 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you my name is Adam Payne County administrator and co-host of this program but as you can see my fearless leader Chairman Mike van der Steen isn't with us today in fact for those of you who follow this program I'd like to share that Mike has now undergone his second significant surgery on an ankle first he did one foot and was laid up for a few months and then did the other and Mike has just been an excellent county board chairman and a true professional and excellent co-host of this program as well as you certainly know if you know Mike or you follow this program I would encourage you to pick up the phone and give him a call he's resting comfortably at home he's going to be there for a while if you get a chance to drop him a note but please extend your support to him I can't imagine being laid up for that length of time you know three four months for both ankles significant reconstruction surgery and to have the positive attitude that Mike has displayed and continued to be an active leader with county government so Mike if you're watching this speedy recovery look forward to having you here soon and again if you if you think of it please drop them a note today I'm very pleased that speaking of health our health and human services director Tom Eggebrecht is with us welcome Tom thanks Adam it's great to be here Tom's been our director now for a little over two years and certainly hit the ground running and out of our 20 departments leads the largest with over a thirty one million dollar budget and a lot of very good employees doing very important work Tom again it's nice to have you here today please begin by sharing just a little bit about yourself how did we get such a experienced knowledgeable director like yourself to come to Sheboygan County I have known a number of people who've worked for Sheboygan County over the years Adam I came here from Brown County most recently and had the pleasure of working with a whole lot of people that have been affiliated with Sheboygan County over the years I think it's a beautiful community when the opportunity came up I felt that compelled to take a look at it I did and I'm just extremely blessed to be here and working with you and by the way that everything you said about Mike Banderstein I couldn't agree with more just a great great individual and again surrounded by good people here so happy to be here now we're happy to have you and again it's just been a little over two years it's amazing how quickly the time flies what's your impression been thus far how how's it been going I would say it has been going great when I think back over the past year we started out on a little bit of a sad note for me Joan Ketterman who had worked for the department I mentioned knowing several people from Sheboygan County Joan Ketterman was near the top of that list in terms of people I have known she retired at the beginning of the year after about 30 plus years of service with the county and she was such a great support to me that I was saddened to see her go but as you mentioned we still have many many excellent staff over this past year Liz Malick who is the manager of our economic support division was recognized by the Wisconsin counties Association she received a friend in county government award for her work and proposing a regional service delivery model for income maintenance that ultimately was adopted in the state budget we've continued on a very very positive path of keeping kids and other individuals out of institutions supporting them in the community we've continued to enjoy great support from our health and human services committee and Mike as I mentioned and yourself and we just delivered our 2012 budget without any variance in terms of meeting the levy target and I think we've got three years running now where we will see the end of the year achieve a positive variance and a result and a fund balance for us so overall I would say things are going extremely well that's an excellent concise summary and things are going well I will hardly agree please start big picture you mentioned economic support what are the divisions that report to you and their area of responsibility in general a health and human service department is charged for the most part with delivering safety net services so we're organized in four divisions so what does that mean an economic support that is a division that provides health insurance and food supplements and financial assistance to persons who may be unemployed or underemployed in terms of public health we manage communicable disease and community environmental health our social services division investigates in response to child abuse and neglect juvenile crime and then our community programs division responds to emergency mental health needs and adult protective issues beyond that though it's also important to me that we provide proactive and preventative services of some examples of that could be found in immunizations that we provide for school age children we offer early intervention supports for kids experiencing developmental delays and our aging and disability resource center which is located in shabuigan falls does an awful lot to promote wellness and and positive experience for persons who are growing older or have disabilities and they do that through a variety of means including educational programs there's a monthly cable show called independent lifestyles that they offer for the general public so from my perspective it's important for us to engage with the community even when safety net services aren't needed so that we have a positive relationship and people understand the work that we're doing and you as you mentioned have such a good team in place some very experienced knowledgeable division managers but just staff throughout the department are so skilled and knowledgeable and again providing those critical safety net services and in today's economy a lot of folks out there hurting a lot of businesses have tightened their belts a lot of homes have tightened their belt with their their budgets what's happening with health and human services in your department have you seen less demand or have demands for your services increased I came here in 2009 and if you recall the the national economy was hitting bottom if you will or what we thought was bottom in late 2008 we saw the banking industry needing support the mortgage industry was in bad shape and so in 2009 I anticipated that we would see record demand and that proved to be true what I did not expect Adam was that that trend was surpassed in 2010 and we're still on an upward trend with with that experience so in 2010 for example requests for energy assistance grew by 12% over our 2009 record year at the end of the year we had 10,000 households that we were assisting in paying utility bills food share applications grew by 22% in 2010 and at the end of the year we were serving about 12,000 people with food supplements and Medicaid health insurance grew by 6% over our 2009 record levels and at the end of the year again 16,000 county residents were receiving health insurance through the Medicaid program and I know for me I have to admit that as I was younger person and before I was involved in this type of service delivery I used to think about people in need as somehow different or it was you know I was always blessed with a good job and people who needed assistance fell in a different category but it's important to understand that today it's not about them it is about us and we've seen some significant changes in the community people who've had ranch homes and teenage children and good jobs and dreams about college for their children experiencing sudden job loss and that could come through companies like Thomas Industries, Pentair, Kohler Company so folks who never thought they would need assistance are the ones that are walking through our doors in recent years so it's a little bit you know humbling to see that happen but I'm glad that we can offer some help to them when those needs arise. Demands for services are clearly up as you highlighted and yet there's pressures on government at all levels to hold the line. You briefly mentioned earlier that your department has been very successful in that regard doing more with less I think the county as a whole certainly can with pride speak to how we've tightened our belts yet been providing greater resources greater services. We're the right arm of state government federal government so I anticipate with these substantial increases for our needs for services that you're seeing more revenue from the state government from the federal government more dollars being passed on to help you meet these growing demands is that the case Tom? It's actually in truth it's it's a mixed bag we are a conduit for many state and federal resources so when we talk about Medicaid benefits as an example we talk about food share as an example we are a conduit that helps people gain access to those resources so in fairness as needs have increased so has that level of resource but what hasn't increased is any dollars that would be associated with administering those programs or with state contracts for purchasing services that we provide locally instead we've seen those things stagnate in recent years and so as demand has increased we've had to do more with the existing staff that we have available we've had to squeeze more services out of limited contract dollars available to us and this upcoming year as an example we've seen actual reductions in state funding youth aids for example will be decreased by 10% or about close to $300,000 we just received word that will be anticipating an additional 7.3% on top of that and at the same time the costs for service whether it's provided locally or at the state level continue to increase so just as the state is reducing youth aids made available to us they're increasing the costs of juvenile correction service that we need to purchase from the state when required it that's increasing by 5% so we're a little bit squeezed on both ends right if you follow this program or follow county government you'll know that this is really an area of frustration for those of us associated with county government particularly those of us involved with putting the budget together many of the programs that we provide are mandated or required by the state of Wisconsin we we need to require these safety net programs and for good good reason but the funding so sufficient funding to carry them out has not been provided in fact more and more the burden or pressure has been put on the local property tax payer to help subsidize or pay for these state mandated programs Tom if the state fully funded the programs that they require us to implement how much approximately in and property taxes could be saved or reduced if the statement it's funding obligation again that's a little bit of a fuzzy line Adam you know we are mandated to provide services how we do that what amount we provide is a little bit negotiable right but if you consider our budget at 32 million dollars the levy contribution there is 13 million so in its purest form if we're providing services that the state is saying by statute we should provide one could say that 13 million dollars of local property tax relief would be achieved if the state fully paid for those services in fairness to the question though many of the services that we provide have required a 10% local match and they did that by statute years ago sure so if if we were to meet our 10% local match obligation as the statutes originally defined we would be contributing about 3.2 million instead of 13 million so it's since since we've been delivering services we have contributed at varying levels we are in fairness doing some things that make sense locally that the state might argue we don't need to do we value senior meals for example we contribute a little bit to that program beyond what we're required to some of our public health initiatives state could argue we don't have to do but we do it because it makes sense in the community values that so again the answer with all of that would be in a generalized figure Adam we could see close to nine million dollars worth of property tax relief if the state provided full funding for the services we're delivering and as you and I know and I think most people appreciate the state's fiscal track record is been horrendous for so long that there are no position to provide more funding to local units of government in fact it's been going the other way I think of late they've gotten their fiscal situation in a little better shape but we certainly aren't gonna see more funding and let me transition back to the county you know your department is one of 20 Sheboygan County is the only county that's reduced property taxes for the last five years yet demands for our services have gone up particularly in health and human services law enforcement programs like that how have you been able to deliver budgets that haven't put more burden on property taxpayers yet continue to sustain programs and in some cases broaden or strengthen the program to serve more people I need to acknowledge first of all it gets back to that staff that you mentioned very early on without the contributions of our staff and our contracted partners none of that would be possible so with the help of those individuals it takes several approaches first of all cost containment and I mentioned early on that we felt good about keeping people out of institutional settings when we can do that we save money we support them in the community with lower cost alternatives in 2005 for example we were spending one point one million dollars on residential care for youth last year we spent three hundred and thirty three thousand dollars in 2005 we spent one point four million on juvenile corrections last year we spent three hundred and twenty five thousand so again providing community based versus institutional care saves us a great deal of money we've also expanded some revenues an example I can provide you with that is children with certain eligibility for Medicaid can be gaining access to Medicaid revenues through state and federal governments that help pay for services otherwise that would have to be paid for by levy and our average revenue generation for those children for the years 2006 through 2010 was about four hundred thousand per year for 2012 we budgeted one point one million in revenue on that line item I would say too that we've when positions have opened up in our department and again we've not grown as a staff instead we're pretty selective about position replacement and we're more selective about position assignment so for 2012 as an example we're going to be assigning one of our public health nurses to work with our ADRC that does two things one it allows us to draw down grant revenue to pay for that nurse in replacement of levy and it adds medical expertise to the work we're doing through the ADRC similar example when a social work position opened up recently rather than refilling it as a child protective worker we've filled it as a children's long term support worker which allows us to gain access to those federal dollars that I just made mention of so again it's moving positions around that allow us to capture additional revenues and improve programs and lastly Adam the thing that we're trying to accomplish and it's going to be several years in the making is movement toward integrated care so what does that mean it means that we've got four operating divisions and it's very possible that one individual could be seen in each one of those divisions for a different reason the more we can come together as a staff and develop joint plans and singular goals will be better off and in cases where we still need individual goals we can at least reinforce the work that's being done in other divisions every time we have contact with that individual or family so with that kind of approach I believe we'll achieve some additional efficiencies down the road one of 20 departments we held the line countywide and one of the other reasons as you know is all employees now are contributing more toward the cost of their health insurance and as well as contributing now 50% toward their pension this was a major state initiative but one of the things I really want to shout out and thank our employees for is we were already leading in that regard as you know our employees already were contributing 10 12 and a half percent toward their health insurance now it's closer to 15 depending on whether or not you participate in our own in-house wellness clinic and as for contributing toward the pension we had been talking about that for years a tougher nut to crack and certainly governor Walker took that on to some folks disappointment but our employees were contributing toward their pension even before governor Walker and state employees were again because I think we have a team in place that knows they all need to be part of the solution and that certainly was a significant contributor toward us balancing our budget holding the line as we look at what's going on at the state I was just reading the paper before this we started taping this program which will be aired I'm sure a few weeks from now the recall of governor Walker is in play and you know there's there's so much angst I think in the state right now and division about should of this happened should that have happened should employees not be able to bargain like they used to what have you a lot of change in the year and what are some examples of some of the change that have recently come out of this new administration that are impacting specifically the health and human services department when you made reference to the employee contribution issue that has provided us with some budget savings beyond what we would have realized previously so I think that needs to be acknowledged and I think you reference that for the individuals involved that hasn't been well received necessarily that hasn't been perceived as a good outcome but it does help us in terms of achieving our budget goals some of the other things I think in general government as it currently exists and I'll focus on health and human services specifically it's the reality is it's going to be increasingly difficult to sustain over the long term to maintain services at the levels we've known and the variety that we've come to appreciate so I think that we're seeing an erosion of support for county government health and human services as it currently exists at them and the governor's proposal budget proposal he had suggested that we would eliminate income maintenance services at the local level and centralize that at the state level well that sounds pretty good when we're climate where you know mandated services are not fully funded our first response might be okay that's fine the fly in the ointment was that the governor also proposed to take our tax levy in doing that and the state's track record in delivering that service was not nearly as good as what our local staff have achieved waiting times to access service were extended in some cases waiting on the phone for two hours application processing could take six months or longer to get through and error rates as we've seen through state centralization efforts thus far have been in the range of three or four percent locally our staff have achieved zero percent so we didn't really embrace that notion out of hand it was instead something that we felt we needed to stand up against and change so that was the reference I made to Liz Malik earlier we will be delivering as part of a regional consortium and look forward to that activity and hopefully we'll be able to deliver on that within the dollars available beyond that additional erosion of support that will impact us down the road the family care program that we've talked about for the last couple of years has now been capped in terms of enrollment will be returning to waiting lists and the Medicaid budget in particular the state has just recently submitted a plan to save five hundred and fifty million dollars in Medicaid expense if the federal government approves that so we'll see that play out in our department in our community in a variety of ways down the road yeah the new norm as they say you mentioned not only the outstanding employees we have in the department the important work they do but all these contract providers and different agencies we work with and you and I have both provided a leadership role with the local county united way and the very important programs that they support and last night you and I both participated in a county economic development corporation meeting where we talked about just how blessed this community is with the partnership between the private sector the public sector our nonprofit organizations it's a caring giving community and the health and human services department can't do it all alone as you know you rely on a lot of nonprofits contracted employees participants out there talk a little bit about the importance of those relationships and and the importance of united way and the agencies they help support in order to maintain services to the neediest of the needy you're absolutely right again we can't do it all alone and we have received such extensive gracious support from the community at large whether through contract relationship more importantly donations I had a conversation with campus dean Al Harderson here at UW-Shaboy and just this week and I think Al came to this community from Illinois I came here from Brown County and we both compared notes and said that until you've come here from elsewhere you can't appreciate how important this is so we do receive by way of donation in kind as well as cash support from individuals private citizens professionals community organizations I heard that this year we received mittens and blankets from the inmates at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institute from their crochet program which is just amazing to me and in terms of business support acuity insurance I feel at some level has adopted our department I'm not certain why but we have seen such generous support from acuity and from Ben Salisman in the years that I've been here that we are absolutely blessed yeah mr. Salisman was recognized last night for being the Shaboy County economic driver of the year and did this one of the staff mentioned your department in particular for the very important work in this community and it was a wonderful evening with a lot of important stakeholders I think we had about 600 people in attendance absolutely and United Way was mentioned as well and the importance of the agencies that they support I think we raised about 2.1 2.2 million last year we're looking to hit that if not modestly exceeded this year and it's just so important to leverage those resources and services with your department and the important work you do we only have a minute remaining but the winter season will soon be upon us here folks will hopefully have enjoyed their Thanksgiving turkey by the time they see this run and Christmas will soon be here but with these times again there are a lot of folks who are hurting some struggling to pay their heating bills some you know struggling to put food on the table how do they get help work what would be your advice to where they can turn to or if a neighbor knows another need where can they go for help most of those needs that you're describing Adam would be best met through our economic support division which is located at the job center which is on wilgus road I believe the address is thirty six twenty wilgus road general phone number there is two oh eight fifty eight hundred so I encourage folks to make contact there I'm always happy to receive phone calls if people have difficulty navigating the system I can be reached by email or you can find my phone number online by going to the sheboygan county government website and I was happy to hear from people and then economic support number again that general line folks can call two oh eight five eight zero zero five eight zero zero and if they don't have the information you're looking for they'll certainly be able to help direct you Tom always a pleasure you covered a lot of ground in a short period of time I respect and appreciate your leadership it's so good to have you in this community and it's so important the work that you and your staff do I thank you for joining us today I appreciate being here Adam and always appreciate your support thank you next month we'll have our highway commissioner with us Mr. Greg Schnell as I mentioned the winter season is going to be upon us here very shortly and Greg will talk about the priorities of road maintenance and winter driving and again Greg Schnell highway commissioner if you have questions concerns about your roads or what's happening in the transportation delivery system here don't hesitate to contact him another very important department in sheboygan county thank you for joining us as I mentioned on the onset if you had a chance or you get an opportunity please give a shout out to chairman Mike van der steen I'm hoping he's going to be back with us soon and until then have a very good and safe and enjoyable holiday season