https://otter.ai/s/bDoyjxBhRVe1Yfwo9ftALA
0:00
wouldn’t get us a call this meeting to order the housing Human Services Advisory Board meeting for August 13 2020. Our first agenda item is public invited to be heard. Do we have any public to be heard?
0:15
No Vice Chair, nobody reached out to participate.
0:18
Okay. Thank you. Next up, we need to approve the minutes from the July 9 and July 23 meetings. Do we have any discussion or correction on those minutes? And if not, I will entertain a motion to approve those.
0:38
I’m Move to approve the minutes.
0:40
Second.
0:42
Okay, it’s been moved and seconded. Any discussion?
0:47
Seeing none, question is approval of the minutes of the July 9 and 23rd. Housing, Human Services, advisory boards, all those in favor, raise your hand Okay.
1:06
Okay, fantastic. All right. First up.
1:11
Hang on one sec to confirm. Was that motion by Deanna and seconded by Graham? Yes.
1:16
Okay. I apologize. I was turned this way. And I missed the voice. So it’s all good. It was Deanna.
1:23
All right, next up, review and comment on the 2020 Human Services needs assessment report and discuss the 2021 agency funding schedule. Karen as this you or is this
1:35
briefing le burketown. All right. Alberto. Take it away my friend.
1:40
Vice Chair and board me I’m going to share my screen here. I have a PowerPoint for tonight. Give me a second.
1:52
Did everybody get the entire thing read
1:55
all 158
1:58
pages
2:01
All rights
2:06
Alright, so we will move to move through this
2:10
quickly but want to make sure that you all have if you have questions you can stop me. I will say upfront This is based on an executive summary that Karen and I just got and you will receive as well but we just recently got it ourselves and I based this PowerPoint on that executive summary document. Alright, so just a little background for those that are new back in so in 2018, the board decided to align the Human Services needs assessment with the five year comp plan that is required by HUD for CBD g funding at that right that time. And so that that happens every five years in in the past, we have been doing independent That human service needs assessments apart from the five year plan, so we decided to leverage the work that was happening and really align these because there’s a lot of similarities there is also a human service component in the comp plan is just not as in depth as what we did. And so we contracted with the same agency doing the comp plan to do a little more in depth HSN a report for us. And as a reminder, there’s there’s a lot of sources of data in the human service needs assessment. Back in February, March, we were really promoting I think this board helped promote a resident survey we got over 1100 responses I will say that’s most that’s the most that this survey was Boulder County wide and we Longmont received the most responses of all the others, participant or you their agency for submitting it. And they’ve also the other local needs assessment. And of course, they look, they had multiple focus groups, both stakeholders, and those are primarily nonprofit leaders and city staff. And of course, they did one with the board. And also they did several with residents. And finally, I think it’s important to note that this human services needs assessment did take into account and primarily via conversation with a resident from the groups and stakeholder focus groups, information about how COVID is impacting the needs of our community. So I want to make sure that that is that that is acknowledged, we did take that into account. So here I’m going to go through the identified needs, and I’m going to go through them based on our current priorities. Our current priorities, as you may or may not remember, are based on the social determinants of health. The six weeks are using so housing stability, health and well being food nutrition, self sufficiency, resilience, education, skill building, and Safety and Justice. And these also came out of our 2016 Human Services needs assessment, I think, but they’re aligned with the sort of determinants of health. And so when they did the, the, this this human services need assessment, they took into account these priorities in the end and, and some of the data they collected, they associated, and some of the focus groups they worked on, they made sure that these things are brought up. So now I’m going to jump into some of their findings.
5:38
I need to hold on I can see a need to minimize my video here. Here you go.
5:44
So some of the some of the areas in housing stability, what we’re seeing, of course, is that housing instability has been amplified by COVID. As people have lost their jobs, losing sources of income, it has become harder and You know, there’s a growing need for more rent and utility subsidies out, for example, we just found out or a few weeks ago, we find out that the Art Center received $100,000 from the energy outage Colorado, and the city is partnering with the ASHRAE to help folks that are back that have a back pay on the utilities to kind of get them caught up. And then another finding was it cost burdened households are giving up other basic needs and the human they give an example and another place they’ll talk about cut costs Britain hustles also for forgoing dental and other type of mental, mental and physical health care in order to cover housing costs, which of course is something that we don’t want to see. And board you can stop me anytime you have a question about the findings, or Karen as well. So on the self sufficiency, and resilience priority findings, and they looked and they said single mothers unemployed and with children and 500 residents without High School degrees are twice as likely to live in poverty. And COVID is likely to just push these families deeper into financial difficulty. And this is where I mentioned in order to paying housing costs, low income residents are going without dental care or car repairs or other types of care that they need. And the COVID-19 unemployment spike will further diminish their ability to reach self sufficiency. So they said that those folks in Longmont who are already in poverty had an unemployment rate 10 times higher than residents above the poverty threshold before the pandemic. And I think that we understand the pandemic has really hit the type of work that is in person, for example, the food service area, and that has caused folks to fall deeper into finance. struggles on the Food and Nutrition they talk about the fact that more than two and five low and moderate incomes with children and one in three respondents for precariously housed are experiencing or reducing going without food in 2019. I can tell you that in what we have learned during this pandemic, in conversations with 3d food share, they’ve seen tremendous growth in need as well. But one of the one of the consequences of this pandemic is in the past, really food sharing, tried to do and did I think did a good job of allowing people to kind of shop through their to their site making it feel very consumer consumer driven consumer choice, but due to safety concerns. Now folks are getting prepared pre prepared boxes. at the Art Center, the future just to make sure that people are safe. In the health and well being area or priority, you know, we’re seeing an increase in isolation and loneliness all of these these mental health issues because of the need to self quarantine or via, you know, social distance or having a toll or taking a toll and having an issue. There’s also a perceived lack of mental health services, whether due to the lack of hours or just lack of service. And then they say that there’s an estimated 3700 adults that have a serious mental illness in long months. On the education and skill building side, their findings were really primarily around the child care crisis that we’re seeing around providers. You know, providers are finding it difficult to provide the kind of care that is business That allows them to maintain their business, right? They can’t serve as many. It’s more expensive to provide up. And so, you know, their struggles we’re seeing we’re seeing providers closed shop. And that’s also putting a strain on programs like Head Start and si cap. I think what I understand from headstart is their their applications doubled for this upcoming school year headstart year.
10:31
And this is this is an unknown. We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but there’s definitely going to be issues if schools remain online only or just hybrid and online learning. And who is getting impacted by that, right. Who in there’s a lot of equity issues that we need to consider when when schools go online or hybrid. So those are some of the things that we are seeing in education and skill building. Safety and Justice, low income households are renters or projesi house are more likely than others to respond to have safety concerns about their neighborhood. And then during the focus group, they the residents and stakeholders discuss three types of Safety and Justice needs. Capacity Building for law enforcement around engaging with residents with disabilities and mental illness is a conversation that we’ve added this board concerned about the impact of covid shutdowns on child abuse and domestic violence, I think and can speak to that. And then, of course, the racial and ethnic tensions stirred by the federal policy decisions and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and we of course, this board has had several several really amazing conversations on this on this issue. So those are the ones that we that are part of our Current priorities. There are some also other findings that they, they looked into identified some gaps that are not necessarily specific to our current priorities. But we’ve talked about one, of course, is digital inclusion or the digital divide, as this world becomes more virtual, again, in an equity issue of those that have access, not only to internet capable devices, but Internet, and also digital literacy, able to even if they have the internet and the device, can they use it, and then they’ll talk about case management capacity. I can, you know, as as we go through this, they talked about families and individuals needing more support as they work through these issues. And how stretched our agencies are, I can tell you that up to now to recently the Art Center is pretty stretched. They were they were seeing people about a month out their schedule a month out They have hired two new resource specialists will hope which will hopefully help with that. But there’s definitely a need for case management capacity. But that’s not been a part of our priorities. So what they did identify those gaps. And they’ll talk about some other things to consider, for example, residents who are immigrants and the the additional difficulties that they’re that they’re having to access resources, not only due to a lack of language, but fear of the public charge, you know, concern about having to share a lot of information with our agencies or govern local governments. So there’s a lot of challenges that folks who are immigrants, and of course residents with disabilities don’t experience the same level of inclusion and they’re more isolated during this time. And this was even even true before. COVID and COVID has just exacerbated that issue. And then finally they talk about it that the difficulty that residents and stakeholders may have to find information about the program or services that are available in long months. And that’s not new. I think that COVID has COVID has a, you know, increased that, that that challenge. There’s a lot of resources out there and it’s hard to find them. And if you haven’t, if you throw in the digital divide, we’ve made these resources are available online. It makes it even more difficult for folks to find.
14:35
So the human service needs assessment also provided some recommendations. Sorry to interrupt le burketown
14:41
someone I think
14:42
that’s fine. I can’t see if you’re gonna try to read it.
14:45
There was someone waiting to get in. Sorry. Okay.
14:50
Do we did we hire Ryan? I’m in. Ryan’s in. Alright. fearless leader. All right.
14:56
Thank you, Brian. I’ll get you renamed
15:00
The refrigerator truck.
15:02
Hey Ellie Berto, this is Chiquita I have a question. Um, um, as I was reading that, that entire long I didn’t read the whole 159 pages, but probably 120 but, um, they are also was worth discussing, it was mentioning about our seniors population. So I was kind of interesting. I didn’t see that I see that, you know, I didn’t see that on the debt. Last slide. I was kind of wondering why we didn’t see I mean, they’re isolated as well. So do we, what are we why weren’t they on that page?
15:42
Probably cuz it wasn’t either. I didn’t see it in the executive summary. Because there’s more high level and then more like that’s why or I just missed it. So okay.
15:51
I was just checking because I know
15:56
man, so which was very interesting. You Now we want to make sure that we take care of our seniors as well.
16:04
Right? Right. That’s true.
16:08
So, thank you. I mean, I might have stayed high loads, for example, that case management might have included seniors in the summary. And I didn’t I didn’t I just took the reading and not the whole, the whole thing. So that makes sense. So yeah. Any other questions before we jump into some other recommendations? All right, I’m gonna minimize so I can’t see you all. So just go ahead and speak up because I’m in order for you to see, I need to minimize the video.
16:40
Oh, I’m gonna keep going.
16:43
So they not only did they provide, you know, these findings, and they identified some gaps, they also have some recommendations, we’re gonna go through them as well. And those are in the larger document as well. So first and foremost, they talk about continuing education. Maintaining the existing programs and services right. Now, what’s interesting about this and we can have more conversation, right? So, of course, we’ve been doing the housing stability, we’ve been doing access to childcare. I mean, the preparing for provider closures is new. And so as the the the reality of school closures and that impact, but also something new is something that we’ve not done in the past is at least not directly is proactively support employment in particular, because that, you know, that typically has been a workforce. We have Boulder County workforce and that’s been kind of where that that kind of lives in that area. So I’m not exactly sure. I think is part of our conversation, how we how we do this, how whether or whether we do this or or accept this recommendation, only because like I said, we do have a robust workforce in Boulder County doing a lot of wonderful programs. Also emphasise a No Wrong Door approach to human services intake. You know, and again, kind of we talked about earlier, just the difficulty in accessing navigating services is it’s difficult. You know, we Karen and I have had this conversation at the Boulder County funders collaborative, and this has been an issue for many, many, many years. And not and not to say that we we shouldn’t address it. But more to say that this is something that is bigger than Longmont. And we could try and do our part potentially, I mean, it’s for the board to discuss, but not sure exactly how the human services funding piece would fit into this. But we could have a conversation about that. And those gaps they identified so they you know, the mental health piece, they said here are some suggestions. How do you Increase the walk in mental health crisis service like right now the only mental and we were just in a site visit with with mental health partners and they actually their their crisis center is open but it’s in Boulder right it’s not there’s nothing here in Longmont per se and and Jen are what I think Jen Jen did for the the CO CEO did talk about. They do have, you know, phone and telemedicine services to help with this. But it’s a challenge. Right. It’s a challenge. So here’s some of the some of the recommendations they said.
19:41
And I know that we did find out
19:45
that mental health partners did get a grant recently to to create some teams to deal with the COVID COVID impacts on mental health. So that’s going to be really great and we’re looking forward to see what that looks like. Karen Phillips and I were on that call.
20:05
And then around emergency housing, this is kind of what they said. Sorry,
20:07
le bapco. Can you go back? I didn’t see all that.
20:11
Okay, sorry. There you go. Um,
20:15
so this local perficient of 72 hours substance use emergency commitment, substance use involuntary commitment for mental health holds. Right.
20:29
Okay. That’s what the recommended is it we Right. Yeah.
20:38
And then on the on the emergency housing crisis services, they talked about increasing local capacity for emergency overnight. domestic violence shelter, and I’m not sure where a safe shelter is right now. And emergency overnight shelter for families who lose their homes in there, I’m not sure what the waiting list for FAA is. We do have a shell You’re here in Longmont that efa provides but it’s always had a waitlist. So that’s a challenge, right, there is a gap in fit vouchers, but it’s a growing challenge as as families start,
21:17
you know, in this time of crisis losing homes, so
21:21
that was part of the recommendations. Also on the digital inclusion, they talked about marketing. I know and I know next slide is working on this the long month own long month 3d own broadband service. I know next slide is working on this and trying to get it out and they want to you know, they recommend making sure that we can, you know, work with, like older adults, like Skinner was saying and with our families with limited English proficiency, and that is happening, and I think it will continue to happen. So somebody recommendations we’re actually working on already. for, you know, when they talk about communities, a digital inclusion strategy. I’m not sure that’s happening, but we are working on addressing the digital divide. And we want, I think that some of this is something that we should look deeper into. than other case management piece that really is around how do we build the recommendation is to build capacity, you know, by increasing things like peer coaches or community navigator then and I know HHS as navigators. Now, again, I’m not sure where we fit into this, this is a little bit bigger than Longmont. And I think HHS is trying to build capacity. And so it’s a good recommendation. But does it fit with what we do? I’m not so sure we can discuss it. But it is something that that I think we all recognize is an issue in our community, and it And actually the broader in Boulder County.
23:03
And I think there are some of those services. They’re just kind of there are some through human services, some through mental health partners and some through the police department.
23:19
Yeah.
23:21
So, this is not look really good because if I put in as a picture before we go to this any any other questions or thoughts on the on the on the Human Services needs assessment presentation.
23:37
And then we’ll jump into this.
23:39
Not the presentation, but I, the more I read, I’m just really worried about what’s going to happen to our seniors and our families. for housing this winter, I mean, there just isn’t anything. We kind of piecemeal it together but what happens if we Just huge amounts of people that have no place to go.
24:05
That worries me.
24:09
Yeah, I agree within in the the digital divide for our seniors as well. I mean, especially the ones who what happens if they can’t afford their nursing homes or the facilities that they’re in? What happens, what happens to them and then also with the digital divide? The reason why I’m thinking about them is because during COVID, so many families couldn’t even visit them if they weren’t in nursing homes or certain facilities or in the hospital, but if they had a device, like iPad or something like that, then they can actually see their family besides just talking to them. Because I can only imagine what kind of, you know what they what was going on in their heads. You can’t see your family The same people every day, you know? So have we even thought about that, you know, making sure that our seniors are able to see their families across the US because some seniors are here and the kids are elsewhere.
25:20
And just the digital divide is just so huge now. I mean, this for me trying to learn how to do all of this at my age, you know, I spun out for about six weeks just trying to figure it all out. And it’s definitely gotten easier, but it is difficult. And for seniors, or people that just like English isn’t really their first language. That is a huge barrier.
25:54
Yeah, I think I think it is a challenge and I think that I know our senior services are working with that our children, you And families are working with that.
26:04
That is a part of their reality.
26:07
So yeah, I definitely acknowledge that it is a challenge. And I also think that the other part of it is what what is the role of this of this board? And in particular, that was part of why we had the needs assessments.
26:29
I guess I just like to know if it’s not part of our duties to really figure out this way too, people that could potentially be on the streets. Does our city council have any ideas? I don’t know. It’s kind of like COVID in general. It’s like we’re kind of never out in front of it. We’re always behind it. Well,
27:04
Yeah, yeah mister stay silent.
27:07
Wait, you know, we are chasing it, there’s there’s no doubt about that, um, and I don’t, you know,
27:16
we do our best to try to get out in front of it but it’s, it’s, it’s a beast.
27:22
So I would say, you know, I would say a couple of things
27:28
you know, one, certainly we will share this information with, you know, with the City Council and with other staff members that are involved in really tracking the impacts of COVID. They are, you know, we have staff that are tracking the various resources that are available that are coming down through the Fed of the state that could assist our community.
27:53
So, so I would say two things one, relates to the the
27:58
the digital divide So we do have
28:03
next slide on on board.
28:06
And we’re kind of in we’re start. So certainly, they’re reaching out to the school district around the various low cost plans that are, you know, are available. So, so they’re offering and we’ll do a follow up and we’ll send out the flyer to the advisory board members so you can get a list of the services and the costs for next flight. But there are so there’s there’s certainly the gig internet service but they also are offering a lower speed for for a lower cost. Don’t ask me what it is. Maybe it’s like $14 a month or $19 a month. So it still is a you know, is a good resource. But it’s more it might be more affordable for for some of our lower income. Emily’s and so they are also working with the llama community foundation on share the next slide, which which is offers no cost internet access to again to low income households. So there’s a variety of resources that we have put together and marketed to the school district for for kids that are still going to be virtual learning for a while. The other thing that we are focusing on to as many of you know, is that the city of Longmont is is is now in strong partnership with the llama Housing Authority. And so we are bringing in a next slide and looking at a cost for making internet services available at a reduced cost to to the to low income seniors that are living in our six housing authority community so, so we are we are recognizing immediate, it’s very clear, we’re hearing that across the board, just as you all have expressed about the impact of being in shutdown and how that has affected people’s lives in terms of learning in terms of connecting. And we are trying to respond in in ways that provide more vulnerability and, and also have free internet access.
30:34
That’s great to hear.
30:42
May I throw in a question?
30:46
Sorry, sorry to interrupt. So if I remember the process correctly when we’ve gone through this before, the needs assessment really helps us to determine what the advisory board thinks priorities are in terms of community need, and how that will reflect on our funding priorities. Is that do I have that correct in terms of what we’re reviewing tonight?
31:17
Yes, that is correct.
31:20
Okay, thank you. So I think this conversation about the seniors and the digital divide. You know, part of what we may walk away with is also just some questions like Karen just did a great job answering. So I’m wondering, you know, just like in terms of, Okay, well, what does this mean for seniors or something like that? Is there an opportunity to go back to the data gathered and ask for clarification on some of these questions that we may have about, you know, how does this trend specifically impact seniors Or something like that?
32:14
I? I don’t know. Right. What comes to the top of my mind is would it be easier is to take this data and talk to, for example, our Senior Services staff and say, if they can shed some light on this notion and actually going back to the data gathers root policy, but but have our Senior Services staff interpret the data? I think that that would probably be more likely and might get us you know, better analysis.
32:49
So, yeah, that
32:51
That actually sounds exactly right.
32:56
Then they’ll have more contextual kind of information. To help us understand is our level of concern about something equal with their source or additional information that may moderate something for on our side?
33:11
Yeah. And wherever we add, Brian is that I mean, I agree with la barraca, that probably it’s going back to some of our providers to help, you know, to help further interpret some of this data and what we should be doing about it. I think we can also go back to the, to the root policy, because those were also some of the questions that they asked in the, in the focus groups. So here’s, you know, here’s what some of the data says. So what do you think we should do about it? So they might have additional information in their notes that they took. That didn’t make it to the report, because the other part was already 150 pages, you know, so there could be additional data from their phones. groups that that could help shed a little additional light. So we could do both of those things. Okay.
34:06
That’s great. Thank you. So my question was largely, I think process oriented in terms of some of the the clarity that the group might be seeking further down the line. Thank you.
34:23
I have a question. That’s already Diliberto.
34:25
Yeah.
34:27
You know, I read, I read through scan through it, and then hearing your report is sort of, you know, man, it’s depressing, right? It seems terrible. It’s sad. What do we do? And then I’m trying to tell myself, Well, this is the first maybe second one of these I’ve seen, right. And so I’m curious from those of you sort of seen these year after year after year, what kind of magnitude of concern we should attach to it.
34:53
Is this like,
34:56
like a typical kind of report and it’s, it’s bleak. You know, but it’s always bleak or is it like, no, this is actually, you know, like, what DEF CON level? Are we at? For those of you who have more historical
35:09
context?
35:10
I think for me, and I’ll let Carrie answer she’s seen more of these and I have I seen several of these. I think what you’re seeing is the difference in degree of challenges, right challenges for low to moderate income families have always been there. Affordable Housing has always been an issue in Longmont and Boulder. These are not new. But what you’re seeing because of COVID is just how deep the problem is becoming. And what you’re seeing is an expansion of who’s being faced with this problem. Right. So for For example, when I talked to the Art Center, you know, I think I forget the exact percentage but I think like 75% of the people that they’ve interviewed interviewed in the last three months had never used our center services before. Right? And so what this is
36:14
deeper, they’re wider, and more people are being affected by them. So that to me is a scary part. And
36:25
I’m not sure. I mean, again, it might be out of this board’s or Karen, their eyes is I’m not sure what some of the really so deep, long lasting solutions are, right. So what happens if we, if we don’t return to normal for a long time and, you know, food service industry where many immigrants work, don’t come back, right. Or childcare providers if businesses closed and you know, so, so that’s the scary part. To me is just how much broader and deeper and widespread these challenges that we’ve always had, but now are just amplified to the nth degree because of COVID.
37:22
And I would just echo that elevator said it well, you know, this is really actually only the second time that we as a as a advisory board have completed our own assessment. So usually in the past many, many years, we have, we basically have utilized other assessments. So we have really taken a look at the secondary data that has been developed by you know, other entities and, and and really looked at that to help us project Our needs. So this is really the second time that we have, we have conducted our own needs assessment with primary data collection. So but but I think Allegretto expressed it well, the impact of this pandemic and what it has done to people’s livelihoods into the economy. And, and the question of how we just really can’t, we’re not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of bounce back and and bounce back is is going to be a new reality. So some of these jobs may never come back. So so just the, the amount of time and the long duration of recovery, that that we are likely to see is, is is of concern. You know, and you know, just as we were, as we were considering going back And in addressing some of our housing issues in the affordable housing arena where we were talking about putting a sales tax increase on the on the ballot to raise more revenues to help us with creating more affordable units, you know, that’s off the table, you know, and, and when will we be able to come back and, and look at additional resources to really help us address the housing issues. It will be a sometime down the road. So it is depressing, Graham, you know, concerning very concerning in a way that I don’t think we have seen
39:46
for we have seen
39:49
Thank you, Bill.
40:02
So if there are no other questions or discussion, and we’ll have more time for discussion, but I’d like to go through what I, what I what we drafted as far as a, a timeline for our funding process, and it’s gonna be tight. I’m gonna be honest, it’s gonna be a tight timeline. But I think it is very doable. And it is just, it’ll, it’ll just require us to step up a little bit our commitment and what we’re wanting to do as a board. And what we’re going to do is staff, so I’m going to go through that right now. And then we have time for more questions. So you’re receiving the human service needs assessment right now. You received it, and you will get your final copy and final version ASAP. Then I, I believe that we may need another meeting before we release the agency application. I guess what I should start saying is all these dates are arbitrary. I just put, I just I just picked them. Right. Except for tonight’s meeting. Everything else is is up for conversation. So I think we would need another meeting to finalize the priority or goal areas. Which then helped me update the application and the instructions for the application. We really want to get, I guess, the 911 date is it while today, I did pick it, it’s around there. We don’t want to wait too long. past that date to get it out to give agencies a month to do that and then during our October meeting we would need to finalize our funding matrix to more for in two areas, one to reflect what our goals are, and also to reflect the changes in the application and the application evaluation. And we would receive those applications sometime in mid October. And then we would have those last two or three weeks of October to start the review, or to do our application review. And then we’re thinking the first two weeks, you know, we have that depending on how the board wants to do the agency hearings, more than likely there’ll be virtual, which may make it easier, I don’t know.
42:48
And then we would deliberate at our December meeting.
42:53
And then Karen and I and Brian would take it to the council. In there one other January, I’m not sure if that’s the correct that’s a study or I didn’t check that. I just know it’s a Tuesday. Well, you have to figure that out. And then once the council approves, and I would start the agency contract process with Nicole on 115. And you know, and that’s actually not too bad timing. Last year, we started before nice, started sending stuff out at the end of December. And, you know, people didn’t get back to us. So February or March, so I’m not too concerned about that January date. Really where I’m concerned about is I think the hard work is really the prior the getting those goal areas finalized, the updating of the application and the funding matrix. And really for you all the hard work is you got to review all those applications and setting up the hearings. So in any thoughts or questions on the timeline.
44:09
Really quick, deliberative, just, Mr. Chair, can you see the screen? Would it be helpful if I kind of just looked up the questions or stuff for? Are you? Right? Or more word of caution? Yeah, I mean, we’re talking about 11 days it would be to get all of those applications turned around and reviewed. And I know we have a lot of new folks on the board this year who haven’t been through the process, and I’ve only done it once. So it’s not like I’m an expert, but I will say 11 days is is gonna be tight. It’s gonna be tough. And I just want you know, I know we had a lot of great people on the board, but i’m not i’m not saying I’m against it. I understand. That’s what the timeline is. I just want to reiterate as somebody who’s been through it, and I know and Brian and I Others can speak to this as well. It’s it’s a tight timeline. And I think everybody be aware that is as good as the head.
45:10
Yeah, I would just take a moment. Sorry to interrupt, I would just take a moment to
45:16
to agree that it’s, you know, it’ll require discipline on our part. However, I’m also optimistic that some of the changes we’re making to the questions in the application, as well as you know, matching with our evaluation, I think will also make evaluating the applications more straightforward and possibly a little more intuitive. In which case, we may see some efficiencies there.
45:46
And right now, the primary changes are in the evaluation. We’ve made it much more intuitive, much more aligned with the application. So I’m not sure depending on We’re gonna go I’m not sure if we’re going to change the questions much because once once we started looking at at the competency evaluation in the advocate when we realized that the real issue wasn’t the application, the real issue was the evaluation form. It didn’t connect well. And so if you’re reading it and you’re trying to figure out what the question and where you find it, so I, I completely revamped the evaluation to really track the application and made the questions the evaluation pieces much more simple and straightforward.
46:37
That’ll be really helpful over so thank you for that.
46:41
You know, this, this, the thing that I wondering and and obviously, we, we have major holiday season in there in Europe. So
46:57
I too, am concerned about that.
47:00
that latter part of October is the is the time that we have to review all those applications, that that just doesn’t give us a whole lot of time. You know, the the other
47:16
option that we could consider is we
47:22
we give ourselves a little more time to review the applications. And, you know, we hold our funding hearings, that first part of December, the first couple of weeks in December, or that first weekend in December or whatever. And we deliberate in, in our either in a special meeting in January or our regular meeting in January and take something back to city council to end their second meeting in January. And you know, and then might be that We are starting the contracting process, the, you know, the end of, you know, send me that at the end of January 1 of February. You know, we can we can, we could certainly, in terms of the contracts, we can get all the con, the boilerplate contracts ready. So what takes the time
48:21
is sorry, of a bug.
48:25
So what I think really takes the time is putting together the, the customized scope of work for the contracts, we send it back to the agencies, they had to make sure that that’s correct. So there’s some back and forth. And so, I guess it’s really how much time do you all need realistically to do your best work and reviewing the applications. And the trade off is we start the contracting process, you know, a little bit later. So it might be we are hitting that heavy.
49:01
February end of January and throughout February.
49:05
And Karen, I’m correct that there’s no, I guess you’ve answered the question already. But there’s no a hard deadline or reason that we would need to accept on January 15, or no, no,
49:15
no, I think the only thing so because what happens is that
49:21
that council allocates the amount of funding that is set aside for agencies. So they do that they adopt the budget in October. So, so that’s all done. And and then, and then it’s really up to us to bring back Alright, so here’s how we’re recommending to allocate those those funds. So I think it’s really just about wanting to get funding out to the agencies as quickly as possible, but we still had some agencies that we were still negotiating or going back and forth and waiting for contracts. To be signed yet in July, so, um, so. So yes. So there’s I think we might allow ourselves enough time to do great work and really to think through this process, but not certainly delayed to matching
50:23
contracts after agency so that we can start issuing money. And
50:27
just as a refresher, remind me how much time we had last year. Was it a month? Was it a full month that we had, roughly?
50:35
Or review? I think we probably had without going back, I mean, I think we probably had a good three weeks or three weeks to a month.
50:45
Okay. So maybe, I mean,
50:49
also this other my thought would be if we could extend that application review period, that but 10 days and I mean, that would be my just give about 10 more days for us to get through those applications. And just kind of push the rest of the process back. I mean, I know that that runs us and, you know, right before the Christmas holiday for that deliberation meeting, but, and people are in and out of town, but I guess that’s the trade off. So I’ll throw that out there. And, yeah,
51:23
I can do that. I can refigure this to give the board more time around the application review. And also take into account Thanksgiving, Christmas and yeah. But I guess my question is, I still think that, you know, we’ll need a special meeting later this month or early September. So really, um,
51:52
you know, I’m
51:55
finally finalize those goal areas. Karen and I are gonna have A follow up conversation with roots on some of their outcome measures. And that might help that we, you know, we could send out once we get that, that might help us deliberate that good, but we just decide, you know, are we keeping what we have? And we’re just rearranging. are we paying? Are we you know, so yeah, those are kind of my questions to the board, you know, what we have, you know, we have those six priorities. We can always arrange those priorities, you know, in the percentages that we have, you know, are we adding digital divide, adding something around seniors in particular? So all those other questions that I had, that we need to figure out together.
52:47
I just try not to say that I
52:49
think that it would be better to add a special board meaning if we’re going to save some time to do other things like review applications, I’d rather put in an extra special board meeting now.
53:00
Instead of delaying that process, so I think that makes sense.
53:06
I support the extra board meeting as well. And particularly on this needs assessment issue. And it’s a really big question and I think having it a little fresher on our minds for that discussion. So meaning not as much time goes by, you know, an entire month. I think we will benefit from that as well. And I’m certainly willing to put in the extra time
53:32
I had, I guess, I don’t care is going to be out so I rather do it with Karen here.
53:39
So
53:47
I’m good with whatever the group works for, for everybody else. I can make it work.
53:56
So, so I guess, you know, we we have the
54:02
So, so either we’re talking about trying to have a meeting this this following week, or or sometime, you know, September 1 second or or third, right. You know, before the Labor Day weekend. I don’t know people have generally preferences or if you want Nikolas send out a doodle poll.
54:30
A doodle poll would be great.
54:33
Only because I mean, I’m as I’m looking at my account, right, I’m in grad school program now and student teaching and running around 1000 places so i’m a i’m, i’m Yeah, I would love to doodle polls to get the chance to compare often whatever works for the most people I will endeavor to be at. Okay.
54:56
All right, so I think I think Elberta, then we will circle Uh, you know, I’ve been
55:03
you know, talk to Nicole tomorrow and throw and put identify some some dates and and get that poll out
55:12
tomorrow
55:17
that’s basically what I had a listener who has more questions about human services with that. That’s, that’s the end of my presentation.
55:31
Anybody else have questions on the on the priorities and I know you’ve mentioned that to be to be covered that Okay. Okay.
55:43
I think that’ll be part of what we we talked about in our special meeting. Right.
55:49
Gotcha. That clears that up for me. Thank you.
55:56
So Alberto, you can take down your your slides.
55:59
All right. I’m gonna stop sharing and go back. Okay.
56:05
So we’re back to Jake and Brian.
56:11
Brian, are you taking this?
56:15
Jake, if you could still do it, that’d be great. I’m close to my computer, but I’m at still at a disadvantage.
56:22
No worries. Hold on, give me one second just to pull up the agenda real quick because I did take it down to take notes. So give me just one moment here. My apologies.
56:31
So next is the site visit updates.
56:33
That’s right. Thank you so much. Our next item on our agenda, our site visit updates. First is Longmont Meals on Wheels. That is a member Woodley who is absent tonight. So after that would be the in between board member Abbott. Are you able to talk to us a little bit about the industry?
56:51
Hi, sure.
56:54
First of all, it feels like it has been forever since I actually did
57:00
Before COVID hit, I think it was actually the week.
57:05
The week it was the day before our last actual in person meeting that I that I was there meeting with them. So forgive me a little bit if I’m a little rusty, I do have some notes, but it’s, uh, you know, making sense of my own own notes there. The in between provides supportive housing in Longmont. And one of the big things we spent a decent amount amount of time talking about was the recent completion of the mica Holmes project, which is the small sort of permanent affordable housing that’s next to the United Church of Christ off of ninth here in Longmont. And at the time that we visited and they had done initial addition sorry initial reviews for occupancy, but we’re having to go back and redo some things around landscaping in drainage around it, um, they were getting ready to have folks move in. And they were really, really excited about sort of the cross community effort that went into getting that project up and going. My sense is that it’s one of the first of its kind in Longmont, if not the first elevator, so you might have a little bit more information on that. And so along the way they were these guinea pigs for figuring out some of the processes. The big thing that Tim, the executive director, brought up with it. They, they aren’t contractors, they aren’t builders, and yet they were in the position of essentially being contractors and builders here and having to go through things like permitting us like, you know, some of this stuff probably makes sense to people who do this. And for us it was like, I don’t know. And so like, at various points, they just sort of felt like they were sitting in waiting and didn’t know what to do, or they weren’t sure how to keep things moving along. And that what was being asked of them from the permitting office. They weren’t always 100% sure how to do and, and so that seemed to me that that was the biggest challenge. They identified, like they were super excited about mica homes, and all that had gone into it. And then they were like, it’s great. The city was supporting us, but then we sort of felt like we were in this like Limbo place with permitting and all of that.
59:57
So, um,
59:59
you know, A lot of what they said that project has taken up a lot of what they’re doing. And at the time, they were sort of weighing, whether they were going to get another piece of property to do another type of project they were looking at that they had. The executive director had met with some folks to see about that. And he was sort of like, I don’t know if we want to get into this business, but it feels like a big success on top of sort of the other work that we’re doing. Most of their work up until this point has really been transitional housing. And so really having things that are affordable, helping people get off their feet, so they have caseworkers that work with residents in their facilities to help them get have a plan for moving on. And so I think this I I cannot decipher from my notes, I think they said the average stay is about 15 months. For folks there, I would anticipate that and they always have a waiting list. I’m anticipating that that is even bigger. Now with COVID. And that that average day is not going to say in 15 months.
1:01:19
A lot, you know,
1:01:22
a lot of what we’ll talk about as well was that, you know, the caseworkers are there
1:01:28
to help folks access other services, they need them.
1:01:32
But also to help them
1:01:35
I think they described it as sort of, like mindset shifting for a lot of folks to think about, like, what would it take for me to be successful in obtaining like long term housing that’s affordable. And, you know, there’s some folks that have just like, it’s just such a struggle to even get to their to the in between that, you know, Sometimes it can they start out and they just, they just need some time. They just need some time to get their heads on, it needs some time to feel like the rug isn’t gonna be pulled out from under them. And I think what I heard really strongly was deeply caring about residents and what they needed to get to move through, while also recognizing that, you know, people can’t stay there forever. It’s a transitional housing and they they’re trying to balance that of like, what is this person needed? How can we empower them without infantilizing or sort of letting them they didn’t use this term, but like, wallow, like not letting folks stagnate there and really using it as a jumping off point. And I think they really take that seriously. And figuring out what that looks like for each, each person or each family that’s there, rather than say Every one has to be out within a certain period of time. They customize that they figure it out, they help provide a plan and they help that person create the plan.
1:03:07
So, um yeah.
1:03:13
And I guess the last thing I want to mention is that they are they are trying to get better at gathering data around their work, they they do have data, they shared information about like sort of that average day, how, how much how many folks they move through, but they recognize like, they don’t have a staff member that’s dedicated to doing data. It’s sort of like a little bit of a whole bunch of people’s jobs to figure out like what data all their various funders might need all of their, you know, board members need and so
1:03:55
they
1:03:57
definitely feel like they’re hearing that they need to have more data. And they were trying to figure out how to make sure that they get that without, you know, sort of being like, you have to hire somebody specifically to do data because everybody wants data and everybody wants something slightly different. So that that seems like a little bit of a challenge, but also something that they are trying to just sort of take a little bit at a time and improve upon as they can, rather than feeling like they have to, like solve it all at once.
1:04:31
That’s all I have.
1:04:35
So, for my desk audit, I mean, on the business side of it,
1:04:40
you know, I was actually part of their
1:04:46
belief right before COVID. I was invited to a panel
1:04:53
to discuss with their board because the board is going through strategic planning. And so I was I was there to discuss Just kind of what the trends that we’re seeing in Longmont so I know they’re doing that in overall again, most of the agencies are doing pretty well, as far as the business end of it you know, they have to that Dino’s on the board, which is great, you know, my my suggestions are mostly mostly supposed to have some type of nominee nomination process. And I always, you know, I always tell them, you know, think about as I know that you’re committed to diversity, you need to spell it out in your in your in your process, right. If you institutionalize it in the process, it will help you in it because they do have they are very well laid out process. And it does what typical processes do it talks about the you know, the different skill sets needed, and that’s fine. That’s that’s all part of a board. nomination process. You need specific skill sets that a nonprofit board, you know, folks that are good with accounting and finance and etc. And I said I told him the end and think about adding a specific statement around diversity inclusivity that’ll just help you. Even though I know you’re committed, I know that people that are on your board, they’re committed to it. This will just this will just make sure that it becomes ingrained in the work you do. So, so yeah, and they have a good report as well. So overall, I found not any real issues with the in between.
1:06:32
I think one thing too is that they actually have one spot on their board. Ella Barger correct me if I’m wrong, that is for a someone who has utilized their services. So they actually have one person who is, you know, has utilized their services in the past and so,
1:06:50
that board will do so.
1:07:01
question if I may,
1:07:04
your meeting right and go for it. Mr. Chair,
1:07:07
I thought you were going to take us home. Jake, you’re going to take us all the way in.
1:07:12
I can’t if you’d like to, but I saw you pop back in. So
1:07:14
no, no, you you take us you take us home, I’m here is just a participant.
1:07:20
So
1:07:22
what are your thoughts? What
1:07:24
does staff have thoughts on these questions about, you know,
1:07:29
getting diverse representation on a board, for instance, can be challenging or feels challenging, and I think some of the issues that we’re starting to understand is like the language that we use in the application or the channels through which we send it out, or, you know, there are various things that like I don’t I’m not aware, that are creating barriers is there Any any thoughts on resources that we can offer to our partners to help them through some of those questions like even paid resources, like how to evaluate an application to make sure that it does it is friendly to everybody.
1:08:18
So, you know, I know cap is still doing its pro In fact, they just started their Perl one. Oh, I’m not sure what they’re calling it now. But I know cap is still doing its work around increasing diversity on boards and commissions. They’ve been doing that for years. They Belinda’s a new person doing that and, and so, so they’re doing work, no, Rita is doing it through the Community Foundation, doing their elnec I’m not sure what Mac is doing. But, um, but yeah, there are resources out there, Brian. And it’s really, you know, how do we share those resources and okapis getting the word on social media. So yeah, it’s it’s, it’s getting people interested in committed, like I told I told Tim, I think I think the in between is committed and you just got to institutionalize it. You got to make it, you got to make sure that it is always there. It’s not, you know, it’s something that you see and you read. Every time you look at the nominating process, committee says, well, it’s time to look for new board members. It’s part of stuff. Here’s what’s important to us. Yeah.
1:09:32
Okay. Thank you.
1:09:34
Any other questions from the board on the industrial site?
1:09:40
of a common
1:09:41
good.
1:09:42
It would be great if the city building department could help make it easier for nonprofits to do their work. And I’m wondering if we could send them an email to say hey, it’d be great if you could console with no nonprofit trying to build a project, you know, like it’s, it’s just yeah, that’s my comment.
1:10:05
I am very happy to report and I
1:10:11
that we you actually, the housing Human Services Advisory Board has utilized or allocated CDBG funds to, to, to fund what we call a planning facilitator to do exactly what you just talked about Graham. And so, because if you are a nonprofit developer, this is not you know, this is not your your wheelhouse and so. So we have, I think what happened is that in between there mica project was a little ahead of when we brought the planning facilitator on board. So we have to found that that planning facilitator has been very helpful. They have worked with other small nonprofit developers of affordable housing to help them really get through the, you know, that that planning and permit process. So, so, yeah, I have a solution. Because it is daunting it is and, and so we we did put that in place, you know, a couple of years ago and it was funded it a couple of years ago, and I think we’ve had that playing facilitator for about a year and we want to continue that,
1:11:42
um, mask a question as well is
1:11:49
it sounds like they were just ahead of that. Or they were like far enough in the process that they didn’t know it was there for this sort of like ending piece when they had like, some of this final permanent I don’t know if they have actually suspended, like sort of their plans to look for another project. But it might be helpful or useful. And I’m happy to do it, I don’t know if it’s appropriate or if it’s staff to do it is to reach out to Tim and let him know like that this was actually something that, you know, we brought back up as part of this and that you have that.
1:12:28
And what I was saying Caitlin is Tim is aware of this. Okay. Um, and, you know, and you know, the in between received $100,000 from a pot of money, I don’t remember was portable housing fund. And, you know, we we basically recommended that, and so I don’t know if that’s what you are talking about, but I think they have identified a purchase of an existing property that they are that they are are considering versus, you know, developing from the ground up. But absolutely, we will connect them in with resources that will be available to help them with their next whether it’s an acquisition or or construction project.
1:13:17
Ken, would it be possible to have staff just check in on because I, I remember that conversation very well. And in TRG, because there was quite a bit of contention about giving money for a TBD property. So if, like, 30
1:13:37
we, he would be super helpful just for my
1:13:42
okay. Yeah, that’s a recent update that we just heard. You know, so that’s, that’s 30 seconds. More, but I know, I know that. Yeah. So we can probably get that update, like next. Yeah, next month.
1:14:00
That would be awesome. That’d be great. Okay, anything else on the in between from the board? raise hands. I’m looking for raised hands. I see none. Okay. Caitlin. Alberto, thank you very much for that. Next up. BOARD MEMBER Philips going to talk to us a little bit about the recovery cafe. Karen.
1:14:21
We have had you muted.
1:14:28
I think Karen’s gonna say good. I just realized that I don’t have anything on the recovery cafe.
1:14:32
It happened right when the COVID thing started. And so it was a you know, we had to cancel it and it was before they did any.
1:14:41
Yeah.
1:14:43
You know, if Karen, if you’re up to it, we just did the mental health partners and that was a really good one.
1:14:50
Yeah, we won’t do that one.
1:14:54
Or you can do
1:14:59
that. Okay. Do the middle partners so that they stay
1:15:02
steady but Nicole I don’t know what kind of records we’re keeping on these things but
1:15:11
I think that sounds fine particularly if it’s fresh.
1:15:15
She’s good.
1:15:18
Karen take take it away on mental health partners.
1:15:20
So why don’t know where to start. But there’s they’re involved in so many things. They have like 370 employees. I don’t know about how all the rest of these things that we fund but they go hand in hand with a lot of different people and there’s so many programs. They have relief funds, they have partnerships with everybody. As far as like Longmont goes, we discussed a little bit about they have they have 11 board members and there’s one member that’s on in Longmont. So that’s cool. And then They’re planning on getting to more board members but they’re going to go and make sure that it’s diversity type folks so that they’re needing to have those people but they just you know involve themselves in mental health. It just joined the n double acp and are trying to recruit staff with that kind of thing in mind so they have like 20 grants they’re working on I mean, they’re just really involved everywhere and
1:16:33
they have a wellness center and
1:16:36
Sherman wellness center but like we had said the the Boulder County it’s in Boulder and not here in Longmont of that 24 hour thing. And I asked them about, you know, the turnover. How are they working with turnover because Cuz that mental health service is a big turnover and they have a committee that’s working on that and trying to figure out employee engagement so people will stay because I know the big thing with mental health is clients get someone and then they move on. And it’s kind of a problem, but so they’re aware that they’re aware of a lot of things.
1:17:27
A lot of different funding sources. I asked him about if they’re involved with the police department here, but apparently, le Berto told me that they’re not involved with another mental health organization is involved with the police, and they’re trying to work on the homeless, but like I said, again, it’s more of a boulder thing. And we had said, you know, they’re trying to work with Longmont to get a little bit more online help because they realize that people in Longmont don’t want to go to Boulder to deal with things. The other thing that the good thing that come out of COVID is that they were saying they’re doing a lot of online things. And that’s kind of been working out because a lot of times people have a hard time with transportation. So that that’s been kind of one of the good things about the COVID. But it does kind of work because they can do it over the phone and that kind of thing. So I thought that was kind of interesting. A lot of different people. I asked him how many programs they had and but they It was a lot they didn’t quite sewn in on exactly where that was there trying to do the call responder model, which I’m not quite sure what that is. And oh also there was a another Wellness Center. There’s one oh at the hub, and then there’s one Wellness Center on Sherman Avenue, South Sherman so people can go there. And I asked her how people find out about this and you know, it’s word of mouth. And I was kind of confused about, you know, they involved so much and I know a lot of people that are in the welfare and the police and courts and things like that. They find to go to the folder mental health, but they’re nonprofit, and they don’t they’re not a government agency. So they work with other people, but of course, they could use as much money as they could because of the fact that it’s mental health.
1:19:34
Kind of that’s when I got to say, how about you Ellen Berto.
1:19:38
So you know, I’ll come I’ll do the
1:19:43
other stuff that I’ve learned recently. And what we learned in the conversation. So on the business side, what I found was they actually had a finding in their audit around internal control. Now, I’ve seen Quite a bit of audits and, and you know, internal control issues are typically for agencies if you’re if you’re a small nonprofit, yeah, you’re always going to get that finding because the reality is you have the amount of staff to institute the kind of internal control procedures that did not get it, right. That’s if you’re smart enough to do an audit, more than likely you will find it internal controls finding, right, you don’t have to pay for receivable accounts payable, you don’t have that kind of a buffer and agency that size. To receive it. I found that a little surprising. And so we discussed it, and Jen talked about you know, they have addressed it, you know, it was a culture issue. It was just, it was just how they were set up. Institute more checks and balances, which is great. So I found that just interesting. You know, I’m the best. Anybody that has the resources that they do on paper they did they got it. All right, they got all the correct documentation. I mean, of course, their, their their mental health care provider. So all the HIPAA rules, etc. So they had they check all the boxes. Was it though it is challenging the work they do. I know that they just so one thing they mentioned is they got big grant to create these teams to provide mental health support because of COVID. And the isolation is happening. So we’re not sure exactly what that’s gonna look like. At this point. There is a samsa grant, and samsa is the substance abuse Mental Health Agency, the federal grants. So this big grant to do that. There was with the state you know, they’ve been dealing with the Medicaid reimbursement He’s right there was there. I mean, they were threatened to Medicaid spending to not reimburse phone the only telemedicine. And so that was an issue because a lot of their clients don’t have internet internet access unless they do it by phone. Right. And I don’t think I don’t think it was where they ended up on that. But they weren’t able to what percentage they really been expanding their services, just because, you know, their clients need basic need support. And so they’ve been providing phones, for example, and they’ve been doing some other things providing food or whatever, employment services, stuff that didn’t that is not necessarily in the wheelhouse, but like many agencies they need to provide right now because it’s just a need. I found out yesterday and I’m pretty excited about this. First, which are kind of like navigate mental health navigators more than 800 therapists and what it navigators to mental health services, and I’m going to be at hope during during the hope Overnight shelter, they’re also going to be at the same slot. So I think that’s a that’s a good thing. They weren’t they’ve always been at the boulder shelter, but they’ve never been to Karen. You know, they haven’t been a whole bunch of long month, but they’re trying. So I’ll give them that much that they’re trying, but it’s a challenging service area. And and definitely, they recognize that they have they, they have a lot of work to do. I think Jen did a good job of saying that. That piece.
1:23:33
That’s great. Any questions or thoughts from the board on mental health partner?
1:23:39
Mr. Chair.
1:23:43
Thank you, Roberto. I’m curious when you look at something like financial controls, does the city of Longmont have specific standard procedures that you’re benchmarking
1:23:57
against? No, these are So so there’s what’s it called the FAS visa? Or the gap? Yeah. You know the generally accountable and again, I’m I’m not a CPA, so I’m not I’m not necessarily Gatsby, Gatsby, there you go. I’m not necessarily diving deep into the audit. And that’s not my role. You see something like a significant finding or significant deficiency or whatever I, I know enough to be dangerous. And I know I don’t know what somebody sees. You know, the big thing is if you have a material weakness, that’s where you that’s where you get really scared or really worried for significant deficiencies. Just pay. Your key here is that’s kind of what a CPA told me wants to say. You know, significant deficiency is important, but it’s not a material weakness. So, so yeah, we don’t have specific standards, but there are specific standards out there. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You know, the other
1:24:59
thing I want to say Say as they would turn away no one, you know, they’re always going to find someone some way to help somebody as long as they can. The people, the clients can come in and find out about them, but they would find a way to help finance and all that kind of things. So they they don’t turn anyone away. I think that was cool.
1:25:20
That’s great.
1:25:21
That’s great. Anything else from the board on Mental Health Partners don’t see anything. Okay. Karen, thank you so much. That was your first site visit presentation. That’s right. Well, great job. Thank you so much for that. We really appreciate it. And hopefully we’ll be able to catch
1:25:42
Madeline at some point in the future with the Meals on Wheels fun. So. Okay, moving on to item number six on our agenda tonight to check in regarding the discussions we had in July and next
1:25:58
steps Karen is is You
1:26:05
kind of So, so
1:26:07
we just we just saw when we looked at the minutes, we read the minutes and one of the things that we said is that we were just going to bring back and really have a discussion with Polly, who is is not with us this evening. So so obviously what you did tonight is you adopted the minutes from our special conversation on July 23. I believe we has a lot of detail in there about our conversation about equity. And and so I think we were going to just check in with Polly to see what else that she might need from us. I believe that was the that was the recommendation in the in the minute so I know that It would have been the Tuesday after we had our special meeting that you know that council member Christiansen did make a comment in the at the council meeting and council comments about the housing and Human Services advisory boards conversation. And, and that her recommendation was to continue to bring back the conversation about the Longmont Police Department and the policies and procedures as it relates to use of force. So I also happen to note that the the city manager did reach out and have a follow up conversation with you know, with Polly and are working on bringing forward that that information for that discussion with Council. I just don’t know exactly when that’s going to happen. Okay.
1:27:57
I think what might be good here is if Just put it out to the board and see if there’s any thoughts that folks have just quick follow up from last month, and then, you know, I have a thought, if no one else does. Does anyone else have a thought that they might want to add? Or any any follow ups? Mr. Chair, go ahead.
1:28:16
Thank you.
1:28:18
So the,
1:28:23
the complication of the issue has not left us despite the, the month that we’ve had since the last meeting. And I just wanted to reiterate a little bit of of where I was kind of left, which is the, you know, thinking trying to make sure we really thought through carefully that we’re not conflating issues. So for instance, policing is one issue. Funding is another issue. And how are we Typically, what is our expectation for funding? For instance? I think in for me at least I feel like many of those, there are still questions on the table in terms of how do we as a body represent that community in a way that reflects these new understandings and this new momentum and those kinds of issues. I also, I guess, part of the reason that I’m talking about this is because I also think about our needs assessment, and I’ve been having these kinds of conversations on other boards. And, you know, one of the things that we realize, for instance, is that the issues that have arisen over the last three months were not represented in our strategic plan. So in that case, we have a strategic plan that thrives Do we don’t have a needs assessment, but it makes me think about so we’re going back and modifying strategic plans. And so all of this is to say, I think as we consider our next conversation, there may be a, you know, that needs assessment may tie into some of the the energy on the boards in terms of how do we affect change?
1:30:27
Sorry, that was a really rambling way
1:30:28
to say that, but no,
1:30:30
that makes sense. It’s a great thought.
1:30:34
Anyone else have a thought to piggyback off of? Yeah,
1:30:39
well, you know, in the knees assessment, there was, you know, some comments about from low income people about the police. So it’s, it’s addressed in there somewhat.
1:30:52
I thought.
1:30:54
It’s certainly an important conversation as part of the moment and I appreciate First of all, Another acknowledgement of how proud I was to be a member of this board last month and the conversations that we had. I would like to just maybe ask if we could follow up. If staff could follow up email with Councilmember Christiansen just about anything she might need and just communicate that back to us. That would be helpful in Leo have a more in person conversation in this meeting tonight. That’d be the only thing that that I would think because really what we did at the last meeting minutes my recollections of breakfast lunch, we said, you know, we want to see you have this see this conversation happen and also to believe so.
1:31:44
Does that sound okay? Did
1:31:49
anyone else have anything on this?
1:31:54
Okay, I don’t see anybody. So I will go ahead and and move on. That’s okay too. Any other business that we might have tonight, any business that anyone has to raise? Now forever hold your peace. I’ve seen none. Okay. With that. Thank you all so much. I will entertain a motion to adjourn our meeting for tonight. If I have to have a motion.
1:32:24
I move to adjourn the meeting.
1:32:27
Second,
1:32:29
a second. All right.
1:32:31
Fantastic. All in favor. Yeah. Okay. All right. We are adjourned. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. This is all you next time.
1:32:40
So, it all Thank you.
1:32:42
Hi,
1:32:45
everyone. Thank you.
1:32:48
Thank you all.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai