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CSC Minutes 11/02/1990 Children ' s Services Council of Collier County Minutes/Transcripts November 2 , 1990 MINUTES of Children's Services Council PLACE: Banc Florida, Pelican Bay, Naples,Na les, Florida TIME & DATE: 9:00AM, Friday, November 2, 1990 MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Alma Cambridge Judge Ted Brousseau Nelson Faerber, Jr. Commissioner Dick Shanahan Lal Gaynor (Letter attached to original Bea Harper, Chairman minutes) John Passidomo Dr. Tom Richey Bob Ritz Mary Ellen zum Felde The meeting was called to order by the Chairman. The roll call was made by Kay Campbell, acting secretary. Minutes of the previous meeting on October 5, 1990 were approved as presented. Paul Pinson presented a brief administrative report and indicated that the Juvenile Justice Task Force,who made a presentation at the previous meeting had requested placement on the agenda for December. Information will be forwarded to each council member prior to the December meeting. Nelson Faerber, By-Laws Chairman, discussed the draft of proposed by-laws, copy of which had been received by all council members prior to this meeting. The council asked that the draft be re-written to reflect the following changes: Clarification of preamble or mission statement,Executive Director in lieu of President,budget submission dates,check signatures, and duties of secretary-treasurer, and quorum and voting. The corrected draft will be presented at the December council meeting. Dr. Tom Richey, Needs Assessment RFP Chairman, presented his draft of the proposed request for proposal. It was unanimously agreed that the draft be accepted, with minor language changes, and given to the Executive Director for distribution to appropriate applicants. Lal Gaynor, Budget & Personnel Chairman,presented a six month's budget covering period November 17, 1990 to May 17, 1991. After discussion, the budget was unanimously accepted. There was general discussion concerning the feasibility of obtaining a 501(3c) tax number, and agreement reached to investigate this further. Mrs. Gaynor made a motion to appoint Paul Pinson as Executive Director, and it was seconded by John Passidomo. At the suggestion of Dr. Richey, the agenda was amended to reflect change from "appointment" to A to "employment" of an executive director. Nelson Faerber agreed to draft a proposed Cemployment contract for a period of one year, based on the six month's budget. Employment of Paul Pinson as Executive Director was approved unanimously. John Passidomo, Chairman of Development of Operational Funds, gave a brief report concerning solicitation of the community for interim operation of the council. Brenda Wilson, Assistant County Attorney, presented a legal report on (1) assistance to Nelson Faerber on by-laws (2) Dr. Richey's concern for liability to the school board for his participation with the opinion that there is no liability (3) John Passidomo's concern about our activities in setting ourselves up as a mini-government which she is researching, and (4) the amendment to the County Ordiance setting up the council providing for appointment of the County Commissioner by majority vote of the Commissioners. (Copy included with permanent minutes). Bonding of officers was discussed and decision made to obtain bonding for $1000 for the Chairman and Executive Director. There was general discussion concerning the mission statement of the Council. A committee was formed from the community audience for their suggestions as to development of an appropriate mission statement. The following persons agreed to serve: Judge Cindy Ellis, Dr. Ed Ferguson, Ross Obley, Lisa Cameron,Jean Ecklund, Connie Mackay and Ray Baker. CThe committee will report at the December meeting. There was general discussion concerning guidelines and policies for advisory committees to the council. This will be developed at a later point in our activities. Marie Dinon, HRS Consultant with Lee County gave a presentation on the development of the Children's Services Council and their proposed organizational chart and committees. (Copy included with permanent minutes). There was general discussion by the council, including input by the community, concerning place of future meetings. The next meeting will be held at the YMCA, and staff will develop a plan for presentation to the council. Motion was made, seconded and carried that Mary Ellen zum Felde be nominated as Secretary-Treasurer of the Council. Paul Pinson passed around for comment by the council, proposed stationery. Gene Vacarro had donated his time in doing art work and it was unanimously agreed that it was outstanding in quality and beauty. Paul Pinson presented to the council and asked for approval to pursue plans for a Community Event for Children in February, following up Bill Moyers, National News Commentator's, public television's coverage of "All Our Children". The Council endorsed the plan and Mr. Pinson will report further at the December meeting. C Dr. Polkowski made a presentation concerning school health issues and asked that the Council furnish her a letter of endorsement to accompany a grant proposal for school nurses, which is being developed jointly by the school district and the health unit. After a general discussion, it was agreed that the Executive Director would review the proposal of Dr. Polkowski concerning endorsement, and would develop guidelines for future requests and submit them to the council for approval. Victor Valdes, publisher and director of Las Naciones, newspaper, and President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Collier County, spoke briefly to the Council regarding his concern that a Hispanic person was not appointed to the council. A motion to adjourn was made and seconded. Unanimous. Respectfully submitted "kikW-A\ 6"166 ttij& Kay Campbell Acting Secretary C C TRANSCRIPT OF November 2, 1990 CHILDREN'S SERVICES COUNCIL MEETING CHAIRMAN: All you on the council have received a copy of the minutes of the prey ious meeting. Do you want them read, or have you all had a chance to read and digest them. FAERBER: I think we've probably all had time to digest them. Maybe what you might want to do is just go down to each member, and ask if they have any changes. CHAIRMAN: Nelson, Tom, Lal, Alma, Bob, Mary Ellen? Any changes? No? Then may I have a motion that they be approved as presented? ZUMFELDE: I so move. PASSIDOMO: Second. CHAIRMAN: All in favor, please say aye? Unanimous. Paul, will you present your administrative report, please? PINSON: Very brief. Just to make mention of the fact that Judge Brousseau is ill, of course, and cannot be here,and because of that particular illness, the agenda item, under Old Business, Item A. , judicial review panel, will not be presented today. We'll wait until Judge Brousseau, hopefully will be at the next meeting. There is a change here. Dick Shanahan expresses his regrets. He is in Colorado and cannot make the meeting today, and I'd like to especially mention the fact and our appreciation to Tom Richey at this particular meeting. . . .Tom's brother has had a stroke and he has been out of town, but he came back for the special reason of making the meeting and we really appreciate that. The Juvenile Justice Task Report which made a presentation at the initial inaugural meeting of the Children's Services Council, has asked for a place on the agenda at the December meeting. So we will forward information to you on that particular item. And then, I'd like to acknowledge some minority representation here at the Council meeting from both the Hispanic and Black communities. The council is making a real strong effort to incldue minorities and we certainly appreciate the fact that you are here today. Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Paul. I think we can proceed with the Committee Reports. Nelson, you have yours on the By-laws? FAERBER: Yes, have all of you received a copy of what is called Draft I, of the Council's by-laws and had a chance to review it. I'll go through them and highlight a few points and then t ake any questions you may have. The statement of mission is purely there to take up space. That's something we need to discuss today and formulate among ourselves. I just made a real brief one there that shows something needs to be there. By way of example, you may have Hillsborough County's statement of mission, and I'm not even sure that is the best, but it is a full page long. Membership and term of office are standard fair. Meetings . . . .I know you all may ahve your particular agenda on meetings, but nothing is cast in stone there. The special meetings, emergency meetings, language is really taken out of standard corporate by-laws just to allow provision for those things that seldom occur. At least emergency, Page 14 CHAIRMAN: Yes, I understand what you're saying. RICHIE: I respectfully request that you add to this agenda "the employment of executive director" as to be added to this Friday, November 2nd, 1 990 agenda. FAERBER: I would so move. CHAIRMAN: Where would you want it added? RICHIE: At the same place, right here. Now, I think you have something which will legitimize the Board action, and also it takes it out of any gray area where anybody could say that we had already planned to do this without proper discussion or action by this council. CHAIRMAN: There is a motion and a second on the floor that we employ Paul Pinson as our executive director for the Children's Services Council. Are we ready for the question? PASSIDOMO: Madame Chairman, just one question. I recognize the validity of your comment, but it seems to me that maybe it would be irresponsible for us to spend money we don't yet have, and we have to address with Mr. Faerber, what the term of the contract would be. We know that we have funds available to provide for a term of six months. We can go ahead and provide for an extended term. We have to do that, recognizing we don't yet have those funds. CHAIRMAN: We will have them, John. I have the utmost confidence in you. PASSIDOMO: Fair enough. FAERBER: On your budget you provided for a six month's salary allowance, Lal, so when I make this an annual contract, I'm to double that? CHAIRMAN: Yes. FAERBER: And then I think Paul probably has a real clear idea that we don't have the funds? He might be doing it for free again. CHAIRMAN: Yes, he knows. Are we ready for the question? All in favor please say aye. (unanimous) Opposed? Carried. CHAIRMAN; Now we have a report from the most important. . . .John Passidomo and his operational funds. PASSIDOMO: Madame Chairman. We don't have a formal written report at this stage. We've uh . . . .based our analysis on the needs for the operational funds, assuming that the needs assessment was where we would devote most of those funds. We've begun discussions with people who have expressed an interest in providing substantial finances and and support of the council and we recognize that's an on-going process, and as we have now developed the RFP for the C needs assessment, we can provide them with some substantive data as to where we intend to go. Actually, the operational funds we need to provide the monies available to support the organization administratively beyond the term of six months, we now have an ally who has vested interest in helping us with that goal. I don't think there is any question that we will accomplish it. But we'll go on, Page 15 on an on-going basis for I think this is one area that we recognize will come to fruition, when we eventually get the issue before the electorate on the ballot. We need to raise funds not only for the needs assessment, but also our daily operations. CHAIRMAN: Yes, because we have two years to go. Next item on the agenda is our legal report from Brenda. Where did she go? Oh, there she is. WILSON: I think that there were three things from the previous meeting that I was involved with -- the first being, providing some assistance to Nelson with the bylaws, and he was more than capable without any assistance, but we did confer somewhat on those by-laws. . . .those were completed. Then there was a question from Dr. Richie concerning his liability in any pass-through to the school board. There was no liability at that point. I am happy to go any further if you'd like for us to, but hopefully that particular issue was resolved. RICHIE: And, I appreciate that very much. I have received an opinion from Mr. Sisky. I did it, not so much for myself, but for the school board as their executive officer. . .that's the only reason I requested it. And I have no concern with my position on the council as it relates to the Board. WILSON: And the third, we touched on briefly. I believe Mr. Passidomo asked if we could gather information and make some suggestions or an outline of what type of things you need to be doing tc set yourself up as a mini-government, if you will, and we are working in that direction. John and I have talked. . .Mr. Passidomo and I have talked. . . .about what we want to include in that, and as I said, have gathered some information from some other counties and talked to Hillsborough County. I was unable to talk with the actual person involved, because they have been in place for quite awhile, and the county attorney's office has a little bit of a turnover, but we are gathering that hopefully by the next meeting. . . .we will have for you, prior actually, I would like to get it to all of you before the next meeting so you can review it. . . .at least an outline of the kinds of things that you should probably should be, at least, considering in setting yourself up. The final item that Paul had asked me to comment on, I believe, or make a report to you is that the Board of County Commissioners did approve a very very slight amendment to the Children's Services Ordinance. In drafting the ordinance, we had taken from a lot of other counties and Jacksonville, I think , was one that Paul and Dudley Goodlette had suggested they'd reviewed and thought was a good one. Nobody noticed that in all the reviews that everyone had gone through, that something that they were doing was to have their chairman of the Board of County Commissioners appoint the member to the Children's Services Council, and that's not the typical way that Collier County does it. . . .in Collier County, we typically have our entire Board of County Commissioners by motion, appoint the members to serve on a council such as this. So that was the only amendment we had, everything else is intact and in place. I'll be happy to answer any questions. CHAIRMAN: Anyone have any questions of Brenda? Anyone from the audience have questions of Brenda? Thank you, Brenda. We have an item on the agenda for bonding the officers. I think Paul should address that. . . .the item on the agenda for bonding the officers. PINSON: Okay. Bonding of the officers. That really should be Nelson. . . where is Nelson? I did we have looked into it. . . .there is no big problem. j 1 Page 16 CFAERBER: It is simply stated that the statute requires that those of you who sign the checks be bonded. At this point in time, a $1,000 bond would be fine. And I'm not sure exactly how you go about doing that. When I was sworn into the school board they just gave me a piece of paper to sign. CHAIRMAN: Well, it's an insurance policy that I understand is issued, and I talked with an insurance man who said he'd donate it. FAERBER: Why don't you, if you need any assistance, let me know, but you and Paul need to get bonded. . . .we have money now in the account. CHAIRMAN: We can go ahead with it? Okay. RICHIE: Nelson, does the Secretary-Treasurer handle any? FAERBER: Uh. CHAIRMAN: No fund, I think FAERBER: No. This is why we need a lawyer. Somebody who knows WILSON: There are those who would say you already have too many here. CHAIRMAN: Well, we will go ahead and take care of that. , C FAERBER: Here it is. Council chairman and other member of the council or chief executive officer signs the checks. At least a $1000 for every one million or portion thereof we don't have to worry about that. The council is supposed to pay for that premium but you've got it donated. No other member of the council shall be required to give bond or securities. So that's it. CHAIRMAN: Okay. now we'd like to discuss the mission statement. I assume that he was talking about the preamble to the by-laws? FAERBER: Well, it is the preamble but it's referred to by various councils across the state as the mission statement, and the reason that I just put something there again, was for space, but you have a lot of people on this council and many, many people in this audience who may wish to have input into formulating this mission statement. You notice how long Hillsborough's is, and then you look at Palm Beach, and it's two paragraphs. Maybe this is an appropriate area, Madame Chairman, for you to suggest a committee of local citizens to formulate the mission statement. CHAIRMAN: Of course, I felt that the preamble is sufficient at this point, until we do the needs assessment. I really do FAERBER: That's okay too. CHAIRMAN: My feeling is that until we do the needs assessment we really can't do a mission statement because we really don't know what the needs are. How Cdo you feel, Dr. Richey? RICHEY: Just let me try to set this in its proper framework. A mission statement is basically the top item of a comprehensive plan or a strategic plan. It sets forth the primary purpose and reason for existence and focus of a council. To be Page 17 quite candid, the Hillsborough community they do everything in there but the 0 vegetable soup. And that's fine, if that's what they want. I think the mission statement can be developed at any time because underneath the mission statement then would come the I mean from the needs assessment we would establish goals and objectives, and strategies for accomplishing those goals, and breaking down the work of the council. But the mission statement should be just like our flag. . . .that should be what we're all working toward, and what the focus of this organization is, and where we're trying to go. It does not depend upon any other factors. . . .in other words. . .all factors should focus on the mission statement. So Mr. Faerber's point, I think, is a correct one. We could develop a mission statement and should develop a mission statement immediately so that everyone knows what the purpose and knows what the mission of this council is. No matter what else is done, the mission should be set forth. Now, that's strictly from an academician planning. . . .strategic planning mode. . . .but I don't think we have to wait on the needs assessment to develop a mission statement. And I think there are ample resources in this community human resources that can make some good input into it. However, the best mission statement I have ever read was composed of two sentences. You're not looking for adjectives and long rambling expressions, you're looking for a concise informative, very principled statement. CHAIRMAN: I guess that's why I thought the preamble was good, at this point. RICHEY: It might be wise to let a group. . . .an advisory group look at the preamble and see if that is sufficient for a mission statement. And, if not, bring one back to the council for their consideration. I just think that's that Csomething, then, they've had input and we can accommodate and move forward. CHAIRMAN: Are you saying, then, that you think we should appoint someone from the community to do this, Nelson? FAERBER: Well, not just someone, but several people CHAIRMAN: Well, we have a list here of people in the community. FAERBER: Yes, I understand people have called and said they were interested. What do the other council members think? Do you think that this should be developed with community input? CHAIRMAN: Well, I think the more community input we have, the better off we're gonna be. I'm counting on every single person in this community rising up in arms and saying "when are you going to referendum? Because we want to vote you in." FAERBER: Well, how many people would you like to work on this? It's not something that should take a lot of people. CHAIRMAN: My feeling is that perhaps maybe we should just nominate a chairman from this list and let him look at the list and let him form his own committee. PINSON: Excuse me, Madame Chairman, just to remind you in the first council meeting, a vote was taken to wait until the needs assessment was done before you form a mission statement. CHAIRMAN: I know, but we have just discussed that, and there seems to be a change of feeling to take at least the preamble of the by-laws and go over it, and see if there's any change that needs to be done, or whatever. • Page 18 RICHEY: Paul, the reason I was part of that discussion, was I was afraid that 10 the needs assessment would drive a mission statement if the needs assessment was going to be the focus of a comprehensive plan. After re-thinking that and reading the charter and by-laws, etc. it seems to me that what we're calling for now, is a mission statement of the Children's Services Council. . . .not a mission statement of a comprehensive plan but a mission of the Children's Services Council. That's what I was talking about. PINSON: My only response to that is simply that Nelson, in drafting his preamble to the by-laws took into consideration, whether or not to extend the preamble to be more of a mission statement, and it's really, as you contrast it to Palm Beach, and other counties, it's almost a mission statement, in effect. So much more work could be done. There's no question about it. CHAIRMAN: now where are we? PASSIDOMO: Madame Chairman, I think it is important to articulate our reason for being publicly. . . .and that good planning eminates from the bottom up, not from the top down from the community and not necessarily from this council. It seems to me that the original thought we had seeking the advice of the advisory council, through whomever we may eventually select later this morning to serve on that council, and to serve as chairman of that council. And then have them, through their own means, formulate a proposed mission statement for consideration by the council. Give us an opportunity to allow the community to participate, but develop a clearly stated and articulated goal for what we're doing here. I think the sooner we do that in the form of a mission statement, gives us a great spring- board in that direction. ® FAERBER: Then you'd be in favor of appointing a committee now at this point in time for this purpose? What I would suggest is that we do have a great list of people here, and some of them are here, a lot of them are here. Maybe what we should do is choose somebody from this list who is also in the audience to chair that committee and formulate it now, rather than have the chairman formulate it. Let's get five or six people together and go about it. I see Judge Ellis is here, and other people I know are out here too. . CHAIRMAN: Ed Ferguson is here we could give him a job. FAERBER: See McAllister is here, Gene Vacarro's here, Ross Obley's here. CHAIRMAN: Great. I think that's the best thing. Who would volunteer to chair this? RICHEY: Well, that's taking the democratic process CHAIRMAN: Cindy how about you chairing? FAERBER: I was just asking who'd volunteer to sit on that committee. CHAIRMAN: Ed Ferguson, Ray Baker OBLEY: What's the question, Nelson? CFAERBER: WE're looking for half dozen or so people to sit on a committee to draft a mission statement. Page 19 FAERBER; Okay, Ross Obley. Jean Ecklund. Connie Mackay. That gives us about six. That would be Judge Ellis, Ed Ferguson, Ross Obley, lisa Cameron, Jean Ecklund, Connie Mackay and Ray Baker. PASSIDOMO: Madame Chairman, one other member of the audience has expressed an interest and there's no magical figure CHAIRMAN: No, no magical number. FAERBER: Who is the person? PASSIDOMO: I'm sorry I don't know your name. The lady right over there. . . . did you express an interest? LISA CAMERON: You got my name. PASSIDOMO: Okay, great. FAERBER: Good, that was easy. CHAIRMAN: That's great. I hope we always have this good attendance. We just pluck our workers right out of the audience. WILSON: You may not have very good attendance next time. CHAIRMAN: This may eliminate it. FAERBER: Palm Beach By-Laws, Hillsborough. . . .I think that's all we have right now to work from. Then you can dump it or go on however, you choose. ELLI S: You'd like to have a report for the next meeting? FAERBER: Yeah, I think the earlier the better. CHAIRMAN: Well, I think we've almost taken the next item on the agenda under "old business". . . .the advisory board of professional citizens. This was the list that we were going to discuss, the people RICHEY: Madame Chairman, would it not be appropriate. . . .people are sending in their names. I noticed many of these people I know. . .and some of them I don't know. . . .if they submitted their names and maybe just a little state- ment of areas of interest to them. That would help us as a council with various committee assignments. . .you know, if they had a particular interest or what they thought might be their strong pursuit in terms of providing workers. Just a little statement like that would help us, I think. . . .to be more informed about an advisory group. CHAIRMAN: I think that's an excellent suggestion. . .we'll turn that over to Paul, so that. . . .yes, lot of these people we know personally so we know what they're connected with, but then there are other people I see here who are not on the list. . . .that would get their name on and we would like to know more about you. Page 20. RITZ: Question, when you talk about advisory boardswe are talking about organizations. . . .two advisory boards. . .a citizens board and a professional board. Are we talking about an organizational set-up because there are other ways in which to involve the professional, the advocates within an organi- zational structure for this council that is being done in Pinellas County and Hillsborough. I brought some things. CHAIRMAN: Yes, you did, and I have misplaced it. . . .in all these papers. RITZ: And there is a person in the audience, Marie Dinon, who can ex- plain this a lot better than I can. CHAIRMAN: Do you have enough copies for everyone? RITZ: I think so. If I could, I would like to go over this. CHAIRMAN: I think it's a good idea, this is the 'appropriate time.. RITZ: Marie, would you. . . .would it be okay if she. . . . CHAIRMAN: Sure. DINON: Hi Bea, Chairman: Hi. DINON: I'm working with Bob on the Children's Services Council in Lee County, and so we are real interested in the progress that you are making. Bea has come to some of our planning meetings and she's been filled in on the direction that we are taking. . . .I think we are go to take your by- laws right back to our steering committee. What we would like to do is to take your stuff as you develop it and give it to our guys, and we will develop stuff and give it to you guys, and see if we can't get a little assistance. . .it's a big task. What we are looking at is what the duties of each level of input from the community would give us. I think, since you're the council we'll start at the top with the Ten Member Council. Those folks represent the clout in the community. Five of the members, at least, maybe more than five of the members, also bring resources to this effort school board, the county commission, the court system, uh HRS. In addition, your at- large-members also bring a broader assistance, so their job would be to set the priorities of the council, to develop requests for proposal, and Mr. Richey has already started that process. To fund the services based on the funds that you either have contributed or developed through taxes, monitor program outcomes, and monitor the use of funds and provide an annual report to the community as to what the activities of the council are. Under that group, to advise that group, we're recommending that the chairs of each special interest group in the community serve on a Youth Services Advisory Committee (in Pinellas they call that the YSAC) and so I didn't really change the name at all. And that YSAC would identify the needs across special interest areas in the community. . . .recommend the community work plan and recommend priorities to the council. And how did they get so smart as to figure out what you should do for kids in the community? And that is the bottom committee. . .the Children's Services Council committees . Page 21. These committees are organized in topical groups as recommended by the members of the committees. What we're doing is, we're pulling together the folks that are most involved in Lee County in the areas of abuse and neglect, mental health, housing and nutrition, youth services, child care respite, health, juvenile crime, education, substance abuse, arts and recreation, inter-generational partnerships, and developmental services. And we're asking those guys to help us identify what the topics are. We're originally, pulling it together so we would have 12 committees; those twelve committees. At their first meeting, they may decide that we're off on our recommend- ations as to what the committees should be. So that's the first step that we would start to reorganize. I've got a proposal, suggestion, for how these meetings should be operated, what should be the agendas for like the first five of these meetings just to get folks started. But they really have two jobs, they have the job of identifying what the needs are within the commu- nity, so they could assist whoever you get for. . . .to do your needs assessment. . . they could assist that person in also identifying what resources are available in the community and in addition, they are to help educate the rest of the community, on what the needs. So we've got two levels of strategies. . . .one is identifying existing resources and gaps which Mr. Richey has laid out in the RFP for the needs assessment, and the second side is also community education and participation in helping to recruit. members of the community. As bea said, you want everybody you can get around to come in. Bob? RITZ: The bottom activities gives everybody in the community an opportunity to serve and work, based on their interest, need ,profession, or whatever. Those committees will be made up of parents, of providers, of professionals, of consumers, so that they're all working together instead of separated into professional groups or consumer groups or whatever. And those chairs, be- cause of their special interests, can bounce off things of each other and make unified recommendations to the council. It's just one possibility. . . .but I was concerned that we were getting to the point of maybe establishing certain committees which is setting up an organizational structure, and it may not be the best structure. So we just thought we'd throw this out. DINON: And we don't have big ego in this. We have really appreciated all the help we've gotten in observing how you're moving along. You can take your plan and cross it out and change it, and we'll listen to your approaches and maybe learn from them too. We hope to have some sharing back and forth. Bob has another sheet which says what services the Children's Services Council will offer. . .and I'd like you to think about that for a minute. I'd recommend it to our council that we serve as a clearinghouse for information on the status of children, that we have a resource and development information center to assist with technical assistance to those organizations in the community that serve kids, in helping them develop those short and long-term funding. We've got some specific strategies for that, if you're interested we'd be happy to give them to you. We'd like to provide information on advocacy. We'd like to pro- vide training programs, both technical and professional training programs, to Page 22. provide a production (unintelligible) for dissemination of community inform- ation. Like if one of your committees has made an interesting finding, and they would like to spread information about that. . . .you know desk top publishing. . . and all the production capabilities that are now available with computers could make that possible. The problem is that some of the printers to develop the pro- duction material are a little expensive, and maybe if you could subsidize those printers in a production lab, you could get the voice of many of your constituents to be more easily heard in the community. I'd like for you to consider a pro- duction lab. And also, we've been asked to provide a clearinghouse for inform- ation on professionals that are interested in moving to the community, so that there would be like a central place where you could drop resumes and if you have a need, or someone in the community has a need, to recruit professionals, that they could go to that clearninghouse. A lot of the problems with delivering services, as you know, is to get the expertise you need out there to really deliver quality services. So that could help us. Let's see. Down the list on the chart again, there's some recommendations for what the services should be. . . .and as we develop we'll be glad to give you a little bit more information. FAERBER: May I ask you a question? DINON: Certainly. FAERBER: I just want to see if I understand the differences in the way that Lee and Collier are proceeding. . .to see if that affects us. Are you. . .as I understand . . ,you are already scheduled for a vote, aren't you? DINON: No. RITZ: We're tentatively scheduled to go to referendum in the Fall of 1991. FAERBER: Are you going to do a professional needs assessment by hiring an organization to do it, or is this the way you're going to do your needs assess- ment? DINON: This is the way we're going to do our needs assessment. RITZ: Well. . .let me clarify that. The steering committee is making that kind of recommendation. We still don't have the council established. The council could very well change that. FAERBER: Well, this looked like. . . .this organizational chart looks like a methodology for doing a needs assessment. DINON: That's the design, yes. FAERRERAnd the way we're proceeding with doing the needs assessment. . .at least we seem to be. . .in hiring a firm to do it. It would seem that the rec- ommended committees that you have here. . .down at the bottom. . .would be form- ulated after we did our needs assessment. RITZ: It could be. Page 23 FAERBER: I just wanted to see if that made sense to you. DINON: Well, I could formulate them. . . .I would start working on formulating them now because just like you were just talking about getting input from the community on your mission statement. That's how you can develop some broadbased assessment. FAERBER: I definitely agree with that. DINON: And if you had those folks established. . .when you do contract on your RFP, you're going to provide a wealth of information and save your- self a lot of money on the needs assessment because you will have folks who already know where to get the information. I have in my briefcase what the plan is for developing the information. . .and maybe I can leave a couple of copies of that for you to think about that approach too. Because I think we can self-generate some of this information. Some of us. . . .maybe some components on the needs assessment are already documented by work which the school board has done, by work by juvenile services. When the Sheriff's Depart- ment was here last month you know they gave you a whole lay-out of how to identify the relationship between juvenile crime and a career criminal. They gave you a way. . .a straight way to track that. .And I think if you worked with the Sheriff's Department you could verify, with the assumptions that we heard about, last month. . .are really accurate. New, FAERBER: Let me explain to you what my concerns are. There are 12 rec- ommended committees here, and I know that's not an exclusive list. We are a community of. . . .where people are volunteering all the time for so many matters and such. . .and looking at your recommended committees, I've served on committees on some of these points that were formulated here and there. And what I'm concerned about is that if we formulated the committees before we did our needs assessment, we would really tap out our resources in this community of people. I'll betcha everybody in this room serves on some committee somewhere. DINON: But you might have existing committees that could just come in and do this work for you, like drug coalition. FAERBER: We do have a drug coalition. . .that's one of the ones I was thinking about. We have a juvenile task force. . . .we have various educational committees, civic organizations have around the community. DINON: Yes, we're looking at doing that too. If we've got an existing established committee, that works on the topic, to ask them to come in and work under the Children's Services Council on studying this issue. That might not be a long-term coalition. . .that might be a short-term arrangement to help us establish the needs. But. . . .that still sweeps in larger segments of the population. . .sweep in already established groups. Another one I would really like you to really consider is the inter-generational partnerships. Be- cause we've already started to work with that committee. All the members of Page 24 that committee primarily will be senior organizations. They're very committed to this and I was only talking to them about needs assessment and looking at how we could establish partnerships, and what kids could do for seniors, and what seniors could do for kids. There's a back and forth motion, and they started talking about how they would also volunteer in the campaign. You know, in the committee, which wasn't even a goal of the committee. So I think that helps to give a lot of people some ownership in your efforts. PINSON: Madame Chairman, Marie has done a great deal of very good work and it seems to me an exciting way to involve the community and the way that we need to involve the community. However, it seems to me that Nelson's comments are exactly on target in that it is very difficult to transplant a plan from one community into another community without knowing the ins and outs of that particular plan. My perception of Lee County's strategy is some- what different from Collier's in that your service providers are playing a major lead. . .a lead role in the campaign. Whereas what's talked about in Collier County. . . .when the council formulates its strategy is that service providers will be in the background as to leading the campaign a la local referendum. So think it's real important, and yet, you really need to give a lot of time to this topic. . .because I really believe this is a key topic in that without the broadening of support in the community, we're gonna have a rough road to hoe. DINON: Just a little adjustment on that. Less than half our steering committee are providers, although providers have commited to assist a lot. The majority of our steering committee are lawyers. Bea knows. More than the room was lawyers and a Judge. And I think the reason being is that those in family law are very frustrated with not being able to actively receive services and are seeing a significant deterioration of families and they're not able to assist their clients in getting the services they need. So they've really provided us with an enormous committment. CHAIRMAN: Yes? RICHEY: I think there are just two points I'd like to make. Number one. . . the needs assessment will be an external validation of true community needs, and that's what we're after. And secondly, it will avoid the YSAC group. . . they recommend the priorities to the council. . .and the council sets the priorities. And I think herein lies some matters for debate possibly within the council. Whereas the needs assessment that we are looking toward to identify the priorities for us, identify the concerns, the overlap and gaps, and the things. . . it's just a different process of getting the same information. We believe, as I think the first meeting that we had, that the external validation is abso- lutely crucial so that we can sell this to the community in light of. . .this is not only what we believe. . .but this is what's been verified and validated by an outside expert. So it's the same process, just a different validation technique. But you have some good material and I like it. DINON: Thank you. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. Is there anything that we need to do on this item? Page 25 RICHEY: I think that as Paul mentioned. . . .we need to spend more time on this. . .I would just say take this under advisement for now, and come back and deal with this advisory group matter as a separate agenda item at some other time. PASSIDOMO: You may want to come back with a defined role for the advisory board. I don't know that it is otherwise articulated. When people want to serve, we should them how we perceive that role. CHAIRMAN: That's a good idea, John. Now we need to discuss the future meeting place and what we think. FAERBER: Yeah, before we do that. Members of the audience today. Do you all have a copy of the agenda? I just want to make sure that they knew there is time provided for public comment. I didn't want people to think we're winding up and start leaving if they wanted to comment. CHAIRMAN: You know, we discussed last meeting. . .that we would consider going to various places within the community and I have to tell you that's not the most convenient way to do things. I am wondering if we shouldn't consider having our meeting at one place. . . .at a certain time, just as we said the first Friday of each month and have it at a certain place so that the commu- nity does not worry about where it is going to be, and they have to watch for it in the papers. And if they miss it, then they telephone our office to find out where it is going to be. Seems to me that if the school board would be amenable to our using their school,board meeting room, that is in a pretty central location. You know, if it/Mt going to be used Dr. Richey on that date, and then everyone in the community could just know that unless we send out a notice and tell you it is going to be different, that you can depend on the first Friday of every month at the School Board Meeting. And then, if we have special called meetings for the Children's Services Council. Bouncing around, I don't think is gonna be. . .or at least I. . .don't think is gonna be the greatest idea. How does anyone else feel about that. Am I the only one who feels that way? You know I'd like to have the school board room for the meeting so that I could leave some of my stuff and don't carry a box every meeting. FAERBER: You can use my expansive desk. CHAIRMAN: What is it, two drawers? FAERBER: No, a little divider. CHAIRMAN: How does the rest of the council feel about. GAYNOR: I agree with you Bea, personally I would like to see it in one place. CHAIRMAN: Well, what I'm thinking about the community because we, obviously are having some good participation and I would hate to see it, or have people *,,,` say "well, I didn't see it in the paper and so I forgot about it." So is that agreeable with the Council? Page 26. FAERBER: It's fine with me, I'd just like to see us at some point in time arrange a meeting in Immokalee and arrange a meeting in Marco, and maybe even in Everglades, and we've got schools everywhere so the school sites are available. And, if we went to those communities, they probably should be night meetings. CHAIRMAN: Okay, and I think that we could do is if we could just agree on this for the time being, and then Paul can work out a schedule which shows when we will go to Immokalee or when we will go to the Everglades, and the council will then. FAERBER: Everglades may not be the best. . . .We go out there as a school board because. . . . CHAIRMAN: Well, we want to go to Marco. FAERBER: Everglades is. . . . CHAIRMAN: Careful there. . . . FAERBER: No, I'm not. . .I'm trying to think of what service providers there are in Everglades. You know Immokalee has many, and Marco and Naples, other than the school system and the sheriff's department, I'm not really sure what's out in Everglades as far as youth service providers. CAMBRIDGE: You have youth there, Nelson, plus you have voters, and when we start trying to sell the method of raising funds for this council, we're gonna have to really relate to all of the people. So you don't want to exclude FAERBER: Yes, I want to go out there, but what will happen is that a lot of these people who are coming to our meetings here. . .that's a long way for them to go. CAMBRIDGE: It is, but you can promote the attendance. Okay? Because public opinion is very very important with this council, and I'm saying that because I've had conversations with a lot of people. . .the Immokalee area. . .we should invite. . . .on the list. . . .I have been going over it and I've jotted some names now of some people in that area. So I think we should consider that very carefully, especially the evening meetings also as Dr. Richey sort of indicated maybe we can say. . . .day. . . .night. As far as I'm con- cerned, I am excited about the council, Okay? But we are going to have to convert the constituents. ZUM FELDE: Madame Chairman, if I may? I think the availability of the school board meeting room is wonderful and its great, but it's just always sort of occurs to me that Naples and Collier County is a great bring long. . .and at this present time most of your meetings. . .they occur in extreme south end of town. . .and that's a long way from the rest of the county. So if we can Page 27. 111. have meetings in other facilities and make ourselves available to the rest of the community. . . .I think we should avail ourselves to the rest of the community. . .I think we should avail ourselves to do that. You may not get some of the same people attending the meetings, but you may get some new people attending the meeting. I just think it would be. . .if its possible. . . I don't know. I think that there are other institutions who have board rooms who may very well be willing to open them up. Granted, it is going to take publicizing the meetings but we are a new entity. I think, I agree, that we ought to identify ourselves as being a council that is talking about servicing children in Collier County. I think we are making a statement by having all the meetings in the extreme south end of town. CHAIRMAN: Well, it wasn't my understanding that it would be ALL of the meetings. . .and as long as this meeting is now, we may need some extra meetings. FAERBER: If we 'meet _ twelve times, at least three of these would be out of town. . . .Immokalee, Marco, and Everglades. ZUM FELDE: The only thing that I would ask you. . .is that maybe we should pursue. . .possible other meeting places. I don't know, maybe I, you know, institutions or companies, or whoever would be available to allowing us to meet. CHAIRMAN: Well, I guess I am always. . .just looking at the convenience of it, and my concern about people who are really committed and interested in this. . .missing notices, and not attending. . . .Also, the matter of setting it up and having the speakers and speaking equipment, is so much more con- venient at the school board designation. FAERBER: These are the people that we're talking about. . .coming to our meetings. We'll be there no matter where. . .so. . . . CHAIRMAN: So you're sitting here and we're making all the decisions. How do you feel about? AUDIENCE: (Not Identified) . Just a suggestion. So long as you know where the next meeting is going to be. . .or the next three are going to be. .anything like that. . .then that would be sufficient. I don't know how long in the future you would plan it. So long as we know where the next one is going to be, we can keep track. ZUMFELD: I'm not volunteering the YMCA, but Gile is sitting here and I know they have a very nice board room, and probably if we could arrange it. I just think there are other facilities that say. . .that makes a statement. . . that we are going to get out into the community and we are concerned about what's happening out there. FAERBER: What would you think about sticking to a location for three meetings Page 28. in a row. . . .and then moving to the next. . . .or something like that. You know, we do publish it in the paper but noone, including myself, reads that. It's buried in the legal section and on the weekends, who wants to read that? PASSIDOMO: It seems like we could have a (unintelligible). The comments of the chairman are well taken, that we have to have an identifiable, reliable place. The comments that Mrs. Zum Felde made about being centrally located are well taken, but if we used these special meetings at night as special opportunities to solicit public input from the communities we go into not necessarily to hold general meetings like we're holding now, but as extra meetings in which we encourage public participation geared to those particular communities. Frankly, I like the idea that the chairman has about a central meeting meeting there all the time knowing the first Friday of every month we're going to meet wherever it may happen to be. I kinda like the idea of the "Y". . . .but then using these nighttime meetings as our ability to outreach and encourage public participation. CHAIRMAN: Any other comments? AUDIENCE: I think it would be good to give like the "Y" or other people. . . an opportunity to become involved and say "we want to do something for kids too" and it doesn't always have to be the school board or school administration site. I think there is a point to be made here about that. To give other people a chance. If you had every other meeting at the school administration center, one at the "Y" or one here, or Sun Bank, or maybe some other bank or whatever, would give people a chance. So if you know it was the first Friday of every month. . . .we could all CHAIRMAN: Yes, Gile? SIEVERS: I want to plug Paul, because I think he's instrumental in making sure that a lot of us knew where the meeting would be today and what we were going to do, and why we should be here to support you and that's why I think it could work when we come around to different places in the county, as Mary Ellen suggested, for instance, the "Y". And I'm sure a lot of other youth agencies would like to have you, and give each of us some visability as you meet there, and bring people in to see what's happening. After all, we all are in the same boat together. I think that whether you meet regularly at a set place, and another type of meeting as John's mentioning. . . .come out to the community at agencies in Immokalee, and things like this. It would be great for you people and I think you would get more support from the county-wide population, if you would get visible and get out in the community. I think that inconvenience is not always the factor because you've got a job you've got a job of credibility to work on as to what you want to get done. So you're going to need to get out and be among the people. You sure will be welcome at the "Y" and I'm sure a lot of the agencies would love to have you, although we're almost (Part of the tape was unintelligible) NOTE: After further discussion, it was decided that the next meeting would be held at the YMCA on the first Friday, December 7, 1990, at 9:00AM . Page 29 The next item on the agenda was "comments of the council". Tape picked Cup conversation as follows: r CAMBRIDGE: I would like to acknowledge that I did invite people to come, and thank the one person who did come. I think that I am talking at churches and trying to explain. A lot of people want to know "what is it about?" And I'm very excited about it. So I spend some time trying to talk about it to that end. CHAIRMAN: Anyone else? FAERBER; I just wanted to comment that those six or seven people that volunteered themselves for the mission statement might want to remain after the meeting, and give Paul and Judge Ellis your names, addresses, and telephone numbers and also, I wanted to comment about what a great group that we had show up here today. It's the real movers and shakers in the community and and that really makes me feel a lot more comfortable abut what we're doing and what we hope to do. CHAIRMAN: Anyone else? CHAIRMAN: Dr. Polkowski, you wished to make some comments to the council? POLKOWSKI: Thank you, madame chairman. I wanted to make a request for a letter of support from the council, which would accompany a grant proposal which is being developed jointly by the school district and the health unit. Earlier this year, the state legislature had passed house Bill 1739 and appropriated money to expand student health services and also one of its goals was to reduce teenage pregnancy. And, the Collier County Public Health Unit right now has 21 filled positions of nurses for a population of 20,000 students in Collier County. The recommended ratio in this particular grant by the way, this is an RFP process. . . .and that's why I'm asking for the letter of support. The recommended ratio in that RFP is one nurse per 1500 students, so we're a little off. We do have one vacancy, but even with that one vacancy, we're still understaffed. The plan would be to have ship-model. . . .where there would be a high school and a feeder middle school, and elementary grade school one in Immokalee, (unintelligible) , and one group of three schools in the Naples area. There would be two nurses and three school aides for each of those areas. This is right now what's in the plan. Just to give you a little bit of background of the need to address teenage pregnancy here in Collier, for the first nine months of this year, there were 104 deliveries to teenagers less than 18 here in Collier. . . 17 years and younger. These are the ones who should be in school. The school knows only of a few of them so you know they're dropping out, either when they first find that they are pregnant, or before they're pregnant. And we also know the problems of teenage pregnancy and the repeated pregnancies, and the problem of lack of skills and winding up in lower-income scale. Of those 104, 57 were from Greater Naples 47 were from immokalee. Now it shows that Immokalee has a higher rate but in numbers-wise, we had more in the greater Naples area. We have, fortunately in Immokalee, a program called Stepping Stones which helps the girls to stay in school. There is no such program here in Naples. Of those 104, 85% were seen either in one of the two public funded clinics, in CHIC in Immokalee, or the health unit, or some walk-in. So most of them are low-economic based, and of those, 44 are from Naples, 42 are from Immokalee. I kinda rambled a little bit here in giving you a picture of need, and hopefully, sometime in the future there'd be an opportunity to expand on the discussion of health needs for the children here in Collier. But specifically, my request is for a letter of support. We need to have that grant application in Tallahassee by November 16th. 041.11111.60. Page 30 FAERBER; Ray, how does that fit in with our drop-in prevent program? Is that like a missing piece of the puzzle? BAKER: I can respond in regard to the teenage parent program, not in regard to the nurses. I was really glad to hear Dr. Polkowski bring this up. We have the Stepping Stones Program in Immokalee, which has been a pilot. It has just completed its first full year of operation and it has been very very successful in keeping girls in school, and also assisting other girls that have left school, in terms of earning an equivalency diploma and providing child care. I've been fortunate enough to just have another grant funded, and this morning, I had the new staff member assist Diane (?) . Diane is going to be working with me starting today to help plan the expansion of our teenage parent program into the City of Naples. We hope to have a program on line for the next school year. It's very very important and I'd like to give it visability right now. . . .teenage parent programs are incredibly expensive. It provides wonderful services to these individuals but I prepared a cost-sheet at one time, for what was the potential cost in Immokalee and the potential cost for a new center in Naples, and you're talking about $250,000 when you put an entire program together. . .when you provide transportation to health services, social services for the individuals, child care for the individuals. And one of the primary missions. . . .Diane and mine. . . is to work through and with organizations to find a partnership like we have in Immokalee with Stepping Stones, Inc. , which is an incredible organization that is really providing the service, to young women and teenage parents. We really are enthusiastic about this arena that we have here today, because we see the support that is in this community. . .and we see possibly working through people who are involved here, in setting up some sort of cooperative venture and partnership once again, within the City of Naples. Because we do recognize that need, and we are as a school system, responding and ready to move on it. We're ready to write grants for next year, and we sincerely hope that we will be able to answer that need in Naples as well as in Immokalee. FAERBER: Would you recommend that the council give Dr. Polkowski this letter of support. Does it fit in amicably BAKER: From my perspective also, not only as coordinator for drop-out prevention but guidance and counseling, from the pupil's services point of view. . . .and I'm not speaking for Dr. Morris who is the director, but from my perspective in terms of guidance and counseling we certainly have a need for student services that go well beyond guidance counseling. Mrs. Cambridge is a member of our guidance study committee. . .or guidance task force. . . .that has taken a look at this entire picture. . .and Mrs. Cambridge may way to comment on this as we have discussed this. . . .there is a great need beyond just guidance counselors and teachers that we need to address. School nurses, and the type of services that Dr. Polkowski is addressing are things we need to look at. As our school system grows, and the type of services that we provide the students, need to grow along with it. FAERBER: May I. . . .and I don't mean to dominate this conversation. . . .this is just kicking in some things that we've discussed before. I just have one more question. Would you. . . .if you were provided with this grant. . .would the nurses and aides be housed in the school? Is there a place for them? POLKOWSKI: Yes, this is being jointly developed with the school district so we've had meetings, and each of the target schools has been contacted and identified space. . .or they will find space they say. They are very anxious to have it. Page 31 ,,. FAERBER: Fine. That's all I wanted to know, because we've had the nurses discussion not for this purpose. . . .before at our board, and it is very costly and space is always a problem. ZUM FELDE: Excuse me, Madame Chairman. I do not know a lot of people in the audience and when you speak, I have no idea who you are, or what you represent. FAERBER: Ray Baker is the coordinator for drop-out prevention in the school district. ZUM FELDE: Well, I'm just not aware of that and I can't really relate to what you're talking about because I don't know you. FAERBER: Even for purposes of the tape, people should always identify themselves. CHAIRMAN: That's right. Any other comments? AUDIENCE: I think this is a wonderful project and I just, for the purposes CHAIRMAN: Could you identify yourself, please? ECKLUND: Jean Ecklund with Redlands Christian Migrant Association in Immokalee. I think this sounds wonderful and I certainly hope it goes through, but I am addressing the board on this is this setting a precedent? Is this what this letter of support I jsut want us to think further about this. Are we setting a precedent here. . . .is that what we're supposed to be doing? Is that the intent? CAMBRIDGE: I should think that support from the council would simply give voice to support. . .this is what they're asking. The same thing applied when we were developing the council, going before the county commissioner. Many organizations sent letters of support for the idea ECKLUND: I'm not questioning CAMBRIDGE: I know what you're saying ECKLUND: The support but I'm saying other organizations CAMBRIDGE: Will come to this group. . .and probably they will. CHAIRMAN: Yes, and I think there are some that could probably be just done administratively without bringing it before the council. Because I know a lot of times when I've been working on projects, I have contacted the Executive Director of Youth Haven, or the Executive Director of YMCA, and it's a worthwhile project and they see the need in their own agency, and they write us a letter of support. I don't know. FAERBER: I disagree with you just on that point. CHAIRMAN: We have a lawyer. FAERBER: We have a governmental body here and it's a little bit different Nikiow than those private organizations, and I think we really should be asked. CHAIRMAN: I guess I keep thinking in terms that we may be a governmental agency but so far we're using private funding, and I keep thinking like a non-profit organization instead of a governmental agency. orrommav Page 32 PASSIDOMO: Yes, but eventually we're going to be held to the same kind of standards of accountability and the sooner that we get into that mode, the better. Whether we're dealing with private or public funds, we're a governmental agency and we have to be held accountable and there are going to -be people who are strictly scrutinizing what we're doing. None of the people who are in this room right now, but there are others who will be scrutinizing. . .and we've got to operate as a public agency. CHAIRMAN: Yes, I agree with that. Yes, Ray? BAKER: The notion of accountability is well taken and you're going to have a lot of groups who will come before you looking for support. You'll have to develop a method of evaluating what they have. I think. . . .if Paul just examines the grant statement, etc. and then came back and reported. I think most likely you'd find it would be something you would want to throw support behind, but I think the notion of setting a precedent just based on limited discussion like this, will be something you may want to avoid. You probably should have some sort of a review. FAERBER: I think the doctor is telling us that November 16th is her deadline. POLKOWSKI: It has to be in Tallahassee on November 16th. FAERBER: I personally don't have opposition to us supporting it if it is drafted appropriately. . .in supporting the need. CHAIRMAN: We could do it based on the recommendation of the Executive Director after he reviews it. If he approves it, then ABBOTT: Madam Chairman, my name is Pat Abbott. I am Nursing Director fo r the Health Unit. Just to explain to the group at large. . . .this project grant is called a "school health improvement project" and is designed to expand health services to schools. They are demonstration projects, and yes, the focus is on teenage pregnancy and also substance abuse, but it is not the sum total effort that is being put forth. It is a total expansion of school health services which is greatly needed. PASSIDOMO: Madame Chairman, I don't see a dangerous question here, but Mrs. Cambridge was about to say that we should be developing guidelines and standards. I think that is something that we can provide to people who otherwise solicit our support. . .that we could use to judge the qualifications of each request that comes before us. It may be in the future, after we develop these guidelines and give them to the Executive Director, and ask him for a recommendation. Then the council can made a decision CHAIRMAN: That's a general statement? You're not making that a motion? PASSIDOMO: I'll put it in the form of a motion. That we do two things. . .that we support Dr. Polkowski's request, and two. . .that we direct our Executive Officer to develop guidelines for our consideration at the next meeting. CHAIRMAN: Is there a second? FAERBER: I'll second it. Page 33 CHAIRMAN: All in favor. . . .say aye. (unanimous) Opposed. None. Carried. CHAIRMAN: I hope we have our nice stationery to write our letter of support on. (That portion of the tape is missing. . . .where the stationery was approved by the council). AUDIENCE: May I request two minutes before the audience to report? CHAIRMAN: Yes. VALDES: I am Victor Valdes, publisher and director of Las Naciones, newspaper, and also I am the President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Collier County. I am president of LULAC, biggest organization in the United States for Latin American citizens, and I am also president of (unintelligible). I want to thank you to Mr. Pinson who invited me to be here, and thank you to give me a minute to speak with you. I am happy that now we have an organization to care for our children, but at the same time, I am dis-concerned that I don't see any Hispanic on the board. Hispanic. . . .taking the census 1980. . . .are 10.8%, and some studies that are making the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Florida University, international university, puts it around 20 or maybe more at this time, and we will see next December when the census shows how many we are here. But, my work gives me the opinion because I deliver it door to door in the Hispanic area the newspaper, and I can assure you that we are more than 20%. I am very happy that we have a representation from the black community the beautiful lady. . . .but we need at least one Hispanic. We have doctors, we have attorneys, we have business men and women, and we need people in (unintelligible). Thank you. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Valdes. Well, I would hope that you will have some of your friends get in touch with the Children's Services Council and have their names added to the list of people who are willing to volunteer and work. VALDES: Yes, we have Mr. Santos. CHAIRMAN: Anyone else wish to speak before the council? Is there anything further that we need to discuss? Could I entertain a motion for adjournment? CAMBRIDGE: So moved. CHAIRMAN: Seconded? All in favor. Adjourned.