The Public Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, April 5, 2004, @ 6:00p.m. in the Administration Building's Conference Room East. Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order. Members present were Pat LaVigne, Steve Faivre, Julia Fullerton, Richard Osborne, Sue Leifheit, Eileen Dubin, Eric Johnson and Robert Rosemier. Others present were Mary Olson, Karen Grush, Tom Zucker, Ellen Rogers, Dave Ruggles, Betsy Steele, Barb Larson, Steve Chermanski, Jeanette Smith, Karen Hagen, Val Hinz, Marshall Hayes and Bob Meisner.

 

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Moved by Mr. Rosemier, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to approve the March 2004 minutes.

 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded toy Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda.

 

SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY HEARINGS

Chairman Allen said that there was one thing that she wanted to say. She said that there was no question in her mind that all of these agencies are using all the monies that they receive. She said to keep in mind that the levy only increased by $10,000.00 because of the assessments.

 

Elder Care Service of DeKalb County, Inc.

Ms. Olson explained that Elder Care Services provides services for the entire area of DeKalb County and for the elderly. Today they are approaching us about funding for two programs. One is their Elder Abuse and Neglect Program and the other is for the Case Management Program, which has been funding in the past. Chairman Alien stated that if the DeKalb Township is helping out with funding these programs that she feels the other townships should be able to help out too. Marshall Hayes, Executive Director, that they are requesting $25,000 to provide additional elder abuse and neglect services in DeKalb County. Other sources of income include contractual reimbursement from the Illinois Department on Aging, requests to DeKalb United Way/Sycamore United Fund and DeKalb Township. He also said that they are asking for $25,000 to provide additional case management services in DeKalb County.  Others sources of income include reimbursement from Illinois Department on Aging. 

Health Department

Ms. Karen Grush, DeKalb County Public Health Director, introduced herself to the committee. She said that since 1998 she has asked for the same amount of money each year, which is $25,000.00. Revenue to support the DeKalb County Health Department's Home Care Program comes from Medicare, third party insurance. Public Aid, private pay and the Senior Services Levy. They are requesting the $25,000 to subsidize approximately 400 home care medical visits to 40 medically indigent DeKalb County senior citizens.  Medically indigent individuals are those not covered under Medicare and who are non-insured or under-insured.

In 2003, Home Care costs per visit are estimated at $125 for skilled nursing, physical, speech and occupational therapy, $160 for medical social service and $65 for home health aide services.

Full charges for skilled nursing, physical, speech and occupational therapy are $135 per visit, $175 for medical social service and $75 for home health aide visits.

The Home Care Program is requesting funding to subsidize all or part of the cost of care for 40 medically indigent patients receiving approximately 400 home visits who are non-insured or underinsured.

 

Voluntary Action Center - Trans Vac and Meals-On-Wheels

Mr. Tom Zucker, Director of Trans Vac and Ms. Ellen Rogers, Director of Meals-On-Wheels thanked the commmittee for their support with the levy.

Mr. Zucker explained that VAC is requesting $64,000 for transportation services. This request will fund 6,465 rides at a cost of $9.90 per ride. Costs were calculated by dividing total transportation costs by total number of rides provided. This new method of calculating the cost per ride provides a uniform cost across all grants and truly reflects all costs involved in the provision of the service. Gasoline prices continue to be at all time record highs. We expect that vehicle insurance premiums will increase by 12% this year, while health insurance premiums increased by 17%.   Expenses for labor, vehicle maintenance and vehicle repair have continued to increase as well. Their vehicle fleet continues to age as a result of an IDOT policy that replaces only one vehicle per year. They have nearly 20 vehicles that qualify for replacement under IDOT's established criteria. At a replacement rate of one vehicle per year, the cost of maintenance and repairs continues to increase as we are forced to perform increasingly expensive repair work in order to keep the fleet operational.

They also explained that the funding request for Meals On Wheels of $77,000 will be utilized to provide 11,000 meals, which will purchase 14% of their services for DeKalb County residents. Service will include a combination of noon, evening and weekend meals in addition to dietary supplements. 

Fox Valley Older Adult Service.

Mr. David Ruggles, Director of Fox Valley Older Adult, said the funding request of $30,000 will be used to support the unreimbursed costs of the Fox Valley Older Adult Services Adult Day Services Program. These costs include many resources for many clients who do not qualify for state assistance, yet cannot afford the cost of the care. In addition, they are utilized to meet the needs of those clients who receive some assistance from the state, but it does not begin to cover their care.
 

Family Services Agency of DeKalb County.

Ms. Betsy Steele and Barb Larson represented Family Services Agency. They are requesting $119,000 for their Assisted Living Program. The Assisted Living Program provides assistance with the tasks of daily living to the elderly and frail-elderly residents of DeKalb County and is requesting funds to support the provision of those services. The County funds permit them to serve the low-income elderly population of DeKalb County.

IDOA pays for Assisted Living services at a rate of $11.06 per hour. The cost of Family Service Agency for providing these services is $19.00 per hour. The difference between these hourly rates is $7.94 per hour. This is the per hour rate that Family Service Agency is requesting from the Senior Tax Levy funds.
 

Opportunity House.

Mr. Stephen Chermansky and Ms. Jeannette Smith represented Opportunity House for the hearings this evening. The funds that they are requesting in the amount of $21,025.00 is an increase over last year's request due to several factors. They would like to increase the direct service hours of a third staff person to 1250 hours for the year. This increase is because of staff time necessary for personal care with the individuals, as well as increased transportation time due to physical limitations of our individuals and the increased distance of they new location.

With regards to transportation, they are finding that more and more assistance is being required to help our folks with boarding and exiting our vehicles. Coupled with the fact that they only have part-time use of an accessible van, this becomes a very time/staff consuming operation. In order to more efficiently provide for the safety of their elderly clients, they should be sending 2 staff persons on these runs, which they are currently unable to do.
 

Hospice.

Ms. Karen Hagen and Val Hinz represented Hospice. The total funding request for this project is $2,956. This would be used to support an average of seven senior home-based Transitions clients per month. The average time spent by the Transitions Coordinator on case management and volunteer supervision per  client is two hours per month at $17.00 per hour.  The request also includes $100,00 for the Transitions portion of the Direct Care Volunteer training (two trainings/year). 

Every agency had been heard and now the committee began discussion on the allocation of funds. It was suggested that possibly in the future that the committee should look at other ways of funding the Health Department's request through the County's budget process. The rest of these agencies are not county government offices like the Health Department is. It was agreed that this subject would be talked about at the budget process.

Moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded by Ms. Leifheit, and it was carried unanimously to allocate the funds the following way: $25,000 to the DeKalb County Health Department; $2,000 to Hospice; $16,000 to Elder Care Case Management Program; $12,000 to Elder Abuse Neglect Program; $119,000 to Family Service Agency; $30,000 to Fox Valley Older Adults; $13,000 to Opportunity House; $64,000 to Voluntary Action Center -Transportation; $77,000 to Meals On Wheels.

It was moved by Mr. Faivre, seconded by Ms. Leifheit to forward this recommendation on to the full board for approval, and it was carried unanimously.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Mr. Johnson, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

 Respectfully submitted,
 

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Marlene Allen, Chairman
 

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Lisa Sanderson, Acting Secretary