DAUPHIN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
WORKSHOP MEETING
JUNE 18, 2008 10:00 AM

MEMBERS PRESENT

Jeff Haste, Chairman
George P. Hartwick, III, Secretary

Dominic D. DiFrancesco, II, Vice Chairman (ABSENT)

STAFF PRESENT

Chad Saylor, Chief Clerk; Marie E. Rebuck, Controller; William Tully, Esq., Solicitor; Karla Miller, Treasurer's Office; Gary Serhan, Deputy Controller; J. Scott Burford, Deputy Chief Clerk; Steve Shaver, Director of EMA; Dave Schreiber, Personnel; Melissa Wion, Personnel; William Struemke, Solicitor's Office; David Feidt, Solicitor's Office; Diane McNaughton, Commissioners' Office; Amy Richards, Commissioners' Office; Kay Lengle, Personnel; Jena Wolgemuth, Commissioners' Office; Randy Baratucci, Director of Purchasing; Miles McKenzie, Personnel; Leila McAdoo, Solicitor's Office; Tom Guenther, Director of IT; Brenda Hoffer, Commissioners' Office and Richie-Ann Martz, Commissioners' Office

GUESTS PRESENT

Garry Lenton, Matt Woods and Robert Ross

MINUTES

CALL TO ORDER

Mr. Haste, Chairman of the Board, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Everyone observed a moment of silence.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Mr. Haste: We have three sets of meeting minutes that we will take up at next week's meeting.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Mr. Haste: We are at the point in time in the meeting for public participation. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Board at this time? (There was none.)

DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS/GUESTS

1. Matt Woods, Delta Development Group
   Steve Shaver, Director, EMA
   1. Final Presentation on the Continuity of Operations Plan

Mr. Shaver: With me today is Matt Woods, who is the Project Manager on a project that was implemented and provided by the SouthCentral Task Force with regards to the Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government as far as the County is concerned. Matt, today, would like to review the findings of that study that was conducted by Delta and provide us with some guidelines and recommendations. Also at this time I would like to thank the Deputy Chief Clerk for his assistance in this process. Without his help we would have been in trouble. Also, one member of my staff, that Delta stole in the process (just kidding), who worked on the project, Tony Stubbio. He actually did leave to work for Delta.

Mr. Woods: Thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of the Board. The purpose of this meeting is really just to close out briefly the project. I'll keep my remarks as brief as possible and open it up to any questions you might have.

I provided in your folder, that is in front of you, a short PowerPoint presentation, which I'll use to speak off of today and then there is a more detailed report as a take-away that provides additional clarification of some of the recommendations.

If you open up you PowerPoint presentation to the third slide, "Project Objectives." Essentially what Delta was charged with is developing a Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government Initiative for six counties across the region. What occurred in Dauphin County is part of a broader initiative to ensure the enduring constitutional government of each county within the Task Force. The project approach was to develop a series of continuity of operations plans at the department level by utilizing consistent materials and adopting a standardized approach across the six counties. The final product that you receive in Dauphin County is consistent with six other counties in the region. It is important to point out that the process that was followed and the end product is simply a basic foundation. It is a starting point. It provides the ability for you to build upon and enhance future continuity of operations initiatives. With that in mind, each continuity of operations plan that the department heads received ensured that the objectives listed on slide 3 would be met within their department and realized as a whole for the County. Essentially, if there was a large scale disaster within Dauphin County, the overall objective is how does the County reconstitute its services and continue to provide for its constituents. Slide 4 is a review of the project.

In summary it was a 12-month project. We identified 45 departments throughout this process. The process that we followed included conducting a department head training and education session. There was also an information gathering session where we distributed a survey. Forty-five surveys were distributed and we received 39 back. We then moved forward with scheduling and conducting face-to-face interviews with each department head to go over the results of those surveys and additional information that was needed to develop the Continuity of Operations Plan specific to their particular department. We then developed 45 individual Continuity of Operations Plans and distributed them around March. Twenty-nine were returned and 18 required changes. At that point in time we moved forward and developed the final version of the plan. That was produced in hard copy and electronic copy and delivered on June 9th to the Emergency Management Agency. So 45 Continuity of Operations Plans in electronic and hardcopy format were delivered.

In summary, we received a great deal of participation and support from all parties involved, especially the Emergency Management Agency and the Deputy Chief Clerk. As Steve pointed out, we would like to extend our thanks. Each individual department head, with all that they had going on with their schedules, we received a great deal of cooperation and participation from them as well. Moving forward, our recommendations are to quickly identify the emergency relocation sites for each department, as needed. Understand that the County is examining options or strategies for moving forward on that. That is certainly a key element for a viable Continuity of Operations Plan and we encourage you to do everything you can to identify individual sites for each department. Once that is done work towards establishing cooperative agreements with the organizations for use of those facilities and/or any logistical support required. Aggressively support and expand document scanning initiatives in select departments. A lot of the departments have, as you know, a lot of hard copy documents that are important to their functions. Anything that you can do to rapidly move forward with the document scanning initiatives will ensure that they are redundantly backed up. It is important to determine a strategy and establish a plan for reconstituting the IT environment. This is focused on the emergency relocation sites. If all of your departments had to relocate to an alternate operating facility how do you reconstitute the IT environment to ensure that they are connected electronically? We recommend that the County form a Continuity of Operations Steering Committee, work group or focus group, whatever you want to call it, to advance this initiative. We have some suggestions in the take-away there of what the composition of that group ought to look like. Last, but not least, we recommend that you make every effort to test, train and exercise. Again, the plan is only the first step. While it is good to have a plan, it is most important to go ahead and get out there and try to execute the procedures that are in that plan and determine how valid they are in determining any revisions that are necessary. If you are able to hold a department head meeting at any one of these sites that may aid in that process or simply have a point in time when you can go out and take a look at these things and do a site survey and determine if the requirements do, in fact, meet each individual department's needs.

Again, there is additional information in the take-away, but at this point in time this concludes my presentation. So, I would leave it open to any questions you may have.

Mr. Haste: Scott, on the committee, have you started to work on identifying the people in getting that together?

Mr. Burford: We have identified some members, but nothing has been formalized yet.

Mr. Haste: I guess we should probably do that.

Mr. Burford: Yes, absolutely.

Mr. Haste: I assume you put that last line in there, test, train and exercise for EMA. I think we pay them to go to training sessions.

PERSONNEL

Ms. Lengle: First item I have are the Salary Board requests. I would like to pull #2. Are there any questions on #1?

Mr. Hartwick: I believe #1, the adding of additional probation officers is because of the establishment of the drug court?

Mr. Haste: Yes.

Mr. Hartwick: It still would be good just to have either Mike Potteiger or the President Judge here next week in case we do have any questions.

Ms. Lengle: I will get in touch and ask them to come.

Funding for the positions is coming from the Act 35 money.

The Personnel Transaction Listing, I would like to pull items #8, #9 and #10. Are there any questions on any of the items in the Personnel Packet? (There was none.)

PURCHASE ORDERS

Mr. Baratucci: You should have all received your report yesterday. The one that I just gave you is one that we are still working on. It came too late to get on the report and there are a couple of items that we need to confirm with IT. We are confident that we will be able to get it resolved by next week so it will be on the report next week. Do you have any questions on that one or any of the items in the Packet?

Mr. Hartwick: What is this one?

Mr. Baratucci: It is a laptop computer out at EMA. It is through a grant that expires June 30th. So, it needs to get approved next week. I'm pretty sure we can get all the questions resolved by next week and will be able to put it on the report. The other items there are all accessories that go with the laptop. Tom or Steve could give you the details on it.

Mr. Haste: It is an expensive laptop.

Mr. Shaver: Yes. It is a laptop, but it is actually what they call a Panasonic Tough Book. It is similar to what we have currently with regards to the hazardous duty vehicle. It is just an upgrade.

Mr. Haste: Is this where it will be used?

Mr. Shaver: Yes. There is a GIS as far as that software is concerned. It is essential nowadays with regards to the hazardous materials program. We currently have one in, but it is time to upgrade. I believe it is three or four years old. If we don't spend the money, we have a quality issue here we will have to give the money back to the Commonwealth. I would rather not do that.

Mr. Haste: Is this being paid out of the HazMat Funds?

Mr. Shaver: Yes, it is Act 147 money, which is actually a radiological planning piece of the funding stream. Randy is correct. If you buy a computer they have a standard package. As soon as you deviate a little bit from that standard package it throws you into a special thing. Randy was quite correct when we had gotten a quote back the vendor failed to put on it that it was actually a State contract item, however, it is a special package. So, for some reason they didn't put the contract on that quote. That is why Randy flagged it and rightly so.

Mr. Baratucci: That is the HazMat item. We had to change that. That is another issue that we had to resolve. I'm sure it will be fixed and ready for next week. Are there any other questions? (There was none.)

TRAINING PACKET

Mr. Haste: There is nothing on the Training Packet that needs approved today.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

1. 2008 Chafee Foster Care Independence Living Grant.
   1. Mr. Haste: Items for Discussion, we don't need to take action this week.

SOLICITOR'S REPORT - WILLIAM TULLY, ESQ.

Mr. Tully: All items on the Report should be ready for action next week. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Mr. Hartwick: I have a couple. I guess I just need to talk to Fred about #3. I'm aware of some of the changes to that contract, but I want to make sure we are not going above and beyond with the exception. The only one that I was aware that would cost an additional amount of money was the GIS and the Treasurer's module. I was unaware of the web access in the Deeds Registry. I just need to talk to him about that. I would also like to just review the contracts for HSDF. In taking a look at the Solicitor's Report, I would doubt that any other county in the Commonwealth is as prepared as Fred Lighty in getting contracts out for MH/MR services, HSDF, Aging and Children & Youth prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. He stays on top of it. We don't hear from our vendors complaining that they are not getting paid on time. I want to commend him for all the work he has put in.

Mr. Tully: I'll pass that on.

CHIEF CLERK'S REPORT - CHAD SAYLOR

Mr. Saylor: I have nothing unless there are questions of me. (There was none.)

COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS

Mr. Hartwick: This morning our Human Services Department underwent a big planning project for a brand new innovative services plan. Dauphin County is trying to attempt to achieve Tier 1 status as a County Integrated Service Planning Module, which means that we come together with both a formal and informal system to be able to create a seamless delivery of human services from any entry point in any one of our categoricals or informal systems. We are going to be developing a common supporting tool that will allow us to provide appropriate referrals rather than the human way we are doing it now. We are taking a look at a system that will be able to secure information keeping in mind the requirements between each one of the categoricals. There is a significant amount of money from the Department associated with this Tier. I'm happy to report that about 60 to 80 individuals from internal county staff to external formal and informal systems have come together this morning in order to provide the foundation for that plan. It is moving along extremely well. Those things include trying to take a look at some alternatives, which have been granted in our Children & Youth budget. The potential of check-in centers, which we have an amount of money to be able to provide a model of up to 20 kids to take a look at a concept of rather than putting kids into a formal system having them actually report to a neighborhood check-in center. A goal of the department has been to try to look at reducing the amount of our kids in residential treatment facilities by about 50%. That is the goal of trying to keep them out of a. We spend about $17 million out of our $46 million budget for detention and secure placement. We would like to figure out ways to reduce that. We have a commitment from the Department for every amount of dollar that we reduce the system we are able to reinvent the community-based alternatives in trying to keep kids engaged with their families instead of sending them off to a residential treatment facility only to be returned to the same street corner and the same internal problems in the family. The MR Waiver Services still appear to be going in the direction of cutting out the county. So, this may be the last year of that. We are continuing to undergo negotiations about what that looks like, what the County's role is going to be and how, in fact, we are going to provide any kind of quality assurance role in making sure those services are delivered to our clients in Dauphin County. I'll keep the Board updated on that.

Mr. Haste: Until there is a new administration and they undo it, I can't imagine someone continuing that.

Mr. Hartwick: We certainly don't support it and we are making our views known. The State is committed to this process, which I think is completely, on the public record, the wrong process to go. I think our clients are not going to be as well-served. You are going to have the fox watching the hen house and no ability to make sure that the quality of services that are being delivered are of the quality that we currently provide to our residents. From now on, the State Representatives and the Governor are not going to be able to call MR staff and ask for us to be able to remedy issues with providers. The State is going to have to responsibly do that in a direct contract way. I certainly hope that the State listens to our comments about the County still playing an oversight role in providing quality assurance for the services, at the very least, so we are able to ensure that the people who are in those services receive the same high level of quality that we have come to be accustomed to from the providers.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Mr. Haste: We are again at the point in time in the meeting for public participation. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the Board? (There was none.)

Mr. Saylor: Before you do that. Tomorrow morning will be the first official meeting of the Gaming Advisory Board. They will meet at 8:30 a.m. here in the Commissioners' Hearing Room. I think it will mostly be organizational and discussion. I don't think they are yet reviewing any kind of applications. We are just beginning the process.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, it was moved by Mr. Hartwick and seconded by Mr. Haste that the Board adjourn.