By now, I’ve seen Joe’s standard politician’s mealy mouth cop out response multiple times. I’m encouraging people to persist, email him again, challenging his assumptions.
IF YOU HAVWEN”T ALREADY EMAILED
If you haven’t already emailed County Executive Joe Parisi, please do so. parisi@countyofdane.com Here is some additional information:
Forward Lookout Blog
TRC Blog 1
TRC Blog 2
IF YOU HAVE GOTTEN A RESPONSE
Don’t let him get away with a standard politician’s mealy mouth cop out response. (I can say that, I’ve written a few in my lifetime, not proud of it, and thankfully it was a tactic employed very few times. I’m much more of a smash mouth.)
Here’s the form letter he responds with:
Thank you for contacting me and bringing funding for the Tenant Resource Center to my attention. I have since followed up with the Department of Human Services for more information.
As you may remember, two years ago, when the Department of Human Services deleted the Tenant Resource Center from its budget, I restored it. This year’s situation is different. The TRC did not lose its funding due to a budget deletion. The funding for the provision of housing services remains intact; however, during the RFP process the TRC was unsuccessful in its bid, and another organization was awarded the contract.
In 2015, the County Board directed Dane County Human Services to “bid all contracts for housing services, all case management housing homeless services, and housing shelter services for the 2016 contract year.”
Per that direction from the County Board, Dane County Human Services bid out Housing Case Management and Stability services, along with a number of other human services Request for Proposals (RFPs), in April of this year.
Dane County Purchasing and Human Services are responsible for the RFP process and employ strict procedures and protocols around purchasing to ensure fairness and transparency. As County Executive, I am not involved in the solicitation, review or awarding of RFPs.
As with all RFPs that Human Services bids out every year, a panel of experts in this field and Human Services staff evaluated the proposals using standard scoring grids as laid forth in the county’s purchasing protocols and awarded the contract to the highest score.
The Community Action Coalition of South Central Wisconsin (CAC) was awarded the RFP as a result of this evaluation process.
There are no services being cut as a result of this RFP process. As stated in the RFP, the goal was to expand efficient delivery of housing case management services, information and referral services, tenant/landlord mediation, and delivery of eviction prevention/rent assistance to Dane County residents at the Dane County Job Center and neighborhood-based locations (Joining Forces for Families offices) throughout the county, and in partnership with the existing coordinated intake system.
I hope this information is helpful.
Let me know if there is anything that you get back that is different, so far, not so much.
Here are some possible responses.
1. Let us see the scores and who scored the RFP. If this is the process that was used, it should be public information at this point so it can be properly reviewed.
2. The language requiring RFP that passed in the budget didn’t suggest changing the services being provided.
3. Services are being cut:
a. TRC has a privately funded Housing Crisis Fund. People outside the City of Madison but in Dane County won’t have access to that fund if they are not served by the Tenant Resource Center. That fund helps about 20 people a year.
b. TRC, with the Madison Mennonite Church, runs a Security Deposit Loan Fund. That fund has over $25,000 that is lent to tenants in need of a security deposit. That funding will not be available to residents outside of the City of Madison but in Dane County that need that service. CAC recently stopped doing security deposit assistance.
c. TRC is at small claims court doing mediations for eviction cases every Tuesday. With no county funding, people outside the City of Madison, but in Dane County, won’t have access to that mediation program.
d. TRC is an expert in tenant landlord law. That is what makes our housing counseling special. We can spot problems in leases, help get security deposits back and repairs done and so much more, because we know the law and we know it well and can share that information with our clients. We train other agencies on this law and write the books and have an extensive website with lots of information for the community. CAC housing counseling does not have this component.
e. TRC is open 45 hours a week, 9 – 6 Monday – Friday for walk in services for those who need it. That volume of service will not be available from the CAC. They currently don’t provide walk-in services.
4. Efficient delivery of services shouldn’t be at the expense of quality services.
5. It is not efficient for someone who drives from Fitchburg, Stoughton, Verona, Middleton, etc. only to be turned away for services and send to CAC. TRC is open 9 – 6 M – F with walk in services, clients will be sent home to return again tomorrow or next week, how is that efficient?
6. CAC is good at what they do, TRC is good at what they do, both agencies can remain funded and clients will have options to get services as needed. To do anything else is definitely a cut in services to the community.
7. If this cut go through, it makes it harder to maintain the expanded hours, remain bilingual in Spanish and Hmoob and it jeopardizes our ability to fundraise, do seminars and maintain our other services because we will have such a small staff.
8. If all else fails, you can tell him this information was NOT helpful and you expect better.
