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Home My WebLink About08182021 BdBOARD MINUTES UNIFIED COMMUNITY SERVICES (UCS) Wednesday, August 18, 2021 200 West Alona Lane, Lancaster, Wisconsin MEMBERS PRESENT via Zoom: Carol Beals, Joan Davis, Nancy Howard, Amy Kite, Justin O’Brien, Gary Ranum (Chair.), Patrick Schroeder and Mike Tiber. MEMBERS PRESENT: Charles Stenner. MEMBERS EXCUSED: Mary Ellen Tredinnick and Judy Friar. OTHERS PRESENT via zoom: Jeff Lockhart, Jessica Munsun, Cheryl Knapp, Robert Keeney, Taryn Pratt and Nancy Schmitz. 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: 6:00 p.m.; quorum present. 2. OPEN MEETINGS LAW CERTIFICATION: A notice was published in the Herald Independent, stating the date, time and place of the Unified Community Services Board meeting. Notice was also posted in four public locations, on Grant and Iowa Counties websites and sent to local radio stations. Notice given that meeting will be conducted via electronic videoconferencing. Verified by Nancy Schmitz. 3. AGENDA: Justin O’Brien moved to approve the agenda. Motion seconded by Mike Tiber and passed unanimously. 4. MINUTES: Patrick Schroeder moved to approve the minutes of the July 21, 2021 meeting. Motion seconded by Amy Kite and passed unanimously. 5. INTRODUCTIONS AND PUBLIC COMMENTS: Robert Keeney present. 6. BILLS: Patrick Schroeder moved approval for payment of the bills for July/August, 2021 as reviewed. Motion seconded by Charles Stenner and passed unanimously. 7. REPORTS: a) Financial reports for July, 2021 given by Jessica Munson. b) Personnel report for July, 2021 given by Cheryl Knapp. Two new hires for peer support and mobile worker. c) Team Lead report – Financial – Jessica Munson. Current vacancy for patient accounts position. Currently have 1 patient accounts and 1 bookkeeper on staff. Looking forward to new electronic health records system to maximize claims process. d) Chairman’s report – Grant County Board is working on the budget. County levy may need to change. e) Jeff Lockhart presented the Agency Director's report as follows: i. Unassigned fund reserve balance at 15%. ii. With current staffing level, Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) program is almost full and the Community Support Program (CSP) is near capacity. iii. Unified will share new Electronic Health Records (EHRs) system with Grant County Social Services. Share is expected to be approximately 1/6 Grant County users and 5/6 UCS users. iv. Jeff and Taryn Pratt, Health IT Technician met with Netsmart. They will assist with transition to new system and help with recovering funds related to billing difficulties. v. Emergency services estimates over 100 more crisis calls this year compared to same time last year. Connecting some callers to other clinics due to wait times for new appointments. UNIFIED COMMUNITY SERVICES Wednesday, August 18, 2021 Page 2 vi. Jeff Lockhart is hosting a seminar, “Well-Being Bootcamp,” at the Lancaster library and things are going well. He is planning to offer in Iowa County also. vii. Statewide, counties are reporting long wait times for behavioral health services. A recent study found that youth depression and anxiety doubled over the past year. viii. Long Term Support/Children’s programs. Referrals have skyrocketed. CLTS has no waitlist. WCHSA met with the Bureau of Children’s Services and they will remove previous scoring of Birth to 3 review and correct the scoring. ix. Iowa County now has high community transmission of COVID. Delta variant is 90% of the cases. x. Anticipate moving to telehealth as early as next week. Goal is to not lose ability to serve clients due to clinicians contracting COVID. Carol Beals moved to accept the reports and place them on file. Motion seconded by Justin O’Brien and passed unanimously. 8. ARPA FUNDS: Funds coming dedicated to mental health. Unsure of uses allowed for these funds. Need to use for expansion of services; not allowed to supplant funds from current budget. We will also receive additions to the AODA and MH Block Grants this year. 9. BUILDING LEASE: Landlord representatives approached us with the potential to purchase our building. He had made over $160,000 of improvements in the past year. Costs of materials have gone up significantly, making rebuilding cost prohibitive. Toured another office space but only had 14 offices. Looking to negotiate prices to purchase current building; goal is to own vs rent, to reduce long- term overhead costs. The other option is that rent will be raised $2.00 per square foot. Charles Stenner moved to obtain appraisal and to have Gary Ranum and Pat Schroeder reach out and meet with family about negotiating a purchase price. Motion seconded by Mike Tiber and passed unanimously. 10. SALARY SCHEDULE: Salary adjustment to pay grade proposed for the patient accounts position. 98% of comparables. Wage would be in higher pay grade. We have interviewed two candidates but are negotiating the wage. We have two patient accounts and one bookkeeper that would move to this pay grade. It is clear this position is essential to recoup funds. Joan Davis moved to approve that these positions move to a higher pay grade at base of $20.37 to high of $23.05. Motion seconded by Nancy Howard and passed unanimously. 11. CHANGE TO UCS BY-LAWS: Review of current By-Laws. Changes to align with State Statutes for representation of target groups and terms of office. Representation of both counties on executive committee. Cheryl Knapp will make revisions and submit for approval at the October Board meeting. Jeff will set up a matrix to stagger terms of office and make sure our board is made up of interests in target populations required by Statutes. 12. LOCATION OF BOARD MEETINGS: We will continue meetings via teleconferencing through the rest of 2021. Next year we will plan to meet at least two times in Iowa County in person when pandemic ends. Committee meetings will be held 1 in Grant County and 1 in Iowa County. Larry Bierke has offered to host the Board at the Iowa County HHS building. Grant County might have a community room that we can also meet at or the County Board Room for space that can allow social distancing. UNIFIED BOARD OF GRANT AND IOWA COUNTIES Wednesday, August 18, 2021 Page 3 13. NEXT MEETING: September 15, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. via videoconferencing. 14. ADJOURNMENT: Charles Stenner moved to adjourn at 8:20 p.m. Motion seconded by Justin O’Brien and passed unanimously. Nancy Schmitz, Recorder