Health & Human Services Committee

1. 0:00All right, everybody. We're going to bring this Health and Human Services Committee meeting to order. September 15th, 4:45 3:45 p.m., excuse me. And we're going to start with our Department of Health.
2. 0:15Everybody, I've got with me speaker, Cara Eldridge. She is the um director of prevention at Twin County Recovery Services.
3. 0:26Welcome.
4. 0:26Hi. Thank you. Yeah. So, Tara Alderette, I'm the director of preventive services for Twin Counties, which you'll soon be also hearing the Addictions Care Center of Albany because we merged last Friday. So, you might start hearing that as well. Um, I serve both Columbia and Green counties um providing prevention services. That means we work with individuals that do not have a diagnosis of substance use disorder.
5. 0:51Most of our work is done in our local school districts. I'm happy to say that we are in every school district in Columbia County, including Hawthorne Valley School. So, that is a wonderful thing for us. Um, we've only been involved in Columbia County for three three years.
6. 1:07Three years. So, um, I have uh also the duty as the director of prevention services to do community education as part of prevention. So with some of our local counties now putting a ban onratom I brought it to Victoria um to start discussing if that was a possibility in our county here. Of course this is the investigative station. You know we don't know exactly how this will look or what it will look like.
7. 1:35The reason why creatum has become so important to me as part of uh the department um we write an article which is now 360 but used to be the daily mail right and registered star and we write two prevention news articles and one of them was on cratrum just over a year ago and once in a while I get responses from the community and I received an email from a mother who lost her son due to a cratom overdose.
8. 2:00Um her son was a young man, very active, worked for the Department of Public Works in their town. Um and at first was using it for energy because this is really what credratom does at its lowest levels and and natural credum. So that is the other thing. There are so many things that are involved with this. Comes from a plant that is from Southeast Asia, mostly in Malaysia.
9. 2:26Um, and people chew on cratom leaves and it is an energy inducing substance. At that point, what we're looking at locally that's sold in convenience and retail stores is a synthetic form which is known as O7, MGM15, and MGM16.
10. 2:45This is what our local counties around us are starting to ban. Um, I did help with state legislation getting some of our local representatives in both counties and also Quant County as well with uh Michelle Henshi to but a few bills that went up to the New York State Senate. Two of them did pass. So as of January 1st, there is a ban on who can purchase those products. Before it was every individual. Now there is a age restriction of eight 21 excuse me. And then there is now um there should be a warning label on products that have uh cratom in them or again O7, MGM15, MGM16.
11. 3:28Um there is no point of sale. That was another thing. So that I know a lot of times when you walk into retail stores, it might be in front of you near where like tobacco products are sold or alcohol products are sold. It comes in many different forms. It comes in tinctures. It comes in teas. It comes in pills. So, people have different ways they can take it.
12. 3:49Unfortunately, I couldn't bring my crop that I brought on Tuesday, but it also comes in seltzers, which look extremely similar to like a white claw. Um, one of my staff was presenting it to staff in Greenville School District today, so I don't have it, but it's the same size. Um, and it's it says energy drink on it, and it does have cratom in it.
13. 4:10I know in a few convenience stores and retail markets um they actually have their own cooler for it. Like much like you see Red Bull has their own coolers. This product is called White Rabbit and it also has its own cooler. Um again it doesn't state right out. It's not flashing at you that it has in it but that is the substance that is in it and it is marketed as an energy drink.
14. 4:33So I do have um Ki is the mother I was speaking of earlier. I have a letter to share for you guys to look at at your convenience. Um, her son's life. She is author. This is an op-ed piece that she published in the New York Times.
15. 4:53May I just ask the question? Is it is it addictive or is it uh there's something dangerous about the substance? There's a chemical imbal creates an imbalance or something.
16. 5:03So, this synthetic cratom does affect the opioid receptor. So, it is much like any other opioid. Uh people that go through withdrawal of of cratom see the same exact side effects of somebody taking any other opioid. Um, a lot of people are also taking it in between using maybe treatments that they're getting um for an opioid use addiction that if they are seeking to get a high from something but do not want to use an illegal substance, they do have this legal substance that is available to
17. 5:38just um so is it fair to send to get a hold of that since it's going to be the synthetic
18. 5:53most likely.
19. 5:54Most likely I mean there is a botanical distributor out of I don't know his retail list. I personally have never seen the actual natural product. I've only seen
20. 6:06the natural product as a
21. 6:09No.
22. 6:10Okay. It still has the same chemicals in it but at such a low level. So um I think of it you know like when we think of opium right it has natural properties but then we as human beings have learned how to synthesize things and make things stronger and extract the chemical that affects you more. Um, which is very interesting because Wler County, who just passed this, um, they only ban synthetic o the O7, MGM15, MGM16. They did allow the natural product with a doctor's restriction.
23. 6:45And I think that's a really smart move because I'm thinking of like the creation of methamphetamines or or meth as we know it that people can take other substances that you can buy at a drugstore, convenience store, retail outlet, and you can make meth. So I think unfortunately they're foreseeing the future that if we do leave natural credom out without some kind of control on it. We may see people manipulating chemistry.
24. 7:13Just a couple. Uh so with creative is there a movement for the state to make a war label around anything that would collaborate that bill
25. 7:23and make it much more obvious?
26. 7:25That bill did pass. I there um you were just speaking about that this afternoon.
27. 7:30So the legislation that did pass in January was uh the over 21 so the age limit and the warning label. So what that bill failed to include was the authorization for local health departments to enforce any part of that. So you may be familiar with our tuka program. We do uh tobacco stains. We do compliance check adult compliance checks. you know, make sure that what they have in their store is legal um and find them and violate them for what is not. So, we do not have that authority with this product at all.
28. 8:01I feel that that's very helpful. And was that product purchased by that individual here in county
29. 8:08between Columbia County and county? Yes.
30. 8:11Okay.
31. 8:12Yeah. Y and who's the target group for this? Is it young people or is it all
32. 8:18I wish I had that can
33. 8:20to show you. Um, if you looked at anything with vapes, as we know, you know, the flavors and the colors and all of these things are definitely not targeting this audience here, right? They're targeting our youth. The can has a piece of candy on it and a watermelon slice. It's bright. It's colorful. It talks about the fruity flavor. And then in the back, it says that you should sip it slowly
34. 8:41and wait 30 minutes.
35. 8:43Oh, okay.
36. 8:43And wait two hours before consuming another can.
37. 8:47So, um, Dan, did you hear that? I'm sorry. I don't
38. 8:50I did I just wanted to throw something my understanding is one of the biggest concerns is that this is not regulated in any way shape or form. So the dosage is random in terms of I buy this packet of of cratom versus this packet of I think I'm going to get this effect whereas I might get a much greater effect hence overdosing myself on it.
39. 9:14I appreciate that fact. So, some of the clients that I've spoken to in our agency um have stated exactly what you're saying that when they go to buy a product, they might buy the same exact product at the same exact store, but the feeling that they get off of that product is not the same.
40. 9:28We are also seeing an increase of people that are walking in and that is their drug of choice now, which we have not seen that previously. Um and the the DEA reported that the uh poison hotline were you know gathered throughout the United States from 2015 to 2025 that the rate of calls about overdoses of freedom went up 1,200%.
41. 9:57I just read a story from the
42. 10:00St. Peters Hospital that did a story on it very recently. I'm sorry.
43. 10:03Yes. Yeah. So the DEA did put it on a temporary schedule one. So the federal government is looking at regulating this at this time. Again, that is temporary. Does who knows what that means? How is that enforced? We don't know.
44. 10:18So I I don't have an opinion on this at this point, but I'm pretty well I watch a lot of news, read a lot of stuff. I don't know anything about creative. So my question to you is, and this maybe we should be doing this, but why are we picking on craton as opposed to all the other things that are out there? And and a lot of these convenience stores, you can walk in and buy different things you chew that are not good. There's sex enhancement things. There's all of these things. Have we had a lot of deaths in Columbia County from why we why are we why are we choosing to be something we want to ban?
45. 10:55Again, this is personal for me and being a director of prevention services. I think that it is important for the these two counties to look at, especially looking at how the marketing is, knowing trends, unfortunately, that I've seen our youth have there. I've also been through uh Germantown where I am less than half a mile away from the school district and there's a sign that's flashing that says
46. 11:22Okay, fine. you know where I'm talking about.
47. 11:25I know exactly what I'm saying to everything. I don't even know what
48. 11:29Sure. Sure. Um I will say too, you know, we haven't seen it yet come through on a toxicology or a death certificate. Um we haven't seen it identified as uh the source of a spike yet. You know, other counties or surrounding counties are seeing that. Um so I think that it's, you know, our duty to have this discussion. I would rather us not lose a life period.
49. 11:54Exactly.
50. 11:55But I think what you you have said if I understand it is you're seeing a trend a couple trend of usage and and and you're seeing it appear more frequently
51. 12:04and counties we are. Yes.
52. 12:06And that's why because you're you're trying to anticipate something that seems to
53. 12:12and unfortunately we did find well a school district did find uh the white rabbits or cans like in the garbage can,
54. 12:20right? But those are being sold at retail. Correct.
55. 12:23Correct.
56. 12:23So that's not synthetic.
57. 12:25No, that is.
58. 12:26Okay. So if Rel County, they adopted where they said no synthetic, would that include that?
59. 12:32Yes.
60. 12:33That drink?
61. 12:35So they in their local law gave authority to their local health department and their sheriff's department to enforce that. So if they if they go into a convenience store or any kind of you know retailer of that nature and they see that they will find x amount of dollars per unit and they will be instru they can the sheriffs can confiscate or they'll be instructed to get it off the shelf. Thank you.
62. 13:00And who are the companies that are distributing it because if if they're giving coolers that's a massive expense to do so. Is it local distributors that are doing this or we don't know that? I would have to look where white rabbit is manufactured. Um there and again there is a major distributor out of pipsy. I do know that that serves this area.
63. 13:27I I mean so where does education did the federal department or the state department initiated findings like something
64. 13:52I do have a few articles that I can send to you and that um I did find um that are peer-reviewed articles about cratom and increase in credom use and the effects of absolutely um as to local data as we all know that's really a difficult thing um in both counties uh that you know has improved over the past few years definitely but um what you do have is many more letters like this don't yes I have letters like this that are in Here I have a fact sheet from the DEA if you guys would like that as well. I have something from the FDA SAMA.
65. 14:34So you have
66. 14:34I do.
67. 14:36I mean we're smoking into this at all.
68. 14:39Well, I mean it's like any other bill in Congress, you know, there's lobbyists for so the lobbyists forratom talk about the natural mostly and that it is energy inducing. mean that sometimes endurance athletes are using this product as an energy enhancer. Um, but when it comes to the synthetic, it's a whole different.
69. 15:00So, this was brought up by the DDA in 2017 and there's been no action.
70. 15:05No, in 2026 in January, they did put it as a temporary schedule one drug.
71. 15:09Just a DA place among this drug chemicals of concern was no action has been taken to label it control substance. That was the fourth that her letter was written in this
72. 15:21wave rabbit energies out of Las Vegas.
73. 15:24Thank you. Just just
74. 15:26now is it exclusively being marketed as a stimulant because years ago it was offered to me as a painkiller for a rotator cuff.
75. 15:33Correct. Painkiller um is most of the things that I have seen is like energy product you know much like you think about like a 5h hour energy. Um there are also products that are that same size as a five hour energy that say pure energy. Yes. as an analesic, right, pain reliever.
76. 15:53And it was effective at the time, but I'm going into a store now, I've been like, "Oh, that might be good for but it's actually now more of a stimulant based um dosage and and
77. 16:04and target audience
78. 16:05and also who knows how many years ago that was and how the the market has grown and changed and I think what Dan had said earlier is where are these products being manufactured and what is the regulations on them? So really what is the dosage that people are getting,
79. 16:22right?
80. 16:25Can we get a copy of what RO County did?
81. 16:28Yeah, I have that to you. I can
82. 16:31send that to you.
83. 16:33And if you could also share with us the um the other supporting information you that would save us. I can do that. I'll send one to you.
84. 16:45Thank you. And then this is just a quick fact sheet from the
85. 16:47dear
86. 16:52and there are in bill there are supporting and there are people that were against them of course as well
87. 16:59and um some of their verbages from
88. 17:02when you do this education in the school districts are the kids more aware I'm like you I've never heard of this before today is are the kids more aware of this name they are okay
89. 17:14and at What age group? Middle school or high school?
90. 17:17I would say high school.
91. 17:18Okay.
92. 17:18Yeah. Not so much middle school.
93. 17:20Is it prevalent like right now or it's been for a few years? Because my wife just retired like a year ago. She's never mentioned that drug and she knows she's very in tune with all that. That's why I'm wondering, you know, why I haven't heard. I think it's I think of it as it's not so much a substance that our adolescents are using at parties or in social interactions
94. 17:46and it's probably not all that recognizable either, you know, because they are in so many different forms and they look like, you know, Celsius cans and
95. 17:56energy. Is there age limit in terms of when you can buy it? There is there is there wasn't before
96. 18:03well effective January 1 or
97. 18:05actuallyive immediately
98. 18:07it was effective June
99. 18:09and then what is what is the
100. 18:1221 I think you also have to realize that there's a real there's been a real culture change I mean I we our fire company had its Labor Day breakfast recently we had a couple of the younger firefighters one of them had five energy drinks in six hours like so for them it was to cook waffles.
101. 18:31Yeah.
102. 18:35And I get all the recyclables and we'll give them more tens of energy drinks like Red Bull than their sodas.
103. 18:41Celsius.
104. 18:43Yeah. But they've had others they've taken off the market because they
105. 18:47think they were just part of part of their
106. 18:53absolutely
107. 18:57as I said the St. Peter's Hospital. We had a recent story in the Times Union. I mean, they had statistics on how many people would end up in ER room, you know, not necessarily deaths, but you know,
108. 19:07right,
109. 19:08problems, you know, so it does seem to becoming a real problem
110. 19:12and that is something again right now just investigating that is something that I haven't looked at to see what that looks like, right? But not necessarily that, you know, thankfully we haven't had a fatal overdose. Um, but people could be coming into our local ER with signs of
111. 19:27right
112. 19:28over consumption.
113. 19:29Yeah. And
114. 19:29well, and are they mixing alcohol with this like they've done with other things like Red Bull's mixed with alcohol and what was that for Loco? Is that still on that shelf?
115. 19:38That was it was Yeah, they took it off the shelf.
116. 19:40Yeah, it is off the shelf.
117. 19:41For loco.
118. 19:43So again, a lot of people are using this to go to sleep. You know, a lot of people are using it as as a downer. they are not using because the dosage again and this is a synthetic you know just like we've looked at so many other synthetic products
119. 19:59and as they say I'm just yeah
120. 20:01researching very quickly and it is amazing how much information there is but in lower doses it can give you an energy boost but if you keep consuming it'll actually has a sense
121. 20:11and that's what's so addicting you know to it because at those lower doses it does increase energy then you want more such as caffeine right and then the more you use the more the body needs, we start that addiction cycle that the first effect isn't the same and then the more he used at higher doses it becomes
122. 20:29reading in their letter you can start to see after five hours he was getting cramps from basically withdraw
123. 20:39directors more question just maybe a closing note on this topic just want to remind the group we we brought in a speaker uh referred to as Termaine Galloway all cop some of you may remember some of you may even attended and what he's known for is prior to giving us his his speak his speech in the community talk in the community he goes throughout the community to the local bodeas convenience storesarmacies even and he is uh in tune as to what people are using in an alternate sort of way so he'll go into a pharmacy and see that the shelves are barren of x over the counter product and he knows through his experience and knowledge as a police officer and an expert in this area as to what's being diverted, what's being manipulated in a way that's not intended to be used.
124. 21:31He gave an incredibly informative talk on this which I forgotten 90% of because it was two some years ago but it was it was eyeopening. So to your point, supervisor Lonia, like why whyratom and Tara spoke to that, but we could we could pick betweenratom and probably a dozen other products that are out there right now.
125. 21:53It's frightening the evolution at which this changes and and and morphs into you know what we know as today will be something tomorrow is so rapid that it's almost impossible for us in the treatment community to keep up with it's the young people who know about this and who are teaching us as the treatment providers about it's why but what's concerning and alarming to us I think is the number of mood altering substances that are out there and that are accessible over the counter is just startling.
126. 22:32The the ways in which somebody can instantaneously change their mood with the substance is incredibly concerning because they don't know what they're putting into their bodies most of the time. They just know that they want to alter their their their feelings, their moods, their emotions. And this according to their friend's friend of a friend would do that and they just put it into their mouth because they don't have the fully developed brain yet to think oh my god
127. 23:01this is properly helps to regulate and go what if
128. 23:04or what else am I taking effects
129. 23:09and Germaine warned us of this two years ago
130. 23:11right I don't know if anybody was at the college and he would speak
131. 23:18back to your your point earlier Um, is the health department the only ones that would be providing some sort of enforcement or or
132. 23:29so the state department of health is the only one authorized to enforce this right now.
133. 23:33Right. So, so my question is no disrespect to the health department, but I know how the health department's things work and you don't have the man in power and you're not doing it often enough and then actually bringing them in for hearing and then it it's just not the best.
134. 23:46We've actually gotten everywhere this year.
135. 23:48What's that? We've actually gotten everywhere for this, right? But it's not an everyday a regular occurrence where somebody brings something in. And so it's it's a challenge for a health department to enforce that if it's not going through maybe health department, law enforcement, this one, that one, and everybody,
136. 24:02right? And that's where we come in. And so like I've created a pamphlet that we're handing out to parents and schools. Um we do plan on going to retail outlets to let them know that the warning label should be on. So that is really where my department comes in for education information for the community
137. 24:17and not so much reinforcement but I mean
138. 24:20have a big flag is great on child side.
139. 24:22Well they still do point of sale in New York state. Um, so um I mean that's really I feel like that is the onus of of my staff and my department is is not to have punitive measures for our business partners in our community that just to maybe they don't know these things exist or these laws exist. So I think education and information to our local retailers is first and foremost of course. Dan, I felt like you still had something to say, but no.
140. 24:57I just want to follow up quickly.
141. 24:59Did I hear that it is now on the schedule?
142. 25:02Temporarily they're looking.
143. 25:03What does that mean?
144. 25:04I Great question.
145. 25:08Da
146. 25:10correct. But right for right now, they have temporarily put it on the O7, not Freom itself, O7. So the synthetics MGM15 and MGM16 as a schedule one drug which means it shouldn't even be sold anywhere in the United States.
147. 25:29So that that supersedes even New York State and
148. 25:33what your question is wonderful what does that mean? Where does the enforcement what are they doing with it? I have not found anything other than the statement that stated they were putting it on a temporary schedule one
149. 25:45supervisor is jurisdictionally that's what
150. 25:49yes that's
151. 25:50yeah and you know what that is you know
152. 25:53but not to sound pessimistic what will happen most likely is they will modify the synthetic to get around the law and that's why
153. 26:04Tara's and her team's work is so important in trying with prevention and working with children and young people and adults to help them understand what's going on that there's a desire to alter one's mood as opposed to maybe uh one's emotions and feelings and moods as opposed to just hey I'm feeling blue or I'm feeling down let me you know pop this tablet that I bought at the corner store you know that that's the the challenge that we're facing I think that's the challenge from a market standpoint and I think that couldn't be better said. U still need an enforcement component of because people want to take advantage of the fact that somebody wants
154. 26:51we got to work
155. 26:57all the reason we should consider.
156. 27:01Yeah. So I mean I am doing more and more research to find out things you know like you were discussing because it I think because it has become a popular topic as you know if you just Google it. I mean it's all over the news. It's in print. It's you know in our local counties. Um but I don't think there's been enough follow through.
157. 27:22Well please get the information and disseminate it to us and we can bring this to the full board of super.
158. 27:28Great. I appreciate your time today.
159. 27:30Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any questions? What my director's report before I
160. 27:38It was good to see no SV, RSV, no flu, but CO outbreak at a nursing home. Um, fortunately, I think that that has passed and we had one hospitalization, but they were discharged a couple days later. So, as best we can hope for. So we know when the new vaccine will be available.
161. 28:01So we've started the process for purchasing but um haven't um
162. 28:12right. Any further questions for the director?
163. 28:14What was the like someone traveling?
164. 28:18Not even so they were they traveled to Africa continent. Yeah.
165. 28:24They were that had it. Not that they
166. 28:26not even they were in a place that didn't even have cases. So we but we did have a case uh or a traveler um earlier this summer and we did go through many avenues to notify first responders and all that that we did have somebody if they were ill proper precaution to be taken during their um observation period. But we were instructed by the state this time that it wasn't even necessary. So we did it. So that person is well.
167. 28:55Good.
168. 28:56So speaking of social media, there's been a lot of ads over the last week associated with if you've been exposed to COVID, um you can take a pill within 72 hours and alleviate uh your exposure is do you know anything about this?
169. 29:10I don't. I haven't seen that one.
170. 29:12I'll try and flag it and send it to you.
171. 29:15It's at the bodega next to the It helps.
172. 29:25What was interesting was when someone gave me crap on years ago for my shoulder was in the wantton soup container and they weren't all the same size and dimensions.
173. 29:35Anyway, thank you very much, director. We're going to move in
174. 29:38human services director Alasi.
175. 29:42Everybody, nice to see all of you. Not too many resolutions today. First one's a personnel resolution. Uh this was presented at 0.1 a while ago. There was a pickup and that it didn't get presented last month. So this has to do with uh money that we've received from the state to enhance our AOT program uh with bringing on board a create and fill of a EVA enhanced voluntary applicant/AOT coordinator position.
176. 30:11You currently oversee uh AOT and a community refresh on AOT. It's the assisted outpatient treatment program or Kendra's law. These are individuals that are mandated to outpatient treatment, receive outpatient treatment due to the fact that they've been deemed a danger to themselves or others. Um so we monitor these folks through the Department of Human Services and the state has given us additional funds um to enhance this program.
177. 30:39Second.
178. 30:40Further discussion. All in favor?
179. 30:43Opposed? Carried. Next is a general resolution. Um, we would like to um support and get your approval on appointing Hannah Calhoun to the community services board.
180. 30:57Move it.
181. 30:57Second.
182. 30:58Further discussion. All in favor?
183. 31:01Opposed? Carried.
184. 31:03Uh, second general resolution is to contract with Sunni Fredonia. Uh, we have students coming to us and we need to get into excusing to learn a second.
185. 31:13Further discussion. All in favor? I
186. 31:16opposed. Carried.
187. 31:18Um, last is a financial resolution to modify the 2026 budget to accept additional state aid dollars to the tune of $2,600 or second.
188. 31:29Further discussion? All in favor?
189. 31:30I opposed.
190. 31:32Carry.
191. 31:34Thank you. Any questions for the director?
192. 31:38Thank you, sir. social services. Commissioner Gibson
193. 31:49want to begin telling we had been turning contracts and then a scan but then got an email from Jim. Uh so I hold on so that we can get all information.
194. 32:02Okay. Yes. They're supposed to submit um announce and so oh terms so
195. 32:14we'll come back next month.
196. 32:18Uh first
197. 32:20I was just going to ask you because you were talking about the one you're going are you currently doing business with all of these agencies
198. 32:26and we currently have contracts.
199. 32:28No expire. I just was worried about concerned about the the
200. 32:33always
201. 32:34always concerned and and I I I think it that's a new way to track these things is to have the budget line on and I think it's a good idea. So we'll certainly include that with with every that we do going forward.
202. 32:50Okay. Um first request is to fill the services staff trainer position.
203. 32:57Do I have a second? Second.
204. 33:00Further discussion. All in favor?
205. 33:03Opposed? Carries.
206. 33:05The second request is to build one community services aid position.
207. 33:11Second.
208. 33:12Further discussion. All in favor?
209. 33:14Opposed? Carried.
210. 33:17The next request is to fill two caseworker positions.
211. 33:22Second.
212. 33:23Is that one or two resolutions? We have two individual resolutions, but we can
213. 33:28do that. Would you like me to do that?
214. 33:32I just wanted to point out that there's two separate resolutions.
215. 33:34We got another one coming up twice as many. So, however, you'd like
216. 33:38I'll move those resolution
217. 33:39that they already moved. We have a motion in a second.
218. 33:42All in favor?
219. 33:44Opposed? Carried.
220. 33:46Okay. So from the the social welfare examiner positions um there are four that need to be filled and soon uh they're all separate resolutions and to even request those one at a time.
221. 34:04I'd ask for a motion to proceed on.
222. 34:07Okay.
223. 34:08So moved.
224. 34:09Have a second.
225. 34:11Further discussion? All in favor? I
226. 34:16opposed carried.
227. 34:18Thank you. Uh so looking to fill um I know it's the word says three and then with say four.
228. 34:27Wait a minute.
229. 34:29You don't have another position, do you?
230. 34:32The next one we had was for contract of Cornell.
231. 34:36I have social.
232. 34:40You did four of those. Oh, I thought we were still on the two when they were voted. I'm not sure we voted on four.
233. 34:53We hit two at a time and we hit four at a time.
234. 34:57You guys are keep
235. 35:01It's not easy to keep up.
236. 35:04Okay, so we are on to the contract with Cornell Cooperative Extension. I just had a quick because here it says 102,000 but in the contract it says 57.
237. 35:15Well, because the current contract that's what it is. This is the proposed add-on.
238. 35:21Oh, okay. Since last year contract
239. 35:24it was. Yeah. So, they're they're actually going to up their prevented services. Uh, and that would bring the total up to where you see it.
240. 35:34Do I have a motion?
241. 35:37Move it. I have a second.
242. 35:38Second.
243. 35:39Further discussion. All in favor?
244. 35:42I opposed. Carry.
245. 35:46Okay. Uh the next is a request to uh enter into contract with Fresh Start Home Services for supporting families and individuals struggling to keep their homes clean and organized. Um we
246. 36:02I might have to ask some questions on this one. Is this something new? It's not new, but it's it's a new
247. 36:09What is government doing? You know, I'm sorry. What is government doing? Um, is this something we need to do? I don't know. It's
248. 36:17not government.
249. 36:18What it is is
250. 36:19Well, we're approving it.
251. 36:20Uh, correct. But it's a private for the longest time. I've got clients that are coming under scrutiny for hoarding. I've got clients coming under scrutiny because their house is deemed to be not acceptable to have children leaving a home. These are grounds to bring an article 10 neglect petition. And indeed we have I would prefer not when I get a so we we get um reports right from the state central registry and it says house deplorable conditions um not not not uh fit to for for children to be residing in the home.
252. 37:02So we have to investigate that send investigators out. we usually end up putting in the home and then opening a prevention case because you know if we don't have to want to um so one of the things that the courts have been doing after findings of neglect is saying we want we want a service working with the home so that they can keep these homes in conditions that they're supposed to um and they can learn about that this particular provider that's what done.
253. 37:36Uh we're we're now getting to the point where it's it's better for us to to go ahead and prevent. Uh so if we get these kinds of calls, we go in and we help home we help families sort of deal with this. If we see a hoarding problem, we help them deal with it because otherwise I'm going to be in litigation for a year. I'm going to get a finding from the court. Then I'm going to have an order of supervision for another year. um it's quite intrusive to the family and that can lead to to a lot of difficulty. So I it isn't isn't something you would have voted on.
254. 38:18Um but I as part of my prevention package now and good news for the county and
255. 38:24so what what triggers it? I guess you you started out by explain director
256. 38:29Alas. So that's kind of where I was going to ask you. You might get a report from say a teacher at a school or something has a concern that the child is coming. There'll be clothing and and and something along that lines which could potentially
257. 38:42all that all that type stuff
258. 38:44and it must go through the state central registry for that to happen. So then they'll call and then we'll get a what's called a hotline report.
259. 38:53Then there's mandated action to be taken with a hotline report. um you know these it's the age old problem where that's why DSS is person right in your community particularly in your lower income communities right and and you know trying to educate people we're just responding right
260. 39:16we're just responding to a report we're not making that allegation we need to see what
261. 39:21you need to investigate
262. 39:23so so I just want to add to what he's saying so this is not a condition for for services or or for for your for um services from your agency. This is a reaction to someone having created a case or a case file about an issue
263. 39:39and and these are voluntary. So, we're getting more calls because deplorable than we've had in the past. Um we're getting more calls because it's alleged that the mother is a hoarder than we have in the past. So, you know, do I want to continue to get hotline reports and keep indicating people and jamming them up civily or do I want to say I don't know what's going on. It's a quite an excellent question and I I do think it's it's part and parcel to some issue that therapy uh is going to be helpful on. Uh that's the other assessment we can make once in the house. So, um
264. 40:22so you and you know you just want to track that, right? How many were assigned over the year of the first?
265. 40:29I think that was going to be my next question. Is there a limit to that? I think
266. 40:33I was gonna ask you because limits are there, but I was just going to wonder if there's a contract amount.
267. 40:40Um, yeah, it's a perdm, so it's not an ongoing thing. You could go eight months and not use the service. Um, you know, I I have not tapped it as such because, you know, I don't really use it as a corrective or an instructive tool, I probably support it. But if we use it to get people um addicted to it, that's a bad thing. You know, that's that's my concern, I guess.
268. 41:09Yeah. I'm liable when it comes to that, right? Supervising. The last thing I want to do is create dependence. I'm not sure that a service like this doesn't I've vetted this quite a bit. So I I appreciate these questions more than you know. Um
269. 41:30I just kept coming back to you know if I'm going to end up spending more on the back end and I'm going to create a bigger problem because now I've got people with an indicated report who can't get certain employment.
270. 41:44Right. Right now I'm on a downhill trajectory and I have all these other prevention programs, right, to keep these things from happening. Why not try and and I'm going to go to this service anyway
271. 41:58because once it turns out that that's the case, then I got to pay to clean it up because they got to clean it up or I got to remove the kid. Uh, I appreciate that. I'm not
272. 42:09Can we get a limit to how many times we would do that perf? Of course we could, you know, something like that.
273. 42:15Per client,
274. 42:16per client, right?
275. 42:19Well, no. Yes, we can. Let me show you. Let me show you how the system would be work towards that. If it kept happening, I would have to take the action that I don't want to take, which is removal, filing a neglect, prosecuting it, getting a finding. Um so and and but I can also limit you know up to per family right yeah of course I
276. 42:45several visits or something and if it doesn't if it isn't a corrective measure then then you have to do something else you know
277. 42:54it just seemed wrong to me I don't know
278. 42:56does it does it still
279. 42:57no no it made some sense I get it I you know but
280. 43:00the ultimate is not to remove the child
281. 43:02when when I read this I was like what are we doing you know so great Ron's point is also not to constantly go in and clean up something. I think that's what we're talking limit is not to remove the child because that has worse effects,
282. 43:17right? No, I can I completely understand and and but I I think I somewhat agree with with Supervisor Kn, you know, the uh
283. 43:27it made me really sit up and take notice when I read it, but I I appreciate your
284. 43:31Let's go in and demonstrate to them what the expectations are.
285. 43:35Yeah. and then expect them to maintain,
286. 43:39right? Which is the same thing that we do if there's an educational neglect, which is the same thing we'll do if we're detecting um substance abuse. Uh that's going to lead to this, right? It's it's it's really part and parcel. No, I appreciate this more than you know because these are discussions that go on for hours at my table long before we even decide we're going to go in a certain direction. I almost see numbers before I do that. Um,
287. 44:08I also think it'd be useful to have some data on this because it depends on what the root public if the cause is associated with someone who's working two jobs and and taking care of two children, you know, there may not be time to clean the house. So, you know, is this a problem that is this is this correct or is this a longterm problem? So if we start to collect this data, we'll start to understand what the systemic problem is in a in a home.
288. 44:36Yeah.
289. 44:37What the corrective actions or opportunities need to be.
290. 44:40No question. And I would tell you this that the data gets collected in as much as each one of these are individual cases all they must be. Um, so I can always and and in fact I'll make a point of doing this uh is I'll track these month over month so that I can say you know
291. 45:03I appreciate it. I just I had to flag it for questions
292. 45:09right now you know. Well, I think yeah, like just on the outcomes, right? So, did can you see over time for those that use the services that the case, you know, there was then no subsequent case filed or whatever?
293. 45:24Then that actually helps because I I went to our website and everything like it helps her. She's she's not necessarily a clinical person, but she's framing it as a trauma trauma informed approach, which I think actually is pretty unique in that if it can effectively do this, then the data actually helps her kind of like it either, you know, like it's either working or it's not really working, then if it is working and it is definitely a cost-saving prevention versus, you know, a different way that kind of service could be effective. So
294. 45:58I I agree with that and and you know another another thing and and I I might have started with this what what ultimately pushes me towards I'm going to try a program I'm not going to try a program is you know how how is it and what what are some of the folks at the state think about this? Um and and I looked at that, you know, and and it is one of these things where I don't know where it comes from either, but there is there is starting to you're seeing more of it.
295. 46:32Um it's not unlike, you know, someone that you see who's addicted or someone maybe is having trouble with alcohol and you're starting to notice it more and more first with their appearance. then you know they're showing up regularly late, right? These are all things and I'm not an expert in that field. So I have to then ask people what are we talking about here? But I will say I have more times than not and not just in the foster care realm but that's where it gets critical. But even even as people get more elderly
296. 47:09more times than not saying, you know, rather than have you be, you know, because my adult protective services kind of
297. 47:16I think the landlord's being over picky, but this this this particular person does have problems in this area that can't be helped. Um, and if we don't catch it, we might not necessarily catch it. And my deal with the landlords is all right, I'll go in and clean it up.
298. 47:35But if I can start a case and have it cleaned up and help an adult in that way, here's the good news also for the county. I'm running it through a case. I'm getting a large part of reimbursement. Not that I I don't hear this just as a dollar and a cents thing, but that's that's another concern that I have because I'm always watching the budget. So, um, no, I I I I actually appreciate the questions more than you know because I think people should be asking those.
299. 48:04All right. I had one comment from Director Benudo behind you and then
300. 48:08Sorry, I just wanted to point out that hoarding, we've had cases that overlap specifically with hoarding. Um, hoarding has really become kind of a hot topic in aging services across the state and several of the AAA's are starting um programs like this. It's actually been something we've been talking about low lowkey. Haven't really do dove too much into it yet within my office, but um there have been cases where APS has come to us and say, "Hey, can you put an aid into this home?" And I can't put someone in in certain environments, but if we could get it cleaned out and then an aid in to assess and assist with treatment in hand, um I think it's worth it's worth a shot trying out. it would actually help us with a lot of our clients at least for for the older population. I don't know if that's helpful information.
301. 48:58No, it's all helpful. And with that, I make a motion to move this forward. I just would like to see some accountability for it to track it a little bit and report back.
302. 49:07And I will second that under the same.
303. 49:10Okay. Hopefully we've exhausted the further discussion portion of this resolution. All in favor?
304. 49:17No.
305. 49:19Okay. Yeah. Well, we got we got to get through this. Unfortunately, this meeting is going. We'll have public at the end.
306. 49:26All right. All in favor? We had one. No.
307. 49:29All in favor?
308. 49:32Okay. Resolution carries.
309. 49:37Oh, the next one is a memorandum of understanding with Colombia Kitchen. um they have been in disputes to actually take over the facilities on Green Street that is where we uh do our warming center. Uh and that offers a lot of uh possibilities that here too for not open. Um none of this costs the county anymore money. In fact, my whole code program does not cost the county money. I run that through the state. Um but we always think it's better when somebody's coming in um to to a memorandum of understanding. Hey, this is our mission. Here's our mutual goal. Here's our here's your role. So that's
310. 50:22I'll move it.
311. 50:23Second.
312. 50:24Further discussion. All in favor?
313. 50:26Opposed? Carried.
314. 50:28Okay. And finally, um you may recall a presentation from the the developer of the proposed Healey Homes um project that we did last year um which was a ways off because they had discussions to undertake in Greenport um and the like. They were working with the planning board also. uh they needed to work with uh you know hammering out service uh uh what services would be provided. I know that it's it's proposed to me and now to you folks is we'd like to offer something uh very similar to what's being offered out in Calvin. Here's and if y'all were able to get the copies that were sent out here's what we will offer. Here's here's where it would be the same. Here's where you'll see some distinctions and here's what we need to get. Um, so I pass that on. Um, if you like, I know the developer is here, so if you had any additional questions,
315. 51:33I have a question for you, Bob. Why would we do five years when we don't we've not worked with this individual. We don't know anything about how this service is going to work, the accommodations, etc. I'm fine with the whole
316. 51:45Sure. But five years seems like a long time on a new venture that
317. 51:50Sure. You know, I think that's fair. And I think we had that same question back in 2018 um when Galvin first made their proposal. Today you did 60 months and it was because they needed to recoup um uh construction cost.
318. 52:06Okay.
319. 52:06Uh so I said, "Well, I did it then. I can offer the same to the board for approval this time because I did it last time." Um and it was under the same um I'll say it seemed to make sense.
320. 52:22Are there I assume the county attorney will look at that contract
321. 52:25already has
322. 52:26and are there any caveats in there in regards to if there is some issue there that we can
323. 52:31we can always you know it's like any uh contract that we have either party can can resend or to do all that.
324. 52:40Sure. There was a deficiency in services we could get. So to your point, you know, I think
325. 52:45if I'm understanding the math correctly, this 24 rooms at $132 a night for 365 days a year
326. 52:51on 1.15 million a year
327. 52:54for five years for five years.
328. 52:56I just I had the same question about the just like what's the comparison like what are we currently paying for? So, so it's yeah, it's several hundred,000 over what Galvin is is um asking for now. And my understanding, and again, I've gotten the developer here. Yeah. And here's why. Here's what we're going to offer you on above and beyond. It is in the language of the contract, but if you'd rather hear it right from them, I think that's a fair question.
329. 53:26I just didn't know the numbers reference. I read the contract and what the c why it's, you know, what the value proposition is being presented. I just couldn't I went to the budget because we had the budget meeting and I couldn't tell what that number is like how much we paid for hotels.
330. 53:40Well, they right
331. 53:42but I mean a total a total to your point like this is this is a certain amount of money. What is the current like what's this year's amount?
332. 53:48What's the full pot? In other words, we're going to pull people from another
333. 53:52facility to put them in. How do we house all of these people?
334. 53:55We we house them all.
335. 53:57That's that's she's looking for a dollar amount of
336. 54:00this grand city. Yeah.
337. 54:02Uh to Columbia County, which is where I'd like to bring the the population into. Remember,
338. 54:09well, red.
339. 54:13Um
340. 54:13it's not an increase in dollar amounts. That's what we're
341. 54:16No, it is. It's an increase in dollar amount. It's not um because nobody's getting 132 a night,
342. 54:25right? I thought it was less.
343. 54:27No, some are getting 110 125. Um, so what I was what the proposal is, look, here's what we're going to offer, which is even more than you have now, and it's going to be more as far as security and the like. And again, we we we've got the developer right here. So, I I think you should feel free to ask that straight out. And we believe that the value added even to what you have in your model at Galvin is such that you're going to want this. And for us to provide it, it's going to be that cost.
344. 55:01What's the reimbursement rate?
345. 55:04Um, so the reimbursement's going to come back at 29%.
346. 55:12And that's standard.
347. 55:14It is a standard and um with a shared clinician here I think. So um it's actually clinician can get reimbursed through a program. So yeah, so we get $40 back off the 135 roughly.
348. 55:33Yeah. 335 for that one back.
349. 55:36So the so the um part of the reason the rates are different are because of the varying services, but also these are older contracts, five-year contract that have a fiveyear term.
350. 55:49They they are, but this is a higher room. It's it's it's that simple. I mean it's it's a higher room rate than I've ever paid. Oh, except when I have to place them at higher.
351. 55:59And how many rooms are in this facility?
352. 56:01Uh 24.
353. 56:02So 26,
354. 56:07right? So they're building this facility solely for the purposes of us having a contract with them, which makes his numbers work. Otherwise, they don't work.
355. 56:15Yeah. And and again, can if we could take two minutes, u
356. 56:20I I would be interested to know what the differences are.
357. 56:23Yeah. Sure. Can you explain that?
358. 56:26Um, sure. So, it's the project is on Key Boulevard. It's front door access. It's on the the bus line. It's walking distance to Aldi's and services and and uh vocational schools. Um, as far as certain services, the um there's case workers, there's security, there's a round security. Um, there's uh um the the it's actually the same operator as Galvin. Um, and there's a clinician. There's um resources, sorry. Um there is so employment specialist, there's a front door person, there's all these different things that they wanted um in order to make it as successful as possible in order for them to do their work who wanted um charity St. Catherine. Okay. So please if you would tell us what's different what's going to be different at key than we we're offering.
359. 57:24Sure. So first of all you're not have to transport people back and forth to run at Detroit and out of county. Everyone's going to stay in county which will help them with their services get back on street disruptive for people to you know be at the Brookshire motor lodge 30 minutes away. It's very isolated um as far as you know just uplifting someone or being isolated without a car. this, you know, because it's on the Columbia County shuttle, it's also very close to the Albany bus line that goes back and forth. So, for employment, people, you know, if we want to get people back on the feet as far as employment, they can walk to Burger King or Wendy's, which just opened up. It really makes people independent. Um, it has the standard stuff like kitchens, laundry, uh, caseworker offices on site. It's a brand new facility. It's groundup construction. Um it's it's really, you know, purposely designed to um create the best outcome. Um the cap ask a quick question while that is
360. 58:18is there additional funding that's coming there because $1.1 million doesn't sound like enough money to build and run that building with all the services.
361. 58:27It's in fact that's well actually passed through we cover all the services to the that includes the the case work and all the other expenses taxes. It's pass that's through to what
362. 58:37to to St. Catherine's or the
363. 58:39so there is additional monies coming from
364. 58:42No no no that's that's the total package and of that everything is paid
365. 58:48um it's grounded construction construction costs are really high um
366. 58:51no I'm saying it's low
367. 58:53no 1.1 year business it's not a whole lot of money when you're having all these services and you have taxes and you have all these other things
368. 59:02it just a cheap it just works it really just works you know Yeah,
369. 59:08trust me. I know.
370. 59:09Yeah.
371. 59:10So, so the other question I have, Bob, is and of course there's 20 how many rooms? Six.
372. 59:1624.
373. 59:16And then we also have the wellness hub being built, right? Which we're going to have x amount of rooms in there. We have enough to house in both places.
374. 59:25Well, this is a good question. This is what I brought up to everybody when the proposed development is that you know when that and I think it's more when and not if that goes up, you know that's that's immediately going to take the priority that's what the county wanted.
375. 59:43Um the operators know that Alvin knows that um and and Mr. messing knows that certainly there is and I've said this time and again in this committee and to these folks as well certainly there is the population now to handle all that it is not my goal for it to be correct that's the case our goal isn't to to fill this many rooms it's so I I always say that I say with that caveat.
376. 1:00:16Um I I will certainly bring this offers more than I'm going to get at the other hotels. I I think we want to be a little more clear if you could get it. It's certainly better than your run-of-the-mill hotels. What's going to happen here that's not going to happen at Galpin that says I need to get more per night care?
377. 1:00:37Sure. So, there's a clinician um in addition to case workers. So, it's a little bit higher of care. In addition, there's a specialist that will help them with uh employment um and finding other um other housing dedicated to helping um them move on.
378. 1:00:54Um, in addition to the the day-to-day case workers, you have um you have you have a cleaning staff, you have maintenance, you have a desk, you have uh um we have uh overnight we have uh 24 we have live feeding cameras meaning you spoke to the sheriff's office. Um the commons basically have direct live feed to the sheriff so that if anything happens they know exactly what's going on.
379. 1:01:18Um we have like I said there's uh there's live monitoring of the hallways and common spaces that we're paying for. So even in the off hours could we think of doing overnight but uh we that found it to be too expensive and tough a tough um job to fill. So we instead we have live feed at night and we're paying a service to monitor the property so there's you know an issue in the hallway on the property you know the appropriate services can be uh notified.
380. 1:01:44Um, but in general it's just it's it's more case workers, it's more clinicians, it's more um staff and and that's uh and that's that's what St. Catherine's felt was needed in order to provide the best.
381. 1:01:59And are they all the same size apartments?
382. 1:02:02They're they're all the same size. Inside the apartments there are um sliding doors or doors so you can connect them. If there's a um large family, you also have storage space. So that if we want to switch out the furniture uh bunk bed to a twin bed, we can do that as well.
383. 1:02:16Um we can we can really make it uh we can really connect a lot of on the ground floor. It's the exterior upstairs pots. Um we uh we separate some of the uh the top floors so that there's like a part of five and a part of eight so that you can have a specific you know population and um let's say all women the access to the the facility is um biometrics and so it's not a passcode where someone can just give it to their friend everything is monitored you know in order to get entrance to the facility you have to you know be identified um you know everything changes as someone checks out it's really well thought for Mos.
384. 1:02:57Um, if after five years and the contract winds down and maybe the wellness, not maybe wellness comes to fruition, what might this morph into?
385. 1:03:10Sure. So, we thought about that. You know, we we we understood that the the goal is to solve this issue. Um, all the apartments will have roughings for kitchens so that we will be able to put five foot kitchens inside each apartment. Um so that in the event that we have that we have to uh transition transition it to long-term apartments all the departmentations basically all the rooms have their own bathrooms they basically all become studio so this could go from homeless housing to housing that's the back.
386. 1:03:47Yeah it's a great question it's it's something that I say if you're going to do this you better be thinking in this way, anybody proposing this um for two reasons. We're always trying to drive the number down and is coming, right? That's a tier 2 OTPA oversight and and a project we've been working on in the county for a long time.
387. 1:04:14Um, I will say that that itself pushed me to at least bring this to the committee. Uh because we could be talking about 26 studio apartments in five or six years affordably and and assuming that you've rebuked at that point your um your uh cost um you know does that would you consider you know hey if people have a section 8 voucher we'll consider that.
388. 1:04:50Yeah. So remind me how many units is it? The wellness center is it?
389. 1:04:56I'm sorry.
390. 1:04:57That's okay.
391. 1:04:58Is it 2,00 24? So
392. 1:05:00there's 11 and 13 shelter. Let's let's remember there's shelter and then there's the supported housing. The shelter is 24. Uh you have to speak to RCO because that may have changed. They're working on architectural designs give or take two dozen. And then on the supported housing that's about 36.
393. 1:05:21So I'm just thinking about this in the context of our overall housing issue and the fact that we're not seeing housing develop for the income the income levels that these clients would need. And I don't think we've been under 60 or 70 per month in five years more five plus years or more. So if we were to if we look at this if we can have three reliable sources um wellness this we've got the more or less regionally consolidated we've we've ensured their access to services and then we're not relying on people who are on vendors that are providing many fewer services for $110 or $15 a night.
394. 1:06:06That's that's correct. That's that's the initial selling point for me. What put me over was that uh after we move on from this and start to solve the problem, we've got permanent housing in the office. I think that's very important.
395. 1:06:22But I also think to Danny's point, the the um cost instruction does not favor housing for low income.
396. 1:06:30I totally agree. And and this kind of solves that as well. if it gets them past additional construction costs and you know you have a developer um since I would be very interested in lower income or uh you know making it work with a with with section 8 um housing benefits and the like. Um I think you could I think it offers a long-term solution if you want to
397. 1:06:59it almost sounds like a bespoke solution. It's just so so suits. I'm sorry I can't see behind me.
398. 1:07:07Supervisor Muffman,
399. 1:07:08what is our relationship with Galan? I understood that bar now is responsible. You keep saying Galvin. Who do you talk to them?
400. 1:07:17You know, it's interesting. I because bar when they took on the portfolio then took on Calvin Housing Resources as part of that. So Galvin Housing Resources oversees the Galan Civic Motel and does that work, but it's not the Galvin Foundation. They're all
401. 1:07:39But they're owned by what's wrong.
402. 1:07:42They own
403. 1:07:43They own it.
404. 1:07:44They have nothing to do with the contract that we had with
405. 1:07:46No, they do. They do.
406. 1:07:48Corporation is now using They've attached Galvin housing resource. It could it could just as easily be barn housing resources change any time, right?
407. 1:08:00It could,
408. 1:08:02but but it's no longer the foundation.
409. 1:08:06All right. Has that answered everyone's questions about this resolution?
410. 1:08:11Okay. I'm going to ask for a motion.
411. 1:08:14I'll move it
412. 1:08:15and ask for a second. Second.
413. 1:08:18Further discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Well, that is that is it on my asks. Um, we can we can certainly further the discussion, but I think we fit the housing pretty well. Um,
414. 1:08:39well, thank you sir for joining us to explain the project and answer questions.
415. 1:08:44Patience.
416. 1:08:46That's okay if you do.
417. 1:08:47All right. Well, thanks. One question for I'm interested in the relationship of Columbia County and this facility down street. I mean they cook food.
418. 1:08:59Yeah. So it looks like they're
419. 1:09:02Are they going to manage the whole thing or
420. 1:09:04Yeah. That and again
421. 1:09:06Okay.
422. 1:09:07That's where I that's where it was left with me. We're coming in. We're in discussions with church and we're going this is going to be our facility. County.
423. 1:09:20Yes. And I
424. 1:09:23I think they have a new board of directors and I think they're expanding their program to be
425. 1:09:28So their mission has changed.
426. 1:09:29Yes. And their leadership's changed, too.
427. 1:09:32Yes.
428. 1:09:36All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner.
429. 1:09:40Director Ben Venudo, Office of the AJ.
430. 1:09:43I will leave this very
431. 1:09:45six and a half minutes. We can do it. We should
432. 1:09:49uh I actually just finished an energy drink and felt really weird.
433. 1:09:53Wasn't
434. 1:09:55I don't I feel like I need
435. 1:09:58I think is safe, but I finished it while that conversation was.
436. 1:10:01You're that new demographic everybody's worried about. feel a little bit uh but uh so my the only resolution I have for you tonight is for uh approval to purchase a new mixer and range for our nutrition program. Um we are using our unmet needs funding uh towards this purchase. Uh and just to give you a little bit of background, the the current items that we have, the gas range that we have was purchased in 1998. The commercial mixer was in 1976. Um, I think we have gotten our
437. 1:10:35money.
438. 1:10:36Yeah,
439. 1:10:36they don't make things like this.
440. 1:10:38Trust me, these won't last as long as that.
441. 1:10:41The plan is Amanda, our nutrition program coordinator. The plan is to hold on to that commercial mixer for as long as the the
442. 1:10:49Yeah, I believe it.
443. 1:10:50And you know the size of it?
444. 1:10:58You want to buy it? No, honestly from that age will last another one's probably this big around
445. 1:11:09the last one you can throw a whole cow.
446. 1:11:11Yeah, I mean the plan is to hold on to it. Um but I am preparing for if it goes down that we use it for almost every recipe. So sign and
447. 1:11:22Okay guys,
448. 1:11:24sound travels here. Please knock down.
449. 1:11:26Let's try to get through this.
450. 1:11:27I'll do it. Thank you.
451. 1:11:29Also, a little bit just again to you know, I'm going to probably be coming through with more of these in the next year or so. Our walk-in cooler that is built into the kitchen went down over the weekend. Who knows when it was at like 40 60 degrees I think it was on Monday. We have about $1,000 worth of products, including all over prep day, which is our and uh yeah, so we're trying to get the kitchen back in shape.
452. 1:12:01All right, I had a motion in a second. All in favor?
453. 1:12:04Opposed? Carried. council if you have questions on my report. I just want to point out that we uh put together a new info sheet for the advisory council that I can was attached to this but we can share with everybody um if you have questions we will have the advisory council meeting at the event tomorrow for the first time which I think will be very exciting people can see who their members are and if they're interested in joining. Um and then something that wasn't on my recent events for you we actually uh I just joined the housing advisory board and we just had that meeting on Wednesday. So, I'm learning a lot more about
454. 1:12:42So, a quick PSA on your gathering tomorrow. Uh, it is going to be the party of the 250 whatever whatever the last 250 years. Um, I also want to point out that he it seems has been delayed. So, I will get more information on that. Um, we are in the process of putting together um that emergency heating program with adding cooling in. We're working on that now. I'll probably bring that to you next month.
455. 1:13:18Talking about fix snow this year.
456. 1:13:20Yeah. Right.
457. 1:13:22All right. Anything else from the committee for director Benudo?
458. 1:13:26Thank you.
459. 1:13:27Anything else from the committee in general?
460. 1:13:29Questions from the public?
461. 1:13:30Yeah. the boys and leases general numbers. So I was curious. I didn't read director Gibson's report and he talked about the the uh the trigger of the housing being unacceptable for children and the consequences thereof and that the whole thing. So I just curious in terms of the how many actually I mean hotline reports I think that's what he called it have have we been getting you know on a monthly or yearly basis and he says it's increasing and it's increasing by how many just to get a handle and then the other question or point of information is my understanding with gin is that at least with galin initiatives and I don't know about galin housing resources you know bard and this is per gin's people speaking an IDA two or three months ago that BART actually changed the board constitution. They put BARD members on the board. So, I don't know if that affects housing resources, but I know that I heard him say that Galvin Initiatives did that. So, do we have an idea of the number of of the child hotline triggers?
462. 1:14:42No, commissioner. Well, I asked him when he was leaving, but I'm sure he did have the data with
463. 1:14:48He said it was on the report.
464. 1:14:49Okay.
465. 1:14:50Yeah.
466. 1:14:54Yeah.
467. 1:14:56All right. Thank you.
468. 1:14:58I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn.
469. 1:15:01Second.
470. 1:15:01One second. All in favor? Okay, I'd like to call the uh September public safety meeting to order, please. First one up is emergency management.
471. 1:20:32Oh, um we submitted our report. I'm happy to answer any questions. We we started um DLAND this month. We went through the training. The grant is paying for it. It's our new records management uh system. So, we're still learning it, but it's going to work out very well because it interacts with the state program almost exactly the same program. So that we're required to use when we make requests to the state. Um and we're going to a state sponsored uh we're driving to a state sponsored uh preparedness uh convention uh conference analysis that's really so other than that questions from the committee.
472. 1:21:24Thank you. Top of Defender, please.
473. 1:21:27Hello, everybody.
474. 1:21:31We just have a request to fill a protect position. It's a position that's fully funded by Legal Services.
475. 1:21:40Move it.
476. 1:21:40Second.
477. 1:21:41All in favor?
478. 1:21:42Opposed? So carried.
479. 1:21:44Second.
480. 1:21:45Thank you.
481. 1:21:49Sheriff. Yeah.
482. 1:21:57Hello.
483. 1:22:02Um, first up, we would like to abolish the typist position and fill it with a keyboard specialist. We have a person who's been who just took the keyboard specialist um test and passed it and we would love to keep her. So,
484. 1:22:17move it. Second.
485. 1:22:18All in favor?
486. 1:22:19Opposed? So, carries. This was this already went through 0.1. So
487. 1:22:25yeah. Yeah. And the next is um this is 35 millimeter camera equipment that we use for um different investigations and we purchased it through asset for forfeite funds. We want to change that because we got another burn jag. We want to purchase the those 35mm cameras with those monies instead.
488. 1:22:51Move it. Second.
489. 1:22:52All in favor? Opposed? So carried.
490. 1:23:02And we received a $125,000 grant from Assemblywoman uh DD Barrett for the purchase of an X-ray scanner. They were more popular during CO, but they take the temperature. And when we have people come in the jail, instead of doing cavity searches, we can have them stand in the scanner to see if they have anything.
491. 1:23:21Move it. Second.
492. 1:23:22All in favor?
493. 1:23:24Opposed? No carried.
494. 1:23:30All right. And this is a bicycle pedestrian safety grant in the amount of 7,320.
495. 1:23:38All in favor?
496. 1:23:40Opposed. So carried.
497. 1:23:44We got another one in the amount of 8,000 for bicycle and pedestrian.
498. 1:23:48Second.
499. 1:23:49All in favor? opposed. So carried
500. 1:23:57and this is for police traffic services grant and that's for 35,500.
501. 1:24:03Second one
502. 1:24:06opposed. So carried
503. 1:24:14and the last is to extend the contract with Island Tech. That's a company that is the upfitter for our vehicles. When we get the vehicles, they put the mounts in for the laptops and all.
504. 1:24:25Move it.
505. 1:24:26Second.
506. 1:24:26All in favor?
507. 1:24:28Opposed? So carried.
508. 1:24:31All right. Our out of county report year date we are at $76,55 and last year we were at $119625.
509. 1:24:42Any questions from the committee?
510. 1:24:44Thank you. And before I will leave these for your leading pleasure, these are federal and state case law for licensed readers and what they're proposing in the Congress.
511. 1:24:56Thank you,
512. 1:24:57Sheriff. On on that topic, um this might attorney
513. 1:25:01might be an attorney question, but where are we at with the contract that we discussed with the workflop? I don't think so, but I'm happy We just scan it and send it to you.
514. 1:26:04Okay. Probation.
515. 1:26:06How are you, sir?
516. 1:26:07Good. Good evening. Simple permission to accept permission.
517. 1:26:19Thank you very much.
518. 1:26:20Okay.
519. 1:26:22Thank you.
520. 1:26:26Uh, district attorney.
521. 1:26:30Go ahead and sit down.
522. 1:26:34How are you?
523. 1:26:35Hi. Good. Nice to see everybody.
524. 1:26:37It's going to take that long. No, it's not just been all day. Um, so there are three requests we have. Um, one is an emergency fill in permanent appointments to fill one full-time ADA position. Uh, at an annual salary of 122,237. Moving Ken Golden from part-time to full-time. Got 26 plus years experience. U, I believe we're funded through the year with him. We already have the monies for that.
525. 1:27:08Um, we'll move it. Second.
526. 1:27:11Quick question. I think you said 122,000 and something because this says 122,000.
527. 1:27:17I'm looking at my two the emergency bill. Um, does indicate 12237. And that does seem to be a discrepancy from the authorization request for not naming Ken Golden full-time ADA position of 122,000. I don't know what that difference is.
528. 1:27:38That was the range. The top of the range. 122.
529. 1:27:42122 is the top of the range. So, it will likely be that for Ben.
530. 1:27:46You can let Kelly know.
531. 1:27:49Well, that that's what it was. The resolution was put
532. 1:27:53122 even.
533. 1:27:55All right.
534. 1:27:56Uh, we had a first and second. All in favor?
535. 1:27:59Opposed?
536. 1:28:00So, carry.
537. 1:28:01Uh, thank you. We're also requesting authorization to fill one part-time assistant district attorney position with an annual salary of $72,836. Um there was a we had an attorney that left. We moved 10 out and we're asking to fill that position.
538. 1:28:18All in favor? So carried.
539. 1:28:21Right. I think that's it.
540. 1:28:23Thank you.
541. 1:28:23Thank you very much.
542. 1:28:24Public defender. two two requests. One uh to create and fill a position of a full-time assistant public defender effected December 12, 206. Uh the range is stated 88 and change closer to 89 up to 122,000. Uh this is paid 100% by the quality improvement family court uh representation grant through ILS. All in favor?
543. 1:29:03Opposed? So carried.
544. 1:29:05Thank you. And then secondly, uh requesting authorization to contract with Ernest Ryan Investigators LLC. Uh essentially to renew his contract for the year three years starting first January 1st, 27 to the end of 2029 at a rate of $50 an hour, not to exceed 83,200 annually. And this is paid in full by state grant and hearings have
545. 1:29:34all in favor. So carried.
546. 1:29:37Thank you everyone.
547. 1:29:38Thank you.
548. 1:29:39Thank you.
549. 1:29:47Fire coordinator.
550. 1:29:48I got to sit down.
551. 1:29:49I got I don't have much just the activity report. Um, and the last couple of weeks have been except exceptionally guilty, but
552. 1:29:59yeah, I'll answer any questions. I think
553. 1:30:03we know what happened to the house in Austin.
554. 1:30:07Not public yet.
555. 1:30:08We almost not quite there yet.
556. 1:30:12Any other questions?
557. 1:30:15Thank you.
558. 1:30:16What happened?
559. 1:30:21No, I didn't. I have a thing on his ankle.
560. 1:30:25I have a taser.
561. 1:30:29Uh, fire. I'm sorry. EMS.
562. 1:30:37We're moving right through here. I will take a seat. Uh, as the EMS workg group requested, the four EMS agencies have submitted their proposed budgets for 2027. And uh, I believe that EMS workbook will be reviewing it probably in the very near future and we'll go on from there. They'll go through the review process just like any other department head.
563. 1:31:01On another note, uh point of information, uh CCMS in cooperation in conjunction with Greenport Rescue Squad and Columbia Memorial Health applied for a rural health transformation grant. Uh that grant was really uh for maternal care enhancements and through the federal and state government. And we just found out the other day we've been awarded $352,000 and that will be used for all EMS agencies, the hospital ER as well. Uh there'll be neonatal resuscitation training. Uh there'll be warming uh stations. There'll be a whole bunch of training that's involved in this. So that's a good thing. And that's only part one. So there's another part that will come at a later date. So hopefully
564. 1:31:51good work.
565. 1:31:52Thank you.
566. 1:31:55Anything from the committee? Anything from the public?
567. 1:32:06We are submitting the petition. This is law. So don't take your time going through it or not. It is just to say that these people do not want cameras in the county. I would like more time on it, but there they are.
568. 1:32:16Thank you.
569. 1:32:17Um, the group wanted to hand out anybody. We have information on block two. So, if you want to read our information on some block stuff, go ahead. Instead of that, you're welcome.
570. 1:32:31And we would like to know if the funding was passed or is it still frozen?
571. 1:32:36Are you talking about the EMS resolution?
572. 1:32:38No, no, no. The block is
573. 1:32:41the resolution that was in front of this committee last month.
574. 1:32:43Yeah. for the EMS resolution
575. 1:32:46the management the flock part was pulled out before we adopted it at the
576. 1:32:50full
577. 1:32:52there's no FL funding in that
578. 1:32:54so there's no subscription that renewed
579. 1:32:57not through that
580. 1:33:03that grant was to enhance the software
581. 1:33:06that was not approved
582. 1:33:07so it doesn't mean that the flop cameras aren't still operating the way they were it means that we did not approve funding for enhanced software.
583. 1:33:17Anybody else from the public?
584. 1:33:19Sir,
585. 1:33:23you can stand right there, sir. You're fine. Just state your name if you would, please.
586. 1:33:29My name is Herbert William Nichols. I addressed myself last time. I apologize. That's just how people address me as my name. Um, again I wanted to thank Irish last time we had a meeting where you guys allowed us to speak as well.
587. 1:33:49Can I just interrupt you just to say the whole board of supervisors allowed you to speak? This was preceded by being transparent that we weren't allowed to speak and then the motion was made by then as well. I wanted to recognize the whole board as well.
588. 1:34:09I want something different change kind of symbolic to death something you want used to doing different process. I don't want to make light of that situation as well. Well then just a different paradox change that and then if we don't change people may do the same did we ever live because there's this weird process that happened to learn a bad thing and kind of you know that change that we had you kind of shepherd to move us forward into something new
589. 1:34:45I did want to segue into I didn't really prepare prepared for like a flock community I was going to be talking to I did I want to have a forms of legalities and there's this case versus the US where it's kind of comparable with the flock where there was a geo fencing uh warrant that went on it was contemporary to a bank robbery looked at it was happening at the same time so they permitted the warrant uh into somebody's uh telephone the US Supreme Court being that was like a fourth amendment search and can't articulate the whole thing, but it kind of related.
590. 1:35:26It was in June 2026, but it was a little invasive and it was too much kind of relation to what's going on here. Carpenter versus US Supreme Court. They warned that technology can change the constitutional equation and they warned about the seismic shift in digital technology. As we know, there's something called scaling. So you start off with the one picture. You be the one little license plate and the connect synthetic.
591. 1:35:47It's moaic theory little tiles all connected. Now I can tell everything about everybody at any time. So you're looking at it like it's something small but it's really not. Um and then just uh I really did put myself in the mind of a police officer. the good average police officer in the technology concerns.
592. 1:36:08This is their superpower. You can do everything in the script that it says it's going to do. And like I said last week, I got four kids and I would if something happens to them, I would want the ability for you to do that effectively in your job. And I see the sales pitch and I see and understand why that's it's great. It's a great super tool.
593. 1:36:26But if you look at uh Robert Heinland coined the phrase there's no such thing as a free lunch. You look at the whole totality of what's going to happen and our liberties given away piece by piece by piece by piece. And I just think of the totality of it. We have to look at the whole the whole turn of it.
594. 1:36:42Miss Jackie, I do appreciate like I know when you was running for the term a lot of people had faith in you and they I heard a lot of good respectful things. phenomenal for me personally and I do believe that you do have the best interest and even like I said I understand the technology is beautiful and you could do everything it says it's going to do but if you look at it from the people's standpoint the people that you represent really belief in you I think it's it's something better that we can gain here and a middle ground without having to do that you can get more cooperation back by not going in that direction and asking more from your people do we don't want to do this that's a question people always ask well it's rhetorical but what do you present if not this, what are you going to do?
595. 1:37:22There's something to come back to that question because it's rhetorical, but it's an honest and fair question that in the society we live in today. What are we willing to do to the people to assist law enforcement? I would never said that in the past, but the concept I grew up on, 15 years in prison. My mind and coding was never to that. But we can a point in life where we have this. You better ask the right questions.
596. 1:37:42Question. I got four children. Like when would I go to the police? If my car gets stolen, I got to if my children get kidnapped, I would beg you guys for help.
597. 1:37:49No, sir. I'm sorry but you got to wrap this up.
598. 1:37:53Closing I just want to say everyone knows about energy vibrations but underneath everything all covered quantum mechanics everything is data. Everything is information. Whatever we say the decisions we make every day is going to be cemented in time in the future. That's one thing you're all going to be concerned about when you come to the end of your life. The decisions you made. Look in retrospect what you stood for. Know there's a good and evil and watch what you value and everything cemented in time. So whatever you say in everything is always going to be told.
599. 1:38:21Thank you.
600. 1:38:21Thank you.
601. 1:38:22Thank you. Anybody else?
602. 1:38:24I wanted to add to that fish thing. That's that's wet and we got to talk to the people that speak to them, hear their stories and they got to hear a lot of information from us too about that didn't have a clue when they were there. But um there's lot there's a miscellaneous amount of people in there. There's farmers, there's parents, there's mechanics, there's everybody. How many units there are on here?
603. 1:38:47There's a little over 300 I think in there.
604. 1:38:50Thank you. We put it back in.
605. 1:38:57Is there any anybody else in the public? Anybody else? Okay, with that I'll entertain a motion to move. Second.
606. 1:39:08All in favor? Opposed? So carry. Thank you.

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