00:00:05,030	Good afternoon. We’ll call to order the Burleigh County Human Service Zone board meeting today is Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. We’re in the Tom Baker room. Um, we will start by doing roll call the members. Gaylynn Becker.

00:00:27,500	Here Kelly Berglund here Tracy famous here Jim Holme and Director Flory here and for the record, Comm Bakken, Senator Dever, and Trevor Vennett are absent. Um, next on the agenda, we’ll do the approval of the meeting minutes from the December 17, 2024.

00:00:49,470	And um, Meet the zone board meeting, and then on January 7, 2025, we had a special meeting regarding um That was an executive session regarding a um appeal of a general assistance. So I would take a motion for either one of those individually, or you could motion for, uh, to approve both. Motion to approve both. Thank you. We have a motion.

00:01:17,900	Do I have a second? A second Um, So motion a second on the meeting minutes, so I’ll just say all in favor say aye. And he opposed him sign. Motion carries. Um, next up we’ll do the director’s report.

00:01:37,100	So today we’re going to start with our economic assistance updates, and so I will have our program administrator, Gray, come back up and um again this meeting that seems to work well to hear from her, um, about the programs that she’s operating. Hi, good afternoon. Um, so just a quick report here. There are some exciting things that are going to be happening in DHHS.

00:01:57,400	They are going to be holding a spring symposium for economic assistance and Medicaid eligibility. Um, this is gonna be on May 13th through the 15th, there is both virtual and in-person events that are being held. Uh, the purpose of the spring and symposium is to bring together economic assistance, Medicaid team, and eligibility workers from across the state for learning.

00:02:12,900	s har ing and networking. Excuse me, um, this is going to be held at the Bismarck Event Center. They are bringing in a couple of keynote speakers. Uh, one is Tim Guard and the other one is Mark Lindquist, um, as well as Adam Martin from the F5 Project to speak.

00:02:34,930	They’re going to be hosting several interactive sessions such as a poverty simulation experience and a Department of correction simulation. Um, currently we are working together with our region to determine how many of our eligibility workers would like to attend and how many we can allow to attend to still keep our zone offices open and

00:02:49,830	working. Um, moving into the programs, um, as far as the SNAP program goes, I’m gonna start with that one. Um, in March of 2024, we had what they what they called um March Madness was implemented due to backlog and work items at the time.

00:03:13,670	There was a big push to get cases worked and benefits to the clients as quickly as possible. Um, at that time, the focus was not on the quality of the work, but on timely benefits to the clients. Um, also last year, Burleigh County Human Service Zone hosted two management evaluation reviews with the food and nutrition services. Um, during these reviews.

00:03:34,470	FNS looked at things like timeliness and processing of applications or reviews as well as payment and procedural error rates. Um, quality control and compliance, um, they are also currently working on a, um, corrective action plan that has not been finalized yet.

00:03:54,170	However, this is going to also focus on application time limits and payment errors as these were some of the things that came out in the FNS reports. Um, some of the things that the state is implementing because of this uh possible corrective action plan or the corrective action plan that will be taking place eventually. Um, the state is going to be holding engagement in high efficiency accuracy team visits, and they’re calling these heat visits.

00:04:16,570	They will be throughout the year and around the state. Burleigh Human Service zone is on schedule for a heat visit in September of this year. During these visits, they will be conducting observations, interviews, targeting trainings on various topics and education on QC measurements while they’re here.

00:04:40,630	Um, also, the state is implementing beginning April 1st, um, error proofing of random cases statewide. Um, they plan to randomly select 1% of all the work items that are being created and will be pulled for review by either a lead or a supervisor, and these reviews have to be completed prior to the eligibility worker being able to fully authorize the case.

00:05:03,030	Um, some of the things that our zone office is going to do to or is going to be implementing in order for us to also focus on the, uh, The case errors, the payment errors in the application timeliness, um, supervisors will begin monitoring and using the dashboards that are created for the zone measurements to ensure

00:05:20,670	that all of our team members are meeting the measurements and supervisors will also be taking a more direct approach in working one on one with our own team members for the areas in which they need improvement. Um, so the only thing, great, if I can add the For context for the board.

00:05:37,770	So when these reviews are completed, there’s parts of the reviews that are

00:05:42,570	we have the right signage in our lobby to they observe interviews that were, um, and interactions we’re having with our client from my front desk to the eligibility workers meeting with them, but then there are parts of this review that are done with, um, random polls of, um, work that’s being

00:05:58,670	done statewide. So just want this board to keep in mind this isn’t all the um performance improvement isn’t a direct reflection of Burleigh County we process statewide work. So some of it they could be pulling cases and auditing cases, and that’s an error that was in another area of the state.

00:06:13,570	So this is a statewide improvement plan, um, for all zones. Um, there are certain things that, yes, they could say to Burleigh County, like when they observed this interview, these interactions you had, we actually had Good feedback on our interviews we’re doing in the time that people were taking to explain um the process to people and kind of

00:06:32,230	using um people friendly language and not getting caught up in the technical jargon, which was really good feedback, um, but on the other hand, some feedback we got was making sure we’re really clear and direct on the client right.

00:06:45,030	So what I think is happening is we’re trying to be client friendly and then not use the jargon, but then we’re missing some of the execution of the the client right. So, um, just for context, those pieces, and then there’s also the quality control that’s happening. around notices that get sent out, which again are not generated through Burleigh County.

00:06:58,530	These are statewide notices, so I just think it’s important to know that, um, even though there’s that performance improvement plan and it’s not all, um, just because of Burleigh County, we just happen to be the host of those reviews.

00:07:12,470	And then those are done throughout the year and they will host them at um different locations on the federal partners come. Any questions on, on that part of it alone, just. Um And then like Grace said, really we’re looking into the next rest of the year and into the next year, focusing on that quality piece, um, making sure.

00:07:31,670	It’s the balance of pushing the work items getting done and getting the benefits to the clients timely, but at the same time making sure it’s done correctly so we don’t cause any sort of hardship by maybe um payment errors and issuing benefits that we’re then trying to recoup.

00:07:47,500	So really we’re trying to drill down the um Quality of those. And then when Grey talks about dashboards, both her and Jeremy will talk about dashboards that have been created that they’re able to go in and, um, online and drill down through these dashboards, um, per program.

00:08:06,300	He worker and you, it really is a helpful tool to monitor performance and quality. So I’m excited for both of them to have some, um, live in action virtual tools that we can use to pull reports, um, they’re still kind of getting used to operating the dashboards and the dashboards are still kind of evolving as there’s errors um with any technology.

00:08:22,370	It’s like the data is not being pulled correctly, but um, I’m excited for them to have that as a resource, so. OK, I will continue. Um, another topic of discussion with FNS that came out was one on, on, on the narratives, um, even though this was brought up by the FNS team, just keep in mind it does not only pertain to

00:08:44,630	Snap, um, but it does pertain to every program that we administer. The narrative is a documented record within our spaces system, which describes every action that’s taken on a case and by whom the action was taken.

00:09:01,270	What they have found is many times these narratives are not detailed enough or they are missing altogether. Um, there’s all the workers across the state were recently assigned a mandatory training on March 13th, and this is due to be completed by March 31st.

00:09:18,870	Uh, and there are still discussions currently on the narrative, um, as far as creating a template or a guide for the workers to have in order for them to make sure that they are detailing all the important information that they want to be seen in the narratives.

00:09:41,170	Um, with Medicaid, so there’s some changes that have happened in Medicaid, and this just still is extending from that post public health emergency, um, the PHE and on, excuse me, the PHE unwind did begin in June of 2023 and over the next 12 months from then as Medicaid cases completed their reviews, they were delinked from these PHE rules and as of June 24th, once the uh PHE unwind was completed.

00:10:00,930	Medicaid began counting the months of the unmet client shares. Um, and we had counted this before prior to the, the PHE as well. Um, once a Medicaid case has not met their clients share for 7 months, the Medicaid case will close. These closures did start happening January 1st of 2025, once the seven months have elapsed, elapsed.

00:10:21,230	There was a mass notice that was mailed out, and they continued to mail out these to the households, um, that will be closing for unmet client shares. This way the household is able to contact us if they know that they will be having a medical need that will meet their clients share prior to the case closing, and then

00:10:37,230	we’re able to override and keep their coverage open for that medical need. Um, also in Medicaid, we’ve started doing some outreach and I think we kind of touched on this a little bit last time, um, but now we’ve been doing it for several months.

00:10:52,900	We’ve been working with outreach with the North Dakota State Penn, um, and we are also going to be moving this to other correctional facilities here in the county as well. Um, when a person is incarcerated, they are not eligible for Medicaid as their healthcare is covered by a state plan at that time.

00:11:08,370	And so our monthly on site visits that we’ve been doing is we’ve been having um a couple of eligibility workers actually go to the pen. And they are offering their support with filling out the application.

00:11:26,370	To ensure that they have continuity of care, um, upon their release so that when they’re released, we’re able to get that Medicaid going as soon as they are released, so they don’t miss any prescriptions or anything they might need. Um, for the Leehy program, uh, the lie Heap is moving to a year-round assistance, and this is going to include cooling assistance.

00:11:45,570	Um, the system is being updated each month in preparation for the change to the move to a review process rather than the households having to reapply every October 1st. Normally the season would end on May 31st. So moving to this review process is going to help keep Ly Heap open until the next review date.

00:12:03,370	The review dates will be staggered but is still yet to determine. how the staggering will work. And then for childcare and TANF, I do not have any updates to report other than that the TANF modernization project is still in the works, um, but it’s getting very close to being completed.

00:12:24,570	Um, only other thing I had to add Gray was what the call center and I um so I did print out, you guys have a one pager that saysuser Sports Center on one side, and then, um, on both sides of it, sorry. um, so it’s front and back.

00:12:39,500	With the graph, so if you want to look at the side that’s got the bar graph on it, we can talk about that one first. So this one just shows you the um call center acceptance rates of the calls that are coming in, so, um, mine again reminding you that this is a statero call center, so this isn’t a direct

00:12:55,570	employed through the call center, um, and then also those employees are around the state. Um, so you can kind of see how the calls accepted are listed and then the abandoned calls, those are calls that didn’t get to, um, typically maybe that person while they were on hold decided they didn’t want to be

00:13:13,170	on hold or the wait time was too long, or the call got dropped. So there’s various reasons, but you can see when there’s um probably the highest part of that was December 2024. Um, question for you, Gray.

00:13:30,770	So this call center was being ran with not only our employees, but we had in North Dakota contracted with another provider to implement some support staff in to help in the call center. When did that contract end again. So the contract with the NRG employees that were helping out ended in October. OK, that’s what I was thinking. So since then, I’m sorry, not NRG Deloitte’s OK.

00:13:51,530	Um, so, and how many employees did we have through that Deloitte contract? Was that like 30 or believe there were 25. So what we’re kind of doing then as a state is really looking at since we lost those 25 employees, do we need to add more, right? Like that gave us a really good opportunity with

00:14:10,230	that contract to onboard and train all our other, um, zone staff so that way they can take the calls at um A larger rate or they know how to answer the questions that are coming in.

00:14:23,770	So now we’re just kind of in this, I would say monitoring phase where do we need to add more FTEs to this call center or are we good where we’re at and what does that look like? So, um.

00:14:39,030	I’m not surprised then that after, um, that time you do see maybe an increase in the abandoned calls cause maybe people were on a wait time that was a little bit longer as we adjusted. Which will bring me to if you flip over to the other side, um, that will bring you to the line graph that shows you, um, the wait time.

00:14:52,370	So as you can see in um some of our best time was in July and August and September, we were averaging in June, obviously was even better at 15, um, seconds on that wait time. And right now we’re averaging, um, you can see that by October we were at 2 minutes, November 7 minutes, and then it just kind of um.

00:15:09,730	Our highest point was in January, we were at a 14 minute wait time, so. I just like to call this graph out to you guys because, um, this is probably what I get most constituent, um, concerns brought to my attention, and you guys in your roles may hear people talk about, um, if they talk about economic assistance, it

00:15:27,800	probably has to do with our call center. Um, does anybody have any questions for Grey regarding her programming? OK. Thank you. Um, I. Oh, I don’t know why I did that.

00:15:49,630	So, um, before we get into the next one, I do want to call your attention to some other handouts that I gave, and I should have started with this, so I apologize. Um First, um, I gave you guys a packet that is, um, has a little map of North Dakota on the front of it. Uh, so our standards of administration, performance improvement, and progressive discipline related to human service services delivered by the Human Service zone.

00:16:10,900	So essentially, um, part of this is that the department, um, Health and Human Services, when I refer to them as the department, had to establish standards for administration for zones, and then these standards are are um made to assure that all parties have a shared understanding of what successful performance is, and serves as the um Uh, any determination of a failure to

00:16:27,130	administer if we fail to meet. So I won’t read you all the entry code that’s listed in that, but it’s um As board members, good education for what we’re operating in. Um, it kind of goes into what the different standards mean, um. Different tiers of measurement, performance outcomes, and what results from failed, um, performances.

00:16:50,370	So, um, measure one, we are measured on cases in our, when we refer to frame as just our documenting system and child welfare. They have to be tardy free of transaction errors.

00:17:02,930	So what that means is that we have a time limit of 30 days to open and close the cases. So when a child enters care, we have 30 days to register that or when they exit, we also have 30 days. So they just want to make sure we’re doing that timely. That one is pretty much a pass. Or fail, it’s 100%, um, expectance to meet that standard.

00:17:19,370	So, if a case closes and the, the case manager doesn’t go in and close the case within that 30 days, we do not meet that one. Um, measure 2 is at least 95% of children in foster care will have an in-person case worker visit every, um, full month that they are in foster care.

00:17:37,000	These are in-person visits, um, policy outlines for our case managers, whether or not they need to, what’s the requirement for being in the foster home or in the community.

00:17:50,830	So there is policy that defines um that they can be done in the home, they can be done in the community with the Ffos provider, let’s say they have an activity for the kids and they’d like us to meet them there. We can make those accommodations.

00:18:03,730	Um, we also have the ability to view the children here at the county office when they’re doing visits and then there’s a special carve out in policy when children are on a trial home visit with their parents, where then our focus is seeing the children in that home as we transition them back to their biological home. Um, so again, 95% that we want to see those children, um.

00:18:25,230	For face to faces, so we, um, that’s that measure, measure 3 is 95% of children in in-home kinship foster care services receive in-person visits with their case manager. Notice that this one is twice a month. So when we are opening in-home services versus where where the custodian, we it’s double, we have to see them 2 times a month in their home. This one has a different set of challenges.

00:18:41,000	Um, I’d say a lot of times when we’re doing in-home we’re working least restrictive to place children with relatives, so we often see where these kids could be living with a relative in Fessenden, North Dakota. And so now not only do we have to make plans to see them once, it’s twice. And so it’s just a little bit more of a barrier.

00:18:56,400	Um, we’re seeing more kids placed outside the Bismarck area with our kinship, foster care, or in home services. Um, measure 4 is at least 88% of CPS assessments will be completed within the parameters by policy. So basically timelines for in policy lays that out that you have 62 days to complete the assessment.

00:19:18,500	Um, this excludes any extensions granted that, um, are described in policies. So we get extensions on cases. I have a new CPS report. I have 62 days to um complete the assessment in its entirety and make the finding and notify the family unless, and some of those unlesses are um typically driven by law enforcement. like we are pending forensic interviews.

00:19:37,230	There’s an investigation going on so that we can um have reasons to extend those, um. So that’s 88% of those have to be within that timeline. Um, Me 5 is at least 90% of initial responses for face to face contact with children are in according to the state policies. So this again is your CPS assessment.

00:19:56,770	I get assigned a report of abuse or neglect, and I have timelines to complete my face to face, um, with the victim and the other children, so you have different categories.

00:20:12,830	You have A, B, and C categories, um, a time response is 24 hours or immediate, um, is the goal that we shoot for B is the 3 days of 72 hours, and then C is within 14 days. Those categories are driven in policy based on what they are.

00:20:33,270	Obviously A are more um serious physical abuse or sexual abuse, those kind of things are more vulnerable children, and then, um, bees and sees kind of tear off depending on the allocation. Which I could go into detail with at a later meeting if somebody wanted to know all those ones, but um, yeah, so that’s 90% of compliance that we have to get on those.

00:20:51,170	Um, measure 6 is eligibility team members are completing at least 80% of the total number of work items each month. So those 1st 5 measures are driven by Jeremy and his team in child welfare, um, and using their dashboard and then rey is responsible really for measure 6 and 7, so this one is the 80% total of

00:21:06,830	work items each month, and then, um, 7 is 95% of applications are reviewed in pro processed by federal timeliness standards. So, I’m gonna pause at that point because it’s a lot of information. And again, it’s a big handout that you guys can look over.

00:21:25,030	There is a measure 8, which is about our monthly budget, and then there’s a measure 9, which is about our personnel changes report, um, those ones between myself and um the business manager, we look at, um, Those two in compliance, so those ones are um.

00:21:45,930	Meeting those compliances don’t have as many um Other people involved in them, I guess, you know, they’re just really one time a month submissions that we that are managed and submitted. So What I’m trying to say is more likely that we’re in compliance in those two, where all the other measurements we rely on other team members to do their part.

00:22:00,570	Um, the last page of this handout, would you, um, is regarding department practices related to performance improvement and progressive discipline relating to this. So when zones are scored on these, they have the option of getting exceed standards, meet standards, failure to meet, severe failure to meet, and chronic failure to meet.

00:22:20,470	There’s a whole process that goes into documenting each quarter where each one of these metrics falls, and then there are, um, performance. Disciplinary actions that come depending on where I, I land as again, um, kind of at the helm of the agency, so.

00:22:40,170	There is direction throughout here that if a director were to get so many chronic failure to me, what does that mean? Um, actions can include targeted training, corrective action plans, performance improvement planning, or structural realignment. Um, of the agency, so. Just things to keep in mind as you get these. I bring this to your attention. These were kind of implemented about this time last year.

00:22:59,930	We started as zones having this conversation on creating these standards. We’ve spent the um probably the last couple quarters just fine tuning them and and deciding is this the what we want to measure, are these the percentages we want to measure and is the dashboard pulling the information correctly.

00:23:14,830	Some of that is still a work in progress. I’ll tell you that my in-home face to faces, um, it’s still a data entry thing. I think it’s still us understanding when we go into the system that we coding things right, so we pull the data.

00:23:28,870	Um, so some of it is still in the works, but the goal is that, um, after this current quarter, January, February, March, um, so at the end of March, they’ll pull the data and then um the zone boards will all get My report of what the zone is completing.

00:23:44,830	So I wanted to kind of give you guys a baseline on these standards, you could get familiar with them because going forward at our meetings, we will be reviewing, um, the zone updates in these reports. So the other packet that goes with it is the other, um, stapled item which we can look at is my October, November, December report.

00:24:03,900	So you can see on this one, tardy transaction errors. This is that one with the opening and closing of the cases in a timely manner. Um, again, that goal to meet that is 100% accuracy, and we finished that quarter with an 85.7%. So on that one I get categorized in the severe failure to meet on that one. Again, that’s just a data entry.

00:24:22,370	Standard, um, we are working, it, it should be an easy fix. I think it’s just getting people in the rhythm of, um, time management, task organization, understanding that in all their day in the crises that are in front of them, these things still matter and they need to make sure they’re getting this

00:24:39,470	part done. So that’s when we will work on. Um, one of the ones that I think are more important would be measured to the visits with the children in foster care. Um, we scored at the meat standards um with a 94.6%, um. And again reminding you that that one required at least a 95%.

00:25:01,570	For the exceed standard status. Um, visits with children in home foster care, that one we were at a 65.3%, but again, that we’re not entering that information correctly and coding it right is a big issue with that one.

00:25:19,370	So I’m hoping that when you guys get to look at the next quarter, the January, February, March quarter, um, you’ll see much better numbers on that. Um, our CPS timeliness one, that one we were at the 95 point or I’m sorry, I did not read that right. 65.9%. Um, so that when we failed to meet on that one.

00:25:40,770	So, um, again, we’re just working on prioritizing how do we get those assessments completed timely, or do we have the right information in the system regarding um the reasons why they’re being extended.

00:25:58,030	Uh, CPS face to face timeliness is another um between 2 and 5, that really is where we focus because that’s just laying the eyes on the children who are the victims of the maltreatment, and the kids in foster care. So they are, um, and then along with the in-home one, so that one we got um 86.6%, so we had to meet standards on that. And then the two economic assistance related measures, we received to meet standards on those within 83.9 in work processing volume and a 99.

00:26:21,170	1 in processing timelines. So kudos to Grey and her team, that those are great numbers, um, and I have zero concern that they will continue to get those ones. Any questions, comment, concerns, feedback on this process. Um, just a question going back to the, Progressive discipline.

00:26:43,730	I know that’s obviously a topic that can come up and, um, Just to help with supervisors and to obviously employees, but the standards here exceed standards, meets failure, severe, chronic. Are they defined? Um, yes, I want to say. On the front. Of your packet and those couple pages pages are probably cruised by.

00:27:07,730	I think those are defined up there. I didn’t. Maybe not in here. Um, Oh, I’m sorry, so those are, um, they’re kind of defined within each measure. So like, let’s say you just look at measure, um, Number 5.

00:27:32,170	at the bottom, there’s that yellow box that says status and standard so exceeds standards is 95% to 100%. Yeah. And then that’s why I won’t, you know, I won’t read them all to you, but each stamp measure really goes into what’s the federal threshold.

00:27:49,100	This is really explaining to you guys like why is this important? What’s the fiscal penalty of these measures, um, where is this information? Being pulled from Why does this matter measure or measure matter. Yeah. Um, the corrective action planning and progressive discipline that would happen. would be on me as the director of this agency.

00:28:14,270	So Again, it’s just another piece of accountability to ensure that if I’m failing these measures, I have the responsibility to then turn to my program managers and say, how do we drill this down? How do we offer support? What do we, um, how do we advocate, um, for the workforce or what do we need to do different and then again their accountability to turn around and deliver that to

00:28:25,730	their team. So this really, um, I have no issue with this.

00:28:36,230	I actually am very happy to have these because um we take a lot think we do a really good job in Burleigh County. And so I think for years, um, we’ve been looking for something like this to help standardize that same accountability and performance expectation for all 19 human service zones.

00:28:52,500	So I have, um, not a lot of sweat going on about um if we’ll meet this or what that’ll look like. It just gives me opportunities to look at areas that we might need to advocate for more staff, if that’s the case for getting out to some of these reports or processing some of these um Work items.

00:29:07,170	So, um, and at the same time that helps me understand where I need to provide more training. Does every zone. I apologize. I does every zone use this or is this just? Nope. Yeah, good question. So, every zone, this is all issued by the department. Every zone will get their quarterly report to their board.

00:29:25,900	That’s what’s new is that it’ll go to their board because again we we spent the last year probably. Um, fine tuning it. So now it’ll go live to our boards.

00:29:39,800	Um, I did ask if there is a way, or not just me, I guess another’s own director asks if there’s a way to get a comparison from zone to zone, not that you need their detailed report, but just a simple visual aid to show you

00:29:46,730	zones. So I am hoping that you will get screenshots of that. Yeah Again, for my own accountability, so you can look at it and tell me where I need to pick it up at and give kudos for kudos need to be given.

00:30:00,570	So yeah, I just think that was, I just wanted you guys to have those kind of get familiar with them. They are something you’ll start to look at, um, and I hope that you find them helpful. To see where we’re landing.

00:30:19,400	OK, now that I explained those, it’ll help put in context and things Jeremy’s going to go over in his program on child welfare. So thanks, Jeremy for letting me, um. pivot you there on your agenda. All right, thank you. I’m going to start off with um kind of some, some things that we’re working with the state here first.

00:30:48,100	Um Right now, the state is going through kind of a case management redesign, they’re looking at how processes are occurring and policy is occurring um with case management, um, so, They’re partnering between the state and other human service zones in, in work streams. So there’s 5 work streams right now happening. One is the engagement, which Is developing training and standardizing workforce support. The other supervision. Creating supervision is the playbook and structured supervisor training.

00:31:19,030	Um movement, how we align case processes going from in-home to foster care and back to in home. And safety framework measuring and improving implementation, consistency. And then connection to support streamlining services, access for families. So those are the 5 work stream work streams that are happening right now between the zones in the state.

00:31:44,170	On trying to Redesigned the case management system, right. And we have 3 staff, so our zone directors on Um, the supervision work stream, and then we have a case manager supervisor that’s also on a, on the supervision.

00:32:04,670	Work stream And then we have a case manager that’s on the safety framework work stream. So we have 3 staff that represent, um, Burleigh County, you know, in the zones, um, for this case management redesign. Um, The state just um put out a survey to all of the case management staff and the supervisors and the zoo directors.

00:32:30,630	Probably, probably about 2 weeks ago and the deadline, I believe is tomorrow for all the staff to respond. Um, to the survey and really it’s given everybody the chance to have a Have a say in what policy.

00:32:53,200	It is right and what policy may not be right and what processes might happen and how do we streamline processes a little bit better, um, maybe getting rid of some, some of the documentation um that is required, things like that. Our biggest hope Here at Burleigh County Human Service Zone is to try to Opera, um, gain that guidance and um case loan standards. Our caseload standards right now are extremely high.

00:33:16,500	Um, compared to a lot of other zones and That is going to effectively tell us. Do we increase our workforce or not, um. Currently, like I said, we’re way above, um, even the bigger, other bigger zones, which is Cass County, Ward County, and Grand Forks County. Um, just had a meeting with the state, um, case management lead.

00:33:40,400	And she said, are Our amount of foster care children that we have right now are at the highest it ever has been right now, um, compared to the other zones and We are really working really hard on trying to um Keep that Smaller Also, um, managed by their case management, right? Um, Jeremy,

00:34:08,270	if I can add just before going to the next topic, um, so the work stream that I’m in is the supervision playbook and so. I will tell you the biggest thing we’re looking at is what’s a good use of a supervisor’s time.

00:34:22,800	How are you an effective supervisor? What pulls you away from giving the time and attention and supervision. Obviously, a lot of times it’s searching for placements for our kids that are coming in responding to crisises that are coming up, um, having to go out in the field with your team members as we train and onboard new team members and we deal with turnover.

00:34:36,370	So looking at that, what can be taken off their plate or how do they have their own time that they can be using for, um, what we refer to as blue light, which is just protected.

00:34:52,000	Or protected time that they can um just concentrate and work on things they need to do, um, more the reviewing of documents and affidavits, um. Part of the challenge on me, uh, that I, that I posed with is looking at what I can take off of them that is more administrative. So how can I help? them do their job more efficiently and so that’s been a really good um work group.

00:35:09,200	Um, other thing I’d say about this redesign is when it kicked off, it really was looking at those case managers on what is a successful case? What does success mean to you? Um, what do you think really helps get these children um back home and reunification and supporting families and honestly, a lot of the times it’s that rolling up your

00:35:24,100	sleeves and doing that work, like, you know, getting them into their appointments, getting them into their housing, um, providing them that education. So we need to shift focus on how do we get.

00:35:36,030	get them to do that work, um, versus what is taking up their time in a time study, which in Burleigh County has a lot of transporting and visits. We’re spending a lot of time, um, transporting children to and from school or to and from appointments, um, transporting parents to those things and so, um, also really valuable time.

00:35:51,830	We have a lot of good quality time that happens in those cars, but it’s probably not where their work should be um focused. So that’s what I’d add to that one and then, um, just regarding The caseold standards.

00:36:12,730	I also sit in on committee that reviews, um, editions of a of FTEs are full-time equivalents to zones and so if I want to ask for another position, um, I go to this committee and then they get to kind of mull it over and decide if, if this is supported. Um, some of the challenges and asking for new positions is we all kind of have onboarding fatigue.

00:36:26,630	We’ve had so much turnover that if I looked at my case management team and said I could get you another case manager, I think a lot of them are like, I’d rather just take a couple more cases. So, um, it’s kind of a balance. We just need to get them stable and get them, um, onboarded and then, um, then at adding FTEs. Another challenge is sometimes these cases ebb and flow.

00:36:41,500	There could be quarters where I think I need another FTE and then quarters where things go down and we can manage. Um, so just more saying that for um clarity around like We’re aware that we need more support and that we need better caseloads.

00:36:59,900	It’s just developing those standards, though other zones could say, um, a case load ratio of 1 worker for 10 cases is is max for them because they live in rural areas. They might be traveling across, um, large counties to go do these face to faces and see these kids. So that’s not a barrier that we have here in Burleigh County.

00:37:16,470	So it just, there’s a lot of um variables that go into the case load determination. So Jeremy’s been working with his team to develop more of a weighted system where we try to focus more on the needs of the case.

00:37:30,800	So if I’m a case manager and I have 13 cases that could be the equivalent to somebody who has 23 just based on the needs of that case. So we’ve talked before about that in this meeting and going forward, um, weighted caseloads, we’re hoping we’ll be part of redesign. OK, thanks, Jeremy. All right, going on to CPS or child protection services and um staff and updates, um. You probably, I think you got the February report, um.

00:37:58,500	For the month of February, we received 199 reports of abuse and neglect. Out of those 199 reports that came in from intake 153 of them, um, turn into full CPS assessments.

00:38:28,770	Um, meaning our CPS workers, and, you know, they received the ABC category um reports, then they have those 62 days to complete those full assessments and we received 153 CPS assessments for the month of. February. In the month of February, we had 321 active CPS assessments with 98 of them new and 90 closed.

00:38:54,030	So that’s way above average, um, of what we normally receive between receiving the reports from the from the community members, stakeholders, mandated reporters, and so forth. And um due to the amount of continuing growing of the reports that come in, we managed to successfully Um Be approved for a new full-time position.

00:39:19,100	So right now I have that offer out and hopefully um we can finalize that offer and, and gain an extra CPS worker for our CPS. Program. And then, uh, I also have, and I’m working right now with the CPS supervisors on how to re streamline the process between CPS and case management, because during the CPS assessments, they’re, they’re. Me job, you know, is the safety of that child and assessing whether maltreatment did happen or not. Um.

00:39:52,100	And then we have case management, if they see a need. To provide that case management, those resources at times when it, when it does come, um, over, overly abundant, um, and clear, so then the referral comes from CPS.

00:40:14,500	Section over to case management, but there’s a transition period that happens in the, in the middle there that sometimes um A lot less work is happening for case management, so I’m trying to streamline how that works. When CPS ends up referring case management. Um So In the year 2024.

00:40:53,630	There were 1,43435 reports that we received from the community members, whether it’s Um, Kinship, you know, family members or if it’s mandated reporters, we received 1,435. Um, 960 is what we call for maltreatment. All of those 1,435 reports, only 83 CPS assessments turned into in-home case management. And 53 CPS assessments turned into foster care case management services.

00:41:25,530	So, so, To give you a perspective, only 6% of our assessments turned, were referred into in-home case management. And then 4% of CPS assessments turned into foster care. Case management. So moving on to foster care then? And the licensing, some of the licensing data. Um, just to give you a current count right now cause I think I gave you March counts or February counts.

00:41:54,830	Today, we have approximately 270 kids, 270, 27 youth in foster care for Burleigh Coney. Of those 207 youth that are currently in foster care, 42 of them have parental right terminations, um, which means they are adoptable now and they can um find that forever home, um, with, with a family.

00:42:21,670	And, and I want to compare this number of 207 um youth in foster care right now compared to exactly today in March 2024. We had 156 foster care children. Um, so Big, big difference between last March. 2024, 156 kids, um, as of today’s date type thing. And now we have 207 kids.

00:42:52,000	So we do have a larger caseload for almost the same amount of um staff we have. Um, Jeremy, if I can add, so I did get you guys a visual, um, like Jeremy said, we had a meeting this morning with the department to talk about different things, complicated cases that we work related to different, um, needs of the children, but we did look and

00:43:08,000	talk about that. And so the handle that’s got some charts on it that’s in green. Um, so this one you’re going to see. That first one with the line graph, so the darker green one is the kids’ entering here. This is a really nice visual to show you kind of where we ebbed and flowed.

00:43:23,870	Obviously November and January. very busy months. We took lots of kids into care. I think we were saying from November to February, it was like 80 kids throughout that time that came into care.

00:43:41,100	Um, some of these, um, children, um, We’ve also been able to in the light green one underneath it is the children who are exiting care, they’re either being reunified with their families or we’re getting permanency through guardianship, adoption, or they could be aging out of care. So What we would like is to have those lines be a lot more aligned, like they are in February with the same number of children coming in.

00:43:55,130	It’s kind of to keep our numbers a little bit more consistent. Obviously, ultimately we would like to see kids acting and not kids coming in, but, um, so you will see where we had our peak areas. Um, I will tell you that we’ve been challenged on the why.

00:44:12,630	Um, I, you know, we, child welfare isn’t something you go looking for business in, but there are things that happen, there are trends in your community, whether that means there is more emphasis um being.

00:44:29,170	put into certain um areas of like home conditions when we’re going out, but we are being looked at like Is our level in intrusion, the appropriate level, um, and so I just always remind everybody like. Our cases, we’re, we don’t take custody of children. We’re given custody of children through the law enforcement, the courts, and we always answer to the courts.

00:44:42,570	So we’re taking these cases before the courts and we have to prove why these children should remain in care. So there are checks and balances in place, but, um, our numbers have, um, significantly increased. Um, The next box you’re going to see percentage of um foster care entry identified as Native American.

00:45:02,770	They, they typically drill down that because that is a our, um, location, and so you’ll kind of see um how that trend went. I think that that speaks to some of the idea um One of the last boxes foster care exit by zone, that one like Jeremy said, we usually compared to those other three big zones, Cass County, Ground Forks and Ward County.

00:45:23,100	We have a lower, um, exit by zone, um. Sometimes I do look at, um, depending on the demographics of those that we’re serving, um, there’s just more that goes into the reunification efforts that we’re working with um with our Native American youth and trying to make sure that we’re doing those active efforts with

00:45:42,400	those families. You also have the tribal liaisons that are involved in those cases that are supporting us with um those cases. So they they tend to linger a little bit longer. Um And then yeah, you’ll see the foster care entry by his own cast Burleigh, Grand Forks and Ward County compared to us, so.

00:46:01,000	I just thought that was a good visual aid to kind of just draw your attention to. Um, I think when you look at one of the other documents you’re given with some different graphing on it, you’ll see that our in-home cases took a big dip.

00:46:16,630	Um, I think what that means is though, if you compare them, they’re about the same time that our foster care cases took a big spike. So what I will say is kudos to our team for their active efforts. We are typically praised for those efforts that we do through family centered engagement meetings, trying to engage families to prevent entry in foster care. We utilize other prevention.

00:46:33,030	um programs like a shelter care program where we can have children go into a foster room without coming into custody for a 14 day period while we try to work with the family, identify supports for them.

00:46:47,930	Um, we’re one of the biggest zones for utilizing those programs, um, so what I’m getting at is we’re, we’re throwing everything in the kitchen sink at these things to be prevention before they’re just entering into foster care.

00:47:00,630	So I think that that data shows that you’ll see that our in-home is up and then when in-home drops down, it’s because those kids are now converting into foster care programming. Yeah, go ahead. I guess I have a question, um, throughout that time then. That 199 people that are are individuals, kiddos, uh.

00:47:29,200	That entered in, are they in? Then the foster care program or are they still in home in those 62 days while you’re trying to decide the results of that assessment. So the 199 reports. Um, most of the time, they’re still at home. Um Well, like I said, only. 6% turn into in-home case management, which it could be a relative placement or 4% turned into foster care.

00:47:55,770	But most of the time, they are in, in the homes, while we do the assessment with Extra supports, maybe, maybe, um, we might have a grandma or an uncle and aunt that um would be part of the plan. You know, we have presentage plans and we have safety plans that we, we, um, Create in CPS for those 199.

00:48:20,870	Um, Reports, um, during that time, assessment happens and we try to find Safety safety supports or nat natural supports to help. The current family out while we’re assessing. Yeah, I think that’s a good question, and I think, um.

00:48:39,000	What we could do, Kelly’s and uh or maybe our next meeting we could ask, um, team member or a supervisor to maybe come in and give a brief overview to this board about how that process works, because we have had some changes to either the safety framework or new board members just to give a quick view of, um, when a report comes in, how that that’s moved through the what we refer to in our language as the danger threshold, um, does

00:48:55,100	danger exist in this family, or is there likelihood that maltreatment’s going to continue and then how we determine the level of intervention we’re going to take when Jeremy talks about safety planning, um, to the highest level. of intervention being in custody and foster care.

00:49:11,030	So I think that that would be a good point because not all CPS assessments result in In any sort of case management, and then there’s a percentage that goes to in home and then there’s the percentage that goes to foster care. So I think that’d be helpful. To, yeah.

00:49:26,100	I just always like to bring the people who are um really close to the work, so you guys can hear. Way more firsthand how it’s done. Sure. Uh, talking about prevention efforts um that we try out right now, we have 38. 38 families working in in home services.

00:49:55,300	Um, like Chelsea pointed out that, you know, it’s, it’s lower than what it was um a month ago, but We still are at the highest point compared to other zones across the state. And then there’s 63 families that are currently working with erinate services, so Perinate services, um, Or supports that we bring parent needs into the homes and working with the bio parents to help out um Um, various skills, skill activities, whether it’s habilitating them or

00:50:22,100	rehabilitating them, you know, trying to learn a certain skill, uh, parenting skills, something like that, um, so we have 63 families that we work with and um Four pas that provide that service. Um, for licensed, uh, foster care providers, they remain stable right now.

00:50:49,230	55% of the homes have at least one open bed for placement. Sometimes that is still a challenge because they can say no, um, even if they have an open bed. Um, so we do do a lot of calling around.

00:51:11,270	Um, our case managers do a lot of calling um and trying to identify a foster care provider, um, to take one child, sometimes 5 children, um, and. And then the number of certified kinship providers has been increasing with 73% of the um providers now offering respite care to, um, for, um, families. And then the foster care homes, they’re shifting towards more of a relative based placements and fewer long term residential care, um, settings.

00:51:46,370	Um, so they’re really active we zones, you know, and work with the state and actively trying to identify Relative placements before we even try to find a foster care provider placement. And then we sometimes work on trying to get them. License, asked foster care providers. So they can get the resources that other foster care providers get too.

00:52:14,270	And, um, due to our high, very, very high caseloads for case management services. We do know that um there are times when our foster care providers may have some feedback and based on, um, various times with our case management working with them.

00:52:36,570	Uh, so, our management team has um identified that we want to start kind of reaching out as a managers to um talk to these foster care providers and, and listen to their feedback and concerns and see if we can um find solutions to the, to those feedback, um, when we get it.

00:53:02,300	And then Keip, North Dakota support and reimbursement, kinship, uh, North Dakota offers financial assistance to caregivers, providing full-time care for children. They’re the reimbursement program offers up to $800 per child. With receipts required. Allowance programs, monthly support, so they also would receive $29 to $36 a day. Um, up to 6 months, depending on the ages of the children.

00:53:32,230	And then they also um provide guardian, um, guardianship assistance up to $2500 for the legal fees, um, since that can be quite expensive for family members to take on guardianships. The only thing that um the eligibility criteria it requires is that person has to have a pre-existing relationship with that child already.

00:53:57,270	If that, if that person does not have a pre-existing relationship with that child, then they would not be qualified as a kinship um for Supports and reimbursement. Yeah, I’d say kinship has really expanded to where we can consider, um, teachers from their school coaches, um, people from their churches, so that’s been really helpful to um expand what is considered kinship in North Dakota and think outside the box with

00:54:19,300	safety planning, um, keeping children with people they’re familiar with, um, versus them entering the foster care system. Um, I’d say the biggest thing in this area that I focus on is this guardianship assistance up to $2500 for legal fees. So these are when guard when it’s not contested.

00:54:36,730	So, um, parents are, are fine with this, and and Grandma wants to be have the guardianship of these children, so we don’t need to be involved. Um, whether through in-home services or as the custodian.

00:54:52,800	So when you’re talking about through in-home services, We’re not the custodian, and so we’re really working hard to make somebody that legal decision maker through this guardianship. But if it’s contested by the parent, um, we end up where some of these times, um, these legal fees are not supported.

00:55:08,800	And so we’ve been working with the department to identify a large number of our cases are falling in that group where we are um really involved with this family just to try to keep things, um, in order and support the family, but we don’t have somebody who can make these decisions for the kids outside the parents and the parents are contesting it, but We may feel like, um, there needs to be, um, additional support for that family.

00:55:23,230	So we did work with the department on creating an RFP for um some support for legal, uh, some attorneys who can help process these cases statewide, because we try not to tap into our state’s attorney for these because again, with the number of kids that we’ve seen increase since 2024, um, that’s

00:55:40,530	a lot on that one state’s attorney, and then also when we’re not the actual custodian and we’re doing a guardianship, what happens is the court expects us to come back.

00:55:52,530	before them, either 3 or 5 or so years later, and we, we may not be involved and so it just puts us in a place where we’re not the right people to be, um, Ordered those hearings, so yeah, I would say guardianship is uh a big topic for us in our agency and just how do we um get um.

00:56:08,670	Get guardianship for these children so they can have that permanency and we don’t have to be involved with the family, so. OK. Moving on to community engagement and the collaboration, so, um, right now we’re really strengthening our partnerships with um the ask, um, which is adoption service that we work with and then uh juvenile courts and then the Bismarck public school

00:56:34,130	system, um, we We meet monthly with all three of those entities, along with other stakeholders too. We have a lot of stakeholders in this community. Um, but those are the three major, um, stakeholders that we really work with, um, other than law enforcement. We’re currently working on and looking at a, a new evidence-based practice.

00:56:57,170	I know I’ve talked about this in the past. We still continue to work with the state and trying to Um, identify a good evidence-based practice for our parent aids to work with our parents. Um, that’s called a family checkup. If you ever want to look into that.

00:57:20,270	And then we also are working right now collaboratively with UND University of North Dakota and the Native American Training Institute. Also known as Naty. So if you hear Naty, that’s the Native American Training Institute. Those two entities are collaborating with us on um Looking at how do we improve services for Native American families and, and those children, um, in this community.

00:57:41,730	And To We met a couple of weeks ago in our latest um efforts were identifying. External stakeholders that would be That might be interesting and being part of this group, this work group that we have, um, so we’ve identified some, some individuals, but if you guys know of anybody that might be

00:58:06,530	interested in um working that. Please let us know. And We also worked with the children’s advocacy Center, or CPS um supervisor, one of our CPS supervisors is um currently part of a Training onboarding system, uh, for the children’s advocacy Center for, um, as they do the interviews for child abuse and um whether, whether it’s physical abuse or

00:58:36,870	sexual abuse. The only thing I’d add to that one is um really we were trying to create like an onboarding for the MDT so that way the advocacy centerer could um, Have a team that’s gonna train either new um child welfare workers, new law enforcement, um, new state’s attorney on what all of

00:58:56,170	us do. So kind of put together, um, as the cases flow through from the moment of reports received, um, to how we get to the point of a forensic interview, and then how do we, um, what happens next? So it’s been, um, we, we’re just kind of creating like a It’s a quarterly training for those

00:59:13,870	professionals to be able to go through and participate. And it’s been, uh, I think they’ve had one training so far, so. Yep, one. All right, and I wanna go on to the Dandelion award um recognition.

00:59:36,900	So the states, um, Child and Family Services developed a award recognition system for human servicezone employees and It’s called the Dandelion Award. And the dandelion award recognizes the child welfare professionals who showed the resilience, dedication, and strong commitment to supporting the kids and family members, um, why they call it the Dan Dandelion Award.

00:59:59,570	It’s kind of inspired by the idea of Dandelion children who, who can thrive anywhere. Um, so they started this uh award back in 2023. Uh, recently we had a Burleigh County staff member received their Award, um, in January of 2025. And then 2024, we’ve had three staff recognized uh for the Da Dandelion Award.

01:00:27,000	And then in 2023, The first recipient of the Dandelion Award was from Burlee County. So we’ve got. 55 staff that have received that Dandelion award recognized by the state. Mm, that’s all I have.

01:00:56,000	So any questions for me or? I mean, just a reminder, how many parent aid positions do you have? We have needs and then we have a parent need lead, um. That Supervises those poor. Yeah, I’d say Um Ideally, my pars, I, I like it when I see them working directly with the families, they’re in the visits with the families, other supervising those visits.

01:01:23,000	They’re providing coaching and education during those visits, um, they’re being able to incorporate the case plan that the case manager has put together into smaller goals, um, providing redirection, um, yeah, education based on the um. Developmental needs of the children, going into the home as we transition into um trial home visits and answering questions for them, showing up during peak times like morning when it’s chaotic and their mom’s trying to get and mom and dad are getting everybody ready

01:01:42,170	for school and that’s what we like to see them doing. Um, unfortunately, a lot of times, um, we’re spending doing transports and so they’re spending a lot of time of, um, they really are the A critical piece and that case manager’s work, um, the case managers want to help decide what

01:01:58,800	services should be put into place and how is this really going to work for reunification, engaging with that family member, and then they rely on the foster, um, the parent need to um get those things done and actually get them accomplished, so.

01:02:15,300	So for, how do, do you know how does that compare to casts and Gren Forks and Ward Co. Good question. Yeah, good question. Um, it just varies, it’s so hard. I, I am hoping redesign helps us get more standards, but it’s hard because some zones maybe don’t use Pyrenades and they, they have things what they call case aid or some zones don’t use

01:02:32,570	Perrenades and they just have less cases per ratio of case manager in the case. So it’s all kind of done how you structure it. By its own. So to give you a comparison of Ratio is really hard.

01:02:47,900	But um I can give you some numbers that we got today. So for Burlee County, like Jeremy said, we were at like 207 for um number of youth in foster care, which again is a huge jump just in the last 4 months, we’ve been very busy, um, let alone in the last year, and then the next highest would

01:03:01,270	be Cass County at 161, and then Ground Forks was at 112 and then Ward County was at 103. And so, Cass County being the highest population, having um.

01:03:19,470	Over 40 less children than we do have in care, um, again, we, we try to work with the department on what is the why. Um, I will just be honest that we know our community. We know the standards that we have in our community for, um, What is safety for our children.

01:03:39,100	Um, we have very active schools with engaging these parents in, um, everything from educational neglect to meeting the needs of the children through backpack and um food programs through, um, doing visits into the home and so we have a lot of eyes on these families that we are able to probably identify maltreatments that are occurring, and then we are able as a zone to um respond to those, so.

01:03:58,900	Yeah, I would say um talking to the other program administrators, to me, I guess and why not Grand Forks and Fargo. I think we have the best relationships with our public school system. Um, so, Kudos to the public school system here, you know. But Any other questions for Jeremy on that? Thank you.

01:04:27,770	OK, next up, I had other zone updates, um. Really, we’ve just been hands on in both those program updates that you guys have received, so I don’t have a whole lot of other zone updates to provide, um, I think the biggest thing that I’ve outside of that that I’ve been spending my time doing has been uh the legislative session

01:04:44,000	and different bills that we’re working on, so some of the ones that I think are critical to the work we’re doing are um There was a House Bill 1564, which was related to the Indian Child Welfare Act, so that just again was making some um was really adopting that federal into our North Dakota law, um,

01:05:03,030	around that. So practices we’re already doing best practices for um child welfare. Um, so that’s one that we have been supporting as own directors. I should say that when um we take a position to oppose or support, it’s on behalf of all 19 zones, so I don’t, um, just decide what is best for Burleigh County.

01:05:20,270	It’s on behalf. of all of us so. Um There was additional conversation around House Bill 1268, which is related to the drug testing of um parents when children are in foster care and the compliance with that prior to reunification, so, um, Our position on that initially was in opposition, um.

01:05:49,370	Based on the fact that drug testing is a tool that we already have in our toolbox as zones, so we could choose to engage with families on that, but really our position is that when we’re working with families, um, we try not to be, um, so compliance based and we really want to look at changing of the

01:06:04,770	behaviors we want to have understanding that relapses are likely to occur. And so how are we building the capacities and skills and parents for if relapse occurred, how will they make better decisions? Um, who would they reach out to building those safety nets.

01:06:19,770	around the substance exposure and not just, you know, you pass this this drug test and then you’re able to have your child. So we’re really trying to look at it through a, um, Much more like kind of macro approach, not saying that we don’t do that.

01:06:34,230	A lot of times families are already engaging with, whether it’s treatment programs or um maybe their parole and probation programs where those drug tests are happening. That is just restricted information that that provider may not know.

01:06:50,200	So, um, our position on it was more just an opposition in a general like we don’t want to go to a compliance-based, um, you know, get a driver’s license, get a home, pass a drug test, and the child goes home. We really try to focus on motivational interviewing and Um, changing of the behavior. So, um, but what we we’re open to was really fine tuning our policy and procedure around that idea.

01:07:07,300	So we have been working with the department on um And the sponsors of the bill regarding the policy around that and how can we as zones be more consistent. Um, Yeah, those are kind of two that we’ve probably really been following. And providing um test 22.

01:07:27,630	I don’t know if anybody has any questions on that or anything to add on any other bills. Yeah. Um, OK. Next on the agenda would be public comment. And thank you, Comm, for um your patience. and board members Um, Chair board members, um, actually, I listen to all these meetings, so I’d have been listening to it at some point.

01:07:59,730	Um, but I’m a little too late each day, so I’m keeping up with session too, um, I just wanted to make everybody here aware, uh, stakeholders in the metropolitan Planning Organization, which does include Lincoln and um anybody that has connections with University of Mary or Mandan, um, Bismarck, we have formed a steering committee in relation to the um sales tax being voted

01:08:24,900	on and passed by the voters, and a big portion that is we now have a funding source for public transportation that’s not related to our general fund.

01:08:49,230	It’s 2/10 of a cent of sales tax and it truly changes the conversation because there’s a, there’s a lot of things we currently do with, say, like transit opportunities and um things out there, but we can open up the conversation.

01:09:09,670	to a broader spectrum, so we’re really seeking what are the needs, um, it’s really about protecting the right, helping people get from point A to point B if they don’t have like an automobile or um Whatnot, um, or their health um puts them in a position where they can’t utilize a regular transportation source. So we’re on May 8th in this room, uh 6 p.m. we’re teaming up with the Human Relations Committee, and from 6 to 8 p.m.

01:09:35,200	were inviting anybody um to come and tell us what they see in the community, um, and we’ll see if we can wrap a plan around it. And grow into the future in a uh more Um Connective way, I guess would be the term, and then also anytime.

01:10:00,230	In between now and then, uh, our steering committee is going to meet, uh, probably a minimum of 4 times, maybe more, we start collecting those revenues April 1st and it’ll be ongoing into next year, um, but, uh, any ideas can be also submitted through the to our Bismarck administration. As we come, Mandan has a separate measure.

01:10:24,830	They’re working on it in their own way, so there’s some interesting things and we don’t know all of the problems out there challenges or opportunities, so we’re really relying and we’re just getting the word out to as many places, and anybody can always call me too, so. But if you have any questions, feel free.

01:10:41,530	I do, um, so this human relations committee, is this just for Burleigh County when you say Mandan is also working on their own thing.

01:11:02,630	Do you, are you guys communicate between the two of you? Um, Uh, the MPO functions in Mandan, Bismarck, Lincoln, and University of Mary where Bismarck city limits, and I would, I don’t know if he had Lincoln in the University of Mary, if that ticks up towards that.

01:11:24,100	80%, but uh once people are in town, say from if they come from those outer limits of Burleigh County and things, they can certainly use like the cat bus and, um, but maybe some of those other opportunities, we might not even know what this could turn into. It’s a huge opportunity because um like say, for instance, in the case of Transit, they were bleeding reserves and they were going to be out of money next year. So we’re in a position.

01:11:43,470	To answer that particular part of the conversation, but we’re also in a position to look at other things beyond that, but We have the best swing now for probably 1 or 2, but as those resources start getting utilized, um.

01:12:05,300	That’ll get harder because once you have the some of those things in place, uh, some of the thoughts as far as things that we’ve talked about already is, um, we have the school, uh, the schools are going to be at Friday’s meeting first steering committee and the public’s invited to that too. It’s in this room. Um, I believe that’s at. 10 a.m. um.

01:12:27,170	Uh, so we’re talking to the schools because we compete for drivers with the school district. So is there a way that we can meld some resources, so um we can, they can meet their needs and we can meet ours. Back up on 7th Street, um, at QNR clinic has been a concern for years.

01:12:43,100	Can we alleviate that for the safety of the community, but um I know the one example that I shared with you, Chelsea before is there was, um, one of the people in the Foster system to where um they were healthiest because they got healthy here in Bismarck, but they were, they were living in a different jurisdiction because they

01:13:02,930	became an adult, so they actually had to pay for their ride, um, they used all of their money from their job to get from point A to point B to try to graduate. Well, she actually helped us get the initiated measure forward and told her.

01:13:22,630	Well, this won’t be an answer for you, but maybe you could help provide the answer for the next person that struggled the same way you did. Um, it’s kind of some of those things. Any other questions? Alright. Thank you. OK, seeing no other public comment. Um, next on the agenda is other business.

01:13:44,630	Um, I don’t have anything else to add of everything I think I need to say on behalf of the zone so anybody have any comments, questions, things they want to see from this board. I think um this works nice to have the program administrators give their updates and then I do think it’d be nice if we could give a um.

01:14:01,800	Next, um, meeting just a little kind of walkthrough of the safety framework and that level of intrusion. OK. Otherwise, if there’s nothing else, then last thing on the agenda is to