DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Health & Human Services Committee met Oct. 5.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met virtually via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Chairman Porterfield called the meeting to order. Those Members virtually present were Mr. Scott Campbell, Ms. Rukisha Crawford, Mrs. Karen Cribben, Ms. Kiara Jones, Ms. Maureen Little, Mr. Larry West, and Chairman Chris Porterfield. A quorum was established with all seven Members present.

Others present were Gary Hanson, Pete Stefan, Deanna Cada, and Kathy Lampkins.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Mr. West moved to approve the agenda as presented. Ms. Crawford seconded the motion. Those Members voting yea were Mr. Campbell, Ms. Crawford, Mrs. Cribben, Ms. Jones, Ms. Little, Mr. West, and Chairman Porterfield. The motion carried unanimously by roll call vote.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Ms. Crawford moved to approve the minutes of the August 3, 2020 Committee Meeting. Mr. West seconded the motion. Those Members voting yea were Mr. Campbell, Ms. Crawford, Mrs. Cribben, Ms. Jones, Ms. Little, Mr. West, and Chairman Porterfield. The motion carried unanimously by roll call vote.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were no public comments made.

SENIOR SERVICES TAX LEVY GY 2020 Year-End Reports

DeKalb County Community Mental Health Board Director Deanna Cada reviewed the Year-End Activity Reports from the agencies who received the Grant Year 2020 DeKalb County Senior Services Tax Levy allocations. She compared this year’s reports with the last two year and nothing stood out as being significantly different. All of the dollars are being utilized by the agencies as intended; to avoid the premature institutionalization of Senior Citizens.

Online Application Review

As discussed at a previous meeting, it was determined that the Committee/County were ready to move the Senior Services Tax Levy Application Process to an online format. The format would be the same one used by the DCCMHB and the DeKalb County Community Foundation.

Ms. Cada shared her screen in order to show the Committee what the end-user would see if they were to log on an apply for Senior Tax Levy funding. The application and the process were shown to be clear and easy to navigate. The application is completely customizable and Ms. Cada wanted to ensure the questions begin asked were everything that the Committee would be looking for in determining their allocation amounts.

Moving to an online format would allow the Committee to gather reports from the applications submitted and would be able to better track outcomes.

Chair Porterfield expressed that the Committee is happy moving forward with the online format and that it would save a lot of paper. He also wanted to ensure they would still have access to the one-page summary spreadsheet that they utilize to make their allocation decisions. That spreadsheet was done internally and would still be available for the Committee each year to help navigate their discussions when the time came.

Ms. Cada shared that she will move forward with finalizing the application and at the beginning of the new year she will come back to the Committee to begin training.

FY 2021 BUDGET

FY 2021 Budget Appeals, if any

There were no budget appeals filed from any County Department that report to the Health & Human Services Committee.

Committee’s Questions & Review of Departments’ FY 2021 Requests

Mr. Hanson and Mr. Stefan were in attendance to answer any questions that the Committee Members may have. Mr. Stefan noted that there were not many changes made in the FY 2021 Budget. Mr. Hanson added that Department were asked to submit zero increase budgets and they did so. There were no additional questions from Committee Members.

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. Campbell moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:02 p.m. Mrs. Cribben seconded the motion. Those Members voting yea were Mr. Campbell, Ms. Crawford, Mrs. Cribben, Ms. Jones, Ms. Little, Mr. West, and Chairman Porterfield. The motion carried unanimously by roll call vote.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/min20-hhsoct.pdf