Commissioners present: Richard DeVaughn, chairman, Ron Mercer, vice-chairman, Jay Dee Chase, Mike Peck, Bob Rawlings, Gerri Webb, Aneta Wilkinson and the Rev. George Young.

Present for the Department: Director Howard H. Hendrick; Margaret Hall, commission secretary

1. CALL TO ORDER—Chairman DeVaughn
Chairman DeVaughn called the meeting to order at 9:33 a.m.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES—July 28-29, 2009
Commissioners voted to approve the minutes from the July 28-29, 2009 meeting.

3. COMMISSION COMMENDATIONS – Chairman Richard DeVaughn
Chairman DeVaughn presented commendations on behalf of the Commission for Human Services to Rhonda James and Terrie Lincoln, OKDHS health care management nurses in Sequoyah County. Both nurses were honored for rendering life saving assistance to OKDHS clients.

4. DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS (End-Year Report) – Howard Hendrick
The Director made several site visits to the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Board, the Canadian County Child Welfare Drug Court, the Tri County Youth Conference, the 55H Back to School Event, the Foster Care Association Meeting, the ADvantage Waiver Providers Meeting and the Human Services Cabinet Meeting, just to name a few.

Director Hendrick shared that Oklahoma was one of only four states to receive an ISM national technology award out of 27 applicants. The award was for an imaging rollout for family support services.

The state also received the federal government’s Soaring Eagle Award for outstanding administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This marks the third consecutive time OKDHS has received the Soaring Eagle. Gov. Brad Henry was at the presentation.

Oklahoma will also receive a federal grant for nearly $750,000 to enhance online services for SNAP clients.

Federal grant funds of $2.6 million was awarded to Oklahoma for the “Oklahoma Kinship Bridge” program to convert some shelter operations to reception center operations and to help accelerate kinship search, support and placements.

A $200,000 federal grant award was also made for the “Bridge to Independence” program to provide services to homeless and runaway youth.

The state has also been awarded $1.5 million in high performance bonuses for adoptions, including finalizing more adoptions than ever and finalizing more adoptions of children over age 9.

Director Hendrick announced the number of SNAP recipients for August 2009 was 524,536, another record high. This represents a nearly 24 percent increase over a year ago. The Director said the efforts by staff have been remarkable to keep up with this unprecedented rate of increase and he appreciates their continued hard work.

The SNAP increase represents 14.5 percent of the state population and more than 25 percent of all state children in August, Director Hendrick added.

The Director noted that the significant factors driving the budget cost are: unfunded ADvantage Waiver costs; unfunded employee health care and retirement; and FMAP erosion that require more state dollars to buy the federal match for the same expenditure amount.

Director Hendrick said the agency must make cuts that are approximately proportionate to the lost revenue from the state. He noted there are several areas that may not be cut under federal law, contain a significant federal funding match or are completely funded by federal funds and would not help offset the loss of state funding. He proposed to the Commission several areas that could be cut that equate to a 3.5 percent cut. The Director expects this round of cuts will help the Agency until revenues could recover by January. If revenues don’t recover by January, additional cuts would need to be considered, unless the state decides to utilize the Rainy Day Fund, he added.

The Director then provided the Commission with the “Did You Know?” presentation that is available on the OKDHS Web site at http://www.okdhs.org.

The Commission then decided to allow Commissioner Young to make his budget reduction proposal because he had to leave due to a prior commitment. Following Commissioner Young’s presentation and a brief recess, the Director presented his end of year report on programs and services.

5. BUDGET COMMITTEE REPORT – Commissioner George Young

a. CONSIDERATION OF FISCAL YEAR 2011 BUDGET REQUEST
Commissioner Young said he was very concerned about the state’s fiscal condition and whether people who truly need OKDHS services would be able to continue to receive them in an environment of financial uncertainty. The Commissioners agreed they were also very concerned about the agency’s clients and that budget cuts directly affect people’s lives. Commissioners reviewed the proposed budget reductions. There were no questions regarding the proposed reductions. Young moved for approval.

Commissioners voted to approve the request.

6. CONSIDERATION OF FINANCIAL REPORT FOR JULY AND AUGUST—Phil Motley
The reduction of $11.6 million of state fund obligations to initially balance the FY2010 budget has presented some challenges to the agency early in the fiscal year. Some of the reduction initiatives reduced the budget to expected performance. This action reduces under runs in some areas which in past months have helped offset programs running over budget and consequently reduced financial position. Another strategy involved revenue to offset a budget reduction. The revenue is not yet performing. Other strategies involved reduction of funded positions with the intent of reducing personnel by attrition. This has not yet occurred to the desired levels and will take some time to accomplish. Another challenge has now occurred relative to state revenue shortfalls and a subsequent reduction of 5 percent of $1.75 million of the OKDHS General Revenue allocations. All of the above has resulted in reductions to the financial position.

• Adoption placements increased by 37
• Foster care placements declined by 130
• SNAP caseloads increased by 7,228
• TANF cases (child only) increased by 64
• TANF cases (adult only) increased by 169

The financial report was approved.

7. CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSED ADMINISTRATIVE RULES—Commissioner Aneta Wilkinson
Commissioner Wilkinson reviewed the proposed administrative rules. There were no questions regarding the rules. Wilkinson moved for approval.

The administrative rules were approved.

8. REPORT ON HUMAN SERVICES CENTERS—Marq Youngblood

The Child Welfare referrals reports indicated:
In July:
• Total referrals pending greater than 60 days was 148; and decreased 22 from June
• Total referrals pending less than 60 days; and decreased by 22 from June
• There were zero priority one no contacts
• There were 74 priority two no contacts

In August:
• Total referrals pending greater than 60 days was 237
• Total referrals pending less than 60 days increased by 324
• There was one priority one no contact
• There were 87 priority two no contacts

The APS report stated:
In July:
• Total past due investigations was 18
• The percent of investigations initiated timely was 98.83 percent
• The percent of investigations completed timely was 99.51 percent

9. DATE OF NEXT MEETING—OCT. 27, 2009
Commissioners set the date of the next meeting for Oct. 27, 2009

10. 2010 MEETING DATES

A. STATUS REPORT ON PENDING LEGAL CLAIMS OR ACTIONS INCLUDING FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS, DISALLOWANCE AND PROVIDER CASES—Charles Waters

B. STATUS REPORT ON INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO CLIENT MISTREATMENT AND EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT—Mark Jones

Commissioners voted to go into executive session.

12. RETURN TO REGULAR SESSION
Commissioners voted to return to regular session.

13. NEW BUSINESS
There were no items of new business.

14. ADJOURNMENT
Commissioners voted to adjourn at 12:27 p.m.