Speakers labeled via automated voice-based diarization + AI name-matching against the city's official roster. Automated transcription can still mis-hear a name during fast speech (e.g. a rapid roll-call vote) -- clear near-misses are auto-corrected, but this is not manually verified line-by-line. Treat names as a strong best guess, not an official record. Home addresses that residents give are left out of this page.
[0:03] Michael Beck: we are live all right good evening it is 8 0 9 p.m this is the government operations committee i'm the chair michael beck and joining me at the table is community member mallard community member community sorry committee member councillor fish we got councillor leonard we've also got committee member councillor walker as well as chief pelletier i believe we have a few other members will be back to join us in a moment but if we'd like to get started on the first item which is an order authorizing an update to the ambulance transport policy, here and after referred to as Emergency Medical Services Transport Plan. Chief Pelletier. Yeah, so
[0:46] Speaker B (unidentified): main law now requires municipalities to adopt a written plan outlining how emergency transport where medical services are provided. Council did adopt the policy back in 1999, which kind of outlined how the envelope did run, and in reviewing that policy, we've identified some revisions that needed to occur to make sure we're in compliance with the new law and to more make sure that we're more in line with our current operational model. So some of those, some of that language change is more outlined with the requirements and how we have the post in the paper and make sure it identifies that the City of Bangor Fire Department is the transporting service. It allows the chief to identify the number of frontline in both this versus just having a set number that was in place before, and it simplified some of the inter-facility transport language that used to be
[1:43] Michael Beck: there. So okay, I just want to say for the record the counter balloon joined us. Any questions
[1:50] Susan Hawes: questions on this particular item? I have a question. I don't know, I'm curious about how many mutual aid contracts do we have, maybe five for ambient services? Chief, we have a few
[2:07] Speaker B (unidentified): I know we have with, we have, I can ask EMS Chief Ogden to come up as well.
[2:19] Wayne Mallar: The only reason I ask the question is, do we have any, let me ask this one. It was my understanding years ago that we had no, there were contracts for fire with the county, but none for EMS services. That's correct. Where do we stand on that now? Do we go individually as opposed to a county system?
[2:41] Speaker B (unidentified): So we have formalized mutual aid agreements within the county, panoptic county chiefs. We have a statewide mutual agreement for fire with EMS. That's some of the things that we've been working on at the state level. Locally, we do have some contracts in place in case we're all tied up. We do have somebody that can come back and provide service for us. More often that's Northern Light is our first line, or On Fire is another option, Hampton Fire is another option. These are the fire departments, they do have an ambulance, specifically Northern Light is the only true ambulance service that we have actually an agreement with.
[3:18] Michael Beck: Any other discussion, questions? All right, it looks like we're looking for a motion for recommendation to full council. I'll entertain that motion. By the way, for the record, Councillor Deane has joined us.
[3:31] Carolyn Fish: I make a motion to recommend the changes in the policy and go to council.
[3:38] Michael Beck: Second. Okay, motion in a second. Do we have any doubt? Okay, that'll move forward to full council with our recommendation. Thank you very much. All right, that brings up the second item on the agenda. We have a built for zero update from Maine Housing. Please introduce yourself when you come to the
[4:13] Eric Jorgensen: good evening, my name is Eric Jorgensen, senior director of government relations and communications at the Maine State Housing Authority, Maine Housing, and I'm joined by my colleague, I'm
[4:24] Joseph Cartel: Kelly Watson, I'm the director of the home office, and we understood you wanted an update on the
[4:30] Eric Jorgensen: built for zero initiative, and we're happy to provide that. Just say, just a little background, Maine Housing serves as the state's housing bank. We are program administrators for certain federal programs like Section 8 vouchers and HEAP. We are also the housing authority for the parts of Maine that don't have their own housing authority. So we're not part of state government, we're created by the legislature back in the late 70s or late 60s, and we work closely with the legislature and with the state and we played a coordinating role in a lot of things. So we're really happy to be talking about build for zero here tonight. I think our goal will be to provide you an update and then to answer any questions you have and listen and see what we can, see if we can help shed light on things, to the steps you can. I would just say that just in a general sense, our role with homelessness is that we are, we play a sort of a coordinating role. We distribute funds to shelters, to the extent that those funds Come in from the state and they're available. We also play a coordinating role in service, in coordinating services, and that's sort of where the Built for Zero program comes in. I would say that policy is generally set by the two statewide entities that deal with homelessness, the statewide homeless council and the continuum of care. So those are, they set the policy. We support those entities. We do work around coordinating and that sort of thing. Generally, you know, homeless response is generally handled on a local level. We work to coordinate and distribute funds and that sort of thing. Before I turn over to Kelly, which I want to do in a moment, just want to say on a personal level, I know that this is a frustrating issue for all of you. I served for eight years in the legislature representing Portland, and homelessness was an issue that I heard more about than anything else when I went to the doors. It is, it's a subject that's really hard to figure out. It's really hard to solve. These are very difficult cases. So I just wanted to say going into this that, you know, we, I think we understand where some of your frustration comes from, and certainly want to hear about what your situation is and provide our updates. So with that, I'll turn it over to Kelly, who will tell you a little bit more about Bill for Zero. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so I wanted
[6:58] Carollynn Lear: to start with just a little love setting around Bill for Zero, and I think prior to my moving into this position, folks from Main Housing may have come to the council and talked about it. So I won't spend a lot of time on it, but just to sort of talk about, Built for Zero is a movement, a framework that is sort of built around a methodology that comes with like four pillars. Basically, one of them is to build an accountable team. Another is to define specifically what success looks like. Another is to know every person by name. Name, so having a data set with a by name list so they can understand the scope of homelessness and also what we call in the data world, deduplicate, make sure you're not counting more than once, and then direct resources strategically. In addition to that framework, there are three key ingredients for success that are outlined aligned in Build for Zero. One is enough housing resources. Another is an outcomes focused response. So looking at the data and what it's telling you and using that in the response. And then another is targeted help for people facing the highest barriers. So that's housing plus intensive services. Services. And so that is an overview of what Build for Zero is. It's a movement from Community
[8:33] Susan Deane: Solutions, which is a national entity. And I'll be giving you some resources at the end if people are interested in looking more into Community Solutions and what they do.
Referrals
[8:46] Carollynn Lear: I also wanted to just talk about how our homeless system is structured in the hub system. Again, I think they all heard about it, but basically about four years ago the homeless system was redesigned on a regional basis, and as part of that redesign a coordinator was put into each of the nine homeless service regional hubs. They're not all on county lines, but they are close to on county lines. Some include more than one county and others don't. And so the hub coordinator position is funded by Main Housing processing through state funds, but they sit at agencies within the community. So we don't employ them, they have an employer record, and we subcon with that employer for them to go that hub coordinator. And so the role of the hub coordinator in their work in the community is to convene and facilitate cross agency collaborative teams, is to work to achieve quality real-time data, which you've probably heard about, it is to track how system performance metrics. A big piece of their role is managing the centralized prioritization referral process, also known as coordinated entry, and then also working with the members in their community to identify problems and work with them on system improvement. I did want to again talk a little bit about coordinated entry to explain a big piece of the hub coordinator role. Coordinated entry is a system that is supposed to standardize the referral process of persons experiencing homelessness into housing resources. It's a federally mandated system, and so the housing providers that receive funding from the federal government through the COC grant program are required to have their housing resources in coordinated entry, meaning that they are required to take their referrals from the coordinated entry system as opposed to just having sort of an open application or their own wait list process. So there are pillars to coordinated entry as well. Well, the first is access, meaning that someone experiencing homelessness, excuse me, should be able to go find a point to access the coordinated entry system, which are called access points at the name. And the next is assessment. And so when a person reaches an access point, they go through an assessment that reviews views, their situation, their housing barriers and needs, which then sort of results in ultimately a score. I hate that it boils down to a score because there is a lot more that goes into it. But again, it's supposed to be sort of as standardized and objective as possible. So from that assessment comes prioritization. So taking those people that have come into the coordinated entry system, prioritizing them and then the referral process is the last pillar of that which is utilizing sort of the data that we have on the people on the prioritization list and getting referrals to those housing resources that most appropriately match their housing barriers and needs coordinated entry has resources from the court to the coc grant program because they're required by HUD and also has some increasing resources from outside entities that are not doing so because they're mandated to, but because they see the value in putting those resources through court aid entry. It does not encompass the whole entire housing resources in Maine, unfortunately. So a court aid entry system, I think to like fully work would have all the resources within it, But we're sort of working at that and that's a big piece of the hub coordinator's role is to try to encourage housing providers to maybe see the benefit in participating in foreign aid entry and getting referrals there. So now that I've sort of leveled that, I'll just move on to some of the accomplishments I wanted to highlight. At the state level, we have five hubs that have reached quality data. Quality data means that those areas can confidently say that they are counting at least 90% of all persons experiencing homelessness in their hub at any given time. We've gone through the coordinated entry implementation process at the beginning of the homeless system redesign. We were actually just sort of getting coordinated entry off the ground with HUD technical assistance helping us. And so that implementation has happened. It's a functioning system. There is ongoing continuous improvement that happens by committee of the COC because coordinated entry is actually a COC function. We have regional improvement teams and coordination standing stood up in each hub, and some hubs have multiple teams that are working on different areas. And I'll talk a little bit about hub 7 in a minute. We have point-in-time coordination and executions. The point-in-time count is a count one night of the year in January every year, where we attempt to count everyone who's experiencing homelessness on that night. The hub coordinators, when they came on, took over the coordination of the unsheltered portion of that account. So there's a sheltered portion that accounts for folks that are in emergency shelters and other housing facilities, and most of that data comes directly from a database that they're already entering data into, so it's sort of a data pull. But then there's this unsheltered portion, which includes sort of anyone experiencing street homelessness or people living in other places not meant for habitation, as well as folks that may not be captured in that data set that's in the software that I mentioned. So that coordination and execution at the hub level has been a huge success in comparison to sort of what was happening before the hub system came along. It was very much just grassroots efforts, and some communities are doing really well and some communities weren't. It all kind of depended on how much volunteer manpower you were able to get. So we as a system have had a redesigned website, which is exciting for us because we were working off a very old sort of blog style website, and a dashboard, a data dashboard for the hub system and the data I've been referring to. And we've had strong attendance at the built for zero learning session, so Community Solutions puts on a learning session annually, and it's a chance for both for our hub coordinators to go and collaborate with other communities that are working on built from zero, but we also have had a lot of community participation, and we've been able to, I mean, housing provide some scholarships for providers and community providers to go to the learning session. And so I want to just move on to hub seven accomplishments specifically, and just want to say that our hub coordinators do a lot of work. They're working with many players, lots of intersecting pieces. And Jen Lawler, the Hub 7 coordinator is one of the rock stars. So we really feel lucky to have Jen as one of the Hub coordinators. Some of the exciting things that have been happening are Hub 7 is one of the hubs that has reached quality data, meaning they feel confident that they have at least 90% of those experiencing homelessness captured in the data set. The hub itself is the most coordinated point in time count in the state. They have by far the most volunteers and most coordinated effort in making sure that they're counting everyone. Joan has over 200 people on her listserv, so she has a big group of people who are both getting information and participating in meetings. She is doing warming shelter coordination with partners that's happening year round so that she has a warming shelter meeting that happens monthly. And they work throughout the year, both during the season making sure that services are coordinated but then after the season, making sure they're prepping for the next because it comes really fast. And she's doing good work working in that. She's been able to make some great rural area connections and collaborations so Piscatawba County is one of the areas that has no shelter, no emergency shelter, and she's been able to do outreach with the service providers there to figure out sort of the needs and challenges they're experiencing and able to get some collaboration there and the hub 7 coordinated entry system has 14 coordinated entry access points which is a good amount of access points in any one hub for folks to be able to access the system. I talked about the warming shelters this year. The group to understanding is the group has worked really hard to come up with a collaborative effort in the rfp process. It's currently open, actually closes Friday, and my understanding is they actually brought in a grant writer and were able to sort of work as a team to make sure those proposals were in good shape to be submitted. Jen Dodd's report, and I don't think that this is probably a surprise, but the outreach capacity continues to be a significant challenge. It sounds like staffing challenges create workload issues, and it's difficult for those outreach teams to take on new referrals, and so that's a challenge that they're tackling. So then I just wanted to cover some of the meetings that are happening, both at the hub level and then statewide meetings and resources. So I have mentioned some, but Jen has a homeless provider meeting that's a monthly in-person meeting, and that is, it's very provider centric, and it's the sort of boots on the ground providers getting together and working through so their challenges and collaborations to try to address those. The warming shelter meeting I've mentioned is a monthly in person meeting as well. She has a care coordination meeting which is every other week, and that one is more seems focused more outreach workers and housing navigators, so again folks on the ground, but very specifically sounds like of working, focusing on the un-sheltered community. She has a Northern Penobscot County meeting every other month, and then a Piscataquos County meeting, which is happening bi-weekly. So doing some of that more rural outreach as well. In addition, the coordinated entry meetings are happening. They are split up into youth, domestic violence, and sort of like general coordinated entry. And that's for privacy, to respect privacy concerns around some of those populations that may be protected by ABAWA or are under 18 and their information can't be shared in larger groups. And then the statewide meetings, I just wanted to mention, these meetings are where the hub updates are provided. So hub coordinators come to these meetings and give detailed updates about what's going on in their hub, including both what great things they're doing and challenges they're seeing that happens. I had continual care meetings which are quarterly, the third Thursday of January, April, July and October, and as well as the statewide Homeless Council meeting, which is a quarterly public meeting, second Tuesday of March, June, September and December. That meeting also happens monthly but it is only open to the public participation quarterly, but the public can view each of those monthly meetings, and then I just wanted to put a plug in for the website I mentioned is mainhomelessplanning.org. It is the website that sort of belongs to the COC and the Statewood Homeless Council, but as Eric mentioned we play a supporting administrative role for both of those entities, and so we manage the back end of that website and the postings and there's information on sort of everything that's happening in the homeless system there as well as specific hub coordinator updates built for zero updates the dash data dashboard and then calendar of meetings that are happening as well and lastly just a plug for community solutions their movement is much bigger than and Maine and what they're doing is really interesting. So they do have a wonderful newsletter that sort of keeps us sort of abreast of what's going on in the Community Solutions and Built for Zero movement and the work that they're doing, so.
[23:52] Michael Beck: Good question. The committee or councillors? I acknowledge that Councillor Carson has joined us at the table. Councillor Fitch.
[24:03] Carolyn Fish: with the coordinated entry with within the hub seven or even when the relationship with built for zero i mean main housing i know main housing has a lot of other projects so is the built for zero just one department or one segment of housing that the coordinated entry must fall in so if you have a relationship on a project with a developer whether private or municipality or non-profit and the coordinated entry when if it's under the bill for zero is it mandated they have to follow that number you know how they are qualified under the number the thing if it's only for that or do you have is built for zero or main housing have other housing opportunities because you know the homelessness we're experiencing is on the rise and we also have those that are unable to stay in the housing they have with the expenses so we have a lot of elderly people that are on fixed income and they're at risk of becoming homeless and so I actually heard last week about an elderly lady not far from where I live here in Bangor, and she's actually living in her car, and she's, she tried to get into housing and she was told that the only thing for her was this coordinated entry. So even though she's, you know, 78 years old, she is nowhere in the radar because her number wouldn't be the 14, 15 or 16. And so I have a lot of concerns, you know, I know that our vulnerable people that are homeless, but I'm, I'm really concerned about the coordinated entry. We're just kind of losing some people that are older and very vulnerable to in use or violence and you know so i really want to understand. i don't want to take up everybody's night, it's getting late, but you know i've had a number of people tell me recently that the elderly are not going to be able to afford the five dollar gallon fuel, and in fact they may be becoming homeless. so i 'm i have a heart for our homeless but i'm sad when i see so many projects coming to us for a lot of it's exciting in one hand that we're having a lot of projects for the unhoused at the same time it's very sad to me to not see more intervention and for that middle group that don't have substance use addiction or mental illness, they're just really about one step from being out on the street. so i get you know i want to understand and get on board but when i'm hearing every day about the coordinated entry system the number system. And then again, even for my Bangor residents, the number system might take somebody from Bucksport or Lincoln or from somewhere else. And even though it may be a facility within Bangor, my Bangor elderly lady is going to be sleeping in her car tonight, where someone with substance use addiction from Lincoln is going to bump her. So,, you know, I'm just as a counselor, you know, I'm bringing this concern and issue to you guys ask because you guys are doing a lot of great things but at the same time there's a big void and a gap and then i don't know where i'm on that path if with the coordinated entry system when we are bringing residents into our housing with their partnerships in bangor i'd like to see more of the pain core people and i know you know if they're here they were a service provider but is there any way through this that we can build or come back to lincoln or even these home communities where these under these individuals have their ties can we help educate or involve herman brewer lincoln you know the other people the other towns in our hub so those are just you know thank you for everything that's doing there's a lot of exciting things but on the other side of the coin there's a lot of scary things coming that don't involve substance use addicted people, but are gonna become a very big part of the population out of our streets.
[28:45] Eric Jorgensen: Yeah, I certainly, I hear what you're saying. I mean, it's a frustrating thing. In some ways, I think the problem is when you're in a city, a larger city, there's two large cities in Maine, and this is a lot of times where people end up because they think there's jobs here or there's services here or other things. I mean it's just sort of a and if there's any if it's it maybe just sound I don't want you to think I'm just giving you platitudes because I'm not but I do think that if you asked any shelter anywhere or any community of people doing shelter work around the country they would all say we've really got a you know the problem is people are coming here from other places and to some degree that's true but I would say we I actually had a meeting this afternoon with Department of Health and Human Services talking about this issue and there's a you know there's people leaving very frequently as well because they get they get sent to other states they get a you can get a Greyhound ticket in Portland they used to call it Greyhound therapy you could get a ticket to someone where you had a sister or a brother-in-law or something in another state so I would say that I know it's frustrating when people come to your town from other places but I would say a lot of times you're going to find that The majority of people are from right around here it's not from the Bangor city area from this county this region so I think that's part of it anything else what am I missing and where have I blundered no I don't not at all but
[30:16] Carollynn Lear: I do want to I think I can maybe help clarify a little bit about coordinated entry specifically, there are many other projects that do not go through coordinated entry. So most of the development projects that we do at Maine Housing, full-income tax credit, they don't go through coordinated entry. So not every housing resource out there, in fact, the majority of them do not go through coordinated entry. I will say in sort of a perfect coordinated entry system, you also have a breadth of resources that sort of meet the needs of anyone coming into homelessness. So because of the way that sort of the resources are funded, the majority of those resources are slated for those sort of those with the highest barriers, so we're looking at the higher scores. But if you have a system that has resources that don't maybe come with services, but they have a housing subsidy for people who don't need the services but they need the subsidy, in that case you'd be, you wouldn't be looking for the higher scores to match, you would be looking for the mid-range scores to matter, even the lower scores. And for example, we have a two-year subsidy city program, and we know that two-year program, you really, you need to be matching people who sort of have lower acuity so that they're not reaching a cliff at the end of that two years. And so the match in that 48 entry system should be the lower scores. I think again because our resources sort of aren't at the point yet where they stretch across that continuum, it's, it's feeling a little bit like everybody who's at the 15th and 16th of getting the resource, but ultimately like the hope is that you actually have all of those resources and are distributed that way. But I think there will always be resources that don't go through cornea entry
[32:15] Carolyn Fish: as well. Very good. Thank you. Tia, may I follow up with just one more question? Sure. Thank you. And I see that the data, you mentioned you have data in that hub seven just qualified that we have identified or be able to name our numbers somehow provide them data from 90 percent are unhoused in hub seven so that's great news so out of that would you say and I keep hearing this you know the public and a lot of us even our own you know police department when they come in say we see 40 new faces or people run into people they say where are you from and I know that 's a that's tricky question because if you were born here you had contacts here you went to school here but with a 90 i think that's great real data and from that data to hear you say the majority of them are local i think that 's a communication piece of data real data we need to get out to the public i'm just saying that in a general sense
[33:15] Eric Jorgensen: whether it's the case here, I don't, I think the majority are going to be people from this area, is my guess, probably Bangor, but I don't, I don't have the numbers for it. There you go, it's, it's
[33:30] Carollynn Lear: I have to qualify it because it's a specific data set we looked at, specifically the non-family shelter, individual shelters data for the area, and it was for a data, a time frame of January 1, 25 to June 30th, 26. 68 were from Penobscot County and 49 specifically from Bangor. One percent were from Portland, point four were coming up, and 11 were out of state. The rest didn't answer the question. So this comes from a data set that is client self-reported. The question is, what was, where is the last place that you had permanent residency? It's a tough data field, but that is sort of where that comes from. So it doesn't necessarily mean that someone who reported their last residence being out of state maybe didn't grow up in Bangor, so yeah, it's a little...
[34:34] Eric Jorgensen: Because usually if people come back, they have a reason to be here. They're not probably coming for the winters.
[34:41] Susan Hawes: Appreciate it, I'll be very brief and I just thank you so much to the both of you for
[34:48] Speaker B (unidentified): coming here it's it does actually mean a lot because you know i 'm just gonna be frank like we are a drought like we carry a huge amount of responsibility and burden taking care of all these individuals. And I mean, Counselor Fish and I, we had a discussion at a workshop or committee meeting recently regarding the accumulation of data itself. And that's the first time I've heard those percentages right there. And we were talking about how we need to create our own system to gather our own data for individuals here because we're not receiving whatsoever. And so I don't want to get too into the weeds here. The thing that I do want to say though is that we need constant communication with you guys. We absolutely do. We are, I mean, we are not a through destination, we are the destination for people. And so when people come here, it's very likely that unless they have another reason to go somewhere else, we are going to end up taking care of them. And like I want to take care of people, I have a compassionate heart, and I want us to build those institutions and build those relationships so that we can uplift people out of poverty and get them back into the economy. But we are alone, we really are alone. And I see and feel, and I don't want to speak for everyone on this Council, but there is a huge amount of effort going towards Southern Maine. And I don't feel any of that is coming here right now. And I would very much appreciate more communication, more engagement with the community. I mean, we have amazing nonprofits and amazing places of faith that really also take on the burden of responsibility ability to help out these individuals here. But we are at our capacity of what we can reason and we need help. And that is going to be a strategy for us going forward. We are going to outreach to augustamore with legislative strategies. But i'm telling you guys right now, like we need more engagement, like we need more help. I mean, we are at our with capacity, we are at our financial capacity. So I just want to make that very clear while I have you guys here. I mean again, I appreciate all the work that you do, I appreciate you guys coming here, but this has to be a constant communication engagement with us other
[37:39] Michael Beck: question before I ask mine. Okay so I guess my first of all, I appreciate both of you taking the time and give us an update what's going on. I guess my first question is, where do we stand on our goals of reaching functional zero statewide?
[38:00] Carollynn Lear: So the first step is to get to that quality data and essentially Community Solutions says you can't even start measuring where you are with functional zero until you get there. We've just very recently got there again in Hub 7 and statewide we don't have it. So I would say that I can't report to you where exactly we are. i will also say that when i look at sort of the goals that were set forward for reaching functional zero they were set prior to a lot of changes at the federal level and i think they
[38:33] Michael Beck: need to be sort of recalibrated. No i agree, i mean the reason i ask is you know at the statewide homeless man i want to say early 2023 there was optimism that we were going to read functional zero for veteran homelessness by this year and you know again because of the change the federal level and whatnot it didn't happen. Is main housing entertaining the idea of getting back into a statewide contract with building zero? I know that was cancelled a few years after it 's not
[39:03] Carollynn Lear: cancelled we had a contract with them to help us start up the hub system and the design, but we are still considered a Built for Zero community. We don't have a financial contractual relationship with them, but we have what they call a coaching relationship. So they are still in our world. We are actually working to bring them back in to help us re-evaluate where the system is and make some recommendations to us about where the system should go. We're official and i do just want to say it's to the point that eric made is when we look at those sort of goals and policies we look to the state of homeless council the coc to set those and then we sort of try to support them in that in that effort sure one of the i guess
[40:04] Michael Beck: concerns I have is I wonder if the hub quarters have enough support I know Main Housing hires one per hub. And you know, it's a lot of work. I mean, you know, our hub pet seven coordinator is busting her hump to do everything she can. And I'm wondering if it's a situation where we've got hub coordinators suffering in silence, you know, not wanting to ask for additional resources when, you know, they really could help have, you know, more assistance, more resources, more tools. Is that something that Main Housing will be willing to look into further or they're just going to wait for the hub
[40:42] Eric Jorgensen: coordinators to speak up and nor am I yeah but yeah I mean I haven't heard that the coordinators themselves are at a sense of like I think the bigger problem is there's a lack of resources at different levels and that's we were working within a giant housing shortage in state of Maine which you all know you don't need me to tell you that we've got I think as you get better data you have bigger counts because you're actually being more accurate which is a depressing thing to see but I think it actually means that we're getting closer to understanding the scope of the problem and then there's a whole you know there's a whole bunch of different pieces that fit in so whether it's the hub coordinator themselves or whether it's you I think we really need to develop more housing and we need to have different levels. I mean, I think probably on the sort of immediate level, you've got the winter warming shelters that are at that program starting up again, that's a critical program for short-term stuff. Then you've got various sort of emergency shelters that people stay in for a longer period of time, but it's still not permanent housing, but it's a place to be safe and dry and warm. And then you have things like the Home for Good program, which is the program that provides permanent supportive housing. And the trick with that is that, you know, it really needs the key to that whole program is the level of support that it provides. I think you folks have all probably heard about, you need to take people off the street, put them in an apartment building. They don't do very well in general. They aren't, you know, they aren't trained to live indoors really, and they've got a lot of, there's a lot of things that can go wrong, and you end up with people getting evicted, and it's, it's not a good situation. And I think the key with Home for Good is that you actually have on-site 24 hours a day staff that help people with what their needs are, and you know, just the complexity of the cases of people that are in these facilities is really critical. So, I mean, there's so many parts. And I mean, I don't know enough about the hub coordinators, whether that's a position that's really stretched or whether they're, but there's a shortage of resources all over the place in this particular field.
[43:06] Carollynn Lear: I mean, we do have a person on staff that serves as their coach, and that is the majority of their role. Role. And I think they try really hard to have one on one meetings with them, at least bi weekly, to find out where we can help. And in a lot of times, it's sort of trying to help by means of having conversations with different people or supporting them in a conversation that might be difficult. And so I mean, I guess we're, we're always open to whatever feedback they have for us that how we can be supporting them more. I don't know, again, like on the fiscal side, if we have more funds to put forward, but the sort of support for them that we can provide a staffing level, we're open ears for them, sure, I guess.
[43:58] Michael Beck: One of the other pieces of feedback I picked over time is there's no real clearing house for what available resources there are. A lot of time your luck of getting house comes down to did you get the right case worker who was in the right meeting and lock on the right people in the house, as opposed to a generalized place they can go and kind of see placements. Because to me, at least when they were pitching a bill for zero for Maine in 2021, that was the grand vision they give that, you know, you've got this command table, City of Bangor is there, and all these providers there, and they slapped down the case, and we've got all these resources ready to rock and roll, and we're going to put them together like RoboCop and off they go. And, you know, and obviously if there's no resources to do it, there's no resources to do it. But I guess that brings me to my next point is one of the ways, I guess, as a council, and I'm to speak for myself, we've got a legislative committee who is ready to go to bat with our legislators to ask for more resources and talk about what we need. We're hopeful that this opens the partnership and communication of if we can be a louder voice for, hey, if this resource exists, well, then let's speak up for it if you know this program was just given a little more funding that would work for example one of the things we're considering is project hope and in my mind I'm thinking well it's being shopped around to communities who have a little extra money in their budget to go forward to do it where it would be great if it was a program that went to all the hubs and said here's a tool for you to help you with placements everywhere rather than sticking it to just one city to have to figure it out if you know the hubs had more resources like that and if the fundings there as opposed to having to hopefully someone can make a match I don't know that the legislative issue or what but I just if there's a way to get the hub coordinators more resources so that work can be done at that level because again I envision this is you know these hub coordinators and they all get their cylinders firing if they pick up someone you know in northern Maine and they get them into the system but there's nothing we can do to help them you know we shouldn't be finding out about them by accident like there should be some kind of warm handoff across that they can go through and I hope I'm hopeful that this is where we're headed that you know we get everyone on the same page as we're doing for Nathan entry that you know you fill out the form and talk to somebody in Portland it's gonna be the same process the woods in Bangalore we're all working on the same page but anything we can do is a city to speak up at the city level please let us know you know fight for more resources. And also, you know, any hub coordinators, you know, if they're feeling overwhelmed, I hope they're also willing to speak up because, you know, it is a lot of work. But again, I do really appreciate you taking the time and, you know, bringing us up to speed with what's going on. I hope it leads to, you know, some sort of communication, how we can be a better part as a city to help move some of these things forward. Any other questions or comments?
[47:04] Eric Jorgensen: Okay, I really appreciate both of you coming in. Thanks, and any time. Really well, perhaps we're
[47:08] Susan Hawes: happy to travel yeah all right on this next particular item i have a conflict of interest
[47:17] Michael Beck: this is the together playing proposal on other funding requests i have a conflict with or even voted on my counselor with together so the committee will have to elect a temporary chair up for the cycle hey i would like to make a nomination even if it's yourself i know the name
[47:48] Carolyn Fish: okay up next on the agenda
[47:53] Susan Hawes: in a moment we
[48:02] Carolyn Fish: have the together place proposal and other funding requests that's in the packet. So I guess we will start out first with the Together Place. Sure, yeah.
[48:16] Susan Deane: It's really sort of two items worked into one. I think they're connected but not. So you all know the history on the conversations that we've had about potentially providing some funding to the Together Place in response to a funding shortfall that organization has. I think the exciting thing as of today is that funding shortfall is substantially smaller than it was when we first started those conversations. I think at this point, unless there's been more good news received, the amount that's needed to fully reopen the services that closed is $70,000, primarily due to the receipt of substantial amount of funding from the King Foundation as well as $7,000 from Penobscot County opioid funds. At the last meeting you had requested that the Together Place submit a plan for how they intended to use the money which is included in your packet and I think it does provide some additional detail about sort of the accountability and reporting back of metrics that the city could expect were we to provide that additional funding certainly if you have questions about that proposal the together place themselves who are here would be the most effective at answering those questions does
[50:00] Carolyn Fish: anyone have any questions counselor dean i would just like to
[50:03] Susan Deane: make a comment that i'm very impressed with the diligence that they have shown to come up with all the money that they need other than the 7 000 and i would propose that we make an immediate donation of the 7 000 from our home so they can reopen because they have certainly done their due diligence we've got this now they're very reasonable now that i would like to see this back in operation fully so that the individuals will be served better than wherever they're going now
[50:33] Daniel Carson: and so carson and then councilman not on this committee so i can't i can't second that but i would just chime in that i would 100 agree with us making that contribution i think if together place is such an important organization and for me you know we talk a lot about the different places that we spend money, but we really talk a lot about how we need to do more with recovery. And that's what Together Place is about. So I think it'll be an important contribution to make.
[51:08] Carolyn Fish: I mean, I'm sorry, Councillor Walker, getting ahead of myself.
[51:12] Daniel Carson: I definitely support filling in this gap for that. I did have a quick question about the social media posts that Together Place put on today that said that it was they are less than two thousand six hundred dollars away from reopening the doors.
[51:29] Susan Deane: That would be a great question. I haven't been on the socials yet today. Okay.
[51:35] Carolyn Fish: Would you like to join us at the table? Would you mind introducing yourself? Yeah, thank you. I'm the executive director for Together.
[51:43] Joseph Cartel: Thanks, Bureau Recovery Center. My name is Joseph Cartel. It's good to see you. So we did update our thermometer to say that we had reached 99. That does include the 7,000 match from the county. However, that 7,000 is contingent on the city matching those funds. So it'd be hard to calculate the exact math. I'm sure we could do it for you, but we were hoping that you would consider the seven thousand dollar request today, and then any leftover funds would go for the.
[52:15] Speaker B (unidentified): Our sustainability plan. We are also in preparation for our RFP for the warming shelter. We are making investments in our infrastructure already to support that as well. So, and that is cash coming out of the pocket, which is quite small at the moment, Council.
[52:37] Susan Hawes: Rocker, thank you for that.
[52:39] Daniel Carson: Clarification, I appreciate that, and I do support too. I think Together Place is very important organization that we have in the area to help our community members, and we've seen what it's done to our community without having the doors open. So I appreciate you all coming in, dedicating your time, and bringing forth what we had asked, being very transparent about the financial responsibilities that you guys have. So did.
[53:14] Carolyn Fish: You, I'm sorry, that's it, just to reopen. I'm sorry. Chancellor Fuller, did you want to add anything, or did you have something you wanted to ask or say? No.
[53:22] Speaker K (unidentified): Well, I'll just say that I am also in favor of supporting and I am really impressed with the efforts. You guys have worked hard to get to this point and it seems like $7,000, considering what initially we were being asked for, I think, is significantly lower. And I really think that 's what our opioid settlement
[53:50] Susan Deane: funds should be used for.
[53:52] Speaker K (unidentified): So I'm not on this committee, but I would support that.
[53:58] Carolyn Fish: Ms. Melo, did you have your hand up? OK. I would like to also say I know I was tough on you the first time around, but that's only because bankers are always tough on me. So that's my fiscal mind. And, Joe and I did have a conversation. And, you know, they have, even from that first meeting, done some taken some steps toward better fiscal management. They've certainly proven all the effort they've made since that first meeting we had, and came back with their plan and, you know, going to be reporting the proposal was definitely added a lot more information. So I want to thank you for that. And I was pleased to see that. And as I always said, I do want to see you stay open. It's it's you've been here a long time and the community there's a certain community that needs that. So I am also in support of this request and congratulations and I hope you continue to improve and grow. So do you need anything from us at this time on that or do we do you want us to wait until is there anything else? Well, let's do I think we should take a
[55:18] Susan Deane: have a motion and a second and a vote from the committee members present on that item and then I'll prepare some things for you and I have a motion for the city
[55:35] Carolyn Fish: of Bangor to match the seven thousand dollar monies to the together place. I will make a
[55:41] Susan Deane: motion for the city of Bangor to match the seven thousand out of the opioid settlement funds. I'd like to add immediately to that second motion
[55:54] Carolyn Fish: and a second and I'm going to do a roll call. Full counselor Dean? Yes. Council Carson? Oh, you're not on the committee, sorry, I'm on the wrong list. Counselor Walker? Excuse me. Council Maller? No. And I'm going to say no because
[56:12] Wayne Mallar: because I have issues with the county wanting us to support a matching grant when we were supposed to get support from the county on a $400,000 matching grant with Arts of Maine United Way. And they decided to contribute 150,000 and we gave 400,000. So, I mean, I think they've got to be more receptive and I vote no.
[56:38] Carolyn Fish: and I will be a yes vote so we have two three yes and one no so your motion
[56:50] Susan Deane: Said immediately this will require full council approval. I'm so I'll compare it for you for my day. It's amazing, it's awesome, I'll do it. I just want the doors and I think if we're going to move on to the next subject, even though it was one memo, I think it would be appropriate to invite counselor back in if we're complete with our conversation. I just have a question before I question you. Thank you for coming, go ahead and ask a question. Thank you.
[57:22] Speaker K (unidentified): For sticking staying so long. Now that you have me, well I mean I guess not an official commitment, but like how I guess after Monday once it goes to the full Council you'll have probably a full commitment. I guess I get, I don't know how we're gonna vote, but my question is like how quickly would you be able to continue or resume those services? So it's going to take
[57:47] Joseph Cartel: a little bit of wrapping up. I think about 48 hours or so, you know, we could have the doors is open. That don't quote me on 48 hours, but somewhere I think the outside was a week. Yeah, that was the other week. Okay, yes, we just want to make sure we have our volunteers back in place. Thank you.
[58:10] Daniel Carson: Brother Carson did you have a question? I just wanted to respond to that fact when you said it would require a ramp up and then you followed up with 48 hours to a week. I thought that's not a ramp up.
[58:26] Carolyn Fish: Okay, well thank you very much. This will invite counselor Beck back to the table. I will relinquish my temporary role as chair, give it back to counselor Beck. Thank you counseling.
[58:46] Susan Deane: We're moving on to the rest of the memo. Yes, so over the course of the last I don't know month or so I would say we have received a number of additional requests for funding and I think I would be excited for some guidance on how we want to approach those requests. I think arguably all of them are expenses that would qualify for opioid settlement funds because they provide you know services in at least in part to folks who may be at risk of substance use. The three requests that we've received to date are a request from MANA Ministries due to an unexpected incident that damaged their kitchen. The email that we received was seeking $8,000 in financial support. The well...
[1:00:14] Bill Ray: Bill Ray, I'm the director of MANA. I have been since 1990.
[1:00:19] Michael Beck: 90. Oh and you were saying that you no longer need that thing. I don't need 8,000, I only need 5,000.
[1:00:24] Bill Ray: I don't want any more than I need. And one thing that I don't know how to bring it up, we've been doing a warming center and a cooling center in the summertime, in the wintertime, for the last four or five years. Just nothing, we talk about nothing. We just, the people in the street know what we got and know what we do. That's all I care about. But I want you guys to know that sometimes they correct you. But that's what we do. We put people into housing, we put people where they need to be.
[1:00:54] Michael Beck: Well, they don't let the city manager continue. Okay, I appreciate it.
[1:00:59] Susan Deane: So the second request, sir, I'm happy to see back over here. Okay, thank you. The second request that we've received is from the well. You received a communication from a representative of Jericho Road on behalf of the well indicating that they were in need of support for their daytime warming shelter that they operate in the winter. And I know city staff were seeking out to see a region to get more information about the scope of the need because the need was sort of non-specific in dollar amount. I don't know Jen, I'm sorry to impose upon you, do we have any more information about, oh I'm sorry
[1:01:45] Mel Combs: My name is Mel Combs, I'm the president of Jericho Road Street Ministries, and the well warming center is a mission of ours, ministry of ours. We've, this would be our fifth year. We, do, I think some of you people have visited the place and we're quite unique and what we offer, what we do. We open up usually on the books it shows seven o'clock, but usually somebody's there by 6 10, 6 15, coffee's gone, people are waiting at the door to come in, especially the people who spend the night out. We just want to keep it going this year. Everything is so much more expensive. We've had a gentleman, if you've seen around the city, the guy that did the 100 mile run for us, he raised at least 15,000. So we were originally looking for 30. So we don't need 30 now, I mean 15 would be awesome. Money's still trickling in slowly, so you know, it may, but you know, we can get that. We do, we have offices, an office there for the options team, which is the, yeah, and all the, all the different resources, they're allowed to come in and use an office. We have, you know, we house people, the parole people, they come in, I mean, we, you know, it's not just a warming center and we want to make it more, we want it to be, you know, when people could come and the Resources, okay, they can set up, okay. I've got a meeting with so-and-so at nine o'clock, and we have that happens now, but we want it to be more, you know. We get people into detox, we get people into treatment, we, you know, as we know, you know, the addictions is horrendous, you know. We provide training, we or this training is provided to us through the city for knock-in administering and, you know, getting people out of those situations hopefully that they're in, and that's what we strive for, is you know we don't want to be just a place where you can come in and get warm. We want a place where you can get warm and find resources and, you know, to get you out of the situation you're in. We have a lot of success stories. No, I'm not going to do, but without the resources, we're not going to have any great
[1:04:37] Susan Deane: And so then the last request that we've received recently is from Teresa's Place, and they're, oh, I'm sorry, yes, there's a complex [Susan Hawes: record] Reflect that Counter Leonard has left the room. So they're seeking a commitment of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars, that's forty thousand in each of three years, of city financial support to sustain and expand their on-site supportive services at Teresa's Place. And I, for those of you that were on last summer, I'm sure you'll recall that when Teresa's Place came online, that was a topic that we as a cat that I discussed with you about sort of the funding streams and their capacity to offer full-time 24-hour services at that location. And so their attachment is included in your packet and contains more detail about what they would be proposing to do with that funding, or we provide it, and you will also see in there that they're seeking funding from us, the county, and the state to support that, not just the city. And so I think at this point, I don't think it is common for me to come to you with funding requests out of budget cycle. I think earlier the nature of funding drying up is driving a lot of that, I think, as well as just heightened need. So looking for some guidance from you on how you'd like to approach these asks. Just have a quick question on Teresa's Place. I don't know if you know this answer, but do you know if they are at capacity? I think they're generally full. Yes, it took a while to get up and running. I don't think we ever heard if they were at full capacity. Jen, do you know generally the answer to that? Okay, thank you. Number
[1:06:52] Carolyn Fish: Fish, do we have any reports or any way, I know this is from the opioid settlement funds, and you know, it sounds like they qualify, but you know, I do think that we have to think about, you know, there's only so much of that as well. And do we have, you know, any reports about how successful this has been, you know, what have they done? I mean, they just opened and it took a long time to open, so you know, now they're back asking for a pretty substantial amount of money and with the Together Place, you know, they came in, we knew there was a grant, a substantial grant that they lost, and we even sort of said, well, we'd like to see better fiscal responsibility and what you're planning, and I kind of feel even more so, if they were here, I think Joe's left, but I'd say he could see it wouldn't be just speaking on him, but they just opened and they had substantial amount of money, this is a lot of money they're asking for, and you know, and I just want to say I've heard some things that have been a little disappointing, and I can't validate that they're true or not true, but I think before I could get on board with this, I need a lot more information. Why they come in here needing so much money? Have we inspected or had any kind of, I don't want to say certification, patient evaluation maybe, of where they are to date, how successful they've been, you know what, so you know, we've been to the well and we've seen what they do in their warming shelter and we know that they have, you know, sort of accountability as best you can with a vulnerable group of people, but it's very impressive with what they have done, and I just don't have that. I have more questions about Teresa's Place and more concerns that I am not comfortable, you know, and I, and I'm not being biased. I'm just from the information I have, I understand, man, I understand now the Together Place and I understand the Well, and I don't understand why the Together Place is back here asking for this kind of money. And, I don't even know if we have a valuation of how successful they are, they are, what are their problems, what, you know, what obstacles are they experiencing, what are the residents they're experiencing, so I'm not prepared to
[1:09:31] Susan Deane: to say i'm comfortable with approving that and if i might i think i agree 100 with a 40 000 ask i think what i 'm really hoping to get out of this conversation is not necessarily a yay or nay on any particular proposal, but maybe some agreement on how you would like to approach these proposals, given that it is so unusual for us to get out-of-cycle requests. And I think it's probably coming to us, some of these are probably coming to us, because we do have that identified pool of money of opioid settlement funds, which is not an and every year occurrence. And I think the question for me is, how do these requests, which would likely get paid out of copulate funds, relate to the broader process of determining how that $250,000 that we have this year is gonna be spent. Go for Carson.
[1:10:30] Daniel Carson: And again, I'm not on this committee. I think about these three things a little bit differently. I think, you know, with the small ones, I'll start with the well, a number of us have been there, we've explored that, we see the great work that happens there. And I'm thinking about this in the warming shelter context, we already know that other warming shelters that we had to put some money out for last year are not going to need some of them are not going to need those funds this year so there is a little bit of a different landscape in the total warming shelter conversation I would certainly be inclined I think that's super important and the work that goes on there I'd be inclined to support that I will make the comment here and then again in the next meeting but I think the legislative committee could take on a question and we've received different ideas from members public and other people about how to you know how we could advocate for pockets of state funding to really make these to make sure that these things are funded i do also think about you know we established a committee on homelessness it is in the in the right in the thick of doing its work and thinking about ideas right and bringing analysis and it's going to provide us with a strategic plan and I sort of continue to go back to the my base point that every time we react and Reflex and we hand out some money we are without really having a plan yet potentially hurting our future ability to execute a brilliant plan that committee is going to bring to us and I'm being really positive there it's going to be a brilliant plan right so i would have a lot more questions about the request for teresa's place and that's complicated i am extremely supportive of the places that have these wraparound services that's exactly what's missing it's why people are not being able to maintain housing right when they don't have that but you know 40 000 a year over the next three years and then what and then what and then what after that and are so are we are we going to be on the hook as the city of bangor for funding those wraparound services for all eternity and i think that should be something we need to know as we consider that and of course perhaps we could advocate for funding from other sources but i'd have a lot more
[1:13:08] Susan Hawes: questions on that one councillor Miller and then dean well to your request I think we established
[1:13:17] Wayne Mallar: that we're this is an ongoing amount they want and they'll have to present it next year before the budget I don't see this as an emergency item the Teresa's place and I would think all and for anything coming that extends more than a year we'll see you next year budget time because i don't think we can be taking this every meeting we'll have someone pounding on the door every day and obviously it wasn't too good planning on the door every day they know our deadlines and we have to hold it
[1:13:53] Susan Deane: these are more immediate requests as we you know kind of determine that they are emergent but look what happened with together place we thought it was a huge emergency and yes they did close their doors but they were able to pump with quite a bit went from sixty three thousand down to seven thousand and bill ray just told us that he's gone from eight thousand to five thousand not sure if the well might come into some money in the next few days but i'm sure let us know i would be you know Considering considerate of these smaller asks, I would agree that Trace's place needs a lot more investigation. Not that they're not doing wonderful work, I'm sure they are. I mean, we waited quite a while, in fact we held off closing an encampment because of it in it, you know, see where that went. So I don't think we should make immediate emergency decisions when other things sometimes will come along together place. So I would like to just hold off a little bit and get more information.
[1:15:05] Daniel Carson: I just wanted to say that I know that you don't want like a definite yes or no or whatever, but I like to weigh in on some of the things that are more important for me. I feel like Vienna is one of the more important ones to get help get the building ready from the accident they had to kind of have that immediate to have that open so that those service to you is. I think when I did some research on it that they were still trying to offer services as far as like feeding people and stuff, but getting that building ready to go I think is very immediate to continue to help our community members, and I think that the well also would be second in order to assist with considering the cold winds are coming. It's like 45 degrees this morning when I got up, and I think that's important to keep those doors open, you know, and get them ready for Priest's place. I do have a lot of concerns that we're already talking about. I've had case managers that work with participants that live at Teresa's place and there's no hot water. These are just things that have been brought to my attention, not hot water, there's no heat, no air conditioning, the conditions of the hallways. This is why before I had asked that we have a could councils get a tour of Teresa's place, and maybe that could be on the next thing that we could do to try to check that place out, because I don't think that it's up far the living conditions and the wraparounds. First I think it's great, I think it's great that we have these, you know, units available, but I think there needs to be a deeper dive into who are we helping, how is it helping, and we don't have a lot of the information that we would really need on. I think I mean they open before I have been on council, but it doesn't seem like, I mean, and that's a lot of money to ask for without with little evidence base, basically numbers and stuff. So that's, I wouldn't lose your mind, that's how I would move forward. Thank you, I'm not going.
[1:17:36] Speaker K (unidentified): To repeat what everyone else has said, I think we definitely need a lot more information from Theresa's Place, and probably for them to come in and speak with us. I am happy to see that we have representatives from MANA and The Well here, and they stuck with us for over four hours to be able to answer our questions. And so I think that's worth something. But I know that we toured The Well last winter, and they do great things. We've seen that. It's been a little while since I've been to MANA, but I have been to MANA, and they are and have been doing great things in the community, and they don't come ask us like for, we just don't hear from them because they're so self-sufficient, but like they just had a situation that happened that was really unfortunate, and I so I think with MANA as well as The Well, like we are going into winter, and those are pretty immediate needs. And while I agree we don't want to take away from the work of the homeless committee, I don't. It is cold already, and we are in that. And so I think these are kind of short-term things. And I think going forward, I don't see them having a plan that's going to take us into this winter and resolve some of these problems. And then I guess the only other thing I'll say is like I know when a couple weeks ago we didn't know yet when we were getting the additional opioid settlement funds, is there any update to that? I don't have an update now. Okay, I did not ask today whether we've gotten. Yeah, okay, so that might be, you know, if we are considering Theresa's Place, that might be worth considering, you know, when we get more funds, if you know, if that is
[1:19:33] Susan Deane: something that we do want. So I think what I'm here, I'm sorry I keep interrupting and
[1:19:39] Carolyn Fish: count for fish. I know it's late. I probably should just postpone all my questions. The other thing too is we get 200, you know, I think that we, these are important, and especially with winter here, and the reasonable ask, but you know, the comments been made a few times, and I've been thinking more about it lately, and especially comments during that the homeless committee meeting, you know, are we smart to just take the 250 and there's 10 here and five there, or in the long run, in the bigger scheme of Things, if we have 250, should we try to wait until we have a million or a million and a half or whatever and have a facility that, you know, day space or an expansion or something that, you know, and again maybe we wait to see what the homeless committee comes up with, but rather than have it on the taxpayers' backs, if you know, we don't give you up piecemeal it here and there, but we actually can do, have a strategic plan and might even involve the service providers going into this bricks-and-mortar or whatever we come up with, and then, you know, it helps them perhaps, but so today we have beaten this crisis and we've already earmarked some of these, but you know, it'll be interesting for us to kind of keep that in the back of our mind if the overall effect it might hurt, you know, now to not dive into that, but if we had a strategic plan and it might help solve this continuing beyond, you know, so I'll be done and while I'm talking I would like to weigh my next thing on the agenda because it's late Wait, postpone that for another time, because that would be an engaging conversation.
[1:21:29] Michael Beck: Sure. Dr. Carson.
[1:21:32] Daniel Carson: I just want to piggyback off of that and support that idea. I think we talk a lot about, I mean, not just the fact that we need a strategic plan, right, but we think about accountability. And then every time we get a request, we have all these questions we try to come up with. And if we were able to centralize, you know, have that pocket money and centralize it around a strategic plan and put it in a place where that oversight and accountability is put enough by, like I'll say maybe public health would be a great example, right, it's there and it is, you know, it's sent out from there, the accountability is built in and it's centralized, and that would make our role as a council, you know, we send out the money but we also do the oversight, and that would make our oversight role, I think, just remarkably easier if you were able to do that, really to see all of those things in one place, and we talk a lot about collaboration, right, we want to be a better partner and we want that collaboration, we want to build that system, and the reality is unless we have a mechanism to do that and compel people, that's not real, right, we can't, we can't just like tell organizations what to do, so having that centralized would create a mechanism by which we can compel collaboration and compliance and coordination and all of those wonderful C words.
[1:22:59] Michael Beck: For my part, knowing the source of money and how much feedback we got before we set up the Opioid Settlement Committee, I mean, the phrase was used, this is blood money. It means a lot to people. And it had to be transparent and it had to be a fair way to do this. We're in a tough spot because the Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee is expired, it's gone. You know, there was a process. The money went out. These emergencies didn't exist at the time that process took place. I'm, you know, cognizant of that fact, but also looking at this at a high level, we're going to have to come up with a policy for future requests. You know, because if whatever council decides to do here, other organizations are going to see that and say, what about mine? You know, regardless of the situation, the emergency, everything else, if I'm a nonprofit, I'm going to be the same. Like, that's money. That's my mission. What can you do for me? So we're going to need to come up with what is going to be our policy for taking these requests in. You know, is there going to be an application process kind of like what they did before? You know, again, it's hard to set a cap because, you know, I agree with it. Like, I had bigger visions for this money. You know, especially the idea of having a, you know, some just somebody to oversee an opioid crisis strategy of some sort, something, you know, anything. So I do want to point out that we do need to come up with whatever that policies regarding what's in front of us. Yes, Teresa. Place we need a lot, a lot more money and I just again go back to fairness. If it ends up being awkward settlement funds on, I'm one of the organization got a smaller grant, it's like, hold on, I could have done so much more. Just because I didn't have an emergency, I didn't get the hundred, you know. So you know, again, I'm not saying one or the other right now, but we need a lot more information there, counselor Carson. And I also want to just
[1:24:50] Daniel Carson: piggyback off that because I just thought as you were saying that, you know, about having a process in place. Yeah, I think about you said it's blood money, these opioid settlement funds. It's also I think important for us to remember that, you know, there is a connection into the homeless community and we do see that. But at the same time, there are a lot of people who experience substance use disorder and are not homeless. They're not outside, they're in houses, right? And so I do also I think about that process, but I worry that in the in reaction and earmarking things that we may sort of miss that mark, right with what the full intention of opioid settlement funds are supposed to be. I mean, I would hate to see us create a process where a whole group of people are left out of that opportunity but they but they earned through there right through being is it
[1:25:50] Michael Beck: possible to get and I don't know who we reach out to or how but I really would like the council of not so much the then be the former committee members but there's people in the recovery community who was willing to from the public who sees this thing and they understand, something that they could reach out to council with and say, this is where we agree you should spend the money on these particular things. Something, because that's, because of what this money is, this is one of the harder decisions because, you know, again, I feel like the rich trust fund uncle, you know, telling, you know, hey, you'll get your support, you know, and really never my money to begin with. That's tough. So anyway, to get that feedback.
[1:26:31] Susan Deane: So Jen and I have had conversations about that, about how we could conceptualize a system to get that feedback to inform those spending decisions for the next round. And so I think what I'm hearing you say is, you know, there's, it sounds like there's an appetite for these two smaller, much more urgent needs. needs. And so what I can do is I can sort of do some searching within our various funds to determine where we might have capacity to support those two urgent needs and bring those back to you. But that we can pause on the larger request and have that robust conversation as a group about how we will structure that larger pot of opioid spending for this next round, I think is kind of generally what I'm hearing. And I think you're right. I think a component of that needs to include public input. My personal feeling is that the committee was a really robust time consuming process, but we allocated $3 million. This time around, we're only gonna have 250. And I'm not sure that full month long, really in-depth process is going to make sense for a smaller pot of money. But I do think that Jen and I have been collaborating and talking about ways to still get that input without that full-blown process. So we'll come back to you maybe in October, GovOps, with some ideas, if that works. And in the meantime, I'll see where I might find $20,000 for those immediate needs.
[1:28:21] Michael Beck: For those smaller needs, I'm assuming time to the essence of that'd be like a workshop you'd come back to or? Yeah. Okay. Any other questions on this particular item? And then the last one, Councillor Fish had some items on top of it, did you want to make a motion to postpone to the next item to the next?
[1:28:38] Carolyn Fish: Yes, I'd like to make a motion to postpone that conversation to the next government office here.
[1:28:43] Michael Beck: Second. I think we're motioning a second. Any doubt? Okay, we'll postpone that. And then with the last item for gov ops.