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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986-02-24-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the Meeting. of February 24, 1986 Present. Judy Zabin, Stan Finkelstein, Sylvia Perlman, Leonora Feeney, Jan Eustis , Robert Cushman , Anne Marie Marano Minutes Minutes were approved as mailed Announcements 1 Stan gave a status report on the Selectmen' s consideration of the Human Services budget recommendations He reported that after a conversation with the Town Manager, the Town Manager indicated that the Selectmen intended to approve all HSC recommendations with the possible exception of the Mystic Valley recommendation Mystic Valley recommendation will be discussed at the Selectmen's meeting of February 25, 1986 and Stan will try to attend the meeting 2. Stan reported. that he had received informal feedback that the Appropriations Committee had an overall favorable response to the HSC recommendations , however they may have one question that may be brought to the committee at some point. 3 The Town Manager has asked to meet with the Human Service Committee and a meeting time has been scheduled for the March 10, 1986 HSC meeting at 730pm. 4 Judy Zabin announced that on Thursday, February 27 at 7 30 p m. there will be a showing of one of the video tapes prepared by Everyone' s Youth Group The showing is being run by Mystic Valley DMH and Judy will try to attend Discussion Judy reported on a discussion she had with the Town Manager regarding the question of distributing the 20 page HSC budget recommendations report to Town Meeting The Town Manager recommended that this report not be distributed in its entirety but that a summary be prepared by the committee for distribution to the Town Meeting Stan and Judy proposed that a revised cover letter along with a 2 page summary of recommendations and the table and criteria from the report be distributed It was suggested that this issue be discussed with the Town Manager at the March 10 HSC meeting Judy reported that several Town Meeting members have asked her if the HSC could help inform Town Meeting about issues regarding two congregate housing proposals coming before Town Meeting This was discussed at the HSC meeting It was felt that at this time the HSC does not have sufficient data with regard to demographics and need to make a formal statement concerning the congregate housing proposals The Council on Aging and the Congregate Housing Committee may be additional resources for Town Meeting Discussion of Hospice Care, Inc Quarterly Report Leonora Feeney raised the issue of the committee' s role in monitoring contracts specifically in relation to the current contract with Hospice Care, Inc After reviewing the quarterly reports materials, Leonora raised several concerns One, a number of Hospice Care, Inc press releases did not acknowledge Lexington participation or Lexington financial support Two, a children' s group scheduled to be held in Arlington at an Arlington School during school hours does not appear to be reasonably available to Lexington youth While the contract does not specify that groups should be limited to Lexington citizens it does make clear that the -2- groups should be available to Lexington citizens It was agreed by the HSC that Leonora Feeney would contact Hospice Care to discuss concerns raised by the quarterly report and publicity releases The HSC discussed their overall role in relation to monitoring contracts and it was agreed that it was an appropriate role of committee members to review quarterly reports and monitor those agencies which they have been assisting in the RFP process Youth Study Group Sylvia Perlman announced that the Youth Study Group has scheduled a meeting from 7 00 - 9 00 p.m on March 12th to be held in the First Parish Church in Lexington Invitations are being mailed out and the meeting was also announced in the Minuteman The purpose of the meeting is to gain community support and input and involvement in developing the research study HSC members are encouraged to attend HSC discussed the drug survey done in Lexington High School and the question of overlap with the Youth Study Group Sylvia pointed out that the Youth Study Group is interested in a much broader spectrum of issues and that therefore the overlap is minimal Judy Zabin reported that on March 17th the Clarke PTA will be running a program dealing with adolescent issues and parental concerns This group may be a resource for the Youth Study Group Follow up presentation relating to the Enablement Committee presentation at the February 10, 1986 meeting HSC acknowledged that it was important that they had the opportunity to meet with the Enablement Committee It was acknowledged that the Enablement Committee has accomplished a tremendous amount of work and that at the current time the issues around physical accessibility appear to be the committees primary objectives The HSC would like to see the Enablement Committee eventually broaden its scope beyond physical accessiblity including perhaps recreational needs and transportation needs of the disabled and also including disabled groups other than the physically disabled The possibility of the HSC and the Enablement Commitee working together to develop an RFP to help address needs of the disabled was discussed The importance of establishing a formal liaison between the Enablement Committee and the HS was again discussed HSC members will try to make an effort to attend Enablement Committee meetings when possible Anne Marie will also try to attend Enablement Committee meetings on a regular basis Judy and Stan will write a letter to the Enablement Committee thanking them for attending the HSC meeting and again offering them support HSC would like to receive Enablement Committee minutes 8 30 p m Committee adjourned to divide into subcommittee groups 9 15 HSC reconvened for subcommittee reports Strategic Planning subcommittee report By March 10th the subcommittee will have finalized a list of persons who they plan to contact as part of their survey The survey will address Human Service needs and priorities A clear process for conducting the survey will be in place by March 10 At this point the Committee is considering scheduling a form of "public hearings" which would allow for fact to face interviewing If this option does not prove to be viable they would consider telephone interviewing or a mail survey The target date for completing the survey interviews is April 7 , 1986 and the target date for a report in draft form is May 7, 1986 The report will present a narrative outlining what those intervievsd see as priorities of Human Service needs for Lexington It is hoped that the draft report will assist the Human Service Committe in identifying areas of need to focus on during the summer and in to the fall The possibility of the HSC developing an RFP for an unmet priority area was discussed in relation to the strategic planning subcommittee survey Research subcommittee report The committeeis continuing to review the literature they obtained from Bea Phear concerning Human service components of local governments They are in process of identifying specific local towns which they will then meet with to gather data regarding human service components They hope to obtain information as with, to what other towns are doing in relation to the human service component of Town government How they are doing it i e through committee or through human service staff and what they are funding By interviewing towns the committee will attempt to identify different models for organization of human service components as well as what type of -3- Town financial resources are designated for human services The Mass Municipal Association ,. LOHSC may be a possible resource for this subcommittee The committee will idertify a process for visiting, towns i e How many towns, and when will they visit them? They need to develop an outline of what issues they will raise with the towns Thus far the committee has found that local towns of comparable size and in- come level of Lexington appear to have much less established human service components Towns with more extensive human service components have been found to be towns larger than Lexington The subcommittee needs to determine what category of towns would be most beneficial to interview Committee meeting adjourned at 9. 30 p.m Respectfully submitted Anne Marie Marano f, ( L.