Present, County represented
Blaine Arbuthnot, Crowle
Wendy Buxton-Andrade, Prowers
Felix Lopez, Las Animas
Rose Pugliese, Facilitator
Meagan Hillman, Kiowa
Shawn Mobley, Otero
Eppie Griego, Pueblo
Guests
Michelle Wiseman, Pueblo County Attorney’s Office
Mindy Baumgardner, Colorado Attorney General’s Office
Sarah Mobley, SCHN
Kristen Carpenter, Colorado Prescription Drug Consortium
Rob Miller, Safeside Recovery
Amber Settles, Lamar Community College
Robert Guerrero
Marisa Stoller
Michelle Francis
Emilin Medina
Anu Keiley
Sue Sisley, M.D.
Call to Order
Wendy Buxton-Andrade calls the meeting to order at 3:01 pm.
Approval of Agenda
Felix Lopez motioned and Shawn Mobley seconded the approval of the agenda – agenda approved.
Approval of Minutes
Rick Butler and Felix Lopez moved and seconded the approval of the minutes – minutes approved.
Facilitator Update
From Rose, the website has launched and she will send over a link to everyone. One comment that she heard is that not everyone’s picture is on the site. Every Board member has not sent pictures so we can modify that when people send them in. We will have a contract for continued maintenance, so when people send them in, we can upload them when we get them. Barefoot was really great to work with and they have done everything to accommodate our needs. Wendy is working with them to get a QR code completed and move on with the business cards because when Rose came on it was one of the Board’s priorities to have these to hand out to the communities and get them the information on services in the Region.
Update from fiscal agent on outstanding Year 1 Funding (outstanding contracts; mini-grants; carry-
over funding; accounting)
Michelle Wiseman was on from Pueblo and did not have an update beyond the information that was sent in the prior week. She will have to have a discussion with Sarah Long before she can update the Board.
Wendy updated on the information she had on the mini-grants. She had the list of counties that had not signed their contracts, per the information from Pueblo. Those counties are: Crowley County, Huerfano, Las Animas and Pueblo. Please make sure your County has signed the contracts for the mini-grants so we can get them out of Year One, Education and Prevention fund. Rick Butler, Baca County, believes they have signed the contract and he will look for the signed copy and get it sent to Rose so she can check on the status of it. Eppie Griego, Pueblo County, is going try and get their mini-grant signed ASAP. Blaine Arbuthnot, Crowley County, and Felix Lopez, Las Animas County, both thought they have signed and sent in so they will be checking with their staff to find out the status of their contracts. There was discussion on the meeting minutes that had been approved during the mini-grant approval and Megan Hillman from Kiowa County had made the motion that there would be a six-month window. The window is definitely a problem since the Board approved the mini-grants on April 24 th and the mini-grants were not distributed until October. The mini-grants will have to be carried over into the new year but Pueblo County will still be liable for tracking them because they were issued out of first year funding.
Blaine questioned his mini-grant because they were joining with Otero on their funds with the Health Department and thought that it was all sent, but Rose will double-check the information. She can only see that Sarah sent the contract; it does not show them sending it back in. Baca also is looking to see if theirs went to Rick or their administrator. The rest of the contracts for the first-year funding are still showing draft from the spreadsheet that Michelle, from Pueblo County, provided Rose. Rose will follow-up with Sarah on those contracts. Next meeting, Rose is hopeful that we can get all the final contracts and numbers from Pueblo, so we can have a summary of the final accounting going into Year Two and the Board will know the full scope of the financials at that time.
Discussion of roll-out of Prevention and Education RFP
Rose updated that from the emails, it looks like everyone from the Board was in agreement on the language of the RFP, so it will be issued on Wednesday, November 15 th . The list will be sent to the Board and if you know of additional people that you want the RFP to be sent to, please get those names to Rose so she can include them and get them sent out a copy of the RFP. It will also be listed on the website.
Discuss change in scope of work request
The information was sent out in an email to the Board on this request. Health Solutions is requesting the change was because they could not fill the position like they originally thought and wanted to modify the Scope of Work to fulfill their grant duties. The Board needs to make a decision if this change in the Scope of Work for this grant would be approved. The original application was for a rural school based clinician and they were struggling to find a provider to fulfill their rural and frontier communities. They have devised a new plan that would achieve their same goals but with a change in personnel. Blaine Arbuthnot, Crowley County felt that it was a good change. Megan Hillman, Kiowa County, said it was a well-thought-out plan and that they just need to give us an updated budget on how the money will be spent, with the cost savings. Rose will ask them on how they will handle the cost savings and ask them to give us a clear explanation of the change in budget and Rose will forward that information on to the Board, as soon as she receives it from them.
Discussion on live-experience panel for January meeting.
It was decided to have a 30-minute presentation from people with lived experience at the January meeting. Rob Miller, Safeside Recovery and Kristen Carpenter, Prescription Drug Consortium, will reach out to two people each and have them give a 5-minute talk on their experience. The Board will have between 5 and 10 minutes to ask questions at the end so the Board can see from the lived experiences how and where the money that SECOR is spending can best be utilized and the gaps in resources that exist in the region.
Other business
RFP committee change. Both Wendy and Felix said they will step down; Megan Hillman, Kiowa County, has stepped forward. The committee will be: Megan Hillman, Blaine Arbuthnot, Felix Lopez, Rob Oquist and Kim MacDonnell. Wendy will be on the call to take notes so they can be taken back to the full Board.
Felix Lopez asked for an extension of the mini-grant until the end of March or April and Rose asked that
the Counties please talk with Sarah from Pueblo County on the extension of those grant timelines.
The Board will have one meeting in December on 12-11-2023.
No Other Business.
Adjournment
Felix Lopez motions to adjourn, Shawn Mobley seconds adjournment. Adjourned at 3:44 pm.
Next meeting :
Monday December 11, 2023