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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-09-29-HSC-min.pdf 9-29-80 ?ig V (1)fr HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Present. Ruth Butler, Nicky Osborne, Stephen Baran, Carol Perez --- also Elizabeth Pressman Absent. Ruth Nablo, John Mackey Minutes of 9-15-80 and 9-22-80 accepted as corrected Carol Perez agreed to clip and maintain a file of newspaper articles about the committee Elizabeth Pressman informed the committee that the Town Social Worker, Charles McManus had resigned. The Town would like the H S committee to look at that position and recommend whether to continue it or use the money in another human service area. The new Veterans' Agent is a part-time position, leaving the possibility of using some of those funds for another human service purpose The committee will also look at the advisability of a Town human services coordinator Ruth Butler announced that the Selectmen would be meeting alternate Monday evenings for the next couple of months Steve Baran reported that the 3 agencies, REPLACE, MVMHC, and CMARC would be coming to the H.S meeting on October 6 Each administrator that Steve spoke with indicated that s/he would bring along at least one board member The meeting will involve the agencies in finalizing the criteria for evaluation and discuss prevention Carol will give an introduction at the beginning of the meeting, emphasizing that it is to be a sharing and learning experience Ruth Butler asked what committee members want to see as an end result of the joint meeting Nicky Osborne hoped an understanding of the evaluation criteria would result Elizabeth Pressman suggested that the agencies would begin to see where the committee is coming from. Ruth Butler stated that she hoped the agency representatives will become really involved in the process and take some leadership She asked whether the committee is to bring the agencies along, or vice-versa? It is traditional for the party that holds the purse strings to hold the deck, she. added Steve offered that more agency participation is desired but they should recognize that they will not make the final decision on allocations from the Town The chairperson thought that the committee should he accountable, in some way, to the agencies Last year the agencies had no previous notice of what would be expected of them This put the agencies at a disadvantage Steve added that, because of time constraints, the agencies were not given an oppor- tunity to review the H.S committee's recommendations before they went to the Selectmen He felt that was not quite fair to the agencies 9-29-80 - 2 - Nicky Osborne said that perhaps the meeting on October 6 should pick upon what the agencies did not like about last year's process Steve wondered whether or not such issues should be wrapped up at that meeting? Carol felt that they should If an impasse is reached, on definitions or other matters, then the committee needs to take a stand Discussion followed The agenda for October 6 was set as (1) An introduction by Steve to set the tone (2) Background on the committee and its role, including its relationship to the Selectmen, by Carol Perez (3) Discuss the criteria, etc Ruth Butler feels that probably the group will not come to closure on the definitions of "prevention" and "needs", but some tentative agreement may still be settled cm some points The question of whether or not to have a second meeting with the agencies was left open Howard Levingston suggested that there be time constraints or the meeting could go on indefinitely Ruth Butler feels one meeting is inadequate time for discussion, but the agencies must be informed of the November 1 deadline for the criteria. The committee is open to further discussion The meeting on October 6 should foster free discussion If the meeting gets bogged down, committee members can push for movement or closure The draft criteria should give structure to the meeting Ruth Butler suggested a future meeting with the Health Committee around the topic of the function of the Health Department in the community Discussion of the Heller School lab followed Steve agreed to serve as laiason to the lab There will be a task that the lab must accomplish The committee will re- quest a budget for the project in December Steve Baran will communicate with the Heller School to give them a synopsis for the lab. Howard Levingston's idea of increasing efficiency by decreasing a budget was discussed It was agreed that sometimes low morale of workers could result from budget cuts However, Howard indicated that if an organization is disorganized and inefficient, adding people to get more work done will not produce the desired effect Steve reported that Bill Page of the Health Committee is interested in a series of workshops on the subject of prevention Ruth Butler again suggested that 1 or 2 people from the Health Committee join the H S committee meetings but not the entire Health committee ( The H S committee will ask to meet with the Selectmen sometime in November The meeting adjourned at 10 00 P.M Respectfully submitted, Elizabeth H. Pressman I Vy,'1 7'/