Contra Costa

Children and Families Commission

Minutes

June 4, 2001

Item1.0 Call to Order.

Themeeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m.

Item 2.0 Roll Call.

Commissioners in Attendance:

Maria Theresa Viramontes-Campbell,Dr. Michael Zwerdling, Kathleen Tabor, Violet Smith, Supervisor Gayle B.Uilkema, Dr. William Walker, John Cullen

Alternates in Attendance:

Susan J. Wittenberg, Ronda Garcia, Barbara Langsdale, Dr. Paula Moten-Tolson, Mary Foran

Item3.0 Consent Items.

Item 3.1- Approve minutes for May 7, 2001 meeting.

Item 3.2 - Acknowledge Monthly FinancialReports.

Brenda Blasingame stated that Barbara Hill, theexternal accountant, is here tonight to answer any questions Commissioners mayhave regarding the new financial reports.Barbara is assisting us in reconciling our financial statements from thecounty so that we can monitor internally our fiscal activities.

Barbara Hill then reviewed the financial reportswith the Commission.

Commissioners requested that the financial reportsbe modified to reflect the following:

     yearto date what is encumbered

     afootnote regarding allocation and expended amounts

     long-termsustainability title should be changed to long-term investment funds

     areport separating out our assets/ liabilities and what we have drawn down forfunding

     aquarterly comparison on funding received from last year to the present

     aseparate line item for grants

     traveland meeting expenses be listed separately

     abudget by corresponding item or per category

     asubtotal of the expenses and the grants a separate line item

Commissioner Viramontes-Campbell stated thatregarding accrued expenses and what has been appropriated versus accrued, whenthe money comes in from the state Brenda will know how much money needs to goout the door. Some money needs to sitin the short-term investment account and other money in the long-terminvestment account. It would help ifduring any quarter or month that funds need to be moved, staff has the abilityto do this or give recommendation to the Commission.

Commissioner Cullen then requested for Brenda,Barbara Hill, and the finance committee to meet and determine what the reportsneed to look link in order to meet the needs of the Commission.

Item 3.3 - Executive Committee Report.

CommissionerCullen gave the following report:

     AnnualWorkplan

Reviewed the draft of the Annual Workplan thatdivides out all of the major work areas and the steps we are undertaking forthe year. It will be made available atthe retreat. It will be a good trackingtool for the Commission in terms of the work that is being done by staff.

     EmployeeHandbook/Personnel Policies

Reviewed the employee handbook and policies. County counsel will review for legalpurposes and the final version will be distributed to Commissioners.

     PerformanceReview Process

Reviewed the performance evaluation process forstaff and approved a good process where there will be self-evaluation as wellas evaluation by a supervisor.

The evaluation process for the Executive Directoris underway and you have all received a copy of the input form, which you willneed to fill out and submit to Kathleen Tabor by June 11, 2001.

     Check-writingSystem

Approved policy and procedure for check writingsystem for grantee disbursement. Thesystem is relatively simple to use meets audit/accounting needs.

     Expansionof Office Space

Discussed and approved office expansion.

     10Year Financial Projection

Discussed concept of doing 10 year financialprojection for Commission and agreed with the concept to get a better handle onwhat we can anticipate years out.

     LegislativeAction to Take State Prop 10 Funds

Discussed information regarding the Governorsbudget, which assumes $33 million in State Prop 10 funds will be used to fundsome of the Department of Education and CalWorks childcare programs in thestate.

A motion was made and seconded to approve Item 3.0 -Consent Items.

The Commission voted to approvethe Consent Items.

Item 4.0 Committee and Program Updates.

Item 4.1 - ProgramImplementation and Evaluation Committee.

a)  Approvalof Slate for Parenting Education and Support Applicants for Funding. Consider the following motion: To approve the recommended slate for fundingat the level of $345,000 thereby increasing the money allocated to thisstrategy by $45,000

Lisa Johnson informed theCommission that 29 applications were received which totaled $1.9 million forrequested funds. A review panel wasconvened and they were challenged with eliminating $1.6 million in funds.The review panel did the best they we could, and looked at geography,target population, etc. I am coming tothe Commission to ask for the recommended amount of funding of $345,000.

Commissioners requested that forfuture funding recommendations they would like to receive a one pagedescription to include who, what, where, why, and how much funding for eachrecommended proposal.

A motion was made to approve therecommended funding at the level of $345,000 thereby increasing the moneyallocated to this strategy by $45,000.

Commissioner Tabor then requestedthan any Commissioners who have a conflict of interest state so.

No Conflicts of Interest werestated.

The Commission voted unanimously to approve the recommended slate for funding atthe level of $345,000 thereby increasing the money allocated to this strategyby $45,000.

b)  Updateon Grantmaking activities

Lisa Johnson gave thefollowing report to the Commission:

     TobaccoCessation: The Tobacco Round Table willbe held Tuesday, June 5, 2001 from 1-4 pm, at 50 Douglas Dr., Martinez.

     FamilyLiteracy: Regarding the Ready,Set, Read concept paper, we have created a timeline and our hope is that wewill be rolling out the dollars as children are going back to school.

Lisa Johnson then informed the Commission thatKathy Linquist of the Local Planning Council was present to give a statusupdate regarding the Professional Development Plan.

Kathy Linquist informed theCommission that 1012 applicants qualify for the program with a total amountof $1,983,900. The number of applicants per region of thecounty are: West 280; South 250; Central 180; East 302.

Commissioner Cullen statedthat this is great news! We have over1000 people who will be provided stipends.He then asked when checks would be distributed.

Kathy Linquist stated checkwould be distributed by June 30, 2001.

Commissioner Tabor requestedKathy Linquist to return to the Commission meeting to give an update on lessonslearned.

Commissioner Smith askedKathy Linquist if there were applicants that did not qualify.

Kathy Linquist stated thatapproximately 250 did not qualify.

Lisa Johnson then statedthat Brenda Blasingame would give a status update on Mental Health TherapeuticServices.

Brenda Blasingame statedthat in January she was invited to participate in meetings of providers ofearly childhood mental health services.The group applied for State Prop 10 funds to do some additional planningand establish a wraparound team.Unfortunately, they were not funded by the state. Where we are going with the strategy is togather specific information and data for staff to draft recommendations aboutfunding the strategy. We hope to bringthe strategy to the Implementation Committee in July. The group consists of community-based providers, Health ServicesDepartment, Employment and Human Services Department, and Community ServicesDepartment.

Lisa Johnson then statedthat Mary Foran would give a status update on Home Visitation.

Mary Foran stated thatwe convened the Home Visiting Summit to look at the issue of homevisiting. Those who attended werepeople who receive home visiting services, staff who provide home visitingservices, funders, policy makers, etc.We met in groups throughout the process and the second day reallyfocused on what the system should look like if we had our dreams. The visions were remarkably consistent witheach other, central intake, interdisciplinary training, and augmentation offollow-up services. There were a lot ofrecommendations and a lot of consistency.The next step is for the Funders Coalition to meet and discuss andoutline next steps.

Commissioner Cullen statedthat by going through this process it sounds like we have developed a goodunderstanding of what people want so that when it comes time to fund it we havea better goal.

Mary Foran replied that wasthe goal. She further stated that itwas great to have parents there. Whatwas important for everyone around those tables is that we were hearing ittogether; the presentation and concepts were so similar.

The Commission then held adiscussion regarding the Home Visiting Summit.

c)  Presentationby Evaluation Team of Evaluation Framework

Marc Thibault, CS&O, presented to the Commissionthe Evaluation Framework, stating that this Framework is not the finalevaluation plan, but a part of the plan.

Sean Casey then stated that Commissioners shouldkeep the attached documents in mind for review at Commission Retreat on June 9,2000. The full Evaluation Plan will beon the agenda for the July Commission meeting.

Commissioner Tabor invited the Commissioners toattend the evaluation accountability matrix work session on June 15.

The Commission then held a discussion regarding theEvaluation Framework.

Commissioner Viramontes-Campbell stated that thematrix will become the accountability framework. If we are going to commit ourselves to the plan as it stands, our8-10 million dollars cannot do what we want it to do. We will need to bring other funders to the table. If we are going to hold ourselves to an evaluationwe want to make sure we are going to have a positive evaluation. We have funds going into several Strategieswhen you add everything up we are at about 7 million dollars. We either need more money or we need torethink what we are going to fund.

PUBLICCOMMENT;

Kofi Opong-Mensah,African Cultural Center. Why cant OrangeCountys model be adopted here and then be tweaked instead of using so muchmoney? Are there any major confoundingfactors?

Marc Thibault replied that there is a number of state and nationalstudies that have been done around particular indicators that Contra Costa willlook at. The work thats being done inOrange County and the work weve done over the last 10 years is beingincorporated as much as possible here in Contra Costa. Prop 10 is locally driven and is intended tobe locally driven. We are trying veryhard to make sure that the approaches, the philosophy are local. A lot of what we have learned at OrangeCounty is being used here. In fact,what we have done in one hundred days took over a year in Orange County. It is meant to save time, save money andprovide good results. Confounding isthe expectation of rapid achievement that people are expecting, because much ofit is new and that requires an investment and intuitiveness and a stick-to-it-ness. We are not meant, as an evaluator group towait for bad things to happen. Thewhole process is with the understanding that we are going to try to be asenabling and assisting as possible in that process. We will have the grantees meet on a regular basis to share theirapproaches, their success, to share improvements.

Commissioner Tabor then stated that some of the principles are worthnoting. One of them is that evaluationis a tool. Some of the Strategies maytake 5 years to determine if they are working.We need to learn as we go. Theother piece is to use the evaluation to assess whether or not we are going inthe right direction.

Alternate Wittenberg stated when you have many funders funding oneagency that they each require evaluation and often times they are not askingfor the same things. My question is, isthere going to be any effort made to have the grantee explain how theevaluation will take place?

Alternate Garcia stated that as a grantee, the ChildCare Councils experience has been very positive. What Sean and Marc were able to do was let the indicators comefrom the grantees themselves. Theindicators were part of a conversation that allowed the grantee to shape someof the work.

Marc Thibault replied that you could have three orfour data collection systems or forms.What is trying to be accomplished here is a commitment to talk, tolisten, and to work in partnership. Youare correct that some of the challenges are when there are different fundingstreams.

Commissioner Walker added that as a funder, one thingthat was attractive was that we could learn from this.

Alternate Wittenberg replied that part of herconcern is that what gets lost is the balance of the cost of evaluation andfunding available for services.

Marc Thibault replied that is what we have beentrying to do for 10 years and that is the challenge with Prop 10.

Public Comment

The Commission received no additional public comment.

Item 4.1 - Civic EngagementCommittee.

Alternate Foran informed theCommission that one of our major efforts is to conduct dialogue groups, whichyou will find listed on the postcards in front of you. The groups will focus on what kinds ofsupport parents want. In general, itwill focus on parent support. We alsohave an agenda with these groups and that is to create regional dialoguegroups, we hope that out of these groups there will be some people who willwant to become members of our regional groups.We also hope to get a real broad representation of our community.

Brenda Blasingame statedthat the meetings will also be held in Spanish and we would like to come backand hold them in other languages at a later time.

Alternate Foran stated thatthere will be a four-hour meeting held June 7, 2001 with the Civic EngagementProject to hold a mid-year evaluation/assessment of our civic engagement work..

Item 4.2 - Update onCommission Retreat.

Commissioner Smith informedthe Commission that there were two conference calls with the facilitator DavidBarkan. The morning of the retreat willbe devoted to an overview and the afternoon will focus on our process. We are going to have available in chart forma state of the Commission, where we are, etc.The Workplan will also be provided.A survey was sent to you and David asked for it to be completed andreturned to him.

Brenda Blasingame theninformed the Commission that the retreat will be held at the Hilton Concordfrom 8:30 am 5:00 pm.

Item 5.0 New Business.

Item 5.1 - ExecutiveDirectors Report.

See report attached to these minutes.

Item 5.2 - Discussion ofCommission meeting dates for July and August.

The Commission approved the next Commission meetingto be held July 9, 2001.

The Commission will determine the date for theAugust meeting during the July 9, 2001 meeting.

Item 6.0 Communications.

The Commission acknowledged communications received.

Item 7.0 Adjourn.

The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.