The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, met in special workshop session on November 15, 1999, at 1:00 p.m. in the Government Center Florida Room, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida. Present were: Chairman Truman Scarborough, Commissioners Randy O'Brien, Sue Carlson, and Helen Voltz, Assistant County Manager Don Lusk, and Assistant County Attorney Shannon Wilson. Absent were: Commissioner Nancy Higgs, County Manager Tom Jenkins, and County Attorney Scott Knox.

DISCUSSION, RE: CHILDREN SERVICES

Commissioner Voltz thanked Florida TODAY for providing the lunch, and the Community Kitchen for making the lunch which was wonderful. She advised there are issues the Board wanted to discuss with Judge Kathleen Kearney, Secretary of Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), but she had to leave; however, the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Moran, was able to stay. She stated the Pastor of her church read statistics that were disheartening, and read the statistics as follows: "In any 24-hour period, these things happen: 2,795 teenagers get pregnant, 1,106 teenagers have abortions, 1,295 teenagers have miscarriages, 1,400 babies are born underweight because of alcohol and drugs, 67 babies are born dead, 3 children die because of child abuse, 10 children die because of gunshots, 16 children commit suicide, 135,000 children come to school with guns each day, 7,742 children become sexually active, 623 children contract VD, 1,850 cases of abuse and neglect against children, 3,200 children run away, 2,500 babies are born to unwed mothers, 2,900 divorces occur, and 100,000 children sleep on the streets each night. She stated those are severe statistics; and one of the reasons the Board is here today, is to address some of those things. Commissioner Voltz advised Phil Penley with DCF will talk about privatization which is coming to Brevard County sooner than anticipated; and inquired if Mr. Penley would like to go into some details about that.

Phil Penley advised two years ago the Legislature passed a bill that said all services for children, foster care, child protection, etc. will be privatized, or there will be a plan in each community in Florida underway with privatizing those services by the year 2003; and in the last session, the Legislature went back and cleaned up some of the language and designated dollars for communities to do it. He stated the first part is investigation of child abuse; it can be privatized only with law enforcement agencies; sheriffs' departments are in the process of taking over child abuse investigations in six locations; and of all four sheriffs they contacted in District 7, only Seminole County is interested in doing that beginning next summer. He stated sheriffs who decided to take over the function wanted start up funds; the Department went back to the Legislature to ask for those funds; and that is part of the privatization fees. Mr. Penley advised the second part is foster care in-home services which are protective-type services where a family may be in need of supervision through the courts; and they check on those families on a monthly basis. He stated the Health and Human Services Boards throughout the State appointed county subcommittees to look at that; and in Brevard County Ms. Lee Holts did a lot of work studying child protection services. He noted she took the 1st of March last year, determined the status of children under the Department's custody during that day, and came up with statistics in terms of needs, caseloads, etc. He stated the goal at that time was to determine when a community would be ready to attempt to look at a lead agency; the Department would like a single contract for an area no smaller than a county, but could be more than one county; the lead agency could be a governmental agency or not-for-profit organization; and it would be the fiscal agent and subcontract for the services. Mr. Penley advised what defines when a community is ready to do that raises a lot of questions; there are not enough dollars to do those particular services now; and there has been numerous conversations about liability. He noted it is not a business without risk, whether it is substance abuse, child abuse, or foster care; and the State is covered by sovereign immunity, but there are questions yet to be answered. He stated under Judge Kearney's leadership there was some rethinking of what the Department's role is; and the question is should the State provide direct services, or should communities be responsible for providing those services. He noted they have seen real successes of how they delivered many services without having State employees do it; the entire welfare-to-work process is handled by a local coalition; and they have seen a dramatic fall in the number of cases of welfare in the communities. He stated they are now embarking on school readiness to get children from prenatal to kindergarten ready to go to school; and there is a local coalition that will manage that program. Mr. Penley advised this Fall the Department is proposing to look at privatizing all the protective services, including foster care; the deadline for foster care services is 2003; and what is being proposed is called "community alliance." He stated the community alliance model basically proposes a bill to the Legislature supported by the Governor which says, "within each community there are some primary decision-makers, chairman of the county commission, school board superintendent, chief judge, and the same group of important leaders who were at the public forum this morning; and the Secretary and Governor are going to propose a core group of stakeholders and important decision-makers to form the alliance. Mr. Penley stated in addition to those core people, they would appoint other community leaders to be ad hoc type members of the commission. He stated when the community alliance is seated, it would act as the decision-maker and receiver of State funds; and the Alliance would contract for foster care services and all other services the Department provides. He advised some people are saying they are slowing down the process of privatization; however, the Department was handed legislation with vague language on how to get a State-operated system to a privatized system; and they are proposing a blueprint that each county can follow as to who receives the money, who sits on the community alliance, what decisions they have to make, and empowering those people with the authority to make those key decisions. He stated that is where they are at this point; there will be a bill that will be promoted by the Department and the Governor to create those alliances; they already had success doing it with various other programs; and they are building on making more State services provided at the local level and having decisions made at the local level. He advised they have a track record of doing privatization; the Department contracts child day care with one central agency in Brevard County, the Child Care Association; the Association manages all the subcontracts for all the other services; so it is something the Department and communities have experience with. He noted this issue is different, new, bigger, and has more dollars involved; but it will actually be giving dollars and decision making to the local communities.

Commissioner Voltz inquired if the State is going to address the liability issue, and if there will be more dollars than what the Department has right now; with Mr. Penley responding right now they can only work with the dollars they have; as Judge Kearney said, there is upcoming appropriation they are looking at for more dollars; this year they received 147 new positions to do child protection work; and that was part of the equity issue Judge Kearney spoke of. He noted there has been more dollars in the system, but he cannot say whether that is enough with the growth they are seeing. He stated some of the large provider agencies want to have risk corridors; it is a business where you cannot form a waiting list for a child who needs to enter foster care; and if a judge issues a court order to take the child into custody, that child must be taken into custody and has to sleep somewhere. Mr. Penley stated a lot of providers are saying to the Department after it has reached the threshold of so many additional children needing so many additional services, the State has to have a reserve to continue to fund that based on the increase; they are not going into it in an unknown way; but that is one piece of legislation someone has to work out. He noted they are looking to have an estimating conference to make projections, based on what they know now, as to how many children will need to be served in Brevard County or District 7; and they will cover the services provided based on their projections. He stated they did that in the past when the State had to project how many people were coming into public assistance or Medicaid; and they never issued welfare checks late and always had enough money in the coffers because they estimated year-to-year how much money they would need to do that. Mr. Penley advised another part is liability; no one has gotten a real firm answer on that; county governments are covered by sovereign immunity and so is the State; there are some areas in the State where the county government is interested in becoming the lead agency for that reason; but being a good fiscal agent and extending that sovereign immunity in some way are legal issues that are difficult to resolve.

Assistant Secretary of Florida Department of Children and Families Ken DeCerchio advised this is a work in progress; a lot of the issues are being addressed as they go; and Florida is probably one of the first states to attempt it. He stated the risk corridor issue is getting a lot of recognition; if they take care of the risk issue, then sovereign immunity will be less of an issue; but a lot of it is in process with questions that need answers as they move together in this partnership. He stated there are areas in the State that are a little farther along in doing it; the sheriff is picking up the investigations, but they are in uncharted territory; so the dialogue, interaction, and formative nature of trying to shape a local community's response and partnership with the Department, as well as keeping their eye on the big picture in terms of where they are going with community alliances and what they want to do with child welfare is not going to fall out of the sky with a wonderful blueprint. He stated people would have to roll up their sleeves and figure out the pieces as they go.

Senator Patsy Kurth inquired if federal funds will be a problem because they are usually paid to one agency; and can they pay those to the State, then the State send those to local alliances; with Mr. DeCerchio responding it will be worked out and should not be a problem, but there may be administrative challenges to account for those federal funds in the child welfare system that will make it difficult; and that is being addressed. He stated there are a lot of sources of federal funds to support the child welfare system; entities have to generate certain types of services to get those reimbursements; and it is one of the areas they are working on collectively. He noted it is not that it cannot be worked out, but it will present challenges for the lead agency to understand how that works and to maintain the cash flow. He stated it is easier for the State because the cash flow is larger and can be spread around more so than in an individual community; and that is part of what they are trying to work out.

Bob Morin advised his time has been working with family safety issues, but he will get smarter on issues facing Brevard County; he has been here two or three times a week for the past seven weeks and will continue to do that because they need to move on and address the issues because there is very little time. He noted Mr. Penley attended a meeting with all his peers last week where they discussed reorganization; he did not have an opportunity to talk to Mr. Penley, so he would let him talk about that.

Mr. Penley advised the Department is moving toward contracting out its services; what happens in that environment, is how to downsize and having a plan for that; and one thing the Department is looking at is going to smaller governing areas referred to as regions. He stated the Governor and Secretary will have to decide how many regions there will be; for many years the Department had 15 Districts; and they are looking at having five or seven regions, but he is not sure of that, as it is a work in progress. He stated they will have larger geographic areas governed by a regional administrator who will be available locally; but as they shrink in terms of services the State employees provide, they will need less administration; therefore, they are not going to be able to keep the same structure. He noted right now the reorganization plan looks like it is going to be a regional system; and the major metropolitan areas will be what is referred to as a regional center. Mr. Morin stated regionalization is occurring in many Departments such as Juvenile Justice and Corrections, so they are going with that model at this point.

Representative Futch inquired who would be the local contact for Brevard County; with Mr. Morin responding in the immediate future there will be two people, one for the 18th and one for the 9th Districts; and his phone number will also be available. Representative Futch stated if he has a hard time getting to an office, what will it be like for the average citizen; and inquired if it is really improving the system; with Mr. Morin responding he has concerns about that because sometimes he is not able to get to his own office; and Mr. Penley has it on his agenda to look at it and get rid of the automated attendance systems. He stated lack of communication is the biggest issue he has faced in seven weeks, and they will need to fix that. Representative Futch stated Brevard County feels like illegitimate children at a family picnic; everything is being taken up in Orlando; for two years they have fought to get more equitable distribution of the funds; and there is equity, but it is in the Department and has not gotten over to Brevard County yet.

Mr. Morin stated there are ADM issues; he believes in equity; and as a District Administrator he will look at every county and not just look at staying in Orange County. He stated the volunteer coordinators will directly report to him; he will hire one for each county because District 7 is very rich in resources with famous companies, Walt Disney World, Sea World, etc.; and those are untapped. He stated the subdistrict function will probably go by the wayside and split up into circuits; but they are still going to be responsive to the needs.

Mr. DeCerchio advised what they are working on will be a local presence even beyond the circuit level administrator, it may be a community liaison, but again it is work in progress; but the issue of regionalization is not the abdication of a local presence. He stated it is a scaling down, but having a point person or office that will be responsive to local constituents is part of the agenda. Representative Futch inquired if that point person can make decisions; with Mr. Morin responding they have not done a good job at that level of management; he wants to bring more management than is here now and have them in the decision-making process; too much goes to the District Administrator's Office; and they are trying to build a scale-down approach so that people are making good decisions at the local level. He stated Brevard County should be able to call the office here and talk to the administrator in charge; the problem right now is they cannot get in because of voicemails and automation; and that is what he is going to change. He noted there should be a direct result in the next six months once they get rid of voicemail.

Commissioner Voltz advised the number of beds in Brevard County are not enough for Brevard County children; and inquired what will the Department do to give Brevard County more beds for juvenile drug addicts and adult drug addicts. She stated if those beds were available, the jail would not be full; so if there is something the Board can work out, whether it be funding, a pilot program, etc., that is what the Board will be pursuing at the next legislative session because it is very important. She stated children from Brevard County have to go to Orlando; they are separated from their families and cannot have that interaction; they cannot have education; and it causes more problems. She noted it is something that desperately needs to be addressed.

Mr. DeCerchio advised their legislative budget request asks for an increase in beds statewide of over 500 residential beds with one year of after care; they are also asking for a subsection of that to be designated to expansion of drug courts, linking those courts that need expanded capacity; and there are at least six to eight drug courts statewide that are in developmental stages. He noted if the economy stays sound, and people like Representative Futch and Senator Kurth pursue it, the Governor may give his support. Mr. DeCerchio advised Mike from Circles of Care spoke today about the increase of Level 1 beds which helps the bridge between detox and long-term care; an important part of the Governor's drug strategy is expanded residential capacity; and he feels strongly that a major thrust of the funding of that strategy will be on the demand side, treatment beds, after-care and follow-up.

Commissioner Voltz inquired if the Department is going to fund any of the Mental Health Courts; with Mr. DeCerchio responding the budget request for mental health will include some diversion jail services; he is not sure there is an item specifically for expansion of the mental health courts, but the services being asked for is an item to expand the jail diversion services that would make a perfect link to the mental health/drug courts per se. He stated one of the challenges with drug courts is how to track dual funding; there is drug court administration which usually comes out of the courts administrator's office, and treatment capacity for mental health and drug abuse being funded by their Department; they cannot use treatment dollars to fund administrative functions of the drug court; and they have been connecting with the State Courts Administrator's Office asking for treatment capacity linked to those jurisdictions that are asking for increased capacity to develop new drug courts or expand existing drug courts.

Commissioner Voltz inquired if there were any other questions.

A person from the audience inquired if there are any guidelines set up for accountability with privatization; with Mr. Morin responding yes, ADM started that three to four years ago with performance measures and standards they have to address; and the regional offices will make sure those are done and there is accountability. He noted they are trying to do that internally; and they do it on some scale, but want to do a more effective job.

A person from the audience advised her son is mentally-ill; there are people living with their parents who need hospitalization; and everyone needs to focus on medical research that is going on. She stated a lot of bridges need to be built; the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) is one; they have opened up their research to everybody who asks for it; and it tells about research being done by different doctors in this country and elsewhere. She stated her son is in Northeast Florida State Hospital; the clinical director did not know of the research being done through Shands Hospital; and in March they researched rats and mice and found definite proof that milk causes abnormal behavior in rats. She stated national and state governments can fund research by the Brain Institute that recently came in connection with Shands Hospital; biochemical research into problems is necessary, but it is not being done; there has been government money going into the Brain Institute to organize and build it; but they need to expand so everyone can benefit from it.

Commissioner Voltz thanked everyone for coming to the meeting, and noted they will be present for a while to answer questions.

The meeting adjourned at 1:40 p.m.

ATTEST:

TRUMAN SCARBOROUGH, CHAIRMAN
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

SANDY CRAWFORD, CLERK
(S E A L)