Boards and Commissions

Adopted 10/12/04

HUMAN SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION
MEETING MINUTES
September 14, 2004
 7:36 – 9:30 PM
20 Courthouse Square

Members Present:  

Members Absent: Darrell Butler  Agnes Saenz
      
Staff Present: Sarah Gicale  Mary Lou Jacobs 

Re: Call Meeting to Order/Introductions

Ann Reiss called the meeting to order at 7:36 p.m.

Re: Approve July 13 Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the July 13, 2004 meeting of the Human Services Advisory Commission were approved with no changes.

Re: Follow-up Discussion on Presidential Service Awards

Bill Goodwin said his understanding of the comments made by Anne Robbins at the last meeting were that the Presidential Service Awards would be too labor intensive, too expensive and duplicative of other efforts by the City to honor volunteers.  He thought the reaction was unfortunate but said he didn’t sense any hope that the program could be approved until, perhaps, there is a new city manager.  He didn’t see any point of pursuing the program at the present time.  Ann agreed saying the Commission needs to focus on other issues and has just so much energy.

Tim Stranges said he had a question of clarification:  when the Commission sends a letter to the Mayor and Council, do they receive a written reply?  Mary Lou Jacobs said that the Mayor and Council do not have their own staff.  Possibly the Council could ask the City Clerk to prepare something.  Tom Lawrey said he did not expect a response.  The lack of response has to do with the structure of City government.  David L’Heureux said he would consider it a common courtesy to acknowledge anything that comes out of a commission.  The members are all volunteers.  We are advisory to the Mayor and Council and get our guidelines from them.  The issue should be raised at one of the general training sessions for boards and commissions.  Ann said she considers it a culture that the present mayor and council have inherited.  It would be difficult to change.  If their responses were pro forma, that would not be helpful either.  If members want to change the culture, they would need to attend a citizen’s forum and say something.  Bill asked if this commission should ally itself with other groups in the city and say something together.  Tim asked if it would be appropriate to invite the City Clerk.  Ann suggested that the City Clerk be invited to the next meeting.  David asked if members should communicate with other boards and commissions first.  Ann asked him if he would like to work on that.  David agreed to do so and Tim offered to help.

Bill asked if the Commission should write a return letter to the Mayor and Council concerning the awards.  Mary Lou said that the Commission’s letter actually had been sent only to Anne Robbins.  Anne had then forwarded it to the Mayor and other Council members.  The way most of their meetings function, an item is discussed only if it’s an action item on the agenda.

Tom said that he thought Anne Robbins’ comments amounted to communication from the Mayor and Council.  She had considered the matter sufficiently important to come speak to the Commission in person.  That is the purpose of a liaison.  The Commission has often discussed the need to have a representative at the citizens’ forum.  Mary Lou said that, as of this fall, the Mayor and Council have revised the way business is conducted.  A half hour is allotted before their regular meetings for people who want to address issues on the agenda.  All others must wait until the end of the meeting.

Re: Decide Strategy re: Advocating Change in MPDU Size Guidelines

Allison Bunge said that she thought the Commission should consider a recommendation that MPDU’s be more aligned with the community’s needs.  Ann said that Ed Duffy had suggested that the Commission begin its study of the issue by looking at the information available on the City’s web page.  Deborah Hopson asked who sets the rules with respect to MPDU’s.  Ann said the City sets its own rules for MPDU’s located in Rockville.  Deborah responded that the City could then change the rules.  Mary Lou said that she had learned from Ed Duffy that the size of MPDU’s is currently not proportionate to the size of units in the rest of the development.  Tim asked if the Commission should go to the Planning Commission to recommend a change.  Deborah said that the Commission would need to have a specific set of guidelines.  Ann said that there are two issues:  the first is changing the MPDU guidelines; the second issue is which locations would be affected by the changes.  Even if the Planning Commission could be persuaded to change the guidelines, there are just two areas in the city that could potentially be affected.   Ann and Allison agreed to determine what needs to be done to change the guidelines and where the Commission’s recommendations should be sent before writing a letter.  Mary Lou said that she thought the Commission’s recommendations could be sent to the Chair of the Planning Commission with a cc to Anne Robbins.

Re: Follow-up Discussion re: Section 8 Housing Voucher Program

Mary Lou said that she had seen an article in the Washington Post saying there had been so many complaints that many of the cuts were going to be restored.  Bill said he had received an update from Kelly O’ Dell.  The House had rejected the proposed Flexible Voucher Block Grant but the Senate still had to act.  Mary Lou said that the Commission could consider writing a letter that would at least indicate that members are aware of the situation.  Bill said that he thought a letter would be more in the purview of RHE; perhaps they had already written one.  Tim said that, at a minimum, the Commission should check with RHE to see if they have written a letter.  Ann said she would prefer that RHE’s board write the letter.  Mary Lou said that she hopes to talk with Sue Walsh.  If there are any new developments, she will ask Sue to email them to her for distribution to Commission members.  Additionally, in talking with Ed Duffy this summer, she had asked him about coming to a meeting to discuss the affordable housing task force.  He said there never had been a plan for a task force but that Ed himself is working on a study of affordable housing.  If the Commission has any ideas/suggestions, he would be happy to hear them.  Tim suggested that a copy of the Commission’s letter advocating for affordable housing for seniors be sent to Ed.

Re: Advise on Themes for 2004 Rockville Reports Insert

Sarah Gicale asked for feedback on her memo to members of the Human Services Advisory Commission in which she had presented potential themes for stories in the December insert of Rockville Reports.  She explained that because the current fundraising climate is so poor, Mary Lou and she had agreed that it might be helpful to focus several articles on that issue.  Ann said that in her opinion the insert needs more human interest stories.  She suggested an article on a family or client receiving services from several agencies.  The article could demonstrate the complexity of the human service system (more complex issues, more difficult needs) as well as point out that the agencies are under funded.  She also made the point that people need to give throughout the year—not just in December.  Mary Lou said that one article could be devoted to how agencies extend the feeling of giving throughout the year.

David brought up the possibility of building in to the insert a brief survey where readers would check off the services they use and whether they are willing to volunteer.  Some sort of prize could be offered for returning the survey.  Bill said he liked the idea of giving people an opportunity to volunteer.  Allison asked if the insert would contain any profiles of businesses and the ways in which they give to the community.  Mary Lou said that had been done in prior years and could be done again.  David suggested an article with information on what families should do to prepare for various types of emergencies, e.g., what a first aid kit should contain, what to do if someone gets injured, etc.  Mary Lou said she would like to forward that suggestion to Rockville’s Public Information Officer.  Tim suggested having more information available in other languages, specifically translating the sentence, “If you want to help….”

Bill then moved to accept the themes and articles as proposed.  Deborah amended his motion to include more human-interest stories; and Tim amended the motion a second time to include adding the addresses of Rockville caregivers to the listing of nonprofit programs and agencies in the center two pages of the insert.  David seconded the twice-amended motion.  The motion passed unanimously.  Mary Lou said that, assuming the motion included approval of saluting volunteers on the fourth page of the insert, the Commission might need to spend time at their next meeting on reviewing the nominations.  Commission members agreed that they wanted to do this.

Re: Debriefing on Recent Site Visits

David said he felt very little needed to be said, as the site visit reports that had been sent out were very thorough.  Mary Lou said she thought it was worth noting that the Korean Community Service Center (KCSC), founded over thirty years ago, had a new location.  It is now located in an International Food Market on Muddy Branch Road.  She said the office, located in the side rear of the market, has many interruptions because of its high degree of accessibility.  Ann said that in her work at the Montgomery County Volunteer Office, she would often have difficulty getting the KCSC staff to respond to phone calls.  She attributes this to the fact that KCSC still considers themselves to be a Virginia-based organization.  David said he has returned to the market several times since the site visit.  He said the location provides a wonderful opportunity for bringing together many different people, specifically Asians and Latinos, as a wide mix of people shop there.  Tom commented that Manna has found KCSC’s phone system to frequently be out of order.

Re: Upcoming Site Visits

Mary Lou said that the Care For Kids site visit is scheduled for September 30, 2004.  She is also scheduling a site visit to Chinese Culture and Community Service Center and asked Eric for times he would be available.  The site visit to Dorothy Day Place had been postponed because their administration had recently changed.  The staff and board for Rainbow Place have also changed and Mary Lou recommended a site visit there in January.  Finally, the administration for Sophia House also changed last year and Mary Lou thought this program could use a follow-up site visit.  Tim and Deborah volunteered to visit Sophia House.  Ann and David volunteered to visit Rainbow Place.

Re: Discussion re: Caregivers’ Year-End Reports

Bill asked if the amount given by the City for homeless services had gone down.  Mary Lou said that the proportion of City funds going to homeless services vastly exceeds the proportion of city residents using the shelter system.  She said the primary new areas of funding for the City are:

• English classes with a new site established at Maryvale Elementary School;
  
• Dental Care for Kids; and
  
• a new furniture initiative.  The City offered a matching grant to Interfaith Clothing for the furniture initiative. 

Bill said that it was good to see the publicity of MobileMed in last month’s Rockville Reports, but he did not see any reference to the new site at Crusader Lutheran Church.  Mary Lou said that the photograph used in the article had been taken at Crusader Lutheran Church but that particular site, run by Community Ministries of Rockville, already has more patients than can be served.

She also wanted the Commission to know that the unallocated budget for REAP had been increased slightly to about $58,000.  The rate of requests for emergency assistance continues to be high.  David said it would be good to reexamine the form requesting donations to REAP that accompanies the City water bills.  Mary Lou said that she remembers Donna Boxer, Director of Finance, saying that the City had to use up all the old forms before they could be changed.  She will check into that issue.

Re: Items for October Meeting Agenda

Tim said he was exercised about the inaccessibility of the conference room at 20 Courthouse Square where the Commission was currently meeting.  He said the room was a very long walk from the elevator.  He thought the City should have paid more attention before signing a lease.  Ann asked if members would be willing to go to meetings at the Senior Center.  There was agreement that this would be a suitable location.  Mary Lou said that the goal in moving the office was to move Code Enforcement out of City Hall and consolidate the department.  As regards accessibility, the new office is able to accommodate clients during the day with underground parking.

The following agenda was agreed upon for the October meeting.

• The City Clerk will be invited to attend the next meeting
  Allison and Ann will present their findings on MPDU’s
• Re:  the Commission’s interest in a living wage bill, Mary Lou reported that the City employee in charge of the contracting process is not able to attend an evening meeting although she would be happy to meet with people during the day.  She said there was a page on the City’s contracting process on the City Web site. One option, Mary Lou thought, would be for a small group to develop a list of questions.  She also said that currently the City is not able to track multiple contracts for one business or agency.  Tim volunteered to work on a list of questions.  Bill offered to help.
• Re:  the Commission’s interest in giving to human services, Tim said that next year is an election year.  He has already heard talk of tax cuts and is concerned that Rockville still doesn’t provide 1% of its total budget to supporting the Caregivers.  Ann asked if that would be an appropriate topic for discussion.  Mary Lou said that one option might be to invite someone from Gaithersburg to discuss that city’s support of nonprofits, but that, if the Commission is going to discuss the topic, it might be a good idea to do some fact-finding first.  If Linda Morganstein is invited from Gaithersburg, she could also talk about their grant writer.  Mary Lou said she thought the timing for this discussion was good in that the City is moving up their budget cycle.

Re: Adjourn

David moved to adjourn the meeting.  Tim seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.  The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.

The next meeting of the Human Services Advisory Commission will be held Tuesday, October 12, 2004, from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m., in the Card Room of the Rockville Senior Center, 1150 Carnation Drive.