CAFCA BRIEF UPDATECAFCA BRIEF UPDATE
September 2003
REMINDER: CAFCA General Membership meeting is this
Friday, September 19th, 9:00 a.m., at Family Tree in Wheat Ridge.[1]
Our special guest will be Steve Schafer, a national consultant on pulling
down Title IV-E and Medicaid funds. The
Children’s Treatment Services (CTS) Committee will meet immediately following
at 10:30. Mr. Schafer has agreed to stay for the first part of CTS to
dialogue with residential providers about the RTC waiver and other options being
considered by the state of Colorado. We
will also discuss the draft report from the Eligible Facility Schools Task Force
and several other important topics.
Legislative Activity Not
Confined to Session
Although
the legislature will not reconvene until January 2004, a number of activities
are going on at the Capitol and in other areas of the state regarding the
budget, possible changes to TABOR, Gallagher and Amendment 23. Here are a
few:
Interim Committee on
State Government Expenditures
Last year the Colorado legislature created an
interim committee on state government expenditures. The committee is composed of the leadership of both houses,
and the members of the JBC. There are 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats on the
Committee. Speaker of the House Lola Spradley (R) chairs the committee, which
has begun hearing presentations from each principal department of state
government. The following standard questions are being asked of each agency.
How many employees do you have in your human resources division, IT, and
public information offices? (Please provide separate numbers for each
function.) Can they be centralized? Is there any part of these jobs
that is so unique to your department that they cannot be centralized? Why are
they unique and how much does this amount to? Are there any statutory changes
that would help you operate more efficiently from a systems delivery standpoint?
Would a reorganization of your department be helpful to you?
The
Speaker emphasized that she is not looking at cutting programs per se, but
rather, looking more at business processes and organizational issues.
This committee’s role is very different from the interim committee
studying the constitutional issues and that it is a committee that would be
looking at how to conduct government assuming that there are no changes in the
Constitution. Thus, TABOR, Gallagher and Amendment 23 issues are not the
focus of this committee.
(THOSE WHO HAVE SPEAKERS ON THEIR COMPUTER CAN
LISTEN TO THESE HEARINGS OVER THE INTERNET.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, GO TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY WEB PAGE AND CLICK ON
LIVE AUDIO BROADCASTS. THEN SELECT
THE ROOM. THESE PARTICULAR HEARINGS
ARE OCCURRING IN THE JBC CHAMBERS.)
TABOR
Trainings and Information Sessions
The Colorado Center on Law and Policy and
the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute will conduct a
full-day training session on TABOR on Friday, October 10th at the DU
College of Law, 2255 E. Evans Avenue (at University).
Cost is $25.00, including a resource notebook and computerized PowerPoint
or overhead presentation materials to enable participants to make public
presentations on TABOR and its consequences to audiences of their choice.
RSVP by October 7th to: ccenter@cclponline.org
or 303.573-5669 X303.
The Colorado Social Legislation Committee
and the League of Women Voters are hosting “TABOR OR NOT
TABOR: That Is the Question.” This
forum will highlight the activities and suggested actions of several groups
currently examining the constitutional provisions affecting the state budget.
Presenters will include the Bell Policy Institute, ONE Colorado, Colorado
100-The bighorn Center, and Tressurer Coffman’s Advisory Group. Tuesday,
October 21, 2003, 3:30-7:15 p.m. at Montview Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia
St., Denver. For more information
contact Chaer Roberts at 720.913.8465 or chaer.robert@ci.denver.co.us.
Other
Activities of Note
The Colorado State Foster Parent
Association
(CSFPA) is holding its annual foster care conference in beautiful Glenwood
Springs at the historic Hotel Colorado October 8-10, 2003.
Foster parents can obtain 21 hours of foster care training credit for
attending all sessions. Scholarship assistance is available. Information regarding conference sessions and registration
are available on the web at: www.csfpa.org
or by contacting Josephine Martinez at 303.866.4629 or Josephine.martinez@state.co.us
by October 1st. Mr. Robert Danzig, president of Hearst newspapers,
will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday evening, 6:00-7:30.
He is a former foster child and will honor foster parents and caseworkers
by sharing his thoughts on common qualities of these special people.
There is no cost to attend this event.
People attending his presentation and the reception will receive a free
copy of one of his books about foster care.
CAFCA
NEWS
Congratulations to Kay Willis, CAFCA’s
Vice President and Executive Director of Family Pathways of Colorado, who
completed a 500-mile bike trip, including three mountain passes, over a week in
August. She rode 2,000 training
miles between February and July 2003 to get in shape. It was hot and exhausting, but Kay says she is already
planning a repeat in 2004! Way to
go, Kay!
CAFCA members Namaqua Center and Turning
Point hosted the September CAFCA board meeting in Loveland.
Following the meeting and a wonderful brunch, Jim Drendel of Larimer
County Social Services and Marilyn McIntyre of Larimer County Mental
Health Center/MHASA spoke about “Important Issues Facing Colorado’s
Children” to a group of nearly 30 CAFCA members and guests.
Peg Long, CAFCA Executive Director then shared CAFCA’s 2003 activities
and membership benefits through a PowerPoint presentation.
Those interested were then invited to tour Namaqua’s residential
programs. Thank you Cyndi Dodds,
E.D. of Namaqua, and Jim Becker, E.D. of Turning Point, for being such terrific
hosts.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS
Public
Policy Committee
The Child Welfare Systemic Improvement
Group met for the second time in August.
Peg Long and Andrew represented CAFCA on this task force that includes
Marva Hammons, Amy Sampson (Governor’s office), several county directors, a
JBC representative, former CEO of Frontier Airlines, Sam Addoms, foundation
people, CCM directors, among others.
The group’s identified subcommittees will be working on interagency
connections, outcomes-based standards, creating a more positive image and
recognition for caseworkers and others in the system, judicial issues, and
identifying RTC models focused on limiting time and funding.
Volume VIII rules remain an issue as Vivianne Chaumont, Medical
Assistance Director, sent a letter to Peg dated 8/25 in which she states that
HCPF has once again changed its mind and and is planning to recover the full per
diem for undocumented services.
Peg will respond and clarify CAFCA’s position on this.
Fofi Menddez will also respond.
Peg is conducting a survey comparing RTC beds days for April-July 2002 to
the same months of 2003.
She still needs information from RTCs that have not yet responded.
CAFCA plans to bring adoption legislation in 2004 to amend the voluntary
relinquishment act to comply with a May 2003 Court of Appeals ruling.
The definition of facilitator may need a regulatory change to address the
issue of unlicensed out-of-state agencies facilitating adoptions in Colorado.
The group discussed the purpose of room and board anchor rates in the
Trails system and how rates are negotiated.
Both the Adoption Committee and the CTS committee are working on White
Papers similar to the one produced y the foster care committee in 2002.
Megan Aldrit, Chair of the Foster Care Committee will be attending the
CPA Network’s legislative committee meetings.
Conversely, Pam Hoggins, who chairs the CPA Network legislative
committee, will begin attending CAFCA’s public policy committee in October.
Adoption, CTS and Membership
Communications Committees will be meeting later this month, so
look for their activities to be reported in the next CAFCA Brief Update.