DeKalb County, Illinois

Minutes of the

Health & Human Services Committee

April 12, 2010

            The Health & Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, April 13, 2009, @ 5:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Jeff Metzger, Sr., reconvened the hearing from April 6, 2009.  Members present were Eileen Dubin, John Emerson and Paul Stoddard.  Mr. Derek Tyson called in to participate with the committee @ 5:30p.m.  Others present were Kevin Chambliss, Cynthia Worsley and Keelie Ernst, Lesly Wicks, Robert Shipman, Tom Zucker and Ellen Rogers..

            Moved by Mr. Emerson, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to include Mr. Tyson to participate in the committee meeting via the conference phone. 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

            Chairman Metzger, Sr., said that we will not have the minutes to approve until the May 2010 minutes and remove the item from the agenda.  Moved by Mr. Emerson, seconded by Mr. Stoddard, and it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

            Ms. Donna Moulton, Director of the Community Services Department said that there is an extra $90,000 in the account.  The amount of money that they committee has to work with currently is $515,000 plus this $90,000. She said that this does not take into account of what Ben Gordon has requested and the YMCA has requested for the one-time allocations.  The committee discussed how much of this extra money they wanted to spend since they want to keep a reserve on hand.

            Mr. Stoddard suggested that we start everyone off at the $515,000 and if it looks like we may hurt an agency then we might dip into the $90,000 reserve.  The committee agreed with him.

SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY HEARINGS

            Chairman Metzger, Sr. reminded the committee members that the agencies were only going to be allowed 10-15 minutes each for a question and answer period.  After the April 5, 2010 meeting the committee reconvened to hear the rest of the agencies applying for the senior tax levy funds and then would discuss the monetary awards to the various agencies chosen. 

Fox Valley Older Adults – Ms. Cynthia Worsley

Request:  Fox Valley Older Adults Services Agency, in FY2010, has projected to provide residents of DeKalb County with 16,000 units of adult day care services to 20 DeKalb County residents.  The cost of one unit of service is $2.50. 

            Ms. Worsley said that Fox Valley was just inspected by the Veteran’s Administration this morning and so they may begin accepting Veteran’s into their Day Care Program.  She said that they provide services at their Adult Day Care Center in Sandwich and in DeKalb.    She also said that their In Home Care Services program is a non-medical care service.  In the past they were only able to serve Kendall County and with the new certification being awarded to them, they will be able to serve LaSalle, DeKalb and Kendall Counties.  They will begin to hire more staff because of this. 

            Ms. Worsley said that they have a board member who is very tenacious and has been able to keep up with the State on payments, but they State is still behind in their payments to Fox Valley by about $130,000.  They have a payment left to be made from November 2009, some from December, January, February and March 2010. 

            Ms. Worsley also mentioned that there were two mistakes in her report that she wanted to correct.  She said that they appear on page 4 of her report in the 2^nd paragraph, it should state that “FVOAS received reimbursement for 12,000 units of adult day care services in DeKalb County.  We expect to increase Adult Day Care Services by 25% in 2011.”  The other mistake is found on page 2 of the report under Demographics, paragraph 2, last line, should read “Elder Care Services, we project 16,000 units of services to In Home clients.

            Mr. Stoddard asked Ms. Worsley what would a 25% reduction do to your budget if we couldn’t supply all of the funding that you have requested

            Ms. Worsley said that the support staff for day care and home makers may be affected.  They would not turndown a client, they would try to increase private pay clients and do a lot of fundraising.

2009 Award       2010 Requested Amount    

$50,000                         $40,000   

Hope Haven – Ms. Lesly Wicks

Request:  Hope Haven is requesting funds for a part-time Case Manager to work with elderly clients residing at their Dresser Court project.  Dresser Court is a permanent housing facility for chronically ill people, mostly mental health.  They are requesting $12,688 to cover these costs.  If the grant is fully funded they would expend only $2,537 per client next year to assure they have the needed resources, support and services to remain in their home and live as independently as possible.  This $12,688 includes 1040 units of service and the cost of one unit of service is $12.20.

Of the 26 residents residing at Dresser Court, 20% are over the age of sixty.  Within the next five years, over 50% of the residents will be considered elderly.  The case manager designated for this project will work 20 hours a week with elderly people only, which totals 1040 hours a year.  The hourly wage of $12.20 multiplied by 1040 hours equals the total project cost of $12,688.00 a year. 

            Mr. Stoddard asked Ms. Wicks that if their funding from the County was cut by 25%, what would this do to their program

            Ms. Wicks said that it would affect the hours the staff works.  She will have to scale back the case manager’s hours.

2009 Award       2010 Requested Amount    

$7,250.00                      $12,688

Opportunity House –Mr. Robert Shipman

Request:  Opportunity House is requesting $34,900 for their specialized senior program that will help seniors with developmental disabilities to remain in their present living arrangement and prevent or delay referral to a nursing home. The amount that they receive provides for 1100 hours of annual services. They have 15 seniors in their senior room currently.  They currently provide 1590 staff hours on an annual basis per person. The cost of one unit of service equals $17.90.

            Again, Mr. Stoddard asked Mr. Shipman that if their funding from the County was cut by 25%, what would this do to their program

            Mr. Shipman said that it wouldn’t change anything and that they would still put the staff in the program.  They have done some cost cutting measures, fund raising and have cut some positions.  The State of Illinois is taking up to 5 months to make their payments to Opportunity House.  They have raised about $20,000 in fundraising.

2009 Award     2010 Requested Amount

$33,900             $34,900

Prairie State Legal Services – No One Attended

Request:  Prairie State Legal Services is seeking $3,500 which will fund 45 hours of attorney time in their Senior Citizens Legal Services program.  They estimate that at least 45 DeKalb County Senior Citizens will apply for legal services and 40 of them will be found eligible for services after an interview by an attorney.  Legal advice will be the primary service provided for approximately half of the clients served.  Approximately 10 cases will be completed with legal representation or the drafting of legal documents including seniors at risk of institutionalization and 10 cases will require continuing legal representation.  Prairie State will provide 185 hours of legal services to seniors.  Legal representation will resolve legal issues for at least 7 DeKalb County seniors with these cases including elder abuse issues and decision-making issues.  These funds will also be used as match and supplemental funding for the $5,576 grant from Northwestern Illinois Area Agency on Aging and funding from the Legal Services Corporation.   

2009 Award       2010 Requested Amount    

$3,000                   $3,500                                              

Voluntary Action Center – Transportation and Meals on Wheels

Request:  Voluntary Action Center – Transportation request is for $115,000 for FY11 transportation services (Trans Vac and Med Vac).  This request will fund 7,201 rides at a cost of $15.97 per ride. Mr. Zucker said that the demand for services and costs are up and that they have a hiring freeze currently.  The cost of gasoline costs more this year than last year and you can’t plan for it.  They are trying to create more efficient routes because of this.

Voluntary Action Center – Meals On Wheels request is for $136,500 that will be used to provide 14,000 meals, at a cost of $9.75 per unit of service.  Service will include a combination of noon, evening and weekend meals in addition to dietary supplements.  Ms. Rogers said that the Federal Government has said to give more food to the elderly.  The she also said that weather conditions and earthquakes are impacting fruits.  They are also impacted by the length of time that the State of Illinois makes its payments.  They had to take out a line of credit because of it.  Their equipment also impacts their budget.  She said that they have re-established the transportation and food services in Sandwich and it is going very well.

            Mr. Stoddard asked Mr. Zucker and Ms. Rogers that if their funding from the County was cut by 25%, what would this cut do to their programs

            Mr. Zucker said that it would hurt and that there would be a reduction in services.  It also would impact the leverage for State and Federal Grants when a local matching has to happen.  It could amount to the fact that they could lose up to $100,000 in funding if we don’t get the funding from the County in matching funds.

            Ms. Rogers said that it would not only affect Meals On Wheels, but it would affect the entire community because they are stretched everywhere.

Mr. Tom Zucker, Executive Director of the Voluntary Action Center, and Ms. Ellen Rogers, thanked the committee for continued support of their services and for the Senior Services Tax Levy. 

2009 Award       2010 Requested Amount    

Transportation:             $100,000               $115,000                                          

Meals on Wheels:          $114,000               $136,500

ALLOCATION OF FUNDS

            The awards for the Senior Tax Levy Allocations are as follows:  Barb City Manor was awarded $7,950.00; Ben Gordon Center was awarded $21,000.00; DeKalb County Health Department was awarded $28,250.00; DeKalb County Hospice was awarded $4906.00; Elder Care Services was awarded $73,500.00 for Case Management, Elder Abuse and for Self-Neglect; Family Service Agency was awarded $76,500.00; Fox Valley Older Adults was awarded $67,000.00; Hope Haven was awarded $12,516.00; Opportunity House was awarded $26,175.00; Prairie State Legal Services was awarded $1400.00; Voluntary Action Center was awarded $214,000.00 for Meals on Wheels and for Transportation.  The amount available for this year was $515,000.00.  The committee also agreed to take $18,197.00 out of the accumulated funds to equal the total award amount of $533,197.00.

Moved by Mr. Stoddard, seconded by Mr. Tyson, and it was carried to forward this recommendation to the full board for approval.  There were 4 yes votes and 1 no vote from Mr. Emerson.

            Before adjourning, Mr. Tyson asked if the committee would be discussing the one-time allocation for the YMCA and the stairs for the pool that they requested for $5,000 tonight

            Chairman Metzger, Sr., said that he would like the committee to think about this request for a month and that they will discuss it in May.

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                            Respectfully submitted,

                                                             ______________________________________

                                                            Chairman Jeffery L. Metzger, Sr. 

_________________________________________  

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