Minutes 04-04-2019 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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15 Commissioner Price said a more concrete strategic plan is needed, but is not sure if another work session will be beneficial. She said the BOCC does set policy, but maybe the EDAB could come back to the BOCC with a plan. She said everyone needs to get more pragmatic about ED, as opposed to discussing wants, and the lack of money. Commissioner Marcoplos said if the BOCC had an agenda at a work session that dealt with some of these issues that reoccur in and out of meetings that pertain to the whole EDD idea, and resolve the Eno EDD, the pre-zoning, the West Ten issue and discuss the issue that there is very valuable land available but is not in any of the EDDs. Chair Rich said this seems like an oversimplification, and not all Commissioners would agree. Jim Kitchen said Steve Brantley's office could build the framework and come to the Board of County Commissioners with the basics, and answer some key questions. Steve Brantley said he hopes to have some closed sessions with the Board soon, and ED is making some headway with a couple of projects. He said the Manager's office, the Planning Department, and ED have been working together to analyze the existing inventory of sites, as well as other locations. He said many areas of ED are very successful (small businesses, incubator, the arts, etc.), and the only area that is really at issue here is industrial recruiting. 2. Health and Human Service Initiatives and County Impacts The Board received an update on various state initiatives impacting Social Services and other human service departments, including Social Services Reform, Child Welfare Reform, Medicaid Transformation, and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Orange County and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services regarding performance expectations. In addition, Social Services will provide information on current workload and discuss impacts of these changes on future workload. The Health Director and the Child Support Director will discuss the impacts of Medicaid Transformation and the MOU on their departments. BACKGROUND: In 2017, the North Carolina General Assembly approved Social Services Reform legislation (House Bill 630). This legislation contains many components including: hiring of a consulting firm to develop plans for reform; establishing a workgroup to develop recommendations on creation of state regional offices; developing a plan for regionalization of local offices; and implementing performance agreements between local social service agencies and the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The outside consulting firm, the Center for the Support of Families, is conducting research in North Carolina, has completed Phase I of the work and has published its first recommendations for Social Service Reform and for Child Welfare Reform. The Social Services Work Group, facilitated by the UNC School of Government, has issued its first report on establishing state regional offices and is now working on local agency regionalization plans. Performance Agreements On June 29, 2018, the Board of Commissioners approved the first performance agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) with DHHS. The performance agreement section of the law was effective July 1, 2018, but the actual tracking of the performance measures by DHHS began in January 2019 with progressive corrective actions effective July 2019. A revised MOU (attached) has now been executed and reflects recent negotiations to change how some of the measures will be calculated. If counties have continued failures in performance after corrective action, the Secretary of DHHS may assume control of service delivery. These agreements apply