Human Services
Committee
Meeting Minutes
** NOT APPROVED
Committee Members
Attending
Committee Members
Absent
Curtis Crandall was absent from today’s meeting.
Also Attending
Vicki Grant, Lori Ballengee, John Margeson, Mitch Alger, Brenda Riehle, Tom Miner, Linda Wilcox, Ellen Ruckle, Ted Hopkins, and Vicki Pettit.
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 10:04am by committee
chairman
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the July 6, 2011 meeting were approved with a
motion from
Office for the Aging
Vickie Pettit, represented the Office for the Aging in Kim
Toot’s absence. Vickie requested to fill
the positions of Substitute Meals- on - wheels driver and a Substitute Luncheon
Center Manager. Karl Graves made a
motion to fill both positions and this motion was seconded by Kevin LaForge. Motion Carried.
Refer
to Ways and Means.
Vickie reported the Senior picnic held on July 28, 2011 at the Allegany County Fairgrounds was a huge success; final figures were not in as yet.
Social Services
Vicki Grant, Commissioner of Social Services, disseminated her monthly report to the committee for their review. Vicki indicated there was a slight decrease in temporary assistance. Vicki noted it was probably due to temporary summer employment.
Vicki reported a recent food stamp review was done and only
eight counties in the state processed claims within 99% timeliness and
Page 2-Human Services Committee Meeting Minutes for August 3, 2011
Vicki also noted there are seven foster children who graduated from high school and five of those seven children will be attending college. One child will be attending college on a soccer scholarship and another child will be attending college on an academic scholarship. A third child will be aging out of foster care to gainful employment.
Health Department
The Board of Health recommended Susan Dougherty to be
appointed to fill the unexpired six-year term of Sherry Herdman beginning
October 3, 2011 and expiring July 7, 2012.
The Board of Health also recommends that Dr. Joseph Felsen be appointed
to fill a new six-year term beginning October 3, 2011 and expiring July 7,
2017. A motion was made by
Lori Ballengee, Public Health Director, requested the
committee approve the transfer of money between Cancer Services accounts A4071.409
and A4071.201 in the amount of $300.00 and also the transfer of money between
Bio-Terrorism accounts A4189.402 and
A4189.201 in the amount of $110.00. A
motion by Karl Graves was made to approve these transfers and this motion was
seconded by
Lori requested to create four part time positions in the
Early Intervention program. The four
positions are Speech Language Pathologist, Special Education Teacher,
Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist.
Each professional must be considered employed by the county. The state has mandated this change and
indicates each professional will work together on the quality assurance team
for the Allegany County Department of Health’ s Early Intervention
program. These professionals will
generate revenue for the county and due to this revenue will not cost the
county any money. The revenue will
exceed their expense. A motion to create
the positions of Quality Assurance Occupational Therapist, Quality Assurance
Speech Language Therapist, Quality Assurance Physical Therapist, and Quality
Assurance Special Education Therapist was made by Don Cady, and seconded by
The committee asked Lori to come back and report to the committee in six months regarding the Early Intervention program and how well it is running with this addition of these positions.
Lori reported to the committee the New York State Department of Health recently conducted a review of nine of the Health Department’s programs. Seven staff from the State Health Department reviewed finances, personnel records, clinics, and policies and procedures in a week long in-depth review. They found only two programmatic deficiencies. The first deficiency was the nurse practitioner was not current with her CPR training but that is already corrected. She will be current with her certification by the end of August by attending an upcoming training. The second deficiency was to educate all patients seen by Health Department Staff with advance directives. This has already been corrected by changing the form used at all of the Health Department’s clinic sites.
Page 3-Human Services Meeting Minutes for August 3, 2011
The Health Department was cited on 4 other deficiencies regarding the building. Maintenance is working on correcting the following deficiencies: the fire door doesn’t close tight, there is a blinking light in the control panel, a small hole in the wall in the clinic room, and the dimness of illumination of an exit sign in the Health Department. New York State Department of Health was very complimentary of the staff and their knowledge of their programs.
Lori reported Larry Schilling from Casella Waste Systems will be attending the next Board of Health Meeting on October 3, 2011 to update the Board on the current status of Marcellus Shale. She invited the committee to attend the meeting.
Lori announced the next rabies clinic will be held on August 13, 2011 at the Belmont Fire Hall from 9:00am until noon.
Lori noted August is Breast Feeding Awareness Month and a
picnic will be held tonight at
Lori announced the Health Department has a designated area
for county employees (who are nursing mothers) to pump while at work . An area has to be made available per
With no further business to come before the committee a motion
was made by Karl Graves to adjourn the meeting.
This motion was seconded by
Respectfully submitted,
Janet Norris