Present, County Represented
Blaine Arbuthnot, Terry McMillian, Crowley
Meagan Hillman, Prowers
Kim MdDonnell, Joni Wilk, Bent
Rob Oquist, Otero
Meagan Hillman, Kiowa
Karl Sporleder, Huerfano
Felix Lopez, Las Animas
Steve Bryant, Pueblo
Call to Order
Felix Lopez called the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m.
Approval of Agenda
Rob Oquist and Kim McDonnell moved and seconded the approval of the Agenda – Agenda approved.
Approval of Minutes
Blaine Arbuthnot and Joni Wilk moved and seconded the approval of the minutes – Minutes approved.
Election of Chair
Karl Sporleder and Rob Oquist nominated Felix Lopez
Felix Lopez and Kim McDonnell nominated Meagan Hillman
Roll Call Vote:
- Baca – Absent
- Bent – Meagan
- Crowley – Felix
- Huerfano – Felix
- Kiowa – Meagan
- Las Animas – Meagan
- Otero – Meagan
- Prowers – Felix
- Pueblo – Meagan
Felix Lopez – 3 votes, Meagan Hillman – 5 votes – Meagan Hillman is the new Chair of the Board.
Election of Vice-Chair
Meagan Hillman and Dennis Pearson nominated Rob Oquist.
No other nominations were set forth and Rob Oquist was approved by acclamation.
Meagan took over duties as Chair for the meeting at this point.
Call for RFP Committee Members
Current members of the RFP board are Felix Lopez, Meagan Hillman, Rob Oquist, Kim McDonnell and Blaine Arbuthnot. Kim and Blaine are going off of the Board and two new members will need to step into their role on the RFP committee. Joni Wilk volunteered to be on the RFP Committee. There will be one vacancy at this time. The RFP Committee will meet to review the Recovery RFP’s and a vacancy will continue until another member of the Board volunteers . Felix Lopez and Blaine moved and seconded the motion to move forward with just four members and to fill when another person volunteers for the last spot on the RFP committee. Motion approved.
Facilitator Update
Rose asked all the Board of Commissioners to do SECOR Board appointments so she can send them into the State and update the Board list. Rose is working on a Conflict of Interest Policy and hopes to have them on the next boards agenda for approval. There was a discussion about modifications to the Board structure. Meagan Hillman suggested a second meeting in January to approve some of the items that are not on the agenda today and to get things set up. The meeting was set for Monday, January 27th at 3:00 p.m.
VOTING ITEM: Consider approval of Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment Letter of Acknowledgement for Infrastructure Grant Funding.
Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment made a grant bid for the Infrastructure Grant Funding from the State under the City of Pueblo. This is just an approval from the Region Board for this application.
Felix Lopez and Rob Oquist moved and seconded the approval of the letter and to support all projects equally.
Roll Call Vote:
- Baca – Absent
- Bent – Yes
- Crowley County – Yes
- Kiowa – Yes
- Otero – Yes
- Huerfano – Yes
- Las Animas – Yes
- Prowers – Yes
- Pueblo – Yes
Motion passed.
Infrastructure Grant Funding Presentations:
All presenters submitted summaries of their projects.
In December, there were two presentations and have already been noted in prior minutes.
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Lisa Trigilio, Director of the Fort Lyon operations. 220 individuals are currently being served. IT inventory – Computer upgrades and network switches with wifi need to be done for these individuals, all of whom has homeless, substance misuse and mental health issues. There is also a need for expanded food program, clothing/linens/hygiene products/employment support, which includes clothing for interviews. There also is a need for apartment set up and help, when they are discharged from the program, such as bedding and twin beds set ups. There is also a need for a transport vehicle to help with getting clients to and from appointments. Their request is $358,000. Felix Lopez asked a question on the vehicle purchase. They are looking for a softly used transport van. They do have money for insurance, maintenance and gas.
Crossroads, Elizabeth Riffle presented. $195,000 is being asked for, to purchase a building in La Junta for outpatient services. That is 73% cost of the building. They will create 4 new positions to service 100 new people for MAT and 300 individuals for out patient services. They currently run a 45 to 1 clinician ratio. They are projecting an opening in Summer of 2025. Kim McDonnell asked how will this project affect the Prowers location and they responded that is will help them serve more people and they will definitely move people between the locations to meet the demands. Kim also asked about the renovations to the building. The $195,000 will be to purchase the building and the renovations will be from other sources. Felix Lopez asked who will sustain the employee costs and the answer was that the cost of the employees will be from 3 rd party funding and in 12 months it will be from Medicaid and 3 rd party funding.
Opus – Keely Williams/Lisa Evans presented. Community revitalization of buildings to be used for art therapy. The two buildings are the E Street School and the Opera House. These programs are helping people in recovery. This program was established in Colorado Springs and is an earn and learn concept program. E-Street school would have a kitchen so people learn to cook in a commercial area and develop their work force skills there. Rob Oquist asked about housing on the upper levels. Housing will be provided for people going through the program in the upper units of the buildings.
Advantage Treatment Center – Sarah Stagebye, Clinical Director presented. They are requesting $480,000 to renovate the remainder of the WPA buildings on their current campus in the Lamar facility. These buildings will be used for the Gender Responsive Care and the continuum of care for women and men that are graduating from their programs. This renovation will create five new positions and a space for transitional living for people in their facilities. This program has also been proven to reduce the recidivism. 320 individuals will be helped and increasing their current capacity by 48%. Felix Lopez asked about reduction of people coming back and Josh Mayhugh, Regional Director from ATC answered that the recidivism for 1 year in this program at the current Lamar facility is at 16% recidivism for a year or an average of 63% success rate. This program has a much higher success rate than the State average in Community Corrections. The question was asked about whom they serve and they service the 2nd , 15th and 16th Judicial districts, which is almost all of the current counties in the SECOR Region.
Assistant Facilitator Discussion:
Rose presented the reporting requirements have increased by the National Settlement and that the State has had to implement those changes. The reporting for the funding has increased and to the extent that Crowley County does not have the capacity to keep up with it and that it is more time-consuming than it was when Pueblo reported. Wendy Andrade has been doing the reporting and the financial requests for the Board as the past Chairperson and the time of the reporting has increased to the point that she can no longer do this on a volunteer basis because this last report took over 12 hours in one week. This also is requiring some additional paperwork that will need to be collected from the RFP recipients. These additional requirements are not in the Facilitator’s contract (she has never done any of the reporting) and it is not in the fiscal agent’s contract. Other regions have also faced this same hurdle and have solved it by hiring an additional administrative person to do the reporting. After much discussion the Board decided that Crowley County will issue the contract for the services and since Wendy is already familiar with the job and has been doing it for the region, without pay, that they will offer this contract service with her and the position will be named as the Reporting Manager and the pay will be $1,000 a month for one year, with contract to be considered for renewal each year, just like the Facilitator/Legal and Fiscal agent contracts. This contract will be on the next agenda for approval from the Board.
Other Business
The tabled item will continue to be tabled until the RFP committee will convene.
Adjournment
Felix Lopez and Rob Oquist moved for adjournment. Adjournment was at 4:30 p.m.
Next Meeting:
Monday, January 27, 2025 at 3:00 p.m.