Loading...
CSC Minutes 09/06/1991 Children ' s Services Council of Collier County Minutes/Transcripts September 6 , 1991 (,OUNCI� "Children... Today's Dream - Tomorrow's Reality" Z 70 GRAND CENTRAL STATION-SUITE 366 C0 TEL(813)649DLETTE ROAD, u_ 8222 NAPLES,FLORIDA 33940 p A TTEL( °fST. 1990��y� OFFICERS Chairman: Bea Harper Vice Chairman: The Children's Services Council of Collier County Richard Shanahan Meeting of September 6, 1991 Secretary-Treasurer Mary Ellen zumFelde COUNCILMEMSERs Council Members Present Council Members Absent Judge Ted Brousseau Alma Cambridge Judge Ted Brousseau Delores G.Dry Alma Cambridge Nelson A.Faerber,Jr. Nelson Faerber, Jr. Lavern Gaynor John Passidomo Lavern Gaynor Dr.Thomas Richey Mark Geisler Bea Harper EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR John Passidomo Paul C.Pinson Dr. Thomas Richey Richard Shanahan Mary Ellen zumFelde A meeting of the Children's Services Council was held on Friday, September 6, 1991 at 9:00 a.m. , Collier County School Board Room. The meeting was chaired by Bea Harper, chairman. The invocation was given by Alma Cambridge. The pledge of allegiance was led by Richard Shanahan. Minutes of the previous meeting held June 7, 1991, were approved as presented. Motion was made and seconded. Mary Ellen zumFelde, treasurer, reported the Council had a cash balance of $15,465, sufficient funds until November 17, 1991; the Council had received a total of $2,713 for the past three and one- half months (interest, $448; donations from Texaco $1500 and Comerica $500; and $265, a "luv" offering from the June 8 conference); and, the Council needs $9,522 in funds to meet budgeted expenses to De- • cember 31, 1991. A motion was made to approve and file the report for audit. Paul Pinson, executive director, updated the Council on the statewide coalition of Children's Services Councils. He also reported that (1) the Children's Services Council will be featured in the December issue of Gulf Shore Life magazine. . .Miss Ellie Sommers, free lance writer, is handling the assignment; (2) the Community Network of the Naples Alliance for Children is sponsoring a community outreach meeting Thurs- day, October 3, 1991, 5:00 pm/7:00 pm. , St. John's Episcopal Church. . . support of the March referendum and the Children's Services Council will be an important item on the agenda; and, (3) WNPL may assist in pro- ducing psa's for our community awareness effort. • Chuck Mohlke, Fraser & Mohlke Associates, reported on the needs assessment study focusing on the kinds of things they uncover -- ie. , nutritional deficit of children; the barriers of gathering data; and the questionnaire presented to all the planning partners. A general question and answer period followed. November 15, 1991 is the data set for com- pletion of the study. Paul Pinson described the Children's Services Council exhibit at the August 15 Showcase, Registry Hotel. He then gave an update on Collier County and Lee County campaigns. The first organizational meeting of the Collier County campaign will be held the first week in October in which some 20 to 25 community leaders will attend. Mr. Pinson expressed some concern over Lee County and their plan to go to referendum in November 1991. He then requested guidance from the Council regarding the October date for the October Marco Island out- reach meeting. It was agreed October 15 would probably be the most appropriate date. Judge Brousseau, juvenile court, reported on the development of a new Citizens Review Panel for Collier County which will assist the court in processing foster care cases quicker and save the children from the trauma of uncertainty. The first organizational meeting is scheduled for September 18. Beverly Thorpe, executive director, Concerned Citizens For Sexually Abused Children, Lee County, reported on the current status of its Sexual Abuse Treatment Program in Collier County. The program focuses on incest child abuse cases. Due to lack of funds the program will be closed in Collier County on October 31, 1991. A general discussion followed seeking more information on the problem. Richard Shanahan, Collier County Commissioner, reported on the Tenth University Siting Committee for Collier County Students. Judge Brousseau reported that the Collier County Mental Health Association has developed a new program, "Children First', focusing on warring parents, those involved in the dissolution of marriage. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned. A trans- cript of the meeting is being made a part of these minutes. Respectfully submitted „pa__ FA-443L. Mary Ellen zumFelde Transcript of September 6, 1991 CSC meeting. someone is not taking advantage of a service, for reasons totally unknown to us, and I think insufficiently appreciative -- at some point time there is a deficit, a nutritional deficit for some children. Why? Is unknown, but it is one of the dilemas which certainly will be presented to you in the reporting that we hope to be able to provide to you more definitely probably in the month of November. I suggest to you that these are the kinds of things one uncovers and lacking in the abiilty in reporting to you definitively today, I think, however, it is entirely appropriate to suggest, generally speaking, the kinds of things one begins to uncover in this process. I think it would be important for me to say three things before I conclude my remarks. I would encourage, as a matter of fact, I would urge, all members of the CSC if they do not have now, to get a hold of all the budget documents from units of local governments. Now some will contain less relevance to this task we are undertaking here than others. The City of Everglades in its budget, presented for the first time last evening, will not have great relevance to some of the agenda items you will have before you this year and in subsequent years; the City of Naples more so, primarily because of its park and recreation programs and others. The county and school board budgets, however, I suggest you become conversant because nto have a familiarit with those budget programs is, I think, to evade some of the issues that will come before you. So, I would urge you very much to do that -- and to monitor closely your associates and other units of government, particularly, elected officials, who I know have detailed familiarity with their own budget, but may not share the same degree of familiarity with other govern- ment unit budgets. But, here is one of those classic cases in which everything relates to everything else, and where one program provides a promising service it is yet, not relate well, perhaps, to the discovery of other programs provided by units of government. I am talking now about local governments. The second thing I would urge you to do, and this is sort of a personal plea. I would ask you to consult with those whom you hire to develop data for you on a needs assessment basis -- before you begin consulting with other units of government, or other prime agencies, about their programs, budget dollars they apply, has a tendency to create some confusion, and, sometimes these efforts designed to improve everybody's understanding of what programs are and to respond , the questions of elected officials, needs, I think, need to be done very modestly and very carefully, because at some point in time, these agencies who have been contacted, think they have been answered and then we appear, and they say, "gee, I've already re- sponded." That's just a private request. And lastly, we, from time to time, in our efforts to increase cooperation and understanding of these issues and provide data, do provide those that we are reviewing thse matters with, the information regarding the CSC and those who have been consulted are all aware of who the members are. You will say this is an earnest and sincere data gathering and reporting, that it would be fundamental to the task that you are undertaking to do and that you urge their cooperation. I doubt that will happen, but it has happened in two instances, already; we've gotten a great deal of support from members of and Council staff, and hope to continue to do that. As Dr. Richey knows, because he has seen the document, we have compiled kind of a handy-dandy little loose leaf folder that describes our central purpose, what the planning partners process is all about, their participation in it, where they came from what was done, the outline in detail of our inquiries as to budget process, our questionnaires to recipients of services, and so on It will be available in your office and I hope you will consult it, if you feel a need to consult it. I think at this point in time, this pretty well summarizes my remarks for now. But I would urge you to share with me, a request of our prime contractor to be with us, at least, at our November meeting to advance your understanding of the study and its status and completion at that time. I think that is entirely appropriate. I think the Council will be more compelling as a result of that meeeting. May I respond, Madam Chairman, to any questions. Chairman: Are there any questions? Judge Brousseau: It seems like one of the primary purposes of the Council is to raise money, and your illustrations of needs you covered financial aspects and I am wondering, I know it is called needs assessment, are you addressing also solutions to help solve these needs. . .I,11 give you an example where I'm coming from. . . .you gave the illustration of 80% of the WICS checks being passed and hypopthetically assuming that 50% of that 80% checks went to buy crack cocaine instead of feeding kids, you would still have malnutrition kids and you have added to the problem. I know it is tempting sometimes to throw money at the problems -- are you making suggestions or is that something we need to look elsewhere when we get your study. Mohlke: We will be making suggestions, but respectfully, there is no way, there is no way, that those dollars can be used to sustain someone's substance abuse habit -- there is no way. There is a program, sir, by which certain stores are delegated to cash those checks and cash those checks only. They are redeemable over and under very limited circumstances. They are not used in public transactions. They are targeted -- they are in effect a voucher for only certain kinds of foods. In fact, some moms have difficulty in under- standing when they purchase their 36 ounces of cereal they can't buy cocoa puffs -- some moms just don't understand -- but sir, those dollars are not capable of being used for substance abuse purchases. Brousseau: I didn't mean to challenge that, I simply used that as an illustr- ation of throwing money Mohlke: I guess under the circumstances felt compelled to say that your example is illustrative of your concern, but not illustrative of the facts as I perceive them -- but any rate, there are a wide variety of issues related here -- in which -- it seems clear, a better understanding of programs, not only in terms of the general public, but also in terms of those who take leading roles in the community on behalf of efforts to better sustain and enhance the lives of children and also to improve the understanding of clients's services -- just what those services are -- how best they can be used -- and how they may foster the development of a child, as well as the --we have a variety of issues that relate to the ability of the mom to understand, in terms of the program, the use of the services on behalf of the child. Some mothers use one language and not another -- when one goes to the store one may presume that the store clerk who is handling the voucher understandings the mother who is not well versed in English, but who may represent, generically, at any given moment in time, well over a third of all the children who are entered in the program. There are a variety of concerns like that are uncovered through the process -- that indicates there is a great burden, I think, on those providing programs to assure that the people who benefit from them the most would be able to use them effectively -- they are well understood in the offices providing the services, but frequently, the mother concerned has to go from that office to complete the transaction at some other entity, like Winn-Dixie, or Publix, or Wooleys. . . .when she gets to that place, assumes she understands the nature of the transaction and the person she is dealing with fully understands the transaction. . . .and it may well be that 20% of unredeemed vouchers has a great deal to do with the inability, at the check-out counter, to understand what that transaction is and how best to fulfill it. If that means that there is a nutritional deficit to the child, that's not only regrettable, it is rather tragic and there may be a variety of things like that this Council will want to address -- to get back to the fundamental ability for the clients to understand not only their personal dilema but the programs which were designed to improve their lives and rid them of some of their dilemas We have through the the planning partner process, Judge Brousseau, a total of 61 persons involved with us in identifying needs and developing what the Center For Needs Assessment calls "the preferred future for children in Collier County" -- identifying what roles, objectives and policies needs to be implemented in the county for the children and then to match programs against these community expectations and that's what we'll very much be involved with after the needs assessment study process. So, are we not only trying to document with hard data and with what some people like to call, soft data,meaning that developed through the interview process and dovetail the two, but also match against community needs -- as they are expressed by the very people who are being serving during this process. It is a wide variety of individuals and groups, and I think, if you will consult this material Paul has available for you and members of the Council, you will find we have attempted to be as broad as we can in terms of various segments of this community. . . .I hope this responds to your question. Dr. Richey: Judge Brousseau raises a very valid point though, basically, what we're going to do with that needs assessment, Chuck, is to draw the objective data down to a discrepancy norm, and then there's going to be a lot of work -- we didn' talk about this at the time we got into the needs assessment, there's going to have to be a lot of work done by either the Council or a group to Council to determine priorities or are we going to develop a strategic plan or what are going to be the priorities so the needs assessment merely becomes a conveyor of information then how the Council attacks the information by discrepancy and priority putting dollars attached to the discrepancies -- that's what is going to be very critical and I'm not quite sure there are enough hours by these wonderful collealgues of mine to put that in perspective, but that's what's going to happen if we are going to be able to convey to the public honest needs, honest costs and honest time lines -- we need to start thinking about that as part of this process. 1 Shanahan: Chuck, what are the projected dates for completion for the assessement. Mohlke: We've been shooting, since the beginning for November 15 -- we'll see how the process goes. If you'll excuse a comment -- one of the difficulties is that the very people that we need to visit with here are those who are the busiest and who are most committed to their programs, and sometimes through fortitious circumstances we get to the right people at the right time, at other times there are substantial delays; particularly, during the summer holidays and budget processes. We benefitted greatly from a three-hour interview we were able to do with Jimmy Chatham just recently, the director of state/ federal programs for the CCPS, when he briefed his successor John Szymonski in respect to this program. Now that is a rare instance, but it is an example of what it takes sometimes in order to understand the multi-faceted aspects of some of these programs. I think we benefitted greatly; however, with some others, it is not unusual to have four appointments scheduled and four appoint- ments broken. Try to talk to the sheriff sometime -- and yet it is essential that we do this before we talk to persons who report to their supervisors whom we will be consulting -- I do not use Sheriff Hunter as as an example other to illustrate how very busy people do not plan their activities in order to frustrate the data gathering enterprise, but because they are prisoners of events and they tend to respond where their professional calling requires them to respond. It is an agonzing process, but it will get done, and get done well. Shanahan: Does that mean, Chuck, that the November 15 completion date might be Mohlke: But that's as far as we know and what we are shooting for and what we want to be sure that we give you is data which is as close to being indisputable as we can -- and that is not the easiest task in the world. We began trying to review budget issues with people in June and we were politely told that a more timely review of these matters would be more appropriate in September -- June's conceptual approach to the budget is just that -- a concept -- it is not yet a reality and there have been so many fundamental changes in some of these programs that to give you a realistic budget is difficult. Chairman: Are there any other questions. Mohlke: This is my business colleague, Alice Fraser. Fraser: In response to Judge Brousseau's statement. . . . Judge Brousseau question. . .someone mistook it for a statement Fraser: (without benefit of microphone -- difficult to transcrdibe) . I think the colloquy between the two of you probably illustrates that's part of the difficulty that we are facing. . .that we need to do -- that' what we need to do to go into particular detail to say to that person -- in no way could thast money be used such as you brought out. We need to get to that point. . .to that end. We have formulated a ten-page service provider service instrument. Those of you who are service providers queestionnaire which we are going to come to you with, and we are going to ask you to go through, we are going to intereview you and the interview will be taped , but those of you who haven't been contacted yet, the interview will be taped, and we will ask you to draw up the questionnaire, and hopefully between taped intervidw and questio0nnaire we will be able to answer that type of qustions Mohke Alice's point about colloquy is prbably very relevant because it's going to ake some informed response to many issues here. If I could mke one comment, in conclusion, about the planning partner process, this is a strong stastement, but I'll stand by it. One of the difficulties we have in this kind of process/enterprise is that you are what I will call prsioners. of predispositions that people have about social services -- that they are misusers of the public trust, mis users of public revenue - - people protecting their turf -- there are a lot of those things -- one has a great deal to overcome sometimes in creating a better understanding of what are the services that are being provided, how are they being delivered and how are they generally at least in southwest Florida. For many of the predispositions that people adopt, based on their experiences elsewhere, we are not aided greatly by some of the issues much discussed as relates to the dilemas that children elsewhere in the United States, not in Florida, not in naples, and they do create in many of those were reported in some form or other during the planning partners process and you will find it emerging in response to some of the questionnaires that we are working with, and I'm surprised I suppose, but it does indicate some of the barriers of understanding that we have to overcome which surprises me. Chairman: Thank you. Paul, you are going to give us a report. Pinson: Yes, thank you. It occurs I have two things. . .let me do a little update. One, each council member received two handouts, one of which is the ten-page document that Alice is talking about ; also, on the August 15 event at the Registry where we participated as the Children's Services Council -- what we had was an exceptional, interesting front page of the Collier County News blown-up, approximately 8 feet tall -- and, uh, with issues that you'll see a little about in the photos being passed around and then we took five young kids and bound them and gagged them and placed them under the sign which was basically saying there are 1 31,000 hostages being held in Collier County, which are the children under 18, and uh, we had hostage notes which these kids were able to pass out which is what I just handed out to you, so it was an intriguing thing, parti- cularly, as it represented our first attempt to influence the business commu- nity. It generated a lot of enthusiasm and some very interesting remarks, mostly favorable -- a lot of good comments about that particular activity. To thank for that particular thing. . . .I notice Gene Vacarro is in the back of the audience and he is the gentleman who designed the entire scenario so, kudos, to Mr. Vaccaro. We appreciaste that. Chairman: Gene, I think you ought to stand up, so everyone can see you. (applause). I don't know where he comes up with these ideas, but they are just great. Pinson: There are extra hostage notes up front, should you wish one. To bring you up todate on the campaigns, particularly, Lee County. I attended the Children's Services Council meeting of Lee County, yesterday, in which their strategic plan of attack, their campaign plan, was presented to the Council, and, I am sure you are aware that Lee County is going to ask their voters to vote yes for children on the 6th of November, so they have roughly 45 days to run a campaign. . .there is concern on my part, in the sense that should Lee County fail, uh, and particularly, to go down in burning flames, I think its going to bode poorly for us. . .I don't think it will help our it will help ;on the other hand, should they succeed, I think it will enhance some level to some degree our work down here. They each have some concerns, primarily evolving around the fact that they are running out of time -- they haven't begun the process of organization and collecting money. . .they have no money in their campaign. Uh, they have the campaign plan so implementing the plan is their biggest challenge. It seems that Gene Vaccaro and I attended a meeting, several weeks • ago with the leaders of their effort, in which we both came away with strong feelings that they had their act together. They had, at least, thought through the whole process -- all the options, and all the entities, and all the necessary steps to win a campaign -- the missing element is implementing the plan and they aren't there yet, so there is some concern, and I think their Council feels it also -- they certainly expressed it in a public meeting. But their off, and they are giving it their best shot and, again, are going in front of the voters in November. We have, of course, here in Collier to shoot for March 10, March 10 ballot is the next general election in Collier County which, we the Council have chosen to go for should nothing major change in our community. And, in that regard, a lot of the activities I have been involved with this summer, all of the energy put into Council activities,has been focused in the direction of continuing to build community support for the campaign, but primarily in getting the committees fully functioning and staffed, not functioning but staffed, at least, committed people. I've spent an enormous part of the time seeking some real high-quality of folks representing a broad spectrum of the community that would be involved with our plan -- and I've got a group, and I've had a great deal of success, and I've nothing but good reports to give you on that. We are shooting for our first organizational meeting, call it a steering committee if you want to call it that, campaign committee meeting, the first week of October in which 20 to 25 individuals that have promised to head committees, or play a major role in the campaign, will attend. There are a couple of things that I need to check with the Council, and get some advice from you on -- one in particular is uh, is the fact that,illustrating the point I want to make is Lee County's effort, they have had an interesting degree of reluctance from their City Council to participate in the campaign. They don't have a total committment to the campaign in terms of individuals getting to work for the campaign. I wanted to make sure we had no legal for that, so I, several days ago, talked with Mark Price, our attorney, and asked for some kind of legal opinion as to what level of in- volvement, each of you could have, and I havent got a final ruling from Mark but, by and large, I think the general tenor of our conversation was with the exception of you judge, that has some restriction and what have you in asking for money -- by and large -- unless, public officials have things I'm not sure of, each and every Council member can be as involved as you choose to be. I think it is real critical, Lee County sees it as being extremely critical, and we see it also, and everyone I talk with sees it very critical to have each and everyone of you involved with the campaign. That means a lot of different things -- it means, in terms of whatever you can do, public speaking, of course, whatever cause or position you hold to allowing the campaign to meet with various constitutencies and groups, so there are a lot of different levels of commitment and involvment that I need to check off each of you individually at some point in the next couple of weeks to see what level of involvement you will be interested. particularly Uh, okay, we have done, we are working real hard/with county commissioners to make sure that the March 10th ballot is a ballot that is a, uhh, as clear as possible of any conflicting taxing issues. I have spoken to you, Dick, about this and I've spoken to each comunty commissioner, and we are having some success in that area. For example, CREW, the CREW group, who is a group of individuals heading up an effort to acquire more lands for preser- vation, have discussed the possibility of going on the March 10 ballot seeking taxing dollars for their efforts, and I talked with Mark Clayton and Valerie Boyd about that, and they see the need we have to have a free and clear ballot as possible to win our referendum, and they have agreed in principal _y not in principle, but personally, that it would be a negative situation to have both efforts on the same ballot, so I think, from what I gather, that they are choosing to go at another time, and if anyone has an update on that I'll appreciate it, but by and large what I'm hearing from Slayton and Valerie is that they will choose an alternative date if we choose March 10. Also, the other major issue, that I think could put a damper on our efforts, is the one cent sales tax, and what I'm hearing, of course, is it will rear its head at some point in time but, I feel very confident, from what I'm hearing, is that it won't be on the March ballot. Shanahan: It won't in my opinion. Pinson: That's encouraging. So what we are looking at, by and large, is a potential date, that yes, we're in a pretty interesting environment of sub- stantial anti-tax sentiment, but there will never be a good time to ask people to tax themselves and this is as good a shot as any in terms of alternative issues. I also need to discuss and get some guidance from the Council on the issue of number of meetings to be held during the intense period of time in which we are,actually running the campaign, which is January and February, uh these meeting can serve for a lot of different functions, of course, we have our monthly meeting which is primarily a business meeting to take care of events and happenings over the previous month and the future, but it would be an excellent opportunity as a body to promote the cause and educate the public, and do those kind of things that are necessary to win a campaign. So you don't need to give me the answer now, but you need to be thinking `'`r about the issue of how many meetings you want to participate in during the campaign during January and February. My suggestion is that you serve(meet) once a week perhaps let them be outreach meetings, much like we are planning on doing in October. As you are aware, we have rescheduled the second outreach program from September. We are now asking you to consider a date in October, and I present to you a couple of choices. The first choice would be October 15 or 16 on Marco Island where it will be an evening meeting and we will attempt to replicate our experience in Immokalee in terms of reaching the community. So, chairman Harper, you and Council need to give me some guidance or whether or not that's a go for those dates or choosing any other dates. But I need some imput from the Council. Shanahan: 15th and 16th is that a Tuesday and Wednesday? Pinson: Yes sir. Faerber: Speaking for myself, and probably Dr. Richey, we have a consortium of southwest school boards meetings in Key West. Scheduled for the 17th and 18th, but most people will go down on the 16th because it's so hard to Key West Chairman: How about the 15th? Shanahan: the 15th might be tough for me as the board meetings sometimes last into the laughter , but other than that I don't have a problem. Pinson: Just to follow up at this point, I think it is critical to have you at this particular meeting. Shanahan: Well certainly, on Marco Island my absence would be extremely conspicuous. � -1 f visamminum Pinson: So, rather than take a lot of Council time now Shanahan: Let's shoot for the tth and let me look at the schedule and everything Pinson: Okay, good. zumFelde: Excuse me Paul. Pinson: Yes, Mary Ellen. zumFelde: Is that in lieu of the Friday, October 4th meeting? Pinson: No, it is in addition.to. . .the regular schedule meeting will be here on October 4. So, basically as we continue in terms_of campaign effort to build the support there has been a noticeable change though in the direction, in a sense, that in the first six months were primarily built to develop community leadership support and I think we've got a great deal of that. We have, by choice and design, made very few attempts to include the lay public or to build grass roots support, but that has now changed. We're now spending time with the organizations, for example, that we would logically conclude tabe in opposition such as homeowners, anti-taxing groups, and what have you -- to try to build some level of support and some level of relationship with those entities. We're having some success with doing that, and, of course, this isn't launching any kind of campaign yet, but it is setting us up, setting us up , for the point when we do commence the campaign, that, hopefully, we'll have a friend or two somewhere who will, if nothing else, be a friend in the audience and introduce us and get us on the agenda of those type of organizations. We are trying to build that level of support now, and the time lines that I'm looking at is simply the hoops we have to jump through are the needs assessment has to be completed. As Chuck was saying roughtly the 15th of November, at which time, we go back in front of the County Commissioners and ask for, based on the results of that needs assessment, the glowing deficient, deficit, of services in Collier County, which I think the assessment is going to point out, we ask to be placed on the ballot and go forth with the campaign shortly after that. So, we're still really talking about the time frame of December, January, February, of course, with the two intense months of January and February, running the campaign. So nothing has changed in terms of time lines that I work with. Thanks. Chairman: I have to comment since I up in the same office with Mrs. Campbell and Mr. Pinson, who are drafting this -- the tremendous amount of work that is going into organizing this it is unbelieveable. I have to share this -- my friend, Kay Campbell, -- she had never seen a computer until a friend of ours David and Daphne Pfaff gave us a computer and Kay began to learn the computer -- and yesterday, I said something about a needing -- I sure would like to know who are the people on all the boards of the various agencies -- and she said: "we can give you that", and she went to the computer and punches out something and a whole list came out -- it was absolutely fantastic the amount of work and planning that has been done by Paul. Forthe budget that has `r been worked on and the pay they are receiving they have really done a fantastic job. . . .and we do all appreciaste it. Pinson: Well what really needs to be seen, and it is happening more by chance and osmosis than anything else is that we, in a certain respect, have become a resource and a nucleus for answering questions about children's services, and those kinds of things, and as we get a goodly number of calls and re- quests , we are able to give good answer to a lot of these questions, and so that didn't happen by design, it happened because we began collecting the data and setting up the programs and it is nice offshoot Chairman: I really know, my gut feeling, tells me we would not have been successful if this kind of planning had not been done and if it had not been started early, because this is the thing that must be required and we must have answers to the questions. . . . Shanahan: What, with my discussions with CREW, I didn't even talk about the possibility of a March referendum because of the Children's Services Council intention and suggested that if anything is considered at all that September might be possible the one cent sales tax, I don't sense any moment on the part of the Board at this point in time for the one cent sales tax 1992 is going to be a year of politicizing because it is an election year three members of the board are up for re-election, and the fourth thinking about some other body -- constitutional offices, state legislature, U.S. , . . . .next year will be and so in my mind it is going to be very difficult to get up a moment for a one cent sales tax, or anything else, that costs tax payers money in 1992 -- that's just the way it is. Pinson:Well that's good news. Just one more comment, madame chairman, In response to a comment from Dr. Richey, he made an awfully point it occurs to me that Lee County made a good point in their yesterdays meeting, that they are hearing very loudly and clearly how the general public, parti- cularly, individuals who are taking a very sophisticated and close look at their efforts -- are asking how are these funds going to be spent, once they're raised -- are asking, what are the priorities -- asking all the right kind of questions and it seems to me, and we've decided all amongst ourselves, dozens of times, that the needs assessment is going to be a critical tool for us in our campaign -- we're really going to have to rustle with that with the timing to answer a lot of those questions if we're going to be successful. Shanahan: Paul, one of the major reasons that the one cent sales tax lost was because of specifics -- specifics as to how the money was going to be spent -- and to be warned is to be forearmed and we should certainly have learned a lesson. CSC needsto make every effort to identify specific -- but we didn't do that , and that was the significant reason in 1992, I suspect, it may go back only on roads and storm water utilities identifiable specifics. . . . we're going to have a lot other needs and the costs are going to be essential and to communicate that is even more important. Chairman: The next item on the agenda is Citizens Review Panel. . . .Judge Brousseau, do want you to talk about that. . .we would like to hear. Judge Brousseau: Chuck was right we all have predispositions and one of mine is that that sometimes resources can be used more effectively or resources that we already have could be used to make up part of the deficit and one of those areas is what I'm going to talk about. If you recall about a year ago I presented to the Board an opportunity to get involved, to support, a new concept that had just been passed by the legislature and that is the Citizens Review Panel, and if I may, I'll regress here for a few moments and explain what happens in Juvenile Court, so you can see why I feel this is needed and helpful. The area of juvenile court dependencies, that is where children are abused, neglected or abandoned. HRS comes to the court and requests permission to shelter the children, if they meet a threshold of abuse abandonment and neglect. In the long run if it looks like a very temporary thing and looks like it will take time to work out, they ask to put the children into foster care, to keep the children in their custody rather returning home to their parents . So the legislature, in their concern that children put into foster care are just kind of forgotten, which is most tempting because most times, probably in every case, or darn close to it, the children are almost better off in the foster home than where they came from. . . .so they, the legislature, set up a scheme that every six months HRS has to bring back each case before the court in what they call a judicial review in which the judge reviews the status of the case and the progress being made by the parents and by HRS towards helping resolve the intial problem. These reviews range from about 15 to 25 cases per day, and that amounts to 5 to 7 minutes a piece -- that doesn't count the time I reviewed the report that HRS put in, but actual review report time. The end result is, and this is not just me, but around the state, there is just a lack of judicial time to do what we think is pretty darn important. . .and so it is frustrating. A couple of years ago, Miami, Dade County, started a pilot porgram of volunteer citizens to sit in on panels. The panels, in essence, did, do, exactly what the judge does, which is review the case, bring the parents, HRS, any other parties interested in the case before them, listen to what is being said about the case and try to hammer out a course of action that will benefit the children. It was very successful, the legislature liked lits it and encouraged it through adopting legislation effective last October authorized throughout the state not as a pilot program, but as authorized legislation, enactment. I had read about the pilot program going on in Dade County before this legislation was passed, and thought it really was ideal approach, so when I really had hoped this thing could be run by volunteers, but when I went over to Miami, looking at how the program worked, it sunk in painfully to me that you need a paid staff, a coordinator and intially you could by without a secretary, but eventually, a secretary and a coordinator, because basically every panel is five panelists, made of volunteers and they need to impart the information I get, and I get the file delivered to my office as reports and I sit and go through them, and there is no problem. But there is a logistic problem, are you going to let these five panelists take this confi- dential file home -- it is the only thing in existence that the clerk would not let happen, and so what happens is the court needs to go through and extract the pertinent relevant information from the file and duplicate five-fold and disburse it to the panelists and they return it when the case is over. Anyway, the bottom line is, unfortunately, money. Fortunately, Bea has taken an interest in this and asked me to tell you where we are. Next week, I was going to try to do it after today's meeting, but since we might run longer than normal,and would have to cut down on time, so next Wednesday we are going to have our first organizational meeting for the panel. We have a response of about 15 to 18 people from the intial article of last May, but with vacations and everything else, it was tough coordinating and so finally, we're going to have organizational meeting -- part of it will be to see where IOW we can get the funding -- I estimate $40,000 -- or see if some would be will ing to volunteeras coordinator for free, which would be wonderful and we could get this thing started. We're going to talk about training -- what criteria • is going to be necessary -- how we are going to differ from Dade County, be- cause we have different views and different personalities. For instances, over there they have a conflict with the clerk cause the clerk isn't in favor of this however, we have a clerk, Jim Giles, authorized to take a day to go over with us to review -- he's very interested in it, so we have a totally different situation Chairman: What time is the meeting, September 18 organizational meeting at Collier County Board Meeting, 3rd floor. I think that's wonderful. I can't say enough. I think it's marvelous. We all know what the Guardian Ad Litem Program has done for our children over the years. . .Bill Barnett organized and started it. But, I have to laugh a little because when you first started you were thinking volunteers and it wasn't going to cost any money; I don't care what program I've been involved with over the past 27 years, you cannot do this with just volunteer -- you have to have a coordinator and you've got to have a secretary, and so you might keep your expenses down as we have in the Children's Services Council, but I can tell you this Council would not be where we are, if did not have paid staff, so. . . .I'm glad we converted you. I think it's wonderful that the CSC is involved with this kind of work that''helps our children as I think that is part of our function, and not Judge Brousseau: Can I add 60 seconds. I really left out the punch line, when I got into the mechanics of it, but the bottom line is that by each board spending about 45 minutes on the case rather than my five minutes, people have an opportunity to open up, discuss it and come up with some solutions, and the bottom line is, we are either going to identify those children that are going to get reunited with their families sooner, and, therefore, cut down both the trauma and things you can measure with money as to the cost of sheltering and housing; Or, we are going to identify those children who are not going home, their parents are not making the efforts, give them all the opportunties that they're going to have, but they are not seizing them, and then you are going to extermination. . .which happens now but it drags out, and I can tell you it's two, to three to four years later, and those kids are languishing in foster care during that time. . .and the bottom line is, is makes things happen quicker, more efficiently, and hopefully save the children from trauma , which I think is most important, but we'll also save money in the process. That's the selling point of why to invest in this. (Audience-unknown): Excuse me, you might also add that there are still more places if anyone is interested in participating in the program. Judge Brousseau: Definitely, if anyone is interested coming to this meeting, the more the better. Chairman: I think that's wonderful, because can you imagine what it must mean to a small child to be in a state of limbo in a foster home for two or three years and not know what it's future is going to be. . .whether it can get on with life or go back to the same situation fromwhich it came. . .it's frightening. Thank you Judge Brousseau. We have Beverly Thorpe here from the Sexual Abuse Treatment Program, who is going to talk to us about sexual abuse in Collier County. Beverly Thorpe: Good morning. I was to come and give you some information about our program. . . .to what's happening down here. I am executive director of Concerned Citizens for Sexually Abused Children, and our program started about seven years ago in Lee County. And in 1987, we were approached and asked if we could start providing services down here for children who were sex- ually abused; specifically, children who are victims of incest, and we provide long term therapy to families and to the children. We were approached, as I said before, because there was such a demand down here. Our program, although Concerned Citizens For Sexually Abused Children, we also do business as Sexual Abuse Treatment Program. The Sexual Abuse Treat Program is actually a state program. There are about 15 programs throughout the state of Florida, and Children's Medical Services contracts with different agencies throughout the communities to provide the specific programs. So we get some of our funding, as do other Sexual Abuse Treatment Programs, through the Children's Medical Services. The state asked us if we would provide the services down here and we agreed to do this with the understanding that, at some later date, there would be a Sexual Abuse Treatment Program established here in Collier County to stand on its own, and they agreed, "yes, when the monies were avail- able that would happen." Well, as youwell low, monies are not available on the state level, so this program was never expanded too this county as far as an independent program down here. So, our program has been providing this services since 1987 for this county, and every year it expands, the number of children that need to be served. We started out in groups, then we began doing more individual therapy and more family kinds of therapy and marital therapy and this is expensive. The funding for this program here in Collier County has come from Lee County. Any money that we have been receiving from the state and through any other funding sources that we've been getting, we have provided the monies for down here. I have obtained funding through United Way down here. . . matter of fact, it is our first year or receiving funding through them, and they are going to continue that next year. I have gone to the county and asked to be able to submit an application to receive monies. Over the past three years they have told me they are not accepting any new programs. I have gone to the City. I've gone to numerous places here and have not been able to get funding sources for this community. Consequently, October 31, we are closing our doors down here. That means the services for these children will no longer be provided in this community, at least, the expertise of a program that was specifically for them. I have some information, papers, here I would like to pass out to you. The first is from the Child Protection Team, and this is actually where we receive the bulk of our referrals. As you know, by law, if there is a case of abuse it has to be reported to HRS. They go out do an investigation, and if they feel there is a problem here, there is abuse, then the Child Protection Team becomes involved and they do validation and taping of the report of the actual interview of the child as a victim. And, if it is decided that and validated that it was sexual abuse and incest, then they are referred to our program. The statistics I have passed around are from the Child Protection Team. And there were 1,315 cases reported just within the fiscal year 89/90 and of those, 52% were sexual abuse, so you can see there is a large number down here in this community. I also have some statistics from our program itself, that I will make available. On the second page of this information coming around, will give you statistics, specifically the sexual abuse treatment program; now these statistics are for the current fiscal year that we just finished up which is from July 1, 1990 through June 30, 1991. We have received 150 referrals this past year, and we took in 92 individual cases which consisted of 46 families; also you will see a breakdown in ages and gender and race and income levels of in the city and where they come from -- I will not go over those -- uh, so you can see those at your own leisure. On the last page, however, I think it is significiant -- the figures you need teo see -- in that we, of course, had cases that were carried over from the previous year, so as of, July 1, 1990 to June 30, 1991 the number of individual clients that were seen were 122. The total families that were seen were 62. We've provided a total of 1,391 units of service. Now I would like to say that this was done with one therapist, and she has basically run down everything in this program. She didn't have a secretary, she did her own typing. She did all of the intakes. She went to all the meetings that were necessary to HRS to de- termine what was going on -- she literally did everything down here. We had contracted with one therapist to do groups and that person provided two groups per week. The full time therapist we have as an employee, also conducted groups. So you can see there was a great deal of service pro- 1 vided with a very, very little amount of personnel. On the front page is a breakdown, roughly, of what it costs to run the program down here, which is $77,088 -- and that only uses a percentage, 20%, of my time and secretary from Ft. Myers. This does not come close to meeting the needs of this community. We easily could have used two more full time therapists -- a total of three therapists down here -- to provide the actual hours that are needed. One of the major problems is the Immokalee area. There are a lot of people over there who need services and they are not able to get into the Naples office here, and they can't get over here because they don't have the transportation, they couldn't afford it. So there are a whole group of people in Immokalee that needed the service, but don't have access to it, so these number don't even take into consideration that statistically, there are one in four girls who will be sexually abused by the time she is 18, and one in nine boys by the time they are 18. Well, with the peopulation you have down here and the number of children, you can see there are a lot of children whose needs are not being met. Any questions. Chairman: The funds which SATP is operating on in Collier County has been coming from Lee County? Thorpe: That's correct. Not the county government, but the Lee County Program. Chairman: Mark can you address this? Geisler: As Bev said, the majority of the funding comes from the Children's Medical Services requested years ago that we expand down here with substantial local support Lee County There is not sufficient money to pick up slack from the state budget . They have to make the decision whether to continue the service in the absence of local support. Chairman: You mean it's being eliminated because there is no local support? Is that's what you're saying? Thorpe: That's right. Chairman: Our county has not contributed anything -- all of this comes from the Children's Medical Services? Thorpe: No, it's not just from the Children's Medical Services -- it's from fund raising that we've done in Lee County. Chairman: Okay, okay, I'm with you now. Thorpe: But no, to answer your question. . .the only support we've gotten down here for Program funding is through the United Way. We received $5,000 the first year, and we were to get $10,000 for this coming year. zumFelde: May I just act quickly. . .have the people in the town been given the opportunity to raise funds down here Thorpe: That has been limited as well. We have attempted to get board members that, uh, from this area as well, but you need the time restraints because of the travel back and forth and try to meet in the middle and everything -- and it's just very difficult. Brousseau: Do you get any money from HRS? Thorpe: Children's Medical Services is a branch of HRS. And we don't get any specific that comes from Collier County, we get a specific amount of money over all and we, in the past, have chosen to use some of that money to help support this program down here, but we don't have any money that comes to our Program that is specifically earmarked for this county. Brousseau: So is HRS going to divert some of their money to Collier County? Thorpe: They don't have any. Geisler: The problem is, is that we don't have any additional money. We are working now to divert some mental health money toward what we anticipate is going to be of service down here -- it's going to be very critical. And what we are hoping to do is to find some provider .We don't treat victims of sex ual abuse we are only buying ourselves more problems in the future -- one area probably already know is the victim of sexual abuse is not adequately treated as a child, and has a great chance of growing up and being either a promiscuous young woman or a perpretator of sexual abuse. . .it is frightening . . . . Thorpe: As a matter of fact, 95% of the mothers who come into our program with their children were victims of sexual abuse themselves and never received help. So it is the cycle and the end up marrying into a situation where their children get abused, and if they don't get therapy, it's going to continue. Geisler: What is your level of focus for Lee County? Thorpe: Uh, we get $96,000 from the state and we raise an additional $180,00 from other sources. Chairman: In Lee County? Thorpe: Yes. Brousseau: Excluding HRS? ® Thorpe: Yes Geisler: The point is the monies available through the state of Florida are not sufficient to provide quality programs in the area . Chairman: I want to be sure I understand you right, Beverly, $96,000 is given to this program from the state? Thorpe: It is given to Concerned Citizens for Sexually Abused Children not to Collier County. Chairman: Yes, I understand that. . .$96,000 to your program in Lee County, and then your county raises $180,000 additional funds Thorpe: That's right. . . . Chairman: And then out of that $276,000, you have been paying $77,000 for Collier County -- is that right. Thorpe: Now the $276,000 is our budget for this year -- last year our budget was $190,000 that we raised. Chairman: Why would, maybe you can answer this, why is the $96,000 that comes from the state through Children's Medical Services of Lee County -- why is there not an amount, however, small it is that would come directly Qto Collier County from the state for this program. Why are we in Collier County at the mercy of Lee County as to whether or not we have any funds for this program? Mark, can you address this? Geisler: I'm not sure that I can Bea, because I'm not sure if you are totally accurate in, uh. . . . Chairman: What I'm thinking? Geisler: Yes, because, the way I'm look at this, there seems to be a dis- proportunate share of sexual abuse treatment program funding through staff time and the like coming to Collier County or from Collier County right now into programs. Is that an accurate statement, Bev? Thorpe: Yes. Brousseau: That's accurate when you include the $180,000, but what Bea's saying, and I am wondering too, if the $96,000 at this point zero of this $96,000, why aren't we getting our share of it in Collier County? Thorpe: I think I can help out with some of this. As I said earlier, there are about 15 sexual abuse treatment progrms throughout the state of Florida. Obviously, there are more counties than thast in the state of Florida. Uh, so not all counties have sexual abuse treatment programs because there's just C now enough funding on the state level to develop them. The state knows the need is there and they would like very much to develop more sexual abuse treatment programs throughout the different counties throughout the state of Florida. And Collier County is a priority county. I write every year that we need to develop a program down here -- there isn't a year that goes by that I haven't submitted that as a request -- the funds are just not there. We got a 2% cut in our budget this year from the state, and with what's going on right now on the state level, I really anticipate another cut. So, the money is just not available to develop new ones when they can't even keep up with the ones the have in this county. Chairman: Well, I guess I don't want to argue about it, but my feeling is that there is $96,000 which comes from the state of Florida for these treatment programs. It seems to me that it should be divvied up among the children in Collier County and the children of Lee County. Maybe we would only get $40,000 of that $96,000. Faerber: Then you would have two ineffective problems -- the cost of Thorpe: Basically, that's what our board of directors -- was because if we did not close the program down, both would gradually be closed down Geisler: First of all, I think it is important to realize that you said about the $46,000 of the $96,000. . . .I think it is important to realize that Lee County has got about 22 times of children, and as Nelson said . When you take a look at this budget, it is clear, that some of this money was primarily raised by the Sexual Abuse Treatment Program primarily of Lee County. Obviously, some of this money is made up of state money, and even if you took the pro rata share of state money and brought it down here separate and apart, you would still need to substantial additional money raised by the people of Collier County, and I think this goes to the heart of what the Children's Services Council is all about. . . .and what this committee is about. . . .that's it clear, that if you keep looking to Tallahassee for sufficient monies to treat our own kids, it isn't going to be there. It simply isn't going to be there. Chairman: Well, this is one of the things that concerns us from the HRS re- organizational plan of the Collier County group, in that we feel that there are programs that are available to children in Lee County and not available to children in Collier County, and so Geisler: Please let's keep in mind what Bev said. . . .the people of Lee County raised $180,000, $2 for every $1 of state money their getting. Brousseau: And what Bea is saying, give us $30,000 and we get $10,000 from United Way, we'll go raise the difference and keep this program. But no, you're saying, no we choose to take it all away to take care of Lee County kids, not Collier. Geisler: No, we never chose to do that Brousseau: But you have influence on it, if you are funding them. Thorpe: The thing is too, that that money we've been given by the state was Lee County money. . .we chose to help out down here by using that money for it. . . .our program in Lee County is suffering as well, because we haven't had the money, because we're putting money down here. We have a waiting list in Lee County of over 60 children right now. I don't have the money to hire a therapist up there either that I need in order to provide the services. Chairman: I'm not arguing with you personally, Beverly, I'm arguing that our County should receive, whatever, the pro rata share from the state. Geisler: Now, I don't think there is any argument about that. . .let's keep in mind that the sexual abuse treatment dollars made available in the mid-80's there was, was made to the interested counties around the state that wanted to come forward and buy in -- there was an interest in Lee County at that time and none in Collier County. At this particular moment, we're looking around for providers and having a difficult time finding anybody who wants to do this in Collier County. Thorpe: Or, that has the money Chairman: But, what I'm saying to you is that, suppose you gave us a portion of that $96,000 that you get from the state. . . .isn't it conceiveable then that our community would then Geisler: And I guess one of the questions is. is it possible, conceivable, experts right now of the sexual abuse treatment program would they set up an arm here in Collier County whoever, if there is another provider that's wonderful. . .we would love to work with them. No one is saying, please, please understand that Bev isn't saying and HRS isn't saying that we want to walk away from Collier County, far from it. . .far from it. . .there are children suffering here who desperately need this help, and it isn't a question of some giant pot of money that exists that can be pulled from, there simply isn't enough money to go around and yet the need is tremenduous. Thorpe: (brief comments, not audible. ) Geisler: (brief comments, not audible. ) Chairman: Well, I still say, I think we should have our share in the $96,000 whatever it is, if it's only $15,000, but it should be divided pro- portionately between our children in need and the children in Lee County. But I don't think one county should get the whole $96,000. Passidomo: Madame Chairman, I don't think they're disagreeing with you I think what they're saying is you have to be a qualified recipient -- you have to establish that you have a qualified provider and that you have a source of funds local. There must be criteria they have to adhere to. .They don't, I am sure, have allocate these funds. Chairman: Excuse me. . . .I can't think of your name. . . .Fred Eppsteiner: I'm from David Lawrence Center, Director of Outpatient Services and we treat a significant number of sexual abused children there we have several experts on the staff and we would very happy to (from the audience, audio not laud enough) Chairman: That' what I'm wondering why couldn't that have been under the umbrella of David Lawrence Eppsteiner: It's traditional, because we receive our monies from HRS and CYF, Cand not from Children's Medical Services -- it is a different provider Chairman: Yes, Debbie. Debbie: Another point, Bea, is that you have to remember is that the money, if the proposal went out in the mid-80's and needed a , traditionally, when you receive a grant from HRS, if you are the provider of record, you can continually get renewals. . .they don't tend to look for new providers. If you do apply, or put in a request when someone is Chairman: Tien what you're saying Debbie is that we should just drop it as of October and start our own. Debbie: No, but I would kind of look for other kinds of seed money and try to get the community motivated and aware, you know, Faerber: (laughter makes the audio impossible). Chairman: Are there any other questions. And Beverly, thank you very much, and my attack was not toward you. Thorpe: No, I understand, we were just frustrated because of what is happening. . . . CChairman: I have seen it over the years, and I still keep asking -- Thorpe: So, do we. Chairman: Are there any questions from the audience -- does anyone want to say anything -- are you happy or unhappy with us. Shanahan: If I may, madame chairman, and it's not Children's Service Council business, it is related to children. There is a committee has been formed in Collier County and it's name is the Tenth University Siteing Committee for Collier County Students. Uh, Mr. Passidomo and Mr. Faerber are both active members of that group. The group has been put together to organize an effort to bring and focus on Collier County as the most successful location for siting the 10th University and if Collier County, for some reason or other, is not selected by the siteing committee and recommended to the Board of Regents, then we are asking, at least, the site be located south of the Calossahatachee River because it would be the most accessible point for Collier County students and certainly all of southwest Florida in our opinion. There is a piece of property being donated, offered, in Collier County that meets all the parameters for the site of the 10th university and they have offered 550 acres, at absolutely no cost, and 720 acres at no cost, ir a 2800 acre parcel site, where the site can be anywhere in there. . . .it is enironmentally acceptable and all of those kind of things. Collier County Commission passed a resolution to provide the infrastructure C and to provide seed money for affordable housing in an effort to put together a package that would bring the university to Collier County. If we are successful, it will have tremenduous impact upon children and the future of children and the future of education. We have high hopes, at least, in continuing so while we're not the most accessible point . . . .it's a five county enabling act with us at the south end and Charlotte at the north end. The package presented to the Board of Regents had a most attractive over-all financial opportunity, and will certainly have a bearing on the siteing committee. There is a meeting next Wednesday, September 18, at which the siteing committee will hear from a number of people, and will probably make a decision to reduce the number of 13 or 15, siteings, down to maybe or 3 or 5. Collier County is still in the running, we hope to remain in the running. Chairman: Any more questions, comments. Brousseau: I've got one, speaking of new programs, the Collier County Mental Health Association, bless their hearts, have put together something called Children First, it is a a program that I think they hope to have in place by October 15, where warring parents, those involved in dissolution of marriage, also known as divorce, will go for I think it is for two sessions group discussion of basically what their actions do and for their children against their children, and how they effect their children. Hopefully, for me, personally, selfishly, there will be less battles going through the court . Obviously, the bottom line is that the kids will come out of this better and we won't have to recycle them which I see happening. As was pointed out earlier, most vicitimes of sexual abuse, parents have been victims themselves, and you get the same thing here with divorce. . .they think that's the only way to go. I hoping it will have a long and wide range effect. Faerber: If anyone wants to use telephone. . .ouroffices anot quite as nice as the comunty commissioners offices, laughter, but at least we have a place, laughter. Chairman: May I have a motion we adjour. 1