Present were Chairman Richard DeVaughn, Ronald Mercer, Michael Peck, Wayne Cunningham, Aneta Wilkinson, Garoldine Webb and George Young.

Chairman DeVaughn called the meeting to order.

Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) Director Howard H. Hendrick began his comments by listing some recent site visits that included meeting with various House and Senate Members, the DDSD Agency Companion Rate Analysis task force, Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, Pathways to Adulthood Foster Care Conference, Take Your Child to Work Day event, Child Welfare Case Reviews, LTCA Tulsa Planning session, Christian Legacy Society, Human Services Agencies Cabinet meeting, Aging: Affordable Assisted Living as an ADvantage service, OKDHS Best of the Best Quality Awards recognition, Safe Haven – Okla. County CW Assessment for substance abuse services, Infant Transition Services – OUHSC and Family Expectations collaboration, Governor’s Cabinet, Judicial Conference for child welfare, Department of Education review of Sooner Start, multiple 90 day reviews, Grady County Foster Care Appreciation Banquet, Council on Aging Retreat, Quality Oklahoma Awards Day at State Capitol, Aging Conference honoring Centenarians, Foster Care Association meeting, Health and Human Services Joint Cabinet meeting, Communications Conference presentation, Open House for the Pauline Mayer Group Home, Senate Hearing on Confirmation, Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Executive Committee meeting, White Fields Open House and Grand Opening, Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

Next, the Director shared some good news.  More than 200 OKDHS employees were recognized at the annual “Best of the Best” and Quality Awards ceremony.  Three honorable mentions and eight quality award winning project teams were recognized based on Quality Awards criteria.  Several OKDHS projects received Governor’s commendations and one project was selected by OPM as the winner of the best project in any agency for improving employee services.  Also, Fred McCrosky, who has served as a key leader in the Child Support Enforcement Division, is retiring after 34 years of service to OKDHS.

Director Hendrick next discussed some preliminary budget numbers and the budget process before briefly discussing HB 1804 that deals with immigration. 
The Director delivered a brief analysis of Food Stamp usage before closing with some major issues ahead that include preparing a budget recommendation to the Commission in the upcoming weeks; restoring some additional persons for eligibility to child care subsidy services; taking another look at the agency’s mission, vision and values; final legislative issues; finishing state fiscal year 2007 as strongly as possible; planning and implementation of various Information Technology services and several property projects nearing completion and others in various stages of development.

Chief Financial Officer Phil Motley presented the financial report for the period ending April 30, 2007. Expenditure and revenue performance continued through the 10th month of the fiscal year with only minor variance to expectations. The majority of year-to-date budget under runs, in terms of dollars, is occurring in Family Support Services. These programs are primarily federally funded. Aging Services is the only division currently over budget. This division is primarily state dollar funded. Consequently, the majority of the 5.1 percent agency under-performance, relative to expenditures, represents federal dollars which will not be “earned” nor drawn.Through April, the estimated state dollars relative to the under-performance of expenditures is $8.8 million. The unobligated cash from pervious years is approximately $13.4 million.  At the current level of estimated obligations, the carry over available in FY 2008 is projected at $22.3 million. 
The Aging Services Division finished last month 4.8 percent over budget. This position is the result of the ADvantage Program. Through April ADvantage expenditures were 17.5 percent over the year-to-date budgeted expenditures.  The program continues at a pace to finish the fiscal year at approximately $7.3 million state dollars over budget.

Case loads in most programs continued along recent trend patterns. The number of children in Foster Care rose by 37 over the previous month. Food Stamp cases continued to decline by another 599 during April. TANF Child Only Cases were 68 less than last month while TANF Cases with Adults were 24 less than March.

Linda Smith, director, Children and Family Services division introduced Cathy Connelly with the OKDHS Independent Living Program and Deborah Goodman with the OKDHS SWIFT Adoption program who delivered a brief presentation to the Commission.

Diane Haser-Bennett, director of the OKDHS Human Resources Management Division delivered a brief overview of HRMD.

Sharon Neuwald, coordinator, Office of Legislative Relations and Policy gave a brief legislative overview.

The date of the next meeting of the Oklahoma Commission for Human Services is June 12, 2007.