The Health & Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, May 1, 2006, @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Robert Rosemier called the meeting to order.  Members present were Marlene Allen, Eileen Dubin, Sally DeFauw, Julia Fullerton and Ruth Anne Tobias.  Eric Johnson was absent.   There was a quorum present.   Others present were Mary Olson, Ray Bockman, Steve Kuhn, Diane Strand, Liz Carney, Dan Templeton, Candice McCarthy, Executive Director or the DuPage Federation on Human Services and Phil Smith, Director of Human Services of DuPage County.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Ms. Dubin, seconded by Ms. Allen, and it was carried unanimously to approve minutes from April 17, 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

          Chairman Rosemier mentioned that at last month’s meeting the committee did not forward the bid awards for the Senior Services Tax Levy allocations and that they would need to do that this evening.  He asked that this item be added to the agenda as item #3a.  Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. Fullerton, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

RESOLUTION:  SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY ALLOCATIONS

          The awards for the Senior Tax Levy Allocations are as follows:  Family Services Agency was awarded $100,000; The DeKalb County Health Department was awarded $26,000; the Elder Care Services Agency was awarded $22,500 for their Case Management Program and $20,000 for their Elder Abuse Program; Voluntary Action Center was awarded $85,000 for their Meals On Wheels Program and $75,000 for their Transportation Program; Hospice was awarded $3,000; Prairie State Legal Services was awarded $3,000; Fox Valley Older Adults was awarded $35,000; Opportunity House was awarded $20,000 and Barb City Manor was awarded $5,000.

          Moved by Ms. Tobias, seconded by Ms. Dubin, and it was carried unanimously to recommend the allocations for the Senior Services Tax Levy Funds and to forward them to the full board for approval.

DUPAGE FEDERATION FOR HUMAN SERVICES

          Ms. Tobias introduced Ms. Candice McCarthy, Executive Director,  of the DuPage Federation on Human Services and Mr. Phil Smith, Director of Human Services for DuPage County.  She said that the Federation in DuPage County is doing such a wonderful job of collaboration between government and the community with welfare reform that she thought that it would be good for them to share their ideas with DeKalb County. 

          Ms. McCarthy stated that the Federation was formed in 1995 by a Governor’s office initiative as one of the five “learning laboratories” whose role was to demonstrate a new approach to collaboration between government and community in the implementation of welfare reform.  Their role has evolved far beyond those origins since that time.  The focus has appropriately shifted to developing a broad system of support for the working poor, and to improving the capacity of the human services system to meet increasingly complex needs.

          They are a 501C3 Charitable Operation and their board is comprised of government officials, 4 county board members, senior county staff, a legislator, and entities that care about human services.  They have learned over the last 10 years that there are four systems that seem to interact together.  Those being human services, healthcare, education and law enforcement. They recently have added a new one to this list, which is economics.  Having good jobs and benefits can go a long way in helping with the other problems.  They also learned that almost any human service problem shows up in the other four areas. 

          The Federation’s role is policy analysis and collaboration management.  There have been a number of change efforts that they have gotten involved in with their leadership role and they are able to do the research and background in order to make some of these changes happen.  They are not a human services provider, but they care about it and are experts on it. 

          The types of issues that they have worked on are healthcare for the uninsured, domestic violence, and mental health, that are not within the ability of any one agency.  The current issues that they are working on are health care, mental health, access to health and human services, languages, immigrants, diversity and homelessness.  Their future issues are domestic violence and dental.

          She further explained that they believe change is made through building relationships and trust.  The possibilities and opportunities emerge and then action is possible.  One of the advantages of having an organization like theirs, is that it is a forum where those types of relationships can develop in a low-threat type of atmosphere.  She said that what they do is they implement selected responses, build consensus, advocate for selected responses, research issues, inform themselves and key others, and identify issues and problems that affect vulnerable populations.  At each step the Federation’s role diminishes and the service providing partner’s role increases.  (Please see handouts attached to these minutes and they are also on file in the County Board Office.)

          She explained that the difference that it has made is that they have new resources for healthcare that have amounted to $65 million in both cash and “in-kind” resources. Hospitals and doctors are donating about $20 million a year in healthcare resources. The new resources total about $64 million over the last 4 years.  Their new collaborations are with health care, mental health, housing, homeless, learning disabilities, parenting, etc.  They are having better outcomes for example, improved health and increased access to services. She said that out of 1200 doctors in DuPage County about half of them are working with their Federation.  Doctors get paid $52 a year, per patient. 

          Mr. Smith said that the county realizes that they are dealing with a lot of issues regarding human services, health care services, mental health care, and other units.  The Federation brings to them an outside view.  One of the things that his department does is provide a lot of grant funding, through the community block grant, to other agencies.  They also work indirectly with providers.  It is great to work with the Federation that is not providing human services so that when they have a complex issue and try to get the information that they need, it is nice to go to an agency that is not going to say “I want some of the money that is going to be made available for this.”  It gives them the third party review and analysis. 

He said that he also writes grants.  He said that the County does contribute around $350,000 to Access DuPage currently.  He said that they generate about $20 to $25 million a year for the uninsured in DuPage County with the $350,000 from the County. From the hospitals they receive about $1.3 million, whereby hundreds of doctors provide their time for the uninsured in DuPage County.   He said that currently they are working on trying to get a community dental program clinic started.  He also said that they will be working on a Domestic Violence Project to find out how to eliminate domestic violence in their community.

          After some discussion the committee thanked Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Smith for a very good presentation.

VETERANS’ COMMISSION BUDGET

          Mr. Ray Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, passed out the budget for the newly formed department, Veteran’s Assistance Commission’s, to the committee.  He said that Mr. Herb Holderman, the Superintendent for the Commission projected the growth for the agency out to 2011.  He feels that Mr. Holderman is an excellent choice as the Superintendent for this agency.  “We will try to get Mr. Holderman at the next meeting to provide information and answer questions,” said Mr. Bockman.

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

                                                          ___________________________________

                                                          Robert Rosemier, Chairman

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