Senior Citizens Advisory Board Meeting – January 5, 2022

Video Description:
Senior Citizens Advisory Board Meeting – January 5, 2022

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Read along below or follow along here: https://otter.ai/u/zqekrcaI6Br-4VSm2G3CtcE5i0w

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Let’s call the meeting to order. And we have prudence myself, Janine, Sheila, Ruth, and David on the council advisory board. And then we have guests, Michelle, Brandy. And Lisa, welcome, Lisa.

Unknown Speaker 0:29
So, to have we heard from Julie or art. Okay. Hopefully they’ll join us shortly. Okay, so, Michelle, you’re on the recognized new board terms. And you can remind the old board term people say 10. Again, Susan, I said, you can welcome the new board term people and remind the old term board people.

Unknown Speaker 1:12
Julie, I’m good. I’ve been renewed.

Unknown Speaker 1:18
We’re good. You’ve been renewed? Yes. And so the terms are three year terms. And I will send you all out an updated Board list. I will do that momentarily. And then Ruth has retained the alternative. Alternate ultimate, not alternative. I’ll turn it position. So I’ll send that out. So then, if somebody drops out, we can promote her right away to three years. There you go. That was the move with me.

Unknown Speaker 1:58
Okay. Anybody is tending from the public? I see no one wanting to be heard.

Unknown Speaker 2:10
Um, should we let Lisa speak first since she’s here?

Unknown Speaker 2:15
As Should we just look at the minutes first.

Unknown Speaker 2:19
Okay. Yeah, can do that. The December 1 minutes. Has everybody had a chance to take a look at that? Shall

Unknown Speaker 2:32
look fine to me.

Unknown Speaker 2:35
I have a couple of little things. I think Martines name does not have an end end. Okay. And let’s see. Oh, yes. Under reports, five, Roman numeral five G. And I believe we use roll as R O L L and start stead of R O L he

Unknown Speaker 3:16
really liked the ease.

Unknown Speaker 3:21
got you in trouble twice on that one. But no. I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you so much. You’re welcome. Glad to do it. Okay, I make a motion that we approve the minutes as corrected with the ease.

Unknown Speaker 3:43
I mean, seconds. And then we have all the business position update. Myself. So our position for the seniors recreation coordinator is posted now and it will close actually on the 14th. Originally we intended for it’s closed on the seventh, but it’s going to close on the 14th. And I believe Megan has reached out with some initial dates to Sheila and Ruth to help participate in the interview process. So we’ve gotten some good applicants not a lot, but I think the holidays probably influenced demand. And so that’s why Megan went ahead and extended it another so we’ll be doing interviews at the end of the month. David Coyle is our new administrative assistant working at the front desk with Monica and Robin and it’s just been a great fit. And so I think prudence has a question. Yes, ma’am.

Unknown Speaker 4:56
Yes. Find out why the previous guy who stayed, what looks like a few weeks left?

Unknown Speaker 5:04
Yes. So he took a position at a company in Lewisville called a lamb A L em, LM. And they do international special events, like the Olympic torch, thing, things and whatnot. And so I think he felt like it was a great opportunity for international travel, and really programming at a whole nother scale a whole nother level. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 5:37
That’s my position update, Susan. Okay, any other old business? Moving on to brandy queen. I was about to ask if I should give a position update about our new counselor hire Michelle.

Unknown Speaker 5:56
Please do? Yes. And and you’ve got a couple of folks who are also offered to help with those interviews. So yes, isn’t in Julie had both offered to help with those interviews. HR for the city of Longmont has been pretty overwhelmed posting positions that already exists that have been vacated. So they have not yet posted our new counselor position. We are waiting to hear when they have that posting description ready for us to review and we approve it. And then it gets posted. So I had let Julie and Susan know that I wasn’t ignoring them that we just we don’t have a timeline yet for when we’ll be doing interviews. So we have an office and you’ve been getting it ready. So we do have an office, we got a screaming deal offered to us last week on a giant desk that one of our community colleagues had available. And so we’re getting that moved over here this week, which is pretty exciting. And we do have some things in process to get the office ready so that when the person is is ready to be hired, we’ll be ready for them. Prudence

Unknown Speaker 7:08
is the salary competitive?

Unknown Speaker 7:12
You know, it’s hard, it’s hard to say because there’s not a position quite like this that exists. We’re the only senior center that I know of anywhere. I’m sure there are some somewhere else in the country, but we don’t know about them that have a counselor on staff. So it’s a tough nut to crack as far as what is competitive, I feel like it’s a fair pay. So prudence, this city does an annual pay competitive survey, usually within a 50 mile radius, but also trying to find like physicians, and private counselors, Mental Health Partners, nonprofit counselors are generally what they can for my data, but then they also have to fit that within our pay hierarchy. So it can’t be that different than then another position within the team. So it’s kind of a two fold look at the position, but also where does it fit within the hierarchy? So

Unknown Speaker 8:25
so, you know, that may be a barrier, because your hierarchy may need to be raised? Well, that that is, you know,

Unknown Speaker 8:37
I’m working on that. Yeah, the other the other part of this is for counselors who are used to doing like 45 minute sessions, right, this is different than that. So finding that really apple to apple, it’s more like tangerine, the orange a more often are looking for different things. So yeah, so this city is usually pretty good about working with us, we have to do some digging. And there is also with this counselor position, there’s some expectation around some case management kinds of work. So it is definitely probably someone who has kind of a mixed bag their skills.

Unknown Speaker 9:31
Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 9:33
So part of the funding for this position is specifically about supporting family caregivers. And I don’t have statistics for 2021 Yet we’re working on those at the end of this week. But I can tell you anecdotally that we have had a pretty significant uptick here in the last few years of family caregivers who need support figuring out some of the logistics of being a caregiver like setting up home care Figuring out how to pay for that. But also the emotional pieces of dealing with difficult behaviors, particularly for someone who has dementia, as well as just the emotional wear and tear of being a full time family caregiver, which a lot of family caregivers are even people who are not full time experience a lot of wear and tear, emotionally, so the new counselor will be replicating some of the work that I do. And I’ll be talking with Michelle this month about what’s our flow going to be for caregivers who come in to get them the consultations that they need to access different kinds of services on our team. So we’ll see where that goes. I can also say anecdotally, that in our peer support program that we have with 10 volunteers, a lot of their work in the last year was around caregiving, we just have a lot of very stressed full time caregivers, that we’re trying to support and carry through this journey. And brandy, I’m just gonna but in just a quick second, so part of the support, and the interest in this position from our city manager was around our work with the Longmont housing authority. So I’m glad Lisa is here. And we can speak with her later. But also possibly invite Lisa back maybe at our February meeting. But we are also looking at how to do some emotional support, particularly in our llj properties. And that is a work that is unfolding as well. One of the things that we have been brainstorming amongst my peer support team myself, Michelle, is about needs and what we can do with having more counseling staff available and one of our big ideas is to expand support groups. Because a lot of people are interested in support groups. And we can serve a lot of people that way, as opposed to one on one support, it’s kind of more bang for your buck. And the power that comes from being with your peers and seeing them struggle with the same kinds of issues is profound. And one of the ideas that has come up that I haven’t even had a chance to talk to Lisa about yet is having support groups specifically for people who are struggling with living in a community setting for folks who have lived independently and have moved into an apartment building and it doesn’t have to be LH a it can be any any apartment building but who are struggling with that community piece with having people sharing your walls and your floor and your ceiling.

Unknown Speaker 12:37
To see if we can get them to come out of their communities and join together in a support group specifically to take a look at you know, how do we how do we make this a better fit for folks? How do we help them engage in community in the ways that they want to engage with their community? How do we help them not engage in the ways if they don’t want to engage if they want to just really be independent and do their own thing and they happen to live there? That’s okay. But we want to flesh out some of those issues. We are going to start we have two caregiver support groups right now. One is an Alzheimer’s Association group specifically for caregivers, taking people someone with dementia. The second is an open caregivers group for caregivers dealing with any issues. So we’ve got older adults coming who care for an adult child. We have folks who care for a spouse with multiple sclerosis, we have a daughter who cares for her mom who’s just got a difficult relationship. It’s it’s a broader caregiver group. And we feel like we need another piece of caregiver support. So we are going to start a group in March. I’m going to go ahead and start it. And I may end up being the one who facilitates that with one of our volunteers. That is for anybody dealing with anticipatory grief. So all of the grief that comes up when someone you care about has a terminal illness. And it could be a long term illness like Ms. Right, Ms can take decades to become terminal. Dementia can take decades sometimes to become terminal, it could be cancer, and it’s quick, whatever that is, we want to space for those people who either identifies a caregiver, or just identify as someone who is grieving that someone you know in their family is going to die. To have that space just to focus on the grief. I feel like our caregiver support groups do a great job of talking through resources and options for people. We certainly address anticipatory grief in those groups. But I feel like it would be helpful to have a space where we just carve out the emotional bandwidth for the grief that is ongoing from the time you hear about somebody these illness to the time they die. That anticipatory grief tends to be kind of either in the background or in the foreground all the time. So we’re gonna get that going in March. And we have just a long list of support group ideas otherwise that we can start rolling out once we’ve got more staff

Unknown Speaker 15:08
Janine Finney brandy, I don’t know if this is the appropriate time. But given that I have direct contact with friends who have lost their home and Lewisville, and their center is no longer existing. I wonder if our Senior Center has looked at any kind of emergency support for people that are becoming unexpected care givers in a wide variety of situations. And you know, whether we if not whether we need to address that, because it’s just heavy on my mind right now.

Unknown Speaker 16:02
So the Lewisville center does still exist. One. Note that we had mixed reports about that. We have always accepted people from other parts of the county and our support groups. That’s another plus, as opposed to individual support, when it’s a group, we can have more flexibility with that sort of thing. And there is a counseling service getting set up through the Disaster Assistance Center. And Michelle helped me get in touch yesterday with the staff who are organizing that to see if I can do some time there. My volunteers on our peer support team have expressed interest, those who are still licensed, assuming that they will want people who are licensed professionals. So yes, there’s there’s a lot of ways we can leave in support there.

Unknown Speaker 16:50
Those and can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I had a little trouble getting started. I’m a real technical whiz, you know. So, to get started, I’m quite impressed with everything that you’re saying. I’m, I’m wondering, to what extent is isolation an issue with the people you deal with? And is there a difference between men and women? And is there how do people find out about it? If you have some older person sitting, you know, in an apartment someplace, probably not particularly informed? And how to how do you get in touch with these people? Or how do they get in touch with you? How does that work?

Unknown Speaker 17:33
Are we? Oh, go ahead. I’m done. Okay, we have marketing and a number of different fashions. So we’ve done marketing on the radio with K Good. We have the counseling services marketed in our Go catalog, we have brochures, which are out in the community, and here at the Senior Center. And people reach out all of the time, because they found us on their own. They saw one of those marketing methods, or they heard one of those marketing methods. We also very frequently have folks whose friends have access services here and had said, Oh, you’re a caregiver or Oh, you’re grieving? Did you know we have support groups, we have individual support. So the marketing piece, I think, works fairly well. What we have seen sort of shift here in the last few years is that a lot of people are looking for a professional counselor, I think our younger seniors are of a generation that are fairly savvy with counseling. So they will call asking specifically for professional and asking specifically for a modality, like do you do EMDR? I want to just add a couple other things to this question is one is, and Boulder County Area Agency on Aging has a couple of caregiver designated positions. And we are going to be meeting with them and talking about how the flow of referrals as well as some joint marketing can unfold, and we can get people better connected. We learned during the AGEWELL strategic planning process that caregivers responded to marketing on next door. And they responded, we met with 10 or 12 caregivers. And they all said why would I call a senior center. And so we really, we know this is a marketing challenge. Um, we also many years ago, we did a rack card that we put in lots of doctor’s offices that said you are a caregiver if boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and here’s what you can call and brandy and I pulled that out a week or so ago. And we’re gonna meet with Erica and talk with what can we do different for those caregivers of an older person who would not think to call the senior center. So it looks like prudence has a idea.

Unknown Speaker 20:05
Two questions, a thank you Janine for bringing up Lewisville, we actually have friend staying with us whose home is gone. I’m with the dog in the sun. So I, one of the things I think you just mentioned was that people would not call the Senior Center, which is indicative of younger people who look at the word senior in a very negative way. So they’re using next door, which is I mean, it’s used by I know, Julie, and I use it. And we’re discussing it in another group. So I think I just want to point that out. Brandy, one of the things you mentioned, if I heard you correctly, is that there is someone you’re counseling? Who has who’s older who has a child? Well, you shouldn’t call them a child, a son or a daughter with some kind of special need. Is that correct?

Unknown Speaker 21:15
I mentioned that in our caregiver support groups we do have folks with with any kind of caregiving situation, and that is one type is older adults caring for disabled adult children.

Unknown Speaker 21:26
Right. And so I’m wondering if, um, and I don’t know whether this is something you do, because legally, the parent has to think about what happens when they die.

Unknown Speaker 21:45
We talk about emergency planning with all caregivers, because

Unknown Speaker 21:50
the legal question whether Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 21:53
there are legal issues, there are medical issues, there are simple issues, like who knows their routine, who knows what you know, happens on a day to day basis. We actually have an emergency planning document that I created and recently shared with Kaiser for research that they’re doing about caregiving emergency planning, and that that is not specific to folks caring for an adult child, that’s all caregivers, the statistics are astounding for Dementia Caregivers, in particular that around 60% of caregivers of someone with dementia will die before the person with dementia.

Unknown Speaker 22:29
Yeah, and it is, you know, legally, especially with adult children, I mean, parents, you know, they’re like 75, or 80. And they have an adult child who’s 40 and 50. And if they die legally, you know, there has to be a legal chain of, I don’t know what you would call it.

Unknown Speaker 22:52
That is that is again, true for anybody who has power of attorney, guardianship or another human being that they’re caring for. Yeah, yes, we do talk about that. And I do point people to attorneys all the time to thank you address those legal issues, if they haven’t. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 23:10
Can I ask one more question? Yes. And,

Unknown Speaker 23:13
David, I’m not sure if I answered all the questions you already asked yet. Well,

Unknown Speaker 23:17
I just thought of another one. Well, I’ve been wondering about it notice the dimensions of the problem. I’m sure that there’s two counselors on staff now. Right. So is that well, there

Unknown Speaker 23:30
will be when we hired the second? Yes, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 23:33
So, you know, two counselors, given the need, it seems to me, I’m just wondering what your opinion is, as far as the need is concerned, I’m assuming that there is a huge need out there for for counseling of older folks. And to to counselors, frankly, I mean, you’re going to do your best. But I, I have a feeling you’re not going to come anywhere near, you know, fulfilling the whole need. What do you think about that? What and by the way, what is the size of your caseload in a year? How many folks do you see in your groups? So Julie,

Unknown Speaker 24:06
I can pull up stats from the last couple of years here. I don’t have this year’s assembled yet. We serve through our peer support program and through myself. anywhere from about 100 to 200 people a year. It fluctuates from year to year. So those are individuals served through support groups, specifically. Gosh, it looks like we serve about a 30 or so people a year anywhere from 40 to 80. Again, it can vary wildly. The total number of appointments that we end up doing this anywhere from about 500 to 1000. It’s a lot in and we are not the only resource so I keep a list of like licensed professional counselors licensed clinical social workers and psychologists who work through Medicare who specifically work with older adults. And we work with SR reach, which is a subset of mental health partners that specifically works with older adults. And we have referrals kind of going back and forth all of the time everywhere. Because if I have a waitlist, which I frequently do, I end up you know, if my waitlist gets too long, which it did this year, there was a point where my waitlist was so long, it felt unethical to add anyone else to it, they’d be waiting so long. I network out with other folks to help people get connected with professionals elsewhere. So I don’t expect us to ever be the end all be all of counseling services for older adults. What I do expect us to do is to be able to fill this niche of folks who cannot afford Kobe’s for counseling SR reach also helps fulfill that niche they have funds to pay for co pays. And they do expect us to hold that expertise for folks who really want to talk to another older adult, or talk to somebody who they know really understands aging issues really understands caregiving issues. We have actually had people come in a number of times here this year saying, you know, I’ve had a counselor, but they don’t really understand caregiving, it’s like, okay, come in, and we’ll, we’ll either supplement what’s happening with your counselor, or we’ll replace your counselor or whatever that need needs to be there to make sure they have somebody who understands both the resources, the challenges, and all those kind of potential issues that come up around caregiving.

Unknown Speaker 26:41
Okay, thank you, that helps a lot.

Unknown Speaker 26:42
No, Susan, how is your mix of meeting people’s needs as far as virtual in person, telephone, how’s that all working for you. And, you know, throughout the pandemic, we had people say they did not want to talk with us on the phone or virtually that they would wait until they could see us in person. So when we reopened in May, we started seeing people in person immediately. And that number has grown kind of steadily throughout the year. Right now, there are some people, for instance, in our caregiver support group who were saying I want to do that on Zoom again, I don’t want to come in person because they’re worried about the variance and the surge. And so we are pivoting a little bit with some of those things. But the majority of people we work with do want to be seen in person don’t care if they have to wear a mask, they, they want that real human contact, that happens so much better in person than it does, looking at little squares on a screen or on the phone. You know, isolation was one of the things that David was asking about earlier. And people have struggled with isolation in a couple of ways. And I’m hearing about this a lot right now. Because I’m doing intakes for our adjusting to life’s changes group. That’s a support group for people struggling with major life change of any kind could be retirement could be medical could be starting or ending a caregiving role. A lot of people right now are coming to this group because they’re struggling with the pandemic, and figuring out, okay, I am fully vaccinated, I am more comfortable socializing again. But I don’t know how like, I don’t know how to find that normal. Again, it’s not the same normal that I had before the pandemic, or maybe it is and I just don’t know how to create it. And people do in those intakes so far that I’ve done and in our counseling intakes here in the last few months as well. People are talking a lot about isolation, and loneliness, I would say that there’s not that I have seen a gender component to that you had asked if we see a difference for men and women. I will say in my experience here over the last almost eight years, there are lots of folks who are really comfortable being isolated, that’s a choice. They don’t want to socialize a ton. And that’s not about gender, that’s that’s about personality, that’s about where they’re at in their life. There are lots of people who do want to socialize, we’ve got a real spread there. But for the people who feel lonely, it’s not a choice. Or maybe it was a choice during the pandemic, but they don’t want to make that choice anymore. They want to feel connected more again, we are catching them and we are trying to help them figure out what feels healthy and right to them. I can’t tell anybody else. What kind of social boundaries around this pandemic are right for them, right, but I can help them understand what are their fears? What are ways to minimize risk? How do we how do we talk through figuring out where they are comfortable to socialize more because they need it and they’re asking for it.

Unknown Speaker 30:00
Any other questions? Any anything else that you’re wanting to talk about in terms of going forward with 2022? I’m just so excited to have more staff. Want to talk a little bit about the EJC? The folks in aging, a couple of the other things that you have taken on, will be leading in 2022? Yes, so there has been an Elder Justice Coalition in Boulder County for what, Michelle, maybe 15 years, quite some time. That group has gotten a federal grant, which they have not been able to implement very well yet because of the pandemic. So we’re still figuring out the nuts and bolts of that. But it’s a federal grant, to train law enforcement officers to understand elder abuse cases better and how to respond to those and investigate those better, they trained judges on prosecuting those cases better. And there is some funding in that grant as well for service providers, like domestic violence. Shelters are involved in this group, folks who provide that direct service to people who are elder abuse survivors. So that group is meeting once a month right now and forming some subcommittees to figure out how to roll out that grant work in the next two years here in Boulder County. So I’m a part of that group. Our folks in aging group has been meeting for about 40 years in Longmont, those are professionals who work serving older adults. So we have real estate agents. We have counselors, we have folks who work in home care agencies, assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities. And we all come together every other month to talk about, you know, what kinds of issues we are seeing in the community together to resource with one another and make sure we’re aware of each other’s resources. And we also have educational programs on topics chosen by the group. So for instance, when we meet this month, we are going to be talking about accessibility in people’s homes. What sort of resources exists for home modifications, and we have an occupational therapist in the group who’s going to be doing the AARP home Fit program. Oh, that talks about how to modify your home for accessibility with with not just aging, it’s for anybody, because we are all just temporarily able bodied. It’s important information for all of us to kind of hold in our minds. I’m trying to think what other committees I’m involved in in the moment, we’ve got our group that’s talking about caregiving issues county wide. And I have shared with that group, our model, because our model for caregiver support, I think is pretty comprehensive. We have classes and trainings about caregiving. We have the financial support available through the respite assistant funds, we help people connect with home care, help them figure out finding assisted living, if it’s time for that, we have the emotional supports. And I feel like our model is pretty replicable. A lot of our resources are free. There’s there’s a lot going on in the community that I feel like we could put in place and other senior centers and other parts of Boulder County. So we’re trying to share that information and figure out, as you know, aging services around the county, how do we best serve caregivers in these different ways to get their needs met? That’s a long work in progress. We’ve been talking about that for a while. And we’re having a meeting this week to really focus on marketing. The other piece Brandy is taken on is really our data piece for all of our Client Services. So you want to just mentioned you said you were working on that this week. But you want to say a little bit more about that. Yeah. So really, the question about data that we have been chewing on is how do we tell our story about the work that we’re doing? So Friday is our deadline for our staff to try to get all of our data entry from last year done, which which may or may not happen in full, but we’re working on it.

Unknown Speaker 34:18
And we’ll get that raw data. We’re going to meet Monday to look at that data that tells us how many people did we work with were experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation? How many people were looking for transportation assistance? How many were caregivers so we can break down? How many people did we see? How did we see them? Was it on the phone, email in person? What were those needs that we were helping to meet? And then we need to look at okay, well next step is how do we have we use that data to actually explain to city council and the friends of Longmont, Senior Center and other community members? What the work we’re doing looks like because there’s there’s a quantity A data piece that doesn’t really capture the stories of the human beings who were really struggling, that were holding through their struggles and trying to move to the other side of them. I like pulling statistics. So this is fine with me.

Unknown Speaker 35:23
So me, as we interview for a new counselor, what are a few things that are probably most important to you, because you’ll be working with this person so closely, what are what are a few things that are important,

Unknown Speaker 35:42
I really want them to have some passion for working with older adults, it doesn’t mean that they have to adjust work with older adults before in their career. But I want to hear that they’ve got a focus there, and that they understand aging issues, you know, there’s, there’s not a gulf of difference between serving younger adults and older adults. But there are just significant issues that come up later in life that I want to make sure they understand have compassion for and are willing to learn more about if they need to learn more about it. I want somebody who like Michelle alluded to does not want to just sit in their office having 45 minute 50 minute appointments back to back all day, we are embedded in a community here. And I can’t tell you how many times over the years, I have picked up clients because I met them in a class here. I was on a trip helping escort a trip. And, you know, they were like, Well, you seem friendly, I think I can trust you and and talk to you about what I’m struggling with. And being able to move kind of fluidly from my office, into the senior center and back and forth, is really important. As well as it’s really important to be able to take off my counseling hat and put on more of my case management, social worker hat, when that is what really needs to happen. And again, fluidly. Sometimes we go back and forth a little bit. So it’s important that they understand boundaries, and that they can have good boundaries, as well as that fluidity, if that makes sense.

Unknown Speaker 37:21
Thank you. And I go back to your data collection. Yes, um, you said you like data, I’ve kind of a data geek myself tell the truth is, as I, as I heard you, you ever saying that you collect data to see hotness of the volume of your services, you know, how many people and how many programs and that sort of thing. You use some of that information as justification to the city council, in part, I suppose, you know, for finance, for budgetary purposes. And I’m wondering, if you then you use that data? Also, do you focus on effectiveness of how some how some of your programs are working? Or do you just did you just how do you approach that.

Unknown Speaker 38:10
So right now, for instance, with counseling clients, and anytime somebody and with our peer support volunteers, for instance, they have the opportunity to do a brief survey, we try to keep it brief so that people will actually fill it out. And it has both quantitative and qualitative questions on it. And all of those surveys come back to me. So the quantitative piece gets captured in our database. And that’s things like, Do you feel like this service was helpful? Would you recommend the service to someone else? Yes, no, kind of binary answer questions. But there are quantitative questions there to like, you know, tell us anything you want about what was helpful, or what we could improve. So I keep that data throughout the year. And that is part of how we tell our story to and we see that reflected in how many people come in and say, Oh, my friend, my neighbor sent me knock on what we have a pretty good reputation in our community. And part of that reputation, I think, is the confidentiality that you might see me in a class here, you might see me on a trip here. And I’m not going to say anything about how I know you or any of your personal info. When I do see you and our volunteers are held to that same standard. Like you. Good question. It’s just great. We do we do that survey at the end of our time limited support groups as well. So the grief support group in the adjusting delights changes group run for eight weeks, as opposed to our caregiver groups that are a monthly drop in. So when people finish that course of a support group, we do the same kind of survey asking about their experience. And it’s amazing the feedback that we get from those group leaders. We have really incredible volunteers, some of whom have been leading those groups for 10 plus years. Just a kind of a shout out to brandy. Many many many years ago, the senior older adult volunteer peer program started in Boulder with Boulder County, mental health partners of Boulder County and the City of Boulder Senior Services. Several years later, when Longmont wanted to start a program, mental health did not think they could support us. So we kind of did our own thing. And recently, mental health partners reached out to Brandi to find out how she does the program, why it’s so successful, and get her materials. So she she’s done a phenomenal job built on a great foundation and is really seen as a excellent in in this way. Um, in terms of the confidentiality, I just want to add most recently Brandi, and Amy who manages our money management program, researched and found locking folders for our volunteers, because they often have confidential material about their clients. And they do work, you know, go from home to a client’s house or, or whatnot. And so we have provided locking private confidential folders with instructions on the cover. And for all of our volunteers who are who are also doing similar kinds of kinds of work. So kudos to them for figuring that out and finding us.

Unknown Speaker 41:41
I have a question, oh, these paper files can do, okay, that’s, that’s a risk.

Unknown Speaker 41:53
Well, that’s, that’s why we’re locking them.

Unknown Speaker 41:57
Leave them in their car, if anything like that is paper is very risky.

Unknown Speaker 42:05
I will say we have been working with paper the whole time, we have run the money management in the peer support programs. And I think we manage the risk really well. And we felt like this piece would just pull up the risk management and notch keeping them locked up when they’re not here on site. And they hand them to me, and then I have them locked up in my office or Amy hasn’t locked up in her office.

Unknown Speaker 42:35
Anything else for brandy. I just wanted to add real quick in case folks aren’t aware with the housing authority. We do have other counseling options specifically for one of their properties, the suites, which has a lot of folks who are coming out of homelessness, and really struggling with just kind of basic needs. Mental Health Partners provides case management to about half of the residents there. They actually have vouchers to for those apartments for half of them in the building. And they provide counseling for anybody in the building who wants it. We also have a group in town called CREP, Nick who have a contract with the city and we’re going to be meeting this week to talk about how that contract is going. They also provide support directly to the housing authority site there. And we think there might be some room to expand that too. So we’ll see how that goes. But I just wanted to again say we’re not the only people holding the fort here for mental health for older adults and residents in Longmont. Ah, you very much brandy. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 43:40
You’re welcome. Great work. Thank you

Unknown Speaker 43:50
do I stay or do I go? Isn’t that a song? Started start saying no, not me. Brandy. I think you are free like Elvis to leave the building. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 44:06
So are we moving to our slate of officers for 2022? Yes, ma’am. I want prudence to stay in Secretary unless somebody wants to bump her off. Oh, Sheila. No objections. I think you’re staying prudence. Okay. So the so you might want to make it just a little more official. Oh, vote. Call for yes. Yeah, just a little more official. All right. Does anybody object we’ll do it that way. It’s easier to count the hands. I’ve seen no objections. I think it’s unanimous. You’re staying Okay. such enthusiasm,

Unknown Speaker 45:02
Secretary to another group to they elected me, Julie no great experience.

Unknown Speaker 45:07
We love it. I would like to see you stay your word, huh? Yeah. All right. Let’s have a vote. I mean, if anybody wants it, I’m willing to turn it over. Can I make money? Nobody’s objecting? Guess I’ll stay. Thank you, man. Art’s not here. So I don’t know what we do about Vice President. Do we wait till next month? Or Does somebody want to step up as vice president?

Unknown Speaker 45:49
What is odd have to be here? And we’re not gonna his absence?

Unknown Speaker 45:56
Are you saying you don’t want to contest it? No, I get that position. Surely you can. You can possibly have it?

Unknown Speaker 46:06
No.

Unknown Speaker 46:09
Thank you. Question about the vice president. Because? Because I always think of succession planning. Michelle, she’s shaking her head. Yes. Odd is the vice president. So then with that make him in line for the President. When you leave, Susan? Because I think that is the that really is a question in my mind, whether that’s something that we should think about as a council. And if I’m wrong, just say it’s okay, Prudence. You’re right. It is

Unknown Speaker 46:49
it is not an automatic built in prudence. And I think it is an excellent point and worth thinking about. Yeah. So could we make a motion to keep art on his vice president, and at least until February and revisit it in February?

Unknown Speaker 47:13
That’s good idea.

Unknown Speaker 47:16
Because he’s not here to express one way or the other what he would like to do.

Unknown Speaker 47:20
Right. I would like to make that motion. Susan. Okay. Second,

Unknown Speaker 47:27
I second that.

Unknown Speaker 47:30
Perfect. Arts, on retainer for vice president. I will make a note to add that back in on the February agenda to revisit and just for that one position.

Unknown Speaker 47:47
Yeah. I have. One thing to add with that, in that is that given that our terms with the board, vary in terms of yours left door, or, you know, my term is up next year? I think that needs to be included in consideration for that particular position. I think AR was the same as AI, in terms of he re upped. And so he does have, you know, two more years that I think we have to pay attention to when a person’s position on the board is going to be up. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 48:42
Good point. And then we get to confirm the meeting, date, time and location. So does the first Wednesday of every month at 10 o’clock work for everybody? Are there other suggestions?

Unknown Speaker 49:06
Or explained for me? Yeah, me too.

Unknown Speaker 49:11
And I’m trained so it’s on my calendar, so it’s easy to stick stick.

Unknown Speaker 49:17
So, I’m the Senior Center is great if we’re when we’re out of the house. So

Unknown Speaker 49:23
yeah, when when the quarantine comes up, we’re all in it to come back in person. Yep. So that’s a yes. Until we get the past to return it. Susan, I’m going to ask you to put that question on hold. And perhaps we can talk with Marsha, about what the council is looking at. And that might give us some time frame about when we might be looking at meeting in person. So if you can just hold that and maybe circle back to that. Okay. So we’re on to where the notices are posted. Right. And currently they are posted at the Rec Center and the senior center. And then at the Civic Center, so we have those three locations as well as they are online.

Unknown Speaker 50:22
Should they be posted to the library,

Unknown Speaker 50:26
we used to post at the library, and they chose not to be a posting place, any law their loss. So I say, let’s leave it as is. And then Annual Report discussion. So, this has been a task that, at times the Secretary has assumed at times the board president has assumed, which is really been about going back through minutes, and notes, and putting together a report from the board that does go to council. And I have generally added information. And most of the information that I have added is what Brandi referenced the data, some data that we’re collecting. So I think it’s to you all as a board is who would like to go and anybody can do this actually is go through the minutes and look at putting together an annual report draft for the board to look at.

Unknown Speaker 51:47
What is the idea for all members of the board to look through the minutes? And suggest which items from the meetings were most important or are of interest before it’s put together and report? Or is that going to make it too complicated? New

Unknown Speaker 52:22
I know I’m a glutton for punishment, I am willing to do it. However, I would like one other person to do it with me only because I have to tell you I am the undertand PowerPoint person. I do not believe PowerPoint should be more than 10 slides. So I have a tendency to compress and say, Okay, this information, not important this information very important this information important. So I’m kind of a ruthless editor. So I think that that’s, that’s quite important. And that’s really the principles. I believe it is. And people don’t believe that they’d like 30 Page PowerPoints. Or what does what do you think? 10 pages or 30 pages?

Unknown Speaker 53:38
Let me let me take it out of the PowerPoint world. And just say, more years than not, the board has done a written document and not a PowerPoint and has not presented to council. More times than not, it has just been an information document that’s gone to council as an information item in their packet. There have been some some years where there was some significant substantial kinds of things that the board has actually gone to council and presented. You do not have to do that. That’s strictly up to you all as to that. And either way I’m was for I’m with prudence, cryptic, brief, it works for me. So but either way, it doesn’t have to be a PowerPoint, it can just be a document.

Unknown Speaker 54:30
So if I understand this, so the report is basically just that at reports, you know, what’s transpired this last 12 months. If we had a real important issue that we wanted to bring to the attention of the City Council. We do we can do that independently of the report and do it anytime that we wanted to. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 54:53
Marsha? Yes, thank you, Susan. I would say I’d like to Come down in favor of both. I think maybe this council especially now that Mr. Bagley, who hates long council meetings, is is out of the picture Council loves under 10 PowerPoint presentations, not long ones. Right. But I would love it personally, because I think this is is one of the most effective, if not the most effective advisory boards in the city, that there should be an annual report, the spoken to council, and I would like that to have one real high level budget page, so that you know what, what the city is getting for its subsidy is in there. And and then, you know, the major highlights, especially the COVID response, and what that you know, how that’s going. Things like the report we just heard, obviously, you can’t put all of that in there. But but but really, the importance of that outreach is is astounding. Our presence in the area, age Area Agency on Aging is really important. And you know, better than I do the rest, but I would hate to see it emitted completely. I like a report. So that’s, that’s my two cents on the matter. So do I have a volunteer to work with me? Shall I go ah, and what’s the due date, Michelle.

Unknown Speaker 56:49
So the lovely thing about the ordinance that governs your work, there is no due date. But I think to Marsha’s point about the high level budget, generally I’ll start writing the 2023 budget in March. So it usually goes gets turned in by the end of April. So if there’s anything that could help influence the 2023 budget, this next two to three months, I think is important.

Unknown Speaker 57:21
Well, I’ve talked so

Unknown Speaker 57:25
yeah, I think that that part about getting in retaining, you know, great staff is really a big piece.

Unknown Speaker 57:44
So, have we moved on to the goals for 2022?

Unknown Speaker 57:59
So you’ll see at the bottom of your agenda, there were goals for 2021 There were five of them. Some of them were definitely impacted by COVID. Um, so I think that Florida or Sheila and prudence, I don’t know if you want to put anything together in the Annual Report with regard to these goals. And then if there are things that need to get carried forward to 2022, I can tell you number five was in my court. And I did not lift one pencil or pen for that effort in 2021. It it never got never got to that level. So that that is completely and totally on me. And I just need to either make it happen, get a new input from you all or get a sense of urgency, a light a fire underneath. So you can look those over, you might have new goals. For example, you will have a new Senior Services Manager I hope at some point during the year and and as my staff said yesterday. How are they going to acculturate a culture right that person to the culture they already have. So I think I love their approach. So it’s not about the new manager setting the culture. It’s about the new manager, becoming a part of the culture that already exists, which I thought was way, way great, but I think that’s true for you all as well as for the friends, you may want to strengthen your connection with the friends, in light of a bad new person coming on board, I’m just thinking there could be some things around that, that you all might be interested in. And making sure is on your plate. So just throwing those things out. Um, the other possibility that’s kind of out there that I think is really important for you all to be involved in is the recreation services department is really looking at updating the recreation master plan. And I have asked specifically that there be focused outreach to older adults, and that we use that process as a way to gather information feedback input from older people in terms of that sort of broad recreation needs and wants. And so I am very hopeful Jeffrey’s near and I have met a couple of times we are meeting again this week. I think there’s some great opportunity there and to prudence point, may may offer some ways to look at reaching older adults without using the word senior. Um, so I think there’s some things on the horizon that will be important for you all as board members and as a board to be to be involved in. So just lay that out there, and then you all can talk about it.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:35
So, Michelle, I just wanted you to know that and I’m going to say this to Sheila too. I was going to use the 221 goals as the basis of the start of the report. Because I think you have to address your goals first. And whether they usually just so that there, there’s a tie back to those because I think what we said we would do during 2021. Marshall mentioned about, you know, COVID-19, reopening plan long term planning, so those are things that I think we would start with the goals first, as as the report basis.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:21
Yeah, I think that’s perfect. That’s great. Do you want me to send you the 2020 report to look at?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:36
Yeah, if you learn I wish you learned me? Like it’s me.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:00
Any thoughts on 2022 goals? Are you? I have a thought. I think we should. Based on what we have done in 2021 2022. We might just say we will adjust plants as needed due to current issues, whether it’s floods, wildfires, what ever. It’s not just COVID-19 anymore. And then it’s number two, it’s not COVID-19. It’s established the Senior Center as a source of information for health issues, which we seem to do on an ongoing basis anyway.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:58
Just two thoughts as I was looking at. So that we can leave that in Produsen. Sheila’s hands. Yes. Thank you. So then we’re going to Coffee with the council. January 29th. I guess we’re offering the Senior Center as a venue for that meeting and probably need a couple volunteers. I volunteer.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:42
Do we know which council members will be there?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:46
Perhaps Marsha does Marsha. Do you know

Unknown Speaker 1:04:54
what’s the date? I’m Michelle because they’re on my calendar. I think

Unknown Speaker 1:04:59
it says are the 29th of February, January. Oh, there’s no 29th in February. It’s January, January.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:08
Yes, not leap year. Hey, wow, look at my calendar. Thank you, Marcia.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:20
What time does that mean start? Nine. And it goes until about 10.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:30
Yeah, it’s not on my calendar. So I am assuming that it’s not me. Let me see if there’s a list in my email.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:39
Well, just let us know that somebody will be there. Usually there are two folks and two folks from Council, two of our council members. Plus Harold or the city manager Harold Dominguez appoints a designee who kind of supports and takes notes. And I think generally that’s it, right, Marsha? Just three sort of folks.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:05
Yeah, um, you know, back in the day, the city manager almost always came. Recently, he’s been busy enough that he’s been willing to hand that off. Jim Angstadt, also almost always comes because so many of the complaints are about traffic. But, yeah, there’s there. They’re the two council members and one required liaison. And then there’s usually at least one more city person.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:39
So I will generally I’ll open the building about 830. I’ll get the coffee ready. And then generally, there’s been a couple board members who have kept the coffee refreshed. I have no idea yet. Whether we’re doing bagels or anything, I will have to find that out in terms of the food situation. And then if we have spring those then we’ve made sure that the two council people or the two board folks have catalogs if anybody is an older adult or caregiver and interested in what we have, and that’s really been it. Um, we have been more greeters and host and hostess role. Mm hmm.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:33
Michelle, so I have an email from December 20. That is the assignments for this quarter. And this says that January 29 is remote and that it is waters and he Dalgo fairing. So I don’t know when it got changed to in person. But yeah, we seem to everything’s really up in the air right now. You know, we were probably moving the Open Forum, which is practically sacred, you know? Because we don’t want it to be virtual and we don’t want it to be in person during the middle of a spike.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:18
Right. So I will email Maria Tostada right now and ask, maybe things changed while she was out of the office, Marsha, so I’ll, I’ll follow up with that.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:30
Okay. That sounds like a good plan.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:34
And then I take it if it’s virtual, there is no role for us. Yes, correct. Okay. No, bagels, and no bank. Shall I tell you, when we were in evacuation site on Thursday night, all of those efforts to manage food safely kind of flew out the window is people kept bringing. We tried. Janine

Unknown Speaker 1:09:02
if it is a senior center, I am available to assist and I’ll just have you let me know Michelle.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:15
Okay, so I have Susan and Janine as available on the 29th if it ends up being in person. We don’t need bagels we’re okay without a shell

Unknown Speaker 1:09:27
there there hasn’t been food in the in the recent you know, since last summer there hasn’t been food there’s just been drink. It’s easier to manage. Yeah, a flea, I think.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:37
Thank you, Marcia. Thanks. That’s good.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:43
Doughnuts.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:46
Any other things under new business? Reports supervisor I would just say that we were an evacuation site. Thursday night we had between 30 and 40 people, not everyone checked in which was fine. Boulder County Sheriff’s Department had an officer on site the entire time. That was great. Robin from the front desk, Erica or marketing person, Brandy. And Megan were the staff that were here helping. Karen Rodney Harold Dominguez, my boss and the city manager were here. And Mayor, John Peck was here. And so the Meals on Wheels totally came through. They were fabulous. Charles helped, we warmed up meals, and we were able to give folks a hot, either lunch or dinner, or both, depending on how long they stayed. We were initially we only had one small family group that came from another fire about 11 in the morning. And they last when they were able to go back home. And so we were sort of in this low. And then of course, the marshal fire really blew up. And that is the bulk of the folks who came and stayed. Then from that point on, they were all from the marshal fire. We were able to set up rooms, we were able to give family groups, private, almost separate spaces, we were able to accommodate the dogs, the cats that came we were inundated with offers of assistance. And off those offers of assistance came even before the website was up and going directing people where to go. I mean, it was just so heartwarming to see what those responses were were quick, and, and tangible and real. And at one point during the evening, pizza delivery showed up. And we were like we didn’t order pizza. And the guy was like somebody ordered it and paid for it. And like gave us the pizza boxes. So that was very nice. And we made sure people had had the have that. So I would say I’m very glad we had the team on board. They are pack ended up working the whole day, the whole afternoon and evening in the kitchen helping Charles at Meals on Wheels, which was great. So it unfolded quickly, very, very quickly. And I don’t think that’s across the board. It’s just things were changing so rapidly, as we all know. Now in hindsight, so we closed at eight o’clock Thursday night, we assisted people and trying to safely get to Lafayette to the overnight shelter. We redirected any of the donations that had come in that we were unable to redirect earlier. And And now today, and because it was a holiday weekend, we had over 100 messages from people Friday, Saturday and Sunday with offers and so now the staff and fabulous volunteer we’ll be making callbacks to those people to make sure that they got connected with the boulder OEM side or wherever that needed to happen. So from my perspective, one of the new things that I thought was really a great use of technology. And you all know I’m not the most tech savvy person was folks who had offers of shelter and encouraging them to just get established as an Airbnb was a great I think use of technology and available

Unknown Speaker 1:14:34
programming, you know, so folks, as the hotel rooms became less available, I thought that was that was new, different from the flood eight years ago, nine years ago now. So yeah, forums are printed sorry.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:50
Um, so Airbnb, you know, most of those are free because they have a disaster program. However, the folks that have stayed with us with excellent insurance. And they will be leaving us some time because what their insurance company did was look at Airbnb. And there was an Airbnb in Lawrenceville. Well, who’s coming to look and feel left the national that we’ll be going to, if you only $9,000 per month to Airbnb,

Unknown Speaker 1:15:26
not be that will not be what I lost your audio made.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:34
It’ll be much less Oh, great. Right who in the United States, so I want to go to Lewisville, Colorado. So that’s an interesting

Unknown Speaker 1:15:43
thing that companies are using at the end.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:49
Yeah, that that popped up in the course of the of the day and evening and because we were working with folks trying to get some people into hotels and working with Boulder County OEM. And so I just that to me, that was a new thing, not necessarily used a nine years ago. So for folks, so that. And then just relative to that, we’re just available for the Disaster Assistance Center. And as the county, long term work begins, I’m sure we’ll see the city not just Senior Services, certainly our utility folks, our fireplace, everyone’s jumped in, we’ll be helping. So that that sort of derailed a few things for many people. But I’m really glad we were able to respond. We’re working on the March April May newsletter kind of as has been discussed. It’s this mixture of online and in an in person. And we’ll continue to look at programming both ways. And respond. We are probably equally getting as many folks who want to do things in person, as folks who certainly in the last several weeks have said you’re not doing enough safety wise, we really had to really crack down on some folks relative to mask wearing, which had not been an issue prior previously. But in the last several weeks, especially before the holidays, folks were getting a little bit more come complacent about not wearing them. And so kind of double down on that. And things have been folks have been much more compliant. We have staff positions, we’re going to be filling. So moving that forward. We do have a trip scheduled to France, the end of April in the first week of May. So we’re watching Europe very carefully. And so well, we’re paying attention to that. Our outdoor programs, of course, golf, softball, there’s no hiccups in those programs, really because they’re outdoors, I think and so that’s moving forward. And I think that’s it from me. I do want to just know, Susan, before you get to the end of the meeting to make sure we loop Lisa back in as she could give an update on li ha maybe at the end of the reports, or you can give her some specific things you’d like her to address if she were to come back in February. From the Housing Authority. Any questions I’m sure I’m forgetting things, but I’m cleaning my office, you’ll be happy to know I’m starting to make my shred piles. So.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:13
Here’s Lisa.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:15
Lisa, anything you want to say would you like to come do a presentation in February or?

Unknown Speaker 1:19:20
Sure I would love to. Um, I just want to thank Michelle, the partnership with long month and your services has been great for lmha this year. I’ve really seen the impact it’s made on the residents and then having her staff and all the resources have been just very helpful.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:42
We have a joint meeting and the 20th with Lisa staff and our supportive services staff and that might be kind of family so we could include that in if you want to come back in February we could talk about kind of what our teams have identified as some areas of continued work. As a possibility

Unknown Speaker 1:20:03
that sounds great

Unknown Speaker 1:20:08
that anybody have any questions or anything they want to know about going on with la ha, I know it’s been a crazy year this past year.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:18
You’ve probably had to pivot just as much as the senior centers had to pivot. Marcia, like March?

Unknown Speaker 1:20:27
Yeah, I, this may not be in your wheelhouse Lisa, but the council is saying, When are we going to build stuff? If you know, so, anything you can say about? You know, we’ve got all this land banked up. And we’ve got money. And we’re extremely eager to see the plans.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:50
Yeah, well, we are working the slow. Well, we have to start village place first. So actually, we have our kickoff meeting on Thursday for the recertification and the remodel of village place. So we’re going to meet with the residents and just start that. And then over the next couple months, we’re going to be inspecting quite a few of the properties, including her son in the lodge to get them out of the current program they are in and make them the actual vouchers. And I think that’s our first steps into going forward and then looking into those new developments with the land on Hoeber and other areas throughout Longmont but we really need to get village place started. So that that’s our our first thing and we do our kickoff on this Thursday.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:32
Because of the impending remodel, are there vacancies in in in all of those existing sites that are not being filled?

Unknown Speaker 1:21:42
No, we are filling them. And once we have a set date for construction will notify all residents and incoming residents of these remodels. So village place depending on where we’re at with COVID may be similar to as the meadows where we have the residents go to the hotel for a couple weeks. If COVID is not impacting the remodel, then we will do the remodeling as they are still in their unit. We will help them pack up keep everything in the living room, move everything to one side, do what needs to be done, move the bedroom stuff to the living room and move it back and forth every day. So

Unknown Speaker 1:22:17
Okay. And is is the reason why the the buildings building planning for the new sites can’t go on in parallel with the remodels. Is it? Is it just organizational capacity? Or is there some obscure HUD rule that prevents it?

Unknown Speaker 1:22:40
Part of it is staffing and trying to get everybody in the right place with we have quite a few people with the city who are retiring this year. And so as we’re kind of taking on more responsibilities and new roles and try to hire for open positions, it will come. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:02
And I just want to add I think Lisa has done a phenomenal job with her team and getting existing units existing apartments filled as quickly as possible. It has been so exciting to see weightless open up and people moving in. She and her team have done a really, really great job. And that doesn’t take away from what Marsha is saying, which is we need more. And I know that’s that’s definitely on the docket. But it’s really great to see the existing units getting filled. So

Unknown Speaker 1:23:37
it really is and we are all so proud of the turnaround that has happened with the existing LH a properties and and overall I think how how, how much more orderly and contented the residents are. So all of that is great thing. And you know, it’s it’s my mantra that on all this stuff, we must go faster. So that’s always going to be what I say you know, same line Climate Change Response must go faster. And yeah, so you guys are doing a great job but I want to see some new units in the worst way.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:20
Me too. I come from the development background. So I love seeing those new projects get off the ground. One. One thing I do want to point out that you guys might want to spread the word on is on January 28. We are opening our section eight waitlist which has not been opened in a couple years. So it is posted on our LSJ website that we are opening that and we will be taking applications via email and in person that day.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:44
I am always confused. These are not tied to units right. These are just section eight vouchers in your gift as it is correct. Okay, and that’s January 28. Correct. Excellent. Thank you. Please say is there, can you give me any estimate, as far as the section eight vouchers, if someone is lucky enough to be drawn in that lottery? What is the average wait time for a person who’s approved for Section Eight housing to actually get a place?

Unknown Speaker 1:25:31
Well, with this new waitlist we’re doing, we’re only going to take up about the amount of people that we were able to service it a year. And our goal is to open the waitlist every year going forward. So people are not sitting for three to four years and going stagnant. So

Unknown Speaker 1:25:45
we’re hoping they can do

Unknown Speaker 1:25:48
80 And hopefully to get them all in housing the same year that they’re put on the list.

Unknown Speaker 1:25:52
Okay, so with within a year, because that is very common question, when we’re doing section eight applications.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:01
Correct. And, like I said, previously, we haven’t started fresh every year. But that is our goal going forward is only taking the amount of people that we know we will be able to accommodate in a year. And how many would that be? On average? We’re still working on our numbers. We have a meeting next week, but we’re thinking probably 50 to 80.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:26
Thank you Do you have diversity and inclusion goals in the waitlist?

Unknown Speaker 1:26:42
Sorting,

Unknown Speaker 1:26:43
I guess is best way to say no. And when we do our to take the waitlist there, everybody is assigned a random number. And it’s all computerized through a HUD system on how the waitlist is selected.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:57
Okay, thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:05
So, will you come back after your meeting to our meeting next month? Yes, they were perfect. So I think if you want to go or if you want to stay, you’re welcome. But I think we’re up to Marsha. Thank you, Lisa.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:23
You’re welcome.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:25
Oh, okay. I have one thing from the beginning of the meeting, and I’m not sure I remember what it was. But this is what I think it was because we kind of touched on it. A lot of people are opening their homes, to fire refugees. And I am getting questions and having a side dialogue with Susan Spaulding because there are people who are fearful as I am now of not being able to get people to leave. And you know, there’s a serious problem with people who are brought in at guests that are calling themselves tenants and refusing to leave without an eviction. So I am in a dialogue with Susan Spaulding, but I’m going to raise this issue with Airbnb as a possible solution to that. And see what see what she has to say about that from a legal standpoint. But people should should be aware that there is some risk of doing associated with doing that. I hate to say it, but you know, there it is. And especially for our older residents, many of whom do have spare rooms. You know, it’s a risk.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:59
So Marsha Susan Spalding is the city attorney.

Unknown Speaker 1:29:03
She is the mediator. She is an attorney. But she doesn’t practice law. She she does. She’s the lead of a mediation team and she has one or two staff members and a team of trained volunteers in mediation, and that’s all study subjects, although I would say 80% of what she does is landlord tenant disputes. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:29:30
So Marsha, I think is the Longmont Office of Emergency Management. As we have a meeting next Wednesday. We’re also working with Jocelyn Fankhauser, who’s the shelter and mass care person for Boulder County Office of Emergency Management. Those folks need some long term case management, possibly, and we should make sure we’re connecting up with them. So maybe you and I or Susan and I we could talk offline or Or maybe she’s already, you know, involve them. But

Unknown Speaker 1:30:04
could you repeat the name that you give?

Unknown Speaker 1:30:07
Jocelyn Fankhauser. And I’m happy to send you her contact, that she is that Boulder County Housing and Human Services, emergency management planner is in charge of shelter and mass care. And she may have some ideas or resources. I think that’s probably something that falls under the longer term case management. But, Susan, we could talk about that. We could Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:30:41
Could you also send me her name for the minutes? You’re on mute. Michelle. Oh, yes, I will send that to you. And me too.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:03
Okay. We’ll do anything else, Marsha. Oh, Lisa.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:13
I just want to add a quick thing in for the marshal fire, I actually have a meeting at 12 o’clock with Boulder County Housing, where we are developing a list of emergency places to live Longmont Housing Authority will have three units listed for emergency housing for seniors only. We’ve gotten special permission through the disaster program and chappa to do that, but we will have a master list for seniors. And Michelle will touch base with you after that meeting.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:40
That’s great. That’s really good to know. Um, the other thing to know, is about council meetings in the open forum. Where we’re not sure it’s going to happen on the 18th we thought it was important for it not to be virtual. So the plan had been to hold it with everyone masked in Stuart auditorium, the Council on the stage, so as to be socially distanced than they could be unmasked, so that you know, we were compliant with Americans with disabilities, but we have not been when we were meeting in person. But now we’re thinking that maybe that’s too dangerous because it’s coming at, you know, essentially the predicted peak of the Omicron spike where the graph is still almost going straight up at this point. So anything you may have planned for you know, put a tentative on it because in terms of the council activities, regular meetings or virtual and anything that’s in person we just don’t know. That probably includes coffee with council

Unknown Speaker 1:33:06
that pretty much cover the City Council Report Marsha.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:09
Yeah, I think so. Um, the will probably have have the agenda online. Tomorrow. There’s some stuff out there in the public portal, but I have no understanding that it’s final at this point. So nothing really to to say. So moving on to the Area Agency on Aging, Janine. Hey, um, the caregiving agendas was pretty much covered by Brandy, in terms of what’s happening, what’s going on and what the goals are, I will mention that long run program was listed kind of as a role model program. So it is recognized that they are far ahead and beyond of anyone. recruitment for 2022. There are two at large board member positions that are available if anybody is interested. The applications are still being accepted through the seventh. So there’s two days and you can go online and fill out the application and I would certainly encourage anyone that’s interested to to apply. As far as agenda items the homestead exemption is issue they’re pushing to say that and obtain fair Means of Assessment to keep this program going and not have it eliminated. Senior Day at the capitalization is scheduled and they’re asking all people to write letters to their representatives pushing through this issue. There was a presentation by Angel bond from mobile access for all its program for seniors, and disabled, as well as youth. Public funding has actually been obtained. There via is giving technical advice as well as community part partners that are focusing in groups. They did have an Open House to discuss needs and access and cost right now, even though they have the funds, they do not have enough resources, and they do not have enough drivers to really pursue this program at the speed that they would like to. They are in the process though of scheduling the workshop RTD of flex ride was discussed as an on demand the option. Lafayette has actually had a pilot program going that transports bets to both the Aurora medical facility as well as Cheyenne that has had very very positive effects, and fleets or partner shipping with doing partnerships with each other. In order to make these programs happen with RTD. We had a presentation from Boulder legal services by bread. He discussed what is available for family housing issues, public benefits, consumer law services, it is for low income people and low income as defined of 125%. Of what is designated as low income. Also rigid some justice is available for the community at low cost. If you don’t qualify for access through Boulder County legal services, current fees are 125 to 140 $5 an hour, there are grants that are available for those over 60

Unknown Speaker 1:38:29
and Rocky Mountain legal services that assist with wills, estates, and bankruptcy income. It’s interesting to note that 80% of Boulder County’s income is $55,000 a years. So there are a lot that do not qualify. But the low income for those over 60 at the low price of 125 to 145 an hour is at least a help or an assistance for those that make greater than $55,000 a year that seems like a lot of money to some that in today’s world. It’s hard to have legal services making that amount of money. So our next meeting is actually on Friday. And I’ll have more to report at that time for next month. Yeah, sure.

Unknown Speaker 1:39:34
Yeah, I just want to add to what Janine said, Boulder County or agency on aging, have the opportunity to apply for Senate Bill 290 money and they kind of open that up to various agencies throughout Boulder County to apply. And so I submitted some requests for you Dog exercise area at some of the Longmont Housing Authority properties, a pickle ball additional personal assistance money. And so we’re we’re hoping that as the state disseminates the Senate Bill 290 money, which I think they anticipate at being around 15 million, that those funds are going to make their way to Boulder County. I am not sure if they’re going to do any adjustments now because of the marshal fire. I’ll be curious to see. We know older adults are often most most difficult situations are hardest hit are often older people, but that was through the Boulder County or agency on aging in the State Senate Bill 290. So stay tuned. I guess for that I apologize. I didn’t mention that earlier.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:00
You know, Michelle, I was talking to me yesterday about my friend that lost her home is senior, but is still working as is her husband and we were able to find her temporary housing. But Amy told me that the Affordable senior housing facility and now I can’t remember the name of it, in Lafayette has just recently opened. And so I have encouraged my friend to go ahead and make application because many of the housing situations for people are going to be temporary or short term and want to make sure that they know that there is some affordable senior housing available for them to go ahead and apply for.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:01
And it sounds like that might be what Lisa had referenced in terms of meeting with the county and three units in LA ha So yeah, probably more to come on that for sure. Right. Thank you, Jimmy are up to the friends. And the new business for them is they have brought on some new board members. They’ll vote on positions at their annual meeting, which I encourage everybody to attend Tuesday, January 25, three o’clock, and they’ll go over accomplishments for the year etc. It will be important to RSVP so that you get sent the Zoom link. invitations will be going out this week. Postcard invites go to every donor and and then I asked for some city leadership as well as you all to be invited. So hopefully you’ll be able, as Susan said to attend, but you do have to RSVP so you get the Zoom link.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:21
So we can move on down to the Longmont Economic Development Partnership. Julie.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:32
As far as I know, I had not been contacted by anybody about those meetings. So still waiting to hear. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:43
I, I actually talked to them personally, and they have your email and had told me that they had sent an invite, and I will call them again.

Unknown Speaker 1:43:58
Yeah, sorry. I haven’t seen anything so.

Unknown Speaker 1:44:01
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:44:06
And, David, have you had a meeting that you have attended for sustainability? Since we last met?

Unknown Speaker 1:44:13
No, there has been no meeting. I did however call. I’m not sure I’m pronouncing this right, Tara at the Community Services Department. And the reason I called was because I was a little confused as to organizationally where everything fit and I’m I’ll I’ll explain what they told me and maybe all of you know all this, but I didn’t and so that’s why I called the I didn’t know that there was a separate sustainability advisory board that reports the Gibbs their findings recommendation directly to the city council, as distinct from the sustainability coalition. And that’s the part that was a little confusing to me, because I couldn’t quite figure out how it was organized to tell the truth. So I talked to her at some length. And I won’t go into everything. But as I understand it, you can correct me if I’m wrong. The coalition kind of evolved from the community with the help of community services that sounds like. And so it’s kind of a joint effort. It’s kind of a symbiotic type of relationship. I think these this, I was surprised that there was not a chair of the coalition. Well, that’s because the city staffs of all of the activities, they put the agendas together, and all of that. So that’s the part I didn’t understand. And so now I have a better understanding of how it works. And then the other thing is how to how to recommendations flow? Or how do we communicate back and forth. And again, you probably know all this. But it works both ways, according to a Tara. And if we have something that we feel strongly about environmental, environmentally, and how the environment may affect elders, we can certainly make recommendations. And, you know, through the board to the city console, or it works the other way to just on an informational basis. So the information comes primarily from the city, to the coalition to the liaison, and then to you folks as a way I understand it. So anyway, that’s the flow of things. If you didn’t understand that, I hope I, I explained it clearly. But it’s a good organization. I’m impressed with everything that they’re doing. But in a way, that’s what I’ve got to report.

Unknown Speaker 1:47:14
And engaging caring communities. Janine, did you want to say are you at the last meeting?

Unknown Speaker 1:47:21
I think Marsha had her hand up test. Oh, sorry. Yes. My I was just I think that in the past, our liaison function from this board to sustainability has been to the sustainability Advisory Board, which has official standing with the city as the sustainability coalition does not. So even though Lisa and her group staff the sustainability coalition, it’s it’s not a sanction board. It’s something that the sustainability put together as a community organization to allow more people to be involved. And they meet I think quarterly, right. Yes. Yeah. But But, David, I think you want to get on the invitation list for the sustainability and buyer advisory board as the senior liaison.

Unknown Speaker 1:48:17
Okay. On the Okay, the poker, the advisory board. All right. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:48:21
I think so. Isn’t that how we’ve done it in the past? And, you know, I don’t I’m not sure. I, I, how I ended up when I became the representative. I just, I started getting notified. I don’t know who notified them. I did not, but somebody did, because I got the invites to the quarterly meeting. And those meetings are also open to the public. And they do accept input from the public and any questions or concerns that I had or reports that I made? Were as a result of attending those meetings and just reporting on what happened, Dave?

Unknown Speaker 1:49:18
So I believe Janine and then David, we’re replacing Jack Bell chin ski as our representatives so on that advisory board for the community advisory board, so now I’m a little confused so

Unknown Speaker 1:49:38
yeah, it get Jack definitely was on the sustainability advisory board. Right. I’ll be happy to email a Tara and and let her know that David is now the man Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:50:01
Thanks. Okay. Now, last committee engaging caring communities. Were you there? Janine? Yes, you were?

Unknown Speaker 1:50:18
Well, I said, Yes, I was, um, you know what I would report about that, because I, I sometimes get a little confused in terms of the process, but the process is that this website has been developed and is being implemented and does consist of, correct me if I’m wrong, Susan, over 300 participants, and that people are going to be able to go on this website, and access all, you know, all in every need they could possibly have. I still continue to voice concern about confidentiality issues, and who has access to this information. But I think that, that the system has been enabled now, whether they’re starting to use it or not. I don’t really know there hasn’t been a date when it was going to be implemented exactly. But they’ve created the system. And maybe they’ve created the system, and then they’re going to address all these other specific concerns. As time goes on. They did decide that they wanted to continue having our input. And I’ve, I’ve agreed to do that. So we will be meeting again, virtually the end of this month. And I’ll I’ll continue to ask questions and about concerns and and how it’s this is one of my biggest concerns is that it’s very tech oriented. And I don’t know how computer friendly, it’s going to be for the average person. So Susan, what is your input about that? Because those things that I focus on?

Unknown Speaker 1:52:44
Well, we spend a lot of time addressing what we call things and how people will understand the glossary, because we said, you know, I reveal myself, well, you know, we need to know if you’re male or female, we need to know if you’re senior, some basic things. So let’s go back to calling it things that people understand. We talked a lot about that. They have color coded the website. So people who are responding can see if it’s the person who is themselves requesting information, or somebody is requesting it for another person. They have a basic skeleton that they’re going to be, you know, implementing with some people. And it seems like, according to what I heard, the driving factor is Harold Dominguez, the city manager wants to know, that city staff are responding to meet needs in the community. So it’ll take a bit bit of trial and error, to make sure that the system is being pulled in correctly, and that the city staff members are able to use it correctly. We were told, forget, you know, the first rollout, it probably won’t be till the third rollout or revision, that you have a working system. So we’re both looking forward to the next meeting on the 24th. At which time, maybe we’ll have a better idea if there’s an end date in sight for us. But they seem to appreciate the input that we give, as we know of people using this information, and we ourselves may have used it. So on we go

Unknown Speaker 1:54:56
it’s work in progress, guys.

Unknown Speaker 1:55:01
Very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:55:02
That’s called the whip. Is really we used to say,

Unknown Speaker 1:55:10
Yeah, well, Turtle like,

Unknown Speaker 1:55:14
yeah, sometimes I feel like the pain in the butt because because I keep stressing the same old, same old. What kind of platform it’s built on by any chance? Is it similar? Let me think of one would should be, is it like an Amazon platform, which is very easy to use?

Unknown Speaker 1:55:41
I think that’s the goal.

Unknown Speaker 1:55:46
Because I’m wondering if if they did they invented themselves? Or are they using a vendor? No, they, they created it. And it’s, it’s going to be a website? And I mean, the people that are involved are very, very, very bright people. But, but no, and they are very technically, right. So sometimes, their ability to make it simple is challenged. Let me just put it that way. Right. Could they need an analyst? That’s the analyst job, the translator.

Unknown Speaker 1:56:32
Beside the point, if we had more than three minutes left in the meeting, I will tell you about my experience with the my Colorado

Unknown Speaker 1:56:43
app for oxy. And if you ever have a problem, set aside an hour to navigate through there. fill out this form, and we wrong get back to you. Yeah, they should use they should really use epic for everything. I mean, it’s the easiest system. Health care, everything Epic is like a dream.

Unknown Speaker 1:57:10
Oh, maybe? Yeah, I was gonna say that’s new prudence. I was involved with it, maybe 1012 years ago, wouldn’t have said it then.

Unknown Speaker 1:57:23
Right? It’s really, you know, great. I mean, it’s so simple. I mean, if you’re a member and you can choose, I’m not sure what to tell you. I’m sure there was a reason for them wanting to develop their own system. Yeah. I just don’t have an answer about, you know, why they choose to do that. But there must have been a reason. I it’s usually. So do I have a question of Susan and Janine? Is it can you? Have they produced the link yet with the that you owe us? Oh, that’s too bad.

Unknown Speaker 1:58:12
No, then we’d have to answer technical questions. And that’s not my bailiwick.

Unknown Speaker 1:58:17
No, are you just out of curiosity with the kind of the, what it looks like? Well, I think that that’s going to be forthcoming. Yeah. Sounds like it’s soon. Right when when they put out a version one of probably 10 or so. But it’s not up yet. So they’re still in in that process?

Unknown Speaker 1:58:46
More next month. Anybody else? Questions, comments in the next couple of minutes?

Unknown Speaker 1:58:58
I got a, I got a quick question for Michelle. We are at the last meeting, unless you talked about already. I missed it. But we talked about the legality of role playing an interview was and you’re gonna check into that. Did you find out on that?

Unknown Speaker 1:59:16
Fabulous, thank you for reminding and bringing that back up. And I did check with our HR director and she said is not an issue or concern that I need to attend to. So she felt like it the way we utilize that roleplay and the scenario was, was it totally acceptable? Okay, thank you. Ruth.

Unknown Speaker 1:59:40
For us is a little late to ask this question, but I had some concerns about this remodeling and the people still living in the the apartment as it was being remodeled and moving their beds from the living room back into the bedroom. It’s been my experience when one dies A lot of this remodeling that there are a lot of off gassing that gases that occur from paints and carpets, and Cox and all sorts of things. Um, and I just am curious about the safety of the people living in there as this is going on. I hope they’re taking this into into consideration and using products that are. We hope environmentally safe to their health, but I’d be concerned.

Unknown Speaker 2:00:33
So, briefly, I will pass that on to Lisa, and ask her to address that when she meets with you all in February.

Unknown Speaker 2:00:43
Okay, thank you, Michelle. Um, can you guys hear me? Yes, yeah. Okay. So, um, one of the things that I was thinking about as well, when it came to that whole situation, is that it seems to me, but if they’re moving better, she said in and out every day. Yeah. That seems like a, for lack of better words, poor use of time and money, where it seems like it would be more efficient to just house those folks. So that, and so I’m just that was a concern to me, and how they’re handling that move, how that affects the overall budget. They’re doing that with every single resident of the community.

Unknown Speaker 2:01:36
So Julie, the concern around that is really are they doing it for saving money, and it creates more displacement or disruption for the resident? Is that really the crux of it? I want to make sure I get that. Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 2:01:57
think that, you know, for someone who’s having their house, you know, or their their apartment remodeled, right. And there’s people coming in every morning and every afternoon to move things around. Who knows where they’re going during the day, during this time of remodeling? It just seems that it it is it would be less disruption, if somebody went to a hotel for, you know, a couple days or a week. Yeah, I agree also, economically makes more sense, rather than having these folks focusing, you know, how much of our time it takes to move, you know, bedroom furniture in and out every day,

Unknown Speaker 2:02:39
and clean up every day? You know?

Unknown Speaker 2:02:41
Yeah. And so I think what’s really important is for her to give you a perspective of what they are really rehabbing. So my only experience was with this was that Aspen meadows, and they really didn’t touch the bedrooms. Some of the apartments had some rehab in the bathrooms, to make them more accessible. But the bulk of the rehab was in the kitchen area, the counters, the cabinets, and and the appliances kind of focus. So I think first and foremost, she really needs to talk about what’s the rehab going to do, right. And then I think in terms of the disruption, what we found for folks, is that often the move to the hotel was more disruptive, because people were out of their normal routines, their normal environment. And that was a different kind of disruption. And so, so let me ask her to just really come and talk about the extent of the rehab, what does that really mean. And then the other thing that happened at Aspen meadows, and I do not know if it’s going to happen at Village place is that certain units were designated for a really major overhaul to make them assessable across the board, because of requirements of certain number of units that need to be accessible, and the people in those units had far more disruption than the majority of people. So I will I will ask her to better sort of present that picture and address both the safety issues off gassing, etc. As well as just what is that disruption slash efficiency slash saving money really look like? Right.

Unknown Speaker 2:04:49
I guess the other thing is, too is that I’d be curious if they’re if they give folks an option of either staying in or going to a hotel, because I believe when I’m Sheila improvements and I went to Aspen meadows, there were some folks that were just overjoyed that they were able to go to a hotel and be put up in a hotel for, you know, during that time,

Unknown Speaker 2:05:10
they also got some serious gift cards for meals that they were able to utilize. Right. Yeah. But for some people, it was very much a dis

Unknown Speaker 2:05:25
disruption to their schedule.

Unknown Speaker 2:05:26
Yeah. And just kind of Yeah, yeah. So yeah, great. I think a greater a broader perspective of what that works going to be, and will be helpful to sort of set the stage. So I motion that since it’s 1205. we adjourn the meeting. Second. Thank you. We’ll see you guys next month, if not sooner at the Friends Meeting. All right. I owe

Unknown Speaker 2:05:57
you