Video Description:
Senior Citizens Advisory Board Meeting – March 2, 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/w9lPNrm0iNYPuwZGc6-2DRYsQn8
Unknown Speaker 0:00
All right, we’ve got 10 o’clock. So we’ve got everybody on the board. Except Janine, who should be joining us after having just received the invitation. And Melinda is joining us as a guest, thank you, as well as Francy. And to the board members, I want to say thank you for figuring out you were missing an invitation, putting things aside rearranging your schedule, and being here, your commitment is just great. I appreciate it. So we have taken that we have welcomed our guests. Do we have anybody that wants to make a comment right up in the beginning is public or we can talk about new business? Or good, we can move on to last month’s minutes. Does anybody have corrections or notations? I do. It looks like we double posted under old business to see an h are the same, we could probably eliminate one of them.
Unknown Speaker 1:45
Okay, Sheila. And then just one other. I have a question. Under reports Roman numeral four. On the first line, it says Janine reported that there was a discussion of fire. I don’t know what that was supposed to be. I don’t think we discussed either. So maybe you could just check with her, Sheila and find out how that could be corrected?
Unknown Speaker 2:29
Yes, I can’t think of anything. I will talk with Janine.
Unknown Speaker 2:34
So otherwise, as corrected I motion that we accept the minutes from last month of second. Thank you art. So now, we’re moving on right along to item five or business and we’ve got a presentation of the senior support services.
Unknown Speaker 3:03
Hi, that is myself and Melinda. Amy, I think was going to try to join us but maybe she’s not able to this morning. Okay. We’ve got Ziggy piggy here helping as well. Hello, Ziggy.
Unknown Speaker 3:19
Brandy, let me just just for the board to understand we call our support services team, our four research specialists and our counseling positions. So right now that’s brandy, as our counselor, Melissa, Aimee, Veronica Melinda, who’s housed within the LH a buildings. And soon we will have another counselor. So that support services team will, hopefully be six people soon. So we just have a portion of them today. So brandy, I’ll turn it back to you. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 3:58
Okay. Um, you know, we particularly wanted to have Melinda here today, because Melinda is our resource specialist who doesn’t serve the entire community, who serves three specific housing communities. And the Heartstone. The lodge, which are senior housing sites with a long one Housing Authority, as well as the suites, which is a mixed property. There are Melinda, you’ll have to tell us how many older adults there there are quite a few. But there are also younger folks.
Unknown Speaker 4:29
Right, I think, you know, I actually don’t have my list in front of me, but I think I calculated it was close to 30% 55 and over even, you know, and then 60 and over. So it’s a significant portion of the population here at the suites.
Unknown Speaker 4:48
And so, you know, our statistics here really encompass all of our work, the five of us, and a lot of this data is covering more ofwhat Melinda, Veronica, Melissa and Amy as resource specialists do. But I also provide some case management in addition to the counseling work that I do. And I work with a lot of Emily caregivers on trying to connect them with services and resources. So this reflects some of my work as well. So I’d like to dive in and share some statistics. And I’m going to invite Melinda to jump in at any time to talk about how that might look a little different specifically in her work with the housing authority. And what I’m really curious about at the end is what you all might think is missing what you what you might want to hear about that you’re not hearing in our statistics that could help you and others understand the story of the work that we do. So I’m going to die then please feel free to ask questions at any time. And again, Melinda, feel free to jump in anytime as well. We serve 704 new individuals in 2021. Folks we had not met with in the past at the Senior Center, which is outstanding. That’s a lot of new people. For us. We served a total of 11 142 individuals through those information referral, case management services, our system doesn’t break down how many individuals separately just accessed counseling and not those other services. But I estimate it’s another, you know, about 10 to 15 people probably we helped 334 Or we had 334 contacts for caregiver assistance. So these are family members or friends taking care of someone in their lives. Looking for all manner of resources for shirt, short term case management, we had 156 contacts. For Information and Referral mail. This is really our big way. Michelle’s got
Unknown Speaker 6:56
a question or comment.
Unknown Speaker 6:59
Randy, if you could just do a quick on the difference between contacts and individuals. So for the caregivers statistics, we had 334 contacts, but it was 210 different persons. So as brandy talks about contacts, that’s a an email, a phone call a meeting. And an individual is our unduplicated numbers. So brandy as you go through just maybe point that out where that’s more important, perhaps or more impactful,
Unknown Speaker 7:35
thank God. Yeah, I’m for information and referral people who are really just trying to get connected with resources, we had 1900 contacts with 887 individuals that is truly the brunt of our work. And I’m going to tell you a little bit soon about how that breaks down and how many times people contact us. For paperwork, we had 524 context with 304 individuals. But I have a strong feeling. And I want to have Melinda say something about this, that that statistic doesn’t really capture the amount of time and energy that goes into helping people with paperwork, especially if they are Spanish speaking, but also through English speaking.
Unknown Speaker 8:21
Right? I mean, we’re so a couple of things I want to say. So these statistics, I think, are going to look a lot different next year, because they they only captured a small portion of my time having come on at the end of September. And now that I think residents of the properties are more used to My Presence they’re accessing, the more there’s a lot of people that just in my case, they just pop by so they have to make appointments when they’re seeing that the specialists that are at the senior center, but in my case they’re popping by and they may just get something in the mail, don’t understand it want me to take a look. So that’s that’s a little piece of just paperwork. Um, frequently I’m helping them, for example, get their statement of their social security benefits for their rent. So we’re we’re making a phone call to the to Social Security. We’re following up on an application for food benefits or long term care Medicaid, there’s, there’s the paperwork that I’m doing with them that’s just kind of, you know, can be anything that comes in the mail or that they’ve been given that they don’t know how to fill out to then our own paperwork, documenting it. So it’s, it’s it’s kind of hard to capture, sort of how much really paperwork, you know, we’re doing but I know in my case, there’s there’s just navigating public benefits or just anything, you know, they’ve got something in the mail that is a solicitation. Is it important? Do I need to pay attention to this? Do I need to respond to it? And then for our Spanish speakers, I’m one of the violence Well, resource specialists. Sometimes they’re they’re getting things that aren’t even in Spanish in the mail. So I’m helping them, read them understand them. I do have quite a few clients with some literacy challenges as well. So just helping them understand what they have. When I was,
Unknown Speaker 10:18
I just want to add to that, and brandy, I know you have an example you’re going to share, I think that’s helpful. But also, especially during COVID paperwork sometimes meant doing things online for people because there was no hardcopy paper anymore. And individuals who struggled with paper or struggled with technology, sometimes paperwork was actually walking people through an online paper. It’s a good point process. So go ahead, Brandy irmo.
Unknown Speaker 10:50
When I filled in for Melinda’s position at the Housing Authority last year, I had one very eye opening experience helping someone with paperwork to pay for medical equipment where we were applying for grants from various agencies to get some medical equipment that she needed that Medicaid wouldn’t cover. And it took hours upon hours to do that paperwork. And I actually got help from other staff, Amy and Melissa. And it really was a shining example to me of the amount of time that Amy, Veronica and Melissa Melinda need to spend doing paperwork to help people get the resources they need. And then helping people understand paperwork, helping people fill out paperwork, answering follow up questions from grant agencies, it’s just very, very intensive. And especially so for our Spanish speakers is what I hear from the staff. But the interpretation of forms and trying to help people understand them brings a whole other level of really case management need around paperwork. The volume of time we spend with people is really interesting. And I wanted to point out a little info there. The majority of folks we work with we have contact with once they’ve got, you know, a straightforward resource question we meet with them, we talk to them on the phone, we handle that. So about 559 individuals only talk with our staff once another 436 individuals had two to four contacts with us 114, people had five to 10 contacts with us. And then there’s this chunk of 30 people who we met with between 11 and 30 times when we meet with somebody 30 times think about that, that’s almost once a week. That’s that’s at least every other week. And the way we enter our notes in our system is if we talk with somebody more than once in a week, we combine those into just one note. So there is a small group of customers who we meet with really intensely. They need a lot more time and energy. And it’s not just that kind of one or two shot thing to get their needs met.
Unknown Speaker 13:06
And in my case being housed in the properties, I’m seeing the clients probably more frequently, because they can just pop down and access me.
Unknown Speaker 13:21
Yes, Sheila,
Unknown Speaker 13:23
how many did you say? A small chunk? Because you see, once a week, perhaps how many people
Unknown Speaker 13:36
there were 30 people who we met with between 11 and 30 times during the year?
Unknown Speaker 13:42
I thought he said,
Unknown Speaker 13:44
Yeah. He loves for the sake of the minutes, I actually have brandies report in written form. So I can share that with you and prudence after the meeting. Oh, God.
Unknown Speaker 14:03
My pen down
Unknown Speaker 14:05
the way we contacted people and you’ve got to bear in mind here the senior center didn’t reopen until May. And we weren’t fully reopened until September. We had almost 1500 phone calls with 764 individuals last year, we really learned that we could get a lot done over the phone that we did not think we could. I would say the majority of our customers really prefer face to face contact and kind of crave that. And, Amy, if you want to jump in with any experience there, please feel free now that you’re joining us. Yeah, sorry.
Unknown Speaker 14:43
pointment that ran late. But with that I think part of what ended up happening during the pandemic was we would do a phone call, but then we’d be helping with an application that required a signature. So a lot of times the phone calls turned into To drive drive up where they came to the Senior Center, we’d go out to the signature, and then process or send in applications. So we found we couldn’t do everything over the phone, but a lot of the initial stuff we could.
Unknown Speaker 15:13
So despite that closure, we still had 774 contacts with 432 individuals face to face. I want to talk a little bit about the the big issues that we were working on. So we’ve got we’ve got an at risk category in our data set where we capture really, really difficult things folks are dealing with. So I’m going to talk about a few of those. We helped 45 People avoid eviction last year, that is huge folks who have actually gotten some sort of eviction notice, and we help problem solve that and we’re able to avoid them being evicted. We worked with 54 people who were homeless, when they walked in the door, we were able to help 93 people obtain affordable housing. So some of those folks were homeless, some of those folks were housed but not affordably and needed to make a change to get more affordable housing. And we worked with 48 people who were able to maintain their housing. And so this may have been that we helped them with paying rent after they had a medical crisis, or you know, they needed for for it’s usually very short term, like one month to redirect their funds to some crisis in their life. And we made sure they could get their utilities or their rent paid so that they didn’t end up getting the eviction notice. That’s really important work. We also worked with 55 different individuals who clearly had cognitive concerns. So some sort of dementia symptoms doesn’t mean they were necessarily diagnosed with dementia. But typically what happens when we work with folks who have cognitive concerns is it takes a little more work. Sometimes those are our short term case management clients who need a little more hand holding and time and attention to solve the problems in their lives that they’re trying to solve. The very big issues that people came in for last year are number one was financial assistance. Number two was housing. And primarily this is people seeking affordable housing. But also like we said, we worked with 50 for folks who were homeless. The third biggest issue was caregiving. So caregivers who are stressed and seeking emotional support, or who need to bring in new resources in their lives to make those caregiving situations more manageable, or to find something like assisted living or skilled nursing, if they can’t keep doing the caregiving at home. We do keep track of folks who are coming in and reporting abuse situations to us. And the number one kind of abuse situation we were dealing with in 2021 was financial exploitation. And those numbers are not huge. It was 10 people who were being financially exploited. But those cases also tend to be those that need a little more time and attention to help people get proper resources. And we have a category of self neglect. So it’s not that someone is abusing, neglecting or exploiting you, but that it seems you are no longer to meet your basic needs typically because of some sort of cognitive concern. And we worked with 14 people who seem to be experiencing self neglect. Often in those cases, we will end up calling our friends at adult protection and seeing if we can work together to help people stay house safely in the community and get the services they need. For caregiver needs, I wanted to give you kind of just the the top needs caregivers were asking about home care was number one, we had 209 contacts with 155 people to try to get homecare in place, respite, which is usually a part of home care, but can can be different 101 contacts was 70 individuals. And then we had 79. Folks, we referred to caregiver support groups, or I’m sorry, 79 contacts with 67 people referring to support groups, and why that number is larger, like why it would be that 67 individuals would need 79 contacts is that sometimes we have to talk about support groups more than once. Before somebody really says yeah, okay. I think it’s time that I tried that out. And sometimes we refer people to support groups and they are not at all interested. But six months later, they say, oh, okay, I think it’s time for me to get that kind of support. From our counseling world. I have just a few statistics I wanted to share. We had 355 sessions with 49 individuals for counseling so that was offered by myself. I’m a licensed professional counselor, we had an intern getting a master’s degree in counseling. And we have our peer support team, who if you’re not familiar, our older adults who meet with other older adults to provide support.
Unknown Speaker 20:16
We had 156 sessions for a support group for 42 individuals. So some of those individuals were in those groups together, right that that support group session number looks really high. But what it means is we were able to serve 42 individuals, some of them repeatedly, many times in support groups, folks will often come to support groups for eight weeks at a time, if it’s our grief support group or adjusting delays, changes. Or if it’s a monthly caregiver support group, they will come every month. We spent quite a bit of time last year referring people to other counseling resources. Because when we opened back up, as the pandemic was sort of shifting last April, May, people started to come out of the woodworks looking for counseling support, and many of them very specifically wanted or needed to work with a licensed clinician. So I ended up referring 37 people to mental health partners 18 people to a group called a wiser mind, who specifically work with folks who have cognitive impairment 37 people to private referrals. So I keep a list of therapists in the area who work through Medicare and are licensed to be able to refer folks to and that’s kind of outstanding for us, I don’t think we’ve ever made that many outside referrals before. And it was simply because the need became quite overwhelming. I still have a waitlist, I I’ve often had a waitlist over the years, but my waitlist has gotten so long in the last year that I’ve had to close it, which is why we are hiring a second counselor yay. increase our ability to meet sorry, that’s the flooring.
Unknown Speaker 22:15
So while brandy has flooring, I want to just add in that we are one of the few agencies that does case management. So over the years, lots of nonprofit agencies have stopped offering case management services. So we typically focus that service for a low income or and or unsupported individuals, folks who really don’t have family or friends who can help them navigate systems and services. So last year, we had 170 contacts with 46 different individuals. And that’s often very time as well as time intensive and also usually very complicated situations. Some of those individuals have been referred to us actually, we’re getting more referrals from the city of Longmont, co responder team, as they are out and about with police and responding to situations. The Longmont co responder model is really a triage sort of approach. And if they’re an older adult, they often refer those folks to us for information referral and at times, case management. So that’s a service I think, somewhat unique to us. And we are also very mindful, it could quickly overwhelm us. So we’re cautious in our approach that we are not. But we but we do it. But we’re just very mindful of what case management needs. Brandi Are you ready?
Unknown Speaker 23:59
She wrote in the
Unknown Speaker 24:03
in the chat, and just said the top reasons people entered counseling were conflict with family, grief support, and then caregiver support. So and I was just going to jump in. We we as resource specialists, and Brandi and Michelle all got together at the beginning of the year to talk about this data and said, just look at what’s not reflected in these numbers. And we really figured out that there’s a level of intensity and brandy mine have talked about this before I hopped on with our Spanish speaking cases, that doesn’t really get reflected in our numbers. And then the other other pieces that don’t necessarily they’re more of our philosophy or how, how we resource specialists tend to operate is that if there’s an urgency or someone that’s needing our support, we tend to squeeze them into our Our schedules and sometimes that pushes off our data entry. And so sometimes our data, we try to keep it as up to date as possible. But sometimes it doesn’t always reflect exactly, because we really are client centered first. So we put seeing the client before putting the note in. And we’re working on that balance.
Unknown Speaker 25:27
Thank you, Amy, I was able to catch that. There, are there any thoughts folks have about kind of what’s missing and telling the story of our data?
Unknown Speaker 25:46
How often was transportation a problem? Or an issue?
Unknown Speaker 25:55
Can you hear me okay? Or is there too much noise? Okay. For transportation, it looks like we had a total of 128 contacts about transportation. So it in conjunction, I didn’t give you numbers for those top concerns earlier, we had 2000 contacts for financial support. We had 1000 contacts for housing. So transportation was very small.
Unknown Speaker 26:25
So it’s probably important to just put some parameters around the transportation question she lives. So during COVID there was a reduction in some transportation needs, because folks didn’t necessarily they were making different choices about the beauty shop or this coming to the senior center that, but I think what via did and and other transportation providers is they really prioritized a COVID related transportation, so transport, to vaccines to testing, etc. Delivering groceries. So they kind of changed up, it’ll be curious to see how that goes going forward as we open back up, and maybe folks are going to return to their former or more like their former model. One of the growing transportation issues that we have seen, we don’t have numbers, it’s kind of a tickler in our head, is the number of folks who need transportation to a health care site and need someone to a company event. So you all may know you go for colonoscopy, you and I just did cataract surgery, you gotta have somebody who’s sitting in the waiting room ready to drive you home. And so that health transportation piece is probably something going forward, that’s going to be more on the radar, for us and for transportation providers, cultivate has had a program that’s been a good one, that it’s reliant on volunteers. So transportation is kind of emerging again, and we’ll see where that takes us. But a great question.
Unknown Speaker 28:15
And I I’m seeing it’s already in the hearthstone in the lodge, I’m getting more requests for help with transportation as via is apparently struggling to accommodate everyone I’m getting more folks coming in telling me that they’re calling via but via doesn’t have availability. So, um, it’s definitely increasing
Unknown Speaker 28:36
the name. You’re muted.
Unknown Speaker 28:42
I also am aware of the amount of time that they may not necessarily be documented that you all spend on the phone contacting people getting them to apply for lotteries, getting them to apply for opening Saturday if at different affordable housing facilities when they open up their wait list. And that’s time that isn’t even really counted. That is ongoing and that you do a beautiful job of
Unknown Speaker 29:26
another transportation thing to throw out as the Intel ride which is the Medicaid, non emergency transportation to medical appointments. Um, I have clients that are coming in asking for my help scheduling their ride because they’re they’re low income already. They may have a data plan on their phone without a minute lot of minutes. And those calls can sometimes take up to an hour of waiting to just get an answer and schedule so
Unknown Speaker 29:57
just adding on the transportation piece some of Our data too might reflect to when we talk to people about transportation, it might end up being more than transportation. So there’s an over overlap between transportation and home care. So like, if someone’s looking for a ride to a colonoscopy, it’s talking about what’s your support system? If you don’t have someone that can drive you, can we get you connected with a homecare resource? And what would that look like? What are your finances? So and that’s where it’s hard when we check boxes on a data entry, we could end up checking five different ones, because it turns into a conversation that doesn’t fit into just one resource category.
Unknown Speaker 30:40
Question, do we? I mean, are we making any home visits as well?
Unknown Speaker 30:50
Yeah, he never stopped doing home visits during the pandemic, we just made some policies around how to do them safely. And we really try to keep home visits to individuals that can’t get to the Senior Center, or there’s programs we do that require in home visits that we go to so
Unknown Speaker 31:09
because that can be difficult with a number of people and needs that we have. And I commend the staff for all they’re doing to meet the needs of our community. My question is, are we breaking this down by ethnicity? By do?
Unknown Speaker 31:29
We have that data in our system, when when people share that data, we have a data point in our system where we track language preference. So we we can pull some reports on that data, but because we don’t always have it, it it isn’t fully accurate, if that makes sense.
Unknown Speaker 31:49
And how many of the resource specialists are bilingual? Three, three. Wow, that’s great.
Unknown Speaker 32:00
And going on her Spanish, and I work on my Spanish.
Unknown Speaker 32:05
Again, I commend you for all you’re doing. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 32:13
So, Sheila,
Unknown Speaker 32:15
just a comment, not a question. Sometimes statistics are very own random. But listening to all of those statistics that you share today, Brandi and Melinda and I and just as art was really amazed at the work that you do, and I’m very thankful. I live somewhere where there are people who do this really is amazing. Wherever your congratulations.
Unknown Speaker 32:49
Thank you. And and thanks to city council for giving us more staff these last couple years, we’ve needed it.
Unknown Speaker 32:58
Yeah, and I just want to do a shout out to Janine because she is our resource volunteer, and she has offered immeasurable help. And some of these statistics actually reflect the work she has done in doing follow up making calls, and helping people with Leap and various paperwork. So it really is a huge team, when you factor in Janine, as well as our volunteer peer counselors. And the other piece that I think Brandi didn’t really speak to her anyone is our front desk staff. Make the vast majority of all the appointments for Melissa, Amy, and Veronica. And so that has streamline things for our resource specialists. But it also means our front desk staff do an awful lot of work to support, what what we’re doing. And I’m in the back, sort of, you know, so it’s definitely a team, a team effort for sure. Marsha,
Unknown Speaker 34:14
thank you. I would just like to say at the City Council would like to take credit for those positions and everything. But really, the credit goes to the senior center itself and to me, in large part to the competent and relevant data that you’re collecting because that makes it so much easier to justify the need. So, you know, a lot of times we get the answer from other supplicants for money, right that, well, we can either choose between doing the work or publicizing the data, you know, and you have obviously managed to do both, and that’s one of the reasons why you’re so effective. So you know, all all of of the merit is belongs to the senior center and to this board, you’re so effective.
Unknown Speaker 35:10
Thank you, Marsha. And and we as staff talk kind of regularly about what do we need to do to have time to do the data pieces, because we know, this data is not entirely accurate, because we’re missing when we just didn’t have time to enter things. And we know that’s really important. So thank you for just reiterating for us that it is important for us to do those pieces. David.
Unknown Speaker 35:41
We can’t hear you.
Unknown Speaker 35:46
If you have a question, you can put it in the chat.
Unknown Speaker 35:57
David’s having trouble with his audio this morning, I know why I’m not sure he’s doing everything right. But
Unknown Speaker 36:09
when you were at the very beginning of the meeting, Janine, we actually could hear David, but I don’t think he could hear us, we were trying to tell him, we could hear him. So I don’t know if that helps at all. So one of the things that Brandi said at the beginning is about the data and the telling the story. So that is something we’re really working on. So as you think about what you heard today, if there’s something that really, you know, kind of resonates for you, we want to make sure that that we’re telling a story that really does reflect the work and reflect what people need and what we’re able to provide. So something strikes you as you think about what, again, what you heard, let let me know. Because we, we don’t want to just spew out numbers, we really want to paint the story. And we’re working with our marketing person around this and you know, trying to be accurate, as well as compelling about what it is that we do. So please feel free to follow up with me and the team. And I will we’ll figure that out. And we’ve added in. And just a huge appreciation, Brandy and Amy are kind of our numbers, people, Amy tracks, the all the finances, and brandy has really been working with our case management vendor to make sure our data is what, what what actually is happening. It’s been great to have Melinda on board. And now our data we can separate from la ha and non la ha. And Melinda has been super helpful. And we also have some reporting we have to do. For the LA side. That’s a little bit. So we’re doing that. And I’m sorry, Veronica and Melissa weren’t able to be here, but they’re meeting with folks. So um, looks like brandy are in Yorba Linda, you want to David’s got some questions in the chat around looks like more like demographic kinds of things. So maybe if one of you would like to look at the chat and respond.
Unknown Speaker 38:26
So that goes arts question about like, can we pull data by how many people are Spanish speakers? And the answer is yes, we just have to ask our case management system folks to create reports that pull that and we have to make sure we’re entering all of that. So some of those questions about demographics. You know, we don’t ask those questions all the time, unless there’s a reason we need to write if we’re helping somebody fill out paperwork where they have to fill in that demographic info. We do ask for phone numbers, so we can contact people, but we ask if they live in Longmont, but we don’t always get their address unless there’s a reason why we would get that so it’s it’s missing some pieces
Unknown Speaker 39:11
a little bit easier in the LH a properties because we know already, you know there’s income qualifications and age. So it’s easier for for my statistics to kind of pull that out.
Unknown Speaker 39:26
And definitely changed up some of our demographic questions so that they are inclusive and appropriate in a world of 2022. So it’s been good to be able to change up some of the how we asked those
Unknown Speaker 39:42
questions as well.
Unknown Speaker 39:44
Ruth, did you have a question?
Unknown Speaker 39:46
Yeah. You said that one of the major concerns that present themselves for counseling was mental health, and so much, I think what you do is preventing it shoes and disasters. And I think people like to see statistics also in a way that I mean, that’s hard to document prevention, but that’s what you’re really doing.
Unknown Speaker 40:17
That’s why we capture that data about how many people did we help maintain their housing before they got an eviction? Notice? That’s, that’s, that’s where we’re trying to capture some prevention.
Unknown Speaker 40:27
Yeah, you really are.
Unknown Speaker 40:30
And one of the things that we’re working toward, and I’m gonna say this in a minimal, minimal way, is with our county area agency on aging, and starting to look at how we better collect outcome data. Like what difference did you make, which is I think, not exactly prevention, which I totally agree with you, Ruth, but also, what difference did you make? And so we have brandy, and I have been a part of a team with the Area Agency on Aging so that we can start to align a few of our data points, so that we can start to really look at the outcome that the what what, what did it matter, kind of thing? And so it’s a great question. And I’m just going to say, keep asking us, because I think that’s the future, we really need to do a better job about being able to document the outcome. And the outcome, which brandy gave the example is a good one.
Unknown Speaker 41:32
And, and I will say I did not pull a report. But we can on our closing evaluations when people do have counseling, which is optional, but our return rate is pretty good. We almost never have someone say that counseling wasn’t helpful, and that they would not recommend it to someone else that they know. And the feedback is really overwhelmingly positive. When people work with our peer support volunteers, our intern when they go to support groups, we do offer that follow up evaluation to see did this make a difference.
Unknown Speaker 42:07
And I wish there was a way to capture. This is one of my favorite stories. And we used we had a a gentleman, a monolingual, Spanish speaker gentleman who needed teeth, and needed some significant dental work. And after he got it he came in and I think so a couple of us were in tears. Because he was so appreciative that he could go out he was comfortable visiting with people and he was eating again. And you know, how do you collect that, you know that that was an outcome that made a credible difference in his social and nutritional and health life. But, so we’re very fortunate we get folks who express their appreciation in different ways. And when he walked in here smiling ear to ear, it was one of those moments that that I will hold
Unknown Speaker 43:05
for sure. So since we have a lot to cover, I think we should move on. And brandy and Amy, thank you and Melinda, for all the information you’ve given to us. Prudence has joined us so she can take over taking the minutes. Sheila did that for
Unknown Speaker 43:27
you in the beginning.
Unknown Speaker 43:28
Thank you, Sheila.
Unknown Speaker 43:32
Thank you so much. Thank you. And now we’re going what?
Unknown Speaker 43:42
So there was a conversation about how to measure outcomes. Was that correct? So one of the things I’m, I’m a case manager, you know, because I’m a nurse, I’m rom certified in it. But one of the things that that we do, because the devalue is how do you prove a negative almost? Because that’s, that’s what you’re really looking at. And one of the things is that what I’m not sure whether this will work, but there’s there’s projections you can use, like how many people would have been homeless, so you have a base number. Let’s say 5% of your population in Longmont is going to be homeless. So that equals X amount of people. And then you say, out of those x amount of people X reached out to the senior center and X got housing or housing assistance. That’s one way you could do it entails a lot more work. So it’s just like okay, they got I’ll give you an example. They got home health care. 10 people were eligible. Eight of them went. So 80% of them did not return to the hospital. So that’s kind of how we do
Unknown Speaker 45:07
it. Thank you. That’s it.
Unknown Speaker 45:15
Let’s take a minute, where are we on the agenda?
Unknown Speaker 45:17
We’re on the position update on old business. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 45:25
So I’m just a quick, we just posted the senior clinician two, which is our counselor position, it got posted yesterday, it is posted until filled. So that is out there. And we’re still on hold for afternoon evening custodian that that will be our next position that will re up. So our I’ve got your name down next to that to help. And I believe that David and someone else had offered to help with the counseling position. So Brandy is kind of taking the lead on that. And we’ll follow up with you because we have those notes. And as when we get ready to do the interview for the counselor position. So that’s our position update. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 46:19
And then we have the 2021 Annual Report discussion.
Unknown Speaker 46:27
So do you want to
Unknown Speaker 46:30
show up? You’re muted? Yes.
Unknown Speaker 46:35
I’ll be muted during this next piece of the agenda, because I confess the province did it all and just informed me? And
Unknown Speaker 46:46
that’s because she was away.
Unknown Speaker 46:54
Okay, take it away.
Unknown Speaker 46:57
Okay. So this is what I thought? Um, I think I’m done there is. So I only saw two slides that pertain to senior advisory in the itt 16 pages. So I concentrate on those two, because the other part of it is about. And actually, I think these could be trimmed down, but I not to say so was about COVID. Because if you really think of 2021
Unknown Speaker 47:43
COVID.
Unknown Speaker 47:46
You know, once people started getting vaccinated in February, that change the whole thing, I mean, I still think we did a lot. I’m not sure whether it needed three slides. However, I also understand that it may be something we want to keep in three slides. So that’s, that’s one thing. There’s also a bunch of statistical information, which I know Michelle has. So I left that those blank, I x them out. And that goes back to what you were discussing before about outcomes, how to really show that Chris to say I saw X, you know, I think it’s important. In the future, you may want to think differently about it as you struct as you struggle, and I’ll use the word struggle to reflect outcomes. So when looking at the last slides, they had four four accomplishments. So I kept it to four. And I put in a slide about what we need from the city council. Okay, and Julie’s gonna shake her head yes, the RFP for the footcare I mean, I have never seen but I’ve just dealt with with something else with purchasing there. I’m not sure whether we should farm the whole process out because it seems like the city is unable and does not have the bandwidth to take a look at an RFP for foot care without adding 15 other things. This seems it seems it should not take over a year to get the foot kale process going. It in my mind it should have been a go as soon as we open to attract more people. So that’s that My two cents, I put down that we met with calm. And I thought that was very I wasn’t at that meeting. But I thought that was very important work that we did. I also noted that we met with the transportation person. And the let me not forget everybody’s favorite the web track. So we met with those four people. However, in the next slide, I say, city council.
Unknown Speaker 50:35
We need support.
Unknown Speaker 50:37
To accomplish these things. Meeting with people is all fine and good. However, and having them back to tell us they haven’t done anything is not all fine and good, unless it’s fine and good for everybody else. But you know, crossing the street, you know, on Main Street and other areas is very important to the senior Advisory Council, he came and talked. Okay, I realize government moves slow. However. My hair cutter was here yesterday, she lives near there. And she said that she has seen three people get hit in their wheelchairs. So I said to her, they died. They’re probably fix it, but they didn’t. So I just put in two slides, one, what we did during the year, and what we need from City Council help. I thought that on the whole I thought the 2021 was well put together. Um, I would definitely change the pictures to reflect younger seniors, that there should be a mixture of those people younger, so 55 to 70. Then another slides for people who were 75 and over. Because looking at it, I have to tell you, I was like,
Unknown Speaker 52:15
Oh my gosh, these people are really old.
Unknown Speaker 52:20
And everybody on here looks so healthy and young. That I have to say was I was a little taken aback. And I didn’t remember it from last year. So those were my two slides that I put in and I sent them in to Sheila.
Unknown Speaker 52:42
And
Unknown Speaker 52:43
that was that. So feedback is always welcome. Michelle, if you have feedback, I know that you’ll put in the statistics. Which I know that that not the last meeting but the meeting before they went out but they were not supposed to come to us. I think they were supposed to be discussed with brandies team first and they’ve done a tremendous job. You know in really helping people sort their way. Questions comment changes you would like to see
Unknown Speaker 53:25
any counsel woman please? You’re muted.
Unknown Speaker 53:33
No, sometimes my spacebar on mutes me and sometimes it refuses to. This is almost an aside, I would kind of emphasize the the walk like programming issue a little bit. The reason being that although he I think it was Tyler who came and spoke to me, and he is going to Fort Collins with a promotion, so you know, it’s good for him. And overall, he has been incredibly responsible and responsive to me as a city council member representing people, but he is not a creative, imaginative person. And so he does sometimes have a hard time getting outside the book. And and emphasizing that this is not senior friendly, the way our automated light systems are programmed. You know, it might be something that the next guy could run with trying to prove himself. So let’s hear that one doesn’t get lost in the dust.
Unknown Speaker 54:41
And I also think Marsha and Janine brought this up in the meeting is that it’s not only seniors, it’s also parents with children. As a third and Main Street, they really I mean, I’ve seen parents pick up the stroller with the kid in it. And death it’s really kind of amazing to me, because in other areas of the city, you know, that is a 15 Second Life 1515 1413 other areas of the city alone can practice longer.
Unknown Speaker 55:25
And, you know, they’re trying to optimize the traffic and, and reduce waiting, you know, lights cycling. And that’s part of the problem. But, you know, we might want to make the point that if downtown were more walkable, that few more people would choose not to drive there. But but, you know, make take one public transit and stay there a long time rather than just zipping down. And, you know, it’s another case for for, again, I guess making the lice more mobility friendly, or, or, you know, something, because you’re right, young people as as well as seniors. This issue young parents do. And cyclists because of because of this, the dismount rules, you know, they’re walking their bikes, so it’s awkward for them to
Unknown Speaker 56:31
get down, David should wrote that there should be more graphs rather than words. And, Michel, if you need a hand in converting the numbers to graphs in Excel, I can certainly assist you. And I bet you David could do.
Unknown Speaker 56:56
I sometimes wonder, when contemplating all of this what a number of people that are driving through the cities, especially driving down Main Street, are using that as a thoroughfare versus people that are actually navigating downtown businesses. Because I think that in taking everything into consideration, one needs to take a look at that. And I think I know of myself, and certainly my sense is a majority of the traffic that needs to get going and get through is using Main Street as a thoroughfare. It’s not because they’re giving business to be to the companies on the street. Whereas the foot traffic is basically there for a different reason. And I think that needs to be considered.
Unknown Speaker 58:16
This is Michelle, you know, I’m pregnant. I would. And I, if I didn’t say this clear enough, throughout the last several months, let me be really perfectly clear. The foot care RFP delay is pretty much 100% on me, because it was not my priority for moving that forward. And so when I got back in touch with purchasing it, the first step descent of first of February, my contact and purchasing has moved it right along. And it should be released by the end of this week, according to her, so I just really want to be clear that’s on me. And not on anyone else. So
Unknown Speaker 59:04
So Michelle, wait a second. We can take that out. And I’m perfectly happy to do that. If it’s that
Unknown Speaker 59:16
bad that the senior services managers slow as molasses,
Unknown Speaker 59:20
right? No, no, but no, seriously seriously. However, if I heard you correctly, in February of 21 You said correct Oh, is it February of 22? Oh no. i
Unknown Speaker 59:36
I finally took it off my backburner February of 2022. And and re released it because it’s been sitting with me. It just was not a priority for me and purchasing has responded really well. So it should go out the end of this week.
Unknown Speaker 59:56
Okay, so I can think I can we can delete that bullet.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
or thrashed me? It’s either.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:03
I think we should delete that bullet. I know. No, I mean that that’s okay. That, um, maybe is everybody else comfortable with that? I’m pretty comfortable in deleting it. Sure.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:15
Yeah. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:21
You know, that’s, that’s not a big deal. You know, the other question I had, and I should have asked this a long time ago. I have never understood and my fellow board members can educate me as to why we are involved with the low man Housing Authority. Susan smiling, so she may know. Well,
Unknown Speaker 1:00:52
there’s a lot of seniors in Longmont housing.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:55
Yes, 676 of the nine properties are for older adults. And the through the funding of those properties, they can use that funding to hire resource people resident services, it might be called a resource specialist, because we already had a team of resource folks here. And because the majority of the properties right now are older adults, it made sense to put that person in that position under Senior Services. And I advocated for them. Because I think those folks need a team. So Melinda is definitely a part of our team. And she also gets extra support from Brandy regarding anybody who has behavioral health issues. So we’re working out kinks, you know, it’s not a perfect alignment. But I think it makes good sense. So the city general fund is not paying for that position that’s actually funded through the Housing Authority, which is appropriate, because that’s where the funding comes. But it is housed, I think, appropriately. And it’s been good. That’s my feeling. And I don’t know if Marcia would want to add anything else as a Housing Authority Board of Commissioner. Go ahead, Marsha.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:22
Yeah, I would, in fact, because, in fact, it was a stroke of genius and a lifesaver to share resources with the lhsaa in the way that the senior center has done. The, this is a nationwide trend that between the way HUD has been working, especially during the previous administration, but also many previous administrations. And, and now that housing authorities reached this inflection point where they kind of crash and burn and ours did that, and, you know, could not sustain itself. And the city of Longmont came in and with a truly heroic effort rescued it. And if our different agencies and most especially the Senior Center, had not been willing to step up and had been resistant to that it would not have succeeded. So, you know, maybe we can, we can hope that the senior center might get resources back in fact, it already is right, you know, thank you for three new case managers, but, but it had to happen, and the even even in the properties that are not dedicated to retirees. A majority of the residents are over age 55. And, and so the the synergy is, is there and in it was I can’t emphasize enough it was a lifesaver.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:06
So, Michelle, thank thank you, Marsha. So, Michelle, what we may want to do is replace all the COVID stuff in the New Guinea with a such good work that you did in recognizing the synergy between senior housing, and the senior center and the accomplishments of the counseling people. And that way, that’ll take away the RFP issue.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:39
What did she do with her time? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:04:42
no, seriously, seriously, one slide on COVID. And then I think that that, you know, as Marsha and yourself explained to me that I think that’s a real accomplishment, and that’s something to be right and like the survey You guys did there. I mean, that was really brilliant. And that should go in the PowerPoint. Cuz you did a great job. You surveyed you got counselors for them, you know, the move in and move out with, you know redoing it. That took a tremendous amount of work.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:30
Moving on, are we ready? Yep. So we’re on D goals for 2022. I thought we kind of came up with that last meeting, but it’s here to talk about again.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:58
Can I just suggest that we, I didn’t update the goals that are on the agenda. So maybe this is best served for April, Susan. And that’s what I was thinking, okay. Sorry, I’m not, I’m not up to date. So I need to
Unknown Speaker 1:06:15
put that for April coffee with the council, we who was volunteering, I was on the 26th. Julie was Janine was.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:24
And we are we are definitely on for that. And I found out that we can also have some fake goods now. So I will make sure that not only we have coffee, but we have something else that morning, and I will plan to be here probably between eight and 830. The building.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:46
I don’t know where I read that it was going to be by assume maybe it was an older publication. But I wanted to verify that it is going to be live in at the senior center right. 830. March 22.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:07
Yeah, yes. And in person.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:10
All right. And I know that it says old business other does anybody have any old business other stuff? Before we give the floor to Francy. And Lisa, I would just like to make a motion that we meet in person next month. So we don’t have to keep resending zoom invitations. So that’s my motion. Does anybody have a discussion or disagreement? Second Pruden seconds carried. We’re meeting in person at the Senior Center. April 6 10am. Yay. So
Unknown Speaker 1:07:55
it’s why Victor was Michelle. Mandate had come down to the city manager about bringing zoom wise is it okay to do that now?
Unknown Speaker 1:08:04
It is and actually Marsha could speak to this but City Council has also voted to go back and I did get direction that it was to bring it back up to the board and let the board make the decision. So this is perfect board has
Unknown Speaker 1:08:18
decided. So now we can welcome Francy and Lisa for their presentation.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:33
Thank you for having us today. present president of the board and the rest of the board. My name is Francy Jaffe, I’m the water conservation and sustainability specialist. Even though my job starts with water, I’m actually talking about waste today. I’m also joined with Lisa Knobloch, the Sustainability Program Manager. So who will be supporting us in this conversation? We so I have a presentation
Unknown Speaker 1:09:08
that I will share.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:16
Okay, hopefully I share the right screen there. So today we’re talking about the Zero Waste resolution update and universal recycling ordinance. We are usually we’re working very closely with Charles Kemeny does our waste services manager. Usually he would probably join us in one of these meetings. He’s out of town for the next two weeks. So But if, at the end if we have questions that we’re on unable to answer, Charlie is always happy to answer but it might take him a little bit of time since I think he is back in town in mid March. So what I’m going to do is I’m going I have maybe about a five to six minute presentation to give you all some context. And then we want to spend the most of our 20 minutes today to have we have a discussion question that we would like to ask you all to get some guidance on some direction as we work on these two efforts. And then we’ll end with some kind of timelines and next steps and how to get involved beyond this, this meeting. So just to quickly highlight trash impacts our community in different ways, whether that’s litter pollution, contamination of our soil and water, and it can also impact our greenhouse gas emissions. So the city has a history of trying to reduce trash in our community. In 1990, we began recycling. In 2008, we actually passed our first zero waste resolution, that cassette guidance and for the city in 2017, if you are in a single or duplex family home, we started the PSU throw, as well as curbside composting. Last year, we are trying to expand our hard to recycle events. So we are just ability to do hardware to recycle. So we actually had our first event last year. And then this year, we’re doing an update to our zero waste resolution and in drafting a universal recycling ordinance that will be presented to council. So just to talk a little bit about the difference between those two, the resolution will really set our commitments. I will be talking a little bit later about targets. Our first resolution did not include targets we have some from our sustainability plan that passed in 2016. But we are proposing based on council direction to look at our our zero waste programs, more extensively more aggressive targets that I’ll show later. And then and this resolution, once passed by council will really help guide staff moving forward with our zero waste programs. The ordinance really sets different things into law. I specifically a lot of ordinance focus on there’s other communities have passed ordinance around looking at multifamily and commercial. So right now, a lot of our programs are in the residential, but commercial, other commercial haulers serve our multifamily and commercial. So a 00 waste, our universal recycling ordinance could start requiring recycling citywide, it could apply to different sectors like commercial and multifamily complex complexes, and it could also be phased. So even if we pass it at the end of this year, the first year could be education, focus and not starting to do that enforcement until later on. I’ve talked a lot about recycling, it could be in future years that we bring in composting, or we do composting for certain sectors like restaurants. So we’re really trying to figure out the scope of what might be included in that ordinance. These are the guiding principles they these really tie back to trying to address those issues around trash that I highlighted earlier, that we want everyone to live in a clean and safe community that we increase recycling and composting for all members of our community. And really acknowledging that reducing waste can help support the climate action goals that the city has set. So currently, we have from our sustainability plan have a residential waste diversion goal 50% by 2025. Last year, we our residents diverted 42% of waste from the landfill.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:13
And then just to look a little bit more at composting, we have an opt in program so recycling. Everyone has a recycling bin why composting you need to specifically request a compost bin and we have about 24% participation.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:30
We are a couple
Unknown Speaker 1:14:31
years ago in late 2020. We did a lifecycle a lifecycle analysis to better look at our greenhouse gas emissions from waste. And in that we had two proposed more aggressive targets for the city in our waste diversion that we are looking at for this resolution update. Both of them start with in 2025 50% of all sectors. waste diversion, I bolded that all because right now our goal is just residential. And this would be all sectors. So we’ve included commercial and multifamily in construction and demolition in the later years is where these targets diverge. The first one just has an 85% goal by 2050. The second one that 85% goes move to 2035. But just for the residential and commercial sectors, with 60% for construction demolition, construction, demolition is probably the hardest sector for us to increase recycling in that sector. Just it has a lot to do with current infrastructure that exists. But there’s a lot of regional efforts trying to figure out how to address that sector. But that’s why it splits that go at 2035. And then 2015, a more ambitious target of 95% of all sector, a waste diversion. So just to kind of summarize what I just said, our main goals is that we want to set more ambitious goals for the residential, commercial and multifamily sectors. Right now for the universal cycling ordinance. At a minimum, we’re looking at requiring recycling for commercial and multifamily and residential. In the future. We’re thinking we’re starting to think about what where does composting come in, where just construction demolition come in. So we’re really at the the early process of developing our zero waste resolution in the ordinance and are engaging you all and other members of our community to really help us draft the resolution the in these items. So our main question that we’d like to discuss with you today, with these increased targets that are much more ambitious than our current targets? What are specific considerations for older adults? We started to think about, what if someone was living alone and didn’t need those big recycling and big composting parts? What if someone was living in a multifamily building? What are different considerations to factor in thinking about different places that you frequent in the community? And also, what informed access and education would be needed to help us achieve these targets? So I can I can either leave the question up, if that’s helpful, or I could drop in the chat and then stop sharing my screen. So it’s a little bit more conversational? Yes. Councilmember Martin.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:43
Francy. I, I just wanted to I don’t know where you’d put it under these topics. But for the people that this board represents, in particular, many live in multifamily settings, and all are if they get a utility bill at all, are really concerned with the magnitude of that bill. So we would like to understand for the different programs, you know, in the 85% composting version, for example, is that going to be mostly paid by businesses or whatever? And, and also, you know, are there going to continue to be options that allow people to keep their fees low, like pay as you throw, you know, if you if you use every other week, landfill diversion with the small bin, then it pays for your composting opt in, for example. And, and I think those things are going to be really important. So I would just like to explicitly introduce those two items to the discussion.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:01
I’ll just jump in really quickly. Thanks, Councilmember Martin, as fancy mentioned, I know a lot of you but if I haven’t met you before, I’m Lisa Knobloch, the Sustainability Program Manager. And part of this process, we’ll also be doing data analysis. So looking at those two different scenario targets, scenarios that Francy talked about, and doing a cost benefit analysis of what policies or programs would we need to put in place to meet those different scenarios? And what would the cost be so that we can have a really informed discussion around, you know, what are those cost implications? And where might the the revenue need to come from in order for us to make sure that as you’re saying, Councilmember Martin, that, that those costs don’t unduly burden different folks in our community so we don’t have that information yet, but that’s part of this process for us to learn that in France will be chatting about this in a minute but but we also want to come back to this group before we take a final resolution to councils so that you all can see whatever is in there, and make sure that we didn’t, you know, miss anything or accidentally put anything in there that might have some sort of unintended consequence to that effect. But thank you so much for bringing that up. That’s definitely. And that’s it. That’s a comment we’re hearing from, from a lot of folks as well. You know, everybody’s getting squeezed and we know you’re going up, and we want to be mindful of that.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:28
So do we know what the barriers are to composting?
Unknown Speaker 1:20:38
Oh, we can speak to a few. But that’s definitely some of the feedback. We would love to hear from you all with regards specifically to older adults. So currently, the our curbside composting program is fancy mentioned is only available for folks that are served by the city services. So that’s single family homes or multifamily unit, multifamily complex complexes up to eight units that opt into our service. So not all of those multifamily units do. So just access in general. So folks that you know, live in a multifamily complex and the property owner or property manager doesn’t, you know, subscribe to recycling or composting service, obviously, that access piece is a lot harder for folks. And then there definitely is still an education component, you know, that we’re trying to work with folks on, you know, what is compostable? What are the items that you can put in versus, you know, what are the items that might go in a recycling bin, you know, dispelling some of those fears or concerns about, you know, people keeping a compost bin in their home, when there might be smell or bugs or, you know, that sort of thing. Those are kind of the main barriers that we know of. The other thing, and this is something that we’ll look at in that car cost analysis I just talked about is the current composting facility where city compost goes is in keansburg, which is pretty far away. And so the costs associated with the that transport and everything is pretty high, especially compared to recycling and just landfilling. And so that’s part of what we really need to look at is if there’s not a closer facility, and I know that some conversation that regionally is happening, that still could be a considerable
Unknown Speaker 1:22:26
barrier. Janine,
Unknown Speaker 1:22:30
I have
Unknown Speaker 1:22:31
question in terms of certainly as a senior cost, and rising cost of services in general is a consideration. But I also wonder if, if you know, Longmont Housing Authority, if their facilities do composting, if they do recycle, and, and trash bins, and if they are not currently doing it, if they if perhaps it could be done at one or two or three of those facilities to assess the actual price. And not only that, but how many people would participate in the program?
Unknown Speaker 1:23:26
Now, that’s a great thought thanks to me. But David messaged, wait, I
Unknown Speaker 1:23:35
have to look at his message again.
Unknown Speaker 1:23:38
I’m going to bring somebody ducktail on what David has to say, okay, um, he’s talking about mobility and what kind of issues you know, they might have. So, um, I know, that was one thing that I wanted to mention was, you know, the, the bins at the size that they are now currently, um, you know, with a recycling bin, even though it’s recycling, and it’s empty containers, those, those containers can be very cumbersome for seniors to get to the curbside. And so I think that there’s needs to be some conversation around potentially redesigning those in the sense that for seniors, they have a different design that’s a little bit easier for them to use. Maybe it’s smaller, however, we go smaller than it makes sense to rate that financially, you know, accordingly.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:35
And, Lisa, I don’t know the you and Francy get out to actually see some of the multifamily dwellings. I’m extending an invitation. You can come to southwest Longmont and see 200 condo units and see what we’re up against with recycling. Anytime, be glad to show you but I don’t see how It’s gonna work here. Actually, some people have tried it. And Charlie said, Oh, that’s not gonna work. And so they had gotten every compostable bin. And they took it away, even though we have city services here.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:19
Is that largely just isn’t I but I think we’d love to take you up on that up on that. I
Unknown Speaker 1:25:23
think that’d be really helpful.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:25
Anytime you let me know, yeah, we can connect with you. Um, I’d love to know is that is that mostly just space issues or education issues, or kind of what we’re all saying things both
Unknown Speaker 1:25:38
time. I might just want to
Unknown Speaker 1:25:45
add in. And it may have changed. And I apologize if I’m not current information. But I think the llj properties have a contract for waste. And I don’t know if the city is even picking up waste stuff. What I remember when I was in and out of the facilities more a year ago was there was no recycle or compost bins anywhere in the properties. But that could have changed. And so we have a meeting on Friday, and Lisa and Francine and I’ll just kind of raise that and try and update myself on where we’re at with that. Um, the other piece that has sort of emerged, and this is across the community, not just into Ellijay properties, is how we help older adults get rid of large items, or items they cannot physically manage. So we actually help with some of that in terms of a cost. But at some point, I think that larger item or too difficult, cumbersome, heavy to move. Um, I don’t know where those items fit into a waste removal plan, but happy to talk to you about that at a at another time.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:10
But, Lisa, did you say we’re transporting our compost to Kingsburg? Is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 1:27:18
Yeah. He, huh.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:23
So we just didn’t seem worth it to compost financially. That’s kind of what I’m hearing, is that correct?
Unknown Speaker 1:27:30
It is definitely a big cost barrier right now where it is, like I said, there are conversations regionally to try to get a composting facility closer. I don’t know where those conversations are at or at what point in the future that might come. But that definitely is a consideration.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:52
So some cities do and you’re probably aware of this is that they get the public to compost if they give them free
Unknown Speaker 1:28:01
mulch.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:04
So that is a big for people who mulch that’s a big Come on, oh, we’ll give you free mulch. And then the city uses the compost to mulch instead of buying mulch, so that it’s a cost savings for the city. And it’s an inducement for people to get mulch from the cities.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:39
Thank you for that
Unknown Speaker 1:28:40
suggestion. I also wanted to add to your to your first question about the cost. I just wanted to highlight our pay as you throw rates or setup if you are, if you’re adding the compost bin and are able to decrease your trash size because of that, that is that it is more it does make more financial sense to have a compost bin recycle bin in a smaller trash, then so we do try to incentivize in that way at this
Unknown Speaker 1:29:09
time. I just wanted to put out there.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:17
I’m prudence that you know, down at the recycling center, you can actually go and pick up city mulch. It’s the all the yard waste that’s been been processed and then they dump it there so that folks can go go get that for free. But I don’t know if that includes the composting aspect
Unknown Speaker 1:29:48
I was shaking my head but also verbally say it does not include the composting aspect at this time.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:58
You know, any other questions? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:00
Hi. In reference to Uncle containers, it appears I mean, when I look at my neighborhood anywhere I trash there’s that there’s very few people that have compost containers. And I’m just wondering if a little more education needed on that and let him know what you know, what is the result of, of composting versus thrown in the trash or whatever. And I agree with cost too. I mean, you know, I live here in Curry Village, and there are several seniors in this area. And there’s no I mean, I can understand a year they are not going to pay, what is it $72 A year to for a compost that they’ll use or, or there’s very minimal amount of compost materials are going to go in there other than during the summer months of course.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:06
Junaid Well, I am looking at it in two different ways in terms of compost that there is the compost, scrap stuff that we use in cooking, and preparing foods and things like that. And then the bigger compost, which is leaves and yard debris. And and they’re really very separate things. And you’re right art that the compost containers for household compost are really quite small. And even though they are sealed, when my neighbor put her put serves out, she has to kind of protect against the animals that come in. I mean, they smell there, there is reason like people are really anxious to do compost. And they wonder if this little, you know, pail of compost is really going to make a difference. Unlike the yard waste leaves compost, which that’s a different issue.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:27
I did the recommendation for education is definitely helpful. I will i am also don’t have the specific numbers off the top of my head from our lifecycle analysis. But I’d be happy to share some of the findings we had there that we did find that increasing recycling and composting can have us significant impacts on increasing our avoided greenhouse gas emissions. So just thinking from our kind of our greenhouse gas emissions standpoint, but I can share some of that information with the board after this meeting. If that is of interest.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:16
You can probably send that to Michelle, and she can send it on to us. That’d be great. Thank you Francey. Any other questions? Are we ready to tackle the next up Michelle?
Unknown Speaker 1:33:27
Just another thought Francine and Lisa to tuck this away. But I think that there are some opportunities within Public Works overall, to look at how we support older adults. And I don’t have a solution. And I hate raising something without some thoughts in mind. But whether it’s getting your trash bin to the curb or your compost to the curb, or in the winter, looking at how you get snow removed, so you can take care of that. There are issues over the years with some older adults and individuals with varying level of ability, physical abilities, who can participate physically in some of those? And at some point, I think it’s worth a chat about how to how do we find out who those individuals are? Who would want to participate but may need some additional support to do that. And what’s the role of senior services or somebody else in making that happen? So, as an example, when my mother was living independently, she could no longer get her trash bins to the curb, but her neighbors did that her neighbors did her trash and her neighbors did her compost or not compost recycle every other week. And we are looking at working more with community and neighborhood resources and talking about some neighbors To neighbor connections, but I think there’s some opportunity there to really look at how we support people participating. Because the desire might be there. But the physical ability may be challenged. And it may be even particularly challenging during the winter weather. So just in class, see, yeah, thanks so much, Michelle, I appreciate that. And I think that would be worth a conversation, we work closely with the community and neighborhood resources, and this year are actually expanding a position to have a full time neighborhood sustainability position housed in community and neighborhood resources. So I think sitting down with us and Carmen and Wayne, you know, at some point in the not too distant future, I think there’s a lot of opportunity there. And then and then I do think, you know, if there needs to be or is opportunity for some other conversations with some of our GW and our folks, you know, on the operation side, we can sit down with folks to to see if there’s just some, some of that might be more than neighbor to neighbor stuff, like you’re talking about. But if there are some other, you know, small changes that we can make that help help people participate, like you’re saying that, you know, we can talk about that. Thanks. Anybody else?
Unknown Speaker 1:36:18
Fancy? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 1:36:19
just, if no one else has any comments, I just had two more slide one just to share with key dates, as well as a couple of ways to continue to stay involved in this effort that I can share. So just really quickly, as Lisa mentioned earlier, we will return in May, we’re aiming to have this zero waste resolution presented to council on June, and then have the universal recycling ordinance presented to council in December. I will drop this in the chat as well. But we recently launched an age long one page, I also put my phone number, the general sustainability email that both Lisa and I will receive, or if it’s easier feel, I think Michelle’s always happy to take comments and then forwarded on to Lisa, Charlie and I so thank you so much for having us today. And we really appreciate your comments and ideas.
Unknown Speaker 1:37:23
Thank you. So we can move on to the revisit ordinance change request. Michelle?
Unknown Speaker 1:37:35
Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:37:36
this is just a day for Michelle to reflect on all of the things she has not done, or done well. So well, the board had made a decision to revisit our ordinance and increase our board membership from seven to nine. And that absolutely took away backburner during COVID. So it’s time to revisit this is some new players on this board. But this was a decision to really address the fact that the board at that time did not really think the alternate position was the way to go that rather than seven plus an alternate, we should just go to nine. So um, I sent you out a copy of the current language, it’s really just one change, which would be the Board shall consist of nine members versus seven. Right now the languages the majority of whom will be at least 55 years of age and residents of the city is an overall requirement. So what I need to know from this board is do you want to pursue that? And then this does require going to council it’s a charter, there’s change it’s and that’s fine. We can do that. I just need to get it in the hopper and move this forward. So thoughts questions? And we will eliminate the alternate Sheila
Unknown Speaker 1:39:19
you’re muted
Unknown Speaker 1:39:24
just one question, and it’s really one word and it’s why
Unknown Speaker 1:39:31
the board at the time had thought that that would address the old we just would no longer have an alternate position.
Unknown Speaker 1:39:41
Do we have to have an alternate position?
Unknown Speaker 1:39:44
Well at the time we got it we did Marcia want to jump in here at any point.
Unknown Speaker 1:39:58
board’s consent there
Unknown Speaker 1:40:00
own their own rules,
Unknown Speaker 1:40:04
it actually came up I think if I’m remembering correctly as part of a discussion. Remember those stupid five minute interviews that got to a point. And the real discussion was have the counts. Interview fewer people have the the boards have a bigger part in, in nominating board members themselves. And there’s a lot of dissent on counsel about whether that’s a good or a bad thing. But he agrees that the five minute interviews are kind of insulting, given that the people who apply are usually pillars of the community and deserve more. So, you know, the answer is that you can decide what would make the best board for yourself. And everybody really does recognize that this is, you know, one of the most competent boards that we have in the city, and there’s a lot of trust. So, you know, do what you think you should, you will be doing something more about recruiting and recommending than you are doing now. And, well, I’ve got the floor, I have to leave 15 minutes early. So if we have other if you have other questions you’d like to ask me as a council member, we should do that soon. Next week’s council meeting has a lot of stuff about LH A on it if you’d like to, you know, if you’re following that, but nothing of nothing that other than that. That’s particularly relevant to this court.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:55
Michelle, quick question. So you’re saying with the audience or ordinance, you have to put it together and then go to city council? Can it be sent to city council, and then City Council just votes by email? I mean, this is, you know, to take up your time trudging downtown, when it could just be an email vote.
Unknown Speaker 1:42:14
So I think that the package is that whole section on composition, you have two choices of board, you can keep it at seven, you can make it 25. I mean, the number of board members, you can make your recommendation. The second paragraph, we would ask to be eliminated based on the prior board’s choices, there would be no more alternate. So it is about getting it on the council agenda as an ordinance change. And they would just vote at a council meeting. They have to do it at a council meeting. They can’t do it by email, because it’s an ordinance
Unknown Speaker 1:42:55
that I you know, I think the council probably needs to relook at that. I mean, you can vote for things, important things by email. So that that will live to Marsha to think about
Unknown Speaker 1:43:13
this at this point. It’s an ordinance change, and I have to get it on the council agenda. And I really just need to know and you all, it would be helpful to have a motion. Do you want to remove the alternate parent the paragraph regarding the alternate from the ordinance? Do you want to change the number of board members? And what do you want that to be saying?
Unknown Speaker 1:43:36
Okay, I don’t particularly care about increasing numbers of board. The whole reason to eliminate the alternate was that it was basically a non voting fill in position. And most people that applied to the Board want to be engaged. And that was the whole reason for this. Not that it was felt we needed more people on the board, but that we did not feel that the alternate position was something that most people applying for boards really want to encourage them let me say, in the way we wanted them to be engaged.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:25
Because this was a prior board’s direction which I did not follow through on a timely way. I would appreciate some new direction today. Tell me what you want me to do. And if you want me to make the change, I will start the process and make that
Unknown Speaker 1:44:42
I’m motion that we make the change to nine members. That means we’d have a quorum of five and eliminate the second paragraph and just get this through and off the table.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:58
I second read Second.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:03
tenure hop for Michelle. Need a vote Susan? Oh, all in favor? Sheila, you’re not in favor.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:20
I’m in favor of seven, not nine.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:24
Right. So the simple majority favor 12345. Democracy says we’re going to nine okay,
Unknown Speaker 1:45:42
hey, I will make it happen. Thank you yay.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:48
And then we move on to the ape March or April resource fair in Lanyon Park interests.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:56
So we’ll be doing another resource fair in Lanyon Park for the Lanyon Park neighborhood, there are a couple of older adult communities up in that vicinity, as well as just in the community and neighborhood around. And if there are board members who are interested in being there, and being outside with us, we will have a Senior Services Resource table there. And you can just put your name in the chat, and I will get a hold of you. I don’t have a date. But generally speaking, it will probably be later in April, because it’ll probably be like an afternoon, early evening, or it may end up being a Saturday, so that we make sure we reach folks who maybe have a typical work schedule. So if you’re interested in being a part of that resource fair, please just put your name in the chat or email me. And I will let you know when the date gets set.
Unknown Speaker 1:46:59
Okay, any other new business from anybody? So now we’re on to the supervisor report.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:12
So I just want to make this really quick. I have a list from the last get acquainted. If anyone is willing to make those calls. Susan, I’ll scan it and send it to you. Thank you. There is seven people. So you can you do seven? You go okay with seven.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:34
If nobody else wants to join me, I’ll do seven. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:39
The second thing is, we are talking about changing the name of the senior center. I talked to Erica out our marketing person, and have tentatively invited her to the April Advisory Board meeting to start talking about that interest in what a name for the senior center might be. She and I talked about the possibility of maybe contacting one of the local universities, Marketing and Communications departments to see if an intern might want to take it on as a research project. We talked about possibly hiring a consultant and some different options. So I think she is interested and excited to come to the April board meeting if you want me to put her on the agenda for that first discussion about the name. So
Unknown Speaker 1:48:36
show me? Yes, yes. Yes, yes. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:41
Okay, any nays? Shout out Nay.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:46
No nays,
Unknown Speaker 1:48:47
No nays. And then just the last thing is, I have officially put in my letter of retirement and June 3 is the date I have selected. So just to let you all know that and that’s where I’m heading. I think that’s it for me. I know we’re short on time.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:18
You’ll love retirement.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:23
Janine, we can move on to you. If you have anything for us.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:31
I will try to go very quickly. The area on aging met on Friday, the fourth just a couple of days after we met. We discussed issues that are coming up for them. And some recommendations they’re looking at developing what they call a cupid crew For supporting people that are isolated, discussed how they need to recruit some volunteers for that project, and they have developed a website, if anybody is interested in pursuing that, there was quite a bit of discussion about the marshal flyer, and how they were assisting people, certainly by trying to get Medicare cards for them and Medicaid cards for them. They had over $5 million that was donated day and distributed. And they’re starting to look at as a result of those fires, emergency response for especially for seniors, in any area also addressed issues with Elder Rights and developing an ombudsman program. That would be independent of a an assisted living or a nursing home to work as an advocate for complaints by both residents and their families. There was discussion about bills that are currently being considered, and one that probably won’t be passed, but was offering $500 to people over the age of 55. To rent out their homes. This creates major concern because of people being taken advantage of and also safety issues in and around a program like this. And once you bring people in your home, how do you get them out. So they were hoping that this bill would not be passed? I’ll know on Friday, whether it was or was not. The other bill is a bipartisan bill that wants to develop a commission on aging. It has some very fine goals. Unfortunately, it could be in fact competing for services efforts and monies that are currently being given to the different counting area on aging. So much discussion went on about that and whether it should be supported in its in its current form. So that’s it for AAA.
Unknown Speaker 1:53:24
moving on quickly to the friends, they their new business discussed continuing magazine subscriptions for the front lobby, and they agreed to sign a three year contract. So we’ll have those magazines that people seem to enjoy. The Sunshine Club, which provides funding for dental care for seniors is withdrawing their funding and focusing now on children, which was the focus in the beginning. And the reason for that is they’re not getting the income that they were and they think it’s pandemic related. And then they have a new grant opportunity to get some funding through Fraser Meadows. And we’ll know next month whether or not that comes through. So that’s the friends report. Art, anything for the Latino coalition?
Unknown Speaker 1:54:31
I just like was saying like they were saying earlier about the numbers and commit their ad information that they are inundated with people that are needing assistance with undocumented workers, but they’re encouraging people if you’re looking at working on citizenship, to call it call me right now or when at the last meeting. There were approximately 50 people on the waiting list. and many more coming in on a regular basis. The other thing is Louis Lopez talked a lot about a cinco that mile. So glad that we’re gonna do this after a couple years. And I think this as a board, we should consider putting a booth up for that also. The other thing that Louis Chavez from, from the school district said that there are about 1200 students that were affected by the Marshall fire. And if you know, anybody that, you know, falls into this category, if we haven’t called the district because they know there’s still a lot more out there. One of the, you know, there’s a lot of places that are helping seniors with taxes, but I’m just wondering, Michelle, are we happy with that this year?
Unknown Speaker 1:55:50
Income taxes.
Unknown Speaker 1:55:51
Yep, we’re doing I’m here and in person arts and they’re busy Tuesdays and Thursdays, we are following the national AARP guidelines. So you do have to be masked, to get assistance from the income tax volunteers. I’ve been has put in the chat that our appointments are full, or our appointments are full, and we are on a waiting list. But we do have some information about some other support that’s out there. And while I had the mic art, if I could just add, Veronica has been in touch with Louis Lopez. And I think Senior Services will definitely have a booth at Cinco de Mayo. I just don’t have any information yet. So absolutely. If the board would like to participate in Cinco de Mayo, a booth that we will have. I hopefully I’ll know more know more about it in April. So we have a presence.
Unknown Speaker 1:56:51
Thank you. And I believe that’s all I have.
Unknown Speaker 1:56:55
Thanks, Julie. Anything from economic development? Nothing. Okay. David can’t talk. But we had a whole discussion on sustainability and engaging caring communities has not met we will meet again next week and have an update next month.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:16
Can I just jump in real quick? Our Michelle or, or Janine? Who do I need to contact about the Longmont economic economic development partnership? And did we decide that, that there’s they’re either getting a hold of me and that they’re not that we’re not joining those meetings anymore? Or?
Unknown Speaker 1:57:40
Those meetings are quarterly, I think the last one, or the next one is in May? And I did contact them and give them your name and number. Okay. All right. I did do that. Okay. Also, Susan there, I did attend the sustainability meeting in Dave’s absence, and there were a few things that I would like people to be thinking about. The presentation was really focusing on recycling, compost, but the electrification goals for this city are still proceeding very aggressively. There are some barriers that we all need to be thinking about. First and foremost is that they have their goals for 100% renewable energy by 2030. However, when they did a survey, a majority of individual people were not willing to convert what they had until whatever they use be at a gas furnace or whatever breaks down and they have to actually get a new system. The other issue is that 95% of of use is residential and only 5.3% is commercial at this time. I think they are working hard to change the building codes so that things like heat pumps have to be considered. But it is important to know that as we learned with the fire, that using heat pump systems to replace what’s already in the home cost about 20 to $25,000. So even with a rebate $70,000 rebate, these issues may in fact, become a barrier for being able to achieve what needs to be achieved and the timeframe that they want to achieve it. The other issue to be considered is that we currently get our energy from gas when hydro and solar. And it’s important in in electrification, that we make sure that we actually have the ability to provide that electricity, primarily with focus on wind, then and solar, because frankly, our water levels are going down. And what’s available with hydro, as our drain drought conditions in the mountains increase, really and truly need to to be considered and to be looked at. So is it realistic to believe that in eight years, we’re going to become electrified? The answer is, in my opinion, no. But it’s important that we all engage in this. And we all seriously think about it, in terms of what we can do and what we cannot do.
Unknown Speaker 2:01:31
You see, Lewisville is going to roll back the green initiatives, because the you know, they estimated at less than 5000 When people going out and getting bids and it’s close to 100,000 for some things.
Unknown Speaker 2:01:45
I mean, it’s a horrible thing that happened, but I think it has allowed all of us to really take a look at what potentially is doable and what is is less doable, or at least continue to have goals, but have them be, you know, achievable goals over a reasonable period of time.
Unknown Speaker 2:02:14
Well, it’s after 12. Do I have a motion to end the meeting?
Unknown Speaker 2:02:21
Motion to adjourn.
Unknown Speaker 2:02:24
Seconded by Sheila. Thank you, everybody.