Travis County Commissioners Court
December 14, 2004
Item 17
17. Consider and take appropriate action on strategic planning initiative
for fy 05. Ms. Flemming was not here last week, but she's here today. I do
think we ought to take five or 10 minutes on this item today and there are
a couple of points I think that the whole court needs to hear and if there
is a disagreement, we should let ms. Flemming know and maybe put another item
on sometime soon. Ms. Flemming did give us her -- her 10 points. By the deadline.
But was away on other very important county business last week.
>> good morning Commissioners, judge, sherri flemming, executive
manager for health and human services. The -- the strategic directions for
health and human services, I think you will notice are relatively the same.
I believe that with the -- with the transfer of the health responsibilities
to the hospital district, I believe it supports the expectation as well as
that of the department that we will gradually shift more of our efforts to
our human services programs. And so I think that you see that reflected in
the -- not only the listing of our strategy directions but in the rank order
that we have indicated there. With the first being workforce development.
In this area it is our intent to continue to work with our partners in this
area to shore up those residents who despite their best efforts find a need
to access our emergency assistance programs. We have already been able to
enter into a partnership with goodwill, where we actually have goodwill job
development staff who are housed at our emergency assistance site at palm
square and in Pflugerville to better connect residents who access our services
with workforce-related training. So in this area, we want to continue those
kinds of initiatives, so that we actually continue and shore up our efforts
at getting families to be self sufficient. And there are many, many facets
to that. I知 sure you know. The second area that we also see as equally as
critical is our children in youth area. Our goals in health and human services,
as you know, are to try to put in best practice programs that have the potential
to impact those systems within the county that are most expensive, such as
juvenile justice, corrections and those kinds of things. So as we work towards
building continuums and shoring up systems so that families can receive help
when they need it and that is appropriate to their needs, it's our hope that
the services will come before this is true in more expensive systems. So that's
our goals there. Then our children in youth area, you know that encompasses
our work with the youth and family assessment center, the children's partnership
which is designed to work with children who have mental health needs and our
children's first unit which is the Travis County funded unit of -- of child
protective services workers. In the area of basic needs, over the last several
years, the court has seen quite a bit of activity in that area due to the
economy and so we had some leveling off last fiscal year in that we were able
to manage that program within its budget and not have to come back to the
court for additional resources. So what we're hoping to do is to continue
that trend, but also we will be coming forward to you after the first of the
year with some requests related to the basic needs coalition of central Texas,
a system delivery model. We will be hoping to have a pilot within the county
programs of the service delivery system that you have funded in the community.
So we will actually use the department's resources kind of isolated into a
small self-funded grant, if you will, to -- to attempt to provide those same
services through the county programs. So what you funded in the community
we will be piloting within our own emergency assistance programs at the first
of the year. So that's our primary goals in the area of basic needs. Within
the health area, we will continue to monitor the implementation of the hospital
district. As you know we have provided planning support to the hospital district
board of managers and we will be on tap to do whatever is necessary to continue
to smooth their transition in the health area. We also retain our responsibility
for our public health, so we will be continuing to work with the city of Austin
in -- in renewing our public health interlocal, but then also addressing issues
that have been brought forward by the court in terms of the substance of that
interlocal, what services we are purchasing and how it has been impacted by
the operation of our health function. We will also be continuing to monitor
men tall health and -- mental health and substance abuse in our community.
There have been policy changes at the state level that have directly impacted
the substance abuse arena. We have been able to so far, with an expectation
of the coming legislative session, to realize some of our funding with our
partners so that they are able to compensate for changes at the state level.
If funding is not restored, the owe in the substance abuse area, for example
I guess a specific example of that would be detox services, oftentimes people
in substance abuse treatment require several days of detox services before
they can actually start a program of treatment. There have been policy changes
at the state level that have made those services currently unavailable in
the Austin/Travis County area. What happens is residents who need those services
actually have to go to a program in waco and then return to our community
for their longer term treatment. We have been able to do some shifts in our
budget to help the -- our partners to provide those services now that they
aren't funded by the state. But if the state does not refund those services
in our community, then that will be a conversation that we will have to have
about -- about how we feel our dollars should best be spent in the substance
abuse area. So there could be -- that could be an area that we really need
to watch as the legislature goes back in session in January. Then finally,
our area of community planning, that is our work that we do with the community
action network and with other systems in our community. The best example of
that is the basic needs coalition of central Texas where we have staff that
we dedicate to working with community partners to -- to work on developing
system changes throughout various issue areas. Anywhere from mental health
to aging services, to the area of basic needs. And then, finally, in our administrative
area, it's our intent to continue to look at administrative efficiencies so
that the bulk of our resources are dedicated to direct services.
>> do we have do you have a -- do we have a performance maintenance
guru in administrative services.
>> I don't know that we would point to a guru, but we are
certainly -- we have several staff very skilled at looking at performance
measures and working with agencies to help set those.
>> okay.
>> seems to be now is the time for us really to focus on
performance measures. Put them in place, monitor and determine whether we
are meeting them.
>> absolutely.
>> the -- second thing is in in terms of human services,
I don't know that we really have taken or done a good assessment of -- of
exactly what we provide. Especially in the context of community needs, so
it's kind of resource mapping at Travis County doing the same thing county-wide
and trying to figure out I guess what the needs are, what's available, where
the gap is or where the gaps are. You see what I知 saying?
>> yes, sir.
>> and trying to work together to put together a strategy
to close the gap or redirect funding, et cetera. Seems to me in the major
areas like substance abuse, workforce development, mental health, we already
have other agencies doing certain things, that it would help us a whole lot
to do them. When I chat with them, they all believe that they are doing some
of that, but I think we all sort of agree that we really could do more. And
the other thing is that whatever the state does, the need stays the same here
or it increases. The resources may change.
>> I think that's correct.
>> and some -- some of this detox stuff, it really sort of
amazes me that we do so little. We probably were doing more three or four
years ago and even then we weren't doing enough. But we have had several studies
done that have come fort with good recommendations that -- that have not been
acted on. So if you took these many areas, five or six come to mind, it seems
to me that we ought to use '05 to get on top of it, even if we don't get on
top of the funding part, we at least ought to get on top of the assessment,
strategy, partnering with others. Not only to get the biggest bang from the
money that we are investing already, but to try to figure out whether we need
to make other investments and even in mental health what I have learned is
that there are several way that's we can invest our funds that would enable
us to access additional federal dollars in, you know, the mental health medication
is what comes to mind, I understand that is probably the biggest expenditure
part of the mental health challenge. But that's important. The other thing
is I have often wondered. I know we use our clinics differently, but if we
pull -- if the health piece becomes somebody else's responsibility, primarily,
and human services piece and public health piece remains ours, then it seems
to me that we ought to focus on at least seeing if we can pick up that effort
and -- and even if it's just a change in focus rather than, you know, adding
resources.
>> yes, sir. I think all of those points are -- are absolutely
on target. If I may give you a preview of some coming attractions that might
begin to address some of what you have -- what you have brought up, judge.
The first is we are hopeful that on next Tuesday, that we will be coming forward
with our report on our annual social service -- social service agency survey,
which is a survey that we do each year and it's -- it's partly a satisfaction
survey, but it's mostly a survey to determine what -- what services are available
in the community, what continues to be the need that the agencies are seeing
in our community, how they are faring in terms of their funding and then what
-- what they identify is their top five or six needs or -- or activities that
they would like to see happening in the community. And one of the things that
the -- that the court asked us to do back in June was to ensure that as we
engage in that process that we make every attempt to identify if there are
new agencies out there or if not new agencies, other agencies that for whatever
reason have not had an opportunity to avail themselves through the social
service contract process. So we believe that we in partnership with several
agencies in the community, I won't go into the report right now, but we believe
that we can give you a better snapshot of not only those agencies that we
have been working with, but a significant group of agencies who have not had
the opportunity to respond to our survey before. So we anticipate that for
next week's agenda. Necessary?
>> go ahead and --
>> okay. The second thing that we are anticipating sometime
after the first of the year is a work session with the court to go over the
performance efforts of the social service agencies and at the culmination
of that report to talk with the court about some analysis that our research
and planning division has done on the american -- the american community survey
which is a product of the census bureau. It seems that in between the 10 year
census cycle, the census bureau engages in a sampling of communities and it's
significant this psych cycle because the 2,000 census, the data was collected
in 1999. Well, the Austin/Travis County area was a boom town in 1999. So the
data that was then reported in the 2000 census has significantly changed since,
you know, 9/11 and the effect on the economy. So we will be bringing forward
to the court an analysis of that data so that you have an up to date view
of what changes have occurred in this community since 9/11 and since the 2000
census. And I think that we will be offering up that as the context for even
future strategic planning with the court and with the department in how we
want to expend our resources.
>> okay. Judge? Okay. Sherri, just a few other things that
I would like to maybe see I guess also in the future. I think the court has
probably been leaning toward not only the performance based measures that
-- excuse me, that we would like to see the social service providers go through
and then of course you report to the court, but also, you know, we also discussed
-- I really would like to -- I didn't see it anywhere in here -- but the data
base venture that we are going to as far as ensuring that we don't have a
duplication of services during the budget process. I want to make sure that
those persons that we looked at that we are funding are still on board, the
[indiscernible] any baby can, aids services Austin, any folks out there sharing
data base for example with us in the future, that we -- that we make sure
that those persons we are serving aren't sent all over the place because we
have persons doing similar services out there. So I want to ensure that we
continue to stay focused on that and we are still looking at that as far as
the data base sharing that's -- to ensure that the clients get the -- don't
have to go through duplicate services which is a hardship for the person that
we are serving.
>> yes, sir, Commissioner Davis. The basic needs coalition
of central Texas is currently in the midst of their pilot program. The funding
that the court approved with the -- for the fy '05 budget process kicks in
in January.
>> exactly.
>> also, shortly thereafter you will see a request from the
department for some policy tweaking so that we will be able to participate
in a sample project to implement the -- the basic needs coalition's system
-- system service delivery system, excuse me, within the county programs.
And be -- basic needs coalition of central Texas will actually be providing
us a license into the service point data system, which is the system that
they are using to implement this project at no cost to the county. So we will
be setting that within our emergency assistance program. We will actually
be housing a -- a staff person to work directly with that system that service
delivery system at our palm square site, but also serving all seven sites
with this new project.
>> okay. You mentioned earlier about persons having to go
to waco services that they may have could have gotten here in the past? Do
you know what cost is that to the providers of this particular service when
you have to go to another city to receive services?
>> I don't have data specifically on that. I can get that
for you, Commissioner Davis. I do know that we were alerted by Austin recovery
several months -- as a matter of fact it was back in the summer that this
change had been made and so what we were able to do, because funding remains
stable in other areas, we were able to negotiate with them a different use
of local funding to supplement the detox part of their programs. So actually
what we basically did was amend their contract so that they could put more
of the funding that we had allocated into that detox function because they
had stable funding in other areas. So our ability to do that, you know, helped
to kind of avert a crisis there during the summer, but if that funding is
not restored we may have to look at the long-term uses of how we want to allocate
funding for substance abuse and specifically those contracts that we -- that
we fund.
>> do we have any idea of the money that we were receiving
from the pay in some instances of other funding sources, federal, state, whoever
else, that we were able to look at social service needs and the cuts that
have come from those particular agencies, do we have any number? What was
funded in the past is in the being funded today and of course 7 [indiscernible]
on the backs of the counties I guess, in particular Travis County, do we have
any idea what that amount of money is.
>> I believe, sir, I would have to get a little more detail
about specifically what you would like. I can tell you that I believe in our
emergency assistance area we are bracing for the changes that are being made
through the health and human services commission because county emergency
assistance policy is based on -- on the idea of being a safety net and based
on the idea of being a stopgap in some cases for persons who maybe in a lag
with other services. So, for example, if you went to apply for food stamps
and you had to wait for 30 days, that is part of the criteria that would make
you eligible along with several other things for county services. So I guess
when I say we are bracing for their changes, naturally if there are more barriers
in their system or if there's a greater lag time in how people can be determined
eligible, then that naturally means there will be more people that will fall
down to that -- to that safety net level where we'll have to try to tide them
over until they can get what they are eligible for from the state. So, you
know, it's hard to say, Commissioner,, you know,, to specifically quantify
a dollar amount. We have tried to operate as a safety net. Well, with some
of the changes that we have been privy to, and if they -- if they come to
fruition, it -- it appears to me that there will be more people falling down
into the safety net and that could be problematic for us.
>> lastly, I know maybe having to partner with other agencies
or be on the alert that there are other agencies out there that can provide
some of the services to the folks in Travis County that need our -- our health
and human services assistance, do we have any idea of what basic necessities
are now available here in Travis County because there was supposed to be a
big push in that and of course I haven't heard anything that would suggest
that this is something that really -- well, I guess anything that really to
the point where we can look toward faith based initiatives here in Travis
County. [indiscernible] do we have any idea of who pars patriot in this that
program at -- participating in that program at this point.
>> we don't know at this point Commissioner. I do know several
of those funding opportunities have I hate to say gone away, but they seem
to have been refocused or shifted. I think the concern that we had locally
was that a lot of -- of faith based agencies did not have the infrastructure
that would be required to maintain a federal grant. You know, they didn't
have -- the, you know, paid staff to do the reporting, they didn't have, you
know, accountants on staff and that sort of thing because there's a lot that's
involved in reporting for federal grants as you know. What we've heard in
working where the partners that we work with is that, you know, those programs
were very attractive, but would it be the management of that funding that
they would be concerned with. So we have explored, you know, opportunities
whereby maybe the county could be the fiscal agent or whatever. So we have
looked into how we can make those things work. But the original release of
the funding was respecific about, you know, who could apply, who could be
involved and that sort of a thing. So -- so we can research for you the status
of that funding, but I think there's been some significant changes in the
amount of faith based money that continues to be available.
>> lastly, the dropout rate here, the districts that we are
basically -- basically have some involvement in as far as -- I know you are
-- I知 talking about community in schools now. I知 really concerned about
that dropout rate. How can we help to reduce that because a lot of things
that we are seeing that's happening on the front end, really coming to paramount
and manifesting itself on the back end which requires a lot of more additional
funding as far as services are concerned. I知 not going to give you on pushing
for education in this community and ensuring that our dropout rates are significantly
reduced [indiscernible] a basis of how we can do better as far as preventing
dropouts here in -- in this service area. Thank you.
>> yes, sir, commission. We are accumulating data for you
-- for -- you originally requested that we give you some sense of what tiftd
is going on around that issue in our community, we are accumulating that data
for you. There are a lot of agency who's work with young people who don't
necessarily code their activity as dropout prevention, but we all know that
anything that -- that provides mentors, that gives kids an opportunity to
work, that we enforces the need for education, that provides mental health
supports, all of those things in tandem help to prevent kids from dropping
out of school. So we are accumulating that data for you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, ms. Flemming. The prioritization of projects
was the county judge's idea. That was the second part that we talked about,
that was a strategic planning session. I did check with work source, their
facility is available on January 14th, which is a Friday, half a day on the
15th. The managers, executive managers and planners believe that the court
should take the lead on this. I am not the person to do it. It seems to me
that we need a strategic planning theme and we have talked about getting a
facilitator. Somebody needs to do that.
>> okay. We did it last time, we can continue on that, go
the performance measures route or there are other option that's we can pursue.
I知 just not good at doing that looks like.
>> [indiscernible]
>> okay. Should we have it back on next week or the week
after?
>> [indiscernible]
>> I think on the January 14th is what we have been looking
at, that's approved. Nothing magical about that, if you want to move it back
another week or two weeks that would be good, too, because I have chatted
with them. I think that I need to let them know real soon because I think
they are holding those two dates for us. The only thing they want is five
minutes at the beginning of the program to appropriately welcome to us the
facility. I told them that two and a half minutes sounded more appropriate,
but -- but since they were giving us the place free of charge, we would double
that.
>> okay. Well then, we'll work with that. First of all January
14th and 15th, are we talking half a day on the 15th.
>> right. Friday, half day Saturday if needed.
>> okay. If that doesn't work with the majority of the work,
we will work with the 21st of January, and the 22nd of January. We will take
it from there.
>> I think those Fridays, when we check those Fridays were
good based on christian's --
>> we have already --
>> we have checked with calendars. So if your calendar, if
you have a commitment that's not on your calendar, then we would not know
of that.
>> both of those are open for me at this point. But we will
go with it.
>> okay.
>> now, we do have several folk here on other items. Can
we have that back on next week then?
>> yes.
>> I do think that next week we ought to try to be kind of
light. On the 28th it's probably a good idea to be very, very light. That
kind of falls between christmas and new year's, we have got two days off for
each of those. That are not many work days between christmas and new year's
and so if we try to be consent and claims on the 28th and, you know, as light
as possible next week the 21st. It would help.
>> okay.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 2:38 PM