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CSC Minutes 10/05/1990 Children ' s Services Council of Collier County Minutes/Transcripts October 5 , 1990 CHILDREN'S SERVICES COUNCIL 0 Friday, October 5, 1990 Agenda Introduction of Acting Chairman - Paul Pinson Call Meeting to Order - Acting Chairman, John Passidomo CElection of Chairman & Vice Chairman Welcome to Community - Chairman Discussion and Adoption of Rules of Procedure - Asst. County Attorney, Brenda Wilson Appointment of Committee Chairman: (1) By-Laws (2) Budget, Office Space & Personnel (3) Needs Assessment (4) Acquirement of Operational Funds (5) Nominating Committee - Citizens Advisory Board Presentation by Jim Hansen, Sheriffs Office - Community Staffing Board Decision concerning regular time and place of all meetings Update on Lee County's Children Services Council - Bob Ritz, HRS District VIII r Community Comments Adjournment C Cti MINUTES of Children's Services Council PLACE: Collier County School Board Administrative Center,Estey Avenue,Naples Florida TIME & DATE: 9AM, Friday, October 5, 1990 MEMBERS PRESENT: Honorable Ted Brousseau Circuit Judge, Juvenile Division Alma Cambridge Nelson A. Faerber, Jr. Collier County School Board Lal Gaynor Bea Harper John Passidomo Dr. Tom Richey Superintendent, Collier Cty Schools Bob Ritz Deputy District Administrator,HRS Dick Shanahan Collier County Commissioner Mary Ellen zum Felde Paul Pinson, Project Coordinator for Naples Alliance for Children, introduced John Passidomo as acting Chairman for the first organizational meeting. Mr. Passidomo asked for nominations of a Chairman for the Council. Nelson Faerber nominated Bea Harper, it was seconded by Dick Shanahan, and approved unanimously by the council members. Mr. Passidomo asked for nominations for Vice Chairman. Lal Gaynor nominated Dick Shanahan, it was seconded, and approved unanimously by the council members. Mrs. Harper accepted the gavel as chairman of the council and gave a brief welcome to the community. Brenda Wilson, County Attorney, briefly discussed the responsibilities of the council, rules of procedure, general liabilities, and restrictions of the Sunshine Law. It was unanimously agreed that the council would be governed by Modified Robert Rules of Order. Ms. Wilson indicated that she would prepare a written memorandum concerning parameters of the council's responsibility, as well as researching Superintendent Richey's liability to the School Board for his service on the Council. Mr. Passidomo suggested and it was agreeable to the council that each council member identify him/herself and give a perception as to the individual mission for service to the council. This was accomplished and there was a general discussion concerning the establishment of a mission and immediate focus of the council. It was generally agreed that this could be a preamble to the by-laws, and that although the focus could be placed in the preamble, the mission would be clear once the Needs Assessment had been done as required in the County Ordinance. There was general discussion concerning the Needs Assessment which the council anticipates getting underway as soon as funding is in place. Community Foundation and another private foundation have indicated an interest in participating in providing approximately $35 - $40,000 for costs. Appointment of Committees Chairmen were made as follows: By-Laws Chairman Nelson Faerber, assisted by Brenda Wilson, County Attorney Budget, Office Space, & Personnel Lal Gaynor Needs Assessment Dr. Tom Richey Acquirement of Operational Funds John Passidomo Jim Hansen and Doug Nichols from the Collier County Sheriff's Office gave a presentation, including a video, concerning a program geared for second-time juvenile offenders. They have proposed the idea of creating a staffing board which will review life histories of second-time juvenile offenders, with the view of finding services and support systems with which to head off the juvenile from becoming a career criminal. The council will study further the proposal for future implementation. The needs assessment was discussed at length and Dr. Richey was asked to prepare a Request for Proposal for submission to agencies interested in doing the assessment. He r-- indicated that he would do so and would have a rough draft for the next council meeting. Judge Brousseau presented a proposal to the council for helping him with establishing a "volunteer judicial review panel" as provided by a statute created by the State Legislature effective October 1, 1990. Juvenile Court is required to do a case review every six months for every child in foster care. The review panel would be made up of volunteers to review the case history and the current progress of the child and make recommendations to the Juvenile Court concerning services to the child. After further comments by various members of the community, it was voted to adjourn. Meeting adjourned at 11:45AM. Kathryn C. Campbell Acting Secretary NOTE: Please see verbatim transcript attached. ommemmomminnwimingomio q _ ,.. Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES COUNCIL's first meeting, October 5, 1990 (The first part of the meeting was lost on the tape.) „� 11 The tape began right after Mrs. Harper accept the gavel as chairman of the Children's Services Council. CHAIRMAN: Town Summit meeting which was held. . . .I can't even remember now. . . seems like it was in May. . . .or perhaps back in the fall of 1989. . .I met Paul Pinson. . . . and I was floundering and had been, for at least two years, trying to this Children's Services Council established. I met Paul almost in an adversarial relationship because I already knew what I wanted done, and he was new to the community and didn't understand all of it. But anyway to make a long story short, Paul and I sat down together and I can only tell you that it is because of Paul Pinson that we are sitting here today. It is not my doing, although it has been my dream. The one thing that I would like to see. . . . we have no funds everyone knows that. . . .but _ because of the commitment of three of our county commissioners, we have formed the council. Hopefully, some day we will have funds with which to do things for our children here in Collier County. Right now I would like to see our council bring the community together to focus on the needs of our children and the things that we can do to make life better for them. This morning I was just talking with Ed Ferguson who had an incident right outside of our door. . . .and I run into this all the time with my work with District 8 Human Rights Advocacy Committee, in which a young man was holding his baby and said his ex-wife had just come and said "you take her. . .I don't have the time. . .I've got to go to work". Now what is going to happen to babies who are left in that position. This is what the council is all about. We must do something for our families and our children. I can only tell you that I hope all of 1 you are as committed as these ten people. . . .noone is getting anything out of this . . . .noone has a hidden agenda. . .the only thing that we are concerned about is doing something for our children in Collier County. This has been a long time coming, and we're only about half-way down the road. The next step is that we have to get ourselves on the referendum and we have to get the money with which to take care of our children. That's about as much as I can say. . .except I really appreciate everyone who has made an effort to come here to show your commitment to our children. They are indeed the future of our community. Naples is a gorgeous place to live, but when you get down, and I am sure Judge Brousseau can back me up in this. . and when you hear it day after day after day. . .that there are children and families i Page 2 suffering in this community and we're doing nothing about it. So I beg your support. Go out and talk it. . .tell it to your church. . . .talk it every place you go. . .the Children's Services Council must do something about our children. Thank you. CHAIRMAN: Brenda, we'd like you to discuss our rules of procedure? WILSON: I believe everyone should be able to hear me from here. Paul has asked me to come to you RI CHEY: Please, if you could go to the mike . I believe Paul has this set up today and it would greatly help . . . WILSON: I'm sure my comments are so important that. . . SHANAHAN: We understand that. WILSON: I need to identify myself to the council? I am Brenda Wilson, Asst. County Attorney, the attorney with our office who worked with Paul in trying to get an ordinance drafted that would bring this council into fruition and as many of you know and Commissioner Shanahan and Paul know very well. . . .there were some bumps along the road getting to this point. But I'd like to tell you how pleased I personally am that the council has been created, is here now, and congratulate all of you for your efforts and for your appointment. Paul has, in his efficient way, put together for you a package that I think has in it most everything you will need to be a council member. You have a copy of our ordinance, I think most of you have probably read that already, it also includes a copy of the most current statute that allows for the creation of the children's services council, which by the way, the Legislature has called the Childrens Services Council. We were actually ahead of the legislature they were still calling it a Juvenile Welfare Board. Negative connotation there. You also have I believe in the package, a print out of the sunshine law. I think you can whatever you need to conduct your business. I know that you have council members who are equally if not, far more advanced in knowing Roberts Rules of Order, and rules of procedure than I, having at least a Judge sitting on the council. . .and several elected officials. . .so I wouldn't presume to lecture you on the rules for procedure. I am happy to answer any questions that you have. I believe that at some time in the future you probably will want to have an attorney to advise your council. I will be happy to serve in the interim until you have I such a person. I have to be very careful not to have any situations come up where I am advising the Board of County Commissioners and advising the Childrens Services Council. As you're all aware, you're an independent council, and stand on your own. So I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. 4 v... r 'age 3 BROUSSEAU: I just wonder, I know when I was City Attorney for Everglades City, the Sunshine Law was rather new then but I got calls from the Mayor of Naples and Mayor of Everglades City almost every week on what can we do, and what can't we do in talking, and I know half of us here are elected and are probably very familiar with the sunshine law but perhaps for those who aren't and haven't, you should give us a 30 or 60 second review at least. WILSON: Probably 30 second review is easy. The main thing you have to remember is . . .don't get together. . . .two or more of you and make any decisions that are binding decisions. You are supposed to be holding your meetings in public forum, the public has a right to come and see what is going on. I think that's particularly important with a body that has taxing authority because the public is particularly interested in how monies are going to be spent. So I think the bottom line is just . . . .it doesn't mean you can't go to lunch together. . . .it doesn't mean you can't have dinner together. . . .it really comes down to having meetings where you are discussing council business. That's supposed to be conducted in public forum. BROUSSEAU: Can you discuss topics that we may discuss here at that luncheon which in other words you always have problems. . .you're sometimes looking for solutions . . .can you discuss some of the possible solutions? CI WILSON: lo give you the conservative answer, you probably shouldn't because you don't know who is sitting at the table next to you who may be overhearing the luncheon conversation and draws conclusions that would reflect poorly on the council. Any other questions? FAERBER: There's no difficulty with us speaking to whoever our Executive Director is, though? WILSON: That's correct. Staff members. FAERBER: Two or more gather with staff members. . . . WILSON: That's correct. It is the same problem that we have. I have to be very careful not to let my commissioners both talk to me at the same time, but certainly you are entitled to discuss matters with your staff members. . . .right now . . .your Executive Director being the primary one with whom you will want to talk. . . and your attorney. And something else you may want to ask your attorney about or even your private attorney. I know the question has been raised and I don't want to give you any advice about it today, but just raise the question and recommend you I tip may want to get the answer to the question and that is. . . .about financial disclosure of this council. You're not required to give anyfinancial disclosure to the county. . . the county is not particularly interested in it. . .but there may be some disclosure to the state. Just a general statement. . . .to maybe. . . .sometimes financial disclosure strikes fear in the hearts of good council people, but it is not a financial disclosure that includes a balance sheet. . .it is mainly to give information about interests you have, where you Page 4 derive your funds. . .not the dollar amount, what your net worth is, that type of thing. It is just from whence your financial support comes. Any question about that. PASSIDOMO: Madam Chairman, it seems to me that what we are in effect doing now, is forming a local government and in doing so, there are substantial legal responsibilities that are imposed on us. In reviewing very quickly the newly enacted Florida Statute that went into effect July 1, it seems to impose specific requirements on a council and those are to immediately after the members are appointed, and officers are elected, to identify and assess the needs of the community and so forth. They go on for two pages. Can you give us a sense of what our legal responsibilities are. . .either now. . .or in the form of a memorandum if you cannot because of your other conflicting responsibilities, do you have any recommendations as to where we can seek that guidance? WILSON; Well, you are correct. The statute outlines for you what your responsibilities are and what the parimeters of that responsibility are. You do have, I believe, under the ordinance . . . .the first order of business is to determine what the needs are. I am very intimately familiar with the terms of that ordinance and what the county commission was interested in receiving from this council, and I think the directive of the ordinance was to come back to the Board of County Commissioners with a study, if you will, of what the needs are in Collier County, and how those needs can be met. . .financially if there are financial needs which we know that there are. . . . specifically what those financial needs are and how they will be directed. That is the first order of business because that is the first step before requesting that the Board of County Commissioners that they submit the question of funding to a referendum. And as you know, we don't have another regularly called election until 1992, however, the discussion has been made to the commission about calling an election specifically for this purpose and that is something that was asked of our office, and we answered affirmatively that it is possible to do that. So, the short answer is that the first order of business is certainly to do the needs study and accomplish that. I would presume that you want to, as quickly as it could be put together. I know the Naples Alliance for Children has done a lot of work in that direction already and I think there's information included in your packet about some of those needs. And of course, gathering of information, which has already been begun from the different agencies and departments within the county who work with children. . . .because I also am aware from the meeting before the 40. county commission that they are concerned and interested in not having redundancy. I think that is one of the major goals of this council. . .is to make the resources are used appropriately and that you don't have several agencies that are doing the same thing. I Page 5 But I will be happy to also submit to you a written memorandum giving you those general outlines if you so require. PASSIDOMO: I think it would be helpful in addition to our statutory imposed requirements the requirements that are incident to forming a government like this. I would think this would be helpful to this council. WILSON: Okay RICHEY: Ms. Wilson, is there any unusual liability attached serving on this council? I only ask this question because of the representation of the school board if there is a legal liability . . . .can that be passed to the board. WILSON: I don't believe there would be. I would be happy to delve into that further to confirm that, but in the other districts et cetera that I have dealt there hasn't been such. RICHEY: It doesn't bother me personally, I've been sued before. WILSON: Well, it keeps us busy. Keeps me employed. But I will certainly make sure. RICHEY: I would like to know the particular attachment to the school board of Collier County . . . .if in fact, I would be a detriment to them. I would like to know that. WILSON: Okay I will try to answer that question. FAERBER: Brenda, I noticed one provision in here and I have just scanned the l statute but the chairman needs to be bonded because she's signing checks. . .either the chairman or the executive officer a thousand dollar bond or something. i So we might want to make arrangements. WILSON: Yes. I BROUSSEAU: Do we have money to buy a bond? FAERBER: I think we have some money somewhere but I guess we'll hear about that i later. WILSON: I thought I was going to be the briefest one up here. 4 FAERBER: Do we need to adopt these. . . .Roberts Rules. . .by motion? WILSON: I think it is appropriate for you just to make a motion and confirm that you intend to be ruled by Roberts Rules of Order. FAERBER: The modified Roberts Rules of Order. I would so move. SHANAHAN: Second it. CHAIRMAN: All in favor. Unanimous. WILSON: Any more questions? CHAIRMAN: Not at this point. .thank you. Page 6 Chairman asked that all council members identify him/herself for benefit of the audience. They were as follows Judge Brousseau, Juvenile Judge; Lal Gaynor, Dr. Tom Richey, Superintendent of Schools; Nelson Faerber, School Board Representative; John Passidomo, member of Naples City Council; Bea Harper, Alma Cambridge, Mary Ellen zumFelde, Richard Shanahan, Collier County Commissioner, District 1. It was noted that we were missing HRS representative. CHAIRMAN: Does everyone have a copy of the agenda. Did you pick it up when you came through? If you don't, there are agendas available. We have several committees that we wanted to get formed and going and I would ask council how you would like to do this. Would you like to nominate from the council for chairmen of the various committees or would you prefer appoint a chairman for each committee, or how should we go about it? We will do it whichever way you want it. How do you want it John? PASSIDOMO: I think it is at the discretion of the chair. It may be helpful, Madam Chairman, if we have a general philosophical discussion as to the orientation of this council, and as to what we perceive our individual missions to be, collectively and individually, and so that we get some sense of where we want to be in March of 1982. (meant 1992). That may help us to find the roles of these separate committees and it may very well be that that will help us in the selection of committee chairmen. . .and actually flow from defining their roles to determining who is best to serve in those capacities. CHAIRMAN: Are you saying that we should postpone it until the by-laws are done? PASSIDOMO: Well, I think the by-laws may very well be a rather perfunctory endeavor, but it may be helpful that if the appointments are made at this meeting today and they're made by motion and resolution of the entire council, but before we get into a discussion as to the appointment of those committee chairmen, it seems to me that if we could each, probably in no more than 60 to 120 second, give some sense of what we perceive the mission of this council to be, and it may give some focus to our discussion. CHAIRMAN: Well, would you like to begin? PASSIDOMO: Well, it seems to me that it is very important to establish a focus, that we will now recognize that we now have and will eventually have limited resources, so we will eventually have to establish priorities. Whether those priorities are prevention and early intervention, as other councils have done, or whether we may select another source of emphasis for activites, it seems to me that we have to develop a mission state- ment and develop some sense of measurable goals and objectives to measure our progress. It also seems to me that we should set a clear and unequivocable signal to this Page 7 community as to what the purpose of this council is all about if we intend to be successful in March 1992. When we go into the needs assessment, we have to have a very clear and defined idea of what we are all about. My suggestion is that we select prevention and early intervention as an objective, there's a good economic case for that, and that we establish that by intervening early we actually prevent the kind of problems we see manifested on a regular basis. CAMBRIDGE: Madam Chairman, I sorta concur with John. We certainly should estab lish a very important statement as to chat our mission would be. Prevention is of the utmost important. Just this morning on the news our sister county, Pinellas Councy is introducing a program for crack babies. This is going to be a national problem, and certainly we have witnessed it in our own community, so I would concur that this would be a very important mission. CHAIRMAN: Mary Ellen? ZUM FELDE: I come from Pinellas County. I have lived here 11 years. I am very familiar with this type of program, and having been a former director of the YMCA in St. Petersburg for about five year, I am first-hand familiar with prevention. Prevention and early intervention is not always exciting, and it doesn't always command as much as crisis programs, and it is very hard to measure "prevention". How do you put a measurement on what you're doing? I think there are many many agencies that deal with that problem all the time, and I think that is going to be one of the challenges, frankly of this counancild. preveHow n iosilo nwe say that we are wanting to fund programs of early intervention,/ and yet all of us who deal with children and are parents, know the importance of it. I would say that's the goal we should be striving for and yet, I think we have to carefully define what we are about. SHANAHAN: Well, I think we've got a lot of work to do, and certainly a statement about what direction we're going is extremely important and I think we have to communicate that and pull the community together. I don't think that at this point the entire community thinks that there should be a Children's Services Council. I think we have a very major responsibility and challenge to get the community to understand the need and to recognize the need and benefits thereof. I am for putting together these committees and getting to work in that direction. I think that how we do, will determine success and whether we're able to sit down two years from now at referendum and funding, but it's going to take a tremendous amount of communication. We've got a lot of time, and timing is going to be absolutely essential, starting nice and slow and building up to a crescendo, or however we decide is the best strategy to go, but I do think the statement is to understand the need, recognize the need, and support this council and this community. Page 8 FAERBER: Well, Bea, perhaps what we should do at this time is appoint someone or several persons . . .whether from this committee, in whole or in part, including 11+ members of the public, to draft that statement of purpose, and bring it back for the council at the next meeting. CHAIRMAN: You think that could properly be part of the by-laws committee? It all goes together. FAERBER: Sure. It would be the preamble to the by-laws. Yes, that would be fine. CHAIRMAN: Dr. Richey? RICHEY: Well, I echo what John had to say about the early intervention. It would seem to me that one of the first things we would do would be the definition of the mission statement, and then probably, something that I perceive to be needed, based on what Mr. Shanahan said was - we're going to have to do a very massive 0 0 Page 9 job in terms of informing the public about what the council is about. You can't ect then to support the council if they don't understand what the mission is of the council. I think we're going to have to pay special attention to an information program that is widely disseminated to all the agencies, all the segments of our community, as to what we're trying to do, and the last area would be that we're going to have to have some sense of commitment with the information program that we're going to stand together in terms of the mission be committed to that. It concerns me just a little bit, though, in terms of the process, I understand the need for the mission statement because that gives us a sense of purpose, but it would appear to me that before we focus focus, John, on the early intervention, unless I misunderstand what the needs assessment is about. . . .we need to think very quickly about the needs assessment, because we may be as a council talking about early intervention, the needs assessment that comes from the community may be an entirely different matter. So I would think that before we set priority #1 as early intervention and prevention programs, that perhaps the most important thing, in order to methodically attack this problem, would be to do a comprehensive needs assessment because what Group A believes to be a/Mcbr?iarYi versus what Group C believes versus what each individual council believes would most nearly get to us through a needs assessment. Now this may be a too complex 0 task, but it seems to me to be the orderly way to attack the problem. . .to set our central focus. That's more than 120 second, I apologize. GAYNOR: I have to agree that the needs assessment is probably one of the most important things we have to do, to educate us and the whole community. My field here has always been in the area of child care and the great need there, and I would like to see everything come under one umbrella, not to have duplication throughout, and I think the needs assessment would bring this out. BROUSSEAU: I think our primary goal is that the council needs to be an educational and informational type goal, and I think we need to avoid appearing to be a taxing authority and that that is the whole reason we came into existence, to levy taxes, and spend more money, not that money sometimes doesn't help. My experience with Naples is that it is a very giving community. We have a lot of volunteers and have a lot of generous people here, and also as a Juvenile Judge I have people who come in front of me and I talk to, that are totally unaware of some of the circumstances. To give you a specific example. . . .cocaine babies a lot of people in the community, " including the users as well as non-users, think that the problem with cocaine babies is that it is addicted when it is born. And those of us who have seen the real problem is that they may be hyperactive, they may have stunted growth, they may be retarded, they may have small heads, they may have all sorts of problems, which is going to affect the community. The school board is facing it in the future, because I Page 10 they are telling me that instead of one teacher for 30 students, they'll need one teacher for two of these cocaine babies when they grow up. And awareness like that and education should be our primary goal because I think the rest will come . Incidentally, we may find that we need to raise some money but I think coordination and information is a primary goal. For two reasons - one is that if we don't get the referendum passed that is being proposed then we're not going to be disappointed and we're not going to fall on our faces and say we're gonna fail. HARPER: Well, I think I will just reiterate that I have been involved in this dream for three years . Everything that you have been saying is what we have anticipated and what we have been planning for. But when we first started, my board of Naples Alliance for Children tried to do a needs assessment and as you know, we are all limited in our qualifications and expertise in how we could go about it and how we could do it. In just doing basic work, we became a little frightened in the duplication that we felt existed within our community. We began to feel that services are all spread out in different directions, where if we came together, and worked in a united way. . .together. . . .that we could do more for our children. . .rather than everyone going off in separate directions. I am totally committed to prevention. When we established Youth Haven back in 1972 . . .that was to be our goal prevention of child abuse and neglect not just to furnish shelter. As you all will remember, when we opened our doors in 1972 the state agency of HRS was born and we were no longer under the umbrella of our county welfare on a local basis, but the state had taken over. HRS would be doing the prevention of child abuse and neglect. . . . Youth Haven would furnish the shelter. But be that as it may, I think the item of importance is our needs assessment and everyone in this room knows that we are not going to be able to operate the Children's Services Council without some kind of funding, so that is going to be a major task. I will say that we have had one citizen come forward with a nice check for $3000 and I deposited it yesterday for work on behalf of the Children's Services Council. We're getting there. Are there any comments from the community? PINSON: A couple of points would help Bea to note, and that is that the statute clearly specifies that the highest priority , once the council is established, is the commiss- ioning of a needs assessment. The ordinance that was drafted does the exact same thing, says basically that we need to do a needs assessment before we go in front of the county commission. There has been research already done and work in that area. Just to bring the entire council up to date , one important note to make, the needs assessment needs to be an assessment that is done by an objective organization, $o be perceived by the public as being objective is going to be paramount when we go to the polls. It cannot be done by an advocacy group, etc. There have been some funds Page 11 talked about in terms of being contributed towards that needs assessment. In fact there are several members in the audience today who represent a foundation who are considering the possibility of contributing "x" amount of dollars for that. So some work has been done . . t. re t free Universities who have been contacted who are interested in doing that needs assessment , and there are probably thirty more who would be very likely participants in that needs assessment, who have told us that it will be a study that can be done in about six months. It will be a study that can be accomplished by the spending of about $40,000. So those are the general parameters that we have access to at the moment. It will be a study that will cost about forty thousand dollars, take about six months to do, and we know that it needs to be done as the highest priority of the Children's Services Council. CHAIR: Are there any other comments from the audience? DAVID ENTING (Immokalee) : Madam Chairman, in terms of what occurs to me in listening to all this, is that to obtain credibility in the community, that possibly that the council could consider holding off on a mission statement . . .or finalizing the missing statement, until after the needs assessment. And in addition to that, I think many times a needs assessment results in education and a further understanding and awareness of the problems and the extent of the problems. And there is the possibility that the needs assessment could result in a body of knowledge that differs from what the public at large perceives to be the problems in the community. So I see this study to be very significant in formulating, not only a mission statement of this council, but as well as positioning the council in the total community of the county, so it seems to me that this is a very significant process, for laying the groundwork for all your work and credibility which this council has in this community. I am Dave Enting. . .I live and I work in Immokalee, and I am primarily associated with an outfit called Habitat for Humanities. Thank you very much. BURT SAUNDERS: Madam Chairman, I have made a few notes as I was listening and I have a tendency to ramble from time to time, and I apologize for doing that, but I would like to do that for a few moments if I could. First, I want to congratulate all of you for embarking on a very exciting and very important mission . I think that there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind. I think everybody has pretty much said that but I'd just like to kinda recap a couple of things. First of all, the needs assessment is obviously most important, the most critical function that you're going to perform and your ultimate goal is to prepare the needs assessment and convince the Page 12 public - that the public recognizes these needs and is willing to tax itself to fund those needs. Because you can have the most beautiful needs assessment prepared, you can have the most beautiful mission statement prepared but if you don't get the voters to approve the referendum, then most of your work really will have been for naught, and we certainly don't want to see that happen. I am sure it is going to be a very difficult task. As you know, the county commission spent two years studying the 1-cents local option sales tax and we still haven't been able to convince a majority of the voters at this point, based on polls, that this tax is necessary and we've had the full weight of our staff and two years of study, and we still are at a point where we think that that tax may not pass because the voters may not be willing to tax themselves. What you're going to be dealing with is even going to be more difficult than that, and so I think you need to always keep in mind how can you convince the voters of the ultimate goal? That is, taxing themselves. The assessment is going to have to be very professional. Mr. Pinson made some comments on that and he is 100% correct. It has to be professional. It has to be objective. If it looks like, as Mr. Pinson said, from an advocate group, then to begin with, then it is going to be brought into question. It's going to have to be conservative. You don't have to go for the moon on this. You have to be able to at least get your foot in the door, but you have to go for something that is realistic, conservative, and something that will be acceptable to the voters. How do you accomplish that? You're going to need to involve the community. It can't just be this citizen's group and many of your supporters who will be here when you need them. You have to involve people who are not necessarily your supporters at the outset. I think Dr. Richey was commenting on the importance of bringing the public into this process, bringing in Homeowner's associations, bringing in no-tax groups, bringing in the Naples Tax Watch, for example, to participate. . .to get the community to participate. Keeping the media participating, this will be your greatest tool to accomplish this. I think that I can speak for the county commission when I say that we will commit to as much staff time to assist you, we will provide any kind of county information that is available to us. I will say that I believe that Brenda Wilson will be available to represent this council. I am sure the county commission will go along with that. One other important aspect has been mentioned and that is funding. I will certainly volunteer to help in raising funds. I have had several calls from business people in the community who are willing to make contributions. They may not be large but in total they may be significant. So I think that the bottom line is the goal to convince the public to tax itself. That is going to be a terribly difficult objective, but I think it is one that you can accomplish if you remain objective, professional, conservative and you just keep that realistic goal. Again, congratulations on what is going to be a very exciting task for you. Thank you. 1 Page 13 CHAIRMAN: Is there anyone else? No? Well, I have just to interject one more thing. I have lived in this community for going on 27 years, and when I first began this, my dream, I would have people say to me "you will never ever get people in Collier County to tax themselves for Children's issues" and I have never believed that for I can remember when we started Youth Haven in 1969 that there was not a person in this community, even down to the smallest child, who did not become involved and who did not contribute to the establishment of Youth Haven. And I feel, that when we do the needs assessment and the community knows that there definitely is a need, they will say "yes". I think there's a very small minority who is so hard-hearted that they can say no to a child. That's my feeling. We have a lot of work to do but I am totally optimistic that we will reach our goal --and that we will win at referendum--- without a doubt. Are there any other comments? CAMBRIDGE: Madam Chairman, it is of the utmost importance for us to remember that 25% of the total population in the United States is composed of children. 100% ® of our youth is our heritage---they are our future , and so this makes this group very very important. CHAIRMAN: I think one of the things which came out loud and clear in the Naisbitt Study and which rather shocked me because I guess I had lived here so long and when I first came here that was not the case at all. . . .there were very few children as I recall, although I had children in school at that time. But now 23% of our population is composed of children ages 0 to 18, where 25% of our population is composed of those of us who are 65 and older. So you have a balance, and we are doing things in this community for our elderly that we are not doing tfRirnRur children. So, I feel if that were a shock to me out of the Naisbitt Study, /then the average elderly citizen in this community does not realize this. They see themselves as "Naples" and that's not so, we have a lot of children and families out there who need to be helped. So shall we go ahead with the appointments. . . .how do you want to do this do you want to nominate committee chairmen ? FAERBER: I can make a suggestion to youor by-laws, as I have personal knowledge Oar that Brenda Wilson is reigning Queen of by-laws. She just finished doing by-laws for the bar association . Would you be willing to chair that? Can you? WILSON: I think I just got permission. 4 Page . 14 ' CHAIRMAN: Nelson, why wouldn't you chair it and then work with Brenda? FAERBER: I'd be happy to work with Brenda. SHANAHAN: I nominate Nelson Faerber as Chairman of the By-Laws Committee. . Seconded. FAERBER: Well, Brenda. Anyone else want to volunteer to work on the by-laws? CHAIRMAN: Instead of going through all of who's in favor, etc. , we're all agreeable Nelson for you to do the by-laws by general consent? And, then I'd like a chairman for budget, office space, and personnel. We're going to have to work up a budget to know exactly how much we can spend. Is there someone who would volunteer for this chairman? Lal, how about you? GAYNOR: IillrItie Thappy to. CHAIRMAN: Any other nominations? Is that unanimous? Thank you. And now we need a chairman for our needs assessment. SHANAHAN: How about Tom Richey. Can you spearhead that one? RICHEY: I can attempt it. You understand that my being associated with the school system, there might be an interpretation that there's a bias being. . . ® SHANAHAN: Well, I think we have to live with that and select the best individual to head up that committee. It is an extremely important one and I think Tom would be the best one, if the rest of the ;board feels the same way. CHAIRMAN: May I just say one thing? I would like for it to be perceived that there is no conflict and so my feeling is that perhaps someone from the "appointed" members by the governor might be better to chair it and work with you, Dr. Richey. RICHEY: I'll be glad to,. but I must say that I am biased for children. CHAIRMAN: We know that, Dr. Richey. SHANAHAN: You know that doesn't go away. The entire council is going to be perceived that way, Bea. CHAIRMAN: You think so, Dick? SHANAHAN: Oh absolutely. RICHEY: I'll be glad to work with them, but I think, Madam Chairman, that was an area that I thought we ought to discuss after you go through the appointments because there are significant dollars attached to it, and we need to understand the procedure that the council wishes to adopt. Are you gonna FAERBER: That's one thing we need to discuss. I really would support Dr. Richey for the needs assessment, primarily because I see it as a committee that is initially going to select a professional firm, and I know that Dr. Richey is familiar with selecting consultant type firms. SHANAHAN: Madam Chairman, I would nominate Dr. Richey as chairman of the needs assessment study. { , Page 15 C FAERBER: I would second that nomination. CHAIRMAN: Then I will withdraw my reservations, and if there are no objections Dr. Richey will serve as chairman of the needs assessment study. (There was missing on the tape - that portion of the meeting where John Passidomo was appointed chairman of the "Acquirement of Operational Funds" Committee). CHAIRMAN: The last committee is chairman of a nominating committee for various citizen advisory boards, who will be working and advising the council on various things. Actually, I don't think that that committee will probably be active until we have our by-laws set up so that the committees will know how they will function, under what parimeters, under what powers, so that is not going to be a very active committee at this point until we get the by-laws completed. However, I would like to have a chairman nominated. PASSIDOMO: Madam Chairman, can I make an observation about the role of that citizens advisory committee. It seems to me that that is an essential component of the 0 work of our council. That is our means of outreach into the community. They are our ears and voices out in the community advocating on behalf of the mission that the needs assessment drives us towards. I think that no matter when they get underway, I agree that the by-laws and needs assessment has to be developed, but they are a very important part of the work of this council and a very important selection in choosing their chairman. SHANAHAN: If I may, I'd just like to add, I full subscribe to John's position on that. I think the citizens advisory board is going to be extremely helpful and important in communicating to the public at large. It is probably, after the needs assessment, I think one of the most important committees that we are going to address. FAERBER: As well as communicating back to us. SHANAHAN: Oh absolutely. It's two way communication, so I think RICHEY: Madam Chairman, would it be appropriate to put that request in abeyance until the council further organizes and works? I think you will have input from the community and input from other council members and perhaps someone will step forward and express a strong interest in heading that committee, at the appropriate time. CHAIRMAN: I think that is a good suggestion, so why don't we just put that away for the present time, and discuss it at a later meeting. CHAIRMAN: We have asked Jim Hansen to come here, not particularly to say that the council is going to take on any program but one of the things that we would like to do Page 16 at our council meetings monthly or whenever we have it to have education from the community as to ideas they may have as how we can better help our children, and we've asked Jim Hansen to come today. Paul, would you like to introduce Jim? PINSON: If I could, let me set the tone for Sergeant Nichols and Hansen's presentation. There is a perceived need for the council to have some substantial issues to be able to struggle with, to be able to succeed, to wrestle with, to get your teeth into over the next year and a half. The fact of the matter is, without funding, which is the prime power behind the council, the idea of the council, there are very few initiatives that you can undertake. We can go out and raise private funding and do a needs assessment, et cetera, et cetera. But you cannot become the funding mechanism. at you were set up to become without that power of taxing, or at least with some/source of funding. One of the things that you can do, is to consider initiatives that can benefit the community, initatives that are primarily self-funded. I think what you're going to hear today is a presentation by Sergeants Hanson and Nichols in presenting a proposal to you, not to ask for a decision today, but just to listen, and at some point in time for the council to make a decision adopting this particular proposal that will indeed be self-funded over the next year and a half, one that will accomplish a tremendous need in the community. Now to balance what I just said out I think it is incumbent upon the council to consider the following fact one of guoizc ing philosophies needs to be. . .has to be. . . .that the council can become the unifier of service providers in our county. It can become the instrument by which all the fragmentation0 ceara ate cetera, is eliminated. And it will only become that, in my opinion, if it is perceived by other service providers as being egalitarian, as being fair to all. And so I think in my reservation and note to make to you as you hear the presentation you're going to hear now, is that the council was set up to look at the comprehensive needs of the children not just one slice. You're going to hear a slice, and an important slice. With that note PINSON: If we could, would the council please come and sit in the reserved seats? HANSON: Good morning everyone, on behalf of the Sheriff's Department and everyone in our department, I want to extend our since congratulations to the Children's Services Council on your first birthday this morning. We are as excited as you are about the prospects of your communicating to the community the needs of our children, and I think as Mrs. Cambridge said the community is only going to be as healthy and the quality of life is only going to be as good as the care we give our children. Paul did ask us to come Lam �lad at down and talk today, and/Doug s wi� me. I think I'd rather be in a bar fight than ant to be in a room full of ��iiiIict advocates. So if I get a little nervous. . . .I am nervous. . . . bear with me. I want to talk a little about the history of the information that we're going to be giving you . A couple of years ago Dan, Don Hunter who then thought he was really working for a living asked Doug and I to visit some other counties and explore 4 Page 17 what they were doing in terms of innovative techniques for career criminal fall-throughs .. and tracking, and juvenile tracking. Juvenile delinquency and habitual offender type tracking. We went out and looked. . .and Doug is a very careful driver. . .never breaks the speed limit, so we had lots of hours to expand the dialogue, talking with each other. We think that we came up with some innovative ideas on the whole thing, and we found that none of the other counties that we visited. . .agencies that we visited were linking the two.And we thought that there really is an apparent link between the two. . . .between the habitual offenders as juveniles. . . .and how they go on to become career criminals, and the impact that they have on the quality of life of people in our community. So we spent a lot of hours talking and came back, and we got a telephone call from Larry Raab of HRS who said "hey, I think it's a good idea if you start a Juvenile Justice Task Force". We said yeah it'd be great. . .a great forum and a great system for us to exchange our views and see if we can develop some things. So really the product of what you're going to see today is the product of that Juvenile Justice Tax Force. The school system, Dr. Morris is represented on that, Larry Raab, and many citizens who are child advocates are working on that. We may not appear so, but Doug and I are just as mu. h child advocates as the rest of you. I've been with the Sheriff's Department for 14 years, all in the juvenile division, so I am a believer in kids as 0 well. What we need to do is give ourselves a little perspective on juvenile crime, and try to give us a working base. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preveni Federal office, says that 40% basically, give or take, 30% in rural areas, and almost 50% in cities and 20%/i°s allcrimesjuveniles, and as Bea mentioned they only represent about 25% of our population. So we say "gee, 25% of our population is doing almost 40% of our crime.- When we break that down, and we have to break it down to the age who has the ability to commit a crime, from 9 to 18, very few children under 9 are committing crimes. So we find when we break this in half, that roughly 13% of our population is doing almost 40% of our crime. That's terrible. We break it down even further when we study these particular kids . . .we found that 3 to 5% of these kids were doing 80 to 90% of these crimes. In other words, it is the same kids over and over again who are doing the crimes. The criminal justice system is nothing but a revolving door for these kids. . . .there's no comprehensive treatment . . .there's no real meaningful consequences . . .there's nothing in place that's going to change these children's behavior. These children accumulate anywhere from 20, 30, to 40 arrests in their young juvenile careers. So we broke it down and tried to look at it further. . . .and said "gee, who are these kids"? Who are these kids who are our repeat offenders? And we found that 65% of these children are never rearrested so perhaps we'd say "well gee the recidivism rate is only 35% and that's not too bad". We broke it down even further and of the 35% that were left, about half were arrested one or two more times. Then the remaining kids were the ones who became your habitual offenders. Page 18 About 15% are the children who go on to be your habitual offenders. And we said, well what's the difference between this group and this group? Well, the main reason that this group of children were not brought back into the system was because they came from fairly functional families. They had moms or dads, or both parents, who basically cared. This other group of kids came from dysfunctional families. . . .children of divorce. . .single parents children of neglect, abuse, alcoholic and drug using families, and parents who were just not invoved in their children's lives. There was no support base or anything to makes these children want to change their behavior. A few hours of treatment over here. . .and a few hours over here. . . . are not effective in changing these children's behavior. We think that there's where the challenge which lies before us is. What we want you to do today is have you meet some of those kids. . .this is a short video. . .about 11 minutes . . .and it has half a dozen of these habitual offenders. They're going to be talking about themselves, how they got into what they're doing, and there will be a brief history about their criminal activity. I think there is a point to remember about these kids JJDP says that 99% of these kids will grow up to be adult career criminals. These are the people who are menacing and terrorizing our community, and yet these kids don't really have a chance to change. So when Paul asked us to come down, this 0 is the challenge we'd like to present to the Children's Services Council. I'd like for you to view these kids, check out their values, their morals, whether or not they have a conscience, how they view themselves as members of society, and it's going to be pretty enlightening. (11 minute video viewing) alcoholic HANSON: Curtis was from a single/mother. . .had no guidance nothing to go home to was victim of abuse. Obviously we're a little late with Curtis. He's been to 25 years, he'll go in under the Youthful Offender's Act . . .will probably serve 3 or 4 years. . . .and come out . . .he's already chosen Collier County as where he wants to live . . .he'll come out fixed, healthy, and ready to join the mainstream of society. Right? NICHOLS: Wrong. Good morning. It is a pleasure to talk to you. Unfortunately what we want to talk to you about isn't so pleasurable, but we feel that it is important. The reality of the matter is, unfortunately experience tells us that Curtis Lee Wright Cis going to come back just as broken as the day he went into prison. He's going to come back as a predator, with no conscience, and a bad attitude. He is going to come back as an occupational felon. . . .as a giver. . . .not a taker and what's worse, he won't be alone. Jim has already told you that we know generally speaking, that about 98 to 99% Page 19 of the serious juvenile offenders . . . .the Curtis Lee Wrights, the Richey Waltons, and the Avery Hartley's of this world, go on to become adult career criminals it is a fact of life. These adult career criminals are the 5% of our criminal population who we know are committing the majority of our crimes. It's interesting that the percentage of adult career criminals . . . .that are the worst of the worst coincidentally is the same percentage of serious juvenile offenders as a whole who have committed a majority of the crimes. Every one of these youths that we lose, from this point to that point, and everyone who crosses this threshold into adult career criminals, carried a heavy toll on us as citizens as taxpayers, and service providers. The impact of the situation can be seen clearly, thanks to a Rand study which was done in the early 1980's. The Rand Corporation in conjunction with the National Institute of Justice did a study . . .and inthat, they discovered a career criminal, a hard-core career criminal, is responsible for about from 187 to 287 crimes per year. Now we can safely and confidently round that off to about 200 crimes a year when you consider that in the study they found that a small element of this 5% might actually be responsible for upwards of 1000 crimes per year. To put this in perspective, the Rand Corporation went one step further to put a price tag on an average crime, and they figured that an average crime 0 anywhere it may be committed, is worth about $2,300 in average loss. Now you might think that's high because a stolen bicycle doesn't cost that much, and so forth. But you have to look at the big picture. There are a lot of costs we don't see. No. 1 - the insurance loss. The loss the company takes - the added premium you have to pay - the loss to our community in terms of our tax dollars going to enforcement - the conviction of this person - the investigation - the apprehension - the detainment - and the prosecution of this individual. All carry a heavy toll. So according to this formula, we can take 200 crimes a year at an average of cost of $2300 per crime - that is $460,000 impact on the quality of our lives by one criminal in one year. $460,000 in losses by one career criminal in one year. This doesn't take into account the human factor - the pain, suffering, the fear, mistrust, community unrest, and the loss of life. It is hard to put a dollar value on that. But this we can qualify. But here's the really scary part - in addition to the substantial populations of adult career criminals that we already have on the streets, that we are trying to deal with, there are estimates to say that about sixty serious habitual juvenile offenders make this transition every year to the big time! A They become our new career criminals. In 1988 the Collier County Sheriff's Department began to use the newly strengthened offender law to more effectively incapacitate the adult career criminals on this side. Very quickly we realized that to make a program, or a strategy that would really effectively deal with the career criminal problem in the long term, we would have to find some way to interrupt the cycle, that creates this Page 20 career criminal, as much as we possibly could. We realized that to effectively pursue a group that was compoun�dy ti0 new faces every year, we had to find a particular point - to focus ourselves on a particular group - that we might have a good chance of interceding with in turning them around. We selected the second arrest juvenile offender as this target group - as our target point. We did that because they immediately follow the 65% who are never going to come back after their first arrest - and they immediately precede this 35% that are going to come back over and over again. Right here we have a chance at them. After selecting the target group which we call "juveniles at risk" or "JR's" for short, we decided that we needed a systematic way of getting the whole story on the juvenile. Not just the fragmented pieces that all of individually in the system happened to know about this kid, but the whole big picture, and put it into one centralized location where we can follow him. Chapter 39 of the Florida Statutes actually helps us in this matter. It encourages Florida sheriffs to create informational systems or files to maintain a data base on at-risk youthful offenders and juvenile delinquent offenders for the express purpose of using the information to help prevent this kid from coming back into the system. It is specifically intended for preventing re-entry into the criminal justice system. I am proud to share with you today, thanks to a Federal grant which we have been operating under for two years and going into our third year, thanks to funding from Tallahassee, we are presently able to track and profile in great detail, this second-arrest offender and in doing so create, what we call a multi-agency information sheet. The multi-information sheet has to do with social background, scholastic background, criminal background, and family background of this individual. It involves whether the kid is involved in substance abuse, if the family members are, what his family life is like, what his interests are, how well he's doing in school, where his strong points are, where his weak points are. When we have this report compiled we want to know, and we hope to be able to say exactly who John is, and how he got here to the second arrest in the criminal justice system. This MIS . . . .multi-informational sheet. . . .is intended to be a road map for a group of system and community professionals to make a comprehensive strategy rehabilitation program for Johnny that has never been available before. We want it to be a blueprint for them to decide exactly where we can help him. . .where we can fill in the blanks to lift him up and prevent him from going any farther, if humanly possible. We want to give him one good chance, and we know that because of the numbers involved, we can't involve every kid in this program . . . .but we want to give THIS kid one good chance of going from bad to better instead of going from bad to worse. 0 So we understand who this person is . . . .we understand who this juvenile is we now understand what his problems are . . .we now have in our hands a picture of him such as the system has never seen before. What are we going to do about it? Page 21 HANSON: And therein lies the gap, and therein lies the challenge to the Children's Services Council. We think we can tell you who this kid is. . .we can tell you what his problems are . . .but there's nothing there for him now. There's nothing in existence that is going to change this kid from this path unless he can do it on his own. Again, you gotta remember. . .this kid comes from a dysfunctional family . . . 4 that's the key element no support, no values, no meaningful consequences. For instance the other day I did a presentation to a rehabilitation center and I asked the kids. "how many of you guys run your families and are in charge at home? About 80$ of the kids raised their hands. They knew. And therein lies the problem. We recently went to a seminar - will just briefly relate the story to you. Omar Vendez was the guest speaker there, who is a Cuban American. He said "when I was 11 years I lived in Cuba. We had sixty people in our village . . .lived in thatched huts with dirt floors. . .but I had sixty parents. Everybody in my village cared for me. We moved to America, both parents started working, I was alone, I was in the streets, I was out committing crimes". At 13 he was an alcoholic. He remembers puncturing a tire on a car a few blocks from where he lived, and he saw a man looking out the Qwindow seeing him doing it. He said "oh my gosh, I'm in trouble now." What did the fellow do? He closed the window. And that's the kind of caring and the way we treat our kids now. Do not get involved. Omar took that as a message and continued his activity , was arrested three or four times, until a Metro-Dade police officer . . . just happened to be a police officer who was a significant brother in this boy's life. By the way, speaking of brothers anybody know how many Big Brothers and Big Sisters we have in this community? None not one. Anyway, it happened to be a Metro Dach officer who made Omar play on his baseball team, went and picked him up and brought him to practice. Omar went on to finish high school, went to Florida State on a baseball scholarship, has a master's degree in psychology. He said the significant person in his life happened to be a police officer, and said he was going to dedicate five years of his life to law enforcement. He did 7 years undercover in Boliva, joined the DEA and did another 6 years in Mexico City, and now he is in charge in the State of Florida for DEA training. That's just one story. Omar says he doesn't understand this country . . . .he can't understand why we treat our kids the way we do, why we can't provide for these kinds of kids. . .which was where he was at. And therein lies the challenge. We have an idea. It is the creation of a staffing ® board . . . .all those professionals who have sat on this board for two years now. We have an idea that we think WILL make a difference. We just need an organization . . .an entity. . .that is willing to undertake this idea and make a difference for these kids. This is essentially our proposal today. Think about this problem, think of the impact that it has on our kids and community. Not only do we owe these kids financially. . . .but Ammo Page 22 we owe them morally to make a difference. We owe them this chance. And we're not providing them this chance now. So we'd like for you to entertain these thoughts and maybe bring is back to talk in more detail later on. But at the very least, some of you are now aware of these problems. We want to thank you for your time and attention. We really do. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Jim, very much. The next item of business is to decide on when and where our regular meetings will be. PASSIDOMO: Madam chairman, I think Commissioner Saunders made some excellent points. It seems to me that our meetings, and the way we hold our meetings say a lot about how this Children's Services Council will become part of our community. If we use our meetings as an outreach into the community, we could perhaps consider moving that to different parts of the community and use it to educate this community, do regular presentations by service providers as to their perception of the needs of the community, in addition to doing our own needs assessments it may be that the meetings themselves say as much about the role of this children's services council Q in this community as anything else. So it seems to me that it may be a good idea for us tc consider the possibility of putting these meetings on a regular rotating basis to outreach in different parts of the community to use it as a means to encourage others to participate in this process as to how often we meet. That's something that we may to discuss here as well, but I just think the matter of our meetings says an awful lot about this council. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, John. How often . . . .once a month? SHANAHAN: I think monthly meetings would be very important, particularly at this organizational start-up time. Monthly certainly wouldn't be too much. CHAIRMAN: Today is the first Friday in the month. Is that appropriate for all the council members? SHANAHAN: Friday is a good day for me. CHAIRMAN: Is everyone agreeable to that? If there are no objections, then the first Friday of every month. SHANAHAN: First Friday of every month? CHAIRMAN: Yes. Until such time as we decide to change it. RITZ: I'm sorry to interrupt. CHAIRMAN: Oh sure. I want to introduce . . . .Bob, would you introduce yourself? RITZ: I'm Bob Ritz. I would like to apologize for being late but I had this scheduled for LOAM and I intend to go back and shoot the messenger when I get back. CHAIRMAN: Bob is our representative from HRS and. . . .so we forgive you for being late, Bob. And I was thinking. . . .you have to come from Fort Myers. Is 10 o'clock Page 23 a better time for most of us. . .or is 9 o'clock better? RITZ: 9 is okay. OTHER COUNCIL MEMBERS: 9 is fine. CHAIRMAN: 9 o'clock then, the first Friday of each month. SHANAHN: Who's going to be responsible for selecting the location? CHAIRMAN: Well, what I was thinking when John was talking about that, if it is agreeable with everyone maybe what we should do is ask Paul to think up locations. PINSON: I've got some good thoughts. CHAIRMAN: Dave, did you want to say something? DAVE ENTING: Thank you, madam chairman. If I could just briefly ask the council to consider possibly during the first year of operation, consider possibly some meetings other than early morning or daytime. . .specifically evening meetings. Possibly not necessarily on a permanent basis, but maybe during your first year in order to assess whether potentially daytime meetings may not allow certain segments of the population to hear you and to see you and have an opportunity to participate in the work of the council. . .primarily the 40 hour work-week people in the community. Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Dave. Well, then if it is agreeable with the council, perhaps we should just let Paul work out a schedule and present it at the next board meeting as to locations and how we will alternate go from place to place. If we set up a schedule permanently, then the people in Golden Gate, North Naples, downtown Naples or whatever, could have it as a permanent schedule. SHANAHAN: Certainly Dave's idea of an occasional meeting at night would be in good order to give people an opportunity to participate. There's always been criticism of certain meetings that take place during the work-day and people who are unable to get there so it's certainly something that we ought to very seriously consider. CHAIRMAN: I agree, because if we are going to get the families involved, we need that communication with them. Then should we take a vote on the first Friday of every month? SHANAHAN: You did. CHAIRMAN: Bob, we were going to have you give us an update on Lee County's Children's Services Council. RITZ: Right. As most of you probably know on September 12th the Lee County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the establishment of the Lee County Children's Services Council. It was a public hearing, and I must admit that hearing was packed. . .there were people in the balconies . . .you couldn't get a seat. . . .it was standing room only. There was a tremendous amount of support for the council in Lee County. Right now we are in the process of identifying a steering committee for the council, identifying the five members at large, to present to the Commissioner Manning and the Lee County Commission. We're going to have a retreat on the 14th p. Page .24 starting at LOAM which is Sunday, and we'll go on to as how long as it will go to map out our plan for the campaign for the referendum. The council was approved and we agreed that we would not go to the public for referendum for the special taxing district until next year. At this retreat we hope to have a plan mapped1°strrategys, etc. and go forward in the fall of next year. SHANAHAN: That means you're going to have a special referendum? RITZ: Yes. CHAIRMAN: Rather than to wait until 1992, is what you're saying? SHANAHAN: What kind of cost is associated with that kind of special referendum? RITZ: I don't know at this point. We should have a much better feel of that after the meeting on the 14th. We would like to invite some of the folks here to come to that meeting, if you'd like. It will be at the HRS Office in Fort Myers on College Parkway and we start at LOAM. CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Are there any other comments or anything else? RICHEY: Yes, Madam Chairman, I'd like to know about the needs assessment. . . . what are the time lines this council would like to establish for it? I think that is going to be predicated on the dollars. . . .availability of funds. . . .and does the council wish to have a Request for Proposal developed and approved by this council, prior to dissemination? It's easy to say "you're assigned the needs ilia assessment". . . .there's a lot involved in this and I want to make sure that I am following the wishes of the council as we look to the needs assessment because the integrity of it and the validity of it are absolute essential if it's going to meet the needs of the community. So I know that Paul's already spent some time on it in discussion but how do you wish to ,11 CHAIRMAN: Well, Paul has really been our acting Director. RICHEY: What is the time line, I think. . . PINSON: Tom, let me give you an answer by way of saying that the two members of the audience representing the Community Foundation are here today partaking of this meeting. The Community Foundation is the organization that has not agreed. . . but has expressed a strong desire to be the supporting organization for that $35,000 study. Obviously the needs assessment cannot be done without funds. First, John, if you don't mind . . . .when is your first organizational meeting, now. NAGEL: Well, the next board meeting is October 16th. There are just two or three or us, as you know who have been very much interested from the beginning, in all of this, but there are a number of members of the Board who just don't know anything about it, so we're going to have to start from scratch. PINSON: Let me say, if for any reason the Community Foundation does not, or is not able to participate in the funding for this particular assessment there is a back-up foundation that has agreed. . . .we have a letter in writing. . .who has agreed in principle 1111111111111111.11.11111111.111.1111111. 6/# 14 lig PAGE 25 oil to be the sole supporter for this needs assessment. So I think it behoves the council Ili to give the first shot to the Community Foundation . . . .they expressed the first desire to be involved. If they're saying their first organizational meeting is on the 16th, I think that points you in a time line direction right there. I think it would be appropriate for perhaps myself to follow up with the Community Foundation's meeting and to have a presentation for this council at your next meeting in regards to what the proceeds are. FAERBER: Do we want to do as a Board, again to preserve the integrity of the study, send out Request for Proposals? PINSON: I don't think there's any question . . . .I think you have to do that. I think you need, as a public body, to go through that entire process. And irrespective of the fact that I have researched three or four Universities including one local consulting firm, who is very eager to participate, I think the process needs to be above board, out in the public, and RFP's are called for. NAGEL: To follow up on what happens at our October 16th meeting, I think it would be very important if you could get as much as possible, in specific terms, to the board as to this needs assessment, because there are going to be members of the board who will say "well, you know, who needs to study the needs. . .we know we have needs. IDLet's go to work". . . . .and that sort of thing and that's understandable. So as much as you can do to give us specifics on who might do it, and what kind of proposition you're going to get from them to give to us or anybody else by the 16th. PINSON: Might I suggest, then, if the council agrees that I be present at your board meeting. . .making a presentation to your board? BROUSSEAU: I'd request a presentation to this board because I echo his feelings. I'm shocked that we can't figure out our own needs and that we're going to spend $40,000 to be spent on our needs to have another study done. I happen to be a member of the public, that I understand there's a few of out there, that everytime I read in the paper where I see that $80,000 is spent on a study that everybody knows what we need. . . .that I'm shocked but I would defer to those professionals here that have been this is my first time on a board. . . .that finds itself in this position. Maybe it's a way of life legally or something. . .and it needs to be done, but I need to be convinced on it. PASSIDOMO: It seems to me that we have to validate the process and that we've got to show what the needs are and we have to prioritize those needs. As Dr. Richey said earlier. . .before we can establish what, in fact, are our goals and objectives. . . .we have ( to get some sense of what those priorities are and how we interpret those priorities. And as we go throught he process, the idea of accountability is essential to the viability of this council. So the RFP process, whenever we are expending funds, whether they be privately donated funds or public funds, it seems to me that we gotta Page _ •26 { always go through the RFP process. There are models out there. . .Hillsborough County and more recently Palm Beach County, have gone through the RFP for a needs assessment. I don't think we have reinvent the wheel and perhaps if Dr. Richey and his committee could come back to this council with a draft of an RFP, we could get some idea of how we want to define the roll of that needs assessment. CHAIRMAN: Yes, Mary Ellen? zum FELDE: I think that probably it is very necessary. I think that often times there tends to be a struggle between those agencies or those interests who see the ah I call it "crisis". . .see the end result. We just have a presentation by two gentlemen who deal constantly with the end result of what happens, and there tends to be. . .certainly that's the most immediate thing that you want to attack and do something and put money and put energies behind. And as I mentioned before, the hard thing to measure . . . .the hard thing to say that needs some work on. . . is prevention. You know Prevention . . . .and agencies that you can't measure . . .those are the things. . . .and I feel that if we are the children's services council. . .we need to really decide what it is that we are going to address and prioritize them because the crisis end of it tends to bring the most attention. . . that is where generally the most money and attention gets put on. BROUSSEAU: I don't disagree with that. My fear is. . .and again, I haven't been there to see. . .except through the press. . .but it seems to me that at this point we ask a university to come in . . . .a university with university standards and their ideals and all the subjectives that they have. . .come in, does a study of our communit y and so we've got an outsider doing a study of our community imputing their feelings and thoughts and emotions into it. . . . and now we come back and we have done one or two things . . . .we've either passed the buck and we may come back in and they say "here's what you need to do" and then we say "okay, we do what they think we should do" or we find ourselves in the position of sitting here saying "sorry, they've misinterpreted our community this is alright" and the next thing you know is the public saying "board votes against what their experts, what they just paid $40,000, recommends" It seems to me that I'm selling myself short to turn over that much power to them to come back and influence us. I don't know. . .someone who's been there. . tell me about studies . . . .and is that not where you find yourself? SHANAHAN: You find yourself in that kind of a predicament in almost every study and survey that you do and that you pay for. There's always criticism out there. Somebody always says "you didn't need to do that you knew what the problem was all along" but you do need that professional judgment and that outside judgment. Page 27 I believe, to assess what the real needs are. I don't think we know what the real needs are at this point in time. And the county commission has clearly . . .the clear direction from the county commission was a "needs assessment" so I think we're obligated to do that whether it is $40,000 or $35,000 or whatever the number turns out to be. . .we need a good professional, objective review of what the needs assessments are. And we should fully understand before going in that there will be some criticism of the very fact that we're going to spend $40,000. Lee County will be severely criticized for spending $200,000 for a special election, and as a result will lose some votes in the transition. So all those things you have to measure. . . .measure the validity of a needs assessment. . . .frankly, we could probably put together a needs assessment right here in this group,but I don't think it would have the validity that an outside organization would. RICHEY: Judge Brousseau, I think the problem that I see . . .certainly this body along with the expert resources we have in the communitycould put together a needs assessment. The problem is "who do you sample" "how do you sample" how do you collect your data. . .how do you interpret that data how do you put it into some meaningful, agreeable report? You know, in terms of a ( ) study? There are just a lot of things that your university based research groups or your foundations who specialize in this can do in terms of sampling the population. I would not want the task of trying to sample Collier County in terms of a needs assessment because I might not look to a particular target population. I might overlook it. We might. . .the council might overlook it. Do you do a written survey. . . .do you do a descriptive study do you do an analysis of community groups? You know there are a lot of really important factors to consider. It bothers me to spend the money also, but I don't think we have the time nor the staff nor the resources to generate a report back which this council could make an objective assessment of our mission and purpose and our goals. I think it is important that we have that study or that needs assessment. Certainly we could do it internally but I don't think it would have the validation or reliability that we need for such an undertaking. It is my belief that when we go to the community and inform them of what the needs assessment indicates, and establish the priorities, then we're all working from the same page. There are no special interests , and there are no biases, but it is in fact what you see. So that is where I am coming from. I'm not certainly one who wants an organization to spend $35,000 or $40,000 . . . .if they've got an extra $35 or $40,000 send it to the school system. . .we can use it right now, but you know Page 28 CHAIRMAN: Yes, Dave? DAVE URICH: I'm Dave Urich from Youth Haven. I think you should also think of this as an "unmet" needs assessment. The resources. . .what do we have out there. In this county we have breaks in the continuum of services, and that's part of what I think you should be identifying. That's what is going to cost some of the money. Because if we are going to intercede with the second arrest children, we need to have a program and service of therapeutic foster homes, and so on, where we can change the mold that they're in. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Dave. PINSON: And as a final addendum or perhaps a semi-final addendum . . . .a comprehensive needs assessment in the way that the council should ask for one. . .should show potential sources of funding. I don't think it is a given that you necessarily have to go yet to the polls. I think we all know that the needs are high and there doesn't seem to be any other obvious choices to the tune of several million dollars per year other than the special taxation district, but there could be other creative alternatives. I think one of the answers of a comprehensive needs assessment will be. . . .are there in fact. . . .other avenues of funding. SHANAHAN: Now where are we, Madam Chairman? CHAIRMAN: I don't know, I'm just trying to figure that out. FAERBER: Well, I think what we have to do is to direct Dr. Richey to draw up an RFP and then we can debate the RFP here as a body. CHAIRMAN: I believe that's where we have to go. FAERBER: Whenever, he may not be able to do that RICHEY: I can't do that in this short a time, but I'll get it to you as soon as I want to sample some other successful RFPs in the state if we could get Paul to help us on that. . . .we can begin to track what they did and what's more important. . . .what they discovered. It would answer Judge Brousseau's concern. . . .what they did not get in that survey what they felt was essential . . .and I think that would help alleviate his concerns. (There may be a missing section of the meeting here, for the next voice is that of Judge Brousseau and it is about something different) Page 29 BROUSSEAU: The legislature created what a "volunteer judicial review panel" in dependency, which is children that are dependent upon the state for their survival or health. If they are put into foster care, then the law requires every six months basically, the court to review, their placement and decide whether it is still appropriate or different placement is needed or returned to the family. Traditionally, through most governmental resources which are taxed to their fullest . . . .courts are too. . .we spend. . . I spend about 5 minutes unfortunately on most of these families. . .which HRS to their credit and Guardian ad Litem, and other people spend hours putting together a report. . .I guess 5 minutes isn't fair. . .I spend probably half hour on each case READING the reports. . .5 minutes in court actually holding the hearing. The wisdom of the legislature created these volunteer judicial review panels to have volunteers from the community formed into panels that would take the place of what I'm doing now. . . .listen on these periodic review. . . .do the review. . .make recommendations and then if those recommendations, which generally are from my experience accepted, and worked out among the parties. . .then just come to the court for approval. Those that are challenged, of course, would come back to the court for the final decision. They anticipate that each review would be about an hour long versus five minutes, and by a panel of collective minds rather one that may be a little stressed out in burnout sometimes. I view this with a lot of excitement and October 1 is when it became available, and I wondered if the council might assist me in getting together the review panels. I don't know what the mechanism would be. . .just whether to inform me in selecting. . .or advertising. . .or if you think this is something you'd want to get into. The sooner the better, from my point of view. CHAIRMAN: This cannot be done under the Judiciary Department. BROUSSEAU: Oh yeah, I can go out tomorrow and put a press release out and just do it on my own. I am inviting you, if you feel like it, to assist . . . if you want to. . .if you don't, I'll go out and do it. FAERBER: This would be putting together the right people from the right areas. PASSIDOMO: I think what Judge Brousseau is giving us is an opportunity just like the staffing board is an opportunity to show something positive under the mantle of this council. This can be done through other vehicles, but this may be an opportunity for us not to expend any private or public funds, but to do something positive and show that we can establish our own track record. It seems to me that it should be an opportunity that we should pursue. Judge, perhaps if you would develop a model with your own recommendations as to how it may operate, and come back at our next meeting with a presentation of that model so that we could gy Page 30 fully endorse it, it seems to me that it would be something we'd want to pursue. CHAIRMAN: I think one of the things I'd like to see. . . .and you know when we first started off on this, we had hoped that we would be on the referendum this November and it just seemed that we ran into more and more roadblocks. The more that we got into it, the more that I am convinced, that the man upstairs was guiding us because I really feel so strongly that we've got to spend this year or year and a half or whatever, educating the community and to also build up our credibility. . . that we indeed are a council who are committed to children and that we are doing things without money to help with the problems in our community. So I see this, and I also saw the opportunity that we have in the staffing board to help with the problems. I think it is great and I think these are things we can do . . . and if other people have ideas that the Children's Services Council can put in effect which don't cost any money, just take committment. . .l think we should say "go for it". FAERBER: Madam Chairman, I have to excuse myself. I have a trial with this gentleman he can be late, but I can't. CHAIRMAN: It is agreeable then, Judge Brousseau, that you'll bring this back to the council. SHANAHAN: Does that give you enough time? BROUSSEAU: Yes, and I will welcome anyone from the community or board who will contact me in the meantime, and if you have any thoughts for implementation. CHAIRMAN: Are there any other comments. . . .oh. . .Bob RITZ: Just one clarification on the status of Lee County. In Lee County it is the steering committee the council has not yet been appointed. So, when we talk about a referendum, it is the steering committee that's wanting to push for a referendum. . .and whether the council goes along with that will be determined. SHANAHAN: They may be much smarter than that. RITZ: Just wanted to make that point. CHAIRMAN: Are there any other comments from the community? Dave? DAVE ENTING: One important point, I think, not brought out in the discussion, on the needs assessment study, is that although it tends to say to a certain extent, "we don't know very much,' which of course, is not true or you wouldn't be here if that were the case. YOU're here because you know of problems but I think it lays the groundwork for community support when you ask for funding a year and • a half from now. One of the critical, very significant advantages of the needs assessment study is to allow the community at large an opportunity to speak and be heard in the formulation of your mission statements and the formulation of your programs. • Page 31 .141110 So many times organizations get feed-back and a round support of the community at large, is not so much because what they are doing isn't necessarily in total agreement but because the community didn't have an opportunity to speak . . . .in this case. . .the council. . .to . . .for the people to know that you have heard their perceptions, their expressions of need. So I think one of the very significant advantages and benefits of the council that will come out of this needs assessment study, is to really work closely on the front end with the community at large with a process that allows them to participate. CHAIRMAN: Thank you Dave. Jeanne? BOOKER: This is so obvious and yet no-one has said it. I think it is a tremendous opportunity when we look just at the council itself and that this is a historic meeting in that we have a county commissioner, a city council member, superintendent of schools, we have a judge, we have community here. . . .and the potential within the membership of this council itself is probably its greatest strength. I just want to express my wish that this kind of cooperative council . . . .the first in Collier County. . .in a public body. . . .and the opportunity for communication between those of you who really have a tremendous administrative responsibility for children's services and the HRS Director. . .but this in itself, the formation of the council, /CI and its membership is the strength. While I agree that the community input is very important, but I think the strength of this council can bring to meeting the needs of children . . .is just unpredictable at this time, but I hope in a year. . . that this kind of cooperative communication b etween the agencies represented on this council and community advocates which is certainly represented here. . . that it goes well for the future of the children of Collier County. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Jeanne. Anyone else? CHAIRMAN: May I then have a motion that we adjourn? SHANAHAN: Make a motion to adjourn. ZUM FELDE: Second. UNANIMOUS AYE: ADJOURNED