Rockford Sun

City of Rockford Health and Human Service Supplemental Funding Committee met Oct. 29.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

I. CALL TO ORDER 

a. The regularly scheduled meeting of the Health and Human Services Supplemental Funding Committee meeting was called to order at 3:18 pm

Attendee Name	Organization	Title	Status	Arrived
Kevin Frost	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Chad Tuneberg	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Karen Hoffman	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Gina Meeks	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present

II. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 

A. Goals of the Committee and Timeline 

i. The goals of this committee is to develop a spending plan for supplemental funds for Health and Human Services.

ii. Gina Meeks: For this meeting, I would like to learn more about each grant and the rules of all of them.

iii. Chad Tuneberg: I am also in the information seeking phase.

iv. Kevin Frost: I wish items for Health and Human Services was reviewed separately from the rest of Finance and Personnel. Maybe it should have its own committee and request permission from council annually for all reoccurring grants.

v. Owen Carter: For a committee like that, we could have a quarterly report/summary or whatever increment would be as requested. We do similar reports for our Community Action Board.

B. Current HHS Grant Landscape (and Funding Limitations) 

i. Anqunette Parham: Presented list of all the funding sources and grants for the entire Health and Human Services Department. They each have specific rules and guidelines. A certain percentage of each program allows for administrative costs. Only a few of these grants allow for capital costs or vehicle costs. Sometimes those types of expenditures require special permissions and authorization. As you can see with the dollar amounts and the limitations, the department has already been budgeted to the teeth.

There is very little wiggle room for any other needs.

C. Current Service Delivery Models 

i. For Head Start, we deliver services through home visits, center based services, Rockford Public School collaborative sites, and in person applications

ii. For Community Services, we deliver services to the community through in-person applications, in-office and community based outreach events, and Single Point of Entry (SPOE) for homeless services.

D. Significant Community and Departmental Needs 

i. Within our community needs assessment we conducted, these were the most needed resources by our residents.

1. Attainable Housing & Rent Assistance.

2. Childcare.

3. Job Training.

4. Utility Assistance.

ii. The needs for the department are as follows:

1. Capital & Infrastructure Improvement.

2. Security, health, and safety upgrades.

3. Funds for internal matches.

4. Additional fiscal staff support.

5. Supplemental grant writing services.

iii. Owen Carter: At every City facility, there are security protocols and protections in place for staff. At City Hall, there are security guards, metal detectors, and safety glass/shutters. The FPC and Police stations have safety glass with a small speaker to talk through. However, at 612 there no security measures in place. We only have a front desk with plexiglass and cubicle walls separating us from the public.

iv. Anqunette Parham: At the moment we are doing in-person appointments with paper applications. Having an electronic or digital option would help efficiency, improve customer service, more clients getting assistance, and overall better service for the community.

v. Anqunette Parham: The building for Community Services is old. It used to be the Social Security office. The roof is leaky. A couple months ago the HVAC system was not working. Some of the grants allow for a repair like that but most do not. The bathrooms are in disrepair. Ceiling tiles have water damage from the leaky roof.

vi. Anqunette Parham: Because of the age of the building, the disrepair, and the limits of the grants, it’s necessary to have supplemental funding sources for either repairing the issues or getting a different building.

vii. Owen Carter: We have very little space at 612. Head Start is in the same situation, they are placed in the same space as Community & Economic Development. CED was wanting more space. At City Yards with Public Works, we use some of their storage space. Public Works would like that space back, due to space limitations.

viii. Anqunette Parham: Head Start serves families with young kids. City Hall is not built to facilitate them. Both Head Start and Community Services at 612 serve the same population. It would be prudent to have a facility that could accommodate our population’s needs but also our staff’s.

ix. Kevin Frost: How many staff do we have at each?

x. Owen Carter: At 612 we have around 33 at any given time. At Head Start in City Hall, there is about 28.

E. Determine Necessity of Future Meeting(s) 

i. Anqunette Parham: What would the committee like to do with the next meeting and what dates work for everyone?

ii. Kevin Frost: I would like a list of the main points I would like to touch on for the next meeting. A list of what the biggest needs for the department. For the next meeting, I we should look at early December.

iii. Karen Hoffman: Early December would work for me.

iv. Anqunette Parham: We have a Community Action Board Meeting for December 3 already. We could have a meeting scheduled for the same day after that meeting takes place at 3PM.

III. ADJOURN 

a. Kevin Frost left the meeting 4:09 PM.

b. Chad Tuneberg left the meeting 4:09 PM.

c. The next Health and Human Services Supplemental Funding Committee Meeting will be December 3 2024, 3:00 PM at Rockford City Hall Conference Room A.

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