Most contracts by Dane County over $100,000 have to go to the county board. The county board has approved a resolution saying the day center will have long term storage. It seems, neither of these things is going to happen and after reading the ordinances I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why staff have so much power and the county board supervisors seem to have none.
Am I crazy? Read this from the Dane County Ordinances:
25.20 REVIEW PROCESS FOR MAJOR CONTRACTS. (1) (a) This section applies to contracts which both exceed $100,000 in disbursements or receipts and which require county board review and approval.
(b) This section also applies to any contract which either the county board chairperson or the finance committee chairperson designates as a major contract.
The ordinance goes on to talk about the clerk making copies, etc. I see no exceptions in that language. Word is that Human Services has their own policies. That’s fine. But they still have to be consistent with the language above.
25.15 HUMAN SERVICES CONTRACTS.
(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this chapter, human services department contracts may be approved directly by its oversight committee without further county board action if the amount involved is less than $100,000.
(2) The human services department is authorized to develop purchasing procedures, not inconsistent with this chapter, to procure goods and services related to client services.
(3) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this chapter, change orders, modifications and addenda to human services department contracts may be approved directly by its oversight committee without further county board action, unless the amount represents an increase of more than $5,000 or more than 10% of the original approved amount, whichever is smaller.
(4) All human services contracts entered into after December 1, 2008 shall be subject to the equal benefits requirement of s. 25.016.
What am I missing?
YOU CAN HELP IN TWO WAYS
1. Email Lynn Green. Green@countyofdane.com I’ll let Heidi Wegleitner explain:
The County Human Services Director Lynn Green has informed the Health and Human Needs committee that, even after waiting for what will be more than 5 years for a comprehensive day resource center to open, neither the County or its operator are equipped to include plans for overnight personal storage at the center. She tells us that this basic need will again go unmet while they explore options for a successful storage operation on site as part of phase II of the center, which could also involve a health clinic. So, this day center was supposed to open in early 2014 and has been delayed many times and now has an open date of mid-2017 (at least 9 months from now) and yet there still has not been sufficient time to plan a successful storage operation??!!
Director Green cites failed attempts at overnight storage by Porchlight and the Mayor’s dog cages as evidence of the challenge of this issue. Never mind the fact that the City has been subsidizing a lease for overnight storage at the Social Justice Center for the last few years. An operation which is currently volunteer run. So, the City has $22,000 it wants to use to support a day center operation (which would be used mostly for staffing since rent is not needed), but the County would rather reject that money because storage is too hard. Yet, at the same time, we’re supposed to believe that it will come later (because they still haven’t had enough time to figure it out??!!).
I’m grateful that the County Board, Common Council, City-County Homeless Issues Committee, and other advocates have spoken (each adopting resolutions to the effect) strongly in support of the need for overnight personal storage in the day center plan. I hope Director Green reconsiders her resistance to the policy we’ve set and realizes the importance of creating a true one-stop shop to finally address major gaps in our homeless services continuum.
2. Ask Sharon Corrigan and Jenni Dye to make this a “major contract”. Be nice to Jenni, she’s probably our greatest hope – assume she is on our side on this!
– County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan – corrigan@countyofdane.com
– Personnel and Finance Chair Jenni Dye – Dye.Jennifer@countyofdane.com
