Executive Committee Meeting Minutes January 24, 2019

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
NYCDOHMH, 42-09 28th Street, Rm 21-12, Long Island City, NY Conference Call Line: 1-866-213-1863, Access Code 3587454#
Thursday, January 24, 2019, 3:00 -5:00PM
MINUTES

Members Participating: Jan Carl Park (Governmental Co-Chair), Matthew Lesieur (Community Co-

Chair), , Matthew Baney (phone), Fay Barrett, Danielle Beiling, Lisa Best, Maria Diaz, Claire Simon for Joan

Edwards (phone), Billy Fields, Amber Casey for Graham Harriman (Grantee), Jan Hudis, Amanda Lugg

(phone), Saul Reyes (Consumer At Large), Andrea Straus  

Members Absent: Steve Hemraj (Finance Officer), Marcy Thompson, Dorella Walters

DOHMH Staff Present: Merline Jean Casimir, Melanie Lawrence, Kimbirly Mack, Darryl Wong  WCDOH: Julie Lehane, Ph.D.

PHS Staff Present: Bettina Caroll,Gucci Kaloo

Others Present: Randall Bruce, Rob Walker,Joan Corbisiero (Parliamentarian), Sera Morgan (HRSA Project Officer)

Jan Park, Governmental Co-Chair and Matthew Lesieur, Community Co-Chair, opened the meeting, followed by member introductions. A moment of silence was observed in honor of John Hatchett and Freddy Molano, who have recently been experiencing health struggles. The meeting packet was reviewed and the minutes from the November 15, 2018 Executive Committee conference call were approved as presented.  There was no public comment.   

Sera Morgan, our HRSA NY EMA Project Officer reported that:

• Full Part A awards have been issued (a first in many years), noting that formula & MAI awards are based on living cases, while the supplemental award reflects, among other factors, the EMA’s score on its application. The NY EMA received a high score and should be receiving the report shortly.
• Any feedback from the December 2018 National Ryan White conference should be sent to Ms. Morgan’s attention, which will then be shared with the conference organizers and contractors.
• There are three (3) upcoming webinars featuring future funding opportunities posted on the TargetHIV.org website.  
• Revised Policy Clarification Notice (PCN)1502 reduces the number of clinical quality management performance measures depending on the number of clients served and PCN 1802 provides guidance on the use of program funds for PLWH who are incarcerated in federal, state and county prison systems and jails.  
• While most items in the Site Visit Report have been addressed, HRSA is awaiting the final PCapproved Standards of Care and the final Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Recipient and the Planning Council.

Amber Casey, on behalf of Graham Harriman, Grantee, reported the following:

• On January 20, the grantee received official notice of the full grant award from HRSA for FY2019.
• The NY EMA received another reduction in formula and MAI and a slight increase in supplemental. The notice of award also includes the conditions of award for FY2019.
• The Base award, which includes the Formula and Supplemental awards was reduced from $86,894,962 in FY18 to $85,615,844 in FY 19, representing a decrease of $1,279,118, or 1.47%
• The MAI (Minority AIDS Initiative) award was reduced from $8,904,098 in FY18 to $8,616,680 in FY19, representing a decrease of $287,422 or 3.23%
• Overall, the total grant award was reduced from $95,799,060 in FY18 to $94,232,524 in FY19, representing a decrease of $1,566,536, or 1.64%
• Tri-County negotiations began on January 7th. Recipient administrative staff met with sub recipients to review and discuss contracts in preparation for the March 1, 2019 start date. The successful applications were announced at last month’s Planning Council meeting and the list is available on the PHS website.
• The Grantee and Master Contractor conduct a line item review of the sub-recipient monitoring tools and discussing approaches to streamline the way in which contracts are monitored. An outline of the proposed monitoring plan will be submitted to our HRSA Project Officer at the end of February.
• As reported by our HRSA Project Officer, other items from the HRSA Site Visit report that remain inprogress are an updated MOU between the Planning Council and the Grantee and updated Standards of Care. The Standards of Care for Tri-County have been approved by the Tri-County Steering Committee. For NYC programs, the Standards of Care that have yet to be approved include Care Coordination, Non-Medical Case Management, Health Education/Risk-Reduction, Housing, Harm Reduction, Legal Services, Mental Health Services, and Supportive Counseling.

On January 14, 2019, the PSRA Committee approved a methodology for absorbing a cut to the award up to 3.5%.  This methodology was used to apply the actual amount when we received the notice of grant award.  As noted in the Recipient Report, the total grant award was reduced from $95,799,060 in FY18 to $94,232,524 in FY19, representing a decrease of $1,566,536, or 1.64%. The first $581,067 of the reduction is absorbed through the savings in the carrying cost of programs.  Due to permanent contract take-downs or terminations, the Non-medical Case Management, Mental Health and Health Education service categories will not require the same funding level and are listed in Column I of the spending plan.  Also, equal amounts in ADAP and Housing are shifted between Base and MAI in order to balance the portfolio, as the  exact amounts that we received in our Base and MAI awards have to be allocated, having no impact on overall service category allocations or sub-recipient programs.

The remainder of the cut to the award can be absorbed through a reduction of $837,815 in the ADAP allocation; the State ADAP director has assured us that they have sufficient funds from other sources to maintain service levels.  There is also a small adjustment to the Tri-County allocation of $6000 to correct an error in the current year’s approved spending plan, which was translated to less on the full Spending Plan because previously the administration portion of Tri-County was calculated separately.

ACTION:  A motion was made and seconded, to accept the FY19 spending scenario as presented. The motion was approved unanimously, (11) in favor, (0) opposed.

Saul Reyes, Consumer At Large, Billy Fields and Lisa Best noted that the written and legible presentation of this information is much easier to understand and retain as opposed to past verbal and written presentations.  

Ms. Best also proposed that the Planning Council prepare a pro-active response to meet potential emergency financial needs which may result from the current Federal partial shutdown, i.e. provision and or receipt of SNAP benefits may be at risk by the end of February/beginning of March.  Ms. Casey suggested that the FNS contract deliverables could be enhanced from 14 meals/week to 21meals/week to cover this food shortage and that next year, contractors could overspend/over-perform through a modified re-programming plan.   

ACTION: A motion was made and seconded that the Grantee/Recipient shall investigate/explore funding mechanisms, i.e., re-programming of unspent carryover funds which would support immediate continuation of SNAP benefits, suspend caps on contractor spending for Part A Food & Nutrition Services (FNS) programs and re-direct funding to cover emergency FNS expenses related to the suspension of these benefits.  The motion passed unanimously, (11) in favor, (0) opposed.

Amber Casey reviewed the FY 2018 2nd quarter commitment and expenditure report for the period from 3/1/18 – 8/31/18, which is part of the Council’s legislative mandate to assess the efficiency of the administrative mechanism for the rapid disbursement of Part A funds.  Spending would be expected to be at about 50% mid-year.  Actual total expenditures were at 42.33%, which is in the ballpark of expectations, given that this year the EMA received its award from HRSA late and in two parts, and sub-contractors were cautious about spending early in the year due to the uncertainty on funding levels.  With the reprogramming plan approved by the Council, funds are expected to be fully expended by the end of the year.  Some areas highlighted included: higher than expected under-spending in Food & Nutrition and Supportive Counseling, which had to absorb increases in their allocations; and Transitional Support for Incarcerated, which had a delay in drawing down funds in the beginning of the year.  Those programs are expected to be fully expended by the 4th quarter close-out.

The Planning Council Committee 10 month workplans were distributed to the Committee.  Jan Park introduced the conversation about Planning Council functioning, workflow, communication and training. 

The following comments were made:

• Billy Fields, Co-Chair of the Consumers Committee, noted that there is no formal training plan as to roles & responsibilities of Co-Chairs and that there are few opportunities for Chairs, as executives, to meet amongst themselves throughout the planning cycle.
• Jan Hudis, Co-Chair of PSRA, remarked that there are many new members to PSRA who lack in- depth familiarity with the PSRA process and that this should be addressed in training and orientation.
• Lisa Best, Consumers Committee Co-Chair, added that Co-Chairs should work closely with their Planning Council staff in agenda development, strategic direction, etc. An annual retreat focusing on these issues would be of benefit.
• Joan Corbisiero, Parliamentarian, commented that leaders should provide superlative examples of leadership, that people learn by observing and emulating and that in this era of media and conference calls, opportunities for face-to-face learning and interactions are missed, especially   when there are conceptual/experiential deficits in organizational behavior, structure and functioning.
• Saul Reyes, Consumer-At-Large, commented that some Chairs are operating in their own spheres. It was noted that Planning Council staff readily and consistently provides high level informational and logistical support to assure a broad and in-depth base of committee-related knowledge.
• Melanie Lawrence, Planning Council Staff, noted that we need to better engage new and existing members in the orientation process
• Darryl Wong, Dep Director, commented that Chairs need to approach their responsibilities with a combination of management and leadership skills and to be fully engaged if the expectations are that members will be as well.  It was also noted that the Orientation imparts too much information, especially re: the PSRA process, which might be better delivered with a scaffolding approach – over a period of time as opposed to one shot, all day trainings, especially when new members are largely unfamiliar with the overall planning process. Mentoring is also an initiative which needs to be further explored.
• Maria Diaz, Co-Chair of the TCSC, stated that there is little input from the providers to better inform Planning Council members’ discussions.

Randall Bruce commented that each Committee’s co-chairs are unique dyads with unique dynamics. 

There be no further comment, the meeting was adjourned at 5PM.