August Meeting MInutes_08032020 - Laserfiche WebLink

coming into the office when needed. The intake unit of 3 is working remotely but they rotate so there is an individual in the office to work with appointments which may come in. In family services there are approximately 35 workers telecommuting, so they come to the office when they need to do tangible tasks, appointments or court appearances and they have a rotating crew of individuals available for impromptu meetings. They schedule their own meetings remotely or on site. Economic assistance has about 35 staff working remotely using the same process as family services. A couple months ago Ms. Ferguson created a survey on telecommuting and 70 staff replies. It is going well. General comments on missing interaction and the minor challenges of going back and forth but there are also comments appreciating commuting delays. The productive and operation statistics demonstrate work is getting done. There needs to be a discussion on the long-term telecommuting ideas. The State is using this situation as a platform moving forward. This information was rolled out to Zone Directors. This only included state employees with no conversation if this would apply to Human Service staff. Ms. Scherling noted the statistical report does not appear to show much change to economic assistance relative to the pandemic which she assumes is due to the additional economic assistance from the federal and state governments. Ms. Scherling noted the child protective cases are down. The concern is for missing cases and children falling through the cracks. Will there be more cases expected once school opens? Director Ferguson has monitored the numbers and noted they have not risen as expected. The speculation is the $600 benefit has helped. With that benefit going away there is a concern the applications may increase. August will be a telling month. CPS cases did drop which the directors across the state have discussed. The children are spending less time with mandatory reporters because of closed programs. There is not a clear idea of what school will look like, but whatever ends up for the various school districts will determine what the numbers will look like in the future. If the children are not around mandatory reports what else can be done, has not yet been evaluated. Mr. Pawluk asked if off site employees would address the need for the overcrowding issues in the building. Director Ferguson agreed it may help but would be hesitant to move people out permanently until there are policies in place. In terms of the state staff vacating the office we have had two leave thus far and until recently the state has asking to hold the space but if there staff do not return and home and community based staff were to work remotely then this would open up 10-12 offices on the 4th floor. HCBS hasn’t got the go ahead yet. Mr. Pawluk asked for clarification on state vs county employees. Director Ferguson clarified there are Human Service Zone staff who report to the state and other Human Service Zone staff who report to the county. Staff who work for the state and report to the state but are housed locally in the in the Zone. This is true of some childcare staff and long-term care staff within economic assistance staff. The rest of the members who work in the Human Service Zone are Cass County employees who function under the state merit system and discipline but are still Cass County employees. Mr. Pawluk would like a flow chart. Director Ferguson clarified there are organizational charts. This includes the state employees. No additional updates for Intake or APS, their numbers have been consistent. Those until now report to Director Ferguson so they are figuring out how to work together. III. Administrative Updates Updated human service zone plan was due on June 1st, 2020 and they are behind schedule. When it is returned the information will be shared with the board.