They’re starting to act and sound a little bit like the state. First they only have one night of hearings on the human services budget instead of two like they used to. Then, this morning, I realize that they have limited the public testimony to two people per agency, that wasn’t in their press release!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
AUGUST 22, 2012FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Karin Peterson Thurlow: 266-4533
Casey Becker: 267-8823
Lynn Green: 242-6469Hearings Set For 2014 Dane County Human Services Budget Request
A public hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 3rd to receive comments on the Dane County Department of Human Services’ proposed $250.6 million budget for 2014. This year there will be one hearing for the entire Human Services budget. The hearing is being held by Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and the Dane County Board of Supervisors, along with the county Long Term Support Committee, the county Human Services Board, and the Area Agency on Aging Board of Directors.
The hearing will be held in the Mendota 1 Room of the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center of Dane County. The hearing begins at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will begin with an overview of the Department of Human Services budget by department staff. Then testimony from the public will be taken.
The September 3rd hearing will focus on public testimony for:
· Badger Prairie Health Care Center
· Services for Seniors
· Child Welfare & Delinquency Programs (including prevention, early intervention & treatment) and Children’s Mental Health Services
· Services for People with Developmental Disabilities and People with Physical Disabilities
· Economic Assistance & Work Services
· Substance Abuse Services for Children & Adults
· Mental Health ServicesPersons whose disability or child care responsibilities prevent them from testifying later in the hearings may present their comments immediately following the department overview. Each person presenting at the hearing will be limited to three minutes of testimony.
Individuals who have questions regarding the hearings are encouraged to contact the County Board Office at 266-5758 or Human Services Department at 242-6469.
Additionally, the County Board will hold a public hearing on the budget requests of county departments other than the Department of Human Services on Wednesday, September 11th at 6:00 p.m. in the County Board chambers.
I thought it was bad enough that we had one week’s notice before the Labor Day weekend to find out that our agency would be wiped out by the county. On Friday, before I left work, the agenda wasn’t up yet. I didn’t even think to look at it. I talked to John Hendrick at LaborFest and he said something about the process, but I misunderstood him and I’m was more than a little surprised to look at the agenda this morning and find this!
PUBLIC TESTIMONY: Persons who sign up to speak will be limited to 3 minutes for each program. Please limit speakers to two per agency or organization on any budget area. Ten speakers will present on each of the following areas initially. Then we will rotate
through the areas again until all testimony is heard.
-Testimony by any person whose disability or childcare responsibilities preclude
testifying at other times or for those who are requesting an interpreter.
- Badger Prairie Health Care Center
- Services for Seniors
- Child Welfare & Delinquency Programs (including prevention, early intervention & treatment) and Children’s Mental Health Services
- Services for People with Developmental Disabilities and People with Physical Disabilities
- Economic Assistance & Work Services
- Substance Abuse Services for Children & Adults
- Mental Health Services
I’m already hearing that the supervisors are annoyed by all the emails they are getting in support of TRC, so if they don’t like emails and they don’t like public comment, how do they want to hear from people – perhaps they want phone calls? 🙂
Here’s what we are telling folks they can do to help:
1. Sign the change.org petition, in less than 48 hours 250 people have signed on, please add your voice! Add comments to the petition under why this is important to you.
2. Join the facebook event. It will keep you updated as things are happening.
3. Email the County Executive and County Board with your thoughts about this matter, asking for the funding to be restored. Make sure to include your home address so they know you are a constituent. parisi@countyofdane.com and county_board_recipients@co.dane.wi.us
4. Register against this cut at the hearing on Tuesday (Sept. 3) at the Alliant Energy Center at 6:00. On your registration slip, write a sentence or two about why the Tenant Resource Center services are important.
5. Speak at the public hearing on Tuesday! Let them hear from you about why these services are important.
6. Talk to your county board supervisor, ask them what they think and let us know!
7. Donate. We’re swamped, we can’t keep up the way it is. We need new technology and additional staff. Let me know if you want to sponsor the fall fundraiser as part of that donation – the event is October 25th.
As far as tonight goes . . . we want people to show up, we will have blue ribbons for people to wear and we hope anyone who registers writes some comments on their slip . . . and I don’t think they can stop you from speaking . . . I don’t think this county board would really do that- I think they are just trying to send a message discouraging it and justifying making people wait.
UPDATE: I’m not sure what is going on, as one county staff person put it “its going to be a mess”. I don’t think they are limiting testimony, just changing the order they take people in and they don’t want agencies paying their staff to attend the meeting and have 30 employees from one agency testifying – they would rather hear from users of the service.
This is the email from the County Board Chair John Hendrick explaining the process:
Testimony tonight? The request for two speakers per agency is standard every year. What is new this year is that we are initially taking only 10 speakers in the EAWS area before moving on to another division.
So we will start as always with those who have childcare, transportation or other constraints. Each speaker has three minutes. Then we will rotate through the subject matter areas in the order listed on the agenda allowing 10 speakers at 3 minutes each in each segment. After a complete cycle we will come back for 10 more speakers in each area.
So the process allows for an unlimited number of 3 minute speeches. Also, people are welcome to register in support of a particular program and not speak. We will try to read all the names or at least the number of speakers supporting each program.
