City of Columbia, Missouri

Meeting Minutes

Human Services Commission

Department of Public

Health and Human

Services

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

7:00 PM

Regular

Training Room 1

1005 W. Worley St.

Columbia, MO 65203

I. CALL TO ORDER

6 -

Present:

Stacy Ford, Kimberly Getzoff, Alexandria Teagarden-Monk, Elijah Thorn, Lisa Spear

and Melissa Clarke

4 - Joy Cook, Rachel Cooper, Michael Nguyen and Barbie Banks

Excused:

Ford called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m.

II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Teagarden-Monk moved to approve the agenda, and Thorn seconded the

motion. The motion passed unanimously.

III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Attachments: HSC Draft Minutes 11-14-23

Thorn moved to approve the minutes, and Teagarden-Monk seconded the

motion. The motion passed unanimously.

IV. ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

COMMISSION REPRESENTATIVE

Thorn moved to nominate the Ford as Chair, Teagarden-Monk as Vice

Chair, and Getzoff as Secretary. Getzoff seconded the motion. The motion

passed unanimously.

No one was nominated as the representative for the Housing and

Community Development Commission.

V. OLD BUSINESS

None

VI. NEW BUSINESS

A. City of Columbia Social Services Funding Allocation Process

Hollis asked what the commission liked about the funding process and if there are

any suggested changes. The commission unanimously agreed that they enjoy the site

visits. Ford said the site visits seemed to go even more smoothly this year with Hollis

also attending each visit. Hollis reviewed the proposal rating system. No changes were

suggested.

Hollis said the Apricot for Funders system is no longer being supported by the

vendor, so the Boone impact Group partners are exploring other funding management

software options. The partners plan to keep the proposal and report forms the same for

this year while a new product is being selected. Hollis said he will keep the commission

posted don’t he process and he is certain his replacement will involve the commission in

the design of the new system and forms. The commission acknowledged the current

system's limitations and hopes to have something less clunky.

Hollis said he was not recommending any changes the social services funding

guidelines except removing the three-payment option, which was left in the guidelines

while the FY2022 contracts were in effect. Hollis discussed the change in the payment

process for social service contracts from three payments to monthly payments

implemented with FY2023 contracts. Under the old the payment process, there were

initial, interim, and final payments. With the conclusion of the FY2022 contracts, the old

payment method will be phased out and fully replaced with the new monthly invoicing

process.

Hollis explained the positives and negatives of both payment options. The positive

with the old system was that agencies received funding on the front end as small

organizations may struggle to handle governmental contracts without the initial payment.

But, the payment up front was a risk for the City because issues with deliverables weren’t

identified until the submission of interim reports. The monthly invoices allow issues be

identified early and issuing monthly payments aligns the City with the other local funders

as the County and United Way have always issued monthly payments. Hollis said the

only downside to the monthly process is that it is more work for staff. Hollis said the

monthly invoicing and payment process is going well with the FY2023 contracts, with no

concerns expressed by providers. The FY2022 contracts, which included the prior three

payment system, are being wrapped up as year end reports are reviewed.

Hollis said if the micro-contract approach is adopted he would recommend removing

the three-payment option from the information about the standard social services

contracts.

Hollis said he outlined the concept of micro contracts in his staff report. This would

be similar to the Grass Roots funding process that the County is implementing. The goal

of the micro contracts would be to make the City’ s social services funding more

accessible to small nonprofits and to provide capacity building for the contracted entities

so that they have the capacity to apply for the regular funding. Hollis said his initial

thinking is that one-time micro contracts, up to $10,000, would be available to small

organizations that have not received City social services or ARPA funding. Hollis said that

if adopted, he recommends the micro contracts be paid in the three installments, like the

previous social service contract payment system.

Hollis said he inquired about additional $50,000 in funding for the micro contracts, but

was told that was very unlikely in the FY2025 City budget. So, Hollis said a certain

amount of funding would need to be carved out of a RFP for the micro contracts. Hollis

said he would recommend this be done with the Opportunity RFPs as there are fewer

proposals and the funding available for basic needs services would not be reduced. Hollis

said that there would need to be significant work done by staff to develop the process and

the application and report forms. He said this is probably doable by this summer, but he

was more concerned about staff capacity to provide ongoing capacity building for the

contracted providers. Hollis said he likes the idea of the micro contracts, but he is

concerned about the workload and he said the City does have a long history of

contracting with very small providers. After discussion, there was consensus to not move

forward with micro contracts.

B. FY2025 RFP Social Services

Hollis reviewed the FY2025 Request for Proposals for social services addressing

opportunity issues. Hollis said the primary decision is whether or not to include out of

school programming as an eligible service. Hollis said his position will again be not to do

so given the substantial resources for these services available from the Boone County

Children's Service Fund and the United Way. After brief discussion, Hollis asked the

commission to be thinking about this issue and to be prepared to make a decision at the

April meeting. Hollis said he plans to invite the Boone Impact Group partners to the

March meeting to again review their respective funding processed and priorities. There

was unanimous support from the commission for doing so.

VII. REPORTS

A. Housing and Community Development Commission Representative Report

Hollis said there is no report as Suhler was the representative to the HCDC and she

did not reapply to serve on the commission. Hollis explained that HOME funding is for

affordable housing development and CDBG can be used for housing, community facilities,

and community services. Hollis said he and his staff will be discussing the idea of hosting

a follow up affordable housing and homelessness summit with the new Housing

Department director. This could include the rollout of the forthcoming housing study

commissioned by the City and County.

B. Staff Report

Thorn asked about updates on the Opportunity Campus. Hollis explained that the city

is still working on the ARPA contract, but they are making progress. Hollis said his

understanding is that they have received a significant level of donations and have lined up

state and tax credit funds, but they are waiting to hear back from the county as the

county did not fund the project in the first round of ARPA allocations.

Hollis said they have several partners on board, and multiple redesigns have been

based on their input. RATI will merge into VAC, but Turning Point and Loaves and Fishes

will stay independent. Partners like Burrell have agreed to lease space at the market rate.

They will offer space to Turning Point and Loaves and Fishes below the market rate. The

funding from leases is an essential part of their business plan. Hollis said he has worked

hard to ensure funding was made available for RATI to operate year-round and Turning

Point to operate all day so that these services would be available at the campus. Hollis

said they are moving ahead with the project, assuming that the city contract will be

executed and hoping the county will reverse course and provide funding.

Thorn asked if there is a way to go to the Opportunity Campus site and view the

plans.

Hollis said he would speak with VAC about this and let the commission know.

Clarke inquired about the Pallet shelters. Hollis said that the Pallet shelters had not

been ordered. Hollis explained that the issue is not just obtaining the pallet shelters but

also the costs of preparing the site and the operating the shelters. Hollis received a quote

from RATI to operate the Pallet shelters as transitional shelter tied to the RATI

congregate shelter. He gave this information to City leadership. Hollis said the site

preparation for the Pallet shelters is part of the scope of work for the design/build RFP for

the Ashely St. Center improvements. Hollis said he personally thinks funding would be

better spent on affordable housing.

VIII. GENERAL COMMENTS BY PUBLIC, MEMBERS AND STAFF

None

IX. NEXT MEETING DATE

March 12, 2024

X. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 8:26 p.m.

Members of the public may attend any open meeting. For requests for accommodations related to

disability, please call 573-874-CITY (573-874-2489) or email CITY@CoMo.gov. In order to assist staff in

making the appropriate arrangements for your accommodation, please make your request as far in

advance of the posted meeting date as possible.

USB DRIVES PROHIBITED: Due to cybersecurity concerns, flash drives and other media devices

are no longer permitted for delivering files or presentation materials. A speaker who desires to

display a presentation must upload the presentation, in advance, to the city network using an

upload portal. To upload your files and learn more, visit CoMo.gov/upload. (Effective Jan. 1,

2023)