Issue Summary:

1. Committee set Consortium legislative agenda to go to the board for a vote.

The Advocacy committee, with representation from consortium members (General Clint Willis – President of NCACBSS, and Wayne Black for NCSSA), reviewed the legislative agenda survey. The following legislative priorities were passed by the committee to be forwarded to the Board for a vote:

1. TANF Work First reauthorization and budget plan.

2. Mental Health Reform – We want to assure priority for individuals served by DSS if legislation is introduced. Concern was also raised in the meeting about the financial impact if clients removed from institutions are sent to county rest homes.

3. Full Funding for Day Care

4. Full Funding for NC Health Choice

5. Foster Care Rate Increase –Several years ago there was a legislative change to increase the reimbursement rate for adoption to equal the rate provided for foster care. We need to determine if this law just increased the adoption rate to the same level as foster care or if they were set to track together through any rate changes. We don’t want to introduce the inequality again by raising foster care rates.

6. Reimbursement to DSS Case Management

The six listed above would serve as the priority list of legislative issues that the Consortium would take a leadership role in pursuing. A secondary list will be developed that will note important issues to monitor and respond to if necessary.

Wayne Black, representing NCSSA, noted that their association's agenda mirrored the six legislative issues but they also focused on the importance of developing equity between the local government retirement system and the state retirement system.

2. Discussion was held around the legislative impact of the vote coming before the Stokes County Commissioners to remove $256,000 from their county DSS funding.

Stokes county has several new County Commissioners including a new chair. The chair has made it clear that she believes there is little need for DSS services and made a motion (that was tabled until a meeting the following week) to remove $256,000 from the budget. This level of cuts in Stokes would cause DSS to close down. State DSS is quite concerned about the situation and believe that if the Stokes County Commissioners are able to pass the vote to eliminate this funding it may lead to a series of other county commissioners trying to do likewise. If it does pass, the state will have to bring the AG’s office into the case to force the county to meet its legislative requirements for services. General Clint Willis, President of NCACBSS, noted that if this should pass it would have grave implications DSS customers and significantly impact the Boards of Social Services. He agreed to discuss it with his association members.

Action Items: Legislative Agenda Items to be voted on by NCACDSS board.