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Human Services Advisory Commission
Meeting Minutes
January 12, 2010
7:30 - 9:25 p.m.
Rockville City Hall
| Members Present: | ||
| Rachel Carr Cindy Griffiths Agnes Saenz | Tina Cheatwood David L’Heureux Eric Wang | Bob Dorsey Scott Robins |
| Members Absent: | ||
| Kim Dawkins | Stephen Huang | |
| Staff Present: | ||
| Sarah Gicale |
Re: Call Meeting to Order/ Introductions
Cindy Griffiths called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Re: Approve December 8, 2009 Meeting Minutes
Rachel Carr moved that the minutes be approved as written. Scott Robins seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Re: Review Second Quarter Update on Funding for Caregiver Agencies
Cindy asked for feedback on the Second Quarter Update on Funding for Caregiver Agencies that Mary Lou Jacobs had prepared for Commission members. Agnes Saenz said that most of the Caregivers were maintaining the quantity of services provided even if they had sustained some cuts in funding. Within her agency Community Ministries of Rockville, the Elderly Ministries program had lost two grants and, as a result, might need to cut some hours of service to seniors. Program staff is also slowing down new admissions to the program.
Re: Guest: Councilmember Piotr Gajewski, Council Liaison to Commission
Cindy welcomed Mr.Gajewski and asked Commission members to introduce themselves to him. He then asked about the funding process for Caregiver agencies. Agnes outlined the process and said that grant applications were due this Friday to be followed by a review process involving two panels of reviewers—one of City employees and one of City residents. Agnes also explained that at the last Caregiver meeting Mary Lou Jacobs requested information on current funding levels from the nonprofits. Generally, Agnes said, the response from the Caregivers is that grants from foundations are down. In addition budget cuts at the state level have affected funding levels.
Councilmember Gajewski inquired as to whether the Caregiver agencies would be asking the City for increased funding. Agnes responded that she would not expect the City to make up the gap in budgets caused by the cuts in foundation and government funding. Mr. Gajewski said that he would encourage the Caregivers to ask the City for whatever they actually need to complete their budgets. Then the City Council can have a meaningful discussion as to where City funding should be allocated. He added that there is little the Council does that is more important. He considers human services to be a high priority. The need is increasing and Rockville continues to be a wealthy city.
Agnes said she would recommend setting a goal for human services. For example the human services budget could be set at one percent of the City’s total budget. Councilmember Gajewski said he prefers to look at meeting needs. He also appreciates the way the City goes about human services with nonprofit partners. Agnes said she would follow up on his visit by sending an email summarizing his comments to the Caregiver agencies.
Re: Information on Alternative Energy Assistance Programs
Tina Cheatwood said that when she visited the Community Services Division office and met with Mary Lou for her orientation to the Commission, she learned about the Rockville Emergency Assistance Program (REAP). Based on her experience in other states, she was surprised to learn that the local utility companies in Maryland do not have funds themselves to match the amount of emergency assistance paid by governmental entities, e.g., Montgomery County or the City of Rockville. Her understanding is that the power company will wait to shut off service (which leads to increasing amounts owed) but will not offer any financial assistance itself. She said this is not the case in other states. She wondered if the Commission could look at the issue.
Scott Robins suggested that first it would be necessary to get specific information. Tina said she didn’t know whether the utility companies would be willing to share exact information on the number of shut-offs, their locations, etc. Bob Dorsey said that the website for the Council of Governments (COG) might have information related to utility policies in the DC metro area.
Tina brought up the issue of funds donated by residents to the utility companies to help individuals with their bills. She said that New York and Connecticut are two states that offer one-time-only forgiveness on utility bills. They will do a one-time “grant” to an individual household in order to keep their utilities on. Financially it is in the best interest of the utility companies to do this and avoid losing accounts altogether. Cindy said that the issue is the number of people who get their utilities turned off permanently which results in the utility companies losing permanent revenue.
Agnes said that PEPCO recently made a grant to Interfaith Works to assist individuals who were unable to pay their utilities. She thought that perhaps the Emergency Assistance Coalition could get the necessary data. It would also be useful to know where the Maryland Energy Assistance Program gets its funding.
Re: Elect Representative for Grant Application Review Panel
Agnes nominated Tina Cheatwood to represent the Commission on the Grant Application Review Panel. Scott seconded the nomination. Tina said she would be pleased to take part in this process. The nomination was approved unanimously.
Re: Old Business
Follow-up Discussion on Montgomery Works Presentation
Cindy commented on the disproportionate number of Rockville residents using the services of Montgomery Works. Tina said she thought it odd that when asked what she would need to increase services if she were given a blank slate, Barbara didn’t seem to know. Agnes said she was looking for some partnership opportunities with Montgomery Works but that didn’t appear to be a possibility. Cindy said that one issue is communication—making people aware of the services. She has put something in her blog, Rockville Central. Bob commented that employers with job openings need to show up at Montgomery Works and actually hire someone. From his perspective, something is broken as there is no connection between employers and Montgomery Works.
Cindy said she was not sure what the next step should be. The idea of providing transportation for City residents to get to Montgomery Works was discussed. Also, it was pointed out that Jewish Social Services Agency (JSSA) is sponsoring career counseling classes in the Rockville Library. Rachel said that due to their location in Fallsgrove, JSSA could potentially provide services for Rockville residents in their own building in partnership with Montgomery Works. There was agreement that more information was needed. Cindy suggested learning more about JSSA’s services and asked if a representative could be invited to the next meeting.
Community Services Division Monthly Reports
There were no questions.
Re: Plan Agenda for February Meeting
Re: Adjournment to Executive Session (pursuant to Section 10-508 (a) (1) (ii) of the State Government Article, Annotated code of Maryland to Discuss a Personnel Matter that Affects One or More Individuals)
Scott moved to adjourn the meeting to Executive Session. Bob seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned to Executive Session at 9:20 p.m.
The next meeting of the Human Services Advisory Commission will be held Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Eyed Susan conference room at Rockville City Hall, 111 Maryland Avenue.