HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-07 BHAC MINUTES1
Behavioral Health Advisory Committee
(Mental Health-Substance Use Disorders)
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
3:00-5:00 PM
FINAL
I. Call to Order/ Introductions: Called to Order by Greg Brotherton
Board Members: X Greg Brotherton-Chair
X Ariel Speser-Vice Chair
ABSENT- UNEXCUSED Chris Ashcraft
X Patricia Beathard
X Jill Buhler-Rienstra
X Anne Dean
X David Fortino
X Patrick Johnson
X Sheila Westerman
Staff: Anna Mc Enery, Vicki Kirkpatrick & Veronica Shaw
Guests: Amanda Tjemsland, Frank Hoffman, Brian Gleason, Lori Fleming, Jim Novelli, Julie
Canterbury, Jolene Kron, Leah Russell, Ian Hanna, Jud Haynes, Brian Richardson, Gabbie Caudill,
Lisa Ray-Thomas, Mark Mc Cauley, Jenny Manza, Apple Martine, Heather McRae-Woolf and Troy
Surber
II. Approval of the draft agenda of July 7, 2020: Member Westerman (M)/ Member Speser (S)/
Approved with no changes.
III. Review and adoption of the draft minutes of May 5, 2020: Staff Mc Enery clarified that she will
add excused or unexcused when a Committee member is absent. Member Buhler-Reinstra (M)/
Member Westerman (S)/ Approved with the staff clarification.
IV. Public Comments: Frank Hoffman spoke about systemic racism and defunding the police. He
doesn’t think it’s a good idea for Jefferson County, but believes that Jud Haynes should work for
Public Health, not the Police Department. He spoke about people with that mental health issues
being booted from shelters and hopes mental health services has some ideas for counteracting
that. Commissioner Brotherton asked for comments and there were none.
V. BUDGET: 2020 Budget Tracking Spreadsheet & Sales Tax Projection Discussion/ Staff Shaw
shared the budget for the 1/10th of 1% sales tax. Please see enclosure called 131 Fund Summary-
(1/10th of 1% Fund) for additional details. May’s sales tax revenue came in 15% less and June
came in 13% less. She is anticipating total revenue for 2020 at $512,000. Commissioner
Brotherton said the initial projection was 17% and so we are under that at 14%. Veronica confirmed
that.
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VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS:
a. 1/10th of 1% Future Budget Priorities/ Sales Tax Projection/
Criteria/Eligibility for the 1/10th of 1% Funding:
Staff Mc Enery shared that the ACHS group of Counties met to discuss the projected loss
of 1/10th of 1% sales tax revenue and strategies for determining program and service cuts. She
shared Jefferson was projecting 17% in 2020 and 25% cut in 2021. But if t here could be more
revenue lost because of so many events/festivals that have been cancelled. (Wooden Boat Festival
brings in an additional 10,000 people to Port Townsend and our population for the County is only
31,000.)
Jefferson County does not have any set strategies for determining program and service cuts,
but after meeting with Commissioner Brotherton and Ariel Speser and Staff Mc Enery have met a
few times to discuss this topic and brainstormed a few suggestions to share.
Ask programs to volunteer cuts like the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee did. Then
earmark those services as priorities when funding is back.
Cut all programs across the board by the same percentage as the 1/10th revenue loss.
Ask the BH Advisory Committee to create a list of program priorities for 1/10th funding.
Push Navigator Services to the Law & Justice budget.
Push School Counseling services to the School budgets.
Promote the work of LEAD in our County and apply for a state LEAD grant.
The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program (LEAD) is a program that offers
law enforcement a credible alternative to arresting and jailing people for criminal
activity that stems from unmet behavioral health needs or poverty.
Member Speser thanked staff for the overview and said our goal is for us to have a
transparent discussion. Commissioner Brotherton asked for any comments or suggestions from the
Committee. Just a reminder we don’t
Member Johnson said everyone is concerned about down the road and asked when we
should take action. Commissioner Brotherton said by pulling back the Supplemental RFP we have
given ourselves some time. Member Johnson agreed and asked if the contracts are for two years
and Staff Mc Enery said yes. The two-year contracts end on December 31, 2020 and we hope to
put out a new RFP for the next two-years after the September 1st BHAC meeting then we have a
better idea of our how our tax revenue looks. We can always have a special meeting if we need
too.
Member Johnson asked if there are any vendors who are not spending their 1/10th funding.
Staff Mc Enery said the only agency not spending their funding is the DBH CODIT Program,
because DBH is no longer providing that service. That funding will go back into the budget in
January of 2021.
Member Buhler-Reinstra asked how much we should dig into the reserves? Commissioner
Brotherton said we will be revisiting this topic in September. Staff Kirkpatrick said that Staff Shaw
can do a projection of revenue/reserves and give us a recommendation about the range of funding
we should put out in the next RFP.
Member Westerman said she believes the Sales Tax funding is doing well; she is grateful we
don’t have to make a budget decision today. She recommends that if we experience a budget
shortfall, we should have every agency share the loss equally, rather than funding some and not
others.
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b. Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee (lCC)- COVID-19 Recovery and Resiliency Plan:
The info below is from the website https://www.jeffcotogether.net and the Jefferson County
website.
Our community continues to be negatively affected by the impacts of the COVID -19
pandemic. The virus and related shutdowns have exacerbated ongoing challenges and introduced
new ones. Without action these negative effects may persist well into the future.
In an effort to provide an inclusive and coordinated structure to catalyze immediate and
sustained recovery as well as to build greater community-wide resilience, the collective governing
bodies of Jefferson County, the City of Port Townsend, the Port of Port Townsend and Jefferson
County PUD formed the Intergovernmental Collaborative Committee (ICC).
The ICC consists of eight members including an elected official and the chief appointed
executive from each of the four governments. The ICC is collaborating with community-based
groups to draft a COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Plan. The purpose of the ICC is to work with
the six community task forces, (representing different sectors) and to receive recommendations for
recovery resiliency plans, strategies and actions for review and inclusion into a Consolidated
Recovery and Resiliency Plan by the ICC. The ICC will recommend its plan to the ICG for
adoption.
c. Updated BH Advisory Committee By-Laws:
Staff Mc Enery said she is looking for the Committee to take a vote to finalize this document and
take it out of draft. Staff Mc Enery added the existing priority funding areas into the document,
along with a few editing updates.
Member Westerman said that she is proud of all the work the Committee and staff have
done to create these by-laws and believes it is time to formally adopt them. She agrees with staff,
that we can always amend them in the future.
Member Speser made a motion to adopt the amended by-laws and Member Buhler-
Reinstra seconded that motion. The motion passed unanimously.
VII. PRESENTATIONS:
a. Transition to the One-Tenth Online (OTO) Data Platform-2020: Amanda Tjemsland is
Epidemiologist who works out of Kitsap Public Health. She said all Jefferson County 1/10th of 1%
programs have transitioned to using the onsite system for quarter one data. It has been very
successful, only two agencies were late and only by a day.
Amanda will be working on finishing the on-line dashboard for Jefferson County. She
wants to include a map that shows how many people are being served and where they are being
served. Amanda hopes to have the 1/10th of 1% -Evaluation & Data Report for 2019 done by the
November meeting, but it depends on how much time she will need to spend on COVID tracking.
Staff Mc Enery added that this dashboard can be accessed by the public, so they can see the
wonderful work that the vendors are accomplishing with the 1/10th of 1% funding.
VIII. VENDOR REPORTS:
a. Dove House/Recovery Café- Brian Richardson, the Recovery Café Program Manager shared an
update. The Recovery Café remodeling is coming along, even though they had to take a two-
month hiatus because of the pandemic. Brian recently did a virtual tour and hopes to do another
when they are finished.
The virtual recovery circles occur twice a week; they have done about 18 circles since the
pandemic began with about 15 people. Volunteer trainings have begun again and last month they
had a training about racism. Staff are also providing recovery support and outreach by making
phone calls, virtual and in person visits.
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b. Behavioral Health Court- Brian Gleason, the District Court Administrator shared an update. They
are conducting team member meetings and Behavioral Health Court virtually and have purchased
cell phones for participants for check ins. Around May, they started to see a lot of stress with many
participants. Team members have rallied around participants with a lot of support and most are
back on track. The Behavioral Health Court has been able to provide transport, housing, urine
analysis and other supports with their 1/0th of 1% funding.
Brian would like to see one Therapeutic Court Coordinator/Case Manager for all four
Therapeutic Courts and have them be a Jefferson County employee.
c. Juvenile Truancy Court- Barbara Carr, the Juvenile & Family Court Division Administrator shared
an overview of the program and gave an update. Barbara shared that the 1/10th of 1% funding
provides functional family therapy for kids who are identified through the Truancy Board. Many
times, there is a relation between the student’s absenteeism and family disfunction, (like potential
mental health and substance abuse issues).
The program has received a lot of positive feedback from the families who participated and
from the Truancy Board. Five families who began in the Fall of 2019 completed the program, but
the four families who began in January of 2020 have not. Staff have been reaching out to engage,
but it has been received by the families inconsistently. The program has been greatly affected
because of schools being closed due to the pandemic.
IX. UPDATES:
a. Criminal Justice Treatment Account, (CJTA) Update: Jolene Krone, Salish Administrative
Services Organization-(ASO) Deputy Administrator shared an overview. CJTA began in 2002 and
the intent was to provide substance abuse treatment services to individuals who were involved in
the criminal justice system. At that time, those individuals were not eligible for medicaid. With
medicaid expansion in 2014, they became eligible for medicaid and so the use of CJTA also
changed.
In 2016 the funds moved to the BHO. In 2019, Counties were given the opportunity to take
the funding back, but Jefferson decided to keep it with the ASO. Funds typically go for urine
analysis, Case Management and direct treatment services for those not eligible for medicaid. There
is a lot more State oversight and the funds are overseen by a local CJTA Committee.
b. Public Comments: Frank Hoffman said that as a civilian he wanted to thank the vendors who are
providing this work.
c. Adjournment of Meeting:
Future Agenda Items:
Summary of Physical & Behavioral Health Impacts associated with the COVID-19
Pandemic
(lCC)- COVID-19 Recovery and Resiliency Plan
Review Criteria/Eligibility for the 1/10th of 1% Sales Tax Funding
Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program & Workshop Update/Ariel Speser
Update on Mental Health Field Response Team Meetings & Quarterly 1/10th of 1% Vendor
Network MTGs in 2020 Youth
Island County Behavioral Health Outreach Program Presentation
Next BH Advisory Committee MTG- Tuesday, September 1, 2020