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Quorum: Yes

Chair’s Report:
Dr. Martin presented the Board with a Certificate of Appreciation presented to the County of Volusia for their support from the YMCA Black Achievers.

Dr. Martin and Mary Lou Mirino attended the Florida Children’s Summit at the Orange County Convention Center. Mary Lou Mirino stated Bill Parcell, the Mayor of Nashville spoke and was very dynamic. His focus was on requiring real data when reporting program outcomes. Small workshops were conducted on specific needs of children.

Dr. Martin gave update on the issue of CFAB Board Member term limits. The Volusia County Chair was presented a letter requesting consideration of extending terms limits for those members whose terms will be expiring in March, 2007. Initial response from the Chair was positive.

A meeting date has been established for the “Sunset Committee”: of November 28 at 5:00 pm. Location to be announced at a later date.

The annual CFAB schedule was provided to the Board for the year.

Staff provided 2005-2006 annual goals to be presented to the County Council. Mary Bruno requested that the Board add a goal to assess and evaluate children and community needs to the report. The Board goals speak to the process, but there is no goal related to how the Board determines how the money is being distributed. Motion made by Mary Bruno and seconded by Dave Evans to add goal #6 to collaborate with existing agencies to assess and evaluate children and community needs to the annual report for 2005-2006. Motion passed. Motion made by Mary Bruno and seconded by Dave Evans to add goal #6 to goals for 2006-2007

Minutes:
Motion made by Mary Bruno and seconded by MaryLou Mirino to approve minutes of August 16, 2006 Motion passed.

Correspondence:

Frances Mobley, Executive Director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Community Center requested an additional $10,000 in funding from the County. The past three years have been extremely challenging due to the move. The building the agency moved into required replacement of the air conditioning and heating system. Dave Evans asked Ms. Mobley for a status of the audit being performed by the County Auditor, Bill Ford. Ms. Mobley responded that she believes the audit is almost complete. The accountant hired by the Center is also completing reports for the last year to be submitted to the County. Dave Evans also asked if copies of the latest tax returns have been provided. Ms. Mobley stated that they have been provided to Mr. Ford. Dr. Martin asked if Ms. Mobley had a breakdown of how the $10,000 would be used. She stated that the additional funds will be used for salaries for two new teachers. She stated that the children need more one on one time. She also stated she needs another van because she is picking up children from six schools. Essie Smith asked how many teachers she has presently. Currently, there are two teachers and several volunteers. She is also trying to recruit additional volunteers from the Colleges.

Keith Kennedy, Program Director of Responsible Choices Outreach Center stated the agency has had a loss of funding from several funding sources. He is requesting financial assistance for rent and utilities. He is not requested any funds for salaries because the program runs strictly on volunteers. The amount requested is $13,452.00 or $1100/month. He stated he has received a successful monitoring from the County of Volusia. Dave Evans asked if the committee was unable to assist the agency financially, what are the alternatives. Mr. Kennedy stated that each Board member (7) pledged at least $500.00 each to start with and each Board member would try to raise additional funds. Mr. Kennedy has pledged to donate $1,000. If the funds aren’t raised, they may have to suspend the program. They were in a building that was condemned by the City of Daytona, due to mold in the building, and had to relocate. They have also requested a reduction in the rent from a new landlord, but have not had a response. Dr. Martin asked how many programs are currently being conducted at the current location. Mr. Kennedy stated the agency has two main programs, a batterer’s intervention program, a program for victims of domestic violence and an anger management program. The County supported program is the Family Support Program. These are court ordered individuals who are accused of child abuse that must complete a case plan. The County also funds a substance abuse program. Mary Bruno stated that the Board typically does not fund utilities or rent, but does fund direct services. She requested that maybe internally he could move funding around, from other funding sources, that would support general operation dollars and request program funding from the County.

Carrie Wilson of Healthy Start requests a reallocation of funding for the two programs currently funded by the County, Mom Care and Healthy Families. The request is to reduce funding for Mom Care to $7,008.23 and increase funding to Healthy Families to $22,991.77.

Board action on agencies funding request were pended until Mr. Knievel’s presentation of update of CFAB budget.

Old Business:

Mike Knievel advised the Board that on September 21, the County Council adopted a rollback tax rate. The actual reduction in tax revenues was $34M from the County Manager’s recommended budget and $49M from the current tax rate (last year). Children Services and Community funding was slightly over last years funding taking into account the population increase. Dave Evans stated that the Board, as well as the agencies, are disappointed that the funding increase was not approved. He suggested that it would be helpful to know the dollars available before budget recommendations were presented. Mike Knievel recommended that staff look at a different schedule for the budget preparation process. Dave Evans attended the budget workshop conducted by the County and at that meeting the County Manager expressed some concern about the process and possibly eliminating the per capita rate. Mike Knievel stated that there are a number of things that are likely to affect the budgeting and planning process for Children and Families and Community Services. It’s the Council’s commitment to a strategic planning process for the County, as a whole, and more specifically, for Community Services. The follow-up to their kick-off section was to identify those areas where they needed to focus their attention and the community’s attention and Community Services was one of those areas. This was put on a “back burner” until after the budget process, the elections and some of the urban growth issues were behind them. There is a new County Manager and new County Staff and new Council members are the election. New leadership will also drive the process of change. There is a possibility that we go for a dollar budget request, as opposed to a formula. There is discussion that the Children and Families letter contracts and the allocations that go with them change, to a process that is more like the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health process in which the County specifies more terms and conditions and desired outcomes from those providers. Currently the CFAB application has 14 categories. Contracts could be drafted that specify one of the 14 categories. A general contractor could then determine if the agency had the capacity to fulfill the obligations specified in the contract, or if the agency had to go out and hire sub-contractors.

Other alternatives are being discussed. Dave Evans stated that it seems great effort is being expended in reviewing the process and suggested that the new County Manager, Deputy County Manager, and the new Community Assistance Director to meet with the CFAB and get some input from the Board. Dr. Martin extended an invitation to the new County Manager to meet with the Board at his earliest convenience. MaryLou Mirino stated that the Board contributes many man hours to the process and they would like to know their effort is not wasted. Mary Bruno stated that she and MaryLou Mirino have served many years and they have learned a lot. There have been many issues that have come up and as we look at consolidation, as the Board did back in the early 1990’s, to look at funding through United Way or some other agency that the feeling came, not only from the constituents, but also from the Board that services to children, which is the Board’s main concern, would be lost in the big pot of United Way, or One Voice For Volusia, or whatever the agency might be that might be doing that. And that whether or not this Board had full control over the funding, we felt that at that point, there needed to be a group of citizens, whether it was the CFAB or not, that truly looked at the needs. To look at what the needs are in the community for children and families, as a specific entity, and not to mix that in with alcohol, substance abuse, and mental health and all the other things, this county has so many needs, and to have that specific ability to be able to target services such as teen pregnancy, violence, or whatever would be lost. The Board has struggled with the structure and we may not have the right thing yet, but we have to be careful, in streamlining to become more efficient, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. She stated that the Board would be willing to dedicate time to conduct focus groups to find out what the community wants. One big difference is that the dollars that the Board is spending or recommending are tax dollars that people pay in; they’re not money donated to United Way. A citizen’s board really needs to have a responsibility or input how those tax dollars are rolled out. Mike Knievel stated that Mary Bruno’s comments are heartfelt and will certainly be considered.

Staff advised Board of budget for Children (1,978,597) and Community ($741,974)and funding available in reserve. Staff advised Board that $175,000 is set aside currently for summer camp, which will be 10 weeks in 2007. Currently there is $53,690 in contingency for Children and $15,181 in contingency for Community. There is $5,000 in Community for homeless scholarship.

Healthy Start - Mary Bruno made a motion that Healthy Start be allowed to re-allocate funding from Mom Care to Healthy Families. Dave Evans requested Healthy Start revised budgets with the re-allocation. Scores for both programs were close to the same. Dave Evans seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Responsible Choices - Dave Evans agreed with Mary Bruno’s recommendation for the agency to rework their budget so that the Board can determine if they can assist. Mary Bruno stated that tie funding requests to services for clients. Dave Evans suggested that approval of funding be contingent upon the agency submitting a revised budget re-allocating expenses for services. Dave Evans made a motion that upon Board approval of revised budget to provide financial assistance of $500.00/month for the next three months for a total of $1,500.00. Motion seconded by Mary Bruno. Motion passed.

Mary McLeod Bethune Community Center – Dave Evans expressed that he has concerns about the results of the audit, and the resolution of the tax situation. Loretta stated that they don’t expect the results of the audit for another month. Dr. Martin suggested to the Board that they table the proposal until the results of the audit are provided. Mary Bruno advised Loretta to provide a detailed budget of how the $10,000 would be spent.

Staff provided an update of summer camp for 2006 – Funding spent was $158,000 - served 503 children and 4 special needs children.

New Business:

Dave Evans presented revised monitoring checklist for 2006-2007 with a 4 tier criteria. The purpose of the revision is to reduce the number of items to be reviewed by county staff for agencies that have a national accreditation and/or a successful monitoring by any state agency within the last 12 months. Motion made by Mary Bruno and seconded by Mary Lou Mirino to accept revised monitoring checklist for 2006-2007.

Staff provided monitoring schedule for October, 2006. Mary Lou Mirino volunteered to attend the monitoring of the City of Lake Helen and the House Next Door. Essie Smith volunteered to attend the Daytona Beach YMCA monitoring.

Dave Evans presented the Consolidated Funding Application for 2007-2008. Mr. Evans noted changes to application with regard to the combination of like programs into one Section Two. The format of the application is reformatted to align with the monitoring tool. Motion by Dave Evans and seconded by Essie Smith to accept application as revised. Motion passed. Staff advised that application will be released December 1. Application workshops will be conducted in January.

Dave Evans presented application elements used for 2006-2007 for consideration for 2007-2008. The cost/effectiveness efficiency categories need to be updated based upon actual percentages. Mr. Evans recommended that the weighting of the monitoring be increased; particularly this year with flat funding and no funds available for new programs. There is continuous pressure to find better ways to recommend funding, possibly drop funding of some programs and the best tool for doing that is the monitoring tool. Dr. Martin stated he has a problem with evening of the scoring. Mary Bruno stated that when rating an application the Board is basing the score on what they hear from the agencies, what they read and what they see in the community. She agreed that the percentage of the score may need revising. She further stated that some agencies have been receiving funding for a long time and difficult decisions will have to be made in the next couple of funding cycles to address the new needs in the community. Dr. Martin clarified that he wants the Board to have Boards subjective score to count more than the objective score. Staff advised that a decision does not have to be made at this time. Board will review the scoring process and discuss it in the future.

Public Participation:

Joe Sullivan, Boys and Girls Club requested the Board consider financially assisting with summer camp scholarships. Staff advised that the application for providers for summer camp will be released February 1, 2007.
Keith Kennedy, Responsible Choices – consider small agencies with possibility of funding process that can’t compete with larger agencies. He also expressed appreciation for consideration of his funding request.

Advisory Board Participation:

MaryLou Mirino stated that the board has always supported the “grass roots” agencies.

Adjourned: 7:00 pm

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