00:00:00,000	Okay, so we apologize for the delay, but we’ll get started here. Um, with our agenda. This is the Burleigh County Human Service Zone board meeting. Um, that’s scheduled for Tuesday, June 16th at 3 p.m. We are in the Tom Baker room in the city County building.

00:00:23,930	Um, so we will call the meeting to order, and then I will kick it to town. All right. And before we get to our roll call of members, we have a team member from our auditor’s office. Um, here to swear in our new zone. Director. So go ahead. Sure. All right. Kayla? Yes. Okay.

00:00:53,800	So I’m Haley Wilder on behalf of, uh, Mark, I’m an auditor. I’m sorry. The deputy for the auditor’s department. I’m also a notary public, so I’ll be swearing you in. So you can raise your right hand and repeat after me. So I, Kayla Kershaw, I, Kayla Kershaw, do solemnly swear.

00:01:11,200	Do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, that I will support the Constitution. Of the. United States and the Constitution of the State of North Dakota and the Constitution of the State of North Dakota. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Burleigh County Human Service Zone.

00:01:29,170	Director of Burleigh County Human Service Zone director in the County of Burleigh and the State of North Dakota, in the County of Burleigh in the State of North Dakota. According to the best of my ability, according to the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God. Okay. Thank you.

00:01:45,070	Yes. So we will sign this, and then I will scan over a copy. Okay. Real quick. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so I will move on with rollcall of members now. Um, Kelly Berglund here. Trevor Vennett here. Jim Holm here. Commissioner Bakken here. And director Kershaw. Here.

00:02:34,670	And for the record, Senator Dever and Tracy Famous are both absent today. Okay. Okay. So our next agenda item is the approval of the meeting. Minutes from March 17th of 2026. Um, so I hope everybody had a chance to review those and just wanted to see if there’s any questions regarding those meeting minutes. I would move for move to approve second. Second. All in favor? Uh.

00:03:08,370	Not in favor. Sorry, Bakken. I didn’t account for the delay. Uh. Um. Okay, the next item on the agenda is public comment. So we don’t have anybody in the audience here, so I would assume we will move on from that one. And our will have to call it. Oh. Okay. Just a first, second and third. Okay.

00:03:38,770	Okay. So for public comment. Um, can I get a first? Second? Call for second? And we can move. On. Third and final. Third and final call. Okay. Um. Close to public comment. Okay. Closing the public comment. We’ll move on to the fifth agenda item, which is the director’s report. Our first item is economic assistance.

00:04:23,700	And we do have gray laying from that unit here to give us some updates. Hi. Um, okay. I just have a few updates. Um, the first things to talk about are some changes that have been made in program wise. Um, of course. Snap. Beginning in June 2026 this year.

00:04:45,030	Just so you know, the EBT cards are going to have a new look to them. The old cards will remain fully functional, and they do not need to be replaced. It’s just as they start sending out new EBT cards now, they’re going to look different from what they currently look like. Um, of course it is summertime.

00:05:01,300	And so summer EBT, which is also known as Sun Box. Um, that has started this is a partnering of Health and Human Services and DPI together. Um, and they provide a one time issuance per eligible school age child.

00:05:23,000	Um, there are roughly over 44,000 North Dakota students that were already pre-qualified for the 2026 summer. Um, sun box benefits are loaded onto a separate EBT card, and they do expire 122 days from issuance, and they cannot be replaced. Um, households that have children that were not automatically eligible and meet the income requirements for free or reduced school meals are encouraged to apply.

00:05:42,270	Uh, and there is a website they can go to, which is NDI Summer EBT gov. Also it is storm season and we just had a few storms earlier in the month of June.

00:06:04,600	And so just this is just a reminder as the storms do happen, if there is any Snap recipient across North Dakota who experiences a loss of food that was purchased with the Snap benefits due to the power outages, if it lasted more than four hours and it was due to storms or other disaster, they may be eligible for replacement of their Snap benefits.

00:06:20,770	The loss must be reported within ten days of the local Human Service Zone office or with customer support. Um and a form must be filed for the replacement request. Uh, the individual may need to provide verification of the power outage if it was something other than a storm that we knew about. For light heat, effective June 1st. Ly heat benefits are now going to be provided year round.

00:06:43,530	Previously, the leap season ended on May 31st of each year. Uh, both the primary and secondary heating sources will continue to be paid through the summer months until the household’s next review is due. There was a mass mailing letter that went out on June 2nd to all lightship households to inform them of this change.

00:07:05,970	Recently, an EA Task Force team was created and they are to help determine the issues within the EA redesign model and also to problem solved solutions for a more efficient and productive statewide process. Uh, the implementation implementation details, of course, are still being worked out.

00:07:26,330	Uh, one of the first steps taken so far to improve the backlog of the work by issuing, um, they issued a mandate that every eligibility worker, lead worker and supervisor across the state work a minimum of eight hours and no more than 12 hours of overtime per week.

00:07:45,400	Um, we were informed of this decision on Thursday, May 28th, that the effort was to begin the following Monday on June 1st, and we’re currently in week three of this effort at this time. And we’ve been given no information on how long this mandate is expected to continue. At this point.

00:08:02,470	Um, I do at this time want to give a huge shout out to my team and tell them, thank you for stepping up and putting their best efforts forward to this. Um, with very little to no notice of the mandate being put into place, several did have to make drastic changes in their lives and quickly to be able to accommodate for the extra hours. So I want to tell them that I appreciate that.

00:08:21,870	The EA Task Force team also stated that they would begin hosting a monthly all staff meetings, effective this month, June 26th. Um, at this time, we haven’t received any meeting. Invite. Um issued or any other information to be given. Um, when these will actually start.

00:08:41,000	However, all of the regional meetings and other economic assistance meetings have been ended as of June 1st. Uh, there are currently other initiatives in the work, but more information is to come with that as soon as we get it. Told you to be short and sweet. Perfect. Um, I do want to, um.

00:09:05,170	I guess just second what Grace said about being really thankful for all of our workers and the economic assistance program. It has been, um, difficult with the mandated overtime, but they are handling it well. Um, and, um, we do look for those updates. So as soon as we get them, we want to get them pushed out to the field. Yeah. Yeah.

00:09:24,170	Just a quick question. You had mentioned the, uh, summer program. Mhm. Could you explain what that is? So that is just snap for those school age children who receive free or reduced meals during the school year because they’re not in school right now. They don’t have that meal.

00:09:41,730	Um, the lunch meal while they’re at school. So we have a sun box program which will issue Snap benefits on a separate card to the families of those children so that they can have access to Snap benefits, to purchase more food to have at home for lunch since they’re not in school.

00:09:59,930	Um, and it’s still based on income eligibility. And so it may not be, you know, the child may not be necessarily receiving free or reduced meals during the school year, but they could still be eligible. So they could apply, you know, and get those summer EBT as well.

00:10:20,970	Yeah, they’ve actually been doing this for a couple of years now, pretty much since Covid, I think is when it started. And it’s just continued each summer. So far. Mhm. Yep. And I think in this section is where we wanted to talk about global neighbors too. Okay. So last meeting Trevor had brought up um.

00:10:44,430	It was after the meeting I reached out to town and we they had major concerns about getting their paperwork in. So I reached out to them. Yeah. So we did, um, set up a meeting with Global Neighbors, and we were able to meet with them.

00:11:06,200	And it sounds like some of the frustration has been, um, just when they’re calling into the call center, it’s, um, the worker is not necessarily being specialized or knowing that the refugee program. Um, so it sounds like from them, they were able to get it figured out, but it did take them three different times to call, to speak with somebody that was able to answer their questions. Um, so Brett attended that meeting with me.

00:11:25,430	Um, and we were able to have a conversation with them. And, you know, they they understood, but they also, you know, used to appreciate when we were able to have a more individualized, um, I guess, approach to it. But we know with redesign that’s not something that we’re currently able to do.

00:11:46,170	So and I’ll add to that, prior to redesign, um, the alien cases were pretty much secluded to Burleigh County and Cass County because they were the ones that received most of the refugees that come in and get settled in. And so we were the ones that worked most of those cases.

00:12:06,530	And we when we moved to the redesign and all of the cases went statewide. Now all those cases can end up with any worker across the state who may not have ever worked an alien or refugee case. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions for gray? Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Um, we’ll move on to our child welfare unit update.

00:12:39,200	Um, so that’s in the packet of our minutes for today. Just a couple things I can add to this is for our case management. Um, we do continue to go through the second phase of the redesign. So we will be that will be implemented here soon. So we continue to work on that.

00:12:58,830	Um, and we continue to have some collaboration with within our child protection unit, with our response team that comes into Burleigh County to help us with our kind of overflow of reports.

00:13:20,200	Um, so that is something that we have continued to do, and they’ve continued to be able to support us on an ongoing basis with that. Does anybody have any questions on the child Welfare unit update? Okay. And then another zone updates. I don’t have anything to update about the building. I just wanted to mention, obviously the renovation is still happening.

00:13:50,830	Um, we’re still kind of expected to do some shifting around December, and we haven’t received any other updates other than other than that. So more to come on that. Any other updates? Yeah, I’ll bring up the voucher program.

00:14:18,470	The I don’t know if the zone boards are aware, but uh, at the 6 to 9 city commission meeting, they’re going to start a voucher program for the fixed route. And that’ll help your clients that need to get from the zone office. And it’ll help them get around to get to appointments and stuff. So I would encourage the zone to to be on the lookout for that. I’ll help you.

00:14:39,500	Kayla, with, you know, getting your agency on the the thing you guys will have to track where they’re going and stuff because they have to track it because we’re using sales tax dollars. Okay for that.

00:14:59,770	So but I encourage your agency to get on the list because I know your clients use the Cap bus to get down to your office and stuff. You know, it’s I know there are some are homeless somewhere. You know, it’s, uh, more to come on it. It was just approved. Six, nine the last Tuesday election night. So. Okay. I’ll be in touch. More on that when I hear more.

00:15:27,770	Do you know if there are a certain number? $5,000 worth? Yep. And it has to be like. Like an agency. Ministry on the margins or non-profit, you know, kind of. You can apply, but more to come. Hopefully I’ll have more next meeting. I don’t. Sounds good. Thanks, Trevor. Yep.

00:16:03,730	Um, and then we can move to agenda item six for the financial report, and tione will fill us in on that. Sure. So I did, um, put into your packets. Uh, just an overview of the annual budget changes, things that are going on with this year’s budget cycle.

00:16:21,200	Um, so this time of year, we work with our state partners to take a look at our established 2026 budget and make, um, calculations or revisions based on current needs, current spending cycles, things like that. So we worked with our partners to get that finalized and received our mid-year formula payment from the state for those expenses to get us through the end of the year.

00:16:42,570	And then we also worked with our state partners, and Kayla was able to join in on some of those conversations with us this year to take a look at our 2027 annual budget projections. Again, we go through kind of a different process than most of the county departments do because we’re aligned more so with this state for these processes.

00:17:00,070	So we worked with them. And this right now is our 2027 preliminary budget. I haven’t seen any changes or corrections or anything come back through. Typically, though, those are final. Finally approved by the state as of July 1st I believe is their deadline. So we should have information on that, um, going forward.

00:17:21,400	And then we can present that to the county as finalized for, for the counties piece that their, their own budgeting processes. So, um, not a lot of big changes. Um, just, you know, shifting programmatic type support, client support pieces where they need to go, whether it’s transportation, childcare, things like that for child and family services.

00:17:43,500	Um, administratively, things otherwise were pretty, pretty standard. So nothing really major to report. But I could certainly, um, answer any questions if anybody sees anything that they would want to discuss or learn more about. Okay. And I motion to approve those. We don’t need that. Okay. Got it. Um, moving to other business. Item number seven.

00:18:22,300	I just have one item for the public. Any of you out there needing things? Be patient. You know, the the redesign has taken men’s time, and I know the staff are working hard, so just be patient out there. I know it’s frustrating for some clients, but just be patient. It’s not the staff’s fault.

00:18:46,330	They’re just following directions. So I really appreciate the staff’s help. Thanks. Thanks, Trevor for. That. Um, and our last item is just to adjourn the meeting. So I don’t have any other. Anything else? Um, and thank you guys for muddling through my first