 Let's call the meeting to order. And we have prudence myself. Janine Sheila. Ruth. And David on the council advisory board. And then we have this Michelle. Brandy. And Lisa welcome Lisa. So to have we heard from Julie or our. Okay. Hopefully they'll join us shortly. Okay. Michelle, you're on the recognized new board terms. And you can remind the old board term people. Yes. Again, Susan. Julie, I'm good. I'm good. I've been renewed. We're good. You've been renewed. Yes. And so the terms are three year terms. I will send you all out an updated board list. I will do that momentarily. And then, um, Ruth has retained the alternative. Alternate, ultimate, not alternative alternative position. So I'll send that out. So then if somebody drops out, we can promote her right away to three years. There you go. That was the move with me. Okay. Anybody. Is tending from the public. I see no one wanting to be heard. Um, should we let Lisa speak first since she's here. As. Should we just look at the minutes first? Okay. Yeah. The December 1st minutes. Has everybody had a chance to take a look at that? Yeah. Look fine to me. I have a couple of little things. I think Martin's name does not have an E on the end. Okay. And let's see. Oh, yes. Under. Uh, reports. Five. Roman numer five. G. And I believe we use role as ROL L and start instead of ROL. I really like the ease. You do, huh? Got you in trouble twice on that one. No. I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Glad to do it. Okay. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes as corrected with the ease. We have a second. Janine seconds. And then we have. Old business. Position update. So our position for the seniors recreation coordinator is posted now and it will close actually on the 14th. Originally we intended for it to close on the seventh, but it's going to close on the 14th. And I believe Megan has reached out with some initial dates to Sheila and Ruth to help participate. In the interview process. So we've gotten some good applicants, not a lot, but I think the holidays probably. Influenced in that. And so that's why Megan went ahead and extended it another week. So we'll be doing interviews at the end of the month. David. Is our new administrative assistant. Working at the front. With Monica and Robin and it's just been a great fit. And so I think prudence has a question. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Did you find out why the previous guy who stayed. What looks like a few weeks. Left. Yeah. So he took a position at a company in Louisville called. And they do international special events. Like the Olympic torch. Things and whatnot. And so I think he felt like it was. A great opportunity for international travel. And really programming at a whole another scale. Whole another level. Yeah. That's my position update, Susan. Okay. Any other old business. Moving on to brandy queen. Well, I was about to ask if I should give a position update about our new counselor hire, Michelle. Please do. Yes. And, and you've got a couple of folks who all. Also offered to help with those interviews. So yes, Susan and Julie. Had both offered to help with those interviews. HR for the city of Longmont has been pretty overwhelmed posting positions that already exists. That have been vacated. So they have not yet posted our new counselor position. We are waiting to hear. When they have that posting description. Ready for us to review and we approve it. And then it gets posted. So I had let Julie and Susan know that I wasn't ignoring them. That we just, We don't have a timeline yet for when we'll be doing interviews. So we have an office and you've been getting it ready. So we do have an office. We got a screaming deal offered to us last week on a giant desk that one of our community colleagues had available. So we're getting that moved over here this week, which is pretty exciting. And we, we do have some things in process to get the office ready so that when the person is, is ready to be hired, we'll be ready for them. Prudence. Is the salary competitive? You know, it's hard. It's hard to say because there's not a position quite like this that exists. We're the only senior center. That I know of anywhere. I'm sure there are some somewhere else in the country, but we don't know about them. That have a counselor on staff. So it's a tough nut. To crack as far as what is competitive. I feel like it's a fair pay. So Prudence, the city does an annual pay. Competitive survey. Usually within a 50 mile radius, but also trying to find like positions. And private counselors, mental health partners, nonprofit counselors. Are generally what they can find data, but then they also have to fit that within our pay. hierarchy. So it can't be that. Different than, than another position within the team. So it's kind of a two fold look. At the position, but I don't know if it's going to fit. So it's kind of a two fold look at the position, but also where does it fit within the hierarchy? So, So, you know, that may be a barrier because your hierarchy may need to be raised. Well, that, that is, you know, I'm working on that. Yeah. The other, the other part of this is for counselors who are used to doing like 45 minute sessions. Right. This is different than that. So finding that really apple to apple. It's more like tangerine to orange. You know, more often are looking for different things. So yeah. So this city is usually pretty good about working with us. We have to do some digging. And there is also with this counselor position, there was some expectation around some case management kinds of work. So it is definitely probably someone who has kind of a mixed bag there. Skills. Thank you. So part of the funding for this position is specifically about finding family caregivers. And I don't have statistics for 2021 yet. We're working on those at the end of this week, but I can tell you anecdotally that we have had a pretty significant uptick here in the last few years of family caregivers who need support, figuring out some of the logistics of being a caregiver, like setting up home care, figuring out how to pay for that. But also the emotional pieces of dealing with difficult behaviors, particularly for someone who has dementia, as well as just the emotional wear and tear of being a full-time family caregiver, which a lot of family caregivers are, even people who are not full-time experience a lot of wear and tear. Emotionally. So the new counselor will be replicating some of the work that I do and I'll be talking with Michelle this month about what's our flow going to be for caregivers who come in to get them the consultations that they need to access different kinds of services on our team. So we'll see where that goes. I can also say anecdotally that in our peer support program that we have with 10 volunteers, a lot of their work in the last year was around caregiving. We just have a lot of very stressed full-time caregivers that we're trying to support and carry through this journey. And Brandy, I'm just going to butt in just a quick second. So part of the support and the interest in this position from our city manager was around our work with the Longmont Housing Authority. So I'm glad Lisa is here and we can speak with her later, but also possibly invite Lisa back maybe at our February meeting. But we are also looking at how to do some emotional support particularly in our LHA properties. And that is a work that is unfolding as well. One of the things that we have been brainstorming amongst my peer support team, myself, Michelle, is about needs and what we can do with having more counseling staff available. And one of our big ideas is to expand support groups, because a lot of people are interested in support groups and we can serve a lot of people that way as opposed to one-on-one support. It's kind of more bang for your buck. And the power that comes from being with your peers and seeing them struggle with the same kinds of issues is profound. And one of the ideas that has come up that I haven't even had a chance to talk to Lisa about yet is having support groups specifically for people who are struggling with living in a community setting for folks who have lived independently and have moved into an apartment building. And it doesn't have to be LHA. It could be any apartment building, but who are struggling with that community piece with having people sharing your walls and your floor and your ceiling to see if we can get them to come out of their communities and join together in a support group specifically to take a look at how do we make this a better fit for folks? How do we help them engage in community in the ways that they want to engage with their community? How do we help them not engage in the ways if they don't want to engage? If they want to just really be independent and do their own thing and they happen to live there, that's okay. But we want to flesh out some of those issues. We are going to start. We have two caregiver support groups right now. One is an Alzheimer's association group specifically for caregivers taking people with dementia. The second is an open caregivers group for caregivers dealing with any issues. So we've got older adults coming who care for an adult child. We have folks who care for a spouse with multiple sclerosis. We have a daughter who cares for her mom who's just got a difficult relationship. It's a broader caregiver group. And we feel like we need another piece of caregiver support. So we are going to start a group in March. I'm going to go ahead and start it. And I may end up being the one who facilitates that with a long-term illness. I'm going to go ahead and start it. I'm going to go ahead and start with one of our volunteers. That is for anybody dealing with anticipatory grief. So all of the grief that comes up when someone you care about has a terminal illness. And it could be a long-term illness like MS, right? MS can take decades to become terminal. Dementia can take decades sometimes to become terminal. It could be cancer and it's quick. But I think it's a great way to focus on the grief. And I think it's a great way to focus on the grief. Because we want a space for those people who either identifies a caregiver or just identify as someone who is grieving that someone in their family is going to die. To have that space just to focus on the grief. I feel like our caregiver support groups do a great job of talking through resources and options for people. We certainly address anticipatory grief in those groups. But I think it's a great way to focus on the grief. And I think it's a great way to focus on the grief. Where we just carve out. The emotional bandwidth for the grief. That is ongoing from the time you hear about somebody's illness to the time they die. That anticipatory grief tends to be kind of either in the background or in the foreground all the time. So we're going to get that going in March. And we have just a long list of support group ideas. And I think it's a great way to focus on the grief. Thank you. Brandy, I don't know if this is the appropriate time, but given that I have direct contact with friends who have lost their home in Louisville. And their center is no longer existing. I wonder if. You know, I think there's a lot of emergency support for people that are becoming unexpected caregivers in a wide variety of situations. And, you know, whether we, if not, whether we need to address that because it's just heavy on my mind right now. I think it's a great way to focus on that. And I think it's a great way to focus on that. And I think there's a lot of supports about that. We have always accepted people from other parts of the county in our support groups. That's another. Plus as opposed to individual support when it's a group, we can have more flexibility with that sort of thing. And there is a counseling service getting set up through the disaster assistance center. I think it's a great way to see if I can do some time there. My volunteers on our peer support team have expressed interest. Those who are still licensed, assuming that they will want people who are licensed professionals. So yes, there's, there's a lot of ways we can weave in support there. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. I had a little trouble getting started. I'm a real technical wiz, you know, so it took me two minutes to get started. So I'm going to start with everything that you're saying. I'm wondering to what extent is isolation an issue. With the people you deal with. And is there a difference between men and women? And is there, how do people find out about it? If you have some older person sitting, you know, in an apartment someplace, probably not particularly informed. And how do you get in touch with these people? How do they get in touch with you? How does that work? So we, Oh, go ahead. I'm done. Okay. We have marketing and a number of different fashions. So we've done marketing on the radio with K good. We have the counseling services marketed in our go catalog. We have brochures, which are out in the community and here at the senior center. And people reach out all of the time because they found us on their own. They saw one of those marketing methods or they heard one of those marketing methods. We also very frequently have folks whose friends have access services here and have said, Oh, you're a caregiver or, Oh, you're grieving. Did you know we have support groups? We have individual support. So the marketing piece, I think works fairly well. But I think what we have seen sort of shift here in the last few years is that a lot of people are looking for a professional counselor. I think our younger seniors are of a generation that are fairly savvy with counseling. So they will call asking specifically for a professional and asking specifically for a modality. Like, do you do EMDR? I want to just add a couple other things to this question is one of the things that I think is really important to us is that we have a lot of people who have access services. Boulder County air agency and aging has a couple caregiver designated positions. And we are going to be meeting with them and talking about how the flow of referrals as well as some joint marketing. Can unfold and we can get people better connected. We learned during the age well strategic planning process. That caregivers responded to marketing on next door. We met with 10 or 12 caregivers. And they all said, why would I call a senior center? And so we really, we know this is a marketing. Um, challenge. Um, we also many years ago we did a rack card that we put in lots of doctors offices that said you are a caregiver if. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And here's what you can call. And Brandy and I pulled that out a week or so ago. And we're going to meet with Erica and talk with what can we do different. For those caregivers of an older person who would not think to call the senior center. So it looks like Prudence has an idea. Two questions. Thank you, Jeanine for bringing up Louisville. We actually have friends staying with us whose home is gone. And we're going to meet with a dog in the sun. So, um, I, I, one of the things I think you just mentioned was that. People would not call the senior center. Which. Is indicative of younger people. Who look at the word senior in a very negative way. So they're using next door. Which is, I mean, it's used by, I know, Julie and I use it. And we're discussing it in another group. So I think I just want to point that out. Brandy, one of the things you mentioned, if I heard you correctly is that there is someone you're counseling who has, who's older, who has a child. Why shouldn't call them a child, a son or a daughter. Is that correct? I mentioned that in our caregiver support groups, we do have folks with, with any kind of caregiving situation. And that is one type as. Older adults caring for disabled adult children. Right. Um, so. I'm wondering if. And I don't know whether this is something you do because legally. The parent has to think about what happens when they die. We talk about emergency planning with all caregivers because legal question. Yeah. There are legal issues. There are medical issues. There are simple issues. Like who knows their routine. Who knows what happens on a day to day basis. Um, we actually have an emergency planning document that I created recently shared with Kaiser for research that they're doing about caregiving emergency planning. Um, that, that is not specific to folks caring for an adult child. That's all caregivers. The statistics are. Astounding for dementia caregivers in particular, that around 60% of caregivers of someone with dementia will die before the person with dementia. Yeah. And it is, you know, legally, especially with adult children, my parents. You know, they're like 75 or 80, and they have an adult child who's 40 and 50. And if they die legally, you know, there has to be a legal. A chain of. I don't know what you would call it. That is, that is again, true for anybody who has power of attorney, guardianship over another human being that they're caring for. Yeah. Yes, we do talk about that. And we do point people to attorneys all of the time. To address those legal issues if they haven't. Yeah. Can I ask one more question? Yes. And David, I'm not sure if I answered all the questions you already asked yet. Well, I just thought of another one. Well, I've been wondering about it. And that is. The dimensions of the problem. I'm sure there's two counselors on staff now, right? Well, there will be when we hire the second. Yes. Exactly. So, you know, two counselors, given the need, it seems to me, I'm just wondering what your opinion is as far as the need is concerned. I'm assuming. That there is a huge need out there for, for counseling of older folks. And two, two counselors, frankly, I mean, you're going to do your best. But I have a feeling you're not going to come anywhere near, you know, fulfilling the whole need. What do you think about that? And by the way, what is the size of your caseload in a year? How many folks do you see in your groups? So I can pull up stats from the last couple of years here. I don't have this year's assembled yet. We serve through our peer support program and through myself. Anywhere from about a hundred to 200 people a year. It fluctuates from year to year. So those are individuals. And through support groups specifically. Gosh, it looks like we serve about 80 or so people a year. Anywhere from 40 to 80. Again, it can vary wildly. The total number of appointments that we end up doing. Anywhere from about 500 to 1000. It's a lot in, and we are not the only resource. So I keep a list of licensed professional counselors, licensed clinical social workers and psychologists who work through Medicare who specifically work with older adults. And we work with senior reach, which is a subset of mental health partners that specifically works with older adults. And we have referrals kind of going back and forth. All of the time everywhere. Because if I have a wait list, which I frequently do. I end up, you know, if my wait list gets too long, which I did this year, there was a point where my wait list was so long. It felt unethical to add anyone else to it. They'd be waiting so long. I network out with other folks to help people get connected with professionals elsewhere. So I don't expect us to ever be the. End all be all of counseling services for older adults. What I do expect us to do is to be able to fill this niche of folks who cannot afford copays. For counseling senior reach also helps fulfill that niche. They have funds to pay for copays. And I do expect us to be able to fill this niche of folks who cannot afford copays. And I do expect us to be able to fill this niche. They have funds to pay for copays. And they do expect us to hold that expertise for folks who really want. To talk to another older adult or talk to somebody who they know really understands aging issues, really understands caregiving issues. We have actually had people come in a number of times here this year saying, you know, I've had a counselor, but they don't really understand caregiving. It's like, okay, come in and well, I don't know. In the beginning of the year, I just want to make sure that I'm willing to do that. You know, I want to make sure that we understand what's happening with your counselor or will replace your counselor or whatever that need needs to be there. To make sure they have somebody who understands both the resources, the challenges. And all those kind of potential issues that come up around caregiving. Okay. Thank you. That helps a lot. No. Susan. How is your mix of. person, telephone, how's that all working for you? You know, throughout the pandemic, we had people say they did not want to talk with us on the phone or virtually that they would wait until they could see us in person. So when we reopened in May, we started seeing people in person immediately and that number has grown kind of steadily throughout the year. Right now, there are some people, for instance, in our caregiver support group who are saying, I want to do that on Zoom again. I don't want to come in person because they're worried about the variants and the surge. So we are pivoting a little bit with some of those things, but the majority of people we work with do want to be seen in person. Don't care if they have to wear a mask. They want that real human contact that happens so much better in person than it does looking at little squares on a screen or on the phone. But, you know, isolation was one of the things that David was asking about earlier and people have struggled with isolation in a couple of ways and I'm hearing about this a lot right now because I'm doing intakes for our adjusting to life's changes group. That's a support group for people struggling with major life change of any kind. Could be retirement, could be medical, could be starting or ending a caregiving role. A lot of people right now are coming to this group because they're struggling with the pandemic and figuring out, okay, I am fully vaccinated. I am more comfortable socializing again, but I don't know how. Like, I don't know how to find that normal again. It's not the same normal that I had before the pandemic or maybe it is and I just don't know how to create it. And people do in those intakes so far that I've done and in our counseling intakes here in the last few months as well, people are talking a lot about isolation and loneliness. I would say that I have seen a gender component to that. You had asked if we see a difference for men and women. I will say in my experience here over the last almost eight years, there are lots of folks who are really comfortable being isolated. That's a choice. They don't want to socialize a ton and that's not about gender. That's about personality, that's about where they are at in their life. There are lots of people who do want to socialize. We've got a real spread there. But for the people who feel lonely and it's not a choice or maybe it was a choice during the pandemic but they don't want to make that choice anymore. They want to feel connected more again. We are catching them and we are trying to help them figure out what feels healthy and right to them. I can't tell anybody else what kind of social boundaries around this pandemic are right for them, right? But I can help them understand what are their fears? What are ways to minimize risk? How do we talk through figuring out where they are comfortable to socialize more because they need it and they're asking for it? Any other questions? Anything else that you want to talk about in terms of going forward with 2022? I'm just so excited to have more staff. I want to talk a little bit about the EJC, the folks in aging, a couple of the other things that you have taken on and will be leading in 2022. Yes, so there has been an elder justice coalition in Boulder County for what Michelle, maybe 15 years, quite some time. That group has gotten a federal grant which they have not been able to implement very well yet because of the pandemic. So we're still figuring out the nuts and bolts of that but it's a federal grant to train law enforcement officers to understand elder abuse cases better and how to respond to those and investigate those better. They train judges on prosecuting those cases better and there is some funding in that grant as well for service providers, like domestic violence shelters are involved in this group, folks who provide that direct service to people who are elder abuse survivors. So that group is meeting once a month right now and forming some subcommittees to figure out how to roll out that grant work in the next two years here in Boulder County. So I'm a part of that group. Our folks in aging group has been meeting for about 40 years in Longmont. Those are professionals who work serving older adults. So we have real estate agents, we have counselors, we have folks who work in home care agencies, assisted living facilities, skill nursing facilities and we all come together every other month to talk about what kinds of issues we are seeing in the community together to resource with one another and make sure we're aware of each other's resources and we also have educational programs on topics chosen by the group. So for instance, when we meet this month, we are going to be talking about accessibility in people's homes, what sort of resources exist for home modifications and we have an occupational therapist in the group who's gonna be doing the AARP Home Fit Program. It talks about how to modify your home for accessibility with not just aging, really it's for anybody because we are all just temporarily able-bodied. It's important information for all of us to kind of hold in our minds. I'm trying to think what other committees I'm involved in in the moment. We've got our group that's talking about caregiving issues countywide. I have shared with that group our model because our model for caregiver support I think is pretty comprehensive. We have classes and trainings about caregiving. We have the financial support available through the respite assistant funds. We help people connect with home care, help them figure out finding assisted living if it's time for that. We have the emotional supports and I feel like our model is pretty replicable. A lot of our resources are free. There's a lot going on in the community that I feel like we could put in place in other senior centers and other parts of Boulder County. So we're trying to share that information and figure out as aging services around the county, how do we best serve caregivers in these different ways to get their needs met? That's a long work in progress. We've been talking about that for a while and we're having a meeting this week to really focus on marketing. The other piece Brandi's taken on is really our data piece for all of our client services. So you wanna just mention, you said you were working on that this week but you wanna say a little bit more about that. Yeah, so really the question about data that we have been chewing on is how do we tell our story about the work that we're doing? So Friday is our deadline for our staff to try to get all of our data entry from last year done which may or may not happen in full but we're working on it. And we'll get that raw data. We're gonna meet Monday to look at that data that tells us how many people did we work with were experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation? How many people were looking for transportation assistance? How many were caregivers so we can break down? How many people did we see? How did we see them? Was it on the phone, email and person? What were those needs that we were helping to meet? And then we need to look at, okay, well, next step is how do we use that data to actually explain to city council and the Friends of the Longmont Senior Center and other community members what the work we're doing looks like because there's a quantitative piece that doesn't really capture the stories of the human beings who were really struggling that were holding through their struggles and trying to move to the other side of them. I like pulling statistics. So this is fine with me. So, as we interview for a new counselor, what are a few things that are probably most important to you because you'll be working with this person so closely, what are a few things that are important? I really want them to have some passion for working with older adults. It doesn't mean that they have to have just worked with older adults before in their career but I want to hear that they've got a focus there and that they understand aging issues. There's not a gulf of difference between serving younger adults and older adults but there are just significant issues that come up later in life that I want to make sure they understand, have compassion for and are willing to learn more about if they need to learn more about it. I want somebody who like Michelle alluded to does not want to just sit in their office having 45 minute, 50 minute appointments back to back all day. We are embedded in a community here and I can't tell you how many times over the years I have picked up clients because I met them in a class here. I was on a trip helping escort a trip and they were like, well, you seem friendly. I think I could trust you and talk to you about what I'm struggling with. Being able to move kind of fluidly from my office into the senior center and back and forth is really important as well as it's really important to be able to take off my counseling hat and put on more of my case management social worker hat when that is what really needs to happen. And again, fluidly sometimes we go back and forth a little bit. So it's important that they understand boundaries and that they can have good boundaries as well as that fluidity, if that makes sense. Thank you. Can I go back to your data collection? Yes. You said you like data. I've kind of a data geek myself till the truth is as I heard you, you were saying that you collect data to see the volume of your services, how many people and how many programs and that sort of thing. You use some of that information as justification to the city council in part, I suppose, for finance, for budgetary purposes. And I'm wondering if you then you use that data also, do you focus on effectiveness of how some of your programs are working or do you just, how do you approach that? So right now, for instance, with counseling clients, anytime somebody ends with our peer support volunteers, for instance, they have the opportunity to do a brief survey. We try to keep it brief so that people will actually fill it out. And it has both quantitative and qualitative questions on it. And all of those surveys come back to me. So the quantitative piece gets captured in our database and that's things like, do you feel like this service was helpful? Would you recommend this service to someone else? Yes, no, kind of binary answer questions, but there are quantitative questions there too, like, tell us anything you want about what was helpful or what we could improve. So I keep that data throughout the year and that is part of how we tell our story too. And we see that reflected in how many people come in and say, oh, my friend, my neighbor sent me, knock on wood. We have a pretty good reputation in our community. And part of that reputation, I think, is the confidentiality that you might see me in a class here. You might see me on a trip here and I'm not gonna say anything about how I know you or any of your personal info when I do see you and our volunteers are held to that same standard. Thank you. Good question. It's just great. We do that survey at the end of our time limited support groups as well. So the grief support group and the adjusting to life's changes group run for eight weeks as opposed to our caregiver groups that are a monthly drop-in. So when people finish that course of a support group, we do the same kind of survey asking about their experience. And it's amazing the feedback that we get from those group leaders. We have really incredible volunteers, some of whom have been leading those groups for 10 plus years. Just a kind of a shout out to Brandy. Many, many, many years ago, the senior older adult volunteer peer program started in Boulder with Boulder County mental health partners of Boulder County in the city of Boulder senior services. Several years later when Longmont wanted to start a program, mental health did not think they could support us. So we kind of did our own thing. And recently, mental health partners reached out to Brandy to find out how she does the program, why it's so successful and get her materials. So she's done a phenomenal job, built on a great foundation and is really seen as excellent in this way. In terms of the confidentiality, I just wanna add most recently, Brandy and Amy who manages our money management program, researched and found locking folders for our volunteers, because they often have confidential material about their clients. And they do work, you know, go from home to a client's house or whatnot. And so we have provided locking private confidential folders with instructions on the cover for all of our volunteers who are also doing similar kinds of work. So kudos to them for figuring that out and finding us. I have a question. Are these paper files? Could you, oh, okay, that's a risk. Well, that's why we're locking them. They leave them in their car. If anything like that is paper is very risky. I will say we have been working with paper the whole time. We have run the money management and the peer support programs. And I think we managed the risk really well. And we felt like this piece would just pull up the risk management a notch, keeping them locked up when they're not here on site and they hand them to me. And then I have them locked up in my office or Amy has them locked up in her office. Anything else for Brandy? I just wanted to add real quick in case folks aren't aware with the housing authority we do have other counseling options specifically for one of their properties, the Sweets, which has a lot of folks who are coming out of homelessness and really struggling with just kind of basic needs. Mental health partners provides case management to about half of the residents there. They actually have vouchers for those apartments for half of them in the building and they provide counseling for anybody in the building who wants it. We also have a group in town called Kruppnick who have a contract with the city and we're gonna be meeting this week to talk about how that contract is going. They also provide support directly to the housing authority site there. And we think there might be some room to expand that too. So we'll see how that goes. But I just wanted to again say we're not the only people holding the fort here for mental health for older adults and residents in Longmont. Thank you very much, Brandy. Thank you. You're welcome. Great work. Great work. Yeah. Thank you. Do I stay or do I go? Isn't that a song? Start singing. No, not me. Brandy, I think you are free like Elvis to leave the building. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thanks. Thank you. So are we moving to our slate of officers for 2022? Yes, ma'am. I want Prudence to stay in secretary unless somebody wants to bumper off. I second that. Oh, Sheila! No objections. I think you're staying Prudence. Okay. So you might wanna make it just a little more official. Oh, vote. Yes. Yeah, just a little more official. All right. Does anybody object? We'll do it that way. It's easier to count the hands. I see no objections. I think it's unanimous. You're staying. Okay. Such enthusiasm. Secretary to another group too. They elected me. Julie knows. Great experience. We love it. You're good. I would like to see you stay. You would, huh? Yeah. All right, let's have a vote. I mean, if anybody wants it, I'm willing to turn it over. I mean, nobody's objecting. Guess I'll stay. Thank you. And then arts not here. So I don't know what we do about vice president. Do we wait till next month or? Does somebody want to step up as vice president? What does our have to be here? Can we not? He's in his absence. Are you saying you don't want to contest it? No. Forget it. That position's chilly. You can, you can possibly have it. No. Thank you. Question about the vice president because. Because I always think of succession planning. Michelle is shaking her head. Yes. Audis the vice president. So then would that make him in line. For the president. When you leave Susan. Because I think that is. That really is a question. In my mind. Whether that's something. That we should think about as a council. And if I'm wrong, just say it's okay. It is. It is not an automatic built in prudence. And I think it is an excellent point. And worth. Thinking about. Yeah. So could we make a motion to keep art on as vice president. And at least until February and. Revisit it in February. That's a good idea. Because he's not here to express one way or the other, what he would like to do. Right. I would like to make that motion. Okay. Second. Perfect. Arts on. Retainer for vice president. I will make a note to add that back in on the February agenda. To revisit and just for that one position. Yeah. I have. One thing to add with that. And that is that given that our. Terms. With the board. Very in terms of. Years left or, or, you know, my term is up next year. I think that needs to be. Included in consideration for that particular. Position. I think art. Was the same as I. In terms of he re upped. And so he does have. You know, two more years, but I think we have to pay attention to. When a person's position on the board is going to be up. Okay. Good point. And then we get to. Confirm the meeting. Date. Time and location. So does the first Wednesday. Of every month at 10. O'clock work for everybody. Are there other suggestions? Works fine for me. Yeah. Me too. And I'm trained. So it's on my calendar. So it's easy to stick at that. So. And the senior center is great if we're. When we let that out of the house. So. Yeah, but when, when the quarantine comes up, we're all in it to come back. In person. So that's a yes. Until we get the. Pass to return. Susan, I'm going to ask you to put that question on hold. And perhaps we can talk with Marsha. About what the county is doing. And that might give us some timeframe about when. We might be looking at meeting in person. So if you can just hold that, maybe circle back to that. Okay. So we're on to where be the notices are posted. Right. And currently they are posted at the rec center and the senior center. And then at the civic center. And that might give us some timeframe about when. We might be looking at meeting in person. So if you can just hold that maybe circle back to that. And then at the civic center. So we have those three locations as well as they are online. Should, should they be posted at the library? We used to post at the library and they chose not to be a posting place. Any longer. They're lost. So I say, let's leave it as is. And then. Let's move on to the annual report discussion. This has been a. Task that at times the secretary has assumed at times, the board president has assumed. Which has really been about going back through minutes. And notes. And putting together a report from the board. That does go to council. So I think it's to you all as a board is who would like to go and anybody can do this actually is go through the minutes. And look at putting together an annual report. Draft for the board to look at. What if they have a good idea for all members of the board to look through the board. And suggest. Which items from the meetings were. Most important or of interest. Before it's put together in a report. Or is that going to make it too complicated? I know I'm a glutton for punishment. I am willing to do it. However. I would like one other person. To do it with me. Only because. I have to tell you. I am the. Under 10 PowerPoint person. I do not believe PowerPoint should be more than 10 slides. So I have a tendency. To compress. And say. Okay. This information. Not important. This information. Very important. This information. Not important. This information. Very important. This information. Important. So I'm kind of a ruthless. Editor. So I think that that's, that's quite important. And that's really the principle. I believe it is. People don't believe that. They'd like. 30 page PowerPoints. What does, what do you think. 10 pages or 30 pages. So let me, let me take it out of the PowerPoint world. And just say. More years than not. The board has done a written document and not a PowerPoint. And has not presented to council. More times than not. It has just been an information document that's gone to council. As an information item in their packet. And so I think that there have been some, some years where there was some significant substantial kinds of things that the board has actually gone to council and presented. You do not have to do that. That's strictly up to you all. As to that. And either way, I'm with floor. I'm with prudence cryptic. Breathe. Works for me. So. But either way, it doesn't have to be a PowerPoint. So. So if I understand this, so the report is basically just that. It reports, you know, what's transpired this last 12 months. If we had a real important issue that we wanted to bring to the attention of the city council, we do, we can do that independently of the report and do it anytime that we wanted to. Is that right? Yep. Right. Marsha. Yes. Thank you, Susan. I would say I'd like to come down in favor of both. I think maybe this council, especially now that Mr. Bagley, who hates. Long council meetings. Is, is out of the picture council loves. Under 10 PowerPoint presentations. Not long ones. Right. But I would love it personally because I think this is, you know, one of the most effective, if not the most effective advisory boards. In the city. That there should be an annual report. That is spoken to council. And I would like that to have one. Real high level budget page. So that, you know, what, what the city is getting for its budget. And I think that's one of the major highlights, especially. The COVID response and what that, you know, how that's going. Things like the report we just heard, obviously you can't put all of that in there, but, but, but really the importance of that outreach is, is astounding. And you know better than I do the rest, but I would hate to see it admitted completely. I like a report. So that's, that's my two cents on the matter. So do I have a volunteer to work with me. Sheila. And what's the due date, Michelle. So the lovely thing about the ordinance that governs your work, there is no due date. But I think to Marsha's point about the high level budget. Generally I'll start writing the 2023 budget in March. So it usually goes, gets turned in by the end of April. So if there's anything that could help influence the 2023 budget. I think it's important. This next two to three months, I think it's important. Well, I've talked about. Yeah, I, I think that that part about getting in. Retaining. You know, great staff is really a big piece. Yeah. So. Have we moved on to the goals for 2022. We'll see at the bottom of your agenda. There were goals for 2021. There were five of them. Some of them were definitely impacted by COVID. So I think that. I don't know if you want to put anything together. In the annual report with regard to these goals. And then if there are things that need to get carried forward to 2022. I can tell you number five was in my court. And I did not lift one pencil or pen for that effort in 2021. It, it never got. Never got to that level. So that, that is completely and totally on me. And I just need to either make it happen. Get a new input from you all or get a sense of urgency. And then you can get a light of fire under me. So. You can look those over. You might have new goals. For example. You will have a new senior services manager, I hope. At some point during the year and. And as my staff said yesterday. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'll coach a culture rate that person to the culture. They already have. So I think. I love their approach. So it's not about the new manager setting the culture. It's about the new manager. Becoming a part of the culture that already exists, which I thought was way, way great. But I think that's true for you all. As well as for the friends. In light of. Of that new person coming on board. I'm just thinking there could be some things around that that you all might be interested in. And making sure is on your plate. So just throwing those things out. The other possibility that's kind of out there. That I think is really important for you all to be involved in. And I think that's really important for you all to be involved in. The recreation services department is really looking at updating their recreation master plan. And I have asked. Specifically that there be. Focused outreach to older adults and that we use that process as a way. To gather information feedback input. From older people in terms of that sort of broad recreation. So I think that's really helpful. Jeff Friesner and I have met a couple of times. We are meeting again this week. I think there's some great opportunity there. And to Prudence point may, may offer some ways to look at reaching older adults without using the word senior. So I think there's some things on the horizon that will be important for you all as board members and as a board to be, to be involved in. So just lay that out there. And I think that's really helpful. And I think that's really helpful. I think that's really helpful. Thank you. Talk about it. So, Michelle, I just wanted you to know that. And I'm going to say this to Sheila too. I was going to use the two 21 goals as the basis of the start of the report. Because I think you have to address your goals first and whether they. Not. Just so that there. There's a tie back. To those, because I think what we said, I think we would start with the goals first. As. As the report basis. Yeah, I think that's perfect. That's great. Do you want me to send you the 2020. Report. To look at. Marcia mentioned about. You know, COVID-19 reopening plan long-term planning. So those are things that. I think we would start with the goals first. As. As the report basis. Yeah. I think that's perfect. That's great. Do you want me to send you the 2020. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. If you. And I. Was she letting me. Like it's me. So I just. Any thoughts on 2022 goals or you. I have a thought. I think we should. Based on what we have done in 2021. 2022. We might just say. We will adjust plans as needed due to current issues. Whether it's floods, wildfires, whatever. It's not just COVID-19 anymore. And then. If number two. It's not COVID-19. It's established the senior center as a source of information. And I think. We seem to do on an ongoing basis anyway. Just two thoughts as I was looking at the goal. So that we can leave that improvements in Sheila's hands. Yes. Thank you. So then we're going to. Coffee with the council. January 29th. I guess we're offering the senior center as a venue for that. And that is correct. Probably need a couple of volunteers. I volunteer. Do we know which council members will be there? Perhaps Marsha does Marsha. Do you know? What's the date, Michelle? Cause they're on my calendar. I think. It's Saturday to 29th. Yeah. Of February. January. No, there's no 29th in February. It's January. Okay. I'm not leap year. Hang on. I'll look at my calendar. Thank you, Marsha. What time does that meeting start? Nine. And it goes until. About 10. Yeah, it's not on my calendar. So I am assuming that it's not me. Let me see if there's a list in my email. Just let us know that somebody will be there. Okay. Okay. Usually there are two folks. And two folks from council, two of our council members. Plus Harold. Or the city manager, Harold Dominguez appoints a designee. Who kind of supports and takes notes. I think generally that's it. Right. Marsha, just three. Sort of folks. Yeah. There's a couple of people. Who are almost always. Recently, he's been busy enough that he's been willing to hand that off. Jim angstead. Also almost always comes. Because so many of the complaints are about traffic. But yeah, there's there. I will generally, I'll open the building about 830. I'll get the coffee ready. And then generally there's been a couple board members who have kept the coffee refreshed. I have no idea yet whether we're doing bagels or anything. I'll have to find that out in terms of the food situation. And then if we have spring goes, then we've made sure that the two council people or the two board folks have catalogs, if anybody is an older adult or caregiver and interested in what we have. And that's really been it. We have been more breeders and host and hostess role. Michelle, so I have an email from December 20th that is the assignments for this quarter. And this says that January 29th is remote and that it is Waters and Idago Ferry. So I don't know when it got changed to in person. But yeah, everything's really up in the air right now. We're probably moving the open forum, which is practically sacred, because we don't want it to be virtual and we don't want it to be in person during the middle of a spike. Right, so I will email Maria Tostado right now and ask maybe things changed while she was out of their office, Marcia. So I'll follow up with that. Okay, that sounds like a good plan. And then I take it, if it's virtual, there is no role for us. Yes. Correct, okay. And no bagels. And no bagels. Boy, Sheila. I tell you, when we were in evacuation site on Thursday night, all of those efforts to manage food safely kind of blew out the window as people kept bringing food. So we tried. Janine? If it is at the senior center, I am available to assist and I'll just have you let me know, Michelle. Okay, so I have Susan and Janine as available on the 29th if it ends up being in person. Thank you. Yeah, and we don't need bagels. We're okay without Sheila. There hasn't been food in the, in the recent, you know, since last summer there hasn't been food. There's just been drink. I think it's easier to manage safely, I think. Thank you, Marcia. Thanks. That's good. I missed the donuts. Any other things under new business reports? Supervisor. I would just say that we were in evacuation site Thursday night. We had between 30 and 40 people, not everyone checked in, which was fine. Boulder County Sheriff's Department had an officer on site the entire time. That was great. Robin from the front desk, Erica our marketing person, Brandy and Megan were the staff that were here helping. Karen Roney, Harold Dominguez, my boss and the city manager were here and Mayor Joan Peck was here. And so the meals on wheels totally came through. They were fabulous. Charles helped. We warmed up meals and we were able to give folks a hot, either lunch or dinner or both depending on how long they stayed. We were, initially we only had one small family group. That came from another fire about 11 in the morning. And they left when they were able to go back home. And so we were sort of in this lull. And then of course, the Marshall fire really blew up. And that is the bulk of the folks who came and stayed then from that point on, they were all from the Marshall fire. We were able to set up rooms. We were able to give family groups private, almost separate spaces. We were able to accommodate the dogs, the cats that came. We were inundated with offers of assistance. And those offers of assistance came even before the website was up and going directing people where to go. I mean, it was just so heartwarming to see what those responses were. We're quick and tangible and real. And at one point during the evening, pizza delivery showed up. And we were like, we didn't order pizza. And the guy was like, somebody ordered it and paid for it and like gave us the pizza boxes. So that was very nice. And we made sure people had had that. So I would say I'm very glad we had the team on board. Mayor Peck ended up working the whole day, the whole afternoon and the evening in the kitchen helping Charles at Meals on Wheels, which was great. So it unfolded quickly, very, very quickly. And I don't think that's across the board. Just things were changing so rapidly as we all know now in hindsight. So we closed at eight o'clock Thursday night. We assisted people in trying to safely get to Lafayette to the overnight shelter. We redirected any of the donations that had come in that we were unable to redirect earlier. And now today, because it was a holiday weekend, we had over a hundred messages from people Friday, Saturday and Sunday with offers. And so now the staff and a fabulous volunteer will be making callbacks to those people to make sure that they got connected with the Boulder OEM site or wherever that needed to happen. So from my perspective, one of the new things that I thought was really a great use of technology, and you all know I'm not the most tech savvy person, was folks who had offers of shelter, encouraging them to just get established as an Airbnb was a great, I think, use of technology and available programming. So folks, as the hotel rooms became less available, I thought that was new, different from the flood eight years ago, nine years ago now. So yeah, Florence, sorry. So Airbnb, most of those are free because they have a disaster program. However, the folks that are staying with us, excellent insurance, and they will be leaving us some time because what their insurance company did was look at Airbnb and there was an Airbnb in Louisville. Well, who's coming to Louisville after national food? Definitely will be going to. If it's nearly $9,000 per month through Airbnb, it will not be. That will not be what? I lost your audio. Be paid, it'll be much less. Oh, great. Right, who in the United States? So I want to go to Louisville, Colorado. So I think that's an interesting thing that even the French company are using Airbnb. Yeah, that popped up in the course of the day and evening and because we were working with folks trying to get some people into hotels and working with Boulder County OEM. And so I just, to me, that was a new thing not necessarily used nine years ago, so for folks. So that, and then just relative to that, we're just available for the Disaster Assistance Center and as the county long-term work begins, I'm sure will the city, not just senior services, certainly our utility folks, our fire police, everyone's jumped in, will be helping. So that sort of derailed a few things for me. Many people, but I'm really glad we were able to respond. We're working on the March April May newsletter, kind of as has been discussed. It's this mixture of online and in-person and we'll continue to look at programming both ways and respond. We are probably equally getting as many folks who wanted to do things in-person as folks who certainly in the last several weeks have said, you're not doing enough safety-wise. We really had to really crack down on some folks relative to mask wearing, which had not been an issue prior previously, but in the last several weeks, especially before the holidays, folks were getting a little bit more complacent about not wearing them. And so kind of double downed on that and folks have been much more compliant. We have staff positions we're gonna be filling. So moving that forward, we do have a trip scheduled to France the end of April and the first week of May. So we're watching Europe very carefully. And so we're paying attention to that. Our outdoor programs, of course, golf, softball, there's no hiccups in those programs really because they're outdoors, I think. And so that's moving forward. And I think that's it for me. I do wanna just note, Susan, before you get to the end of the meeting to make sure we loop Lisa back in and she could give an update on LHA maybe at the end of the report or you can give her some specific things you'd like her to address if she were to come back in February from the Housing Authority. Any questions? I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but I'm cleaning my office. You'll be happy to know. I'm starting to make my shred files. So here's Lisa. Lisa, anything you wanna say? Would you like to come do a presentation in February or? Sure, I would love to. I just wanna thank Michelle. The partnership with Longmont Senior Services has been great for LHA this year. I've really seen the impact it's made on the residents and then having her staff and all their resources have been just very helpful. We have a joint meeting on the 20th with Lisa's staff and our supportive services staff and that might be kind of fun, Lisa. We could include that in. If you wanna come back in February, we could talk about kind of what our teams have identified as some areas of continued work as a possibility. That sounds great. Does anybody have any questions or anything they wanna know about going on with LHA? I know it's been a crazy year this past year. You've probably had to pivot just as much as the senior centers had to pivot. Marsha? That's right, Marsha. Yeah, this may not be in your wheelhouse, Lisa, but the council is saying, when are we gonna build stuff? You know, so anything you can say about, you know, we've got all this land banked up and we've got money and we're extremely eager to see the plans. Well, we have to start Village Place first. So actually, we have our kickoff meeting on Thursday for the recent occasion and the remodel of Village Place. So we're gonna meet with the residents and just start that. And then over the next couple of months, we're gonna be inspecting quite a few of the properties, including Hearthstone and the Lodge to get them out of the current program they are in and make them the actual vouchers. And I think that's our first steps into going forward and then looking into those new developments with the land on hover and other areas throughout long months. But we really need to get Village Place started. So that's our first thing and we do our kickoff on this Thursday. Because of the impending remodel, are there vacancies in all of those existing sites that are not being filled? No, we are filling them. And once we have a set date for construction, we'll notify all residents and incoming residents of these remodels. So Village Place, depending on where we're at with COVID, may be similar to Aspen Meadows where we have the residents go to the hotel for a couple of weeks. If COVID is not impacting the remodel, then we will do the remodeling as they are still in their unit. We will help them pack up, keep everything in the living room, move everything to one side, do what needs to be done, move the bedroom stuff to the living room and move it back and forth every day. So. Okay. And is the reason why the building planning for the new sites can't go on in parallel with the remodels? Is it just organizational capacity or is there some obscure HUD rule that prevents it? Part of it is staffing and trying to get everybody in the right place with, we have quite a few people with the city who are retiring this year. Yes. So as we're kind of taking on more responsibilities and new roles and trying to hire for open positions, it will come. Okay. And I just want to add, I think Lisa has done a phenomenal job with her team and getting existing units, existing apartments filled as quickly as possible. It has been so exciting to see wait lists open up and people moving in. She and her team have done a really, really great job. And that doesn't take away from what Marcia's saying, which is we need more. And I know that's definitely on the docket, but it's really great to see the existing units getting filled. So it really is. And we are all so proud of the turnaround that has happened with the existing LHA properties. And overall, I think how much more orderly and contented the residents are. So all of that is a great thing. And it's my mantra that on all this stuff, we must go faster. So that's always going to be what I say. It's the same on climate change response. Let's go faster. And yeah, so you guys are doing a great job, but I want to see some new units in the worst way. Me too, I come from the development background. So I love seeing those new projects get off the ground. One thing I do want to point out that you guys might want to spread the word on is on January 28th, we are opening our section eight wait list, which has not been open in a couple of years. So it is posted on our LHA website that we are opening that. And we will be taking applications via email and in person that day. I am always confused. These are not tied to units, right? These are just section eight vouchers in your gift as it is. Correct. Okay. And that's January 28th. Correct. Excellent. Thank you. Lisa is there. Can you give me any estimate as far as the section eight vouchers if someone is lucky enough to be drawn in that lottery? What is the average wait time for a person who's approved for section eight housing to actually get a place? Well, with this new wait list we're doing, we're only going to take up about the amount of people that we've been able to service in a year. And our goal is to open the wait list every year going forward. So people are not sitting for three to four years and going stagnant. So we're hoping 15 to 80 and hopefully to get them all in housing the same year that they're put on the list. Okay. So within a year, because that is a very common question when we're doing section eight applications. Correct. And like I said previously, we haven't started fresh every year, but that is our goal going forward. It's only taking the amount of people that we know we will be able to accommodate in a year. And how many would that be, Lisa, on average? We're still working on our numbers. We have a meeting next week, but we're thinking probably 50 to 80. Okay. Thank you. And do you have any questions or concerns? Do you have diversity and inclusion goals in the wait list sorting? I guess that's the best way to say it. No, and when we do our, to take the wait list, there are everybody is assigned a random number and is all computerized through a HUD system on how the wait list is selected. Okay. Thank you. So will you come back after your meeting to our meeting next month. Yes, they will. Perfect. So I think if you want to go or if you want to stay, you're welcome, but I think we're up to Marcia. Thank you, Lisa. You're welcome. OK, I had one thing from the beginning of the meeting, and I'm not sure I remember what it was, but this is what I think it was, because we kind of touched on it. A lot of people are opening their homes to fire refugees, and I am getting questions and having a side dialogue with Susan Spaulding, because there are people who are fearful, as I am now, of not being able to get people to leave. And there is a serious problem with people who are brought in at guests that are calling themselves tenants and refusing to leave without an eviction. So I am in a dialogue with Susan Spaulding, but I'm going to raise this issue with Airbnb as a possible solution to that and see what she has to say about that from a legal standpoint. But people should be aware that there is some risk of doing associated with doing that. I hate to say it, but there it is. And especially for our older residents, many of whom do have spare rooms, it's a risk. So Marcia, Susan Spaulding is the city attorney? She is the mediator. She is an attorney, but she doesn't practice law. She's the lead of a mediation team, and she has one or two staff members and a team of trained volunteers in mediation. And that's all city subjects, although I would say 80% of what she does is landlord-tenant disputes. OK. So Marcia, I think the Longmont Office of Emergency Management is we have a meeting next Wednesday. We're also working with Jocelyn Bankhauser, who's the shelter and mass care person for Boulder County Office of Emergency Management. Those folks need some long-term case management possibly, and we should make sure we're connecting up with them. So maybe you and I or Susan and I, we could talk offline or maybe she's already involved them. But could you repeat the name that you gave? Jocelyn Bankhauser. And I'm happy to send you her contact. But she is the Boulder County Housing and Human Services Emergency Management Planner in charge of shelter and mass care. And she may have some ideas or resources, I think that's probably something that falls under the longer term case management. But Susan, we could talk about that. We could just talk about it. Could you also send me her name for the minutes? You're on mute, Michelle. Yes, I will send that to you, Prudence. And me too. OK, we'll do. Anything else, Marsha? Oh, Lisa. I just want to add a quick thing in for the Marshall Fire. I actually have a meeting at 12 o'clock with Boulder County Housing, where we are developing a list of emergency places to live. Long-Light Housing Authority will have three units listed for emergency housing for seniors only. We've gotten special permission through the disaster program in Chaffa to do that. But we will have a master list for seniors. And Michelle, I'll touch base with you after that meeting. That's really good to know. The other thing to know is about council meetings in the open forum, where we're not sure it's going to happen on the 18th. We thought it was important for it not to be virtual. So the plan had been to hold it with everyone masked in Stuart Auditorium, the council on the stage. So as to be socially distanced, then they could be unmasked so that we were compliant with Americans with disabilities, which we have not been when we were meeting in person. But now we're thinking that maybe that's too dangerous because it's coming at essentially the predicted peak of the Omicron spike, where the graph is still almost going straight up at this point. So anything you may have planned for, put a tentative on it because in terms of the council activities, regular meetings are virtual. And anything that's in person, we just don't know. That probably includes coffee with council. Is that pretty much cover the city council report, Marsha? Yeah, I think so. We'll probably have the agenda online tomorrow. There's some stuff out there in the public portal, but I have no understanding that it's final at this point. So nothing really to say. So moving on to the area agency on aging, Janine. The caregiving agendas was pretty much covered by Brandy in terms of what's happening, what's going on, and what the goals are. I will mention that Longmont program was listed kind of as a role model program. So it is recognized that they are far ahead and beyond of anyone. Recruitment for 2022, there are two at-large board member positions that are available. If anybody is interested, the applications are still being accepted through the 7th. So there's two days, and you can go online and fill out the application. And I would certainly encourage anyone that's interested to apply. As far as agenda items, the homestead exemption issue, they're pushing to save and obtain fair means of assessment to keep this program going and not have it eliminated. Senior Day at the Capitalism is scheduled, and they're asking all people to write letters to their representatives pushing for this issue. There was a presentation by Angel Bond from Mobile Access for All. It's a program for seniors and disabled, as well as youth. Public funding has actually been obtained via it's giving technical advice, as well as community partners that are focusing in groups. They did have an open house to discuss needs and access and cost. Right now, even though they have the funds, they do not have enough resources, and they do not have enough drivers to really pursue this program at the speed that they would like to. They are in the process, though, of scheduling a workshop. RTD FlexRide was discussed as an on-demand option. Lafayette has actually had a pilot program going that transports vets to both the Aurora Medical Facility, as well as Cheyenne, that has had very, very positive effects, and fleets are doing partnerships with each other in order to make these programs happen with RTD. We had a presentation from Boulder Legal Services by Brett. He discussed what is available for family, housing issues, public benefits, consumer law services. It is for low-income people, and the low income has defined of 125% of what is designated as low income. Also, ridges of justice is available for the community at low cost. If you don't qualify for access through Boulder County Legal Services, current fees are $125 to $145 an hour. There are grants that are available for those over 60. And Rocky Mountain Legal Services that assist with wills, estates, and bankruptcy income. It's interesting to note that 80% of Boulder County's income is $55,000 a year. So there are a lot that do not qualify, but the low income for those over 60, the low price of $125 to $145 an hour is at least a help or an assistance for those that make greater than $55,000 a year. That seems like a lot of money to some, but in today's world, it's hard to have legal services making that amount of money. So our next meeting is actually on Friday. And I'll have more to report at that time for next month. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I just want to add to what Janine said. Boulder County or agency on aging had the opportunity to apply for Senate Bill 290 money. And they kind of opened that up to various agencies throughout Boulder County to apply. And so I submitted some requests for dog exercise area at some of the Longmont Housing Authority properties, a pickleball, additional personal assistance money. And so we're hoping that as the state disseminates the Senate Bill 290 money, which I think they anticipate being around $15 million, that those funds are going to make their way to Boulder County. I am not sure if they're going to do any adjustments now because of the Marshall fire. I'll be curious to see. We know older adults are often most difficult situations or hardest hit are often older people. But that was through the Boulder County area agency on aging and the state Senate Bill 290. So stay tuned, I guess, for that. I apologize. I didn't mention that earlier. You know, Michelle, I was talking to Amy yesterday about my friend that lost her home is a senior, but is still working as is her husband. And we were able to find her temporary housing. But Amy told me that the affordable senior housing facility, and now I can't remember the name of it, in Lafayette has just recently opened. And so I have encouraged my friend to go ahead and make application because many of the housing situations for people are going to be temporary or short term and want to make sure that they know that there is some affordable senior housing available for them to go ahead and apply for. And it sounds like that might be what Lisa had referenced in terms of meeting with the county in the three units at LHA. So probably more to come on that for sure. Right. Thank you, Jeanine. We're up to the friends and the new business for them is they have brought on some new board members. They'll vote on positions at their annual meeting, which I encourage everybody to attend Tuesday, January 25th, three o'clock, and they'll go over accomplishments for the year, et cetera. It will be important to RSVP so that you get sent the Zoom link. Invitations will be going out this week. Postcard invites go to every donor. And then I ask for some city leadership as well as you all to be invited. So hopefully you'll be able, as Susan said, to attend, but you do have to RSVP so you get the Zoom link. So we can move on down to the Longmont Economic Development Partnership, Julie. As far as I know, I have not been contacted by anybody about those meetings, so still waiting to hear. Okay. I actually talked to them personally and they have your email and told me that they had sent an invite and I will call them again. Yeah. Sorry, I haven't seen anything, so. Okay. And David, have you had a meeting that you have attended for sustainability since we last met? No, there's been no meeting. I did, however, call, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing this right, a tariff at the Community Services Department. And the reason I called was because I was a little confused as to organizationally where everything fit. And I'll explain what they told me and maybe all of you know all this, but I didn't. And so that's why I called. I did know that there was a separate sustainability advisory board that reports, gives their findings, recommendations directly to the city council as distinct from the sustainability coalition. And that's the part that was a little confusing to me because I couldn't quite figure out how it was organized to tell the truth. So I talked to her at some length and I won't go into everything, but as I understand it, you can correct me if I'm wrong. The coalition kind of evolved from the community with the help of Community Services, it sounds like. And so it's kind of a joint effort. It's kind of a symbiotic type of relationship, I think. I was surprised that there was not a chair of the coalition. Well, that's because the city staffs of all of the activities, they put the agendas together and all of that. So that's the part I didn't understand. And so now I have a better understanding of how it works. And then the other thing is how do recommendations flow or how do we communicate back and forth? And again, you probably know all this, but it works both ways according to Etara. And if we have something that we feel strongly about, environmentally and how the environment may affect elders, we can certainly make recommendations through the board to the city council, or it works the other way too, just on an informational basis. So the information comes primarily from the city to the coalition, to the liaison, and then to you folks as a way I understand it. So anyway, that's the flow of things. If you didn't understand that, I hope I explained it clearly, but it's a good organization. I'm impressed with everything that they're doing, but anyway, that's what I've got to report. And engaging, caring communities. Janine, did you want to say, were you at the last meeting? I think Marcia had her hand up test. Oh, sorry. Yes, Marcia. Yeah, I was just, I think that in the past, our liaison function from this board to sustainability has been to the sustainability advisory board, which has officials standing with the city as the sustainability coalition does not. So even though Lisa and her group staff the sustainability coalition, it's not a sanctioned board. It's something that the sustainability put together as a community organization to allow more people to be involved. And they meet, I think, quarterly. Right. Yeah, but David, I think you want to get on the invitation list for the sustainability and advisory board as the senior liaison. Okay, on the advisory board. All right, okay. I think so. Isn't that how we've done it in the past? You know, I don't, I'm not sure how I ended up when I became the representative. I just, I started getting notified. I don't know who notified them. I did not, but somebody did because I got the invites to the quarterly meeting. And those meetings are also open to the public and they do accept input from the public and any questions or concerns that I had or reports that I made were as a result of attending those meetings and just reporting on what happened, Dave. So I believe Janine and then David were replacing Jack Belchinsky as our representative. So on that advisory board for the community advisory board. So now I'm a little confused, so. Yeah, Jack definitely was on the sustainability advisory board. I'll be happy to email a Tara and let her know that David is now the man. Thank you. Thanks, Marcia. Okay, now last committee engaging, caring communities. Were you there, Janine? Yes, you were. Well, yes, I was. You know what I would report about that because I sometimes get a little confused in terms of the process. But the process is that this website has been developed and is being implemented and does consist of, correct me if I'm wrong, Susan, over 300 participants and that people are gonna be able to go on this website and access all and every need they could possibly have. I still continue to voice concern about confidentiality issues and who has access to this information. But I think that the system has been enabled. Now, whether they're starting to use it or not, I don't really know. There hasn't been a date when it was going to be implemented exactly, but they've created the system. And maybe they've created the system and then they're going to address all these other specific concerns as time goes on. They did decide that they wanted to continue having our input and I've agreed to do that. So we will be meeting again virtually the end of this month and I'll continue to ask questions and about concerns and how is this, one of my biggest concerns is that it's very tech oriented and I don't know how computer friendly it's going to be for the average person. So, Susan, what is your input about that? Because those are things that I focus on. Well, we spend a lot of time addressing what we call things and how people will understand the glossary because we said, you know, I reveal myself, well, you know, we need to know if you're male, female, we need to know if you're senior, some basic things. So let's go back to calling it things that people understand we talked a lot about that. They have color coded the website. So people who are responding can see if it's the person who is themselves requesting information or somebody is requesting it for another person. They have a basic skeleton that they're calling and they have a basic skeleton that they're calling and they have a basic skeleton that they're going to be, you know, implementing with some people. And it seems like, according to what I heard, the driving factor is Harold Dominguez, the city manager wants to know that city staff are responding to needs in the community. So it'll take a bit of trial and error to make sure that the system is being pulled in correctly and that the city staff members are able to use it correctly. We were told forget, you know, the first rollout, it probably won't be till the third rollout or a provision that you have a working system. So we're both looking forward to the next meeting on the 24th, but we're looking forward to the next meeting on the 24th, at which time maybe we'll have a better idea if there's an end date in sight for us. But they seem to appreciate the input that we give as we know of people using this information and we ourselves may have used it. So on we go. Very much. That's called a whip. It's not ready, we used to say. Well, sometimes I feel like, yeah, sometimes I feel like the pain in the butt because I keep stressing the same old, same old. Do you know what kind of platform it's built on by any chance? Is it similar? Let me think of one when she would be, is it, is it like an Amazon platform, which is very easy to use? I think that's the goal. Because I'm wondering if they invented themselves or are they using a vendor? No, they, they created it and it's, it's going to be a website. And I mean, the people that are involved are very, very, very bright people, but, but no. And they are very technically as soon. So sometimes their ability to make it simple is challenged. Let me just put it that way. Right. Could they need an analyst? That's the analyst job. Yeah, the translator. Yes. And besides that point, if we have more than three minutes left in the meeting, I will tell you about my experience with the My Colorado app for vaccines. And if you ever have a problem, set aside an hour to navigate through there, fill out this form and we will get back to you. Yeah, they should use, they should really use Epic for everything. I mean, it's the easiest system, healthcare, everything. Epic is like a dream. Well, maybe. Yeah, I was going to say that's new prudence. I was involved with it maybe 10, 12 years ago. I wouldn't have said it then. Right. It's really, you know, great. I mean, it's so simple. I mean, if you're a member and you can't, I'm not sure what to tell you. I'm sure there was a reason for them wanting to develop their own system. Yeah. I just don't have an answer about, you know, why they choose to do that, but there must have been a reason. Yeah. It's usually nothing. So do I have a question of Susan and Jeanine is, can you, have they produced a link yet with the, that you can show us? Oh, that's too bad. No, then we'd have to answer technical questions and that's not my belly. No, I just had a curiosity with the kind of the, what it looks like. Well, I think that that's going to be forthcoming. Yeah, it sounds like it's soon. Right. When, when they put out version one of probably 10 or so. But it's not up yet. So they're still in, in that process. More next month. Anybody else questions, comments in the next couple of minutes. Yeah, I got a quick, I got a quick question for Michelle. We, at the last meeting, unless you talked about already, I missed it, but we talked about the legality of role playing in interviews and you're going to check into that. What did you find out on that? Thank you for reminding and bringing that back up. And I did check with our HR director and she said it is not. An issue or concern that I need to attend to. So she felt like it the way we utilize that role play and the scenario was, was it totally acceptable? Okay. Thank you. Ruth. This is a little late to ask this question, but I had some concerns about this remodeling and the people still living in the apartment as it was being remodeled and moving their beds from the living room back into the bedroom. It's been my experience when one does a lot of this remodeling that there are a lot of off-gassing that gases that occur from paints and carpets and cocks and all sorts of things. And I just am curious about the safety of the people living in there as this is going on. I hope they're taking this into consideration and using products that are, we hope environmentally safe to their health, but I'd be concerned. Thank you. And Ruth, I will pass that on to Lisa and ask her, ask her to address that when she meets with you all in February. Okay. Thank you. Michelle. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Okay. So one of the things that I was thinking about as well when it came to that whole situation is that it seems to me, that in and out every day, that seems like a, for lack of better words, poor use of time and money where it seems like it would be more efficient to just house those folks. So that, and so I'm just, that was a concern to me in how they're handling that loop, how that affects the overall budget. And I think it's important to be aware of that. And I think they're doing that with every single resident of, of, you know, the community. So Julie. The concern around that is really, are they. Doing it for saving money and it creates more. Displacement or disruption for the resident. Is that really the crux of it? I want to make sure I get that. I don't know if I'm going to have to go to the other house. I don't know if I'm going to have to go to the other house. You know where their, their apartment remodeled. Right. And there's people coming in every morning and every afternoon to move things around. Who knows where they're going during the day during this time. Of remodeling. It just seems that it. It is. It would be less disruption if somebody went to a hotel for, you know, a couple of days or a week. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. I agree with that. I agree with that. I think it makes more sense rather than having. These folks focusing. You know, how much of a time it takes to move. You know, bedroom furniture in and out every day. And clean up every day. Clean up. Yeah. And so I think what's really important is for her to give you a perspective of what they are really. Rehabbing. And they really didn't touch the bedrooms. Some of the apartments had some rehab in the bathrooms. To make them more accessible, but the bulk of the rehab was in the kitchen area. The counters, the cabinets and, and the appliances kind of focus. So I think first and foremost, she really needs to talk about what's the rehab going to do. Right. And then I think in terms of the disruption. What we found for. Folks is that often the move to the hotel. Was more disruptive because people were out of their. Normal routines. Their normal environment. And. That was a different kind of disruption. And so, so let me ask her to just really come and talk about the extent of the rehab. What does that really mean? And then the other thing that happened at as the meadows. And I do not know if it's going to happen at village place. Is that certain units were designated for a really major overhaul. To make them. Accessible. Across the board. Because of requirements of certain number of units that need to be accessible. And the people in those units had far more disruption than the majority of people. So I will, I will ask her to better sort of present that picture. And address both. The safety issues off gassing, et cetera. As well as just what is that. Disruption. That may go wrong. But I think that there's some sort of shift. In my opinion. If you think there's a shift in efficiency slash saving money really look like. Right. I guess the everything is choose that I'd be curious if they're, if they give folks an option. I'll be there staying in or going to a hotel for a couple of days because I believe when Sheila and Prudence and I went to Aspen meadows, there were some folks that were just so rejoined that they were able to go to a hotel and be put up in a hotel for. gift cards for meals that they were able to utilize, right? Yeah, right. But for some people, it was very much a dis... A disruption to their schedule. Yeah, and just kind of, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, great. I think a broader perspective of what that work's gonna be and will be helpful to sort of set the stage. Yeah. So, I motion that since it's 1205, we adjourn the meeting. Second. Thank you. We'll see you guys next month, if not sooner at the Friends meeting. All right. Thank you.