We won't prolong this. We will only have an informational meeting today. I failed to realize that Miss Steele was already pre-planned to be out of town today. Found out today that Miss Porter is out of town today. Mr. Herndon is on the road. He was supposed to call in. So he's not called in. So we'll drop down. So we don't have an official meeting going on today. And it doesn't look like we have anybody here for public comments. The thing that we'll tell the board is we have another vacancy on our board once again. We welcome Mr. Iszeo last month and after everything was going on about a few days later I got an email and a phone call from Mr. Ezeo, respectfully residing from the board. He had forgot he even applied to the board when he was appointed on the board. And so So I quickly bought it to the attention of our county commissioners. They put it on their agenda this last meeting. They saw my frustration when I got up and walked out of the meeting and I got a call a little while later asked to why was I upset. I said, y'all kicking this can down the road, you're making me lose faith in you. Because when they put it on the agenda, they made it appear as if we did not already have another application on file for somebody wanting to be on this board. That application had been submitted December of 2024. So when I brought it, I did get a phone call from the commission. Once I brought it to his attention, he apologized because he felt like there was no other applicant. So it's supposed to be back on the agenda this coming month. I will check again. If y'all happen to get any more applications, please let me know how to reach out to Ms. Hazel, also to see if we've got any more application. But there is an applicant who is very much interested in joining the DSS board. And to my understanding, this particular person has been very much affiliated with DSS because I think she might have been a client as a child. So, you know, it's still the way the commissioners put it out. It's open to applicants to put in. So we'll see what happens for the April meeting. So, like informational purposes, if we want to go the person there report, I can say it's a short. Mr. Chairman. Help me out, Mr. Chairman. Order more. Yes, sir, please. If I want to officially open the meeting, you do not have a forum that doesn't mean I would recommend you go ahead and officially open the meeting and then proceed with your business. Thank you. I wasn't sure if I could do that or not, but we will officially call this meeting open at 407. I apologize and I think I've great attorney for the point of one. So everything I've shared has been information. And I will share that with the rest of our board members. Okay. So I guess that will come down to me, was that one for me? Yes, ma'am. All right, so this is Cheryl Heatherley. And I can already tell you were tired. Why do you look so good in the early days? Look like you've gazed about in years or something. She, Cheryl, let me just open it up for you. I wanted to talk with the entire board, but what happened is the day of her retirement, we were all out with the blue. Oh, well. I mean, it's the craziest thing. It hit hit our entire hallway. So we did not get to come to your retirement so we thought we'd bring it to the board, we didn't introduce it to the board to give her the award that we need to give her but tell the board one of them and our attorney just who you are and the time you gave to us. I me and I was with DSS in food stamps for 18 years That is wonderful So she retired what date was that my last day of work was February 28th 20th. That's when we're all sick so thank you for coming back. We do want to take some pictures and normally the county manager will come in and take a picture but it's budget time. So he is meeting. He said if they finish while you're still in here that they will come in so he could be in the picture with you. But if not for us, just go home because sometimes with budget stuff, we have no clue what time that ends. So if you don't mind coming up and if you don't mind standing over here with me and Susan, you're more her supervisor. So come on. And I see the guys together. Oh, you're the best bride. I just write down the big candy. The last month she was, the last month. That was on together. Oh, no, she's best fried, that's right, that was a big candy. The last one, she was most of the best. See, and award chair. And we have a platform that we access, sure, we recognize Cheryl, heavily for over 18 years of service with local government. Your hard work leadership and unwavering dedication have made a lasting impact on our team and the lives of those that we serve. We're wishing you all the best and your will on retirement. This is Simon Bastie, Garrison, as you see, and your director Dehunt, and we thank you so much for this over she gave us. Thank you. You're very welcome, you're very welcome. All right, so let's get a picture here, and then I want you to get a picture with a board cheer too can be in the picture. No, you can't. You can't. You can't. You can't get right here. I don't need to be in this room. I'm going to be in the room. I don't need to be missing. I don't need that. I don't want to work. Yeah, that's coming. Coming this one with just me and the board chair. And Cheryl. And Cheryl, make sure you get these pictures, okay? Hold on just a minute. I'm and sure. I'm sure all the trees get these pictures, okay? Oh, I'm just going to... I'm going to have to hand them three phones. All right. Thank you so much. We're waiting time. I'm so sorry. We have to hand them a little bit here. I appreciate you so much. We're out. I love that. It's a great time. I do look younger. She does. She looks so refreshed. I'm a time of those days to you. And I can see now, because I've had both eyes done. Oh my goodness, congratulations. These have killed the one. I went completely blind in my right eye. These have killed everything. Oh my God. And so it was just time, right? Yeah. Well, I'm so glad you really look good. Congratulations. Keep looking good. Come back to see us anytime you want to visit. I'll be back. OK, take care. All right, and so we'll go ahead to the person down the floor. And we can review it. And if the board member will let us know if there's any questions. Only if, mate, one coming. I see all the vacant positions right here. And I know we end budget season. Is it beneficial to myself or one of the other big members to address the commissioners about retention and recruitment or to the meat point of just trying to, we got 13 open positions, DSS-Y. I honestly think it's a new point. And the only reason why I say that is because this is a trend. It's been this way for a while. We are asking the commissioners to do something. We're going to be talking with you about that later on because we have our budget to present to you but we are asking to increase the salaries in some of these because we feel like that's going to help with retention. Sometimes most of the time, it kind of is not here to address this but when we are looking at our exit interviews most of them say money. So I think if we can get that addressed it may help. If not at least we'll have some data to use for the next time. Good deal. Thank you. It was all I had under that. Okay. All right. Well thank you very much. So if you don't have any more questions you can move it along. I'm surprised. OK. On your financial report on page two, you'll see your contribution from General Fund for your administrative expenses is 57.66%. We should be at 66.66. So we're about 9% under budget for our administrative expenses. Then on page four, you'll see your contribution from general fund for your programs is at 77.66, which is about 11% over in your programs. And then go into page 10, your last page. Your total budget is at 60.98%, which is about what I'll say. What is that total? 5.68% under budget. So we're still about almost 6% under budget for total budget. The lines that are over this month that were not over last month are fuel, which is on page five. That line was not over budget last month. But the reason that is over is one reason. It's out of county travel. We have several children out of county so we have to make, you know, visit with them every month. And also the fuel pumps at the bus garage have been downed. We just now you know the new bus garage is now open. They've got the new fuel pumps. That'll save us money because we get cheaper rates there than we do at the gas and you know regular gas station. So that should you know save us some money. The next one that is over this month is Rentalist which is on page 6, and that is again our rental for our postage machine. We pay that expense quarterly, so that's why that's a little over budget. So we've already paid for three quarters of the year, so that's why that's just a little bit over budget. And then I think that was on the report. That's all in the administrative expenses. And then the only one in our program expenses on page eight that has not been over is adoption assistant vendor payments. And that's just based on client need. That's a client is adopted for the child and they have a need that they a medical need or some other type of special equipment they might need. We pay for that vendor payment line and you'll see we've already spent we budgeted 10,000 just based on what we had spent last year. But we've already spent 93% of that budget, $9,300. So, and that's 70% reimburse. So we get reimbursement back from 75%. But that is just based on client need. We never really know how much we're going to spend in that line. Other than that, everything else is the same as last month. Do you have any questions? I got one. Page five. Page five. And I think I understand. Okay. Under salaries over time were 4,093.07% over. Yeah, because you'll see we only budget $1,000, which is that our normal. It's not really overtime, but we pay out for holiday pay. Hey, That is what's budgeted in that line. I'll get it out in a minute. But we actually have paid overtime to some of our workers for sitting with children, other things that we pay our overtime. So that's why that line is way over. And what they'll do is just move money down from that salary's regular line to cover that overage at the end of the year. Okay. And let me also mention that one of the things that we talked with the board about is how we could give incentives to our frontline social workers and the board was cool with that. Pam and I sat down with Paula, the finance director as well as Deborah to make sure that we were getting it right. And we decided that which we don't normally do. Paulus says they get come time, but we decided to pay them out some of their company, which means that the commissioners didn't have to prove it because it's really their time. We just decided that we would give them everybody up to 25 hours of their company if they wanted it, which would give everybody about a $500 extra payment in their paychecks. So that would come out of that line as well. Yeah, and I don't know that that. I don't know if that's been done yet. I think it has a much better role. It's not going to go in the march, but yeah, but it's going to come out of that line. Yeah, it's not in this. Amanda. Yeah, and I don't know that that. I don't know if that's been done. I think it has some March payroll. It's not going to go on March, but it's going to come out that one. Yeah, it's not in this amount of year. But everything that's in that overtime line is pretty much just when they were sitting with children that they paid overtime. And we're still sitting with one. We have one in the hospital. This is probably kind of being a little bit older. I mean, when you look at it, the percentage is astronomical. Yeah. But when you look at the greater picture, you've got to have workers. But then you've got to give me the incentive to want to sit after hours. It's not like that. That's right. It does level out. Yeah, when you budget it at 1,000 39 that's why I said it just so so great Any other questions When I saw it Okay, um, if you'll go on the page if that starts our budget for next year This spreadsheet is pretty much like the other spreadsheet it just goes in the same order. If you'll look at page, well on page F at the bottom I'll just tell you there's only like three or four funds that the state reduced the revenues for and one of them is at the bottom of that the child daycare admin you see where it says that we are negative 10,294. So they didn't give us as much in daycare admin. Our daycare is contracted out. So the Southwestern, is it Southwestern child care? I think so it's called. They just contract for the whole in-term out. They have two employees that works for for them so what they do is whatever we get in the day care admin that's what they use so if it's a little bit less it's not going to affect effect us at all so that one's you know will not affect us on G the next page your energy assistance admin which we need a good bit more money, they cut that $821. So, I mean, it's not that big of a cut, but we always go over in County Funding for that call. So, we'd like to get more money in that energy admin but they've never really given a cent of them $59,000 some odd dollars on page H Your foster care emergency placement that's highlighted that's 71,000 that was not on the eighth estimates I don't know if you guys have heard anything whether they're gonna give us that money in the future That's for the emergency placement funding and that was a funding that the state started to keep children out of the office. We could pay for emergency placements with certain agencies and that they did not show that on the estimates. That does not mean we might not get it but it wasn't on the estimates. So I just don't know. I don't You've never heard anything, so I don't know. I would hope and I would think that they would because that's still a problem, you know. But then again it's not going to be as much of a problem this time before this, but we've got our house and still have a place to go. But we can't use that to pay any workers out of. if we could use that to pay workers or you know something like that that would you know that would work better. The title three is just down $557 and that's just a decrease from that's kind of goes through Ithat Thermal Planning Development Commission that's for a HCCBG. Okay go on to your next page Look at at all the yellow. I think that's the one thing. You can see all the yellow. Starting with salaries and then D, you feel free to chime in. What do you need to? Okay, Susan, keep me. Just let me know. There's an increase you can see out there due to the cola from last year, which that's building in,, building in because we don't budget the cola. So that increased. What Dee had said, where we want to give all of the economic services employees 2.25 percent increase. That's what Dee was talking about. I'm hoping for retention. And that's just for economic services right now we hope to do more groups later they said just do a group at a time. So and then there's five reclases in the budget that's just I can't remember the total of those less than 20,000 those reclases that we have and we are moving those five positions up one grade, one or two grades. Right. Which one does include some people on administration, our program administrator. You know, we just, we look at the amount of work that that people are doing for one, that Tiffany were three people at one point. Because she had two supervisors that were out and she had to do basically her job. I mean, certainly I'm going to help where I can in terms of the reports and those kinds of things as far as step in. if she was doing that line work where she literally was happening to go out and fill with some and check on all the records. So we felt like it was time to move her up some for that hard work that she was doing there. And one of the things that's happening too is we are getting so much of human resources issues that it is mind-boggling. I've never seen it like it is. Right? I can verify. I'm seeing. He was listening. He can verify. seeing it was listening. He can verify, so we requested an increase for our, that would be Kayla's position, as well as Kim's position, because Kim is me when I'm not around. She's happened to, I get over probably 100 emails a day, she's helping me as she is absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I mean she gives me chills. She's been so on top of it. And then of course our finance team. Oh my gosh, just with all of the budgetary stuff that's coming in The changes and everything it affects our entire finance team So you know, so that's what we're looking at so we just try to do everything that we can do to reward people for good work That they're doing we are doing some things to also For people who are not the ones that's such good work. We are doing more write-ups. Am I right? We are doing more write-ups. We are doing more coaching. We are really a chairperson, godlock. We are really trying to do well and trying to make sure that this is a very well-run organization. So we are as hard as weekend. I want you to know that So you can keep going now that I'm that myself box on that The next line that's over that we requested additional money is the salaries temporary line That's additional temps that are requested for economic services. That's all000, 675 was additional temps that Susan with K needs help prior her leaving. Couple for more help for their energy program, more one for food stamps, one more for Medicaid. So two food stamps, OK? So that's what that is. It's temporary. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, one additional for food stamps. I'm just going to make it correct. Yeah, so that's $150,000. Because that's a full-time temp. And that we're 37.5 hours. So that's why that's $150,000. And we don't have to pay any benefits with that. So it's cheaper to have those T-Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm see how that person is. So we use the temp agency. It's kind of a win-win. So you can see how the person works and does. And you don't have to worry about having somebody and then trying to let them know if they're not good. So, and then the next lines are benefit lines and they just increase based on salaries. So if your salaries go up, your fringes arees are going to go up. Except you know insurance is increased and retirement based on recommendation by the finance director. That's just you know what she said to increase it. Workers comp which is in the middle of the page 10% increase per finance director. Professional services other. That's a $25,000 increase. D requested that go in based on we are not renewing the contract with the links program coordinator and she wants to add that in the professional services other to higher security officer part time or someone in the building. So if you want to on that? Yeah, I just, you know, we are, we really do try to make sure that we are using money in the best way possible in that we're not overdoing anything. And so, we sat down and we looked at a way that we could bring the links back to the office and the links is basically the worker that works with the team. I just make sure that they have skills that they need before they go out into beyond 18. That $20,000 I felt like for the safety and the things that's happening and the people that kind of hang around. And this is really started happening since the bus stop came there. I'll be honest with you. And so you know just you just have people there a lot and it's very scary. I've gone out at night before and there's somebody lying on the bench. I've been there late at night. I've had to call the police. I mean just just and then we're gonna have the house. There's yet another building. So we feel like that $20,000 going toward the professional service as a security. In addition to the one that we have, that's there for a little bit, that will probably balance itself out and give us the security that we need. And sometimes all they need to see is just the presence of someone to kind of prevent things from happening. So we just got a lot, there's just a lot of stuff. And especially in economic services where they hang out, we get the calls. And I feel like that's going to really make our workers feel better, especially our own call unit, their 24-7. So it may be three o'clock in the morning and they have to come in the office so we really do need presence of someone that's there now this this person may not work those hours but the fact that they know that they've seen people on site may deter people so we're hoping that that happens. I can ask a question just from my security mindset, have you spoken because Yala and the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Office have y'all conferred with them about this? I can see some issues. I did. I spoke with Captain Ellis. Ellis. I mean did you speak to him about a reference or about what you actually wanted to do? Because when a problem occurs, all your security person can basically do. It's called the Sheriff's Office. Right. Exactly. I did speak with him about that and he actually referred someone to me and a talk talking to that person, but we basically want the presence of someone that can call. Sometimes that's all we need. We have people that will stand around, that will walk in and they're just sitting there. And it's kind of scary, especially for our front desk staff. And just the presence of a security person and there are many, many that have that on site already. We're just one of the ones that don't. Well this is Rutherford County, this is going to be something very new. Just from the mind. When this happened, please make sure that before you sign that contract, I would very much advise Have whoever some of the staff is going to be working with this security agent meet with the sheriff's office because your security person Your security person can cause more issues If they think they have some authority that they don't write Right. And like I said, maybe something to make sure that Mr. Williams is very much aware of. Okay. Because it's kind of like the person that Walmart, they think they got power. They don't. But they really don't. They really don't. And then they're going to try to make a citizen's arrest. And we don't want more problems than not. Right. have some of the same clientele that comes over there and when they find out that this person is only a presence, then they've lost their power. Oh, I gotcha. Okay. I will. The person that Captain Ellis referred me to is someone that retired from the Sheriff's Department. And he said this is gonna be the best person. So hopefully that will help. I don't know if that will help or not, but, you know. No, I'm just saying, it's the person that you're probably talking to is not gonna be the person who's working there. That's right. And then sometimes the workers, like I say, there are some that can handle the problem with their mouth and then there are some that can cause the problem with their mouth. Oh, yeah. And in your situation, whoever begins to handle the problem has to keep it deescalated enough until the badge wears with the authority shows up. You know, you might have somebody down that the narcotic building or take a few minutes for somebody to get there, even though you're closer to spend meal. This is why I'm saying make sure the sheriff's office, they may not agree with everything, but that way, because this person is probably not gonna have a radio to talk directly to the sheriff's office, they're gonna have to go through through communication. That's going to take time and then sometimes waiting a few minutes is like waiting a long time. Security's good. Handed it wrong. So we want to make sure money well spent but that the person wants to be on site and they're not just, hey I'm just here making a dollar and I ain't getting paid enough of this. Because just think about it, there was a dead body that was found across the street from y'all. Yeah. And the woods over there. Yeah. And so there's a lot of transient coming through there. So we just got to make sure. Yeah, we heard about that. That's so hard. Well thank you, we will definitely do that. One of the things that I've learned in doing this work is stay in touch with people. Keep people in the know. Let them know what you're doing. So I will definitely do that. And Captain Ellis is probably the one that I need to speak with. He's the one that I talked with initially when I told him that I wanted to do this. Well, he's over patrol. So yes, but you also want to make sure, you know, copy sure, Ellen Bergone and also Captain Ellis would be the one because it would be his officers. Okay. You don't have as much presence in that area anymore because of the bus garage and not having the fuel pump. They used to be all I was other night, somebody would be there, so the office is not there now. And so it needs to get on the sheriff's office regular, what we call check on. Like they do checks every night of businesses. DSS, the house and everything needs to be one day. Somebody is coming through there. And they don't, they don't call for nothing. But if you've got somebody there like I say the wrong person standing there with that little blue shirt on with a little badge on that look like it got some authority I just beyond sometimes I laugh on me dude don't even come this I mean and that's way some of your plantail maybe. Okay. Right. All right. Thank you so much. We'll do. Okay. Your next one that's over is your ITN lesson, your deputy salary, both of those at the bottom of the page are there. And that's just based on the 2024 or 25 COLA and the French benefits increase that we will discuss in earlier. Down in page J, postage, utilities and maintenance to buildings and grounds is just an increase based on our current spending. On maintenance and grounds usually if we don't spend as much in one year Apollo will let us roll that over into the next year. So we might not have any grief in that one. Child support finger. I just put all the ones that had a change on it child support. Fingerprinting we're taking out a hundred dollars because the sheriff's office is not charging us for those fingerprints when child support needs those. Employee training is up three hundred dollars. We just add additional. There's a additional requests from Susan to purchase additional training materials for economic services. So that's one of that's up $300. All the insurance, they're probably insurance vehicle insurance and professional liability is 15% increased and that's again per Paula. Capital Outlay, that's our computer equipment. That's an increase in 72,072. That is proposed from IT on all our aging equipment. That could be less based on the fact that we lease instead of purchase. This is a purchase price. So if we lease it could be less than that which I you know I do like leasing which will spread that you know out of the term. So that amount could change. Day sheet software Medicaid transportation software both of those are just to increase per the provider they increase every year and then our capital outlay HVAC. We had to put a unit in and building B, which I don't think they've done yet, but I just put another 20,000 in case we have to have one. Yeah, for this year. This goes into our program costs. Some of these we don't have any control over, or most them. We don't have any control over state and home. That's down a little bit. And all that is is we have day sheet coding and program coding. And we're just reducing the program coding and increasing a little bit day sheet coding on that state and home. That's just based on the way the workers are coding their day sheets. FNS, EBT and FNS work number. I don't know why those are so much more now. I do know maybe the EBT was due to de-snap and that's I don't know why they continue to have an increase in those. Those are based on our state estimates and I really don't. Do you have any kind of insight on that? I just based that on estimates whether that's going to be the case I don't know. Steve doesn't like to hear me say that I based that on state estimates so you're around with that. I do know that they had a difference in the policy saying when the not to. So maybe that came with some increase in prices. I don't know. I know we had a difference. The policy saying when to run it. But FN is EBT. What is that? That's where they, that's your EBT call center. And they're just, that's call center. They charge us for the clients calling into the call center to check the balances I know that I can say that was an increase in I you know We during these now that really increased because people there were more people calling in But I don't know about now. They're just doing what we're doing. They're just estimating. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Um, special assistance refund payments that's just down just based on special. That's just based on client need as far as the special assistance that is just with 100% reimburseed. Here's your biggies. State foster care, kinship foster care and for e foster care next three. Um, you'll see state foster care is an increase of 549,895. Kinship foster care is 6,500 and 4E foster care 417. We have no control of them. I don't know what the county manager's gonna say. What, finance Last year we showed him the increase and they said take it back to what we were estimated spending prior and they would add a budget amendment if needed. I'm assuming that's what they'll do this time. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. It is. I mean, what are our shoes? It is the same like two lines of me and bucks. Yes. And like I said, I don't know. And that's just based on our current standings with our first care. I mean, we need more foster homes, so it will be less. But, you know, we can't make people. Link special. an increase of 10,000 from 40,000 to 50,000. And that's just based on youth need. That's 100% rembers. So we're not worried about that one. 4B, adoption assistance and 4E is just increased based on adoption assistance total. And so is the adoption assistance GAPE.'s just stands for that's a that's guardian ship excuse me and that's just based on clients that we give guardianship to one of them is down a little and then other one the GAPE is up that should be GAPB I need to change that GAPE is up at the top and then GAPB one state with the ES4E and the B that should be B. That's what you'll be doing at the bottom. The O8. Yeah. Crosstus intervention that just shows a negative $193,000. I really don't know how much to budget crisis and layout right now. The fact is this is because they have direct deposits set up now instead of the county pay and the checks. It's 100% reimbursed, but everything goes through direct deposit mostly now. So I really don't know what to budget. So I just put $100,000 in there. So based on what we were spending right now because you'll see our estimated revenue or estimated expense on prices is 99.581 and the estimated is on Leap is 98.2825. So I budgeted $100,000 on each. Share the warmth. There's a little bit of funding that we're getting this time. $1117 and that's just some new It's called, same as Crasse's. You can't even see what's on the bottom down there. Oh, DDS and discretionary. Our hope for the future guardian, where they have 10 more. She asked for an increase per guardian, $10 per guardian per month. And then just a little bit of increase for our employee incentive meals. That's where our Christmas lunch comes out of and that thing. You see not only that discretionary fun. And then unclean bodies, we're adding a little bit more in there just because we've had an increase in that. So I thought that 1500. You know this was said I think I've rating report five unplanned bodies just for January. Yeah January. It's same thing. I think next year probably I mean I think it's just going to continually increase because of the homeless population that's being shipped in from Nashville. Do we know for sure that they're being shipped in from Nashville is that just what we're thinking? I was here say told that someone talked to someone getting off the bus in fire city and they said that the Aspencom County gave them $50 and paid for them a bus ticket. They just had to figure out which one they wanted. And seeing them coming off. That's been a game that's been played for years. Day of career. Years. Years. So it's true. No, I'm not going to say it's true. It's a game that's been played for counties, agencies, law enforcement for years. It's one way of getting rid of your problem. I know folks that used to take up an offering to get folks one way bus tickets someplace just to get them out. So I know there's a bus stop that's supposed to happen on Broadway, but I've not seen many trailways with people getting on. There are other reasons why people are coming into Rutherford County, and because when I interact with them, why are you here? They're thinking that there's opportunities here, and then when they found out that opportunities not here were stuck with that population. So what's the opportunities that they think? Love. A lot of them they think it's love. They think there's certain jobs here. There's a bigger picture. That's not just a trail ways of people being bussed in the Rutherford County. Are people getting off a bus in Rutherford County at times yes? Are people being brought to our county line and put out to get out of South Carolina or other counties yes? But it's reciprocal also. That is true. Got it. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay. And then the last one is just eight to the blind, which is the eight to the blind social worker part of their contract. And it's just increased $167 for the county cost. Bottom line, $925,995 county increase over last year. That's over 17% increase. I know we will never get that, but that's what we're requesting. And just so that's what we're presenting next week. That's a crazy simple question, I think. Everything that I've seen is based on most of the 98 percent. Sigma is based off of current state increases that we have no control over. So I'm saying this open. I don't see where anything's been patted. I see that we have acts for what we are projecting, the state of saying you're going to need, and what we're going to need in trying to retain workers, recruit staff and everything like that, that we're needed to maintain, and to be that start agency, North Carolina. off Carolina. And so I'm saying that knowing that other agencies in Rutherford County got their handout too wanting some increases. So this is really not what I was asking you, is it? So you said it's a mute point to go before the commissioners, but for anybody listening and if they see this budget, there's no padding there. It's. No, and these are mandate services. They're mandated. I mean, there's no reason you can do. You have to provide the services. So, yeah. That's a difficult. And we have a position open in just support that we decided not to feel to save money. So we are doing things to save. We're not just, you know, and then we'd ask for a couple of positions, but we decided to make to ask for a temp so that we wouldn't have to fund the fringe benefits. So there are things that we do. You know, Pam's good at it. She's done this for a very long time. We talk about things and we're always thinking about how we can save the county money. Even bringing the links back in so that we don't have to ask a whole lot of money for that position as a security officer. which, you know, and if it turns out that we don't use it, we'll, you know, money would just go back to the county. So we do try. Is there anything else that we did that to save money on? No, I don't think so. Okay, that's it. So the total budget requested I'm seeing down there. That actually could end up saving the county money at even that budget request right there, which is a 17% increase. Well, and what sometimes people don't see is that our mandated services also brings income into the county because of Medicaid I mean Medicaid dollars if you've seen how much Medicaid dollars brought into the county in this astronomical and if an S benefits as well because they spend on the local right 2.2 million dollars a month Wow. Just for brother for God. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. Thank you all for the work. I'll definitely put in on this budget with expoldation, but that was a bunch of highlights. Yeah, and I mean I wanted you to see the ones that were increased and decreased in the reasons for that. That's what I do. This is what we do. I always to show Steve, you know, and just, and like I said, there's nothing really in there. I mean, we didn't request anything other than those attempts in that, you know, salary adjustment for those workers. And we taught the pilot in Denver before, hand, about salary increase for the police. So it's not like they don't know that we write we're requesting these things. We do try to play it smart every time before we put it in here but then we wanted to make sure that the board sees this even before we take it to Steve next week and to see if you had any other input and you've had some some good input. So thank you everyone that is working on the budget thus far. Sorry, that long. No, no, no. We don't have the funding, we can't run, and then it costs the county more money. That's right. And I will say, as long as I'm 16 years I've been doing this, every year the state cuts That that they contributed you know it used to be the state would contribute a lot more so now they're falling back to the county their mandate in these services but yet right you have to deal you have to do you know you have to pay for some of the cuts through the federal government is that that going to hurt or so, or could possibly? It possibly, we don't know yet. I mean, right now, the only things that they cut is those three that I showed you, you know, told you. Every, all of our estimates are flat. You know, they stayed the same as far as our funding. So, but then again, who knows what? Right. What's going to happen? Because we're talking about Medicaid. It just hasn't happened yet. But we'll see. Hope we can get this approved before it happens. Thank you. You're welcome. You have anything else, Ms. Price? That's all. Thank you. Director Hunt? And I do want to say publicly, thank you before your hard work. She has been working over and over and over and over and over to get this done and I appreciate that so very much. Nothing else. We can go to the next part on the agenda, sir. We'll need the service. Okay. And so the service report is basically in front of you on page 11 and of course you know we do this in a two-year increment so you can see what happened in February 24 I'm sorry in a one-year increment and then a one month so you can kind of sort of see and if you have any questions or if numbers stand out you can certainly talk with us about that or ask us any questions. I've looked at it previously I don't have any questions this time. Okay. Good anything anybody want to add to that report? Okay. All right. This does. So I don't have a lot of updates. and it excited about indeed that we are now good applications of open positions also we've been getting some applicants from that so I'm excited about that. Other than that, these two trucker line line line 5 and a half to many of the updates. Would you have an adult services supervisor because the lower areas were tired so we'll'll have to feel one adult services position. So thank you. It's going to be OK. I've had the opportunity to add in the community. See some of the CPS workers. I see some of them, but always special with the ones that were child protective and so far the ones I've seen are very happy to be working for leather for county BSAs. We are happy to hear that. Well I try to encourage them like, really? Thank you. Stay forever. You know anybody else? Exactly. Tiffany, do you mind just sharing with him the position in licensing and where we're going to put it and why? So in regards to all the beautiful budget and the highlights, trying to say you can figure out things. So we have a position where somebody retired and it's a licensed position. So according to the state numbers, it wouldn't justify to continue to have two license and workers. Again, because we are recruiting, trying to get more foster homes until we get to that point, we have enough for one license and worker. So what we're looking to do is to move that position to adult services and give them another position because our plan is to also move the 18 to 21 use that side in the foster care to move those to adult services which make sense is adult services they can assist with other services that children's services might not be aware of so that is what we're planning to do with that. I'm excited about that. I think that's how we get it. We'll see. aware of. So that is what we're planning to do with that. So I'm excited about that is when I think that's going to be good. If I could have some someone in the data for the number of adults living longer and the number of adult services, clients, the number is rising. It's not at an alarming rate now but within five years it will be but because that position is going over there we're going to be more ready so that part we're excited about. So do you get? The disaster energy program was awarded, rather for counting, was awarded another $100,000 for the heat and cooling disaster program. Our balance, as of yesterday afternoon, was $103,449. That means we've spent out of the total allocations $647,080. All right. Yeah. Keeping in mind that the administrative funds, those disaster energy was not budgeted. The state didn't give the county anybody to pay for the admin funds for that program. So that's coming out of county funds. The emergency rental assistance, our balance, right now, we were awarded $50,000 in February on February 26th. Brung our total balance to $124,000, I mean our total allocations to $124,000, $724, we've spent $109,000 leaving our balance at $14,912 at moment. But we did find out yesterday, I think it was yesterday, that our brother for county has been relocated another 23,000. So next week, that will go into the bank account. Then our balance at that time will be 37,912. They do give us a 5% and then fund for the rental assistance, but that does not cover everything that we spent. I think we were a colleague. We figured it out. Well, the extra 20,000 you get your 5% out of. But I think we figured it out on what we could take last time. We could do 5% out of it with 5,000 we had already spent 8,000 just for that I think there's only a few counties that's actually using the money when you look at the report and we are one of them and I did get an email this afternoon to ask if we wanted to ask for even more rental assistance. Can you give us more admin to this? Well in that we can. They would give us admin dollars for that. I'm not as concerned about that as I am when they give us hundreds of thousands in the energy program. You mean any of it? Yeah, right. For Medicaid, they are unwinding the COVID waivers. We've been through a COVID coverage unwinding for about a year now. All of the waivers for COVID is going to be ending the effective July 1st. So we work those cases about three months ahead. So starting next month, we'll be the first time that our workers will be able to turn Medicaid off for children in over five years based on eligibility like. Explain turn it off. Terminate their case. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Terminate their case based on whether they're truly eligible or not. For the past five years when COVID started we will not I am full terminate children's Medicaid cases even if their family had Great income over the income limits. It was just a waiver that Children cannot be turned off for Medicaid. So in July's the first month that they'd be able to be turned off. Turned off. Terminated. Along with that comes more work that the workers hadn't had to do in five years. So things like 4D referrals or child support referrals that takes much more time and be much more work for child support too. So I mean it increased the work life from Medicaid and some of the cases will come off of the roles. So that's what it's security may come in at right there. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just have a debiating fear? think about it if you've had summited on it this long and now you saying hey we're cutting y'all well you've been letting me do it this long I can see some attitudes but like I said that's where the explanation and hopefully cool hair to prevail like this. Yes so July will be the first time that children's Medicaid can be terminated since COVID started a March of 2020. What do you think? Does it affect the adults? Does not it affect the adults? The adults started being effective. I think it was June of last year. OK. That they could start being terminated or may may Ablast year their cases could start being terminated. Okay So some have decreased the roles that And the children cannot be turned off understand That's big yeah, yeah, it's it's it's. Yeah. It's a big problem. It's a big problem. You're not giving your next time to prepare your workers for this? Yes. Okay. We have not gotten it right in yet. This was on the director's call last week. You know, listen to you. It's not coming out in a dear county director letter yet. So we did talk about it on that way but what's we see the terminations were the workload? Yeah better what it's gonna it's gonna increase but then won't it decrease? No because of all the waivers that's ending that has let the the workers not have to do as much that they had to do with four doesn't balance. But it will, but less people on the world means less work, but you're saying yes, that's true. That's true. But on the other hand, they're going to have to start doing now their post-illusability for the child support referrals. There will be many more cases that will terminate and then they'll come back and apply again so that applications for Medicaid will increase. When from child support to Medicaid and back and forth because when they go and none co-op, then child support is going to be seen in them task to close the case. Then they come in and cooperate, so then they sit on task, older cooperating now, turn their case back on or they come back in and apply. It's a post-eligibility, meaning they can be eligible for just a short period of time to the go corporate with child support. If you don't corporate with child support fast enough, the case gets closed. That's what it coach you no longer work on. I have you a big cup of coffee. Yes. So it is being for Medicaid to start this and one or cut these waivers off. Right. Go ahead, State. What have you got? That's all. You're welcome. Director Hunt. Okay, so for the directors and for the the first point of business is this is social worker appreciation move and we had some great things happening today for the social workers. They have breakfast this morning so that was great and that was actually provided by Mosaic Hope. The next point is that April is provincial abysmal. And we will have a 10-wheel planting ceremony on April 7, 2 p.m. And we need to see if board members are available. If not, we are requesting our board chair to be there to read the proclamation. If the board chair and his wife are not in Florida. Just wondering, I like to be in town. Okay. All right. If you let let them know let's hear a note that our board share will do the confirmation. April 17th at 2 p.m. You see of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a couple of comments. I have a had an opportunity to talk with Kristen, who is the School of Government Attorney that does the training for New Board members. So she is willing whenever the person comes in. So you just let me know and I'll let her know. But thought since I just recently spoke with her I'll let you know that she's willing to train the new board member just whenever you guys are ready. State news don't have enough of that right now because we're still waiting to see what's happening with all the cuts and I was just going to present that to the board But I'll do that next time And we did attach a couple of pictures of the house I think Tiffany may have a running Clash of the house and this This, pimp that these pictures probably a week ago and it is a drastic difference between a week ago and right now. Right now what you're going to see is landscaping, shrubbery, mulch, and they plant a grass. It looks really, really good. And sidewalls. And sidewalls, they're there. This was a week ago in my grandfather. I drove by there this week in the beard. It looks very nice. And as you can see on the inside, if you'll turn to the fair and back cover, this is a built-in desk for our children that will be there so they can do their homework, plug up their computers. So we thought that was pretty cold. Too bad you're in 3. 14. I'm sorry sorry. Is it a two bedroom or three? It's really a three, but it could be a four. That's why it's the guy for the super, I mean the social workers. We have bunk beds in there just in case. Probably. Maybe we're going to a bunk bed. Whenever time to do that. Yeah. I'm looking for an open hall. Yeah. Yeah, because kids, yeah. The social workers would be great with that work. We did use Michelle and Mark Lademore, who own screw homes. We actually have kids there. A good piece of the city. That actually came over and assisted Danny Seriously and the team and where to put the cameras and how to set things up. So we thought that was pretty good. So that's all we have for chair. I have no announcements. I will say this. How'd this meet and go on with just me? I'm just gonna call him. Oh, hi, hi, yes. Hi, my buddy. My name is Ben. I'm the badger. I'm okay. Mr. Williams, just make sure we stand at ease, correct? Or can I just close to me because I can't adjourn it? No, you can enjoy it. Okay, okay. I just want to make sure we stand at ease correct or can I just close to me because I can't adjourn it okay okay I just want to make sure is there anything else all right it is 508 we stand adjourned.