Minutes

Hamilton County Family and Children First Council Executive Committee Meeting March 13, 2008 Executive Committee members present: Bill Bogdan, Laketa Cole, Patty Eber, Frank Fullam, Tim Ingram, Noble Maseru, Priscilla Nash, Todd Portune and Moira Weir. Executive Committee members absent: Rosa Blackwell, Eileen Cooper Reed, Tom Dewitt, Cheryl Phipps, Mark Reed, Rob Reifsnyder, Gwen Robinson and Patrick Tribbe. Others Present: Julie Brem, Lisa Brown, Sharon Colgan and Natalie Ollendick (FCFC).

Todd Portune opened the meeting at 10:45. There was not a quorum present. A discussion followed about the frequent lack of a quorum at the meetings and the problems this has created. Patty Eber agreed to send Todd a list of member attendance the past year so he can follow up to encourage more regular participation among those who are not attending regularly. Patty introduced Lisa Brown as the new Contract Manager. She previously worked at Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services and brings much relevant experience to this position. She began at FCFC today. Laketa Cole arrived which meant a quorum was now present. Review of Adjusted December and January and February Financials: Sharon Colgan began with the February report. There is a cash balance at the end of February of $2,070,573. Spending is at 12% at this point. Spending would normally be at 17%. Most expenditures are on target. Printing and advertising expenses are over the amount budgeted because of advertising for the Contract Manager position. Sharon then reviewed the December 31 Year End Accrued Statement. Revenues show 112% because of the grants being in two fiscal years. Some grants are paid quarterly and some need to have expenditures reimbursed. Todd inquired if there was additional funding to create the 112% or if the actual receipts were as budgeted. Sharon said that receipts are actually at 100%. The yearly expenditures show 92%. Todd also questioned if the expenditures were less than 100%. Sharon said that there were several invoices yet to be processed. Two are from Every Child Succeeds totaling $188,617. Cancer Care also has an invoice to be processed for about $2,000. She is anticipating that expenses will be at 100%. Noble questioned the negative figure appearing under the CAFS line. It was explained that this is because we are spending down these funds; we no longer receive them so we are spending down from an earlier fund balance. Tim Ingram suggested it might help to show what funds are encumbered. A motion to accept the January and February financial report was made by Laketa Cole and seconded by Bill Bogdan. The motion passed by voice vote.

Review of January and February Minutes: There were no corrections or additions to the minutes. Priscilla Nash made a motion to accept the January and February minutes. Frank Fullam seconded the motion which passed by voice vote. CFHS: Planned Parenthood Membership: Patty said that the CFHS grant is due to the state on March 31. It is a million dollar grant. FCFC has been receiving the grant for 12 to 13 years. The grant provides services for underserved women and children. Patty apologized for not bringing up the issue of Planned Parenthood sooner but it just came up after many years of not being in the forefront. Patty gave a brief background: The Child and Family Health Services Consortium is a collaborative of agencies that receives close to $1,000,000 in funding from ODH through a competitive grant. FCF administers the grant and subcontracts with agencies to provide services, per the CFHS annual plan. Planned Parenthood was one of the original members of CFHS and as such received funding from FCF along with other CFHS agencies. Several years ago there were some political issues among the Board of Commissioners and FCF was prohibited from contracting directly with Planned Parenthood. ODH was very unhappy about this but made a temporary agreement to fund Planned Parenthood directly, even though all sub grantees are supposed to be under one grantee’s umbrella. The expectation was that at some point Hamilton County would be able to work out a better arrangement. The current arrangement of having 2 separate grantees (FCF and Planned Parenthood) has created some administrative problems for CFHS and much duplicative work for Planned Parenthood. Since the political climate has changed since this incident occurred, Patty is resurfacing the issue of reinstating Planned Parenthood as a CFHS member. Currently Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region uses $68,550 of ODH Hamilton County CFHS grant funds (contracted for directly between ODH and Planned Parenthood) to provide family planning services in the Springdale Health Center. These services include pregnancy testing, annual gynecological exams, Pap tests, breast exams, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, all-options contraceptive methods and education, and health history assessment and referrals. The grant funds pay for staff time, supplies, contraceptives, medical consumables, lab tests, and other direct health center costs (occupancy, IT, etc.). Patty asked the Executive Committee if they would consider changing this policy and allowing Planned Parenthood to be included in the FCFC CFHS grant application. It would minimize the work and time spent by Planned Parent to secure their funds and would also enable funds that other CFHS sub grantees could not fully expend to be transferred to PP if they were able to spend those dollars. A discussion ensued that included more details about the history of the situation. Tim Ingram made a motion to allow Planned Parenthood to become a full member of the Child and Family Health Services Consortium and a subgrantee of the Council. Noble Maseru seconded the motion. It passed by voice vote. Patty thanked the EC for their

serious consideration of the matter and their vote to allow Planned Parenthood to become a part of Hamilton County grant. Update on Parent Engagement committee, Prevention Committee, SCSC Committee: Patty reported that they have excellent people working on the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Committee which she and Jim Mason chair. They are working on the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund Grant and will be presenting their prevention plan to the Executive Committee at its May 8 meeting. An extension to file has been approved by the state so the plan does not have to be turned in till May 30. Approval for the grant application will be needed by the Executive Committee in April or May. The School Coordination Steering Committee has completed their school assessment tool and it is now being piloted in the North College Hill School District. Next on their agenda is another Inter Agency Coordinators meeting focusing on Family Engagement. They are also looking into developing a training for new coordinators and are thinking about approaching College of Mt. St. Joseph to collaborate with them on this. Bill Bogdan reported the Family Engagement committee is moving forward. They should have their information compiled by June and a plan presented to the Executive Committee at that time. Patty also reported that she is working with Karen O’Connell from Mt. Healthy School district on a federal Community Schools grant. Todd reminded the EC that there will be money going to the county school districts because of tax liens. He recently spoke at a board meeting at the Northwest Local School District. In his conversation with them they were receptive to the idea of using the additional funding they will be receiving to expand the Children First Plan. Bill Bogdan had agreed to arrange for some meetings with selected school districts and the Board of Commissioners to discuss the issues of the tax lien money and Todd will again raise the issue of using some of those dollars to expand the Children First Plan. Patty said that Schwab School will be closing at the end of the school year. The Executive Committee will have to make a decision as to if they want to have the coordinator move to another Cincinnati Public School or different Hamilton County district. Todd said the Executive Committee should make a decision on this as it reflects a policy direction and asked that Patty prepare a white paper outlining options and recommended criteria for deciding this issue. Patty will try and have this prepared for the next meeting. Help Me Grow Intake Statistics: Julie Brem distributed the Help Me Grow Intake Statistics for the previous month. She said that Part C Client Served target numbers are excellent. The At Risk Client numbers are positive as well with the most recent month showing a dramatic increase of clients served. There was a short discussion improvement in these numbers when there is a measure to evaluate the numbers. Members of the

Executive Committee complemented Julie on the results. Patty added that work is being done on the study of client retention which was a topic on the agenda several months ago. Other Business: Todd had three items to discuss. 1. AUDIT ISSUES: State Auditor Mary Taylor came to Hamilton County and met with Todd and others. Todd raised the issue of the certified financial reports for the county agencies such as FCFC, Health Department and the Board of MR/DD. There has not been a resolution but the state is aware and there was a positive reaction to the discussion. The Auditor did convey a sense of agreement to encourage Deloitte Touche to complete the product for the audit or release the documents to another firm to complete the audit. 2. SUMA: Eileen Cooper Reed called Todd to ask for assistance in supporting SUMA (Services United for Mothers and Adolescents). SUMA was not renewed for funding by the United Way this year. Eileen will be sharing more information on the subject. Patty said that SUMA has not submitted proposals when RFPs for grants have been issued by FCFC except for a program at Schwab. 3. Todd brought up the complex issue of the high percentage of births in Hamilton County to unwed mothers. 39% of Caucasian births and 87% of African American births are to single parent households in Hamilton County. This in itself presents many challenges to the children. Todd asked if it was an issue that the Family and Children First Council thought would be important to address. There was discussion of the topic and willingness to study it further. The meeting was adjourned at 11:50 AM