Travis County Commssioners Court
March 25, 2003
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Item 22
Number 22, approve contract award with the Texas my grant council and city of Austin for the purchase and administration of child care services. What does this do? Contract?
>> steven bs do you want to come up?
>> this sets up a single broker type arrangement for child care, but i'll let steven explain it.
>> this happen contracts -- rather than contract with individual child care agencies, we're using the contractor for work, which is currently the techs ex -- currently the Texas my grant council to basically administer our child care dollars. In this case we would be purchasing directly through the Texas my grant council child care slots. This is something that I had talked to y'all about when we had a general discussion on the social services contracts, that actually makes it more efficient for the providers themselves because they -- all of the providers that we have been contracting with have contracts with the Texas migrant council, or work source through the Texas migrant council, and they are used, in their reporting, they were they also had health and safety standards or whatever are consistent. They are also using our -- the guidelines that we had in the previous contracts to administer our dollars.
>> the good thing about this is that city, county, workforce funds are funneled through this one agency.
>> yes.
>> that contracts with separate fefk specific vendors.
>> yeser -- separate specific vendors.
>> yes. It reduces the amount of contracts through the agency but it makes that whole notion of purchasing child care contracts we believe more efficient. We're using similar strategies in other areas, too.
>> over there, the administrative costs?
>> yes, for the agency, as well as us over time. Of course, we would have to significantly reduce the number of contracts that we have in order to recognize that amount.
>> I move approval.
>> so whenever I hear the word "work source," I know I attach something, work source to workforce and work source was what I was concerned about with in the last couple of weeks. Is that where this comes into play?
>> yes. Once there is essentially child care monies through workforce development funded.
>> this is the new name for the old workforce development commission.
>> yes. And that is the one that was rated the lowest.
>> I still haven't read that article. I think I need to read it so that I can have dialogue with you on that.
>> there is an attachment, certain workers on jobs that made a certain amount of money. That was the same agency, though. And it wasn't child care, okay? Not yet.
>> well, that was obviously the reason it got the flag with me. I mean, and this is a third-party contract is basically what this is.
>> essentially, yes.
>> yeah, and what kind of -- steven, what kind of checks and balances do we have knowing that whenever we spend $400,000 with this agency that takes on these, what, six child care programs? I mean, is that something that we have staff, is that something where you --
>> what we will do is get reports on the number of slots. This happens to be one of the easier contracts to monitor from, I guess, a reimbursement perspective in that what we're requiring here are child care slots, and it's pretty easy to track the slots that we get for a particular amount of money. Of course, we do have certain quality-related issues in child care, but in this case we are buying slots.
>> and so to not have duplicity of -- I mean, I guess all of these between Austin community nursery schools, or child, inc. Community advocates, avenues, they take care of a different group of children?
>> yes.
>> I mean, are these the only --
>> it's not the same people.
>> right.
>> I mean, we have eligibility criteria that goes up to a certain level and in this case we will have to match an individual with a particular slot and that's what we look for.
>> do you understand that these dollars that are attached to each one of these, are these -- is this what they will get in a year's time from Travis County and will this be this and the city of Austin, will this be in their yearly budget?
>> yes, the contracted amount is the contracted amount. There's actually a greater demand for these slots than are monies available. They cap at this level, via this contract.
>> . [ overlapping speakers ].
>> this is our portion.
>> this is a percentage of our annual budget.
>> yeah. I mean, with the city, the city throws in another $600,000. So you've got $1 million out of.
>> with child, inc. You've got more, don't you?
>> yeah.
>> I assume that there will be a lot more money than that to run the --
>> these are -- the monies that you see are related to the slots that we're purchasing from those particular child care vendors.
>> yeah, we don't get the slots. They should not get the money.
>> thank you. You are going to get the slots, the bigger slots because of the child care needs.
>> sure.
>> but if something happens and the operation, say, is closed, you can spend the money for the subsequent month but you don't get the money for those days because you are not open?
>> no, but you are playing for the slots, yeah.
>> but in effect this was part of your budget?
>> it was in the social services budget, yes.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> any other discussion? Questions, comments? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM