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I
Human Services Committee
Minutes of the Meeting of January 18, 1982
Present Ruth Nablo, Nancy Zarle, Tom Zarle, Judy Zabin, Roberta Black; Stan
Finkelstein, Howard Reynolds, Steve Baran, Ilene White; guest. James
Crain; also Bea Phear
The meeting began with a brief informal meeting with Jim Crain, liaison from the
Board of Selectmen He said that the Selectmen requested that the Committee
scrutinize the budget in the area of human services as they had more time to
devote to that kind of research than the Selectmen The Selectmen recognized
that decisions had to be made on imperfect information, however the Committee
was better able to gather this kind of data
Stan asked about the outcome of this evening's Selectmen's meeting, whether a
vote on specific dollars would be made for the Warrant Jim thought that the
vote would not be taken this evening, but rather they would just listen to input
Ruth asked about the emergency fund, and if one agency finds itself in need after
Town Meeting, would they have access to the emergency fund Jim said the Selectmen
would have to go to the Appropriation Committee-, and it is always difficult as the
money is set aside for demonstrated emergencies and unforseen events
After Jim left the committee discussed the Report to the Board of Selectmen that
Steve had prepared The dollar numbers were corrected to reflect ammended requests,
and some phrasing was altered in the Council on Aging section The Committee
approved the Report unanimously
It was decided to submit the report as the consensus of the Committee The question
of the CoA Outreach Worker was discussed, in light of the fact that the Town Manager
does not want to increase staff The Committee agreed with the Manager's position
that the Outreach Worker not be buried in "expenses , but disagreed that the
position was unneeded The Committee decided to say merely that there was a need
for this service, and put it in their recommendations for. CoA personal services
budget
Judy said she wanted to emphasize that RePlace had increased utilization Steve
said he looked at those figures and felt that it didn' t show great increase in the
number of clients. Judy pointed out that the increase was in outreach which is
the area the committee is encouraging
Roberta was concerned that the Youth Commission chair, Ron Wells, had told her that
Replace had no input into the drug education meeting that they are holding She
woudl like to emphasize that groups serving the same population coordinate their
efforts Steve brought up that the same was true for their planned needs assessment,
and hoped they work with others such as Bea and the Human Services Committee who had
expertise in that area
Ruth said that brought up the ethical question of whether she should have called
CMARC to tell them of the Committee's recommendations, ihich she didn't do The
agenda for next week will include discussion on continuing relationship with agencies
The Committee adjourned at 8 30 pm to go to the Selectmen's meeting
Respectfully submitted,
Beatrice
Beatrice Phear