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VI UPDATE U.S. Virgin Islands Public Records TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services Legislature USVI November 2, 2023 · 4.8 hours · gov Source recording https://youtu.be/DB3FF1hkO-0 Status This is a working transcript produced by machine from a recording of a public proceeding. It is a finding aid, not an official record of the Legislature. Transcribed by VI Update, using OpenAI Whisper large-v3-turbo, run locally. Not reviewed by a person. Reliability Automatic transcription, UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording before relying on it. Speech recognition splits spoken digits and wraps figures mid-number, so a dollar amount, a vote count or a bill number can be wrong in a way that reads as correct. Speakers are not identified: automatic speaker labelling was measured unusable and removed. Public record The underlying proceeding is a public record of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. 3 V.I.C. § 881(a) defines public records to include all records and documents of or belonging to this Territory or any branch of government, or any "department, board, council or committee of any branch of government" · which names legislative committees by category. § 881(b) gives every citizen the right to examine and copy such records, and the news media the right to publish them. (The open-meetings chapter, 1 V.I.C. § 254, does NOT reach the Legislature: § 253(b) expressly excludes it and its Standing and Special Committees. § 881 does, and it is § 881 that confers the right to copy and publish.) The Legislature broadcast this proceeding publicly itself. The source recording is not ours, is not hosted here, and remains with its publisher at the link above. Rights To what we added · the transcription, its arrangement and its description · we assert nothing. A verbatim transcript is mechanical rather than authored, so there is likely nothing in it to own; to the extent any copyright is nonetheless found to subsist, it is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Please copy it, quote it, index it, train on it, republish it, mirror it, sell it. Redistribution is the point: a public record with one copy is one fire from gone. No permission is needed, and none is ours to grant or withhold. key service areas or intervention offices these are two dips offices one in each district staff with a district manager and workers that provide case management and service planning procurement of counseling therapy evaluations group and family therapy etc for youth who remain in their homes well as youth remanded to YRC. Persons in Needs of Supervision, that's PINS, Youth Rehabilitation Center, YRC, represents the most restrictive, least discretionary service along the Juvenile Justice Service Continuum. It is the only secure detention facility in the territory. Anna's Hope Group Home is a foster group home for youth ages 13 years old to 21 years old if in extended foster care while this facility is a component of the IPS youth admitted to this residential facility are referred from intake and DC DCFS for child protective services not just juvenile service challenges the divisions biggest challenge is the inability to get parents to consistently participate in services and activities designed to positively impact their youth's lives parents often abdicate their responsibility for youth and children to the department workers are increasing efforts to educate and involve parents in their child service plans for the start of engagement and collaborating with the courts when applicable to hold parents accountable for failure to follow through and involvement public education activities will be conducted promoting the fact that there is a continuum of services to at-risk youth and very few clients end up at YRC detention at YRC is the least this desirable service strategy among the services provided by DPIS office of 0:00:00 residential and interstate compact affairs the office of residential and Interstate Compact Affairs, ORICA, our residential managers, manages and monitors the services of clients in residential facilities in and outside of the territory. The staff at Orica work collaboratively with the assigned workers in the appropriate unit DCFS, DIPS, etc. That is working directly on their behalf. Residential clients include children, adults and the elderly. Clients at residential facilities are minors that are in the temporary or permanent legal custody of VIDHS or are adults that VIDHS has custody of. 0:02:05 The residential clients have developmental, psychological, and or youth conduct and behavioral issues which require specialized treatment that are often not available in the territory. services are provided through contracts that are locally 0:02:51 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 1 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services funded fully locally funded the cost of contracts for residential services continues to be a great challenge the cost of care per day increases yearly by state line some jurisdictions and as a part of the contract renewal process for others the increases worsens the unsustainable cost of residential services contracts linger in the negotiation phase, pending proof of funding, unexecuted contracts require more time consuming payment approval processes and resulting in late payments to providers. Excuse me for interrupting. Can you just talk a little bit slower, the stenographer is having a little trouble. Thank you. I will. Office of Head Start. The Office of Head Start administers the Head Start program in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Head Start promotes the school readiness of children who are 3 years old by December 31st and up to 5 years old at the enrollment from low-income families. The program reserves 10% of slots for children with special needs. The program's funded enrollment for the territory is 794. The Head Start program is currently managing six major construction projects on all three islands that are all in varying stages of demolition and construction, including the Cruise Bay Head Start. The new Head Start sites will result in state-of-the-art facilities for educating our children between the ages of three and five. The new sites will also provide hardened facilities that are alternate sites for use in disaster preparation and response. 0:03:43 Head Start Region 2 Conference is scheduled to be hosted by the U.S. Virgin Islands on the island of St. Thomas in 2024 from October 27th through the 31st, 2024. This event will boost the visibility of the Head Start program and hopefully result in increased enrollment office of child care and regularity services the office of child care and regular regulatory services manage and monitors licensing of all child care facilities in the territory ensuring safe high quality early childhood care and education environments across the territory key service areas are the licensing unit licensing slash certificates and monitors all private and government operated child care facilities the quality improvement unit provides services to increase the quality of child care through consumer education caregiver slash teacher training and provision of resources for quality improvement the subsidy resource and referral unit administers the federal child care development fund program CCDF that provides subsidies to parents and families for childcare. Childcare subsidy recipients may range in age from one day old to under 13 years old. Subsidies can be provided to individuals with disability up to 19 years of age. The Territory's inability to fully expend formula federal funds amidst the availability of special funding related to the COVID pandemic continues to present a challenge as the grants 0:04:59 approach the final obligation and liquidation period. The same expenditure that would fulfil key formula grant earmarks can be paid with the special funds and create a utilisation challenge. The territory is implementing increased subsidy rates for all child care providers that are CCDF participants. This will bring the territory in line with the federally recommended subsidy percentiles and allow the territory to expend federal child care dollars more easily. Division of Senior Citizens Affairs. The Division of Senior Citizens Affairs, SCA, currently operates 11 programs in addition to the Office of the Administrator, who are dedicated to supporting the elderly community in the Virgin Islands. These programs include Social Recreation, Homemaker Services, Senior Community Services, Employment program csep retired senior volunteer program family caregiver support program foster grandparent program state pharmaceutical assistance program adult protective services information and referrals elderly nutrition program commonly known as meals and wheels and homeless for the age the SCA staff works hard to address the needs of our elderly community which continues to grow and and has exceeded the capacity of some of our programs we are developing approaches and solutions to mitigate and address our wait list for daily meal delivery and assistance with daily living the elderly nutrition program or meals and wheels that is most commonly known has developed 0:06:48 a plan to expand operations to service up additional persons on the St. Croix and St. Thomas and will be submitting a request for additional funding to our federal partners to help support that effort the vidhs social recreation program operates three senior centers located throughout the territory that give individuals age 60 and older an opportunity to socialize interact and experience the companionship of their peers the objective of this program is to provide specialized recreation and experiential activities that contribute to maintaining or improving the health functional capacities and overall quality of life for our senior population it is important to note that active dependent independence is a requirement for participation and maximum benefit from the program and that all that adult daycare is not currently a service provided within our senior centers memory disorders are very prevalent among our aging population with a gap in availability of services currently within the department of our community and our community VI DHS is looking into opportunities for future support for memory care and adult care services particularly as we build our new skilled nursing facilities VI DHS operates two long-term residential care facilities for the elderly in need of 24-hour care in addition to providing nursing support services for DHS clients at the Lucinda Millen home in previous testimony to this body staffing and supply shortages as well as facility concerns were key challenges identified for the homes since 0:08:40 then the homes have made repairs to the kitchen roof to prevent leaking completed an electrical overhaul of the kitchen wiring procured enough supplies to sustain the homes through the closing of the fiscal year and subsequent ERP 0:10:37 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 2 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services shutdown until funds become available once again the division is working with fiscal division to ensure the homes can maintain the inventory that is needed to optimize the monthly allotment processes for purchasing necessary supplies the department has made a lot of progress but there's still more to be done the team work diligently every day to mitigate and overcome these challenges to ensure our residents receive the best care in a state environment safe environment these challenges among others contribute to the growing wait list for entry into the homes due to the inability to sustain an increased capacity in the current state the wait list for the homes continues to grow every day and includes community members as well as those individuals within our territories hospitals to address and within our territories hospitals known as borders the department continues to work with the hospitals to address borders and is working collaboratively to craft solutions to relieve the hospitals of approximately 13 borders across both islands the department is plagued with limited physical and human resource capacity within our homes and limited funding to increase our off-island capacity but are exploring every avenue to address this chronic issue. Division of Family Assistance. The Division of Family Assistance DFA provides timely and accurate food, cash, energy, and family support assistance to Virgin Islands residents through the operation of nine units. Certification, front end, issuance, claims, fraud, job opportunities, basic skill programs, personal responsibility education program, supplemental nutrition education program. These nine units administer the following programs, supplemental nutrition assistance program known as SNAP, temporary aid to native families known as TANF, job opportunity and basic skills jobs program, personal responsibility education program prep, aid to the age blind and disabled, SNAP education which is SNAP ed, SNAP employment and training, SNAP pandemic electronic benefit transfers, SNAP PEBT, energy crisis assistance program, low-income energy assistance program, LEHA. Throughout the COVID pandemic, DFA has administered several emergency relief benefits to include several rounds of SNAP, PEBT, as well as pandemic pandemic emergency assistance allotments. The division is also preparing to launch the low-income household water assistance program to provide financial assistance to qualified individuals to purchase or pay water bills through the Water and power authority or registered water haulers the public will be invited to submit applications before the end of the calendar year 2023 and there will be an internal effort to pre-qualify individuals based on their participation in our other eligibility programs the division 0:12:36 was pleased to announce that effective october 1st 2023 snap households received an increase their SNAP benefits. The Virgin Islands opted to raise the gross income limit from 130 percent to 175 percent of the federal poverty income guidelines for categorically eligible SNAP households which also increased. The increase to 175 percent only applies to the gross income evaluation and varies by household size Medicaid the Medicaid program provides health insurance coverage to qualified residents of the US Virgin Islands to combine federal and local government funding eligible covered groups under the program include low-income adults children pregnant woman aged adults and people with disabilities that true on our application meet financial and non financial criteria such as residency, immigration status and citizenship. As of October 23rd there are 28,066 enrolled members with the VI Medicaid program, 1,357 providers enrolled with the VI Medicaid program. Of those total providers, 375 are in territory and 982 are out of the territory. The fiscal year, 132 Medicaid provider agreements have already been processed and approved within DHS. Within the Division of Medicaid, there is the Program Integrity Unit whose function 0:14:34 is to identify fraud, waste, abuse, and collaborate with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. and potential fraud cases as of july 2023 the division onboarded a program integrity director with intention of staffing up the unit with two fraud investigators two eligibility quality control reviewers and one program integrity analyst to enhance the department's commitment to reduce fraud currently the department has been working on multiple initiatives to improve the quality of service for our members while also enhancing efficiency for internal processes the implementation of the department's eligibility and claim system has continued to see major improvements in timely and efficient processing of member applications and provider payment the division continues its efforts to improve operations and is currently working and several other health information technology projects to include EVV which is the electronic visit verification this solution enables the program to track personal care attendance and home health services provided by Medicaid enrolled providers it is also to prevent fraud waste and abuse this implementation is mandated by law second provider enrollment applications PEA this implementation of this solution will enable the USVI to digitize and streamline the provider enrollment process a strategic plan has been developed and submitted to CMS for the use of an additional 6.3 million dollars provided to the territory for technology implementations the division look forward to continued collaboration with CMS and the National association of medicaid directors public health emergency unwind with the end of covet 19 public health emergency phc on may 11 2023 the department has had to once again pivot in its operation and unwind the benefits and flexibilities that have been offered over the last three years especially within its eligibility program unwinding refers to the resumption of regular eligibility and enrollment operation division operations divisions such as Medicaid and the division of family assistance which operates a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program SNAP have 0:16:21 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 3 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services developed plans to adjust to the PHE unwind which includes utilizing and extending waivers to avoid abrupt disruptions to the process challenges that the department continues to work to include recertification processes that have been on hold throughout the pandemic identifying alternative for clients who will no longer be eligible for benefits and adjusting to the reduced federal matching assistance assistance percentage rates for medicaid claims among the processes other processes oriented considerations additionally the department has already seen a decrease in the support services and supplemental funding that has been received during the pandemic in december 2023 the consolidation consolidated appropriations act 2023 2023 made permanent the 83 fmap for the usvi in march 2020 as part of the covet 19 relief enacted in the family first corona virus response act congress provided increased medicaid funding to state and territories to increase FMAP rates. Increased FMAP rates in turn reduce the local funding match requirement, and in this case by 6.2% in response to the PHE. To receive the increased FMAP, FFCRA requires that any individuals who enroll in Medicaid at the start of the PHE or become enrolled in Medicaid during the emergency period, remain eligible for Medicaid through the last day of the month in which the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, unless the individual requests a voluntary termination of eligibility or the individual ceases to be a resident of the state slash territory. 0:19:44 At the end of the PHE, which occurred on May 11, 2023, states slash territories must initiate all renewals, post-enrollment verifications, and re-determinations for all individuals enrolled when the continuous enrollment expires. To facilitate this, the Department has sent renewal notices and requests for information to enrollees through the mail and via text slash email messages. As a result of the unwind, many Medicaid members have lost coverage and became uninsured or experienced gaps in coverages. To mitigate some of the impact, the Division worked with the Government Employee Service Commission to coordinate the transition of eligible individuals impacted. Additionally, the Division has directed individuals to the Individual Health Insurance Program through the Lieutenant Governor's Office to explore the feasibility of that option. Like Medicaid, the SNAP program is also unwinding from various waivers, flexibility, and additional benefits afforded during the PHE. One challenge experienced by both programs includes enrollees not receiving or paying due attention to the provided communication regarding the requirement to recertify on the timeline to do so. Another challenge includes a significant increase in workload during the unwinding process that has been difficult to keep up with regarding conducting renewals for these large caseload in a timely manner. Division of Disability and Rehabilitation. The Disability and Rehabilitation Services DRS Division is a core component of the local workforce system. The division partners with private employers, government agencies, and community stakeholders to facilitate employment of and training of persons with disabilities. Primary services offered include pre-employment transition services, supported employment, and older blind independent living program. DHS is 0:21:14 currently under specific conditions with the third-party fiduciary agent pertaining to funds received for the vocational rehabilitation program the SDS continues to work with the third party fiduciary agent to implement the corrective action steps needed to mitigate areas of concerns in addition to the partnership with T with TP TPFA and the rehabilitation services and administration to address non-compliance the division has recently filled two critical vacancies with the addition of a transitional program assistant and a vocational rehabilitation counselor in this fiscal year operational efficiencies will also improve due to the onboarding of a case management system that will assist staff to better manage the application process program eligibility referral tracking, employment services, and federal reporting. Another significant milestone for the division is the re-establishment of two councils supporting the advocacy for services that lead to equal opportunity for persons with disabilities. The councils are known as a statewide independent Living Council and the State Rehabilitation Council and the division is actively collaborating with governor brian to appoint community members to the councils in accordance with federal regulations divisions of non-profit and support services the department of human services is responsible for the distribution of funding to 38 sub grantees for fy 2024 the division of non-profits and support services work closely with the non-profits funded through the gvi miscellaneous and crisis intervention funding for fy 2024 there have been small advances in funding to support vulnerable populations youth services appropriations have increased 22 funding 13 youth services programs homeless services appropriation have 0:23:30 increased 20 percent funding 10 homeless service programs Other programs funded include services for disabled youths and adults, substance abuse residential treatment, domestic violence service providers, support for cancer patients, and transportation for the elderly on St. John. DHS, a member of the USVI Continuum of Care Council, will be assisting with the development and establishment of administration for USVI continuum of care council the fy 2024 appropriation will support the coc in addressing homelessness in the usvi coc staff will prioritize implementing the hard-funded continuum of care program mandates including the establishment of a territorial coordinated entry system monitoring the homeless management information system and monitoring usvi coc funded homeless service programs disaster recovery dh dhs has diligently collaborated with the office of disaster recovery to seek mac seek and maximize its funding through the female public assistance pa and hazard mitigation grant programs to enhance our disaster recovery efforts we have been obligated some seventy one million forty one thousand six hundred and seventy three dollars for FEMA PA projects and 0:25:42 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 4 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services three million six hundred and fifty one thousand seven eighty four and ninety four cents for HMGP project the department also anticipates an additional two two hundred and sixty million four forty eight eight thirty seven to be obligated for FEMA PA as discussed in previous committee hearings many of our facilities are outdated and have been through several major storms which have impacted the instruct infrastructure of the buildings the continued cost of maintenance and repairs has taken its toll and is no longer a cost-effective approach the team is pleased that through a concerted effort and appeals of original FEMA projections DHS has major full prudent replacement approvals pending for DHS st. Thomas nude Hanson complex an approximate cost of 128 million and her but great for the home for the age in an approximate amount of 131 million. Queen Louise home for the age full prudent replacement has already been obligated for 66.8 million as well as much needed permanent repairs to our Cruise Bay St. John multipurpose center in the amount of 2.3 million. Additionally our Head Start program secured federal disaster recovery grants funding from the office of Head Start and is proceeding with six major construction projects across the territory. 0:27:42 Projects are well underway in various stages of development. To facilitate many of the department's current facility concerns, and in anticipation of building renovations, there are several staff relocations underway. Major relocation includes the transition of staff and residents for the Queen Louise home for the age, for the temporary repairs, and relocation of staff from the St. John Multipurpose Center, the New Hanson Complex, and the Commissioner's Office in St. Croix. Office of Communications. The Office of Communications is responsible for coordinating a comprehensive effort to inform the public of the department's goals, messages, plans, and activities through various media outlets the team also oversees and coordinates the writing publication and production of all communication products press releases printed materials photos slash videos website and social media postings generated from dhs in 2023 dhs communication has issued over 80 press releases providing coverage on several campaigns including our usvi summer pebt 2023 issuance non-traditional hours for child care medicaid and snap recertification reminders application period announcements on grant funding opportunities and various other reminders and notifications for the public the team this year has also moved the bulk of its audio and video production and has begun producing original audio and video content content centered around the department's vital program be on the lookout for dhs division of medicaid's brand new update my contact commercial 0:28:52 currently being circulated on local network television and web streaming as well as our brand new your vi dhs podcast now streaming on youtube apple music and bussprout.com these dhs podcast episodes will help spread educational and substantive information to the community at large giving them a better understanding of how to maneuver through the various services being offered by the department this first episode is slated for early November human resources the Virgin Alice Department of Human Services has 682 dedicated professionals territory-wide the breakdown is as follows there are 371 professionals on the island of St. Croix 311 professionals in the St. Thomas St. John district these hard-working individuals cover 15 divisions and 84 programs. I'll repeat, these hard-working individuals covered 15 divisions and 84 programs. At the end of fiscal year 23, the department hired approximately 60 employees. However, during that same period we lost 33 employees for various attrition reasons. The department thus far for the fiscal year 24 has hired 14 employees most employees at the Department of Human Services has received their negotiated salary increases along with retroactive payments there are less than two percent awaiting their increases which are currently going through the approval processes outside the department the 0:30:46 department workforce is covered by six unions these unions are as follows law Enforcement Supervisory Union, CFRS International Union Correction Officers, CFRS International Union Master, United Steel Worker Masters, and Supervisor USWM and USW, and Virgin Islands Workers Union. There are currently three expired agreements awaiting negotiation through the Office of Collective Bargain. Those agreements cover the Law Enforcement Supervisors Union, United Steel Workers Supervisors Union, and the Virgin Islands Workers Union. The CIFARAS International Union Master Agreement has been granted a day-to-day extension as their agreement recently expired. The department continues to actively recruit to fill much-needed roles left vacant through different forms of attrition. The salary structure has been on the lower end of the scale. the union contract negotiating and ratified will aid the department with its recruitment and retention activities the HR and fiscal team are actively working to update and validate the department personnel listing and conduct analysis to prioritize our FY 24 vacancy closing statement in closing the Department of Human Services work diligently every day to conduct its mission with the resources that are available. I would like to publicly thank our entire staff for their unwavering dedication and continued commitment as well as Governor Bryan and Lieutenant Governor Roach for the continued support of the department. As I take on this challenge I ask for your continued support and patience as the DHS team work collectively for the needed improvements benefiting the clients we serve in this community this concludes our presentation and the dhs team and i remain available to answer any questions you may have regarding our testimony 0:32:36 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 5 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services today thank you thank you uh very much uh avril george commissioner human services designee for that detailed and well put together presentation. I'm so glad that you emphasize the challenges that's facing the Human Services Department because that's one thing that I want the public to know that the Human Services Department faces challenges, but it's our job to help the department, you know, to correct these issues, because as you can see, just your Medicaid program alone covers 28,066 persons in the community, which is about 42% of the population. 0:34:41 So this is incredible, and it's welcoming news. Madam Clerk, please mark Senator Capehart and Senator Gittins as present. Also is there any correspondence to be read into the record? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Please proceed. November 2nd, 2023. 0:35:37 Honorable Ray Fonseca, Chairperson, Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services, 35th legislature of the virgin islands capitol building st thomas u.s virgin islands 00804 late arrival to committee on health hospitals and human services their chairperson fonseca please accept this letter as a formal notice of my late arrival to today's committee on health hospitals and human services meeting which is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m in the earl b Otley Legislative Hall in St. Thomas. Please have all circulated documents placed on my desk for immediate review upon my arrival. Thank you for your consideration on this matter. Kindest regards, Donna Fred Gregory Chair, Committee on Budget Appropriations and Finance, 35th Legislature. Please mark Senator Donna Fred Gregory as excused and also Madam Clerk can you Mark, Senate President Novel Francis, and also Minority Leader as present. Can I get an updated roll call? 0:36:05 Eight present, one absent. you very much yes thank you very much the graph yes you mark present okay so colleagues um we're gonna go to a round of seven minutes and then we'll allow for one burning question I I just want to inform the commissioner nominee that that at 11 o'clock the legislature has an important update that we'll receive from EPA so we will have an early break today at 11 o'clock for a few minutes to receive an update from the Environmental Protection Agency. 0:37:23 You know, I wanted to begin, right, to mention the borders and on page 9, page 11 of your testimony you mentioned the borders and you know I want to expand on this right because um you know the borders you know I don't have a PhD and you know borders aren't some people would apply wood knocking up ponging up nail and think borders are those mostly elderly residents that are you know living in in the hospital that basically they do not have the finances to take care of the extensive needs and the commissioner-designee mentioned that there was 13 and my information shows there's three at Wang Lui and there's 10 at the Snyder Regional Medical Center you know the borders need 24-hour care you know at a place like a nursing home and the hospitals is not a good environment for the borders the hospital provides critical and emergency care and they do not have the right staff and they cannot provide the socialization and other support services that you can receive at a long-term care facilities And hospitals, of course, are by far the most expensive location to have a border. So, you know, there's a listing. I'm going to distribute it to the commissioner nominee because, you know, she just joined and I haven't had a chance to sit down with her on that. 0:38:17 We did sit down with the Committee on Health Hospital, Human Services, and the Commissioner on the Medicaid program, because the Medicaid program is $136 million program. Like I said, it has $28,000, and that is a very, very big program. So, with the borders, I want to give a quote here that I got from Chris Finch. Because you see the Virgin Islands and the Commissioner doesn't even mention it that there's an expanding elderly population Well, the number that we have is that as of the last census, there's 16,847 elderly residents in our community over the age of 65 and And to be in compliance with the national average, that means that we would need approximately 547 beds for the elderly. So, you know, you have to add them up, you know, Lucinda Millen. I want to give specific facilities, right? Lucinda Millen right now they are they have they had 25 that was fitted for the elderly that you know needed extensive care and it went down to 11 well but Greg they had 40 you know they know down to 25 that's 15 less Queen Louise home for the ages it was 30 and they only have 17 so that's 13 left and of course you know see view housing see view homes out there in Bolongo had 25 and of course they know down to zero so when you add all those up it totals 68 long-term care beds that we have lost so that's why it's so important and encouraging when the Commissioner tells us that um basically there's um Queen Louise home you have funding for the replacement I think it's 66.8 the not Hansen Hospital even though that's you know that's a operational facility this you have funding for 128 Herbert Grigg is 131 and then so important at the cruise be multi-purpose facility is 2.3 million so When you add all those up, it's three hundred and twenty eight million dollars. See money. They pop up. The human services is going to be involved in three hundred and twenty eight million dollars in renovations. So, Commissioner, I want you to give me some updates on the Queen Louise and her. But Greg and the cruise be multipurpose. When do you expect to start and to complete those constructions and renovations? 0:40:09 I'll turn that question over to AC Baptiste who has been working with the projects. Good morning, Danelle Baptiste, Assistant Commissioner. In terms of Queen Louise, we are getting ready to put the temporary repairs out to bid to get those done. So we're hoping by the end of this calendar year that that bid process will have started. We're in design for 0:43:12 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 6 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services both Queen Louise and Herbert Gregg. So we don't have a definitive timeline at this point, but we have started the design process. And how about the Cruise Bay multi-purpose facility? For Cruise Bay, I think DC Georges would probably be better sooner to answer. Good morning. Yes, media, recognize the mic. Good morning, Sean Georges, Deputy Commissioner of Operations. Right now, those plans are in DPW right now, going through the phases. We have had mitigation repairs to the facility, but we're trying to secure additional funding to get a total repair and replacement for that facility. Okay, so what I'm hearing here is not too encouraging. 0:43:58 They're still in design and they plan at DPW, but so we don't actually have a date other than Queen Louise, which has a date you're going out for bid. Do you have a date specific when that should be completed, the Queen Louise? Not at this time, Senator. Those plans are also at DPW being reviewed. And once we receive that approval, then we'll be able to move forward. Okay, so colleagues, point of information, Senator Blyden. 0:44:36 Thank you Mr. Chair. Good morning to the Department of Human Services. Mr. George, in respect to your response to the Chair, you said you're seeking more funding for St. John Malachi Purple Centre. How much more funding, based on your assessment, is required required to move forward. How much more fun are we speaking to? We don't have a specific number because we really have to assess the fact that the building was in diestries prior to the storm. 0:45:10 So you haven't done a full assessment thus far, basically? We've done a full assessment, but we haven't got a total number yet as to what the increase would need to be to complete the project. Very well. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Senator Blyden. Okay. So colleagues, we're gonna go with a Senate Seven minute round, Senator Blyden, Maurice James, Senator Potter, carry on, key part, Senator Gittins and Senate President Francis. So, and oh, sorry, the graph, yes. How could I miss my fellow, Savanero? Okay, so Senator Blyden, you're recognized for your seven minutes thank you mr. chair good morning again to my colleagues the viewing listening audiences staff central staff good morning commission nominee George and your supported management team there with you and thank you so much for that comprehensive update in terms of your department and operations I would like to start by saying I want to basically thank the employees all 682 of them for the public service they're doing to our community because we know that your department is a lifeline when it comes to social services in this community and I must say that you also deal with everyone from birth to the grave so this department plays a very important and critical role um to the development and expansion of all the people here in the territory you said you have 15 divisions and 84 programs that's a lot you you have a very large responsibility and And honestly, I pray that, you know, with the help of your staff and this new role that 0:45:47 you're about to venture in, I hope and pray that, you know, you get a lot accomplished in terms of goals and objectives, et cetera. Thank you. Let me start by asking you to, in respect to your testimony, I'm just going to go through some of these different divisions based on your testimony and based on what I would say I like to see, I think it's very important. 0:47:54 I'm going to start with the division of family assistance because a family is everything. And if you can deal with the family in many ways, it would avoid many other areas that you deal with. So let me start with your division of family assistance, which includes many different programs. How does the department connect the dots when it comes to this division, because you have many different programs under this division? And let me give a perfect example. 0:48:26 I left just a while, I got to come back because I have a constituent who is disabled who really needs assistance because we know here in the territory, too often many times when individuals have a disability or is disabled, especially if they are a student or other individuals who are working before and then they cannot work anymore, they're just like in prison because they're just at home. You know, many of them do not know what services are available for them, what programs are there, and so on and so forth. And if they get assistance in one area, that's it. How do we connect the dots? Because this individual, we're getting some assistance in one area, but then he needed so much more. And I believe, and it's my thinking that once you go to an agency and they see you fit this criteria and they know you're disabled, they know automatically you qualify for this, that, that, that, and you will be needing those services. How do the department connect the dots in terms of assisting individuals have them move forward toward the journey. 0:48:59 How do you, and if you don't, what plans do we have to assure that happens moving forward? Because I think that disconnect there, based on my assessment, based on my time spending with this individual trying to get them assistance, there's a disconnect. So how do we connect the dots? Can you speak to that, anyone? If you choose interim commissioner. Danelle Baptiste, assistant commissioner. 0:50:05 So Senator, you started the question by asking specifically about the Division of Family Assistance and the programs that they have. So how the dots are connected within that division and the multiple programs is most individuals will first go through our certification unit, and they're able to kind of determine what they're eligible for within DFE. To your broader question about connecting the dots across DHS, right now we have a very manual paper-based process, and that provides 0:50:32 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 7 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services limitations in our ability to share information and quickly pass individuals from program to program. It is happening, but I can't say that it's happening everywhere that it needs to happen, and right now it would be upon the person who's helping that individual and their understanding of what else might be available and so we do exchange um individuals across department ac benjamin and i will one minute often say you know this person could benefit from your program but i think with the implementation of technology uh we'll be able to do that a bit so in the interim is there a checkbox i go to snap and if that checklist with any division whereas you have a check up even though you don't have the system in place if there's a list where there's a checkbox where this person automatically um qualifies for whatever and you can share within the different divisions no not at this time very well i look forward to um commissioner nominee to see if what she can do in an interim in that respect because i think it's important um especially after seeing what is actually occurring with this individual i mean it really breaks my heart in many ways shape and form because he was a very functional individual right now every year he's getting worse you know um so i think ac ac benjamin has some stuff very well good morning assistant commissioner benjamin i just wanted to add to what ac baptist said um so we do communicate with with each other between divisions between um departments so to speak within within the um the department of human services when clients come in who we know would qualify or would benefit from services provided by other divisions while we're not right now connected virtually we do develop policies that allow for our clients to either be categorically eligible or have priority standing with regard to being referred from one department within the one office within the 0:51:15 Department of Human Services to another. Thank you very much for responding and including Mr. Chair. Let me ask quickly in respect to the non-for-profits and support services, especially when it comes to crisis intervention funding. I know over the years many individuals who deals with crisis intervention in this community have been having issues in terms of getting funding through the crisis intervention fund, and especially those non-for-profit that deals directly with crisis intervention. Who deals with that division and how can we work better with the non-for-profits in terms of funding, especially when they submit their documentation in terms of what they are doing, how are they going to assist those individuals, how can we work, have a better collaborative relationship with those agencies in order to assist those individuals within our community and I'll let you respond on the chair time and thank you so much for responding and thank you Madam Chair for the time. Thank you Senator Marvin Blayden, you may proceed. 0:53:25 Commissioner Carla Benjamin. The crisis intervention funds currently are being managed by our nonprofit services director in collaboration with our fiscal office. The way in which that funding can be spent is pretty much spelled out statutorily. We're putting a process in place where we issue a notice of funding availability, issue a deadline for when those nonprofit agencies can submit their documentation and sort of a standardized process that we go through with each application and prioritize in terms of, or make selections in terms of how well they meet the criteria for the crisis stabilization funding. 0:54:34 Additionally, there is a portion of those funds that are required to pay for some interdepartmental costs. Since those funds are to be used for youth, for instance, our Office of Residential and Interstate Compact Affairs handles the Interstate Compact on Juveniles, and there are costs associated with the database that we have to be a part of, the memberships that we have to pay for those, and so those are also paid for, funded by those funds as well. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Blyden, and thank you for the update, AC Benjamin. quickly um you know commissioner um designee you know i want to let you know that you know the senators get a lot of comments right from human services especially and you know it's it's so good right because i've gotten three comments uh right just this morning and they're saying a breath of fresh air fair knowledgeable um you know it's so good um to see these types of comments coming in from human services but you know i i gotta go to your spending plan because this is going to be one of the areas that um you have to address and so i wanted um i don't know if you're going to ask miss the cfo to give an update but can you give us an update on the spending plan and how much funds may be returned and what is going to be your path going forward. And also, I wanted you to give me an update on the Office of the Child Care and Regulation Services and the expended formula for the federal funds and the status of those grants. 0:55:21 So, Commissioner George? I will defer to CFO McGrath. Yes, CFO McGrath, proceed. Good morning, Lydia McGrath, CFO. The media, recognize the mic. Can you bring the mic close to your mouth? Proceed. In terms of our general fund, this year we've done an exceptional job, pretty much utilizing practically all the funds. 0:57:09 There's a menial balance left in there that we are actually still paying, adjusting salary increases that rolled over to 24 that we will be adjusting over so we have once those are adjusted we should come in pretty close to zero relative to our general fund relative to the federal we have of course a whole gamut of various grants we've pretty much done a fabulous job in spending again we're still adjusting costs over to ensure that the funds are used for those programs that had residual costs like the head start we were able to roll those monies in and get approval to utilize them in the current fiscal year so 0:57:40 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 8 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services we have a few of our title 4b and e-grants that we have not fully expended however we know that's because of not having a cost allocation um in place for the department relative to our child care and i will let ac benjamin can give provide more details we've pretty much received waivers to continue um for this current fiscal year to encumber the funds with an additional year to liquidate You know, I'm going to tell you something. I don't have a PhD, but I kind of understand a little bit of numbers, right? And that response is not satisfactory. And commissioner nominee, that's where the former commissioner got into trouble. You see, the senators, we have the information on how much money was returned and is in danger of going back. So can you give me specific numbers? Don't beat around the bush. Give us the facts. The commissioner is starting out new and she needs to know where the department is so she can address it. So can you give us how many have been in danger of being returned? And how are you going to fix the spending plan? Because there's been issues with the spending plan with human services. So please, can you restate that answer? CFO McGrath? We have over 75 grants, so what we can do is provide a comprehensive, the listing through the chair to make it available to the committee members of exactly what we received and how much we spent and the extensions received. 0:59:07 And what total amount you're talking about here, CFO McGrath? Our total grants for fiscal year 20, and this included the Head Start construction projects, we have approximately $325 million in grants. Simony De Popa. Okay, Senator Maurice James, you're recognized for your seven minutes. Good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 1:00:17 Good morning, Virgin Islands. good morning testifiers and good morning to my colleagues and legislature staff. I first want to begin by congratulating the nominee Miss Avril George, congratulating her on being nominated to this position and I and I have of course high expectations because I know her and I know she's a hard worker and um so i was happy to hear of that nomination i want to begin by asking about the anna's hope group home uh it states uh that it's a foster group home but it doesn't say how many uh youth are presently in that facility good morning assistant commissioner benjamin currently there are two residents at the group home two two residents yes senator okay because i the the paragraph below that talked about um the biggest challenge is is the inability of parents to participate so um i i wanted to actually explore the efforts being made by the department to assist parents but let me ask this then because if the parents aren't involved what is the result of that is it that then it extends the time that they're in in the Anna's Hope group home or what's what's usually the um the length of stay let me ask that is it until they're 1:00:49 emancipated um no and i sort of we sort of uh added a disclaimer to our description of the group home the group home sits under the division of intervention and prevention services but it is not a home that specifically services that population of youth with behavioral issues and that's the population that we highlighted as the population that we're having the most difficulty keeping parents engaged the NSO group home is basically a congregate foster home it's sort of the companion to um queen louise home queen louise home's children from birth to age 12 and and then the group home from 13 until 18 is where children become adults, but the foster care policies federally and locally allow youth after they turn 18 to voluntarily extend their stay in foster care until age 21 and receive services up until 23. 1:02:47 So if someone, if a youth is in the group home and they reach the age of majority, they are able to opt to stay in foster care, so they wouldn't be able to stay there until the age of 21. Okay, so you said, thank you for that answer. So the children at Queen Louise Home are up to what age? Repeat that again for me, please. Age 12. 12. So then my question is, is it that by the age, because you state that there are only two people at the Anna's Hope Group Home, so is it good news that by the age of 12 most of the children that leave because at that point they can no longer stay at queen louise is it then that you have found uh private homes for them or foster parents and then they don't transition to the anna's hope group home um yes and i'm i'll have to to refer back to the testimony again um the pool of resource parents that that's what we call foster parents right now are the pool of resource prints is very small um one of the goals of foster care is to return children to their families of origin as long as it's safe as quickly as possible right um we have less than 30 children foster care across the territory anyway so the numbers are very low and one of the things that we try to stay away from as a system across the board is what we call long stairs is having children in care for extended period of time so these days we don't have children who go into care and stay in care for extended periods of time and when they aren't here there are other options other than returning home to the families they're returning home to their parents there are kinship options which 1:03:51 are family members they are fictive kin options which are not biological family members but close people who are close to the family and who the children know and of course if we cannot place the child in a family home setting that's when they would stay in a congregate facility like a Queen Louise or a group home and i really don't know of any child who has had to go from queen louise to the group home well right that's well that's what i was reading in your testimony which was i was saying well it seems to me as if it's good news when you responded that there were only two and i said then it am i to um assume that then it's good news that in fact we don't have there is a decrease in um in children going to 1:05:53 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 9 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services foster group homes um and that's where i was going when i read it and and i was being very hopeful that in fact that that is the case i want to ask also um so i'll move on from that because I saw it as good news that in that more children and I'm obviously being optimistic that more children in our community are finding homes with like you said kinfolk or returning to their parents and that in fact that's the best place for them to be I also want to ask if you could speak a little bit more about what's going on I there is reference to the Lucinda Millen home but I wanted to ask if you could go a little more in depth on what's happening at the Herbert Gregg home if there are any challenges and what has been done to address any challenges that you've had since the last time you've been in front of us senator George Commission nominee senator James the team has been doing assessment at Herbert Gregg home in regards to temporary maintenance that is needed right now due to some of the issues that they have at their home but there's long-term long-term assessments that are being done in regards to the restructure of the home and rebuilding of the home which I'll turn over to AC Baptiste to give you more in-depth discussion on that Danelle Baptiste assistant commissioner since the last time we met with this body to give an update on Herbert Gregg we've actually started to do some of the repairs that we mentioned were needed including a lot renovation on the roof in the kitchen area we've done several electrical repairs as well in the kitchen area thanks to this body we did receive an appropriation to purchase the generator that's needed for the kitchen and as soon as our funds are available we're going to start to procure that but we are continuing like the Commissioner mentioned to help with all the maintenance that's needed we still are trying to make sure we have all the funding that's needed to do some of the repairs there was a long list as you may recall but we are actively working on on those repairs thank you for that thank you for that update I appreciate it I just have one more question and that is with regard to the status of payments to child care providers. Are you up to speed on that or data on that one? Assistant Commissioner Carla Benjamin. All of the mitigating plans that we put in place right before the fiscal year closed are going as planned. There are some payments that are still delayed just as a function of the closing out of one fiscal year and the start of the next. But as soon as operations resume, as I understand, on November 20th, we don't anticipate having 1:08:30 the same sort of delays that we've had previously with childcare payments. So grant payments as well as subsidy payments should be going through more consistently and more timely. Thank you. I don't know if my time was called and so I don't want to abuse my time. Yes, Senator. Yes. But you may wrap up if you had one burning question. No, as you know, because we have the other engagement coming up, I think at this point i will um move back to you sir thank you thank you senator maurice james um point of information senator blighton you're recognized for your point of information thank you thank you mr chair um cfo mcgross you told the chair that they 325 million dollars in respect to grants I know he inquired about how much money was in jeopardy, but in terms of your extension, because you mentioned extension, those that are slated for extension, do you have a number for that? How much funds are slated for extension? 1:10:26 And I think that would help a little. Lydia McGrath, CFO. Of that amount of money, approximately $42,400,000 is for Head Start construction projects, which we have an extension until April of 2024. Additionally, we have childcare, which the granted amount was about $55 million. We have an extension to obligate until the end of 2024 and liquidate into 2025 and also I wanted to mention that of that money about 133 million dollars is Medicaid claims which we pretty much expended most of that money in this fiscal in the past fiscal year okay everyone on of the anticipated uh extensions amount we do not foresee any issues in terms of those funds being in jeopardy, correct? 1:11:44 With the childcare, we're working aggressively in making alterations, and I think that we will try and spend the funds. That's critical, especially in that area. Thank you so much for your responses. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Blyden. Real quickly, before we go to Senator Milton Potter. Designee, I need you to answer two quick questions here. Are you required to receive three quotes when you're putting things out and are you receiving the three quotes or sometimes you're not? Give me an update on that. Since I've been doing my assessments in regard to our contracts, I have requested three quotes for some maintenance work as well as other works that I need to make a priority within the department. We do have some cases where we do sole justification letters, but we're trying to get away from that. I was trained properly by my previous department in regards to the procurement process, which I take very seriously and we're making sure that the team is in alignment with our vision of such. Thank you Commissioner Designee. Senator Milton Potter, you're recognize for your seven minutes media Mike of Potter yes thank you very much mr. chair morning to you morning to my colleagues and especially morning to Commissioner nominee Avril George and you're a very capable executive leadership team Commission I want to thank you very much for having the courage to accept this offer to lead a very challenging department. Challenging 1:12:46 in the sense that it's a very complicated department with a lot of moving tentacles and so you have to have the stamina and the courage and the work ethic which I know that you do have. I wanted to ask you straight out the gate about the 1:14:38 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 10 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services physical plant and I know you didn't hide anything we're very forthcoming in disclosing that the facilities at human services territory-wide is challenged for sure I wanted to ask and I had an opportunity to listen to 60 Minutes just this weekend and they were talking about the importance of quality air systems and in facilities and buildings and Newt Hanson complex in particular I wanted to really talk to you about how many employees are there in that facility I think it's approximate 260 employees okay so I've known Hanson a good chunk I noticed I was pleased to see that you're working to get full prudent replacement approval that's pending how long has that been pending and what sort of anticipated timeline do you expect to get some confirmation as to whether or not the feds are going to fully replace nude Hansen I'll say I'll turn that over to DC Georges in the meantime just to put on the record that we are looking at temporary facilities for the staff at nude Hansen even though we are still awaiting for the work to start. I did two walkthroughs of facilities within the St. Thomas district in regards to relocation of the team that we're moving hastily with that as well as where our senior citizen strive will be placed once we go through this remodeling our demolition demolition process and I'll turn it over to DC Georges to give more in-depth in regards to the Nude Hansen complex. Okay. Good morning. Morning. I'm Sean Georges. I'm Deputy Commissioner. We're in the final review process for the Prudent Replacement, but as Commissioner Nominee said, we are working to move our employees out of the facility. As you know, the environment is really key for our performance, and we know the state of the Nude Hansen complex after the storms, and where you go to the physical plant, you we don't have enough staffing to maintain the facility which has become a priority for Ms. George and I really do appreciate her being supportive of that but we are making the changes and to address all the situation that we have on until we make the move. 1:16:54 What sort of timeline are we looking at DC George as far as possibly moving those folks who've been in the facility for forever um do you have any idea what sort sort of timeline we're looking at as far as moving these folks? Are we going to be here next year saying pretty much we're still looking, we're aggressively pursuing alternate facilities to accommodate our employees? I know you're taking it seriously. I just want to know how aggressive we're working. 1:17:34 Very serious as a matter of fact. And... What's your goal as far as... You do know the size of the complex was the biggest challenge to move 200 people to a location but we we've locked out on two locations where we should be able to move them one was being built from the ground up at the locker gardens location okay and then we locked into another location out at um at the tutu park mall where we'll be able to move okay bulk of our our team so we'll be when we sit down in front of you again more than likely next year we will be out of that facility um bringing our staff who work so hard into our atmosphere that they can um work a lot more productively so for the new year all in the new year we should see early in the new year we're hoping knock on wood senator senator i can give you more in depth one of your questions avril george commissioner nominee one of your question was in regards to femur funding um femur and based on our conversation i told us january fy 24 um and i don't see we anticipating any issues in regards to that but thanks to the odr team we've been able to go through the design and um we're looking at at least in the first calendar year of fy 24 to start that process um we still have um we're still looking at funding to go through the allocation process so for us to do the move but it's a work in progress and we'll continue to keep you updated thank you very much for that AC Benjamin good morning I wanted to ask you and I know there's been a long-standing issue with social workers being able to recruit and retain social workers here in the territory that precedes everyone here on this panel for sure but I wanted to know what role has UVI been playing and know you mentioned that there was uh internship opportunities um etc if you have persons who are interning the likelihood of you know the spin-off of them actually being employed there is is high 1:18:06 how many employees are now participating in the internship program assistant commissioner carla benjamin currently uh we only have two interns from uvi one on st Thomas someone on st. Croix okay just two yeah one's a beat up bsw student and one is an msw student um i mean the challenge with that is is identifying field supervisors because you have to have graduated from a accredited uh msw program in order to to be a field supervisor and that does require in light of our staffing issues um someone to be able to dedicate quite a significant amount of time to supervising okay with respect to the licensure issues um are we still having challenges with regards to persons or social workers who are on board passing the licensure exams time i know there were some strategies that were being utilized in the past i don't know if they bore fruit but where are we in that regard being able to secure a licensed social workers they are the facility we have no social workers on board who are not licensed so all of our social workers that are on board are licensed we we're having more of a challenge in the st. Thomas st. John district in terms of having licensed social workers respond to vacancy notices and we do have individuals on staff who don't hold social work positions who may be interested in exploring taking the social work exam so they can get licensure and we are working on we've approved social work prep curriculum and other ways of providing support for them so that when they do take the exam they're able to pass it and possibly be promoted into a social worker position Okay. Mr. Chair, I know my time was called. If I may just ask one final question. 1:20:09 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 11 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services Uh, no, I don't think your time was called. Okay, good. Um, you mentioned, um, Commissioner George about SNAP education. That was the first time I've heard anything about, about that. What is that? What is SNAP education? So SNAP education is an allotment that we receive a program for all of our beneficiaries of the SNAP benefits. They were supposed to be teaching them about how to eat healthy and using those benefits in the best way. 1:22:15 Okay, okay. Continuing of care council. Tell me a little bit more about that. What's the composition of that council? What does it do? Assistant Commissioner Carla Benjamin. That is actually a work in progress. Our director of nonprofits is our representative in that endeavor. There was just an appropriation that was provided by this body for the establishment of that. the individuals who are in the council to include nonprofit organizations like Catholic Charities and the Virgin Islands Housing Authority those individuals are having conversations around how to actually operationalize the council how to make it an entity that can receive funding that can hire staff so it's it's a work it's a work in progress faster care program the resource families program I think the resource families pool is challenged and I wanted to ask you your thoughts on it I know in the Virgin Islands we are a village so to speak family oriented you know this is just as part of the Caribbean culture I wanted to know your thoughts as to why we're having challenges getting persons to participate as foster families um you are correct one of the challenges is the fact that we're such a small community and um we see each other in supermarkets and so a lot of people are reluctant to especially in situations where it's an involuntary removal to be that person who has someone's child who it may not be uh an applicable relationship but 1:23:02 one of the the permanency options that we have in place here because people also are resistant to feeling like they contributed to someone's parental rights being terminated is is subsidized guardianship which is an an option which will allow you to have almost all the same rights as though you adopted the child but but you don't have to terminate the the parents um uh parental rights we have as a department increased the maintenance fees that we're paying to foster parents we adopted a new training program and we as a testimony said we're onboarding a licensing specialist to help with those efforts to get the information i'll get the training done bring people on board okay so there's a there's a strategy that you utilize now to try to recruit families there is um is it like a psa is there something that's happening to actively recruit parents and families there is there are some public information um efforts however uh one of the one of the challenges we're having is people are coming forward to take care of children specific children but they're not open to becoming foster parents to take in just about just any child who comes in so they come they become involved in the system for one child work it all the way through the process of maybe adoption and then they're done okay gotcha it's a tough job thank you very Thank you very much Commissioner, nominee George. I look forward to having more of these exchanges with you. I know your background, I know your work ethic, so I know you will be a solid addition to lead the Department of Human Services. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your generosity, Mr. Chair. 1:24:51 Thank you, Senator Potter. I want to follow up on a line of questioning of the Senator with Nod Hanson. It's $128 million is going to be the cost. What exactly is going to be? Is it going to be a total replacement or a major modernization? Dinelle Baptiste, Assistant Commissioner, it is a full replacement, so we will be demolishing and rebuilding. Okay. 1:26:38 um you know um one other question you know they got a lot of comments coming in from human services so um this is in line with the um the elderly id card you know it's like you know once you're elderly you're elderly you know you don't um you know you don't get younger so the the cards expire How long does your elderly ID card be valid and why does it expire? How long is your elderly ID card good for? 1:27:07 It's Avril George, Commissioner nominee. I think it's approximately five years. Five years. Well, I think your passport go for like 10 years. If you make 62, next year you're gonna be 63. You're still gonna be elderly. I think you're gonna be elderly for the rest of your life. Take a look at that. And then also, does the folks on St. John have to come to St. Thomas to get an elderly ID, or you can do that in a multipurpose up there in St. John. You have a specific time? 1:27:40 I think it can be done in a multipurpose office in St. John. Okay. So why do you have it expiring after five years? Your driver's license goes for five years, but once you're elderly, you're elderly. That's true. i'm for correction the id cards are issued in st john for two days twice a week we have representatives over there twice a week okay thank thank you very much take a look at that commissioner and um before i go to the next senator key part um and we remember we're gonna break from 11 to 12 So I think what I'll do is I will hold Senator Capehart and then I'll just ask one more question and then we're going to go ahead and break because we got this important. 1:28:11 So it's with your division of intervention and prevention services you mentioned which was kind of concerning that the parents don't participate. And, you know, you figure if the children, them, are having some, you know, behavioural, you know, learning issues, you would figure that the parents, them, will definitely be looking out. So, you mentioned that you wanted to hold the parents accountable for failure to follow up with involvement with the kids. give me some ideas that you had in mind and um so we can flash that out because you know if the kids have a problem a little issue behavior and thing the parents then we really need the parents to um to be involved to step up yes so um commissioner um yeah 1:29:00 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 12 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services assistant commissioner carla benjamin um so that issue is is sort of uh involved because that population of children who presented behavioral problems they're coming into care because there's a troublesome relationship most times between the youth and the parent um a lot of times by the time the children become known to us, parents have had it and they are ready to kind of throw their hands up. In the testimony, you mentioned the person's in need of supervision service track, which is essentially a designation in the courts where a child is declared to be in need of the court's supervision. However, in order to get to that place, theoretically, a parent would have to be able to demonstrate to the court, that they've accessed all of the other options and it's still not working and so they require the court's intervention. And if that has not been done, then we will tell them you need to access all these services before you can come before the court. Even with the court's intervention, sometimes we don't have full cooperation in terms of making sure that children attend counseling, making sure that if the judge puts a curfew in place and youth are violating the curfew that that is being reported um and so it is difficult and we do understand that parents are exhausted and sometimes frustrated but uh the department cannot be the parent and we would prefer to address the issues so we don't get to the point where they get to like a yrc yeah you know and and i gotta i gotta keep hopping on that right because you know the parents them you know you you have a responsibility as as a parent you know i have i have four sons and um you know if any one of them gain trouble you best believe i taking the teacher side on the issue um and you know you you have to be able to help because in the long run You know, we got the statistics from the Justice Bureau of Prisons and, you know, the average age of our residents is 24 years in the Bureau of Corrections, so while Human Services has them in this program, parents, it's important that you participate and you get involved with your youth, your children, your kids, so that we can prevent them going down the wrong path because you know once you get this criminal record felony and thing it lasts a long time it's hard to get it and then you get you get kind of like turned out excluded from the system and it's kind of you know it's a hard thing because then the percentages are a lot of the prisoners etc are repeat they come back and then you get into this thing so parents is important human services you know has this program intervention and prevention services and 1:30:25 let's let's participate so what can we do to make the parents more comfortable here is there anything that we can do you can issue some warnings on because if the child has to report it's on the parent to bring them to this this meeting this situation right that's my understanding and and I am glad for the opportunity to say something else on the matter absolutely not beating up on the parents who come forward actually to be commended for coming for help the communication between the workers and the parents I believe if although parents are often tend to be frustrated by the time you know they get engaging with us there's going to be a need for a level of trust we're not just nice people who who are a good listeners they're actually skills that the social workers have in terms of assessment the workers have in terms of assessment and service planning so that when those services are put in place it's important that there's follow-through. Okay thank you very much Assistant Commissioner Benjamin for that update. The Committee on Health Hospitals and human services will stand in recess for 30 minutes Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you. 1:33:06 This is your life We'll be right back. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you. Let's go. Thank you. 1:37:54 We'll be right back. Let's get started. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. I love you Let's go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go. Thank you. 1:43:24 I love you Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. I love you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you. 1:51:54 Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you. 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I love you, too We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be right back Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 2:31:54 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 13 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services I love you I'll see you next time. . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. 2:41:54 We'll be right back. Cheers! Thank you. [3 such phrases repeated 12 times · standby audio before the proceeding, transcribed by the recogniser as speech] 2:46:54 We'll be right back. I love you, I love you Thank you. I love you, I love you We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you. I'll be right back. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For more information, visit www.fema.gov Yo, Banda 2:52:54 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yo, Banda Thank you. Thank you. 3:03:54 The Committee on Health Hospitals and Human Services is back on the record. We had to pause, we had to get an update on the EPA situation with the water on St. Croix. 3:06:54 So we have here before us the Human Services Department, we're receiving testimony from Commissioner nominee Ariel George and the staff and we have Been into our round of questioning and so Senator carry on you'll recognize for your seven minutes senator carry on Media please recognize a mic for senator carry on on st. Croix Good afternoon. Good afternoon Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to testifiers and the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands. I want to start by congratulating Commissioner nominee for her nomination so I have high expectations and know that you will do a great job once confirmed have you had an opportunity to really thoroughly assess the department thus far Avril George Commissioner nominee no I have not okay you're still in that process yeah today makes exactly one month in this position. Understood, understood. So some of the questions I have, I know you mentioned the challenges in staffing. What is the plan to tackle that staffing challenge that department has been facing? Myself and my senior leadership 3:07:32 team has been doing a scrub of our personal listing in regards to our vacancies in comparison to OMB personnel listing and what we had on our books we have we're gonna be doing job fairs not only posting through division of personnel of director Richardson of division of personnel has offered her assist her and her team assistance with us doing a job fair just for Department of Human Services in regards to our vacancies and I also from previous experience will reach out to commissioner commissioner labor model commissioner malloy at labor in regards to partnering with his team and the different programs that they have in regards to training and getting individuals ready for the workforce so it's a combination of different out-of-the-box um processes that we're gonna use to try to fill those critical positions not only critical but making sure that what we have as vacancies is accurate and we don't have overlapping positions to make sure that we meet the needs of our community but I'm glad to hear that in your estimation what what do you think that some of these challenges are apart from what you're saying about coming out of the box and the recruitment process but what do you think is attributes to these challenges first for some of the positions that I was reviewing one of the critical challenges the salary especially if it's you a unionized position how low the salary is individuals are hesitant to change positions based on the salaries that we offer understood I just wanted you to 3:09:24 put that on the record so we can all hear what some of those challenges are and that's that is one of the main ones you need to be competitive so you stated that there is a need also in that area now you did mention some internship programs I would like to know how effective that has been and I would also like to suggest maybe coordinating with the Department of Education and maybe our vocational board um to see how we can start some maybe early recruitment uh with our schools by educating our students and the community about the great opportunities and benefits of being a social worker because i know that's one of the areas that you have a large number of um or more vacancies i will just say on the record that social worker is one of our challenges that we're facing in regards to getting individuals on board part of it is part of the exam passing of the examinations and um ac benjamin has been working with the interns at uvi so i'll pass question on to her so she could give you more in depth thank you um good afternoon assistant Commissioner Benjamin the our capacity to take on interns is kind of directly related to the number of staff that we have on board who are qualified to be able to supervise them to a certain extent as well most in most programs have two kind of two waves of internships and so someone who comes to department for the first year and goes to another agency for the second year is kind of less likely to be one of the ones who we can keep um but we are making known to uvi that that we are 3:11:17 willing to take on interns there are a number of veteran social workers who have made the effort to make themselves available and um we're giving the extra effort i would say to make the interns not only feel welcome but to make sure that they have meaningful experiences across the different programs and different types of services that can be provided so that the department of human services as one of the if not the largest employer of social workers in the territory for them feels like a good option yeah I really think that's one of the crucial parts in recruiting is ensuring that that internship program is successful so I would recommend you to take a a better look at that and see how you can improve in that area and see how we could transition some of those interns into being on staff. Now, with regards to the Meals on Wheels 3:13:11 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 14 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services program, how much additional is required to fulfill and support the expansion of the Meals on Wheels program on St. Cory and St. Thomas? And I also would like to know regards to the waiting list for the Meals on Wheels program. Danelle Baptiste assistant commissioner currently we've calculated an additional need of about 1.8 million dollars to handle our wait list and if you could just give me one moment I will get those numbers for you sure and also the waiting list for the home of the age Queen Louise and Herbert Grigg on on both districts because we do understand that there is a waiting list and how can we be able to assist in fulfilling I think there is a wing that could be open if you could share some information commissioner or someone from your team and time take to really add some more individuals to your staff to be able to operate that additional wing to expand the residency they are at the home of age on the District of St. Croix. 3:14:31 So going back to the Dinelle Baptiste Assistant Commissioner, going back to the Meals on Wheels question, I just want to correct the calculated amount that we need is actually 1.2 million and it's 160 individuals on st croix and 80 on st thomas as for the numbers that are waiting lists or those that you have on the program that is a number on our waiting list um i do want to just say that those are just the applications we receive we have not um vetted them to even identify if these individuals are fully qualified to be on the program but these are just the number of individuals who have expressed interest in being in the program as it pertains to Herbert Gregg I will get the numbers in terms of the waiting list but in terms of our ability to expand we are looking at how much it would cost us to add one incremental person to the program um some of the factors that we've been looking at is we would have to add staff we would also have to add additional funding for meals supplies etc uh right now staff is a challenge for us and we've been trying to just keep up with our current residents and we've been looking at how can we um basically similar with the social workers how can we help to increase our capacity as it relates to nursing? So I would say those are some of our major challenges in being able to expand. Our waiting list for the homes right now is 45 3:15:36 individuals, 25 on St. Thomas and 20 on St. Croix. So and thank you for sharing that information. I know my time has been called but can you provide some numbers if we were to then expand because the space is available at Herker Greek we just need what staffing and maybe equipment and stuff so in order to expand and be able to house other individuals we have an aging population here in a territory you know we have seniors that need assisting living services so what would that look like to be able to provide that type of service what that budget amount would be one moment senator maybe you can and if you don't have it at hand maybe you could through the chair submit that information to us because I think it's important it's crucial we've been speaking about individuals we have in the hospital the and that we need to get them transition out so you know these are things that we need to really focus on so that information is crucial thank you mr. 3:17:27 chair for the leniency and the time and Commissioner nominee I wish you all the best yes thank you senator camera carry on I'd like to recognize the presence of committee member senator Donna Fred Gregory you're recognized for your point of information search thank you mr. chair and good afternoon to the testifiers as Baptiste the previous speaker asked a question with regards to the mills and wheels and you made reference to some 1.2 million dollars that's that you're in it would be in it will is in the Delta with correct you're in a there's a deficit of 1.2 but you further stated that you had a hundred and sixty applicants in st. Croix I believe and 80 and st. Thomas and then you said you said that that's the wheat list and this is my challenge with your response my challenge with your response is you're asking for 1.2 but you spoke about a waitlist but you indicated that you haven't vetted them so how did we come up with 1.2 if we are not even sure as to whether or not this how much it is this universe of individuals who have applications actually qualify and why haven't haven't we move forward with going ahead and vetting these individuals because when the funds become available then we are having this this rushed approach and then you have to have all this this wait period before implementation why are we operating in that manner sure the now Baptista 3:18:42 assistant commissioner so we do vet our waitlist on a used to grow every day so we know that a majority of the folks on the list we do know would be qualified many of them come in through referrals through our adult protective services unit and some are just community applications so similarly when we were going through kovat we added a lot of individuals onto the program and we have not kind of reassess that need to see you know where they fall on the spectrum in terms of needing these services so again that that remains of a concern to me so how and when are you guys going to actually do the reassessment of the program to make those determination and to ensure that we are providing the assistance to those that truly and really need it so the team has actually started that reassessment so what does that mean so i've had them pull the list they're how we came up with it when i asked you what does that mean i mean when are you going to be finished so you could move to the next level understood i do not have a response for you at this time in terms of how long and that remains the challenge because when was the last time you were here before this institution it's about three months ago yeah and that was the same response so we need movement so if I can say the team has made some progress 3:20:33 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 15 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services in terms of pulling the list and when I said do the assessment because of how the program is structured in terms of it's based on location so the team and did pull the list they did start and analyzing locations to understand what we would need to add in terms of capacity so there's a certain number of meals that can be on each run so in order for us to get to that 1.2 number it was understanding geographically how many more meals run meal runs we need to add based on where those applications are coming from so there has been some progress the challenge with doing the assessment and we can't do it now we need to really understand when we're gonna get the funding because we'll do it now and then we'll have to do it again so it's a continuous process okay thank you very much senator Donna Fred and Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Baptiste for your response real quick we gonna go before we go to the next senator Diane key part the seniors living alone Commissioner George I just want to get the numbers straight. I have on my notes here, they have 889 seniors living alone. 3:22:29 There's 496 on St. Thomas, 295 on St. Croix, and 98 on St. John. Are those numbers correct? The seniors living alone program. I mean, seniors are living alone. It's not a program. You can repeat those numbers, please, Senator. Well, no, give me your numbers and then I'll Correct mind St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John break them down. I have is 496 St. Thomas to 45 St. Croix and 98 St. John. 3:23:30 We're checking those numbers and we'll get that information. Okay. What kind of services do you provide to those seniors living alone? So, um, Denal-Baptiste Assistant Commissioner, um, just for clarification, Senator, are you referring to the registry that we have of seniors? Yes, the registry. Yes. Okay. So the registry is used for disaster purposes. 3:24:05 So if we're having storms, we understand who, who's living alone so that we could provide that support to them during that time so we don't necessarily have ongoing programs for that population but some of those individuals may be enrolled in our other senior programs okay so they know finish you can finish sorry so such as meals on wheels our homemaker services which do go out and provide some assisted living services some of them participate in our socio-recreational centers so those are other ways that we keep up with them also if we have a case through Adult Protective Services, they continue to check on those individuals. Okay, and how about during a storm? Are they part of your transportation? What do you do with them during a storm, an emergency? 3:24:38 Yes, yes, Senator. We do check in with them to see if we need to transport them to a shelter and we also, you know, follow up with them after the storm, making sure that their needs are taken care of. Okay, please for provide me that that detail um senator diane capot you're recognized for your seven minutes thank you mr chair i would like good afternoon to the people of the virgin islands good afternoon to my colleagues and all of the testifiers who are here before us today Ms. Avril George and Governor's nominee I commend you for even accepting this task of a department that requires compassion to serve in and I think that you'll do a good job once you stick with the hard-working employees at DHS who I'm very familiar with St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John but first I would like to ask about the Division of Disabilities and Rehabilitation. 3:25:27 So Ms. George back in the day there was a program under the Disability and Rehabilitation services that actually helped individuals who have disability who were still able to work in the workforce and the programs changed from then to now I notice in your testimony says this division partners with private employers government agency community stakeholders to facilitate employment and training for person with disabilities I know you're doing an assessment of your divisions which is a big task have you had any discussions thus far to find out of what you're doing to help these individuals with disability to find employment work opportunities work able these These were individuals that actually went in a community and found employment. 3:26:41 Can you say anything about that today? I have met with the Vogue Rehab Team and got an overview of their programs. We do have scheduled meetings in regards to what their challenges are and what their needs are and our path going forward. to say I did a full assessment I have not okay well I'm just giving you some little historical knowledge that there were such effective programs back in the day so and it actually worked with individuals who have disabilities who are able to actually work so being an advocate for people with disabilities I ask that you look into something that actually helped back in a day to that that's not happening now as stated in your testimony one of your biggest challenges is staffing and Medicaid is a division and at your department that's pretty close to me and there are support services eligibility workers provider relations claims because I've always looked at Medicaid should be ran as an insurance company when you go to an insurance company have all these different divisions that deal with different issues so I would ask as of the 28,000 plus eligible enrolled applicants, 1,357 providers. How many employers or employees do you have working to deal with providers? St. Croix, St. Thomas. How many employees do you have? And this is more an HR question because I know you probably won't know this. HR? 3:27:47 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 16 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services so Danelle Baptiste assistant commissioner we currently have three individuals that's dedicated to provider enrollment and additional individuals on the team support as needed you have three individuals dealing with provider relations and you have you have a total of 13,057 providers that's territory and some out of territory is there any priority that the department is looking at as prior to rising these positions to be filled in these very important divisions Medicaid food stamp child care is there a a priority in filling a lot of these vacant positions avril george commissioner nominee i have met with the various administration administrators as well as my senior leadership team have requested a critical listing in regards that positions that are critical to their services and we are meeting as a team to make that a priority um we are going through the process this week and then we'll start our process next week of looking at what our critical positions are what is our process to get them filled and based on our budget so medicaid and snap is a priority for us as it comes to vacancies so miss judge i as i said i have faith in you but um i i really would like that looking at medicaid in all the expansion of services after the with the affordable care act we tripled our enrollment of medicaid recipients and this depart that division specifically supports services you don't have enough people in that division you need to have people who need to travel off-island within a reasonable time to make sure their off-island care is arranged the eligibility workers provider relations clean specialists these are very important positions if they were not implemented that that be looked at as running an insurance company because it's I know it's low income for those who have none and but we must treat it like an insurance company one other question that I would love to ask is the the cost of living adjustment cola for those individuals who work head start program 3:29:56 mr. chair if I may conclude yes you me this can you tell can you tell me I don't know miss George if you able to to answer this but the head start program is pending a decision on an application for these individuals who work at the head start to receive their cola can you give us any update on this I refer to AC Benjamin to respond. Good afternoon, Assistant Commissioner Benjamin. That decision was already made, the COLA was approved. CFO, are you able to give an update on where we are in terms of getting those? Lydia McGrath, Chief Financial Officer. The NOPAs for the federal employees have been submitted to the Division of Personnel for the COLA and also we're working with OMB for the general fund portion as the feds only provided the funding for the federal portion the federal employees okay so these employees should be seeing those payments sometime soon yes sorry yes I would imagine okay next pay period once an opus process that it's paid and then there it's retro back to the beginning of the fiscal of the budget year which was july 1st 2023 okay thank you thank you ms mcgross thank you mr chair yes thank you very much senator key part um commissioner um couple couple things here right that um i want to bring to your attention right because i remember when i was in the in the 3:32:54 government um a few years back you know human services right was the star department when people like joe molloy sedoni halbert was in managing this division and i think you you are in a similar situation because joe molloy was the one did that comprehensive renovation to the north hansen complex health was you know funding around with it they they renovated it they put the human services and that that department was functioning and you're in a similar situation because you're going to be renovating well a new construction for the um for the north hansen um complex so i want i want you to make a particular note here right of some things that I think you're gonna have to address right that I've seen that is a concern definitely the spending plan right so next time you come before the body um make sure the spending plan is is up to snuff and you know you can mirror the Department of Education look at what the Commission of Education is doing I think they have a real good plan and then the other thing is the vacant positions um you know we had a discussion you know your hands are tied with the union etc but you know use your creativity and work um i wanted to go to to the maintenance um and i wanted to ask um the deputy commissioner um george and miguel tricoshi um and we'll talk we'll start with you first uh george how many maintenance workers do you have on saint thomas and then the same question for St. Croix. 3:34:53 Sean Georges, Deputy Commissioner. Right now I have a total of two for the New Hanton complex and I think two for the Head Start. So I have a total of four. Okay, so there's four maintenance employees on St. Thomas. Miguel on St. Croix. Deputy Commissioner. Yes, media, recognize the mic for Miguel Tricolce, please. Low testing. 3:36:43 Good. Deputy Commissioner Miguel Tricolce, on the island of St. Croix, we have two maintenance workers. We have an additional one assigned to Head Start, and we have one assigned to Snap Map Building. Okay. Thank you. so now um deputy commissioner sean george's um you have two maintenance two head start a total of four how many do you need on saint thomas how many maintenance employees do you need well it's not just about um deputy commissioner george it's not about numbers it's more about skill we want to make sure that most of our laborers are skilled to assist us in areas you know electricians carpenters plumbers which will make it easy so um we are facing the challenge of um salary in terms of getting those kind of skilled workers in place, but we are working with HR, the commissioner, as well as fiscal in trying to find these positions, and of course with the union salaries, and it makes it a challenge, but that's what we're trying to do, and the commissioner has made it a priority of hers. 3:37:13 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 17 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services You see, I want a specific number because the commissioner needs to know what you need exactly because remember you know the commissioner is starting out fresh and she's here to fix the problem so i know you say you need electricians carboners and plumbers but how many more or less how many do you need sorry about sean george's deputy commissioner if we got a skilled person in each of those that would assist in it remember i on st thomas we are in one big facility we will be going out to temporary but we will be returning to a large facility so i get one of those skilled workers in each area so you need about three more about three to four more would make it three or four more okay so commissioner we need three or four more maintenance in thomas how about sing deputy commissioner miguel tracoche on the island of st croix we have a wider space more green space so we would need five i would say three general workers two skilled workers Okay. That's good. So, we're talking about eight employees. 3:38:21 You know, just give the Commissioner the information, she's going to get it done. I don't see the professionalism, you know, the people that I'm giving me, the comments. Okay. So, next we're going to go to Senator Gittins, Vice Chair Gittins, you're recognized for your seven minutes. Thank you Mr. Chair and good afternoon to all. Let me also echo the sentiments of the Rules Committee Chair on thanking you Commissioner nominee George for accepting this challenge especially at this critical time and we've had extensive conversations and you know that I wholeheartedly support your nomination but I'm gonna tell you publicly people got to work and if heads got a role they got a role but we got a lot of work to do in this department you have a sprawling department and you certainly have your work cut out for you you know we often time talk about the five P's but for your success will require about five other components which are the five C's the culture the communication courage conviction and compassion within this this agency now you know as I said here let me let me go straight to 3:39:30 something else because I'm like really sickened with these WhatsApp messages coming through with all these fights in our high schools. Regarding these fights is there any collaboration or communication going on between your agency and the Department of Health or namely I'm sorry and the Department of education and namely your division of I think is intervention and prevention services are there any collaboration going on that we can work collectively to try to address this vexing issue in our schools today assistant commissioner Carla Benjamin um there is no formal collaboration targeting the the fight issues that you're referencing of course in those occurrences if a child is if if one of the youth is charged they would be referred to us and if it is a young person who has had any ongoing issues they might already be known but there is no formal there was no formal system or interaction set up specifically to target this so thank you and i want to encourage you all to at least reach out if you can provide some sort of assistance let's not wait until somebody is charged uh i think that's that's part of our problem uh right now so i'm just asking that we be proactive this matter and just try to reach out and see how we can assist now let me get back to what I originally wanted to speak to you know 3:41:28 Commissioner designee your testimony that staffing remains the department's biggest challenge what is currently being done differently to recruit and retain individuals at this time what would you do differently Commissioner nominee Avril George like previously stated the team has been tasked with providing me the critical listing of hires needed in each division as well as we're scrubbing the list to make sure there's no overlapping of positions we have reached out to division of personnel on director Sydney Richardson for her guidance and she has suggested that humans Department of Human Services keep a job fair just specialized to just us alone not the collaborative job fair within the different government agencies as well as we're going to work with department of labor commissioner malloy and his team which i've done in the past in regards to getting individuals that are in their program seeking certif that already has certification or is looking employment to join our team um it is a process it's not a quick fix for this week next week um but the team has been working aggressively to target our vacancies and see how much positions we could get filled for critical um critical services excellent and on page 20 you also are under human resources you also spoke of um hiring about 14 positions i wouldn't ask you to list them now but um can you uh provide through the chair uh the 14 positions that were hired for fiscal year 24 i believe you stated we sure can okay thank you through the chair and um how many foster children um are 3:43:21 currently in the in the system at this time um in the system we have a total of i think 28 foster children 16 on the island of st. Croix and 12 on the island of st. Thomas and what are we doing to increase the pool or resources of families good afternoon assistant commissioner Benjamin so one of the things that we've done is we have adopted one minute new a new training curriculum because the the one that we had previously was was outdated we are doing post on social media we are trying to recruit some of the kinship parents who come who've come on board I mentioned earlier become involved with the system perhaps maybe to help one specific child but receives the foster and adoptive training across the board to try to keep some of those in the system even though they may have just gotten involved on a temporary basis and we have also increased the maintenance rate that we pay for foster for fostering which I mean money should not be the the motivation but we have done that as well okay but that would that will surely help so at least that's part of what you're doing to to help increase with the couple seconds left um did you call time yes you may proceed I'll conclude here 3:45:17 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 18 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services I'm pleased to hear that the agency is talking about upgrading some of its facilities and whatnot and and seeing that I'm hopeful I should say that these are government owned buildings I'm truly tired of seeing us pour millions of dollars into private buildings and leaving the government buildings dilapidated but can you just tell us quickly if you have any timeline on the construction at the head starts and at our senior homes namely how about Greg and St. Croix and Queen Louise and St. Thomas I I dislike describing what I match Queen Louise to there's no way that our seniors should be in this type of facility can you provide some shed some light on the timeline of these constructions please i'll defer that question to dc tricochi thank you deputy commissioner tricochi great question senator i'm going to start off with the head start projects we have six of them three of them are in the demolition stage the other three are in the construction stage in terms of timeline we are looking at roughly 12 months i'd say 8 to 12 months for these projects to be completed so i'm i'm i'm not comfortable with the the response what i will do is i will ask uh that you provide uh itemized listing uh with the time frame of each of these projects through the chair again that's for all head start uh buildings and our senior centers yes um thank you very much uh vice chair getting so much uh thank you mr chair 3:47:15 yes thank you uh vice chair gittins uh uh commissioner i i echoed that right and um I think that's one of the other areas you have to look at. You know, you mentioned, you know, the $328.1 million for Queen Louise, not Hanson, Herbert, Greg, Cruise Bay, and now we're adding the daycare. If you can get us, you know, firm dates, you know, some is in design, design is going to be completed. I know, like, for example, right now you're telling us that Queen Louise is going out to bid. But, you know, going out a bit then, but we don't really have a completion date. 3:49:08 We need some completion dates because, remember, these items are very, very needed in the community. Right now, you gave testimony that we have an aging population. The census shows that we have over 18,541 persons in the community that's 65 and older. And so that means that these items become more and more important. Um, so right now we'll go to Senate president, uh, Senator Norville Francis, you recognize for your seven minutes. 3:49:49 I check one, two, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to you, my colleagues, and good afternoon to team, Department of Human Services. And certainly I want to join my colleagues in wishing the commissioner nominee well in her efforts to really address some of the concerns that have been raised here today. And I know that she have a Herculean task, again, dealing with this community from the cradle to the grave. And we certainly stand in support of her endeavors. 3:50:24 I wanted to ask you, Commissioner, in respect to, I know my colleagues asked about the foster care. You mentioned that there was 16 and 12, a total of 28 currently in foster care. Is there a waiting list and what that number look like? Assistant Commissioner Carla Benjamin. There is no waiting list as the need arises for protective measures to be taken with children. We look first to the family to make a plan so that if they're not able to stay with their parents or guardians, are there paternal relatives, maternal relatives. Removal from the family is the last resort and there's never really a waiting list. We just find the best, most safe environment a child to be in for as short a time as possible. 3:51:04 Very well, I could appreciate that. Is there any incentive that's being offered, any way of revamping the current process of the foster care so in fact we could start to get individuals within a pool that could be readily available? Any thoughts there? our launch of the NTDC which is the new foster care and a foster and adoptive parent training module the effort is to make it standardized so that when individual make inquiries about fostering they know on the front end what all the steps are and what the annual requirements are in order to remain remain certified very well let's move a little bit to the head start and of course we're talking about the possibility of getting individuals as three years old and into the early education system um however currently your target is really for the low-income families is there an opportunity because I think that there is this misnomer that because you're a middle-income that in fact that you're able to be self-sufficient is there a delta is there um individuals that's been left out of the loop um quote unquote in the middle income area that we believe that could benefit from head start so the way that the head start program is designed there's 10 of the head start funded enrollment is pretty much income there is no income guideline as long as the children have special needs but currently within the early childhood care and education space we now have granny preschools right which are run by department of education which is free to the 3:52:06 public regardless of of um salary and we also have the office of child care and regulatory services that also provides subsidies for child care for individuals who are either in training to enter the workforce or who have entered the workforce so their salaries tend to be higher than uh individuals who access the head start program also assistant commissioner is it your testimony then that you believe that we have circled the wagon um we have completed the circle and in fact we should not be leaving any um potential of a child not receiving an early education through head square or granny preschool we're closing the circle and having just come from our region to head start conference I know the conversation there is free head start meaning if there's a way that we can get rid of those income requirements we're gonna do that very well thank you for that there's a buzz around the communities for those individuals that's being 3:54:00 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. 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VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 19 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services subsidized with the propane gas and you know I heard where they're indicating that in fact there there is this 30 days waiting list what is what is happening in that space and how do we minimize are we paying for this fuel upfront and being put at the back of the list so what's happening that's again creating a barrier where our seniors or disabled individuals are not receiving these propane fuel in a timely fashion Avril George Commissioner nominee Senator Francis we'll get our information circle back to you very well thank you another area of concern again is our seniors and their medication is there currently subsidies available through the Human Services to provide medication to our seniors Denele Baptiste assistant commissioner yes senator we do have a prescription program through our senior citizen affairs division is that being fulfilled and is medication being readily available in a timely fashion to seniors so this is a program we we basically enroll them into the program and they would go to the pharmacies and procure their prescriptions through the pharmacies and then payment is made on the back end. Okay have you had any complaints on in respect to seniors not being able to receive their medication in a timely fashion? None that I am aware of Senator. Thank you. There was a conversation earlier in regards to the need of well the cost of 1.2 million dollars from Meals to Wheels. Is that for the new individuals that's on the waiting list or a supplemental requirement at this time for Meals to Wheels. Can you give me some clarity on that? 3:55:50 Denal Baptista assistant commissioner that cost is for the wait list. Very well definitely I'll work we'll have to work collectively with our colleagues to make sure that we're closing that loop because we don't want individuals have to not receive a meal. Commissioner in regards to the public-private nonprofit partnership on the human service I know you just got there there been any discussion mr. chair if I could just wrap up on with this question yes yes is there any opportunity for us to lighten the burden I know you know again I want to make sure that you're successful and having 82 plus unit within the Department of Human Services is there an opportunity to believe that there could be some type of handoff in some instances for public-private partnership or nonprofit to assumed some of the responsibilities that's currently under your purview um that's not in the conversation a team Avril George Commissioner nominee that's an in-depth conversation a team has been having in regards to exactly what you said but there's still some diving deep into it in regards to federal dollars that we get to assist us in this process in these processes thank you thank you very much and at some point please engage this committee i think that we'd love to have a seat at the table of course we don't want to be the decision makers on this but we'll love to have a seat at the table as a committee um during this discussion if you if you would allow it thank you very much mr chair for the time thank you for your responses team human services thank you uh mr president novel francis um next we'll go to senator duane de graf senator graf you're recognized for your seven minutes 3:57:00 uh thank you mr chair good afternoon colleagues good afternoon testifiers of you listen and present I vote yes. So, like I can tell everybody, you could talk to 14 other senators. You got my vote already. So, you know, waiting to see how much of them are going to say how they vote. We support it. I vote it. So, you got my vote. The one thing I don't like about your testimony is it's 21 pages long. And page 21. 3:58:54 In closing, the Department of Human Services works diligently every day to conduct its mission with the resources that are available. True. I would like to publicly thank our staff for their unwavering dedication and continued commitment. That's first page for me. Don't put your staff last. Put them first. Because human services are going to take blows whether you do good or you do bad. commissioners gone before you, take their blows and they left. So just get your thick skin on and get ready for the blows. But one thing I say consistent, you have employees who work every day, don't get paid, don't get gratitude and then I have to go to page 20 to hear most employees have received and negotiated salary increases along with retroactive payments. What does most mean? How much is most? I need to know a number. Out of how much hour we have, how much is most? Good afternoon. 3:59:26 Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Senator. Deputy Commissioner of HR. Media, please recognise the mic. Good afternoon, Michael Trapman, Deputy Commissioner of Human Resources and Labour Relations. About 98% of the staff has already received and negotiated salary increases. Yeah, give me a number. So what is 98%, please? Out of staff of 620, I would say about 600 employees have received that were entitled to negotiated increases. 4:00:27 Those employees have, because it's not the entire gamut that we're entitled. So it's a combination of two bargaining units, which has a total of about 300 employees combined. Okay, so it's because they negotiated or they're just waiting? The other employees' unions are waiting to go to the table, but those that were already negotiated, those employees have received their salary, with a 2% that has not got it yet. Okay. 4:00:58 And that's why you say, for me, I go with employees first, and then the infrastructure, the facility that your employees have to work in. you know i went up to human services the other day and the um the morgue have a smell you could smell a morgue it was like a little land mine up there where um it was a little land mine where it was leaking from the roof and it had some pans i think i think uh in between okay what what it is i was putting on the under the pa system there 4:01:27 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 20 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services you know jumping around for my seven minutes I call human services this is the fifth time I call and the phone ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring all through the break we went a rang rang rang until just now somebody pick up that's one of the major frustrations people have everybody who needs service at least if somebody could talk to somebody and cost that person, and the mind is clear, they feel better. Human services will drive you to drink. You call the phone number, and it rings, rings, rings for a hundred years. That's what we have to start. Because again, it takes away from the work that your employee is doing. It makes it seem like, hey, they ain't doing nothing. Can you answer the phone? That's one where seniors have spoke about very, very much. so um you know the morale how is the morale since you have gotten there commissioner nominee avril george i've been boots on the ground since i've arrived i've made my rounds to each division each have tried to meet all employees if i haven't met an employee means that they are not in office um i've asked this team and the entire human service family to join me on this journey um change is not easy it's a transition period that a lot of people a lot of employees are waiting to see what is going to be the outcome but um i can't judge the morale based on i can't give a percentage to the morale okay because it comes in different garments i just gotta say that there's hope and i hope that the morale will improve as we go forward okay good um act 8058 you familiar with act 8058 no don't let that happen again that's the senior registry i sponsored a bill for seniors 60 years of age that's why i make sure i let me um mr Chair, no, senior, 60 years of age, who live alone. 4:02:59 Senator Gugrath, if you had to tell me the senior registry, I'm still learning all the different acts within the department. So just for the record, if you had to tell me the senior registry, I'll tell you, yes, I'm familiar with it. But I'm still learning the acts. I can't make the test too easy. Act 79-56. You aware of that one? No, give me the name. When you make 100 years old, we're going to give you $5,000. Oh, the centenarian. Centenarian. 4:04:18 Know them by them name, they're the professional names. And again, it's just to test you. Okay. One minute. We know you're the new kid and the black, but you have skills. You came to us with skills. I don't expect any less. And that's what I say. So it's just, don't get intimidated when you come before the Senate. You're going to have those who go, I'm full of respect. full of respect. I ain't going to degrade nobody or thing. If I do it to you, do it back to me. Fair enough. But I'm just saying some of the things right off the bat that section 8, how many people on the list for section 8? St. Thomas St. John St. Croix. 4:04:45 That's VI Housing Authority. Housing Authority? Okay, good. It's under you. Excellent. Perfect. You passed the test there. Now, presumptive eligibility is under you? Yes, it is. How has that been working? The hospitals are having problems with presumptive eligibility. Time. And then when the information gets to, Mr. Chair, if I just wrap up, if the information gets to human services, then there's some delay and then there's a money issue. 4:05:29 What's the deal with that? I am not exactly sure I understand the question, Senator. Presumptive eligibility, people go to the hospitals, they don't have the thing, they fill out information, and then it's sent to Human Services. Then when it's sent to Human Services, there seems to be a backlog or some issue in regarding to, how does it work for the hospitals to get funded? work for the hospitals to get funded so the presumptive eligibility allows for individuals who present to the hospital who are uninsured to self-attest and be given temporary access to the Medicaid program so basically on the spot they receive they become eligible for Medicaid and they can get their services so then those claims will be submitted just like the regular process and be paid by the department through the Department of Finance so I'm not sure there's necessarily a delay in terms of the presumptive eligibility I know that we are looking to have higher transition rates because it's only good for 90 days and then they would have to enroll to the program and provide documentation to be ultimately eligible for the Medicaid program because if you could also for that to the chair sort of the chair could be more familiar and in wrapping up, Mr. Chair, my final two questions are, have you met with the unions? 4:06:01 I've met with one or two unions. I've scheduled meeting with the others. Okay, that's very important. Okay, they control. And finally, you have 15 divisions, 84 programs. Don't jump an hour. Out of the 15, which ones are working? How many have worked? Let me give you a number, not which one. How many are working out of the 15? All my divisions are working. 4:07:31 All of them. I mean, who's showing up to work. No, I mean, all my divisions are operating. I just think that some assessment needs to be done to see where changes are needed. So basically, address those that are the weakest of the link. I think that's what you should focus with. It'll save you a lot of time and effort. you have good staff around you put them to work okay and then um that way it'd be easier because we could have sat down here i could have take seven minutes and find everything wrong with human services that was too easy to do so easier is it's a tougher task to support you and to say hey let's find what's not working and address those things here so when we report back to the the senate this cut and paste i i've been seeing it for seven years i don't want to see the cut and paste i want to see thoughts about your employees tell me about them when you turn about them two percent in getting their salary increases because so and so 4:08:02 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 21 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services and then we go forward so thank you for the time mr chair thank you senator yes thank you um senator the graph um So, colleagues, we're going to go to a round of one burning question. So Commissioner, based on what the comments are today with our colleagues, I think so far the evaluation is very, very favourable. I got a couple quick questions here. The stroke victims, what do you do for them? And also you had a bracelet program, a monitoring bracelet for the seniors. What do you do for the stroke victims and how about the monitoring bracelet for the seniors? Because, you know, I think I can agree, right, that there is no department in the whole government of the Virgin Islands more important than human services. You know, you have us from birth until death. And, you know, just for your information, Commissioner, as the Chair of Health Hospitals and Human Services, Human Services is the only department that hasn't come to me for additional funds. The hospitals here, Health Head, East End Clinic, they always got requests and requests and more and more and more. human services hasn't come for anything and um human services has a lot of needs um so give me an update quick on what you do for the stroke victims and what's happening with the bracelet program is it a funding issue commissioner emily avril george we're working with the bracelet program to more push it out um in regards to the stroke victim i've sent a question in regards to so i'll have a response for you shortly okay good um um um senator k pot uh any round of any burning questions thank you mr for giving me the opportunity i just wanted to i don't have any 4:09:22 burning questions but the commissioner nominee you have a big big task before you I am extending myself to you any assistance that as a committee member that we can help we can assist even with some historical knowledge to certain things that may be helpful for the department I know you're taking on a big department but just a further discussion as to changes at your department that before we considered legislation that we have a discussion. So I'm just open to having discussions. I wish you well on your endeavors and to the hard-working men and women at DHS I appreciate you. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Senator Keypot. Commissioner also I wanted to point out that in reviewing the departments in the government of the Virgin Islands the Department of Human Services had more employees than any other department that were making less than $15 an hour so please you know do your best you know work with division of personnel unions etc to address that because you know there's so much employment opportunities now in the government you see everybody's hiring if someone is going to hire more and they're looking for the same qualifications that person is going to look out for their own interests and they'll probably go to another department even though human services has them and i would like to point out also that you know i'm on the budget committee and during the the phase where we were balancing the budget three million dollars actually came out of the department of human services so your department uh was took i would say the brunt of the hit compared to any other department to balance the budget and of course if we can take three million plus dollars from you and it was you know vacant positions it shows that um you know 4:11:23 the thought was is that you have these positions and you're not hiring them and it's a more important need to balance the budget so all these things um you know is what you know we're looking at at human services like i say to me this is the most important department that i you know have oversight for but i haven't gotten a request uh for one additional yes that's right we got for the generator in Herbert Grieg and we were able to appropriate Miguel I think it was a hundred thousand dollars to get the generator for Herbert Grieg but that was based on a site visit with the health hospitals and Human Services Committee but you know look at it and work it out. Senator DeGraff any burning questions? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Incidentally, this Monday self, a lady came here to the legislature saying that her mother came down, her mother is 92 years old, came down on a boat from St. John to have to go to human services to address her food stamp, think it was issue is there any annex on st john to address some of these are present to probably avoid a senior of any age coming to come down like that um commissioner nominee avril george i think currently we have representatives in st john twice a week no that's the medical yes danelle baptiste Assistant Commissioner. For SNAP, we are actually, we don't have anyone in St. John currently due to the condition of the building and the specifics that we require due to federal regulations. So we are working with DC Georges. We hope to have a temporary fix for this within the next 30 days. Okay, the temporary fix would be for the building or for someone 92 4:13:41 years or having to travel to come down to to allow us to offer um services for snap and our other divisions in saint john okay okay that'd be a big help uh that's my one burning question thank you mr chair okay thank you very much uh senate the graph um and um we're going to go um to senate president um novel francis you're recognized for your burning question Thank you very much. Commissioner nominee George in respect to the amount of trauma that we're seeing in this community I think that a lot of times employees are overlooked. I wanted to ask you what is being done in the behavioral health space and not necessarily just the EAP program or what is being done for you know assessment recognizing um you know some of the trauma that your staff is experiencing is exposed to what is being done to address behavioral health for those employees commissioner nominee avril george um you did hit it on the nail right now we only have the aap in place which is employers employee assistance program um do we will look deeper in to see what other services we can afford to our team when dealing with trauma and how they cope with it but right now um off my head i 4:15:42 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 22 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services think it's the eap it is the i'm sorry assistant commissioner benjamin and there are some federal programs that require it like head start is required to have sort of stress relief events and work with their staff on emotional health type issues and i know our child care program just had a retreat um but in terms of a department-wide strategy for dealing with behavioral health issues or trauma we we don't have anything in place right now but we definitely can work on that very well thank you for that and i'll tell you that immediate supervisors and directors uh administrators are some of the direct link when they start to observe the employee's pattern to make those necessary referrals and my final question is regards to again the fact that you have been given prudent replacements approval for a number of infrastructure build out and obviously the costs that have been associated with all build out the 128 for the Newt Hanson the 131 for Herbert Gregg and 66.8 for Queen Louise if we don't earmark and get these things worked on in the immediate future those costs will go up exponentially what is being done in terms of prior to rising you know some of these uh so that they could get the necessary repairs or be on the hook for these costs to increase significantly uh with time any response uh commission janelle baptize assistant commissioner can you repeat the question senator um the question again is how are we ensuring that these infrastructure build out that you have identified in your testimony is prior to rise what a true disaster recovery um you know through your capital improvement measures you know so that again these costs don't go up exponentially um over the next several years if they're not taken care of in a timely fashion what's the priority given to these build out understood thank you uh daniel baptista assistant commissioner uh so we have heavily prioritized these projects especially as you've heard us talk about all the facility concerns that we have um we've already started a design process so these projects are well underway we have numerous weekly project meetings that we're doing we have meetings with the odr we have meetings with all of our designers we have internal meetings so it's definitely on the top of our priority list and we are well underway in these projects even though some of them have not been obligated as yet the odr has been able to provide us with some of that up front 4:17:41 startup funding to get started on those projects yes you completed Senate president yes thank you very much mr. chair thank you thank you very much senator Francis I'm senator Donna Fred Gregory you're recognized for your seven minutes media recognize a mic for Senator Fred Gregory thank you mr. chair and good afternoon again so I'm gonna shift the conversation just a bit and then I want to go back to the vacancies so um borders so what have you been in communication with the hospitals with respect to the borders and how is or what is the intention of the Department of Human Services to begin to address us that issue in earnest here in the territory commissioner nominee april george we recently had a meeting with um wang louis hospital roy leicester snyder hospital department of health and dhs in regards to the borders um we do have some plans going forward in regards to space availability based on individuals that pass especially on the island of st croix and how DHS can assist with placing them in our facilities we also have set up weekly calls to see how we can facilitate with helping Royce Lester Snyder with those borders in their facility so it's ongoing conversations but I will say that a team made some headway in our last meeting we had earlier this week in regards to some quick turnarounds that we can assist okay so we expect to see 4:20:08 some sort of movement with regards to the borders because our hospitals, their bottom line is being impacted significantly by the fact that we have these borders. We still have borders in our hospitals here in the territory and there is some responsibility on the there's lots of responsibility as a matter of fact on the behalf of human services to address this issue in earnest i will say senator that um commissioning kanya song as well as rich department of health has reached out to us in regards to the capability of assisting with this process and i will say it's the both both hospitals both wang louis and rye leicester snyder yeah and i was going to point that out because you made a especially wang louis but it's both both hospitals yes um crisis intervention program we all know what happened a few years ago it's not that long ago we got in one of our babies that lost their lives his life as a result of um us not doing what we're supposed to do so what are we looking forward or what are we seeing different in the department of human services avert issues like that from occurring in the future good afternoon assistant commissioner benjamin crisis intervention in terms of response to reports the department you want me to tell 4:22:07 put it out there we're talking about you all know what i'm talking about so just let's talk about what are we doing different to address it we are receiving reports of child abuse and neglect and responding to them we are affording families where appropriate the opportunity to identify a plan where families cannot identify a plan or where a plan is not indicated for safety reasons we try to identify alternate family home setting if necessary we remove involuntarily and go before the court and comply with whatever the court's requirements are we do our piece the attorneys that are involved ensure that their clients do their pieces and are you still seeing challenges Oh we are experiencing challenges. We are especially since the staff who's tasked with doing investigations at the department right now must be licensed social workers and we did indicate that there is a particular challenge around. How many licensed social workers do you currently have? 13. Okay so of the 13 do you find it a priority to ensure that those individuals are addressing these types of cases because 4:23:56 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 23 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services while you may have a challenge we have to determine what are our priorities right yes so I need to understand clearly that we are recognizing this issue as a challenge we know what happened here we don't want to see it repeated again so we can't do our best we have to do it so I'm still not in your response I'm still not hearing that you are comfortable or warm and fuzzy about what is actually happening in your institution with regards to addressing any type of child abuse issue that we have in the Virgin Islands. One of the things that we said in a testimony is that there's an education piece that needs to happen around the fact that the Child Protective Services system is in fact a system and it is not the Department of Human Services only there are lots of pieces. Okay time out a second. All of that stuff it briefs well but that does not they address the issue that we have so what I wanted to hear from you was that you're all having regular meetings with all those that play a part in in addressing this issue, these child abuse type issues, and those things are happening regularly, and we are talking to each other regularly. If there's an issue at a particular family or home, that there is someone or someones within the organization of human services that's staying on top of it with those respective agencies. So everything, you know, what we're talking about in our testimony is not what I'm interested in. 4:25:48 I'm interested in the action. The Department of Human Services has to have the cooperation of all the other pieces. We have to be able to refer for counselling services. We have to be able to have the eyes of the other parts of the community on children because we may be... And who is following up? What gets monitored gets done. That's what I'm saying. What gets monitored gets done. So I understand what you're saying because what you're basically saying is, hey, when When I do my part, it's done. 4:27:00 That's not what I'm saying. Well, that's what I'm hearing. When I do my part, it's done. So once you do your part, you have to get complaints from the other folks. And I'm saying, who is on top of the other folks to ensure that it's happening? And who is on top of your folks to make sure that it's happening? That's my primary concern. I'm going to leave that there for the commissioner nominee. That is a major area that needs to be addressed in earnest. need to circle the wagon on that area okay and let's go back to thank you to the the vacancies so I heard the responses with regards to the vacancies and I know that we have folks in the Department of Human Services that's doing their best there's no debate there but we still have some major deltas We've had folks who have applied for positions since the last year. In my colleague from St. Croix, the female colleague that spoke earlier, she spoke about the Medicaid program and she spoke about SNAP. 4:27:33 We've had individuals who are trying to be hired in Medicaid for well over a year and funding wasn't an issue. What is the problem? What's the problem? What is the issue? We have folks who's been interviewed for similar type positions who are unable to be hired. What is the problem? We can't keep saying that we're looking at it. We can't keep doing the same thing. What's the problem? And when you have some other exempt positions, people can't get hired you got three people service servicing 13,000 applicants in the Medicaid program what we doing I mean I don't expect you to answer Commission I just need to know that they we will see an improvement that's what I was about I said Commissioner nominee Avril George our processes needs does change our processes need to be reviewed and change and figure out what's the best path forward with cutting down our interview time our onboarding time as well as looking at qualified applicants that's a that's a task for us it's a huge test it's a huge task but it starts with us um so i just ask for the patience as we go to our vacancy listing see what true vacancy we have because we can sit there and we can talk about vacancy all day but it's a it's been a process of mine i've tasked the team go ahead but i don't know that we have any more um patients when it comes to this particular discussion because you're you're a social services agency so we need to move yesterday we talked about let's do when we were dealing with the um 4:28:41 um, Liberty Day at Grove Place, right? Let's do. We have good intentions, but we got a let's do. It's time to let's do. We have to do. And I'm just going to close by saying that, you know, I look forward to working with the Department of Human Services, but we need some real, true movement on what's happening. We have to be innovative, be innovative and creative and what's the size of your department's budget inclusive of you could give me the general fund which i know and you could give me the federal fund so just give me the whole total circle how many federal and general funds do you receive in total yeah lydia mcgrath cfo um general fund this year 68 million dollars um and that's rounded um federal on our regular grants is about a hundred and eighty six million dollars so that's almost 300 million dollars is that correct a little over 300 million actually right we have 300 million dollars we need to figure this out so if you have 300 million dollars i think you are the second or third largest department one of the things that we did for the department of education a few years ago many years ago i I think when I was there, is we allowed you to allow the department, I wasn't in the Senate at the time, but we argued for allowing us to hire our personnel. 4:30:38 So if you all are having a challenge, you have to stand up for your department. Because we've been hearing this conversation over and over, and we are seeing new faces to the table. We have a Medicaid program that needs employees. the people. It's not as if we're short and getting people who are interested in our position or the positions 4:32:07 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 24 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services there. Politics can't play the role in everything then we might as well pack up our bag and go home. Mr. Chair thank you. Yes thank you very much Senator Donna Fred Gregory. Vice Chair Gittins you're recognize for your burning question. Thank you. I tend to agree with the previous speaker there and I feel the frustration. I'm a piggybacker for you, Mr. Chair. $300 million dollars see money day popa that's what you don't say right we gotta get these money spent and i do agree uh with the finance year that we gotta get people hired as well you know again uh commissioner nominee you have a sprawling department uh we are willing to support you and while we support you i definitely and i'm sure my colleagues want to see progress but like in any other thing with progress comes change and our people don't like change we want progress but we don't like change but i'm telling you as you do your assessment whatever changes you see need to be made i am hopeful that you have the support from who you answer to to make the necessary changes because we got to get people working my one question is as for the electrical bills I was on a on a call with the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as the White House liaison just last week where they announced an increase to the funding for electrical bill subsidies do you anticipate expanding this 4:32:41 program Commissioner nominee I will George we're checking on it to see if we fall longer see how far you want to take this one please please speak into the mic bring the mic closer to your mouth the energy assistant comes as part of our block grant under the LIHEAP it's called and they it usually is determined based on our population but we are in the process of working right now in submitting our grant application for the consolidated block grant so we will at some point be made aware if there is indeed an increase and then look our SNAP division then would make the requisite changes to the requirements to open the program to more participants. So not only a population but you got to spend the money not just get the money and then it sits there because they're paying close attention to this and I keep telling agencies now with the conflict that we're seeing going on over in Israel and other areas, the money is going to be reappropriated and also we better start spending these funds. Again I wholeheartedly support the nomination of Ms. George and looking forward to good work. I'm reminding you to please submit those items that I asked for regarding the time frame for the construction or renovations of our headstarts and the senior homes 4:34:38 and the listing of those 14 individuals that you stated were hired for fiscal year 2024. Because what I'm looking at, I'm hoping that these are positions too that are working positions and and not just solely political hires. We gotta do better. Again, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to Team DHS. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Mr. Vice-Chair. 4:36:37 Commissioner nominee, Ms. George, I think we've expanded our round of questioning, but I wanna, yes, Senator Fred, a point of inquiry, you'll recognize. Point of inquiry and sinker as well after. Thank you. Sorry, point of information. And I know that when it comes to your federal expenditures, I believe that you do your best to expend those dollars and in addition to the local funds, particularly for our non-profits. And I am receiving calls. I've spoken to Ms. McGrath several times. I know that she did what she was supposed to do. But I'm still trying to figure out we have closed fiscal year 2023 and we are officially in FY 2024 since October 1 of this year and some of our charities are still saying that they have not received their last tranche of funds to support the work that they do here in the territory. So can we please get a status update on the outstanding amounts I would like to hear from you you probably don't have the actual dollar amount but the name is my garage she probably does have it how much money in payments that we have submitted to the Department of Finance in FY 2023 that has still not been paid though appropriated by this legislature as well as those that are received as a result of federal funds. Senator Lydia McGrath CFO what we will do is provide you a copy of the spreadsheet that delineates what has been paid what is pending and what is encumbered waiting to be paid. Yes true to chair. You have that information you don't have any other information? I would like to hear the number on the 4:37:07 record I prefer to hear it on the record when we have true to chair requests in that manner then our community is not aware of these challenges that we're experiencing. Ms. McGrath you have those numbers? Give me just a minute so I can find them. You can answer on the chair's time. Okay. While you're looking for that I wanted to talk to the Commissioner so Commissioner you you've heard you know there's there's a lot of requests that the senators have we're going to be communicating to you by email detailing all of the issues right but I wanted to just ask quickly the third-party judiciary have you had a chance to get involved with that those meetings at this time I know you only been on the job less than a month I have been involved in one meeting and I think I have one coming up to provide me more overview okay and you represent yourself or you've delegated that to someone I have been represented due to my newly coming on board I've been represented myself at the different meetings requests so I can get a overview of where we're at and where we need to be okay good cuz you know like I said right the spending plan is so important that's That's one of the things that I really think that this department can just, you know, make move mountains with the spending plan. 4:39:09 And Senator Gittins, you're recognized for your point of information. Thank you, Mr. Chair. nominee as the committee chairman for Homeland Security Justice and Public Safety I know we're almost we're not completely out of the woods of the hurricane season but it is the responsibility of Human Services to work with VITEMA in identifying hurricane 4:40:37 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 25 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services shelters that said I know sites are very limited but what's the status of the MOU that is supposed to be in place for the island of St. John? Commissioner nominee Avril George that had that MOU has been completed. It has been? Yes it has. Okay. Thank you much. Can I also through the chair can you also submit that to the chair please? Thank you. Sure Yes. Thank you, Vice-Chair. Well, at this time, hearing no further points of information... Senator Fronseca? Yes. CFO McGrath has the information for Senator Donna Frecklen. Yes. Proceed, Ms. Lydia McGrath. Lydia McGrath, CFO. Of the $2.3 million we have in nonprofits, we've paid out $1.4 million. We have 521,000 pending at finance and we have 180,000 still in requisitioning that we're waiting for the nonprofits to submit their final report so we can submit for payment. 4:41:52 Senator Fred, you satisfied with that? Can I ask? Yes, you may proceed. So just for clarification, you have, for FY2023, there is still outstanding $521,000 to non-profits. What type of non-profits? Give me the names. Those are the miscellaneous under, in the budget bill. 4:42:28 Okay, so I'm specific about the Catholic charities and those types of organizations. charities right now the only thing that is pending payment from the general fund miscellaneous is one that's pending at the department of finance that is for the catholic charities outreach how much money thirty thousand so there's thirty thousand outstanding for fy 2023 yes ma'am and you talked about requisitions um requisitions for what fiscal in the 180 it's encumbrances what we do is because there's the non-profits provide their programmatic reports and they're reviewed and along with their invoice and once everything fits we go ahead and we submit the payment so what we do is we encumber the funds to ensure that we don't lose them so do you give them a um timeline to submit their documentation before the close of the fiscal year Ms. Kendall Tuchine, who is over non-profits, she works closely with them to ensure that everything is in. 4:42:59 Ms. Kendall Tuchine, Okay, thank you. Ms. Kendall Tuchine, We have some challenges, but thank you, and I will follow up with you offline. Thank you so much for your responses. Ms. Kendall Tuchine, Thank you, Senator Fred Gregory. Okay, at this time, Commissioner nominee Avril George, we will ask you to give us a 30-second closing statement thank you senator fonseca um being in history approximately one month after being appointed is a lot but i made my team know that we'll make ourselves accessible as much as possible so on behalf i'd just like to thank the hard working employees at the department of human services for the work that they can continue to do to provide services to members in our community i'll also like to thank my senior team for joining me here today and also like to thank governor brian and lieutenant governor rhodes for giving me this opportunity to serve most importantly i'll also like to thank my colleagues from the different departments that has extended a handout to make sure that i am well versed and um i have the support i'm needed to take on this herculean task i know it's not an easy task but i gotta say i'll give it my 100 percent over 100 percent to make sure that we're going in the right direction as we make this transition i know change is not always change is not always bad and i just ask for the community patience as well as your patience as we make this transition and i continue to do my assessments i leave myself open and thanks for the invitation from some of the senators that said they would like to offer me their support as well as meet with me to give me some direction so the team stand ready and available to move department of human services in the direction it needs to be i know it's a lot of work but i think we're up for the task right team we're up for the task 4:44:06 yes thank you very much for your detailed presentation and and i too i can see the department of human services moving in the right direction it's a it's a very big department and has been supported by testimony it's over half of a billion dollars that this department is dealing with between the federal local and the FEMA funding and it affects just your Medicaid program affects over 28,000 employees residents 42% of our population has to report to you and a hundred percent of us are with you somewhere between birth and when we ultimate demise so i'd like to thank you and all of your capable support staff for being here and giving your presentation and thank you very much and blessings the committee on health hospital and And human resources is adjourned. 4:46:03 I'll see you next time. 4:47:35 People named in this transcript SUSPECTED, and a finding aid only. Names were matched by machine against the spellings used across all 426 of our transcripts, and the title is the one used in the room. Being named here is NOT evidence that a person attended or spoke · only that the name was said. Speech recognition mishears names, so a spelling may be wrong even where no alternative is offered. 8x Commissioner Carla Benjamin the surname alone also matches: Barry Benjamin Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 26 of 27 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Health, Hospitals,and Human Services heard in this transcript as: Benjamin 8x Senator Marvin Blyden heard in this transcript as: Blyden, Marvin Blayden 5x Senator Kenneth L. Gittens heard in this transcript as: Gittins 5x Senator Milton E. Potter heard in this transcript as: Milton Potter, Potter 4x Commissioner Avril George heard in this transcript as: George 3x Senator Diane T. Capeheart heard in this transcript as: Capehart 3x Senator Fred Gregory the surname alone also matches: Donna A. Frett-Gregory; Donna Frett-Gregory 3x Senator Novelle Francis heard in this transcript as: Francis, Norville Francis 2x Governor Albert Bryan Jr heard in this transcript as: Bryan 2x Senator Donna A. Frett-Gregory heard in this transcript as: Donna Fred Gregory 2x Senator Dwayne DeGraff heard in this transcript as: DeGraff 2x Senator Marise C. James heard in this transcript as: Maurice James 2x Senator Ray Fonseca heard in this transcript as: Fronseca 2x Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach heard in this transcript as: Roach 1x Senator Donna Frett-Gregory heard in this transcript as: Donna A. Frett-Gregory Bills and acts referred to Matched by number against our own acts corpus. The number is what the recognition heard, so it may be wrong; where it resolved, the title is the one the Legislature gave the act. Act 8058 Act 8058 · July 2018 · An Act amending title 34 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 16, adding subchapter II, providing for the establishment of a registry for persons 60 years and older with disabilities living alone Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 27 of 27