HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-01-11-HSC-min.pdf Human Services Committee
Minutes of the Meeting of January 11, 1982
Present. Steve Baran, Ilene White, Ruth Nablo Nancy Zarle, Roberta Black, Howard
Reynolds, Judy Zabin, Stan Finkelstein, also Bea Phear
The meeting was called to order at 7 40 pm
Minutes The minutes of January 4 were approvdd as ammended.
page 2, para 1 RePlace wants to pay additional consultation fees to those who
now volunteer
page 2 para 3 Ruth not support additional consultation fees
page 2, para 2 Add new sentance The Town Manager will ask the School Department
about funding for Replace from the school budget
page 3 Add new paragraph CoA subcommittee will try to contact the
director of Minuteman Home Care Corp and ask him his views of
the CoA and elderly problems in Lexington
Cable TV
Bea reported that Adams Russle will be having a meeting for Lexington agencies and
citizens groups on the use of Cable TV The organizer is Lauren Goldfarb, and the
date will be February 19 Bea does not yet know the time
Forum on Aging
Bill Page and Jack Gardner had held a meeting with Lexington representatives to the
White House Conference on Aging, Lucille Shuck and Ted Vielle, prior to the Conference,
and now a post-mortum is scheduled for January 27 at 8 00 pm in room 111 Any
interested member of the Human Services Committee is invited
Youth Commission
The Youth Commission wants to exchange minutes Judy and Roberta will receive them
for the Human Services Committee Steve asked about their survey Bea said that she
had not been present at the time, but that they decided to table it until spring
RePlace
Steve talked with Ernie Cook of DMH, who reported that drug money will be coming out
of Dept of Public Health rather than DMH in FY83 Steve felt that RePlace should
strenuously find out who to contact
Judy and Roberta had another long meeting with RePlace and felt that the need for
increased staff was well documented Service statistics show an increase; there is
very good use of volunteers (but a requirement that a staff member be present at all
times) and the pressures of burn-out they believe will be relieved by increased
staff as well as by increased space
There was discussion about other sources of funding Bea reported that the Town
Manager had not yet discussed school funding, but was planning to do so Services
provided to the schools might be partially reimbursed through 766 Services include
testing, counseling, outreach/education, consultation and psychiatric evaluation In
addition there could be money through the Concord District Court's family services
department, DSS (although the fact that Replace serves only Lexington is seen as a
problem by Monique Doelling of DSS) and more active fundraising for contributions
Roberta recommended that we look at a projected budget she drew up, using level funding
Human Services, January 11 page 2
for consultation fees, equipment, supplies, and telephone This would make their
expenses $94, 251 excluding the rent expense which is a paper transaction If we
assumed contributions of $11,100, and increased 'other' revenue to $500, the Town
would then need to subsidize at $58,628 After discussion, it was decided that the
Committee would recommend funding at 51,628 suggesting that the new counseling
position be only half funded by Lexington and half by other means This is not
to say that the Committee felt that the new position was not needed, but rather
that the search for outside- money should be encouraged Steve suggested that the
Committee continue to work with RePLace and help them focus on getting other sources
of funds
Committee Role/Credibility
There was some discussion about the credibility of the Committee and the role regarding
budget recommendations Judy asked if we had to assume there was a finite pie to be
divided The Committee felt that its role should be to look at programs and make
dollar recommendations outside of the context of thk Town Manager's sense of limits
Stan then asked if we were to be advocates for human services Roberta felt that was
an issue of credibility, and how we could best make a point Bea felt that there was
no credibility problem if the Committee looked at each program and recommended increases
in some and decreases in others
CMARC
Ruth discussed the memo she had distributed with last week's minutes Judy requested
clarification regarding Ruth's recommendation that they not accept unfunded clients
Ruth had meant to express that they should not repeat the FY80 contract which required
taking all unfunded Lexington clients, but that if the Board decided to have a limit
and accept some, she would notobject, although she was concerned about the agency's
viability if they took too many
Ruth had a conversation with Bob Renna in the School Department, who thinks there will
be no new Lexington residents going to CMARC from the school system until 1985 There
may possibly be one from a residential program Since the CMARC request was to cover
new unfunded clients, Ruth recommends not funding this proposal at this time, although
CMARC is a good program Steve felt that this was a beginning at looking into the
needs of the developmentally disabled, and maybe we could go back to CMARC in future
Mystic Valley
Stan began by saying that he and Tom had very little additional information They had
looked at last year's coorespondance and found it difficult to understand At the
meeting last week, they had asked Don Lund to forward copies of the Safehouse evaluations,
past correspondance, and resumes, but nothing had been received Steve felt this was a
continuation of past patterns of unresponsiveness Stan also said he considered the
larger question to be "Is Lexington getting something from Mystic Valley? to which
the answer has to be "yes and probably more than $10,000 Another issue is that MV
las substantial outside funding, and by giving them zero, we are penalizing them for
the very actions that we encourage in RePlace
Tom and Stan agreed that they do not recommend funding for the elderly services part of
the request, as the need was not well documented They recommend funding Safehouse for
less than the $10,000 requested, with the provision that Tom and Stan not abandon the
efforst to do a thoroughMV review of the total program They -recommend $7,500, recognizing
the value of donated funds, and the domino effect on other communities It is clear
Human Services, Januaryll p3
that there is a short time to deal with this uncertainty He feels. they need to
have their wrists slapped for not being responsive, which it why he is not recommending
the full $10 000
Ruth said if it were "at this time she would be prepared to support the $7,500
Howard felt that his perceptions as a former Safehouse board member were that they
were walking a very fine line, and didn't have any "fat" Stan thought there might
be fat somewhere in Mystic Valley, and had been concerned that the Safehouse administrative
share was greater than the agency wide 15% Judy said that the discussions were based
on how cooperative some people were, and it was a question of credibility of the
Committee to use that as a reason for reducing funding Roberta said she is interested
in the worth of the services provided, and, if it is more than $10,000 she doesn't feel
that is the best way to slap wrists
It was decided that $7,500 and $10,000 were very close anyway, and Stan said he would
agree to go with the $10,000 if the committee wanted
Council on Aging
Nancy spoke with Joan Melcher on Friday, who said the CoA now uses Mystic Valley
consultation time without cost, which they need As of FY83, it will no longer be
free Nancy also she was concerned that the CoA is not pushing for more outside elderly
money If they want mental health consultation they should write a grant and then pay
Mystic Valley Nancy does not recommend funding the Mystic Valley elderly program
directly She also thinks they should not pay for the pianist
Howard felt the general consensus was that outreach is the weakest area, and the
$4500 is a modest salary which they should keep Ruth asked if it would be appropriate
to remove the funding for the Senior Citizen's Club and fund the outreach worker Ilene
said it was a question if the other two would do more outreach, but Howard said that
the phone rings constantly, and there are limited hours
The Committee decided to recommend that the outreach worker salary be funded, and
money be added to purchase consultation time from Mystic Valley for Friendly Visitor
training, but the Senior Citizen Club and pianist be eliminated
Summary
Each sub committee will have a brief report to Steve by Friday
Next Meeting 7 00 pm, with Jim Crain on January 18, in room 111
The meeting adjourned at 10 25 pm
Respectfully Submitted
) D 'r
Beatrice Phear