HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-03-09-HSC-min.pdf Human Services Committee
Minutes of the Meeting of March 9, 1981
Present. Ruth Butler, Ruth Nablo, Steve Baran, Howard Levingston, Carol Perez,
Nicky Osborne, also Bea Phear
Bea reported that Jim Crain will not be able to attend the meeting on March 23 at 5 30
therefore the meeting will be held at 7 30 pm as usual, in the Town Manager' s Office
Bea will try to arrange for Mr Crain to come on March 30 at 5 30 instead
[This has been arranged ]
Bea asked the committee if they had a position on payment of the second quarter
Mystic Valley bill, which has not yet been paid by the Town The committee takes
no position
Role of Committee/Town Policy
Thdre was discussion regarding the fact that the Committee's goals for the Town' s
role in human services have not been sufficiently communicated to the Selectmen,
and the Committee's role has been more of an ad hoc resource around specific
questions relating to residual views of human services Ruth Nablo pointed out
that Prop 2 1/2 got in the way of policy setting, but others felt that it was
more of a scapegoat Steve felt that there was a problem in the Committee not
having articulated and communicated its point of view
Ruth Butler said she had tried to write a draft but ran into trouble Steve passed
out two diagrams placing the Committee in a pivotal role, focusing on whether
certain groups improve over time and being in the middle as facilitator and
coordinator, with the Manager's Office doing the technical work, since on the
problems has been the lack of clarity for the role of the Manager's office
After urging from the Committee, Ruth Butler said she will try again at a draft for
the next meeting The trouble is that it is not meaningful to push for prevention
without saying what Over the last year two populations have been discussed teens
and elderly One alternative is in the sense of asking what is there in a
communitylike this that produces teen problems She has not known a community
where there is more interest in human issues and people are openminded The most
challanging part is to tap into that strength We have to focus on people in
terms of their daily lives and get a rational way of distributing what you have to
enhance quality of functioning The Town's role is to anticipate and identify
areas for support Steve was concerned that we not get too far into the area of
the normal and "all of the people" that we lose sight of the most needy such as
the mentally ill or poverty stricken
Review Process
Bea circulated the second draft of the review process and said she felt there was
a problem in that everything goes through the Selectmen, and no one is responsible
(in a practical sense) for following up on requests Ruth Nablo disagreed that no
one is responsible and doesn't want to be in the posititon of making policy
directly as that is for elected representatives It was decided that communication
with agencies regarding questions of clarification and for information could be
made directly without involving the Selectmen There was also discussion about
the Committee carrying the entire process through Nicky said we should review the
3/9/81 p 2
contract but not oversee it That should be the Manager's responsibility A
clarification of this process should be part of the packet for agencies New
draft attached
Agency Coordination
Ruth Nablo said that the agencies don't know what's going on with each other, and
we should have a preamble regarding getting them together Bea said that the Frail
Elderly workshop was a step in that direction Ruth Butler said that she thinks
agency councils are not very productive Steve felt that maybe not from a planning
point of view, but they can be valuable from a case coordination limited view Bea
felt they also offer mutual support Ruth Butler said that if staff development is
what is needed, then that's what they should get, as going to meetings is very
costly Carol pointed out that provider's meetings do have short lived value,
but the players change so frequently that it is important to get the community
resources together periodically She also said that one way to tap into agency
coordination is to ask during the evaluation process what linkages they have with
other agencies
Next Meetings
Monday March 23, 7 30 p m in Town Manager's Office ;I
Monday March 30, 5 30 p.m in room 111 - brown bag supper with Jim Crain
Respectfully Submitted,
k?Lti -1)(,,? 0„
Beatrice Phear
DRAFT March 9, 1981
REVIEW PROCESS FOR TOWN FUNDED HUMAN SERVICE PROGR?dS
1 Timetable developed by the Town Manager's Office and communicated to
Committee through staff
2 Application sent to Town-funded human service agencies by Manager's Office
3 Material received by Manager's Office and sent to Committee for review
4 Questions raised by Committee sent to agency by Committee
5 Answers to questions returned to Committee by agency
6 Draft contract negotiated with agency and CoFmnittee
7 Committee drafts its preliminary recommendations and shares its findings
with agency
8 Committee and Selectmen meet to review findings
9 Committee sends written report with recommendations to Selectmen
10 Selectmen make decision and communicate it to Town Meeting
11 Town Meeting makes decision
12 Decision of Town Meeting communicated to agency by Selectmen
13 Contract finalized by Town Manager's Office
14 Town Manager oversees contracts