And and I don't know if director Hunt realizes or not, but there is something in front of her that if she would like to make that presentation at this time to miss Steele, we would be grateful.

Absolutely. I would be happy to. Of course, I just wanna say on behalf of the agency how much we have truly appreciated your guidance and your support. You've been wonderful. I think the experience that you brought from the state of North Carolina, knowing the culture of the state and a lot of the policies, it has been a very, very great influence and asset to us as local government.

So we're going to miss you very much, and thank you for all that you've brought to us and the way that you have supported us and me as the leader, and I appreciate that so much and all of us. Thank you. So we are presenting you with a plaque that you can look at when you're not with us. And it says, this is the Willaford County Department of Social Services presented to Georgia Steel board member from 2019 to 2025. Thank you for believing in our vision and offering out outstanding leadership, service, dedication, and support 12/17/2025.

Thank you so much. It's been my pleasure working as a board member supporting the local DSS. You couldn't ask for a better team of people to work with. I see your hard work. I see your dedication.

You're blessed with an outstanding leader. Just see that if you continue to cooperate with each other and think about the citizens of Rutherford County, then DSS Rutherford County DSS is the number one DSS in the state of my opinion. The first one with a lighthouse, a house for children so that they won't be sleeping on the floors anymore. So your creativity is just breath of fresh air for state employees, county employees. I've learned a lot. I knew some things, but I've learned a lot working with you all. So it's been my pleasure. I'm gonna miss that third Wednesday,

but I'm sure I'll find something else. Thank you so much.

Thank you, miss Stevens. You. We appreciate you so much. I can't vote anymore, can I? No, ma'am.

I can't vote anymore. Okay. I'll

stay till David comes.

Yeah. You can stay.

You're more than welcome to keep sitting right there, but now miss Hoppes has the voice. Karen, do we have any public comments? No. Thank you. We will recognize director Hunt for the personnel report.

Thank you so very much, chairman Godlock. Before we go to to look at our at our dockets, I just want to say to our team that we have back here, we have five people, and we were telling our board last month just how tough it was and how we really needed to hire people. And we have five sitting in here. So we want to introduce them, and their managers are here. And so if the managers would introduce who we have in the room as our new employees, we're so happy to have you. Trust us.

Alright. So, yes, we are very happy to have you all, but I'm gonna allow you to introduce yourselves. So I have Mario and Laura, and they will tell us who they are in in assessments. They're both doing investigation and assessments. So I'll let you have the floor, sir.

Hey. How y'all guys doing, ladies and gents? My name is Mario Clark, and I am an a social worker in IET, which is investigations. And I am proud to be here. It's a great environment. I don't plan on going anywhere.

Little old you do it. Right. IET.

That's exactly right.

We like to hear that. Yes. And what did you do before you came?

I was I did substance abuse, and I also worked at Cleveland County DSS

too Okay.

As well. I did child permanency in Cleveland County.

Do you live in Redford County?

No. I do not.

But you can't do DSS in Redford County.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. So you know what I I know. You take the poor people along. Never mind. And I appreciate that. I appreciate you. It's habit.

Got a pastor.

I know. The the voice is now. She can't say it. That's okay. It is habit.

But but she was on a roll

like that. We were just waiting to go on. Yeah. I'm alright.

My name is Laura. I was actually before I did had a business, I was a recovery technician in a substance abuse center. So I've always been very interested in working with people. I'm really happy to be here. I'm really excited.

I feel very aligned with the people that I've met so far. The work environment is awesome, and I honestly cannot wait to get out there and to help. Because before, yeah, I had the salesman's hat, and now I can actually provide resources that are for free and, you know, my help. And that's truly what my calling is no matter what I do. If I'm a deputy or a counselor, I'm here to help, and I'm looking forward to working with you all and learning from y'all. Thank you for having me again. So

now I'll get to ask you questions. So you are currently going through preservice. You have not been so you're you're not ready to have face to face contact with clients yet?

I've done some shadowing. Yesterday was my first time, and

But not alone?

No. No. No. It was with someone else.

That you have completed preservices. You worked at Cleveland County. Yes. Ma'am. Okay. So you are ready to hit the right run.

I got a case the second day.

Why did y'all wait the second day?

I know. Right? What happened the first day?

No. It's it's

good. It's good. Alright. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. For economic services, we have Jada Roberts, Kaya Wilson, and Megan Scruggs. And I'll let you give a little bit of back your background. Jada, you first. I came from the school system. I worked at North Shelby. It was the disability autism school, and I worked as an AVA tech there. So coming here, it's a little bit different. Still working and helping children, but in a different way. Mhmm. So and I'm an income maintenance caseworker. So And family insurance Medicaid. Wow. All three of them is in family insurance Medicaid. Kya?

Hi, everyone. My name is Kya. I just recently graduated from Wingate University with a major in human services. So this is kinda in that that field. So I'm glad to be here. Appreciative of y'all giving me giving us y'all time to hear more about us. I too am an income maintenance caseworker, and I look forward to

learning more about this position.

Thank you. I'm Megan. Before I came here, I was a title clerk for three years, so this is something new new for me. But I'm very, very grateful to be given this opportunity to help families in need and especially children. Thank

you. We thank all of you. We're so happy to

have

you. We are recruiting. And so if you know other people who may be interested in our open positions, we would ask that you reach out, tell them to go online, and apply because we really are a wonderful agency, and we have wonderful workers. And make sure they're wonderful like you are, though. So thank you so much. So any other questions for for them? Any other questions?

Thank y'all. Glad to have you aboard.

Okay. Now could you tell them just a little bit about the board and what what your purpose is just just so they'll know.

What our purpose is is just is a support role. Y'all don't answer to us. The only one that answers to the board is actually director Hunt. And what we try to do is support her. Hey. I'll be honest. She'll tell you, we get on her. We wanna make sure that y'all have what you need. We wanna make sure that Rutherford County DSS can become and stays the number one agency in North Carolina. And so our role is, like I said, is very diverse. You know, now we've got miss Hobbys. We had miss Steele. We've got different ones. And we look at what goes on. We ask some of the hard questions.

You know, we're not just letting them skim over things that we don't understand. We're gonna say, what about this? What about this? Because we wanna make sure that no child, no adult, falls through the crack. We want to make sure people are taken care of in Rutherford County. It takes all of us to make that happen.

And they care about the workers. They care about you because they know that you make it happen. So so thank you. Now since you've heard all of that and you've been introduced, we do have other things to do and other things to talk about in the board meeting. You're more than welcome to stay and Alright.

Alright. So if you guys will look at the personnel report, there are two pages of that. And let us know if you have any questions about that.

I'm already noticing on the CPS. It looks like those workers that had a bunch of zeros, I guess they'd come out of what we call it pre service.

Yeah. Mhmm. Mhmm.

That's right.

So how many of those are designated as investigators? How many have like, are y'all still calling them? Are you calling them?

They're assessors. Okay.

Yeah. Mhmm.

So how many investigators do you have here?

So currently, I have bathroom. They

Thank you.

Thank you.

So currently, we have we should have 10 assessors, but currently, we have eight. So we're down three. And then the in home piece of it is we are down two, but we have two assessors that's gonna be moving to in home. So then those two positions will become vacant. So we should have four in home workers. But right now, we have two. Yep.

You have them separated?

Yeah. It's not blended.

It's not a blended

team. We're not a

blended team.

So you only have four

positions for in home. Mhmm. 10 assessment positions. Okay. Mhmm.

But you only have two doing in home right now? Is that what you said?

Two? Currently. Mhmm. My supervisor's carrying the caseload.

Okay. Mhmm. So how many how many cases is an in home worker carrying if you only have two?

Correct. So right now, they're carrying between fifteen and twenty.

So that's really overloading them. Right?

Oh, absolutely.

That's not Mhmm. That's not really a are they seeing their their clients?

Absolutely. Mhmm. Okay. Yeah. But they're I mean, the piece is you still see your families, but you don't get to it's like you wanna wanna really do that social work. Like, you wanna be there for hours and hours, and that can't happen. But, I mean, the visits are happening. Mhmm. I'm seeing our people. Assessors are up there high as well. They have case loads between twenty and forty because we only had 2.5, I would say, because somebody might be out sick. Somebody might we literally only had three people in rotation.

And let me just add this, Lynn. This will make you feel a whole lot better. We have 20 contract workers.

Correct.

So what we're also adding is our contract workers are making visits too. Mhmm. We have we're actually contracting with the after hours worker in Cleveland County. So the week that she's not doing her own call Mhmm. She comes and she's been doing visits For two fifteen. And that's that's kind of what's helping out that's helping the workers. Yep. And it's also helping us make sure that the work is done. Mhmm. So we're using contract workers to for the fill ins. Mhmm. Yeah.

Because, know, 20 cases I mean, it's not unreasonable. Mhmm. But it it puts a lot Mhmm. On the worker and what quality of Mhmm. Of work are you really giving the families when you are overloaded Mhmm. With with that

Not the same. In any cases. Absolutely. Yeah. The quality cannot be the same. You're right. Right. So we are in recruitment mode. I promise you that. Right. We're trying our best. And,

you know, when when that quality fails, you know, are you overlooking something? Mhmm. You know, are children being at risk because you're just trying to get in and out and get those contacts made to meet those, you know, the state standards and are we leaving children at risk Mhmm. Because of that. Mhmm. Yeah. So

That that's something to consider, but we're we're making sure that those visits are made. I promise you that. They are happening. Mhmm. Okay. Yep. But good questions, though. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, she's been there

and done that.

So Yes. You have.

Yes. You

have. Mhmm.

Thank you. You have any other questions?

Well, I guess I saw what an income maintenance. There are how many? 10 vacancies. So who's covering those positions that are what I mean, is it food stamps, Medicaid?

All. Adult Medicaid, financial aid, food and nutrition services. It's just spread out between the remaining staff.

So they are exceeding their limit of what they they carry also. But those needs are being met also in getting those cases Yes. Covered, entered. Nobody's missing their food stamps, their Medicaid appointments, none of because do they do they they still come in for every so often now,

or is it just, like, through mail?

Because when I did Medicaid, that was years ago. Yes.

That changed when COVID came upon. Uh-huh. The protection for the clients and the staff allowed for telephone signatures for most things, most programs now and that has continued. So there is a lot that the clients can do over the phone and have that signature at a station. So that has helped.

That makes things a lot weaker. Yes.

But we do still have client visits coming into the office quite frequently.

Is there anything being done as far as and I know this is my first day, so that y'all may have discussed some of this, but is there anything being done as far as the recruitment for new staff? Yeah. A lot.

We have the very first thing that we did in in a proactive way was we started hiring contract workers because we knew that another agency was coming. So we have 20 about 20 contract workers now, which is pretty good. And now and, of course, we did have a job fair on-site. We've we've also partnered with Vanguard. Remember Vanguard? I did. Vanguard. Okay. So they have sent us how many workers that that that Seven. Seven.

We have seven workers. They haven't started yet, but they're right there. So seven they they've been vetted, and they know that they're coming. And they've we interviewed one that's actually gonna be on-site. Mhmm. So they're coming. So there's seven workers there. We have also sent out messages to the counties asking if their after hours workers could come and work for us when they're not working. So we put it out there. We, of course, we had the billboard up, the hiring.

If you go by the agency right now, you see the sign. It now hiring. Mhmm. They're just waving. So we have those up, and we're doing word-of-mouth, anything we can think of. But here's something that's different than when you were there. Preservice remember, preservice was, like, three weeks? Mhmm. It's eight weeks now. And they're also it it their the gaps in between are a little bit longer than than they were. So the workers that we have right now that are going through pre service, they're not gonna be finished until the February. So even that is creating more. Right. So so, yeah, we've we've we've done a lot. Mhmm. Yeah.

Get Rick Dunn before I can get you to pause for a minute. I've got another young lady that's Hey.

Oh, that is Yeah. Listen. She's in child welfare. So you wanna introduce her? Yes. This is miss Rose,

and she'll be in foster care. So I'll let you introduce herself to the room.

Okay. I'm Rose Fish. Yeah.

The work that

you're doing. The job

that you're gonna be doing, anything that you wanna share, you know, that you did before.

I've been in day care for, like, twenty seven years. Mhmm. I just recently sold it. I needed to go to a new career path, so I'm excited to

be here. Okay. And she's she's filling in one of our foster care physicians. That's the one that that we've lost most the most from is foster care. So we're so happy you're here. We wanted you to meet these are our board members. Mhmm. We do have one two that are missing today. But if you know anything about a board here in Rutherford County, they're our guiding light, basically. So they are my boss, and they we report to them every month and sometimes, you know, during the month Mhmm.

To make sure that things are okay about particular policies or issues that we may have because they're our support. So so anything you guys wanna ask her?

Or Thank you. And we're glad to have you here. You're welcome.

It's okay. It's okay. I I heard you today when I was passing through the kitchen what you were doing. So I yeah. It's no problem at all. We totally get it. Thank you so much. So you don't have to stay any longer. We just like for everyone who comes to us to know who our board members are. Mhmm. And we do that by having them to come here. So it's up to you. You can go back and Lynn.

Don't Oh, okay. Rose for life. Okay.

Well, we we got Rose now.

I heard that. I'm like, what?

Well, that's great. Thank you so much.

You. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you

so shake your head.

I I've been seeing you on an email all the time. I'm like, oh,

I wonder where she's gonna go. Oh, nice to Nice to meet you as well.

Yeah. My coworker, Kalia, she was like, oh, yeah. She pops up every every so often.

And I do. I

do. There you go. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. To meet you, everybody.

Thank you, miss Laura.

Mhmm. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. I will be seeing you around.

Yes, ma'am. Alright. Take care.

You too. Perfect. Bye bye.

Any anything further on the personnel report? You got anything else directed

at me?

I do not. Mm-mm.

This doctor? We're going to back up since now we have a quorum in the room. We have the agenda before us. As it's laid out, we've gotten out of order for the agenda, but I will entertain a motion for the approval of the agenda. So moved. Maybe a second. Second. All in favor, aye. Aye. Minutes have been sent out.

I'm not sure if miss Hoppus has had a chance to review last month's minutes. We we'll make sure you get those. But just one second. Attorney. Miss Hoppes has not had a chance to review last month's minutes. Should we table that, or could she vote on?

Theoretically, I it it's what her comfort level would be. Strictly speaking, you can vote on it as you so desire. If you do not feel comfortable, I would you should probably make a motion to table until that time.

It is your pleasure.

Me let me

look over again before I vote on anything.

So I'm hearing there's a motion to table last month's minutes until the next meeting. Right. Will there be a second? Second. All in favor,

aye. Aye.

Could y'all make sure that we make sure we do both minutes next? Now we're back in order of the agenda. We have the budget discussion, miss Price.

K. You

have your financial report before you. This is for the five months ended 11/30/2025. You'll look on page two. The highlighted line is your contribution from general fund for your administrative expenses. This is your administrative item your administrative items.

We're at 38.52% spending. We should be at 41.67, so we're 3.15% under budget for our administrative expenses. Going to page four, your contribution from general fund for your programs is at 46.21%. This is 4.54% over. Your very last page shows your total budget of 40.6%, which is one point o 7% under budget.

So we're still under budget for the year for the five months, 11/30/2025. The only administrative line that's over this month that was not over last month is on page five, which is your rentals, and that, again, is our rental of our postage machine. And that is paid quarterly, so that's why that that line is over. That invoice is just paid quarterly each month. So you'll see that almost at the bottom of your page, rentals.

It's at 48.55%, so that's just a little bit over budget. Everything else that's highlighted was over budget last month, so we're still over budget again this month. And then going into your programs on page seven, your drug screenings is over again this month, and a lot of that is required by by our court for CPS drug screenings. And then our four e adoption assistance, that is a little over at 46%. But our four b adoption assistance, which is right above that, is under, So that just means that there was more children that are four e eligible than state eligible.

So we can just move money,

you

know, if we're over in our four e, then we, you know, we can move money from our four b down to the four e. So all the other lines were over last month or still over again this month by foster care.

Mhmm. And

so but we're still under budget total for the year, so still haven't had to have a budget amendment or any adjustments yet. Does anybody have any questions? See anything that looks odd. And, Lynn, I can go over any budget questions you ever have or if you wanna meet with me individually on what the value how I do the budget and all that good stuff, we can we can do that, a training or whatever.

Different things

No. Other than just

taking in back

Yeah. Just in our foster care budget. That's about the only thing that look is is, like, right out of line right now. Yeah. Long as our

This Medicaid

HVAC systems stay running and all that. Yeah.

Medicaid reduction and all that, that's still this sort of

Yeah.

We don't we just don't know yet what that's gonna be like. Our food stamp, like, we could we could not get as much administrative costs in food stamps there. But we just don't know yet.

If you divide this up into state foster care versus kinship foster care, how is that divided different and why is that divided different if it ties with a relative?

So now kinship providers are if they're a blood relative or by adoption, they get paid half the board payment. That began a year ago. Is that am I thinking a year ago? Four four So they get half board payment if they are blood kin or adoption

or adoptive kin. Mhmm. And they are they they're changing that language as well to if they had a relationship

Oh, really?

With a child.

Haven't heard that. Yep.

Oh, so they really they don't have to be blood relative. Mhmm. Yep.

Figured they So they changed that.

A relation So they

get half the board payment.

So that's what that kinship payment is. Mhmm. So that helps. That and and that's a good thing.

It is a great thing.

Because a lot people cannot take children because of the burden Mhmm. It causes financially for them.

So And we do get reimbursement for that as well just like we do for state.

And because of the you know, there's no foster parents.

Mhmm. Right. Right. So that helps. Helped. Mhmm. It helped with that gap.

Right. Right.

And there that's another issue.

Mhmm. In your

life is there's no foster parents.

That's right. And it helped, you know, with that relationship that they need to have and and, you know, potential custody and all of that. So I think it's helpful for that reason too. So

once they adopt if they adopt these children, if it goes to court, then they receive adoption assistance payment Mhmm. For how long until the child is 18?

Mhmm. Everybody doesn't get adoption assistance. It's just that, you know, there's a criteria

Right. That they would have to meet. Uh-huh. Right.

Thank

you, miss

Clark. Thank you. Did you

have something? If I can be dismissed, my car is not doing right, and I don't know if I go have headlights on the way home if y'all don't mind me leaving. Thank you. Okay. Yeah.

It's my lights. All everything just went

black on the deck on

the panel.

So Oh, wow.

I hope you're home safely and have the alternator. Thank you. It's the alternator.

That's what I was thinking.

It might be the alternator.

I fixed brand fine, but it's text you

when you

get home. But all everything went right.

Or if you need help. Thank you. Last court meeting,

I had

a flat tire. I know. It was horrible.

And enjoy your time off.

Thank you. Thank you.

We recognize director Huntingdon for the service report.

Alright. So you will see the service report for all the services that we have in in DSS. And here are numbers for from November 24 to November 2025, and then we always show the month prior just to look at the data. So we just ask you to just review the numbers and ask us if you have any and let us know if you have questions.

I don't know why this is in general. Blind services.

Services for the blind, people that are are hard of seeing or that are actually blind. Some people are not actually blind that still get blind services. Mhmm.

So what I thought, but I just Yep.

You. Mhmm. And and we would and I think they're saying blind services, but it's really called and and the state calls it services for the blind.

It's a big drop in CBS report from November to October.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Which is a good thing.

Yes. We'll talk about it. The stars were aligned for us. That was a blessing. Yeah.

Go to page 10.

Okay.

But if you ask some questions about the other one, we'll be happy to answer, though.

Mhmm. And your in home services are 27, so that's that's down.

Mhmm. Yeah. And that was well, we she's closed. They closed out a few cases for December. So, hopefully, that'll continue to go down, but we'll be getting more, of course.

And the children in foster care, that's kind of a high number, isn't it? Mhmm.

It's a

lot. Mhmm. It's a lot of kids in foster care.

A lot of kids in foster care. Yes. Is there a reason for that high number? Has did something just happen that you took a lot of kids at one time? Or

It's just been over a Mhmm. Time period. We're seeing a lot of, of course, substance abuse, but substance abuse, mental health, as well as mental health due to substances. So Mhmm. And it's just moving over to adult services. You know, we have a lot of young people that now we're working with in adult services. So it's just basically moving over.

We are really hoping to see these numbers decline. We've been working with PISCO Legal Legal Services through a grant as well as preferred choice. Mhmm. And we're hoping to see a decline because what they do, their purpose is to try to provide services up front to prevent children from

coming into care. And it is going great.

Yeah. It is it is going well. It would probably be more than this. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.

75 of those are free or free for adoption.

We're not legally free yet. They're available. Available. Yeah. Yeah. There's a difference. Means you gotta do the TPRs and all the work to get them legally free. Mhmm.

It's actually this when we're talking about foster care. I was just looking at with the new law that came on the books December 1 about exposing children to a controlled substance, Could the could we actually see an increase of children being removed?

Well, that's why our numbers are where they are. We we've already been seeing the fentanyl and the you know, all those cases, you know, the substance abuse is an issue. So but that's saying they'll be charged. Right? Yes. Yes. That the parents would be charged. So we possibly could.

Mhmm. Because I know law enforcement has been arresting a lot of people

for drugs. Mhmm.

And this new law, I could see that caseload Oh, absolutely. Numbers going up. Mhmm. So is we're also was it act trying to get more workers? We're still actively trying to get more foster care homes.

Mhmm. Absolutely. We are. Mhmm.

So there there's 26 foster homes.

Mhmm.

Are they all full? Is there any any foster homes that have any vacancies?

Mhmm.

So if you if you took a child into custody tonight, there's a possibility you could place in a foster home?

If the foster home decides to accept our kids,

they're not full. Mm-mm. Mhmm. COVID made a huge impact. Mhmm. People just stopped. Even the ones that we had that were licensed that didn't have any children were saying no. Mhmm. And then the mental health issues and you have to reveal the issues. Mhmm. You don't give them the story, but you you know this. You have to reveal Right. Well, once you reveal that there's some mental health issues going on Or behavioral issues. Behavioral issues.

Right.

They'll say no. Yeah. They're just

Yeah. And we're having like, we three and four year olds that you're looking at, like, they may have to go to a p PRTF, and we know that can happen. Yeah. But that's how the behaviors are now.

Yeah. The the the trauma from the substance use and Mhmm. You know, just yeah. It's just different. Mhmm. It's it's different.

Okay. So yeah.

Any further discussion on the service report?

Mhmm. I am. Yes. We

will continue on to program updates, social work, miss Scott.

Yeah. So I don't have a lot of updates. Just the you know, in regards to our, you know, staffing crisis. But we are working through it, you know, being supported by the director, and she will send me an email. Hey. Let's try this. Let's do this. Let's do this. We working together to try to figure out a plan. So excited about Vanguard. We also reached out to allies for outcomes. That's also like a Vanguard. So excited about that. You know, we are just we're getting our Christmas things out for our kids and got all our kids sponsored this year and which we do every year, but that's a good thing. So no not a lot of updates.

Adult services is moving along, and we're just being positive and trying to keep the positivity through the air to what we're going through right now.

You know, we've seen the report that are the article that the Daily Curie put out that burnout is real.

Mhmm. And

we're focusing on DSS and the workers and everything. Mhmm. Yep. Hopefully, there's someone listen online that has a heart and passion that can Mhmm. Pass the background. Mhmm. Won't come to work with department social services.

Mhmm. We're hoping so. We appreciate them for just making the community aware.

Any questions or comments for Ms. Dodd? Economic services, Ms. Effley?

Okay. There's not a lot of updates for economic services either. The energy program received $286,000 for the low income energy assistance program. Usually, get it in November, but due to the federal government shutdown, that was delayed, and we did receive it in December. And we're allowed to take applications for low income energy assistance for the priority group, which is the aged or disabled.

In January, that will open up to enrollment for any household that is under income would be eligible for energy assistance helping with heating and cooling. Also, in some webinars that we were attending this week, the work requirements for Medicaid expansion is the requirements will start in January 2027. For us, that means we will start working their redeterminations in October 2026. That means the

will

that group will start having redeterminations every six months instead of every year. That's gonna add approximately 440 research to the family insurance Medicaid staff every month. That's a monthly figure, 440. So that equates to six new workers because the staff that we have now is not able to absorb that much. There's no way the staff that we have now could absorb four forty new weeks. So that's going to have to be something that's going to have to come to budget.

That would be state and federal funds.

Medicaid for the moment is paying 75% of those administrative dollars. Right.

So that's something that we would take to the county manager to present to the commissioners.

Yeah. On the salary on those positions?

I know you know because we just recently got an increase.

It's starting right around 41,656 annually.

And and it was before then, before, what, six months ago? It was, like, 38. Gotcha. 39. Mhmm. Something like that. So, yeah, so we we did get that increase.

Which is still very low compared to the complexity of determining eligibility for these Medicaid programs.

It's a lot of policy involved. I can tell you that.

Any other questions or comments for Ms. Effie? We'll recognize director Hunt again for the director's report.

I just want to publicly say thank you to the leadership team. Thank you. Thank you. Because when these positions are low, I can depend on them to get the work done. They are definitely getting the work done. And it is definitely hard to sleep at night when when you know that everybody's working this hard. But when you have good managers in place, it certainly does lessen the load. So publicly thank both of you for leading your team. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I didn't have a lot this time because I knew most of the things were coming through PA Dodd's report and PA Efflich report as well. But this is just a letter that I I just wanna read to the board for allowing me to go and be part of Civic Fellows program. Says, with the DSS board's approval, I participated in the Civic Fellows program as part of my professional development. The board authorized my participation and recognition of the value of leadership development, cross sector collaboration, and civic engagement in strengthening departmental operations and community impact. The Civic Fellows program is a well regarded, selective, and competitive program.

Participants are invited following review of submitted applications, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Throughout the program, I maintain my work responsibilities before, during lunch, and after class sessions. I'm grateful to the management team for ensuring operational con continuity and sustained progress of our agency priorities. The program strengthened my understanding of local and regional governance, public policy, and collaborative lead leadership. It also included structured coaching sessions with experienced professionals and subject matter experts, providing guidance on leadership effectiveness, strategic thinking, and organizational impact.

In addition, the program emphasized relationship building across the public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community stakeholders, and they provided practical strategies for problem solving. They informed decision making and effective communication, which are skills that directly apply to the DSS operations. During the program, I shared with fellow participants the realities and challenges faced by local Department of Social Services, which faced a lot of them that were not from the DSS arena, including staffing shortages, rising caseloads, regulatory requirements, and limited resources. In return, I received constructive feedback and ideas to strengthen community partnerships, improve stakeholder communication, and also innovative approaches to workforce and service delivery challenges. Also gained valuable guidance on leading managers toward measurable results when operations are performing well and when navigating resistance or counterproductive behaviors.

Overall, the knowledge, coaching, feedback, and professional connections gained through the civic fellowships fellows program will support my ability to lead this department strategically and represent DSS effectively within the community. I appreciate the board and management team support and believe this opportunity will provide lasting benefits to the department and the citizens of our county. Graduation was held on Friday, December 12 at University of North Carolina School of Government's NAP Center Center. The program will send the certificate of completion information to the board chair, county manager, and local newspaper for inclusion in a press release. Respectfully submitted, director Hunt. And that ends my director's report.

Just so the board will know, today, I did receive that letter from North Carolina State of Government. Any questions or comments for director Hunt? I personally wanna tell you thank you for Thank you. Thank you for completing that class. Congratulations on completing that class.

It was great.

So we're going to be expecting. Well,

that's the way it rolls. Too much is given.

Much is required. I I've I've I've always learned when you go to a class, now you're the expert.

Yeah. Now you gotta bring something back.

And you gotta bring it.

So That is the one of the last things on the agenda. Are there any announcements? One thing I would like about the director Hunt, we do have a new person sitting

over here.

I am so sorry. I totally forgot her because she's out of nowhere. Thank you. I would like to introduce to the board Rebecca Melton. Rebecca Melton replaced Kim Murray who took Kayla's place. So now Rebecca is the executive assistant. She's the one that you will hear from a lot. She brings so much to the to the table. Rebecca has a four year degree. She has done this work before.

She has actually been an executive assistant for director before, not a not a DSS director, but she has brought so much expertise. I just heard from Tiffany not too long ago from another supervisor about how well she did and her position before her promotion in terms of making sure that the adoption numbers were is that it?

Keying of adoption assistance.

Yeah. Yeah. Keying of the adoption assistance and how well you did at that. So we know that you're gonna be a great asset to our administration. And would you like to say anything to the board? I'm very, very happy and honored to be here. I look forward to serving the board as I serve.

You. Thank you.

And congratulations to you too, Kim, and your replacing Kayla. We we know there's a there's a learning curve there because you gotta learn state stuff, and then, of course, you have to learn the county stuff. So we know you can do it and that's why we put you there and we're very happy for you. Thank you for reminding me. I just was not

yeah. No problem.

Yeah. I apologize, Rebecca.

That is the last thing on the agenda. I will ask the two board members. There was a request to go into closed session to discuss a personnel matter. With miss Lynn being brand new, mister Herndon, I would leave it up to you if you decide that you wanna make the motion to go into closed session or if we want to hold off till our other two members are present. I would either entertain a motion to go into closed session or to adjourn.

And if it's to go into a closed session, it would be pursuant to general statute one forty three dash three eighteen subsection 11 a six to discuss a personnel matter or a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to go

in closed session. There'll be a second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

I was waiting on you. Yes, it is. That was really, really close. General statute 143 dash three one eight point one one subsection a six.

I missed a I missed a couple wording right there.

It was close. It was close. As I was saying, it's very close. It was close. For the record, though.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. The motion was made to go into closed session by mister Herndon, seconded by miss Lynn. We would ask for director Hunt to the meeting, please.