Board of Director s Meeting February 27, 2018

Transcription

1 Board of Director s Meeting February 27, 2018 Present: John McCulloch, Terri Land, Jane Shank, Mark Lezotte, Doug Olsen, Pam Bellamy, Paul Palmer, Mark Stephenson, Veda Sharp Absent: Selena Schmidt, Hansen Clarke, Alethia Brinkerhoff, Tom Landry, Travar Pettway, Kate Wolters Staff: Elmer Cerano, Michele Brand, Mark Cody, Camilia Limas, Michelle Mull, Mark Cody, Mark McWilliams, Kyle Williams I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by President, John McCulloch at 1:30 pm. III. Introductions III. Approval of the Agenda The agenda was presented for approval. MOTION TO ACCEPT THE AGENDA AS SUBMITTED BY Terri Land. SECOND BY Paul Palmer. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. IV. Approval of the Minutes of December 19, 2017 The minutes of December 19, 2017 were presented for approval. MOTION TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF DECEMBER 19, 2017 BY Mark Lezotte. SECOND BY Terri Land. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. V. Presidents Report Presentation of the Ernie Reynolds Essay Contest Winners. John McCulloch asked members of the Essay committee to give highlights over the process and submittals. Mark Stephenson reported how great the essays were and that it was a tough decision. John McCulloch on behalf of the board and MPAS are excited to have the winners present and that they participated in the process. John McCulloch presented the winners with their awards. 1 st Place Rosemarie Facilla

2 2 nd Place Linda Wilson 3 rd Place Dylan Somberg VI. Executive Director and Staff Report Elmer Cerano reported on the budget and staffing. Cerano reported on the positions that have been filled which are noted in the Executive Director report. Kyle Williams has been re-hired as the Intake, Information and Referral Director and Mary Olson, IT director has submitted her resignation. Cerano reported all positions have been filled. The organization had been working with minimal operation due to money, now with full staffing we must work to create the synergy between the different groups. In the past, the agency provided information and referral, Cerano has added the responsibility of intake to the information and referral team. Information and referral was provided out to callers, but never clear on how people access our services. Cerano has asked managers to work on how we identify some of the services that we provide. If a service cannot be provided it should be omitted or if the service is in the priorities it should be reflected in our work. Cerano has asked Kyle Williams to look at some of the cases of those that were turned away and figure out how we can be a more user-friendly organization. The PAIMI Advisory Council met this morning. The committee recognized their responsibilities in providing to the Board of Directors guidance on gun issues. The major issues regarding 298 are still around, the state is talking about the responsibility of changing the mental health system. The legislative deadline for 298 is March 1, 2018 to identify and get started on the pilots. Cerano reported the Representative Payee program may be coming back to the P&A system. The agency had the Rep Payee program a couple years ago, which involved the agency doing investigation when the social security had concern that the money may be disappearing. The Rep Payee program will be large and will need minimal office capacity. With the addition of the Rep Payee program and the changes within the organization there is a need to upscale the IT area and create secure systems. Mark Cody reported he and Mark McWilliams will be meeting with a few attorneys interested in bringing suit against the state about issues regarding problems within the CMH system. The legal team wrapped up a case for an individual who had been slated to receive services that were not approved and went eight months without services. Cody reported on the lawsuit against the Department of Corrections. The State is challenging the judge s decision on the lawsuit against the Department of Corrections. Michelle Mull reported that she has had four new hires within the last few months and excited to have team fully staffed.

3 Michele Brand reported that HR has been busy the last few months with new hires. Brand has taken over the duties of the IT director and has been meeting with IT contractors. Brand will be meeting with the Legal and CAIR teams about moving forward and what the needs are. Brand will also meet with each team to see where are we going, what do we need, and the agency s future. Cerano noted that with the recent school shootings we anticipate increased calls. Kyle Williams reported the agency has received two calls where children are making threats through social media and resulting in expulsions. We are working to see what we can do as an organization to help those individuals that receive special education services. We have identified a system responsibility and hoping to come up with a good strategy to deal with the cases and give the supports they need to be successful and safe in schools. Brian Sabourin reported an Employment team advocate is working hard on an overpayment case of $175,000. Cerano reported if the Rep Payee Program passes Congress, we will be looking at a start date of August 1 st. The contract will be around $840,000-$900,000. There are some requirements to building the staff. Mark McWilliams noted that HR4547 has passed the House and 11 of the Michigan delegation voted yes. We have yet to hear anything further from NDRN regarding the bill. VII. Public Comment John McCulloch reported that Sean Bennett has submitted comments to be distributed to the board. VIII. PAIMI Advisory Council Doug Olsen reported for the Council. The Council met this morning and after some discussion there is some feeling about trying to redefine and come up with a more concise, coherent statement of where we are as an organization. It was discussed to have an issues conference to define MPAS and also a branding statement of what the organization is and what we are going to do. Gerry Provencal is volunteering to spearhead. Elmer has asked the Council for guidance around what to do about the gun issue. The Council thought about it in term of two issues. 1. What is the organizations stance on what gun rights and gun violence mean in the disability community. 2. How are we going to and what we should do to respond to the types of requests that the agency has been getting. The Council had identified some guidance about that from a prior mass shooting incident. There will be more talks to see if we want to have a smaller group or have some other way of producing that kind of guidance. Cerano noted that the issues are becoming more difficult. We have not received any position from the national organization regarding the gun issue. The agency is a rights organization and we do not provide treatment or any of the services that people need, the agency respects and

4 protect their rights. We have the PAIMI Advisory Council to give advice to the board and using their expertise is critically important. John McCulloch asked Terri Land if she sees us dealing with this issue more on a statewide level and should MPAS be taking a lead. Land noted the reality is that taking a student out of school does not help the situation. The talk is should law enforcement be in schools, but the need is to get into what the agency does and get mental health professionals in the schools. Expelling a kid does not help the student get better. Lezotte reported that the efforts of the education reform groups is a big push on expulsion. We need to support them to keep them in school. Not good mental health policy and education policy. IX. Committee Reports Budget & Finance Committee Michele Brand reported for the Committee. Brand reported that grants are right on target and there are no concerns now. The agency is 1% underspent and are looking good. Brand noted that we are now contracting out for IT which will be a bigger expense. Doug Olsen asked if we will be continuing contracting out IT. Brand noted she is the point person currently and will continue the contract status. Once situated we will think about the future and see where we are at and if there will be a need for a full-time contract person. Mark Lezotte asked if the budget for next year will include a full-time person or contracting out. Brand noted that currently the outsourcing and contracting may be the way to go. We are currently in lock down status, which is a good thing. The need is to educate staff on safety usage of computers. Public Policy Committee Terri Land thanked everyone for their work today at the legislative luncheon and we had a great turnout. Members reported back on their interactions with legislators. Mark McWilliams expressed gratitude to Senator Rocca and staff for securing the room. McWilliams also a thanked MPAS staff who worked on the event: Rachel Huddleston, Dan Cooper, Noah Walker and Camilia Limas. Federal McWilliams reported Congress has passed the budget and we are level funded. The House has approved HR 620 which is the amendments to Title III of the American s with Disabilities Act. This is the bill that the network and others opposed. The Bill is on to the Senate and waiting to see what the fate of the bill is. McWilliams indicated this bill requires advance notice and various protections for people who are not accessible under Title III under the ADA.

5 State The Appropriation process is in full swing. There is language expanding the privatized version of using health care companies to run health care services extending into long term services and supports. It is very general and says the legislator should explore it. The Department has been asking people about their thoughts and MPAS was interviewed. There is an appropriation of state general fund money for Early On, the early intervention program for children at risk for having a disability from birth to three. The HCBS transition plan is out for comment. There are competing legislative packages at the state level on licensing small homes. The position states that those homes have to be licensed. X. Old Business None XI. New Business Doug Olsen asked if there is a way to move forward on issue of a conference or get together brought up by Gerry Provencal in defining what P&A does. Cerano noted the issue is the need to invest in training due to some of the current issues. Money is allocated in the budget for the Council for trainings. Questioned how do we pull together a group to have a conference on the branding issue? Doug Olsen noted that Gerry Provencal and Mark Reinstein had interest in defining what MPAS does and that people did not really know what we do and asked to bring to the board for discussion. John McCulloch asked if wanted to bring back to the board. Elmer noted the Council will come up with ideas on what we need to do and will bring back to the board for discussion. XII. Executive Session MOTION TO MOVE INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION.