HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-04-25-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Meeting of April 25 1983
Present Steve Baran, Roberta Black, Judy Zabin, Nancy Zarle, Ilene White, Howard
Reynolds, Bea Phear, Angela Frick 1
The Minutes of the meeting of April 12, 1983 were approved as mailed The minutes of
the meeting of March 30 were corrected to add Ilene White as present
MAPC
Angela Frick described her role as the Metropolitan Area Planning Council representative
from Lexington. MAPC is a regional planning agency set up in 1963 by the legislature that
coordinates planning among the 101 cities and towns in the greater Boston area to include
local input into reports It is funded by assessment of 16 9 per person, from the
municipalities, and goverened by an executive committee Alexander Zelesky is the new
executive director Mrs Frick's position is appointed by the Town Manager
Mrs Frick's position is appointed by the Town Manager Her primary role is to contact
town boards and agencies and respond to "A-95 reviews, the reviewing mechanism for
comment of those requests from state and federal funds There is a three week time
frame for response The primary issues are environmental evaluation, housing, transportation,
land use, solid waste, energy, and water quality MAPC is not significantly involved
in human service issues however they have been asked to respond on Share-A-Ride, the
Health Planning Council of Greater Boston and a drug rehab program in Waltham The
Committee was curious as to why such major state and federal budget items such as DSS
Dr Mystic Valley were not part of this process Bea will talk to MAPC to further clarify
what is and isn't required to be reviewed by MAPC (Note Bea called MAPC and was told
that the list of programs requiring review was specified by the Office of Management and
Budget and primarily addressed only those that caused a physical change, such as
acquisition, construction, and transportation Health and Human Services programs are
usually subject to review by the area health planning council )
Mrs Frick will invite the committee to any future meetings at which MAPC is further
discussed. The committee offered to help her in any review that was relevant however
the short time frame required makes it difficult We can anticipate that the Health
Planning Council of Greater Boston will be covered each year Steve mentioned that we
were interested in health issues, and might be better able to look at that request now
that we know to anticipate it
Charitable Trusts
Bea reported that she had written Mr Rutherford with copies of the proposed contracts
There was concern that the timeframe was getting too late for matching funds for CES Bea
will telephone Mr Rutherford later in the week and alert him to this concern
Mystic Valley
Mystic Valley is holding a Sunday bruch open house on May 1 Stan had raised the question
about possible violation of their specail permit. Roberta said she had spoken to Kay
Tiffany on other matters, and Kay had mentioned that MVMH had received special permission
:o use the site on the Sunday
April 25, 1983 p 2
DSS
Roberta had attended the most recent Replace Board meeting, where they expressed
appreciation for the town's effort to get DSS funding for their prevention program
DSS
Steve talked to Peter Koehan, the Area Director, to discover the current status of
our letter of intent Peter told him that the letter had been reviewed by the
subcommittee and was negatively received, as not meeting area and regional priorities
Bea has tried to discover what these priorities are, but her telephone calls have
not been returned Steve will speak with the Area Board President after we learn
how the letter is judged not in compliance with the priorities, and who is on the
subcommittee Mary San Martino, a Mystic Valley staff person was the only name
mentioned by Peter Koehan Members of the Human Services Committee expressed
concern that there may have been a conflict of interest
Roberta suggested that DSS has a pressing interest in child abuse, and wondered if
the Replace program could focus on that in some way It was decided to discuss
the whole issue further at the next meeting
Providers Council
25 people attended the April meeting on respite care It started with Chief John
Bergeron describing his EMT service and making a plea for referral to address the
gap when there has been a sudden death and is a delay in the arrival of the medical
examiner The Committee felt that this is an area they may be able to find resources
for Roberta mentioned the Council of Churches as a possible source of volunteers
Nancy said the funeral homes should be addressing that, and can take a body if a
doctor has pronounced him dead. Roberta will clarify the legal problems with the
Chief and then we will procede with helping to develop a network
Providers identified other gaps in respite in that developmentally disabled people
have some services, but other clients are unserved (emotionally disturbed, younger
alzheimers etc ) It was generally felt that the number of funded days was too
few, and that there was a need for adult camps
The next Providers Council meeting will be May 16, with Marilyn Lash from United
Community Planning Council as speaker
The following meeting will be on information and referral, with a demonstration
from United Way's new Computer Access Information and Referral Network (CAIRN)
Tentative date is June 13
Student Intern
Bea announced that she ahs authorization for another intern next year and has
applied to B U and B C schools of social work She will also investigate Heller
Town Meeting Planning
The TMMA In£otmation meeting is Wednesday, April 28 Steve will try to attend, and
Bea and Judy will be there It is possible that the question of funding for Mystic
Valley will be raised at Town Meeting Steve will talk to Jim Crain about how he
woudl like this to be handled
Future Membership
Steve and Judy both do wish to continue There will be three vancancies Steve has
April 26, 1983 p 3
written to Jim suggesting a brief newspaper statement requesting volunteers He
will telephone a followup to discuss a process In thinking about interests and
skills there was concern that the committee should not be composed of advocates i.
for certain perspectives while still retaining a variety of views Committee
members were asked to think about what skills were needed This will be discussed
at the next meeting
Subcommittee Comments
Ilene expressed that she had felt some frustration in her subcommittee role as
it seemed that the CoA budget was routine, and it was difficult to penetrate
the system and give meaningful recommendations Nancy concurred that she questioned
if they could make changes
Steve was sorry this had not been discussed earlier, as it echoed last year's
problems when the whole committee felt discouraged. With this recurring, we could
have seen a pattern of no impact on elderly affairs (eg Muzzey) and we could have
contacted our liaison. Steve felt it is a continuing theme of problems with
communication with the Selectmen. We should ask Jim Crain to come in and hear
this
Next Meeting
May 23, 7 30 pm, room 111
Respectfully Submitted,
Ulan
Beatrice Phear