MINUTES

LAWTON CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING

MAY 5, 2004

WAYNE GILLEY CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBER

Mayor John P. Purcell, Jr.                Also Present:

Presiding                        Larry Mitchell, City Manager

                            John Vincent, City Attorney

                            Kathy Fanning, City Clerk

                            Col. G. Keith Herring, Fort Sill Liaison

                            

The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Purcell.  Notice of meeting and agenda were posted on the City Hall notice board as required by law.

ROLL CALL

PRESENT:                Randy Bass, Ward One

                    Rex Givens, Ward Two

                    Amy Ewing-Holmstrom, Ward Four

        Robert Shanklin, Ward Five

        Jeffrey Patton, Ward Six

        *Stanley Haywood, Ward Seven

        Randy Warren, Ward Eight

ABSENT:                Glenn Devine, Ward Three

*Haywood entered the room at 6:10 p.m.

______________________________________________________________________________

BUSINESS ITEMS:

1.    Conduct a consolidated planning workshop, receive a briefing on the Consolidated One-Year Action Plan for FY 2004 (Draft), consider requests for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funding and provide guidance for development of the plan.  

Purcell said he would like each group to limit their presentation to five minutes.  He asked Council some questions they would like each group to answer when they come forward.

Warren asked what percentage of the CDBG monies received would be used for administrative costs.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked for the salary breakdown of the staff from CDBG monies.

Shanklin asked if they split up the monies into two accounts, such as CDBG money and other, what are their accounting practices and how do they handle their funds.

Givens asked how the applications were ranked.  Purcell said we should have Aplin answer that before we get started.

Ewing-Holmstrom said she would like to know what other monies are available to these groups.  What grants are available to them, if there are other monies out there and have they applied for them and are they receiving them?

Purcell summarized this for the audience.

Aplin said he sent out a memo providing two fact sheets to the Council on April 28 ^th, which addressed Givens question.  He said we have four individuals selected, three from his office and one external from his office.  Each person reviews each application, which there were 20 this year, independently.  Each of them applies the scoring along with the criteria worksheet they have to use for doing that, on a question by question basis.  Once they do that, they come together in a panel meeting and review their scores.  Where there's a significant difference between the scores, we will open up that particular issue for discussion.  He said there is no requirement for anyone as a result of that discussion, to change their scores, but as they get into it they find reviewers sometimes look at things a little bit differently.  By laying everything out on the table and discussing these differences, we are able to make sure we have consistency in the way each of the evaluators are doing their evaluations.  Subsequent to that, the individuals work up their final scores and those scores go to Tim Libby and the four scores are averaged.  The average is what Council has in the right hand column of the spreadsheets before them.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked if there was a master list of the organizations that will be coming before Council.  Aplin said yes, they are all on the spreadsheet.  There are others who applied, but those are non-public service projects.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked if there was one consolidated list.  Aplin said he does have a consolidated list but it doesn't provide any of the additional funding information.  He said it should be in the green booklet.

Shanklin said you are asking us to approve what you've already picked out.  Aplin said if you agree with the recommendation they have made, the City Council certainly can do that.  He said tonight would not be the proper time to do it because we do have to have a public hearing to provide for citizen input before the final decision is made.  If Council wants changes made, tonight would be the time to let us know and we can get those done before the public hearing itself.  

Haywood said what they don't understand is when Aplin goes to different communities and has public hearings, at that time do individuals or communities make a recommendation to the Consolidated Plan.  How many appearances do you have a year? Aplin said four to six, depending on what the neighborhoods want to do.  This year we had a public hearing in the Patterson Center, one in the Owens Multi-Purpose Center, one in the Youth Center down in Lawton View, one up in the HC King Center for the Zone 1 area, and other than that we've been in contact with individuals that have had an interest in this that provides suggestions.  Aplin said he also contacts the Public Works Department and Parks and Recreation Department and asks them if they have any projects they would suggest, that fall within our low and moderate income areas.  He said those all go on the list.  He said then they take a look at the list we have, in terms of the priorities in the Consolidated Plan and we do our best to allocate the funds so they will best meet the overall needs of the Consolidated Plan.

Shanklin asked what the $63,000 was to be spent on.  Aplin said that project is to pay a portion of the salaries of two new Code Enforcers that will focus on the Zone 1 area.  

Purcell explained to the audience that they were discussing the overall CDBG money which is a little over $1 million.  He said what most people here tonight are interested in is Public Service.  In that, we are limited by law to 15% or $159,318 and that is all the money we can provide to all the agencies who want it.  The requests came in for $268,000.  We are trying to allocate $108,000 of shortfall.  He said that's what we want to discuss first.  That's the hard one, the other projects you are hearing about, we usually get through with pretty quickly.  It's the $159,000 out of a little over $1 million that causes all the heartburn because everyone has good programs and we just don't have enough money to fund them.  

Julia Reed, Director of Family Social Services for Catholic Charities, of their main office, which supervises the Lawton office, she said Catholic Charities have been in Lawton since 1993.  They have been a continuously operating agency in Oklahoma since 1912. They opened a counseling office for one day a week and as the need grew, they expanded. Currently they have two full time Therapists, 1 half-time secretary, and several administrative volunteers that come in and help with administrative functions over the course of the week.  She said about 60% of their money for all Catholic Charities come from private donations, so they have very few, maybe 30-35% they will use in State and Federal dollars if we are going to submit for grants.  She said they prefer to operate under private donations.  In Lawton, this is the only request for funds outside.  The office wholly functions under the monies they raise through private donations in their annual campaign.  In this office we can offer services out of the main office, adoptions, immigration services and those kinds of things, but predominantly, they are charged with providing counseling services and case management services to the poor, be the economically poor, emotionally poor.  They present to us that we can help them grow somehow and become self-sufficient.  She said case management is the area they are different than other groups providing counseling because if they have clients who are being served in a counseling program who have a broader spectrum of need, then we are going to try to work closely with other sources to fulfill that service plan.  That might include some financial assistance from their agency to pay for things like rent, to avoid eviction, or utilities to avoid cut off.  Last year this office served about 250 clients with just two Therapists.  Of those, 30% came from the zip code areas of  73501-73507.  The bulk of the people they serve really have very little to offer in terms of financial resources.  This year, so far, they have seen 90 clients and of those, 67% have an income less than $15,000 and 84% were under $25,000.  

Reed said they are different in terms of case management.  When a client comes in to set some realistic goals for themselves on budgeting, housing, education, or whatever has been a bump in the road to get them to call for help in the first place.  We will respond to their immediate needs, but over a period of time, we want to make it a broader impact so they don't have to utilize any public services in the future.  Currently the Lawton office has a very long waiting list of clients; we just don't have the staff to be able to serve those folks.

Reed said they have been asked about accreditation and billing and why weren't they able to recoup some money from the Medicaid client.  She said accreditation is a very long process and it's a very expensive process.  Their agency is taking steps to get accredited and perhaps bill for some of those dollars because right now they will see people who may have Medicaid but can't pay us.  She said that doesn't matter, they will see them anyway, but it would be nice if there were some kind of payment they could gain from that.  In the meantime, they serve without any financial gain or reimbursement from them at all.

Reed said they have a Finance Director and he takes care of their accounts.  None of the CDBG monies go toward administrative costs.  All this goes directly to help with staff salary to provide the needed services.

Reed said they don't just serve Catholic people, the people working there aren't just Catholic, they are just as non-profit as the non-profit agency next door without a religious name.  The majority of their funding comes from a private drive they do through the Catholic Church.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked how many counselors do you have on staff?  Reed said there are two full-time Therapists in that office.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked if anyone else worked there.  Reed said a half-time secretary and four volunteers come pretty regularly every week.  They don't provide any of the direct services, they do a lot of supportive services.

Charlie Bear, Executive Director of the Christian Family Counseling Center introduced some of his Board Members who were here to offer support.  He introduced Bernice Davenport, Board of Directors Member, Raymond McMurray, Vice-President, Jim Cantrell, President, and Jeff Sadler, Chairman of their Finance Committee.

Bear said they have been in business since 1985.  They do a wide array of out-patient mental health counseling for adults, adolescence, and children as young as seven years old.  They provide individual counseling, marriage counseling, pre-marital, family, group counseling, and play therapy for children.  They don't do drug and alcohol, children under seven, and they don't act as expert witnesses in court cases.

Bear presented a slide presentation showing their clinical staff, who is involved in providing the care.  There are eight counselors with Masters Degrees, PhDs, and  one Psychologist, as well as one Physician that does medication management for their clients. He said this is not just their staff, but their staff who provides care for the clients through this program.  Currently every person on the slide is involved in providing care for someone funded through the CDBG funds.  They have 110 years of combined experience. The advantage of a large staff is they can identify particular counselors who have expertise in particular areas to help with the areas when somebody comes with a need in certain areas.  We have a couple counselors who work well with children, a couple who work with adolescents, and others who work well with adults with a history of past sexual abuse, etc.  We can tailor the needs of the client with the counselor who helps them.

Bear said the average client who comes to the center scores in the 90 ^th percentile in the United States on a test called the OQ45, which is an outcome based measurement, two of the most widely used in out-patient mental health care in the US that we're licensed to use.  This means only 10% of the people in all the US are experiencing a more sever mental health problem than the average  person who comes to them for help.  He said 62 families, and individuals we are helping through the program this year, ages 7 through 65; 34%  are minorities, 43% are single heads of household.  People who come for this service are not people looking for a handout, they're people looking for a leg up.  They're people whose lives are literally falling apart, people whose marriages are on the brink of breaking up, a little girl who was raped, children who have been abused and neglected, and other victims of past sexual abuse, and people considering suicide.  All these people have made the very difficult phone call to their center asking them to help put their lives back together, and you've enabled us to say yes when they've made that call.  Bear went into detail explaining the OQ45 test.  

Bear said 4% of the funds asked for they have delegated for administration, as far as salaries, 0% of the Executive Director's is CDBG funds, 3% of the Clinical Director's, 1% of the Support Staff, 16% of the Clinical Staff, and we are providing about 19% of the total sessions, if they get what they have requested, that they will do this year.  He said his Clinical Staff is paid 60% of fees collected, so the direct funding is to them for those services, and 0% for cleaning.  They do have separate line items on the income statement. As far as other funding, last year the center raised about $190,000 which came from 193 individuals, 14 churches, 35 businesses and organizations, the United Way, and two foundations.

Bear read three sentences from one of the clients that has been helped with the CDBG funds, with their permission.  She wrote, "I am grateful that I was able to come here and for the first time in my life, feel good mentally. I also want to thank my counselor and Dr. Davis, I feel that they helped in saving my life.  To the people who made it possible for me to come, I can't say thank you enough.  Without them, I know I would not have been able to get the help I needed.  They too, have helped in saving my life."

Ewing-Holmstrom asked what percentage of their clients who come in are insured and insurance covers their visits.  Bear said about 50% of the clients they see each year are full fees, which means they are either paying full fee or they have insurance.  They help about 2,000 people a year, so about 1,000 of those people, they are seeing at reduced fees or at no fees for services.

Shanklin asked of those 1,000 people, if they weren't seen sometimes 15-20 times.  Bear said yes.  The National Statistics from License, Marriage, and Family Therapists shows the average person who comes to professional counseling, and is successful in the counseling, is going to come to somewhere between 9 and 14 sessions.  

Odell Gunter said he would respond to the financial questions and then Dr. Bartanen from the Volunteer Clinic.   He said the Health Clinic they do at no cost.  There is no admin., no salaries, it's a volunteer clinic and they use volunteer labor in the clinic.  The money we use is spent directly for that program.

Dr. Wendy Bartanen said she is a Family Doctor here in town and spoke on the Volunteer Health Clinic.  They have been opened since Oct. 2001.  She said they have a clinic for people with no insurance, these are our working poor in this town.  They come from every single Ward and every night, depending on the amount of physician and volunteer help they have, they see between 20-40 people who are ill.  Their clients have Diabetes who can't afford to get their medicines, they have high blood pressure and can't afford their medicine, they have asthma and can't afford the medicine, and also acute illnesses. We know what a burden uninsured are with our community services and we work as hard and fast as we can with nothing but volunteer help.  Our clinic is at the Salt of the Earth Church which was donated by the church.  They provide the utilities and everything else. She said they ask their clients for $5 if they have it, good, if they don't then all of our services are volunteer.  We spend most of our money on medications, we work with a pharmacy in town that gets them at wholesale cost, so there is no middle man in our operation.  They rely on samples from providers in town.  They rely on nurses from clinics, and volunteers of all sorts.  Providers have come from Fort Sill and other family doctors in town.  They have so far served at least 400 individuals and they consider us their primary care.  All this is volunteer.  The money goes to medications and they have probably spent $200 on paper, they had a copy machine donated, and they rely strictly on the goodness of their clients and the community's hearts.

Ewing-Holmstrom said none of the money would be used for salaries and everyone there are volunteers.    Bartanen said that is correct.

Purcell said it looks like 0% goes to admin. costs and of the $15,000 they are asking for, $13,000 goes to medications and $2,000 to supplies.  Bartanen said that was correct.

Shanklin said they are not turning anyone down then.  Bartanen said they have to turn them down, unless she wants to work all night.  They turn people down only if they are past number 40.  She said they start lining up at 11:00 and they start the clinic at 6:00 p.m.  The Salt of the Earth Church will give a meal most nights and that is out of the goodness of their hearts.  There is a lot of waiting.  Depending on the number of providers, we will cut it off at 20 or 40 or we will never get out.  Right now they are operating two times a month; the first and third Thursdays and limited only by the number of volunteers we can get.

Patton asked if this money would enable them to extend the amount of time they do it per month or is this merely going to just keep them afloat for doing that twice a month. Bartanen said right now that will accommodate them for twice a month.  They haven't explored other options yet on fund raising, but they will in terms of grants and other things.  It depends mostly on the provider manpower.  This is the sort of program that demands a calling, not everyone wants to come out after work.

Shanklin asked if this was the only money they have.  Bartanen said they got about $3,000 in other contributions.  She said they get a lot of other kinds of contributions as well, such as paper towels, plastic cups, etc.  They take all contributions and distribute to people who can't do it on their own.  Shanklin asked if they care for anyone who is bleeding.  Bartanen said if they are bleeding, no, she sends them straight to the hospital.

Charlene Glover-Johnson said their Executive Director of Hospice is unavailable to be here, he is out of town, so she will do the best she can to represent Hospice.  Hospice of Lawton is the only non-profit hospice care agency in our County, which provides end of life care to the terminally ill, diagnosed with a life expectancy of six months or less. They offer their services to anyone, regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, socio-economic status, or ability to pay.  They have been doing the same job since 1983 and have maintained their commitment to provide service in support of housing, assisted living, nursing homes, private residence, or wherever the individual calls home, for those who are in need of their services.  With CDBG funding they administer comprehensive end of life care services for non-insured, low income  individuals, within the Lawton community through professional medical services and 24 hour nursing care for pain management and symptom control.  Their Chaplin's address the spiritual concerns with patients and the family, while our Bereavement Counselors provide encouragement and grief counseling both before and after death.  Their social services workers advocate for assistance with utilities, food, or personal issues, attend to questions about funeral and burial arrangements.  Unlike other agencies that might provide similar services, they provide a specialized unduplicated service in the fact that their services are very unique. The population they service in the community are not those who are ill, but those who are terminally ill.  She said as the aging population increases in our community each year, the number of individuals who face a terminal illness rises as well.  She said many of these individuals and their families are without insurance, financial assistance, or medical health care coverage to compensate for these costs.  That is where they step in with CDBG funding and provide that for the non-insured.  Non-insured means there is no VA, Tri-Care, Medical Funding Assistance, and/or no private insurance whatsoever.  When looking at the increasingly high cost of medication and medical care needs of terminally ill, they anticipate the rate to increase in the number of non-funded patients in the Lawton community.  Last year alone, the non-insured patient care cost was over $500 per day. During fiscal year 2003, with CDBG funds, they provided all the financial costs of direct end of life patient care for 12 non-insured patients in various Lawton Wards.  She said 9 of those fell within the 0-30% income medium.  During the first six months of the current fiscal year, they have already served 13 non-funded individuals, eight of which fall within, or below the 0-30% income medium.  

Johnson said during the last three years they have successfully provided hospice care services to 63 non-insured, low income citizens in the Lawton community, right here in your Wards.  Hospice of Lawton Area dispensation of hospice care has and will continue to save the taxpayers of our community the monetary burden of end of life expenses for non-funded terminally ill individuals.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked for clarification on one thing.  The name of this project is Hospice of Lawton Area Non-Insured Patient Care Fund, but you also take care of families who are insured, is that correct?  Johnson said yes they do.  They will bill if a family has insurance, but if a family does not have insurance or any means of funding, we will take them and care for them as well and that is what the CDBG funding is used for, just those that are non-insured and low income, no funding.

Patton asked for a breakdown of what percentage was used for non-insured or low income on how many they have served.  Johnson said she didn't have the actual specific percentage because their percentage fluctuates based upon the number of days a patient comes on.  She said last year it was 12 out of the 306 patients they served.

Shanklin said on their chart, they left out Wards 6 and 8.  Johnson said they did not have any individuals non-funded in those particular Wards.  

Purcell asked about their breakdown; what they turned in and on the sheet they just turned in.  On the budget breakout that was turned in it shows they requested $40,000 and on the sheet Council received tonight it shows a request for $81,000.  Johnson said she believes that was the total cost for the program for CDBG funding, not what we are requesting. She said their original request was for $40,000.  Aplin said apparently there has been an error in the way they completed this particular sheet.  If you go back into the green book to tab #4 and go to page 5, you will see that the CDBG fund breakout is $40,000.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked Aplin why did he put zero dollars for them.  Aplin said that's right.  He said their policy in the office for a number of years has been in order for the office to recommend an applicant for funding they need to meet a minimum threshold score.  That minimum threshold score is 60.  Unfortunately this year they came in under that minimum threshold therefore his office cannot recommend.  He said that does not mean Council cannot fund it, should they deem it appropriate to do so.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked for an example that caused this score to be lower.  Aplin said he could actually give several.  One of the things they are required to do is document a need for the project and in this particular case, they did not do that adequately and they lost 6 points on the score right there.  Adequate documentation of the need would have put them up to the 60 level and made them eligible.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked what was required for documentation for the need.  Aplin said there needs to be some indication, either demographically, monitoring your operations during the year, and he gave a couple examples of this, and another has to do with levering of resources.  When it comes to leveraging of human resources; human resources are volunteers who contribute their time and effort to helping caring out this project and provide these services; they lost 6 points on that because they had very few volunteers that actually support their operation.  That is a form of leverage.  He said the other area was in public funds; they lost five points on that because they didn't have any additional public funds they were using to support the project.  What they do have is an income flow from the insurance coverage and they can use that income to continue to carry out their operation, but in the terms in which his office deals, that is not leverage, in terms of going out and getting grants and funding from other agencies that could be providing additional funding to help with this project.

Shanklin said we encourage these people to go out to other agencies for funding.  Aplin said that is exactly right.  They give them extra points if they have funding from other sources because they have gone out, they have done their research, they have submitted their applications, they bring additional money to the table.  For every dollar we allocate to an agency, they are able to leverage, or bring more dollars to the table to be able to expand the services that they provide.  So it really is an incentive for agencies to be aggressive in seeking additional funding for their project.

Shanklin asked where else do these people get their funding other than CDBG?  Johnson said they have funding from fund raising.  They do a lot of independent fund raising, they get donations, gift in kind, and they have partial funding from the United Way.  They do work hard to seek outside funding and they do work with other agencies.  The majority of their funding does come from donations and gifts in kind.  The money we get from Medicaid goes for those individuals who are able to be billed.  For those who don't, that's the only funding that CDBG is used for.  

Shanklin said Aplin is saying he rewards those who can go get 30-40 grants against the individual who just gets one or two.  He said he looks down on that and the Council in the past have.  Aplin said they do give advantage to those who seek other sources of funding in the hopes that over time they can become self-sufficient, so we can take our CDBG dollars and use them elsewhere.  The other issue we have to address is the fact that HUD standard is they like to see every dollar of HUD funds to be expended, to leverage three dollars of other sources of funding.  That could be through volunteerism, grants, donations, fund raising activities, or whatever.  

Purcell said Devine couldn't be here tonight and had expressed his concern on this particular agency from the perspective that last year Council gave them $40,000 and this year it is going to zero.  

Joelle Jolley, Director of Operations at Marie Detty said they are a non-profit agency that has been the designated youth service agency in this county for over 30 years.  They have been providing services in this county since 1971 and their mission is to provide continuous care of the kids, children, and adolescences and their families here in southwest Oklahoma.  They also advocate on behalf of children and youth in this area. They annually serve over 10,000 at risk youths in this county and the surrounding counties providing drug and alcohol programs, counseling services, prevention services, shelter services, group home services, educational services such as anger and training classes, and they also do pregnancy and groups for teens.  They are a Nationally Accredited Agency, have certification from the Commission for Accreditation on Rehabilitation Facilities, and are certified by the Department of Mental Health in Substance Abuse Services to provide drug and alcohol services.

Jolley said they want to focus on expanding their services here in the Lawton area.  They do leverage their funding, they do get State, Federal, and United Way Funding, private donations, and they also bill Medicaid and private insurances.  They have never requested CDBG funding before because they have had other sources to pay for their services they provide.  She said over 75% of their clients are age 19 and under; that is their specialty. They do provide court testimony for them.  Last year Medicaid changed their ruling on what you can and cannot bill.  In the past we had over 50 providers in the Comanche County Region and we will be able to bill Medicaid services.  Medicaid changed their standards and the providers who used to be able to provide those services are no longer able to if they are not accredited by a national body.  That has left three certified counseling agencies here in town; them, Taliaferro, and the hospitals that can provide counseling services through Medicaid and bill for this.  She said what has happened is all of these providers that were seeing these clients are not able to and that has put the stress on all the counseling agencies here in town.  What they propose to do with their funding is take that direct funding, do not use it for any administrative costs and put it directly toward the salaries of clinicians and provide those services at a reduced rate from what their traditional services rate would be on a sliding fee scale.  By doing that they are serving more clients in this area, directly, and leveraging that with their other funding they already have and be able to pick up some of those therapists here in town who are looking for jobs, as well as service all those kids that are on their waiting list.  They currently have over 60 kids on their waiting list and have no where to refer them to.  

Ewing-Holmstrom asked what a business development specialist does and what the connection is with this and Marie Detty Youth and Family Services.  Jolley said a Business Development Specialist has nothing to do with their CDBG grant.  Ewing-Holmstrom said it says a Business Development Specialist, wages and salaries, CDBG. Jolley said this is their first time putting together a proposal packet and their packet was not put in appropriately.  The budget breakdown they submitted, the current one, and the budget breakdown they submitted with their packet is where they are actually looking at the funding.  On the new budget breakdown, under wage and supplemental salary information, that is where they are proposing to put their salaries.  She said their budget is over $9 million at their agency and have 23 locations they service.  Their Director's salary is under $80,000 a year and we are not proposing to use any CDBG funds to supplement his salary or any administrative staff salary at all.  

Purcell spoke on the confusion of paperwork and the variety of ways these have been done and asked Aplin to further explain.

Aplin said the original request for funding was $40,000.  This is one of the new applicants and we are recommending for them $21,864, plus the $10,000 that we are recommending for Catholic Services, meets the 20% reserve requirement from the resolution.  

Ewing-Holmstrom said for those of us who work a full time job and come to City Council and whether it's budget, CDBG, or whatever, she expects information in front of her to be accurate.  She said she doesn't have time and she knows the audience doesn't want to waste time for us trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong.  She said she is not blaming or picking, it has to be right.  She said they are deciding whether Marie Detty, Hospice, whoever, is going to get money and if we don't know the proper figures, then we're going to make misinformed decisions.  She asked that information circulated to Council, whether it's old or new, and if it's new it needs to say new, adjusted, etc., and to please make the information accurate.  Aplin said they do everything they can to do that. Unfortunately they got this one this afternoon and didn't have the chance to look at it. Ewing-Holmstrom said when they go through their presentation the numbers we are looking at are inaccurate.  Purcell said we need to take that into consideration for next and we are beyond that at this time.

Patton asked how many counselors do they have now.  Dolly said actually it depends on which office.  In their Drug and Alcohol Office they have three, in our Out Patient Office they have four, in our Home Base Office they have fourteen, and we are proposing to leverage those funds with an existing counselor in each of those offices to provide services for people who do not have any insurance.

Shanklin asked if they were providing this service now.  Dolly said yes they are and have always provided free services and sliding fee scale services in this community.  Shanklin asked if their budget was $9 million.  Dolly said yes, they have all of the Head Start Programs in this County and the seven surrounding counties and this community as well.

Odell Gunter, Executive Director of the Great Plains Improvement Foundation said he would respond to questions as related to the financing of the program for the Carter Crane Shelter.  He said he would have Betty Caldwell, Director of the Program come up and give you a description and general information on the program itself.

Gunter said line item #15, admin. costs, are $1,113 which would be about 3% of CDBG funding, line item under program delivery cost, wages and salaries #25, for three employees, $15,000 and on item a) 364 clients served, a total cost per person.....

Purcell stopped Gunter at this time stating they needed to find where he was at on the spreadsheets.  There was confusion over the several papers and handouts given to Council.  Purcell said the problem they have is people didn't get all their stuff in on time and now we have this piece mill.  He said to urge the agencies to get them in on time next year because that is part of the confusion.  Aplin said the sheets Council should be looking at are the ones they provided as a result of Council's request at the last meeting.

Gunter said other sources are HAP (Home Assistance Program) from the Dept. of Commerce, ESG Grant.  We were fortunate enough to get $20,000 from the Dept. of Commerce Competitive Grant, they get from FEMA, a portion comes to the County and they get some of those dollars.  They have donated funds coming into the agency, and the total of all funds combined, which is a matter of leveraging, and it takes that to manage some of these programs.  They are going to do whatever is necessary to raise funds to manage our programs.  All funds in their agency are set up in separate accounts and can and is reported separately to the funding sources.

Betty Caldwell, Director of the Carter-Crane Homeless Shelter, at 1203 SW Texas, said they are the only shelter in Lawton that does the long term stay.  The clients work very hard with trying to get them back into the mainstream; into jobs, into housing, to be productive people for the local community.  They get referrals from all of the local hospitals, from the military base, churches, and even get calls from the Library that somebody is staying around there for a long time, maybe they don't have a place to live, they're dirty, they need to be cleaned, maybe they need food.  Their referrals come from anywhere here in town.  They work very closely with law enforcement.  They get calls in the middle of the night asking if we could put somebody on the couch.  They have found them downtown wondering around, highway patrol calls us from time to time with clients who have broken down on the highway, wanting to make sure they are safe for the night and try to give them some service to they contact somebody and maybe either move on or somebody could wire them some money so they can have a car fixed so they can travel to their destination.  

Caldwell said our case management when clients come in is a lengthy process, it is a needs assessment.  There is an action plan of what our action is and what we need to do for that client.  A lot of times it's trying to get a birth certificate, get a social security card, and picture ID.  Those are things a lot of homeless people do not have and are immediate needs that have to be filled for them to be able to work with that client.  They need these things to look for a job, go into training, to get services at DHS, or whatever their needs may be.  To go into housing there have been a lot of changes with the rules about going into public housing/low income housing.  There is a lot of case management.  She said they work very hard going out looking for other funding to match with the City money, the United Way money, and other private donations we are able to get.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked how many employees they have.  Caldwell said they have three full time, 1 part time and  approximately 6 volunteers.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked how many of their full time employees are licensed practicing counselors.  Caldwell said they have nobody on staff, they have to refer out.  They do not provide in-house counseling. Ewing-Holmstrom asked if the three full time employees split up the $39,000 salary. Gunter said they have a line item total of $44,018.  Purcell said the latest one shows $39,400.  Gunter said line item #25, under program delivery cost, wages and salaries. Purcell said they don't have anything on their paperwork for a line item #25 program delivery cost.  

There was further confusion over the paperwork and Aplin explained the most current would have been a supplemental date May 4 ^th.

Council took a five minute recess at this time to make sure everyone had the proper paperwork.  Recessed at 7:35 p.m. and reconvened at 7:45 p.m. with a motion, second, and roll call with all present.

Gunter said they have three employees with a total amount of $15,000 and the project budget would be $35,000.  They had 365 recipients receive service and the total amount allocated per individual was $327.74.  The total amount of CBBG funds is $96.15 per recipient.

Purcell said they are asking for $35,000 and the recommendation is for $35,000.

Patton asked what the average length of stay is.  Gunter said six weeks and it varies.  He said they can extend that but usually it's about a six week stay.  Patton asked what their maximum capacity was.  Gunter said 35 and they sometimes end up with some on the couch.  

Ewing-Holmstrom asked what some of the programs are they offer to the homeless who are there for the six weeks to help get them back on their feet and head for success. Caldwell said they do the needs assessment when they first come in, then they start looking to get them involved with schooling through DHS, if they need to go back and complete a GED program, if they need  certifications updated, and/or they work with JPTA.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked what JPTA was.  Caldwell said that was Joint Partnership Training, thru the workforce at the Employment Office here in town.  They work with all the temporary job services, and they do have local businesses that call us from time to time to see if have clients with a specialty type skill that would be able to go out on a jobsite with them.  She said they are an advocate for clients who have applied for SSI, Social Security Disability, and work with attorneys here in town to provide services free for those clients, so they can go all the way through the appeals court.  They work with Taliaferro for placement of clients who come to them homeless off the street and don't know where to go.  She said they work very closely with their case management. They are not licensed to dispense medications, so the clients have to be those who can handle their own medication.  If we see, at some point in time, maybe something is not working quite right, or they're having a hard day, we notify their case management and their case management team comes on the property and works one on one with them at that time.

Ewing-Holmstrom said what concerns her the most is of the CDBG money you are requesting $15,000 of it is for salaries, supplies and food, $1,700, training, $200, and maintenance $5,000.  She said that just seems to be an alarming figure of all the things you offer, the bulk of the money requested is for wages and salaries.  She asked if they have a chart or anything available to the public to show a success rate of folks who have come to C. Carter Craine and have been successful.  Caldwell said they have yearly statistics of everybody who is placed into a job and everybody placed into housing.  She said when they leave they ask for a follow-up and some clients will allow us to do follow-up services and some will not.  In all her years of being with the program, they have had some women go back to school to finish up their education, some have gone into nursing, and from time to time they will come back by and let us know how they are doing.  She said they had one couple they had a little bit of management problem with when they first came here, about four years ago, and they happen to be settled now and doing quite well in Fort Worth.  She said they have been able to receive their Veteran's benefits and she is receiving her SSI benefits now and they came back to say a job well done and if we had not have taken the time to work with them, one on one, they would not have been able to receive their allotements.

Purcell said two years ago CDBG provided $15,000 for shelter operations, last year it was $25,000 and this year the request is $35,000.  He asked if they had a Shelter Director or Shelter Manager and a General Laborer last year.  Caldwell said no, the General Laborer is a new position, also the House Case Manager we have not been able to do a raise for that position for over 3 1/2 years.  She said she is not asking for a raise for herself.  It is going to bring in two more people to work in the operation.  She said a new component is to do a bus fare through the City bus system for clients and also a small amount of gas for clients who do have cars.

Lisa Stein, said the administrative costs for their program is paid by the program and not CDBG funds.  They are requesting $40,000 and the CDBG funds do not cover all the costs, their program pays the difference.  She said they have been doing prevention programs and services since 1989.  At that time they were under Comanche Memorial Hospital as a specific department.  Five years ago they went independent with the help of Memorial Hospital.  The mission is to do pro-active programs for children and families. CDBG allows them to focus on low income youth and family who live in north-central, central, and south-central Lawton.  Some of their programs are Girl Power, (750 girls go through this program every year), Training Boys for Manhood (200 Title 1 6 ^th grade boys), and delivering a research-based curriculum that has been proven to reduce teen pregnancy at Central Jr. High School and the feeder grade schools that go into Central. This is a five session curriculum and that program is presented by a team of older teens to every single 7^th grader in science class.  She said Central Jr. High School thinks enough of this program to allow us class time in science and the teachers were very resistant to give up class time.  After the first semester of doing this, the science teachers call us now, wanting to know when we are going to come because their students listen to the older teens.  She said also, their curriculum hits 15 of their requirements for their PATHS, on HIV and different kinds of information the students have to get.  

Stein said they serve 9 counties and cases of teenage pregnancy in their counties have gone down.  Their agency has had funding to do programs in Comanche, Stevens, Caddo, and Grady.  In those counties, the numbers have gone down.  

Stein said their program serves girls and boys from age 10 or 11 and they have young people who have been through this program, who are living in this town, who are 24 years of age.  Just looking at the 15-17 year olds, the number has dropped from 55 for 1,000 in 1996, when we started our program here, and no it's at 39 per thousand in 2003. If those statistics bare out, 320 actual births have been prevented to 15 to 17 year old females.  If you take that 320 and multiply it by $22,000, that's what the government says is the average cost per year of a baby that is born in the United States to a girl 15 to 17 years old.  If you multiply the $22,000 times 18, which is what they've done, they program could potentially have saved Lawton tax payers $126 million.  This program costs $76,000 to deliver and of that they have $27,000 of in-kind donations, which is volunteer hours.  They have so many businesses and different people who give them donations.  They have probably 30 businesses this year that contributed to Girl Power. They have over 78 volunteers working directly on this project.  She said Jr. League is looking at taking over Girl Power and that's what we try to do.  We try to launch projects and get the community to take them over.  Our agency is keeping control of the content of the workshops because that's whre they have their expertise.  She said $9,000 is contributed by the agency for administrative costs.  Teen pregnancy prevention was the number two, unmet need by the citizens of Lawton.  They hit on alcohol, drug and HIV very strongly in their program.  She said Oklahoma is the 12 ^th worst state in the US for teen pregnancy.  In Oklahoma, Comanche and Jackson Counties are usually in the top five counties for having the worst rate of teen pregnancies.  This is not going to stop, there's a whole new crop of kids each year. These kids need factual information and we have a captive audience in the schools and the school's letting us provide this program. Their agency has traditionally had a lot of federal funds and have been very well funded through grants.  As a result we really didn't go to the community and ask for contributions to do fund raisers.  Our funding is going from $695,000 two years ago, to about $300,00 this next year.  They have written 900 pages of grant applications in the past five months and to date haven't got one of them.  The competition has gotten incredible for federal funds.  She said the last one they didn't get, they had 1,100 applications for 23 grants. This is something the city needs and it's a professional, high quality program that has received regional and national recognition for effectiveness and innovative.  

Ewing-Holmstrom asked how the Training Boys for Manhood went.  Stein said it went really well.  She said that program has 200 boys every year.  They do it in two sessions, this one was about 100 young guys and did really well.  The workshops were, "How to Prevent Bulleying", to not be a bully and also to not get bullied and one was "What Makes a Man" and they talked about your heart, your head, and your physicality.  They talked about a lot of median myths, about the Swartzeneggars and all that.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked if they did this every year.  Stein said yes, and the Lawton Police Department helped present the Comanche County Juvenile Bureau.

Shanklin said at one time we were the worst.  Stein said yes we were.  Shanklin asked why she singled out Central Jr. High.  Stein said it's CDBG funds in that area.  Shanklin asked if that area was the only area you could do the CDBG funds.  Stein said no, they do programs all over the neighborhoods and in north-central, central, and south-central, but to get in and do the curriculum, that's the school we target because that's what those funds are suppose to be used for.

Purcell instructed Council and staff to just do the public service first and then we'll go on to the rest of it.

Purcell said what Warren has done was to delete Marie Detty, moved that to Hospice, and reduced C. Carter Crane by $5,000 and moved that to Hospice.   Warren said yes, as it appears in column J.

Ewing-Holmstrom said there are some questions she and Bass had talked about and he is not here and not able to vote.  She said to vote on this right now, we are not really giving the other two Council Members an opportunity to speak up.

Purcell said the problem is we have to give them guidance tonight because there will be a public hearing next Tuesday night and we have to vote on it one way or another next Tuesday night because it has to be submitted by the 14 ^th, so there's no more meetings and we've got to make some decision tonight.

VOTE WAS HELD ON THE MOTION AT THIS TIME

AYE:  Ewing-Holmstrom, Shanklin, Patton, Warren, Givens.  NAY:  None.  MOTION CARRIED.

*Haywood was out of the room during the vote.

Purcell asked if there was any discussion or changes in administration.  He said we are still talking about column J.  He asked about CDBG Contingency of $28,344; Housing $364,482; Code Enforcement $63,000.

Shanklin asked what the Code Enforcement was for.  Mitchell said that's to provide a 75% match for two Code Enforcement Officers to team up in Neighborhood Services to assist in Code Enforcement issues, part of that having to do with easement clean up and other low-moderate neighborhood problems.  Patton asked if they are just confined to that area.  Mitchell said no, but a major portion of their activity would have to be in those areas, but they're not confined to those neighborhoods.  Givens said it is his understanding that primarily they will be used in Zone One, however, they can be used in Ward 5 and also in Ward 7, any of the areas that have low-moderate income.  

Purcell said the next one is NRSA, Executive Committee $25,000.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked what NRSA was.  Aplin said this is the Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy in Lawton View.  We are asking to allocate $25,000 for use in that area.  We are asking to set that aside for the future, if there is one, for the future Executive Committee that is being organized right now to conduct various projects under the Revitalization Strategy area.  He said in 1999 the City Council approved, sent it to HUD, and they did approve a designation for Lawton View as a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area.  That designates it as a special area in need, provides some flexibility with the amount of type of funds you can spend down there and it has been a very slow start.  We have an Committee that is working with neighborhood residents down there and also working with Haywood to develop a leadership committee that will take over as the Executive Committee.  Aplin said he would like to use the $25,000 as some incentive to get that committee established and give them an opportunity to succeed with this.  If they don't, more or less, get a leadership established down there and start making some progress towards achieving some success under their NRSA plan, we are not really going to have any option but to come back and recommend to Council that we withdraw this NRSA designation.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked how long it's been since this group first initiated activity, the NRSA.  Aplin said in 1999.  Ewing-Holmstrom said for five years, have they received any money?  Aplin said yes a couple of years some funds were given to the ZOE NEED Program for the Youth With Purpose Project for about $160,000 or $170,000.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked who will oversee what they do with that $25,000.  Aplin said his office will.  They will have to come to him with a request from the Executive Committee to do some sort of an activity that is consistent and meets the requirements of their Revitalization Plan.  Givens said he has asked the staff to look into doing Zone One as a Neighborhood Strategy Area as well, in the future.

Shanklin asked if we got back any funds from ZOE.  Aplin said no, they've done that project for two years down there as a public service.  The money we have gotten back from them has been money as a result of one of the HOME Program Projects that they did not do properly and they had to pay $36,000 back on that project.  

Purcell said from here on down, you will almost have to take this as a whole.  We are still in column J and are starting with Economic Development and going down column J.  He asked for comments from Council.

Warren said he doesn't want to make any changes in the funding as it is described.  He asked Aplin about Economic Development under Northside Chamber of Commerce, if he had any information he could provide to Council that shows, over a 5 or 10 year period the number of businesses that were seeded or assisted in start-up and the current situation of those businesses.  How many of those are still in operation?  Aplin said they probably have access to some of that information, but to be able to do that it would really rely on input from the Northside Chamber verified by the data we have in the office.  He said he doesn't know if he has the data to go back 10 years.  Warren said that would be his request, that in the future, could we see that and if we only go back 5 years, that's fine. His concern is the heading of Economic Development and to be able to judge what is actually taking place, we need to see exactly what's happening.  Aplin said he does understand what Warren wants and he will be with Ms. Dawkins and see what they can do along those lines.  

Annette Dawkins said their performance measure used to be how many businesses they created, but from the State level down, they determined it was more important to know, from a financing standpoint, how many dollars were actually being facilitated financing, and how many jobs were being created.  She said of the businesses they helped last year, one business which was a Seeds loan, which are individuals with a very low income, that business is no longer.  They changed their focus a lot in that their objective with the City is not only to create businesses, but to expand.  When you start looking at small businesses, one of the things they have done, in order to insure expansion, is to make sure they get their businesses prepared to get into the procurement arena.  That's where our dollars, in facilitating dollars is going to go up.  Then you are positioning them to be able to compete for government contracts.  They have created 27 full time jobs, 1 part time job, and helped to facilitate $773,485 in financing.  

Warren said he would be much happier if he were to receive a report stating that in 2002-2003 we helped to start one business and it's still in business, than we helped 47 people talk about thinking about starting a business.  The numbers are not what is important to him as the retention as far as businesses still active.  He said the employment is important too, but he would just like to see over a 3 to 5 year period they have helped start 37 businesses and of those, 20 failed within the first year, and 17 are still in business. Dawkins said she does have that information, it's just that, up until this point, she has never been asked.  Warren said he understands that, it's just for next year, he would like to see this information.  He would like to see that we are actually accomplishing something, even if it's only 1 successful business.

Shanklin asked what their budget for this year is.  Dawkins said for this year they received $68,000 from the State and $72,000 from the City.  When we initially proposed we were hoping to get the Seeds Program financed, but due to the State's shortfall, they did not finance that program.  Shanklin asked if she couldn't have asked for more money from CDBG.  Dawkins said she didn't ask for any more money because she has had a hard time getting $72,000.  If you look at this year, she is going to be cut even more than that.  She said they have never submitted an application and been approved for what we've asked for.  Every year we've had to come and tell our story about what services that Council has provided for small businesses.

Patton asked how many members they have.  Dawkins said they have 81 Chamber members.  Patton asked if they pay dues like the regular Chamber.  Dawkins said they pay dues, they're not like the regular Chamber dues, but they do pay dues.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked what the criteria was for one to become a member of their Chamber.  Dawkins said to just fill out an application.  Ewing-Holmstrom said so you don't have any basic guidelines, it can be small business, large business, etc.  Dawkins said they have categories of membership.  They have individual members, corporate members, and small business members.  Ewing-Holmstrom asked how much of their budget comes from membership dues.  Dawkins said for the NBBC Program, none of their budget comes from membership dues.

Haywood said they send out newsletters every month that tells you what's going on, just like the regular Chamber of Commerce is doing also.  He said he used to be a member, but because he thought it was a conflict of interest, he is no longer a member.

Purcell asked Council to look at column J from line 47 down to line 117 and if Council agrees with that, he asked for a motion.  If you want some changes, make a motion.

Patton asked about line 48, Wilson Wholesale Water Line Project and if that was something that looked like we provided $50,000 funding last year.  Court Newkirk, Economic Development Office, said this is a brand new application and would be a one time application.  Patton asked what exactly was this.  Newkirk said Wilson Wholesale, a locally owned 50 year old company, wants to take their current employment of about 55 jobs and move it down on 11 ^th and Bishop with a new 60,000 square foot facility.  It will not be a steel, butler style farm building, it will be an architecturally designed building. They will take their employment up to about 75-85 employees, with an emphasis on recruiting from low and moderate income family neighborhoods for those new employees.

Haywood said they need something coming to the south.

Newkirk said the property between 11 ^th and 6^th, on Bishop Road, is already zoned Industrial and he has shown it to prospects, but it is very hard to get very serious about the available property down there because there is no infrastructure other than a street. The only water line down there is a 2" line that is privately owned.  Without sewer and water, it is very hard to develop an industrial tract, so this would get us started with new development in the Lawton View neighborhood.

*Haywood was not in the room when vote was taken.

Purcell said we are still in column J from line 125 down to the total on line 145, which is the HOME Program funding.

*Haywood entered room at 8:25 p.m.

Ewing-Holmstrom asked why are we doing zero dollars to Habitat For Humanity.  Aplin said they did not request money for this category.

There being no further business to consider, the meeting adjourned at 8:47 p.m. upon motion, second and roll call vote.