HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

Monday, April 14, 2025 - 10:30 AM

JoePete Wilson, Chairperson

Charles Harrington, Vice-Chairperson

Chairman Wilson called this Human Services Committee to order at 10:55 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Matthew Brassard, Chris Clark, Robin DeLoria, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington, Kenneth Hughes, Steve McNally, Jim Monty, Cathleen Reusser, Matthew Stanley, Davina Thurston, Michael Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Meg Wood and Mark Wright. Favor Smith was excused.

Department Heads present: Angie Allen, Linda Beers, James Dougan, Judith Garrison, Terri Morse and Michael Mascarenas. Krissy Leerkes was excused.

Also present: William Tansey, Mary Stanley, Andrew Stanley, Wendy Sargent, Roger Allen and multiple employees from the Department of Social Services.

WILSON: Alright I’ll call our Human Services committee to order and first up is Social Services, Angie Allen.

ALLEN: Good morning everyone. You’ve received my reports. I am open for questions but today I’d rather have a day of celebrations so any questions regarding my report?

WILSON: Questions for Angie? Okay please go ahead.

ALLEN: One celebration I’d like to speak about before I do my resolution for Mary Stanley is it’s been five years since Covid and I just wanted to recognize the staff that have remained with us since Covid there’s actually not a lot of you but Covid was a very hard time for everyone. Very hard time for the communities, very hard time for the employees. New York State did not lift any of our regulations. We still had to be on call 24/7. We still had to go to people’s homes whether they had Covid or not. We had to work with partners and so just applaud the staff that have remained with us for the last five years and worked their butts off during Covid I just think they deserve a round of applauds. Thank you. Some of us were able to work from home others were not and we actually lost a lot of staff because they wanted to be home with their loved ones, they had elderly their parents and unfortunately we still had to be in the field so I had to tell people either come in with Mike’s support or you need to make a decision that’s best for you and your family and I was fortunate that I had such a dedicated staff that kind of stuck with Mike and I through Covid that I wanted to make sure they got the recognition.

So another time for celebration. The resolution I have today. As of today which is 4/14 it is the last day for one of the pillars in children services after 21 years, Mary Stanley is retiring. Mary started working in the Medicaid unit in 2004, when she transitioned into children services. She quickly became the backbone for multiple state and federal programs day care subsidy, TANIF applications and processing, federal IV-e funding as well as a strong support to the Director of Social Services. There’s many days that she supports Wendy now and me currently with a cup of coffee because there was a line of people out the door before 8 o’clock. Definitely a backbone. Mary offered kind words of support and encouragement to all staff when needed. She will be missed by many. Mary was a backbone. She was a sounding board. She was a confidant. She was the calm voice that we all need at times. She is one that gives it forward so I would everyone to stand and applaud in a few moments please to make sure we can give it forward to her. I know Mary does not want to come up but she gave me a few words to read. Andrew would you please welcome your mother to the floor? This is Mary’s words, “Saying goodbye is not easy. I spent a third of my life working for DSS. You have no idea how much I will miss working here. Some days it really felt like work but most days it felt like I was making a difference. I’m thankful to the Lord my place to be here and blessed with the desire to help others. Those I worked for and with helped me feel my work was valuable. I wish you all the best and please know I’m leaving a piece of my heart with you.”

WILSON: So with that background and that great thanks Mr. Brassard is going to move a resolution of appreciation and congratulations to Mary Stanley upon her retirement from Essex County Department of Social Services if I can get a unanimous second.

RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION AND CONGRATULATIONS TO MARY STANLEY UPON HER RETIREMENT FROM ESSEX COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES. Brassard, unanimous

WILSON: Thank you and that motion carries and thank you Mary and to everyone who is here to celebrate this moment and thank you to all of those people who stuck it out through Covid. Thank you Angie, next up Terri Morse.

MORSE: Good morning everyone and I do feel there is a spring fever that exists in this room. It’s powerful, you can feel it. Not in my report and I believe Linda shared it was not in her report either. I wanted update you on a little change that’s happening with some partnerships within the county both Linda, the Public Health Department and the Mental Health Department has 24/7 after hours support. Ours is for mental health crisis and hers are more for medical situations that are going on for nursing care. We had a third party call center who is fielding our phone calls and they were located in Plattsburgh and for our department they charged us a few thousand dollars a year. Well, they decided to sell off a portion of their business and the organization that bought them was going to charge us about $17,000 a year to cover those expenses times two because that was for mental health and for public health so we talked to the dispatch center up in Lewis and they are willing to field those calls and then forward them to the proper resource so to me, this is what makes Essex County special is that there’s one department that has a need and another department steps up and says let me help you and we save tax payer’s money. So I wanted to let you know that’s actually happening effective today April 14 that the calls will no longer be going to the Plattsburgh call center but will be going to the dispatch like the non 911 dispatch the more less legal kind of dispatch resource. Any questions about that?

REUSSER: Does the number change?

MORSE: Phone numbers will both be the same so other than the person for us, when you call the call center in Plattsburgh it would say, Essex County Mental Health what is your emergency? Now it will say, Essex County Dispatch, what is your emergency?

WILSON: Other questions?

MORSE: Great, the other thing too is I know that we’re all very interested in knowing what’s going on for our funding over the next few years. For the mental health department what I keep my eye on and ear on is anything to do with Medicaid funding that is if that gets cut or compromised that is going to significantly affect our reimbursements so that’s what I’m keeping my eye on. As the Director of Community Services I’m also keeping my eye on Medicaid but also state funding, opioid settlement funding, really encouraging the providers to seek philanthropic funding to support their organizations but so far they are intact. There’s been minimal funding that has been collapsed but otherwise we’re okay for now just wanted to let you know that but one of the things that I’m really going to emphasize or we are really going to emphasize all and I’m hoping that you join this is the credible mind website I noticed there’s a laminated poster in the bathroom which is great you’ve been given posters but if you haven’t checked out the website I would encourage you to do so because it’s a really good resource for every community member of Essex County to be finding help from despite the fact it was paid for through BRIEF funding I always give Essex County the credit for deciding to do this so it’s all of ours and I’m happy to do a demo sometime on Credible Mind here. That’s all I got.

I do have resolutions, one of my resolutions is we do receive, we meaning the community services board receives funding from the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports that equals $43,083.00, this comes in from OASIS and is earmarked for jail medication assisted treatment so it’s a pass through it’s a inter municipal agreement that we do with the jail so that I need approval for.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE MENTAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT INCREASING REVENUES AND APPROPRIATIONS IN THE AMOUNT OF $43,083.00, PASS THROUGH FUNDING FROM NYS OFFICE OF ADDICTION SERVICES AND SUPPORTS TO ESSEX COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY FOR MEDICATION ASSISTED TREATMENT. Wright, Hughes

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you.

MORSE: Utilizing funding that Essex County Mental Health received from the Office of Mental Health to open the two satellite school services in Lake Placid. We received $25,000 for each of the schools so that’s $50,000 and we are going to be using some of that funding to do a collaborative tri-county youth summit. The Directors of Community Services in Essex, Franklin and Clinton County are all kind of – I’m picking up the cost of the building, one of the other ones is picking up the costs of the speakers so we’re collaborating on that so the facilities rental is $2,750.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH ORDA IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,750.00, FOR FACILITY RENTAL TO HOST A TRI-COUNTY YOUTH SUMMIT WITH THE DIRECTORS OF COMMUNITY SERVICES (MENTAL HEALTH) WITH FUNDS TO COME FROM NYS OFFICE OF MENTAL HEALTH GRANT FUNDING. Wright, Brassard

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you. Anything else?

MORSE: That’s it. Thank you.

HUGHES: I just had a quick question, very quick question Terri. The total number of unique individuals served on your report – we are half way to last year’s number it’s April so my question is, I guess a couple questions, what is the tipping point or having to make some modifications in your department with respect to that number and/or do you find that the number in 2025 will slow down because of summer time?

MORSE: So unique individuals are the people, the individuals that we serve so on January 1^st if we have 550 people we are serving that’s 550 people. If then two of those people discontinue services but two more new people add that would be 552 we are serving so you can’t extrapolate that number because there are some people that maybe there all year so there will be one person all year long or you could have – but when you have new people that adds to that number.

HUGHES: So if I’m understanding because I understand what you just said so we are on the same page there so you’re saying it’s impossible to really identify what is going to come through the door the remainder of the year?

MORSE: I would have to look at services provided, a number of services provided to go, oh my gosh we’re like way off one way or the other but unique individuals is a gage but it’s not the kind of gage you’re looking for.

HUGHES: Understood. Thank you.

MORSE: You’re welcome.

WILSON: Thank you Terri. Public Health – Linda Beers.

BEERS: Good morning. I just wanted to start with today not today but April is testicular cancer awareness month and raise awareness Essex County is handing out fishing bobbers to all the local bait shops and tackle shops for this month. We are also available for local fishing tournaments so if you have one and you would like to hand out bobbers for the kids or whatnot please let us know and we’ll get them for you. So it’s just one of our ways of making sure to check your tools. Anyway my report is there if you have any questions I’m happy to answer them. Today I’m going to go into resolutions I call with the state at 11:30 and I think you want me to be on it. I’m going to go quickly if you don’t have any questions?

The nature of my request I need a resolution to accept a donation for $450.00 from Adirondack Health for the WIC-N-Pick in 2025.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT INCREASING REVENUES AND APPROPRIATIONS IN THE AMOUNT OF $450.00, ADIRONDACK HEALTH WIC-N-PICK. Brassard, Wright

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you.

BEERS: Thank you the next one is to accept Excellus mini grant funds in the amount of $1,500.00 this is also to support our WIC-N-Pick.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT INCREASING REVENUES AND APPROPRIATIONS IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,500.00, EXCELLUS MINI GRANT FUNDS. Wright, Hughes

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you.

BEERS: This is to apply for an Excellus mini grant in the amount of $2,500, I will say Krista Berger does an amazing job of never using any county dollars and using philanthropy dollars that’s what all these little grants are and together she strings them together and puts on the most amazing event so kudos to her but this is for $2,500.00.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO APPLY FOR AN EXCELLUS MINI GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,500.00. Brassard, Doty

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you.

BEERS: To apply for funding from the Rotary of Lake Placid for the WIC-N-Pick in the amount of $5,000.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO APPLY FOR FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,000.00, FROM ROTARY OF LAKE PLACID FOR WIC-N-PICK PROJECT. Doty, Wright

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you.

BEERS: So this is public health, Jessica Darney-Buehler and they are applying for funds from the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee in the amount of $7,000.00 for car seat grant allowing the continued education required of car seat techs, permanent fitting station, education to the public and the distribution of car seats to income eligible referrals and families.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO APPLY FOR FUNDING IN THE AMOUNT OF $7,000.00, FROM THE NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR’S TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMITTEE FOR A CAR SEAT GRANT. Wood, Doty

WILSON: Any questions? All in favor aye, any opposed – motion carries. Thank you.

BEERS: And that is for resolutions, please take a peek at my report some highlights obviously measles outbreak that is happening in Texas and still continues to expand. I will tell you this and I say it over and over again the only cure for measles is an MMR vaccine. It is 97% effective with one dose, one dose. We do a double dose. It is the way to stop the spread of measles. It has been. It was eradicated in the United States and you can see by the numbers the reason that it’s back is because these children were not vaccinated. That’s my cry to help.

WILSON: Anything else for Linda?

STANLEY: Linda I just want to thank you and also Krissy for once again the tour with my Human Services Chair I forget how much Public Health and Office for the Aging do for the residents in this county so it was great tour and I encourage anybody else to go because each time I go I learn something new so I appreciate it.

BEERS: You are always welcome. Krissy and I do a tag team and we would love to have any of you, any time walk you through the department and our staff are cued up to talk about their own division so it really works out nicely. We would love to have you and then just on that I think I did a whole press report a couple weeks ago on the five years of Covid but I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my own staff for being here during Covid as well just so I’m on the record so thank you.

WILSON: Thanks Linda. Good luck with your call.

BEERS: Thank you.

WILSON: Office for the Aging.

GARRISON: She is excused today.

WILSON: Okay anything else?

TYLER: I would just like to let everybody know that’s going down to the ground breaking that Winton’s at the golf course is open and you’ll get a wonderful lunch if you go there and I think Steve said he was going to buy.

MCNALLY: Steve who?

MASCARENAS: So just one minute I know everybody is anxious to leave today. You’ve heard from a few different departments today and you’ve heard from Elizabeth Lee from Cornell Cooperative Extension regarding the Federal cuts. I get an awful lot of questions and I think people feel like I am lying to them when I tell them that I don’t know. What you saw today is nobody really knows. What seems to be the common denominator if you were to look at trends, fact patterns is that the target seem to be human services in specific program areas without really doing a full analysis on what those programs are even providing which is somewhat alarming. I don’t have a political stance on this. I would prefer that these things have full analysis like we do prior to deciding to cut programs but that’s not happening. I think the biggest threat that we’re looking at in terms of our human services, Terri spoke about it earlier and it adds to the complexity of our department she’s a fee for service so she provides work, she gets paid for that work through an insurance provider. Medicaid which typically is a low payer in most types of systems is a very high payer in the mental health world so it’s very different. I think the primary threat we are really looking at is changes in the ways these individuals qualify for certain dollars and programs. We’ve seen that in day care, the day care dollars were cut so much that it went from was it 300% to 80%. So if you start seeing changes in the way people can qualify for certain services in your programs that’s where it’s going to further complicate how we make decisions here at the county and there’s no good way to say it. I think right now the administration largely staying away from infrastructure I think that’s for good reason. I don’t think they realize that our counties are the government of service. Our counties have mandates and our counties have non mandates. Largely our infrastructure fall into that non mandated area of our budgets. It’s the things we love to do so while decisions maybe being made around areas that they feel are just going to impact human services I can tell you it all gets back to construction at the end of the day if there’s something we have to do here at Essex County and that funding stream is cut the choices become the things we like to do roads, bridges, community resources those are the program areas we love and that make a big difference for our constituency that reside in Essex County. So there is no magic wand. There is no crystal ball just because our program area may be cut that don’t mean we are absolved of ever providing that service again it means we may have to still and maybe we have to make difficult decisions on our end to get rid of something near and dear to us that really provide a beneficial service to our people. With that being said we are operating under status quo. We are not going to be alarmist and we certainly aren’t going to panic. That’s not what we are going to do. We’re going to continue to work as we have until we are definitely told otherwise. I need our staff to understand that. We stood beside them through Covid when a lot of counties were laying off individuals we did not and I’m not saying that’s never going to happen please don’t take the wrong way what I am saying is we will provide full analysis, we will not make decisions over night based upon something that’s put out in the media. We will make sure we’ve done all of our work before we make those decisions in terms of dealing with people, programs, the needs of our constituencies and livelihood. So that’s my soapbox for today. I won’t be here at Finance next week so I wanted to make sure that message got out today following this meeting.

WILSON: Thank you Mike. Questions?

STANLEY: And I know I sound like a broken record about this at times but this board before I got in did a great job of creating fund balance to be able to weather storms like these and Mike the plans that you have put before us are forward thinking. They have plans and they have how we are going to get there. Things are going to change. A lot of that stuff is just in pencil and as we go we need to adapt but I think everywhere I talk it’s about looking at what we are doing today and making sure we don’t panic and ruin tomorrow because of the decisions that seem to be in the air today they are going to change tomorrow. I mean, right now we see after the headline is gone, the policy changes so I appreciate you. I appreciate everybody that works for Essex County and I appreciate this board and I am honored to be a part of it. Thank you.

WILSON: Anything else for Mike? Anybody have anything else?

TYLER: Michael mentioned the media and that’s key here because a lot of people hear stuff and see stuff in the media and they automatically think it’s etched in stone and they start shooting from the hip and it’s key to have some common sense and just deal with what actually happens not what the media says is going to happen. Thank you for that.

WILSON: Shaun, you said you wanted committee chairs?

GILLILLAND: Yes, if I could talk to committee chairs for about two minutes in the back room, Mike as well. If anybody is here, I would appreciate it.

WILSON: Okay, then otherwise we are adjourned. Thank you.

As there was no further discussion to come before this Human Services Committee it was adjourned at 11:23 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors