Commissioners, agency leaders discuss proposal to eliminate local Family and Children First Council

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels heard a proposal to dissolve the local Family and Children First Council during their Wednesday, Oct. 1 meeting.

All three commissioners indicated they would be in favor of eliminating the county’s FCFC via resolution at a future meeting, following discussions with Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff and Highland County Board of DD Superintendent Larry Gray. 

According to the JFS website, “Highland County Family and Children First Council strives to collaborate among all community partners to provide the best service delivery to children and families. It is our goal to provide opportunities and encouragement so that all children and families may work toward maximizing their potential. It is our goal to provide services in such a manner that will enable families to become increasingly independent and self sufficient and ultimately leave the service delivery system with understanding of how to re-access services if needed.”

The state’s Ohio Family and Children First website says that in the 1990s, “Governor [George] Voinovich envisioned the Family and Children First Councils to expand the work of cluster and become the catalyst for bringing communities together to coordinate and streamline services for families and children needing or seeking governmental assistance (adding a macro level of service). FCFCs were established in statute along with the blueprint of how the coordination of services and systems should operate at the state and local level (both at the macro and micro levels). As such, the result of that work positioned FCFCs as Ohio’s statutorily designed Systems of Care body.”   

Under the latest state budget bill — which officially took effect Tuesday, Sept. 30, the day before commissioners met — there is a new provision for county boards of commissioners to eliminate the councils. According to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, the decision can be made “to decline to establish or maintain” an FCFC if: “(1) alternative programs and services exist to meet the needs of those served by a county FCFC; (2) a county FCFC is not or would not be sustainably funded; and (3) the director of the county JFS agency, executive director of the PCSA [Public Children Services Agencies], and county DD board, each recommend a county council not be established or maintained.”

Both Ratcliff and Gray spoke about the “duplication” of services, which fulfills that first standard.

“We have other services and programs in the county that serve these families in a different way,” Ratcliff said. “Community Action is not here, but they've always got some sort of emergency assistance programs, and the big one is the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s Ohio RISE program that's been funded very well through state GRF [general revenue fund] dollars. They are essentially doing similar services as FCFCs were mandated to do. 

“I just feel like there's a lot of duplication there, and by opting out, or via resolution to dissolve the council, I think we'll still be able to serve these families in a similar fashion, without the administrative weight that comes with the Family and Children First Council.”

Gray agreed, saying he believes “the collaboration will still be there amongst the agencies” even without an FCFC. They are also exploring additional avenues for collaboration in the future. As discussed in August, Ratcliff said he and Gray traveled to Belmont County to look into a program among service providers to provide a home for respite care for children served by agencies such as DD or Children Services.

“We've talked about this a little bit, a multi-system youth home here in the county, and we are closer to that this week,” Gray said. “We applied for $100,000 of KFT funding, which is Keeping Families Together through the ODODD [Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities], and we got $40,000 [each] for the next two years.”

Gray added he is “in support of continuing the services” provided by the FCFC, “but just not under the mandate of the FCFC.

“We have a meeting in two weeks to discuss this multi-system youth, and we have other counties that would like to come in with us too,” Gray said. “It's collaborative. It's fairly expensive to do. It's not covered by Medicaid — some cases, it could be — but I feel like we could do this, and we will see benefits.”

For the second standard, Ratcliff said that Highland County JFS is the current “implementing/fiscal agency” for the FCFC, and he would “stand by the fact that it's been historically underfunded.” He also discussed how much funding they stand to lose by dissolving the council.

“The OCBF [Operational Capacity Building Funds] dollars are about $30,750 a year,” Ratcliff said. “That would be reallocated, I would imagine, to other counties across the state. We use those to pay for administrative costs as well as as the state audit costs.”

Ratcliff continued that they are eligible for up to $26,000 in Family-Centered Services and Supports reimbursements for “service coordination or hard services to our families,” but “if we don't spend $26,000, we don't get the money.” They can also receive up to $3,600 in multi-system youth administrative funding. 

“JFS is also required to give 12 percent of our multi-system youth allocation every year,” Ratcliff said. “That's about $13,600.

“We haven't gotten any guidance, but the hope is that if there is no FCFC to give that money to, it stays with the local JFS, and those are funds that we use to serve our multi-system youth, mostly in foster care placement costs.”

Altogether, Ratcliff said that minus the state audit fees, “there’s about $30,000 a year” in administrative funding for the council. 

As both Ratcliff and Gray introduced the proposal to shutter the council, the third standard has also been met. 

It was also noted by Ratcliff that JFS intends to retain the FCFC coordinator, Rhonda Fannin, if the council is abolished.

“She's done a wonderful job, and she's kind of working at this part time because of the funding,” Ratcliff said. “We still have plans to pivot her in a different direction, under our umbrella, but basically serving the same families.

“We’ll just be able to pivot her a little bit differently, fund it a little bit differently, but still provide the same services.

Daniels said they could draft a resolution to consider regarding the FCFC’s elimination.

“This started 30 years ago, and the services are already being provided anyway,” Daniels said. “I don't have any problem with abolishing this. It sounds to me like, even without it, you're going to continue to provide the services that people are getting through the program.”

“Absolutely, and collaboration will probably strengthen,” Ratcliff said. “We can still do that without the mandate of FCFC.”

Gray agreed that they can still work with other agencies without having to “sitting in a council and just having a meeting.”

Roades, who said he is an FCFC board member, added that the “duplicated services that are there within that group are almost a little embarrassing.

“It'd be one of those things that they can be compiled into one and probably do some really great things, but it’s spread out so far,” Roades said. “Every agency has its purpose and its goals, but there are a lot of people doing the exact same thing.”

Britton agreed, saying “it has been a problem for years — actually, since it came into effect.”

Roades thanked Ratcliff and Gray for the statistics provided and for approaching them with the proposal.

“You guys are actually working to save the county money to provide better service, rather than just going through the regimen of ‘this is what we're doing, sticking with it,’” Roades said. “I commend you guys on your work of helping the county.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners approved a recommendation by clerk Mary Remsing to award the long-discussed MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System) tower project to Verdantis, at an approximate cost of $106,000.

“They will do all the work as far as the permitting, the environmental review,” Remsing said. “They'll get the grounds ready, and they will also bid the project out for us.”

Commissioners have been seeking a suitable location for the tower since receiving state funding in June 2022. In February, commissioners selected a 5.11-acre parcel on Butters Road in Brushcreek Township, which came into commissioners’ possession in September after being forfeited in a high-profile drug trafficking case, as the location. 

• Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders announced that the HCSO received a 100-percent on their state jail inspection. They have also “been approved for a reimbursement grant for traffic overtime around the holidays” and are working on making plans for their upcoming flooring project during the last week of October.

Commissioners also made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

• A purchase of a used truck for the Rocky Fork Lake sewer department in the amount of $41,500 from Jerry Haag Motors.

• A recommendation by Roades to award the records storage building interior painting project to Precision Painting in the amount of $24,031.

• A contract with Stockmeister Enterprises, Inc. for roof repairs at the Hi-TEC building in the amount of $125,750.

• A change order for the Gibler Road bridge replacement public infrastructure project in the amount of $15,525.

• Authorized certifications for Ohio Public Works commission disbursements for Miller-Mason Paving Co. in the amount of $173,712.06.

• A request from JFS for a transfer from Children Services Special Fund (2115) to Public Assistance Fund (2050) in the amount of $62,143.71.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General Fund in the amount of $881.85.

For more from Wednesday's meeting, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/domestic-violence-awareness-month-….

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