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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-12-14 Commissioners of Trust Funds MinutesUrnF'O'Y J9dlNCOPQO� Town of Reading Meeting Minutes Board --Committee - Commission - Council: Commissioners of Trust Funds Date: 2017-12-14 Building: Reading Town Hall Address: 16 Lowell Street Purpose: General Business Attendees: Members - Present: CLE K 1018 FEB - ► P Time: 7:00 PM Location: Lower Level Conference Room Elizabeth Klepeis, John Daly, Barry Berman and Endri Kume Members -Not Present: Neil Cohen and Kevin Breire Others Present: Richard Holmes and Erica McNamara Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Endri Kume Topics of Discussion: Mr. Daly called the meeting to order at 7:1 OPM. Meeting Notes Ms. Klepeis made a few small edits to the meeting notes and moved to the motion. There were no discussions. On a motion by Ms. Klepeis, seconded by Mr. Berman the Minutes of the 10/19/17 meeting were approved as amended by a vote of 4-0. RCASA funding request . Ms. McNamara started by summarizing the memo she had sent to the Commissioners and outlined the $4,000 funding request. She provided details about the Interface Referral Services and the impact that the previous $2,000 funding had made. She indicated that 60 Reading residents were assisted. The service helped them access mental health support within 9 months of the program running. RCASA had coordinated with the schools and the town to enhance the Interface database. As a result of this collaboration 22 local mental health clinicians, for vetting and inclusion, were added to the database. Ms. McNamara presented some results for a time period between 11/l/16-12/31/17 and 1/1/17-6/30/17. The reports showed that caller's most pressing concerns for seeking services were "anxiety" and "depression". Mr. Berman made a comment regarding the report results that Ms. McNamara just presented. Mr. Berman mentioned that the Chief of Police presentation to Board of Selectman, at the beginning of the, week, had a chart that showed high volume of mental health calls coming through the dispatch center. Mr. Berman emphasized that this statistics were at the core of.the program and showed a clear need for the services. The presentation went into details how the program worked and Ms. McNamara explained the procedure that William James College had in place when taking phone calls. Ms. McNamara outlined the rational for the $4,000 request to support the contracted services which had a payment due by end of December 2017. One of the statistics that she provided for the rational was: "Currently there is only 1 clinician for 478 patients seeking mental health care in Massachusetts compared to 1 in 128 seeking primary care physicians". Ms. Klepeis asked if the program asked or collected any financial information from the people that were calling to request services. Ms. McNamara explained the questionnaire that callers: get when they call. One of the questions was related to their finances, however the question was a voluntary one and the caller was not obligated to answer. Due to the current contract with William James College it was not suggested to decline services based on how they answered Page 1 1 2013-09-03 Town of ..Reading J Meeting Minutes o��J9'tvcoaQ°``P� the financial question. Ms. Klepeis asked if the collection of data, that Ms. McNamara had available, had any indication of financial need for the people that were currently receiving the service. Ms. McNamara responded that she would look more into it and see if she can provide more details. She confirmed again that the program was limited ' only to Reading residents and mentioned a recent survey with data from high school student. The survey identified 263 students or 25% who reported feeling hopeless. Helping them remained a strong priority in our community. Mr. Berman mentioned that the discussion on financial need was. very relevant but afthe same time we need to look at the big picture and consider the pressing issues holistically iri our community. Substance abuse and mental health crises are important issues that have impacted communities all over Massachusetts. Ms. Klepeis mentioned that one of the requirements for the distribution of the Hospital Trust Funds was that the individual must demonstrated "financial need" and asked Ms. McNamara to provide any information or data that she could collect to prove this. Ms. Klepeis suggested that we needed some sort of vetting based on income and asked Mr. Kume if he knew the HUD guidelines used by Elderly Services when they do their vetting. Mr. Daly mentioned that Jane Burns from Elderly Services would have that info. Mr. Kume responded that he did not have the info available but could definitely get it for the next meeting. Ms. Klepeis said that another way would be to look at the overall number of people that use the service who have MassHealth. Ms. McNamara agreed and mentioned that she was going to request info and look at the data for people that requested services who had MassHealth. This data combined with income numbers, for callers that voluntarily disclose their income will provide a better picture when it comes to "financial need". Ms. McNamara will get this info to the Commissioners by next week. . Ms. Klepeis made a motion: Approve RCASA request for funding in the amount of $4,000 based on the estimate that 25% of the people that were getting service were in "financial need". After a short discussion among the Commissioners regarding the "financial need" definition the motion was amended. Ms. Klepeis made an Amendment to the Motion: Approve RCASA request for funding in the amount of $4,000, based on the facts presented to us, we estimate 25% of the people who use the program have "financial need". Mr. Berman seconded the Amendment and the Motion was voted and approved 4-0. Review Portfolio. Discuss investment changes Mr. Daly opened the portfolio discussion. The two lots of SPDR were sold and the first investment from those proceeds was made in November. We have five more to make in the next five months. The reinvestment from the bonds proceeds was completed at this time and there are no more plans to purchase any new bonds for now. Mr. Daly indicated that we have a lot of funds in the Wells Fargo Money Market account. He opened up the discussion to move some of those funds to an account with higher interest rate. Ms. Klepeis asked Mr. Kume what the rates were and Mr. Kume mentioned that the Money Market has a very minimal rate 0.05% and the funds would earn more interest if they were invested in the MMDT Trust account at 1.44%. On a motion by Ms. Klepeis; second by Mr. Berman, the Commissioners voted to move $150,000 from Wells Fargo Money Market Account to MMDT Trust Fund Account. No further discussion. The motion was approved by a vote of 44=0. Reading Response Program Ms. Klepeis gave her liaison report. The program is only 1% of the business for the vendor. The current market conditions have made it difficult for the vendor to find drivers. The traffic has gotten much worst and most of the trips are to Boston Hospitals. This makes it challenging for the drivers during rush hours and due to heavy.traffic condition drivers cannot return from Boston. These conditions coupled with the low compensation for drivers make it difficult to retain drivers. Most likely we will see an increase in rates so we might have to revisit the budget for this item. Ms. Klepeis indicated that she has a meeting with the vendor on January 4`l' and will report back on the results. Mr. Daly asked if we could isolate the people that got to Boston and may be place a restriction on those routes. Ms. Klepeis mentioned that she would like to.keep the trips to Boston since that is where most of the people that use the service go but will have a better answer after the meeting on January 4`". Page 1 2 2013-09-03 �y oFkfa x Town of Reading. n -A ' ' = Meeting Minutes 4�6J9' &CORQO�P - Next Meeting Mr. Daly and Ms. Klepeis requested to discuss the $40K budget for the response program next meeting. Next meeting was scheduled for January 17'', 2018. On a motion by Ms. Klepeis seconded by Mr. Berman, the Commissioners voted to adjourn its meeting at 8:36 p.m. by a vote of 4-0. Respectfully submitted, Secretary X Page 1 3 2013-09-03 .