CSC Minutes 06/07/1991 Children ' s Services
Council of Collier County
Minutes/Transcripts
June 7 , 1991
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Chairman:
Bea Harper
Vice Chairman
Richard Shanahan
The Children's Services Council of Collier County
Secretary-Treasurer
Mary Ellen zumFelde
Meeting of June 7, 1991
couNca MEMBERS
Judge Ted Brousseau
Alma Cambridge Council Members Present Council Members Absent
Deices G.Dry
Nelson A.Faerber,Jr.
Lavern Gaynor Alma Cambridge Judge Ted Brousseau
John Passidomo Lavern Gaynor Delores G. Dry
Dr.Thomas Richey Bea Harper Nelson Faerber, Jr.
John Passidomo Richard Shanahan
ECECI.MVEDIRECTO* Dr. Thomas Richey
Paul C.Pinson
Mary Ellen zumFelde
Ty Cobb, HRS representative
A meeting of the Children's Services Council was held on Friday,
June 7, 1991 at 9:00 am, Collier County School Board Room.
The meeting was chaired by Bea Harper, chairman.
•
The invocation was led by Rev. Leon Williams, St. John's Baptist
Church, Immokalee, and Unity Faith Missionary Baptist Church,
Naples. The pledge of allegiance was led by Mrs. Harper.
Minutes of the previous meeting held April 5, 1991 were approved as
presented. Motion made by John Passidomo; seconded by Alma
Cambridge.
Mr. Pinson, executive director, presented a calendar up-date on
April and May activities. He then reported on the June 8, 1991
Special Gathering of "The Power Of A Vision," to be held at Trinity-
By-The Cove. Invitations were mailed to the administrative and
board member leaders of social service agencies, civic and corporate
organizations. Approximately 90 persons were confirmed. Jim Mills,,
executive director, Juvenile Welfare Board, Pinellas County and
Appellate Judge Hugh Glickstein, Palm Beach, joined the Gathering
as participants and facilitators rather than key-note speakers.
Mr. Pinson then reported on the Needs Assessment Study's Planning
Partner Meetings, scheduled for June 6, developed and divided into
two AM and PM meetings. Approximately 120 invitations were mailed
with a response of approximately 65 participants. The list was de-
veloped by FSU and Fraser-Mohlke with some assistance from CSC.
4
CHILDREN'S SERVICES COUNCIL OF COLLIER COUNTY
Thanks were given to the Economic Development Council for its
publication of the "Children's Service Council Works for Kids and
their Community" article in its May 1991 Newsletter "Community
Affairs."
Thanks were also given to the Children's Home Society of SW Florida
for its donation of $1170, and to the Norris Foundation for its do-
nation of $30,000.
Mary Ellen zumFelde presented a financial budget for seven and
one-half months, ending December 1991
Mr. Pinson announced plans were being made for a September Out-
reach Program to be held at Marco Island.
Barbara Rhodes, supervisor of the juvenile division of Collier
County court system, member of the Juvenile Justice Task Force
and the Gang Prevention Team addressed the Council on behalf
of juvenile problems.
There being no further comments from the Council or the community,
the meeting was adjourned.
A transcript of the meeting is being made a part of these minutes.
Respectfully submitted,
—61(\C44'\11 t:;Tael4
Mary Ellen zumFelde
to 1
5: THE CHILDREN' S SERVICES COUNCIL
OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
Had in the above-styled cause on June 7 , 1991 ,
at 3710 Estey Avenue , Naples , Florida, before
Joseph F . Sineno, Court Reporter and Notary
Public , State of Florida at Large .
I
PRESENT:
BEA HARPER, LAVERN GAYNOR,
Chairman. Council Member .
PAUL PINSON, ALMA CAMBRIDGE,
Executive Director . Council Member .
JOHN PASSIDOMO, TY COBB ,
Council Member . Council Member .
THOMAS RICHEY, MARY ELLEN zumFELDE,
Council Member . Council Member .
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- COLLIER
REPORTING SERVICE
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2
1 MS . HARPER: This morning we' ll have the
4:) 2 invocation by Rev. Leon Williams who is affiliated
3 with St. John' s Baptist Church in Immokalee and the
4 Unity Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Naples .
5 [ Invocation. ]
6 MS . HARPER: We ' ll have the pledge of allegiance .
7 [ Pledge of Allegiance . ]
8 MS . HARPER: Okay. Would you do the roll call ,
9 please?
10 MS . CAMPBELL: Judge Brousseau?
11 [No response . ]
12 MS . CAMPBELL : Mrs . Cambridge?
13 MS . CAMBRIDGE: Here .
14 MS . CAMPBELL : Mrs . Dry?
15 MR. COBB: I 'm Ty Cobb here for Mrs . Dry.
16 MS . CAMPBELL: Mrs . Ellis?
17 [No response . ]
18 MS . CAMPBELL: Mr . Faerber?
19 [No response . ]
20 MS . CAMPBELL: Mrs . Gaynor?
21 MS . GAYNOR: Present .
22 MS . CAMPBELL: Mrs . Harper?
23 MS . HARPER: Present.
24 MS . CAMPBELL: Mr . Passidomo?
25 MR. PASSIDOMO: Here .
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1 MS . CAMPBELL: Dr . Richey?
4;? 2 DR. RICHEY: Present.
3 MS . CAMPBELL: Mr . Ritz?
4 [No response . ]
5 MS . CAMPBELL : Mr . Shanahan?
6 [No response . ]
7 MS . CAMPBELL: And Mrs . zumFelde?
8 [No response . ]
9 MS . HARPER: We ' ll just note that Mr . Cobb, Ty
10 Cobb is in the place of Dee Dry who is representing
11 HRS . We have Bob Ritz on there but that is not Bob
12 Ritz .
13 Maybe we should just have a sign that says "HRS"
14 and then we 'd know.
15 Did everyone receive a copy of their -- of the
16 minutes of the last meeting?
17 Are there any corrections or additions or
18 subtractions or whatever?
19 Could I have a motion that they be approved then
20 and submitted?
21 MR. PASSIDOMO: So moved.
22 MS . CAMBRIDGE: Second.
23 MS . HARPER: All in favor?
24 [ "Aye" response . ]
1 NMI 25 MS . HARPER: Thank you.
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1 Paul , we will have your report.
4; 2 MR. PINSON: I thought that since it' s been two
3 months since our meeting that I would bring the
4 council up to date on some of the activities since our
5 meeting.
6 Some of these are things you' re familiar with and
7 some perhaps you' re not. But --
8 MS . HARPER: Paul?
9 MR. PINSON: Yes .
10 MS . HARPER: Some of the people in the back can' t
11 hear , so if you could --
12 MR. PINSON: How about if I stand?
13 MS . HARPER: Yeah, so that everyone can hear what
14 you have to say.
15 MR. PINSON: Okay. Again, we participated with
16 David Lawrence Center and David Lawrence Center sent
17 out 15 , 000 book markers with a message from David
18 Lawrence Center and the Children' s Services Council on
19 those and I meant to bring them for each of you and
20 I 'm sorry I forgot that .
21 For Kid' s Sake we played host to -- with other
22 organizations for Kid' s Sake Day which included
23 sending out 16 , 000 brochures of the courtesy of
24 Collier County Parks and Rec . with our names and their
0 25 names on those . And that was a day that was held on
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1 Immokalee Road at North Naples Park that we
1100 2 participated in, a very nice outing, several thousand
3 people came through so we had a chance to continuously
4 show the video in that particular outing.
5 We 've also been on the WNOG talk shows on the
6 16th of April and participated in TAG, Taxpayers '
7 Action Group, and Alyse O'Neill ' s here and we ' re more
8 than happy to have you here again. Alyse was a part
9 of the needs assessment that began yesterday that I ' ll
10 give you more on that in just a few minutes .
11 Of course , we have the NAFC, the Naples Alliance
4
12 for Children Advocacy dinner which was another nice
13 opportunity to showcase the video for the Children' s
It
14 Services Council .
15 Participated in the Town Forum on the 10th of
16 April whereby Children' s Services Council was one of
17 the main solutions that was recommended in various
18 areas of solutions that this community needed to
19 address certain problems with and that was primarily
20 in the arena of funding. So we had another
21 opportunity for 65 or 70 community leaders to come
22 together and to hear from each other that this was the
23 right way to go.
24 Palmer TV, we 've been on Palmer with the video
25 several times . In fact , Kid' s Sake Day week we had an
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1 opportunity to show it, so I didn' t catch it but they
2 showed it once .
3 Then Christie Bookstore is here . She is one of
4 five young ladies that went to Tallahassee at the
5 courtesy of the Naples Alliance for Children and she
6 also appeared on the Palmer Cable show Susan McKinsey
7 had and had an opportunity to talk about not only that
8 trip, but Children' s Services Council .
9 Then, of course , the Collier 2000 Update report
10 which included 70 or 80 , again, community leaders ,
11 different community leaders that whereby the Naisbitt
12 Group highly praised the council as being a real step
13 in the right solution, the creation of the council ,
14 and highly endorsed the community backing the special
15 taxation district when it comes up in front of the
16 voters . And, of course , we got very nice coverage out
17 of the Naples Daily News for that particular thing.
18 The County Commission, we went in front of the
19 County Commission in April for Child Abuse Month which
20 we took some young kids up in front of the County
21 Commission and had a chance to present our case for
22 support and what have you.
23 The first needs assessment meeting was held at
24 Naples Bath and Tennis a month or so ago and again the
iC) 25 meat of the needs assessment really took place
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1 yesterday, and I 'm going to give you an update to that
CO 2 in just a few minutes .
3 We have made connections with Miami and other
4 cities such as -- also Port Charlotte , we 've been to
5 the Children' s Services Council public hearing on the
6 16th of May with Hugh Glickstein where we had an
7 opportunity to make a presentation.
8 Of course we participated in the state-wide
9 association meeting. We founded a state-wide
10 association of Children' s Services Councils and you' re
11 familiar with the fact, I hope , that you attended that
12 which was good.
13 And we also had an executive directors'
411
14 conference at the YMCA. We had a little briefing for
15 executive directors of key organizations that deal
16 with children in Collier County. Approximately 10 or
17 11 , several that are here today, in fact . And this
18 was in preparation for the conference tomorrow that
19 we' re hosting which I ' ll tell you about in just a few
20 minutes .
21 And on the 5th of May we participated in an
22 Hispanic outing; it' s called the Cinco de Mayo in
23 Immokalee where we had an opportunity to give out
24 several hundred pieces of information on the council
A.
25 and to make some really good contacts .
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1 And just a little quick update on the fact that
2 the Juvenile Justice Task Force , several of whom are
3 represented here this morning, have had their first
4 official meeting. I recall , if you will , the fact
5 that they've approached us sometime back as being
6 something that we could correlate with, but they' re on
7 their own at the moment; they' re up and they' re
8 running and they' re making good headway, so just to
9 give you an update on that .
10 That' s about it.
11 MS . HARPER: Does anyone have -- maybe there ' re
12 some questions, Paul . Anyone have any questions about
4:) 13 any specific thing on Paul ' s report that they'd like
14 to ask questions about?
15 Anyone on the council?
16 I always assume that since I work six feet from
17 Paul , that everybody else knows exactly what he ' s
18 doing.
19 Thank you, Paul .
20 Paul , do you want to talk about the conference
21 tomorrow?
22 MR. PINSON: Yes .
23 The conference tomorrow is shaping up to be an
24 ideal step forward for the council in making a
47.) 25 substantial headway in terms of building the kind of
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1 support, the foundation of support this council needs
140 2 to win a referendum at the polls in March, if we go in
3 March.
4 And again, we ' ll be dealing with a select body
5 and primarly what, quote , is considered the leadership
6 of the community, and particular to that conference
7 are the boards of directors of the 12 to 15 key
8 agencies, and there ' re a lot of agencies , but we had
9 to be somewhat selective just by virtue of a physical
10 limitation, 12 to 15 key agencies that serve children
11 in Collier County as well as certain selective vested
12 agencies or organizations that have on their agenda
13 enhancing the community such as the Economic
14 Development Council , the Chamber of Commerce , not the
15 Community Foundation although they are invited, but
16 the Education Foundation.
17 So there are a broad swap of vested people coming
18 to -- we had 90 confirmations . Counting the
19 facilitators , there ' ll be approximately 108 people
20 there tomorrow which is outstanding in terms of
21 percentages considering it' s the 8th of June , so we ' re
22 real pleased with that.
23 The conference is shaping up to be very
24 experiential in nature . There will be very little , if
4;) 25 any, speech-making. I 'm excited about that . A
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A. moill
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1 complaint that all of us have is that one more
4:) 2 meeting, one more conference , we ' re doing the same ,
3 very radically different . We ' re taking a risk of
4 sorts in a certain sense and the risk is that we ' re
5 making some general assumptions .
6 One is that before we can go out and heal others ,
7 we need to heal ourselves . An assumption is that we
8 need to co-create the vision, so we ' re giving some
9 power to a community in doing that . It won' t be just
10 the Children' s Services Council telling the community
11 what to do . It ' s actually the community, what they
12 want to do.
13 It' s exciting; it' s shaping up to be a very
4, J
14 interesting day. It will go from 10 : 00 a.m. to
4
15 roughly 3 : 00 or 4 : 00 p.m. We have Judge Glickstein
16 coming as well as Jim Mills from St. Pete and even
17 though they' re coming, they' re not keynote speakers .
18 They' re going to be participants and facilitators . So
19 I hope to give you an interesting update at our next
20 meeting.
21 MS . HARPER: Thank you, Paul .
22 You might as well stay up there ; we need to know
23 about the needs assessment now.
24 MR. PINSON: The needs assessment .
10
25 Well , we met yesterday. The sessions were
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1 developed and divided into two, a .m, and an afternoon,
2 p.m. meetings . There were roughly 120 invitations
3 sent out . A total of approximately 65 participants
4 which was fine . The list was developed by FSU and
5 Fraser-Mohlke with some assistance by us , but
6 primarily through Fraser-Mohlke .
7 The intention was to develop a broad spectrum of
8 the community' s involvement to cover not only
9 geographic areas, Everglades City, Marco, Immokalee ,
10 North Naples , Naples Park , but also to get a large
11 cross-section of the community in terms of various
12 constituencies such as Christie , although didn' t show,
13 and fortunately other students did. But we wanted
14 students to be there . We wanted minorities to be
15 represented. We wanted the taxpayers groups to be
16 represented.
17 We purposely, just as the conference tomorrow,
18 we ' re not particularly choosing just supporters ; we
19 saw that as an opportunity for education, but also as
20 an opportunity whether they ultimately favor the
21 taxing referendum or not, an opportunity to play a
22 role and be a part of the needs assessment, to create
23 something dynamic with that particuliar element .
24 So we did get a fairly substantial cross-section,
25 although there ' s a lot more work , in my opinion, that
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1 needs to be done in that area .
(;) 2 For those that were not there , the 60 plus that
3 were not there , there will be follow-ups . Each will
4 be sent a letter and a form to fill out so that the
5 same opportunity the participants had yesterday, they
6 will have . We ' re hoping to get their participation.
7 That meeting yesterday, the primary focus was to
8 begin the development of the ideal vision for our
9 community. And what FSU' s -- FSU has a very unique
10 approach. They don' t do a , quote , standard needs
11 assessment . Their belief is what will come out of
12 this vision creation will drive the needs assessment .
13 Their belief is that they will measure through hard
14 and soft data collection the differences , again,
15 between what currently exists in Collier County and
16 what this ideal vision of a community should be , the
17 true needs of the community.
18 So it was an important first step and an
19 important meeting. I 'm honestly not sure how the
20 participants , and I 'm anxious to talk to folks like
21 David Schimmel , et cetera, who was a participant there
22 and get their feedback . But since I had the inside
23 track and I know the importance of that first step and
24 that meeting yesterday, I 'm curious as to how the
10 25 other participants related that, whether they saw that
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1 as, you know, the real substance that it really was
2 because it' s an important aspect of the entire needs
3 assessment.
4 But it was a first step; it was a good one . FSU
5 had their entire team doing it with Fraser-Mohlke .
6 They will be conducting a second one , a second meeting
7 shortly after the summer is over . They will be
8 calling up now and beginning the data collection
9 stage . So the important thing to report to this
10 council is the real meat of the assessment has begun.
11 And I think it' s gotten off on a good foot, the right
12 start, and the summer will be a summer of substantial
13 work for FSU and for Fraser-Mohlke in particular in
14 terms of collection of the data .
15 MS . HARPER: Thank you.
16 David, since you were there , do you want to make
17 any comments?
18 MR. SCHIMMEL : Yeah, I would like to make a brief
19 comment .
20 I thought the meeting was particularly good
21 because we had a group of people together all with
22 individual needs . And the real focus of the meeting
23 was let' s put those individual needs aside and look at
24 the overview; let' s try to develop a vision of really
0 25 where we want to be .
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1 And I think that frustrated some people . But it
2 really set the tone , and I think that was the right
3 direction.
4 MS . HARPER: That' s great . That' s what we ' re
5 trying to accomplish.
6 You have the handout in front of you regarding
7 the EDC newsletter that was sent out?
8 Paul , would you like to talk about that?
9 MR. PINSON: Just a couple of quick comments , no
10 talking is necessary, not too much talking.
11 It was real fortuitous and nice of the Economic
12 Development Council to give us the opportunity to
13 address their membership and 200 plus business leaders
14 of Collier County. And we created the newsletter that
15 you see in front of you which was sent out and I think
16 it was not only informative but very positive and
17 we've gotten several good comments and good reaction
18 from it, so that is , I think , particularly a strong
19 need of this council .
20 We have what seems to be ample and very
21 substantial support from the service provider
22 community for the social service agencies , et cetera .
23 I think we really need to do some hard work with the
24 business community to educate them to what we ' re all
471) 25 about. I think this was a nice step forward in that .
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1 MS . HARPER: Thank you.
4:) 2 The next item on the agenda is the letter which
3 you have in front of you from the Children' s Home
4 Society. And I think I will read it for the benefit of
5 the audience so that they know.
6 Dear Paul : Enclosed are two checks to support
7 the continued efforts of the Collier County Children' s
8 Services Council . Between April 5th and May 1st we
9 colected $1 , 170 from our board as donations for the
10 Children' s Services Council , with the largest single
11 donation being $250 .
12 Our board is planning a Collier County fund
13 raiser for the month of June with details to follow.
4:1)
14 We will be donating 50 percent of our proceeds to the
15 Children' s Services Council .
16 I regret that I will be unable to attend the
17 meeting which you have scheduled for May 14th at the
18 YMCA. If it would be acceptable , I may be able to
19 have a memeber of our social work staff represent me
20 at that meeting.
21 And the rest is not necessary. But I just think
22 that they should be -- they are the first agency who
23 have come forward and said: Look , you know, we know
24 that we have needs and we certainly need funding and
4D25 we ' re willing to put our money where our mouth is and
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1 help you all out, because as I 've pointed out at the
2 last council meeting, funds , we are in a crisis stage
3 of funds . And we need help to get us through until we
4 can fund ourselves .
5 So I thought it was just wonderful that the
6 Children' s Home Society is for us and they've come out
7 and said, you know, let us help you.
8 And the other nice letter that we have in front
9 of you is from the Norris Foundation. It says, Dear
10 Mr . Pinson: On behalf of the directors of the Dellora
11 and Lester J. Norris Foundation, enclosed is a check
12 for $30 , 000 representing a grant to be used at your
13 discretion for the advancement of your worthy
14 purposes . The grant was recommended by Mrs . Lavern N.
15 Gaynor of 800 Admiralty Parade East, Naples , Florida
16 33940 .
17 So as you can see , that' s going to keep us
18 solvent for a few months . But thanks , Lal , very much.
19 Mary Ellen, would you like to talk about the
20 budget? I 'm glad you got here in time .
21 MS . zumFELDE: I apologize .
22 Well , all I can do is just go over -- all of you
23 have before you a current budget as it is and it looks
24 like we are in better shape than we thought that we
25 would be .
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1 Do you want me to go into details of the budget
2 then for the audience ' s sake?
3 MS . HARPER: Well , uh-huh.
4 MS . zumFELDE: Okay. We just have cash on hand
5 total of $34 , 407 . And I guess to raise funds in the
6 amount of $47 , 642 because of our expenses . And that
7 seems to be a shortfall that we ' re going to be
8 needing.
9 MS . HARPER: Well , the shortfall is actually --
10 MS . zumFELDE: $12 , 000 .
11 MS . HARPER: Yeah, $235 . But I guess if we don' t
12 get the money in it , we won' t spend it .
13 MS . zumFELDE: Yeah.
14 [ Simultaneous discussion, unintelligible . ]
15 MS . zumFELDE: The operating expenses are down to
16 bare bone . As you know, there are a lot of volunteers
17 that work for the Children' s Services Council , so
18 we 've got a shortfall of about $12 , 235 .
19 MR. PINSON: You might make note that this takes
20 us through --
21 MS . HARPER: December .
22 MR. PINSON: The end of the year .
23 MS . HARPER: It will take us through December
24 31st. And, you know, Children' s Services Council is
25 in a good position in that we do everything with a
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1 bare , bare , you know, it' s just our expenses are
2 really low simply because we share office space with
3 Naples Alliance for Children who bears half of the
4 expenses . So that' s worked out well and convinces me
5 that a lot of times if some of the agencies would
6 coordinate instead of all spreading out in different
7 places , we might do things with a lot less money.
8 DR. RICHEY: The money that is anticipated as a
9 result of the gift to cover needs assessment --
10 MR. PINSON: What' s not reflected actually in
11 this particular budget is the funds for the needs
12 assessment . Those are coming out of, of course , the
13 Community Foundation' s account . So this is strictly
14 operational .
15 DR. RICHEY: Well , what I 'm trying to say is the
16 contract for the needs assessment was what?
17 MR. PINSON: Thirty-five .
18 DR. RICHEY: Is that going to be paid by separate
19 check from another foundation? I mean, from another
20 organization.
21 MR. PINSON: No. It' s paid by us . They pour the
22 funds over into a special Children' s Services Council
23 account .
24 DR. RICHEY: All I 'm trying to say is that those
(6, 25 funds will be transferred and then you' ll write the
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1 checks out of the Children' s Services Council account
2 so we can have -- at the end of the year we have an
3 idea of revenues versus expenses .
4 MR. PINSON: It' s the Naples Alliance for
5 Children.
6 MS . HARPER: Actually, the money was donated to
7 the --
8 [ Simultaneous discussion, unintelligible . ]
9 MS . HARPER: To the Naples Alliance .
10 Actually, the money was donated by the Community
11 Foundation to the Naples Alliance for Children because
12 they' re a 5013C [ sic ] organization. And the funds
4
13 come out to pay for the needs assessment from out of
It
14 the Naples Alliance for Children account.
15 MR. PINSON: But a specially designated
16 Children' s Services Council account.
17 MS . HARPER: Under Naples Alliance .
18 Tom, does that sound screwy?
19 DR. RICHEY: It' s a little strange bookkeeping,
4
20 but it' s okay. I just wanted to make sure that when
21 you get through that we can reflect our revenues
22 versus expenditures and have a real true picture
23 because if the public did not see what we 've been
24 involved in in terms of actual expenditures , they
0 25 would say, "Gosh, why does the Children' s Services
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1 Council need $125 , 000 when they actually only spent
0 2 last year 50 something thousand dollars?"
3 What I 'm trying to say, you need to make sure you
4 give vision to your revenue picture , whatever it is ,
5 at the same time you give exposure to your expenditure
6 side so you can justify going to the public and
7 saying, "These are legitimate financial needs
8 predicated on our expenditure record. "
9 Does that make sense to you, Mr . Passidomo?
10 MR. PASSIDOMO: Yes , sir , it does .
11 DR. RICHEY: That' s all I 'm trying to say to you.
12 MS . CAMPBELL: I can restructure it.
4 13 MR. PINSON: I think that' s an excellent point .
14 DR. RICHEY: In anything, anything that anybody
15 gives to this council -- I 'm sorry, I 'm not trying to
16 rush your fingers .
17 Anything that anybody gives to this council in
18 the form of revenue needs to be reflected on the
19 revenue side because we ' re spending it . And if we
20 don' t show the public that we had the revenue but we
21 had the expenditure responsibility, how are we going
22 to justify requests for dollars in the future to
Y
23 continue our programs?
24 That' s all I 'm trying to say, the only point I 'm
25 trying to make , not arguing with bookkeeping or
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emmummiv
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1 anything else .
2 MS . HARPER: David?
3 MR. SCHIMMEL : Are you not a 501C3 yet?
4 MS . HARPER: No, we ' re not .
5 MR. SCHIMMEL : Do you have plans to become one?
6 MS . HARPER: Mark addressed that at the last
7 meeting, Dave . No, I don' t believe we do because
8 we' re government .
9 MR. PINSON: The rule is we basically -- and, of
10 course , the only reason that it' s handled in the way
11 that it was handled was that we needed to be or have a
12 501C3 from the Community Foundation' s perspective to
4
13 get anything at all . So we used the Naples Alliance
14 for Children as a conduit of funds and I know you
15 understand that .
16 Correct me if I 'm wrong, Mark, but I think the
17 legal ruling that you gave us was basically for all
18 intents and purposes we can now act as a 501C3 .
19 MR. PRICE: Well , as I recall the opinion of Joe
20 Cox that donations to this council would be tax
21 deductible . And as a practical matter , we ' re looking
22 into perhaps going to the 501C3 and put donations from
23 the Norris Foundation, but since they have decided
24 that that' s not necessary in order to make that
25 donation and as a practical matter we agreed to that
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1 to carry legally.
2 MS . GAYNOR: I think it depends upon the rules of
3 the foundation, doesn' t it?
4 MR. PINSON: And for your particular foundation,
5 we were acceptable .
6 MS . HARPER: But I 'm not sure that we would have
7 been under the Community Foundation. And in fact,
8 when the needs assessment was mentioned, the
9 Children' s Services Council was not in place . The
10 Community Foundation came to Naples Alliance for
11 Children and asked how they could help us in working
12 with the needs for children.
13 And our reply to them was that we felt before we
14 could ever do anything, that we must have a needs
15 assessment, but that was our first project and that' s
16 how the Community Foundation came into the picture and
17 said, "Then we will try to fund a needs assessment so
18 the whole community can know what the needs are . " So
19 that' s the way it was started and it was my
20 understanding that the Community Foundation could not
21 give to someone who was not a 5013C [ sic ]
U) 000
22 organization, so that' s where the $7-3"e01-04' is .
23 MR. PINSON: Just to make sure that we end on the
24 right note, I duly noted your --
25 DR. RICHEY: That' s no problem.
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1 MR. PINSON: -- point. A good point .
2 MS . CAMPBELL: And another thing, when this
3 budget was made up, Dr . Richey, we had not received
4 the first payment from the Community Foundation and it
5 is what we call our Florida Federal account, that
6 first payment. And I ' ll redo it .
7 DR. RICHEY: I was not questioning anything with
8 the money. I was strictly coming from the perspective
9 of being able to demonstrate expenditures of this
I
10 council which justifies our continued emphasis on
11 funds to drive the needs of the Children' s Services
12 Council ; that' s all I was trying to do.
13 The bookkeeping is fantastic . I just wanted to
14 make sure .
15 Someone in the back , Madam Chairman, wishes to
16 speak .
17 MS . O'NEILL: What Dr . Richey is now saying and I
18 know people will ask me , I did attend yesterday the
19 seminar and I found it interesting. And I understand
20 that there are two groups , in the morning and the
21 afternoon. Paul was there and the speaker , the doctor
22 from the university said the morning group was totally
23 different than the afternoon group. I was in the
24 afternoon group but I found that interesting.
Mr 25 The question I want to ask you, and I know people
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24
1 will ask me , number one , how much does a seminar like
4:) 2 that cost and who paid for it? I know people are
3 going to ask me that, and I don' t know whether Paul
4 can answer that or not .
5 MR. PINSON: Yes , i ' l be happy to take a stab at
6 it, Alyse .
7 MS . O'NEILL : Okay.
8 MR. PINSON: The seminar was the first step of
9 the overall needs assessment that has been contracted
10 with FSU, Fraser-Mohlke and the Children' s Services
11 Council . That overall study is costing $35 , 000 . So
12 that' s not for yesterday, though.
13 So that study of $35 , 000 is an ongoing study that
14 will take approximately seven months to accomplish.
15 MS . O'NEILL: But who pays that bill?
16 MR. PINSON: That was funded through the
17 Community Foundation, so it was privately funded.
18 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just want to give you my
19 little opinion. I enjoyed it; I was in the afternoon
20 group where the director , the doctor said we were
21 totally diferent than the morning group. But I must
22 confess, I didn' t learn anything . Everything I heard
23 from everybody I heard a hundred times before and the
24 end result from each person was we need more money, we
MP 25 need more money.
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1 Am I right, Paul , and he was trying to tell us to
2 fill up the gap. He wanted information from us, the
3 needs assessment . But I had no idea you were spending
4 that kind of money.
5 And I 'm just trying to say to you, I 'm preparing
6 you for what people will say out in the field that --
7 well , that even Mr . Passidomo from the City of Naples
8 is realizing how much waste there is in government.
9 And that' s where I 'm coming from when you go on the
10 ballot .
11 DR. RICHEY: Alyse , I can assure you that the
12 $35, 000 expenditure for that needs assessment
13 mirroring FSU' s research capabilities and Mohlke ,
14 Fraser-Mohlke ' s local data collection abilities, that
15 is a bargain.
16 Some of the bids came in, I believe , in excess of
17 $60 , 000 . That is not uncommon for a community, the
18 kinds of needs assessment which we need to drive our
19 strategies and to determine that we are on the right
20 track . And to have data that is not reflective of
21 your thoughts or my thoughts or someone ' s , but what
22 unbiased data collectors researchers find and present
23 to us , that' s the whole key, I think , to projecting
24 our fiscal needs .
25 I think it was a great bargain at $35 , 000 . I
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1 know that if we had to pay for that kind of a study or
4110 2 any other county agency had to pay for that kind of a
3 needs assessment , it would have been far in excess of
4 that . We negotiated it down.
5 MS . O'NEILL: Thank you.
6 MR. PINSON: Alyse , I encourage you too not to
7 judge the needs assessment by the session yesterday.
8 That was a beginning session. It wasn' t to impart
9 information to the participants ; it wasn' t a seminar
10 by any stretch of the imagination; it was a
11 data-gathering seminar . And what we actually wanted
12 was for you and for the other 120 participants to
13 create a vision of our community. So they' re
14 eliciting -- soliciting information from you.
15 So I didn' t go there expecting them to tell me
16 anything new, but rather to begin the process of, so
17 it was just a first baby step forward in the needs
18 assessment .
19 MS . O'NEILL : Thank you.
20 MS . HARPER: Any other comments?
21 No comments , John?
22 MR. PASSIDOMO: I want to endorse what Dr . Richey
23 said. I think we 've got to present a total picture
24 and I think that ' s all he ' s suggesting, that if we ' re
'Nur 25 going to document what we ' re doing, let' s make sure
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1 that it is a complete and accurate picture . I think
2 his comment is well taken.
3 MS . HARPER: Mark?
4 MR. PRICE: If I can follow up on that, we have
5 to fully comply with the solicitation of funds . If
6 somebody in the community does ask for that disclosure
7 statement, we really ought to have as comprehensive a
8 breakdown of the expenses .
9 MS . HARPER: Kay, did you get that?
10 MS . CAMPBELL : I was just working on the
11 operational aspect of it . I 'm not a CPA. I can
12 rewrite this .
13 DR. RICHEY: No, I don' t think you need to . That
401) 14 was a philosophical statement for the council ' s
15 position, that' s all . Your work is fine and very much
16 appreciated.
17 MS . CAMPBELL: I thought about it but I didn' t
18 put it in.
19 DR. RICHEY: That' s okay.
20 MS . HARPER: Paul , do you want to talk about the
21 Marco meeting?
22 MR. PINSON: Well , what I 'm going to suggest is
23 that the council consider is that as we move into,
24 after the summer months , that we begin our outreach
4r) 25 program once again will be coming to the -- not to the
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1 ending of the needs assessment, that would be in the
4:) 2 latter part of October , but we ' re getting it to the
3 point where we really need to start reaching out to
4 the community.
5 And I 'm working with Dick Shanahan, Commissioner
6 Shanahan and Leonard Llewellyn to put together a
7 meeting on Marco that can draw a fairly large
8 constituency there .
9 So I would suggest that this council have a
10 September Marco outreach meeting at some date to be
11 determined.
12 MS . HARPER: That' s in addition to our regular
13 meeting?
le
14 MR. PINSON: That' s correct .
15 MS . HARPER: Okay.
16 Any discussion? I think it ' s a great idea .
17 We 've been to Immokalee .
18 Do you need a vote on that or can we just take a
19 general consent that we let Paul go ahead with plans
20 for a September meeting? Thank you.
21 And now Barbara Rhodes , we ' re going to ask
22 Barbara to come up and talk about our juvenile
I
23 division of the Collier County court system.
24 MS . RHODES : I 'm Barbara Rhodes . I 'm supervisor
25 of the juvenile division. I have been with the
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1 juvenile department for 10 and-a-half years with the
2 clerk ' s office .
3 I am a member of the Juvenile Justice Task Force
4 and as a spin-off, the Gang Prevention Team.
5 I don' t think , and I think all of you know that
6 do any work with children, there ' s no more frustrating
7 job in the whole world than working with children.
8 The news media plays juvenile problems up real
9 big. But when you come down to our local level ,
10 nothing is done . There ' s a lot of talk , but there ' s
11 no action. No one really wants to help.
12 I don' t consider children to be statistics , but
13 since I do have to keep statistics for Tallahassee and
401)
14 for Jim once in a while , in 1990 alone in Collier
15 County we had 1 , 063 new delinguent cases ; 165 new
16 dependent cases ; and approximately 50 sins and fins
17 cases . And I will explain to you in a moment what
18 that is .
19 Of our delinquents, first time offenders
20 constituted 62 percent of the children. Second time
21 offenders, 17 percent. The third through six time
22 offenders also 17 percent , and 7 or above which we
23 count as habitual offenders , 5 percent .
24 To break these down into categories ,
25 dependencies , as most of you are aware of because they
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1 are the most publicized section are the abused,
4:) 2 abandoned and neglected children.
3 I disagree -- I disagree with the legislature in
4 a lot of things , but this in particular . In our
5 dependent cases, their main goal seems to be reunite
6 children with parents . Not true . When a child is
7 taken from parents and placed in foster care , a
8 judicial review is held every six months . A
9 performance agreement is given to these parents . It
10 sets out goals that they' re supposed to do. If any of
11 us as parents for any reason had had our children
12 removed from us, would it have taken you 6 , 12 or 18
13 months to complete some things to get your kids back?
14 I think I could have done it in two months or less .
15 They have to go to parenting classes ; substance
16 abuse treatment; have a stable job; have a home for
17 the child to live in. The statutes say that if a
18 child is at the 18th month review, when this child has
19 been in foster care , if the parents had not done what
20 they were supposed to do, then that child is to be
21 placed for adoption.
22 We have 1985 cases ; the children are still in
23 foster care because the parent will come up right
24 before , maybe a week before the 18th month review and
25 maybe they have signed up for a parenting class .
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1 Well , as long as there ' s hope, they say let' s give
2 this parent another chance .
3 By the time that some of these parents could get
4 their children back , the child is too old to be
5 adopted. No one wants it so they spend their life
6 until they' re 18 years old going from one foster home
7 to another .
8 A lot of our parents have never passed, and it' s
9 a cycle , it' s the way they were raised, the way their
10 parents were raised, they've never passed the first
11 step on the master hierarchy which is nothing but your
12 basic food, water , physical comfort, the physiological
13 needs , and that' s all that these children know.
14 The second category which is the main thing that
15 we deal with is delinquencies . These are children
16 that have committed crimes, picked up by law
17 enforcement . What people don' t know or fail to
18 realize by the time they say, "That ' s a bad kid, " is
19 that 70 percent of our delinquents started out as
20 dependents .
21 Now, my main thing that comes in between is the
22 sins and fins which Judge Brousseau has said sounded
23 like an underwater orgy to him. It' s children in need
24 of services and families in need of services . They' re
25 truants, ungovernables and runaways . These are
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1 children that can be helped but there is not one place
401) 2 to help them, not only in this county but in the State
3 of Florida. They have not committed a crime , so
4 they' re not deliquents . They' re not dependent
5 children; they have homes if you call a roof over
6 their head a home .
7 The thing is that our office averages four to
8 five calls a week and we ' re just part of it . The
9 state attorney' s office gets calls; HRS gets calls .
10 Parents want to know what can I do for my child before
11 they become delinquent . we know that they' re running
12 with the wrong crowd; we know that they' re stealing
13 from us .
41)
14 We can tell them one of two things : You can
15 either beat your kid or kick them out of the house ,
16 let HRS step in, press charges against you, make that
17 child dependent; or you can ask them to go out and
18 steal and be sure the police see them so that they can
19 pick them up and get them into the delinquent system.
20 There is no place for these children.
21 We desperately, not in Lee County, not in some
22 other county, but in Collier County, need a place
23 where these children can be placed. Some of these
24 children and families need nothing but a rest from
25 each other . They need someone , a third party just
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1 like at any type of counseling, marriage counseling or
410 2 anything, that can listen to the parents, listen to
3 the child and tell the other ones what they' re saying
4 because they have reached the point of frustration.
5 These children are your future delinquents .
6 These parents are your future abusers . Because of the
7 frustration, there is going to be abuse because
8 nothing can be done and the child can go on and on
9 until he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong
10 time , then he becomes one of our statistics in the
11 delinquency system.
12 This sins and fins which is really laughable ,
13 it' s covered in Florida Statutes . Florida Statute 39
11100
14 covers the juveniles . 39 . 42 through 39 . 447 is
15 exclusively sins and fins . There are sanctions in
16 there that can be imposed on parents ; there are things
17 that children must do . The legislature came up with
18 all this glorious plan which was good, could be good,
19 of steps that need to be taken. You may as well take
20 Scotch tape and put all those pages together because
21 they allocated the money, then when they cut the
22 budget, juveniles , I think more than any in the
23 judicial system, was hurt . They withdrew every penny
24 for all of this .
25 We have nothing to do with these children. These
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1 children are truants. The school is implementing an
2 assist program. It' s going to do a tremendous amount .
3 Making the parents responsible , they've got to be made
4 responsible .
5 These children and parents call and say, "I can' t
6 do a thing with them, " and you want to say, "Why
7 didn' t you start when they were a year old?" All of a
8 sudden, a six-foot two father comes in with a 12
9 year-old son and says, "I can' t do anything with him. "
10 They' re afraid of HRS . HRS in some ways has
11 relaxed. Discipline is allowed, not corporal
12 punishment, discipline . But these people are so
13 engrained now with the child saying, "You do this and
14 I 'm going to call HRS , " that they' re afraid to touch
15 them. Most of them are even afraid to say anything to
16 them because a lot of our kids can misconstrue , and
17 that child is going to end up calling HRS, making some
18 kind of allegation against the parent . Some of them
19 are true . When you sit in there 10 and-a-half years ,
20 you see a lot go through the system.
21 In Tennessee , I think they have a great policy.
22 First time offender , the child pays . Second time ,
23 parent and child pay. Very few third time offenders .
24 When something is imposed on the parent -- one thing
25 is that parenting should be mandatory. Parenting for
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1 children of all ages, not just babies, not just people
2 expecting children, it' s easy when they' re little and
3 it' s yes, ma' am and no, ma' am. It' s hard when they' re
4 older . And the group of children that we deal with,
5 our juveniles usually start in the system about eight
6 years old. Some of them we have until they' re 18
7 years old and they get worse . A lot of them turn into
8 your habitual offenders .
9 Parenting is something that I think all of us
10 could have used. None of our kids, as we 've always
11 heard, came with a manual saying how to raise them.
12 It doesn' t hurt. Plus when you have a lot of the type
13 of parents that we have that never knew how to parent
14 to start with, they weren' t parented. So all they' re
15 doing is bringing them up and hoping that society is
16 going to take care of them.
17 The staffing board are the community parenting --
18 was that decided on, Jenny -- is going to be a very
19 good step for these children. This will be the second
20 time offenders and it will be comprised of community
21 leaders, professionals , people that can step in and
22 talk to the children, evaluate , see what can be done
23 and how these children and families can be helped.
24 People are trying, they' re trying so hard.
25 And I promised you 10 minutes .
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1 But one thing that really, and not to down
2 anyone , but really aggravates me in this county, this
3 city, as people move down here and they say that
4 Naples is paradise , they take paradise literally.
5 They put blinders on. What they see here , they left
6 up north. They don' t realize that on a small scale in
7 this county, we've got the same problems they had up
8 north.
9 We should have the money and the resources in
10 this county, but first people have got to care . And
11 the only people you' re going to find aside from people
12 like you that do care , are victims . Boy, do they ever
13 get concerned when they' re a victim.
14 It' s nothing for one of our children, and not
15 just the habitual offenders , to go on a spree and in
16 one night they will burglarize five to six dwellings,
17 occupied dwellings . That' s when people get up in
18 arms , but then the only people that get up in arms are
19 the victims again because it always happens to someone
20 else .
21 I think you' re all doing a tremendous job. I
22 think the system is so big and so out of hand. One
23 is , I think juveniles are taken too lightly. The
24 judges , the state attorneys , public defenders , HRS ,
25 their hands are tied, tied by laws , policies that are
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1 made in Tallahassee .
2 We have judges , state attorneys and public
3 defenders that go through juvenile as training grounds
4 only because they have to. No one wants to handle
5 juvenile . It' s very frustrating to the rest of us
6 that stayed in juvenile and work with juveniles all
7 the time to see that they come through and some of
8 them don' t even take it seriously. So how can you
9 expect the children to?
10 We need a place ; we need something desperately
11 for these in between children that are falling through
12 the cracks . Our truancies are a big part, but truancy
13 is a start of what' s happening. These kids are going
14 to be delinquent, and I hate to see so many more turn
15 into statistics .
16 I thank you for what you' re doing.
17 Please , I know that a lot is focused on
18 dependency, but don' t forget our other kids . They' re
19 really important. They are dependents , too ; they' re
20 just a little more obnoxious .
21 Thank you so much.
22 MS . HARPER: Are there any comments from the
23 audience or anyone who wants to discuss anything?
24 Any questions?
25 If not, could I have a motion that we adjourn?
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1 [Motion made , seconded and voted in favor of . ]
2 [Whereupon, the meeting was concluded . ]
3 CERTIFICATE
4 STATE OF FLORIDA )
5 COUNTY OF COLLIER)
6 I , JOSEPH F . SINENO, Notary Public , State of
7 Florida at Large , do hereby certify that the foregoing
8 proceedings were taken before me at the time and place as
9 stated in the caption hereto at Page 1 hereof; that the
10 foregoing typewritten transcription, consisting of pages
11 numbered 1 through 37 , inclusive , is a true record of my
12 stenographic notes taken at said proceedings .
13 I further certify that I am neither of counsel
14 nor solicitor to any of the parties involved nor interested
15 in the event of the cause .
16 WITNESS my hand and official seal in the Cityhi
itof
17 Naples , County of Collier , State of Florida, this day
18 of , 1991 .
19 /
20 Lgi,1 414 AAA
21 oseph F . Sineno
22 otary Public
23 State of Florida at Large .
24 ",�„►
JOSEPH F. SINENO
.tea°•' :
*= MY COMMISSION EXPIRES
2 5 nOBONDED THPU NOTARY PUBLIC UNDERWRITERS
January 27, 1994
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