DSS Board Minutes 121613 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES December 16, 2013 2 2. County Crisis Funds Nancy Coston reminded the Board that the agency was running short of emergency funds. The Board of County Commissioners provided additional funds to assure urgent needs of Orange County residents will continue to be met. Working with flood victims has had some impact on these funds. Pat Garavaglia commented that she heard there were a number of people still being housed in motels. Nancy Coston commented that when an individual’s income is so low, it is very difficult to have adequate funds to pay rent in this county. Mark Dorosin asked staff to determine how many individuals and families have not been moved to permanent housing. 3. Budget Planning The County Manager will be starting the budget process earlier this year. The agency’s first meeting with him will be this Friday. State estimates will not be available until February 15th. Given the time frames, the initial budget estimates may need to be modified as the agency receives information needed for a finalized budget. Initial budget information will be presented at the January Board meeting which will be held 1-21-14. By the February Board meeting the budget should be close to completion. 4. Holiday Update Sharron Hinton informed the Board that 842 people were served at the Toy Chest on Saturday. An additional 412 people were served Sunday and over 300 people have received toys thus far today. Saturday was cold and rainy but the line had started to form at 7:00pm the night before. A neighborhood church provided hot chocolate and cider on Saturday. Animal Services also provided hot chocolate. A substantial number of volunteers were here on Saturday which helped to keep the line moving. We also had many bilingual volunteers which was an enormous help. A number of staff had to leave the Toy Chest around 2:30 to get to the Dean Smith Center before the basketball game. Staff covered seven entrances and collected over 1,200 toys prior to the game. The University had granted permission for us to accept cash donations this year. The Marines collected these funds. The agency did face challenges with the quantity of toys available and running out of funds. Denise Shaffer reported that early this afternoon an individual made a very generous donation which was used immediately to replenish the inventory. This assured that everyone who came to the Toy Chest was able to select nice toys for their children. Nancy Coston thanked the Board for its support as well as the support from the community. The program was short on sponsors this year and a number of people have stepped up to assist with this endeavor. Staff hope to have holiday efforts wrapped up by Friday. 5. Director’s Report Nancy Coston reported that Sherry Bradsher, Deputy Secretary, had asked the NC FAST pilot counties to step up and identify issues with implementation. Ms. Bradsher had requested that Ms. Coston and Lindsey Shewmaker attend a meeting with various department heads in Raleigh last week to clearly articulate what is working or not working well with the new system. The state is interested in knowing how the county is able to get issues addressed. Some IT staff from the state office will be visiting this agency to get a clear picture of how it is working at the local level and to identify if there are programmatic changes they can make which will improve the roll out for the rest of the state. The next few months will be critical.