Here’s what you need to know
- The Kings County Board of Supervisors met on Oct. 18 and approved the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Mental Health Services Authority Innovation Project Plan. The cost of this plan is $3,674,521 for the five-year term. The agreement is to transition the existing EHR system, Anasazi, to a new system called SmartCare.
- Kings County Registrar of Voters Lupe Villa announced that three precincts out of five have issues. He will report the complete review of the findings and the resolution in the next board meeting.
- The board accepted the $950,000 from the California Department of Public Health, which will be allocated to the Kings County Department of Public Health Laboratory. The funds will improve the Biosafety Level – 2 Room, replace lab benches and countertops and procure laboratory equipment.
- In response to the pandemic, the board authorized a second round of $500,000 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to be allocated toward residents’ utility arrears in the community service districts (CSDs) of Armona, Home Garden, Kettleman City, and Stratford.
Follow-up questions
- How can county residents with mental health issues benefit from the innovation plan?
- What changes will the county adopt when the state of emergency lapses in February 2023?
- What effects will the amendment between the county and CareATC have on patients with lab orders?
The Scene
According to its website, Kings County is a “general law” county, meaning the state constitution and state general law determine the county’s governmental structure.
The board of supervisors is the governing body for Kings County and many county special districts. Each of the board’s five members is elected non-partisan to a four-year term.
The board sets policies and depends on the county administrator, county officials, and department heads to fulfill its wishes.
The board of supervisors has administrative, legislative, and quasi-judicial duties and responsibilities prescribed by the California State Constitution and Statutes.
On Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, the meeting was held at 9 a.m. in the board chambers, located at 1400 West Lacey Boulevard Administration Building No. 1, Hanford, California.
Kings County County Board of Supervisors Members present:
- Joe Neves, District 1 (Lemoore & Stratford)
- Richard Valle, District 2 (Avenal, Corcoran, Home Garden & Kettleman City)
- Doug Verboon, District 3 (North Hanford, Island District & North Lemoore)
- Craig Pedersen, District 4 (Armona & Hanford)
- Richard Fagundes, District 5 (Hanford & Burris Park)
Others Present:
- Administrative Officer Edward Hill
- Assistant Administrative Officer Kyria Martinez
- Sheriff David Robinson
- Behavioral Health Director Lisa Lewis
- Behavioral Health Assurance Manager Christi Lupke
- Fire Chief Wiliam Lynch
- Chief Information Officer John Devlin
- Deputy Clerk Diane Badasci
- Assistant Finance Director Rob Knudson
- Registrar of Voters Lupe Villa
- Public Health Director Rosemary Rahn
- Sean Cash
- Jay Wood
- Heather Silva
- Eli Wiseman
- Mjewell
- Atonya Moore
- Garrett Jones
- Everardo Legaspi
- Sarah Harp
- Clarissa Ravelo
- Christine Olvera
- Alex Hernandez
- John CrisCom
Discussions/Actions
Registrar of Voters Lupe Villa announced that three precincts out of five have issues. He will report the complete review of the findings and the resolution in the next board meeting.
Public Health Director Rose Mary Rahn stated that the governor will rescind the state of emergency on the last day of February 2023. She added that the Brown Act for teleconferences is separate.
The board (5-0) unanimously approved the minutes from the regular meeting for October 11, 2022.
The board (5-0) unanimously approved items in the consent calendar.
A. Human Services Agency:
1. The board authorized the Human Services Agency Director to accept the funding allocation upon the Department of Health Care Services’ approval of the grant application for the Medi-Cal Health Enrollment Navigator Project retroactively, effective from October 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026.
HSA has partnered with local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) since January 2020 to provide Medi-Cal Enrollment Health Navigator services such as community outreach, application for benefits, and retention assistance.
The Medi-Cal Health Enrollment Navigators’ current allocation agreement ends September 30, 2022.
The new allocation agreement will cover services from October 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026, including a closeout period from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
B. Public Health Department:
1. The board accepted the California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 epidemiological laboratory capacity enhancing detection expansion and advanced molecular detection supplemental funding for major construction.
The California Department of Public Health was awarded $18,554,181 in advanced molecular detection supplemental funding for the major construction of public health laboratory facilities.
$950,000 have been allocated to the Kings County Department of Public Health Laboratory.
These funds will be anticipated to improve the Biosafety Level – 2 Room, replace lab benches and countertops and procure laboratory equipment.
C. Public Works Department:
1. The board authorized the purchasing manager to purchase 14 vehicles using the Sourcewell (formerly the National Joint Powers Alliance) purchasing consortium. The total cost of this vehicle purchase request is $756,000.
The Fleet Division would like to purchase 14 Dodge Charger patrol vehicles through the County Fleet Replacement Plan.
The fleet was notified that patrol vehicles would not be available to order next year.
Therefore, staff would like to order next year’s vehicles in this fiscal year to ensure the Sheriff’s Office has patrol cars.
Fleet will outfit the vehicles with equipment to reduce cost and expedite availability.
The County has used Sourcewell service for several years as it complies with the county’s purchasing policy requirements.
Additionally, Sourcewell allows the county to obtain the state rate for vehicle purchases.
D. Sheriff’s Office:
1. The board approved the purchase of 10 kennels for the Animal Services warehouse;
b. The board approved a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) project in the Animal Services warehouse.
On September 13, 2022, the board approved the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Tachi-Yokut Tribe for animal services.
Kings County Animal Services must add additional kennels and an HVAC system to take care of the additional animals being brought into the shelter.
Building maintenance will handle all service professional service agreements for the HVAC project. Additionally, the County will bill for variable costs associated with routine animal control services as outlined in the MOU.
E. Administration:
1. The board approved the fourth amendment between Kings County and CareATC to include an update to patients receiving outside provider lab orders.
The County agreed with CareATC to provide the Employee Health Center’s on-site services on February 26, 2019.
Previously, when CareATC patients had outside lab orders at the Employee Health Center, they could have their outside lab orders reviewed by the provider at CareATC.
The process of outside lab orders is being updated to improve the continuity of care and patient safety.
CareATC patients may continue to have lab orders from outside providers drawn at the Employee Health Center.
However, the results will go to the ordering provider, not the CareATC provider.
This amendment will allow for the appropriate interpretation of results and the development of a treatment plan by the ordering/treating provider.
2. The board approved the agreement with the Stratford Public Utility District for residential customer utility arrears.
In response to the pandemic, the Board authorized $500,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to be allocated toward residents’ utility arrears in the community service districts (CSDs) of Armona, Home Garden, Kettleman City, and Stratford.
Round 1 of this allocation was approved in 2021 from January 27, 2020, to August 31, 2021.
To award the remainder of the $500,000 allocation, Round 2 will cover September 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, to bring the CSDs more current with their utility revenues.
Regular agenda items are as follows:
A. Behavioral Health Department (presented by Behavioral Health Director Lisa Lewis and Assurance Manager Christi Lupkes)
- The board (5-0) approved the Electronic Health Record Mental Health Services Authority (MHSA) Innovation Project Plan.
The cost of this plan is $3,674,521 for the five-year term.
On August 2, 2022, the board approved the department’s 2022-2029 participation agreement with California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) for the Semi-Statewide Enterprise Health Record (EHR) Project.
The agreement is to transition the existing EHR system, Anasazi, to a new system called SmartCare, supported by Streamline and overseen by CalMHSA for twenty-two contracting participating counties.
B. Fire Department (presented by Fire Chief Wiliam Lynch)
1. a. The board allocated 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) Fire Captains in budget unit 241000;
b. The board (5-0) deleted 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) Fire Apparatus Engineers in Budget Unit 241000.
As a result of the 2/0 staffing schedule initiated in 2016, the Fire Department currently has two stations that do not have a shift captain assigned on each shift.
This issue results in only one fire captain being assigned to one shift leaving the other two without management supervision.
This places the responsibility for the day-to-day operation and emergency incident decisions on subordinate personnel and displaces management oversight.
The department requests adding two fire captain positions and deleting two Fire Apparatus Engineer positions from the current position allocations.
The budget impact will be negligible since no additional new positions will be required to complete this request.
Additionally, the positions will eliminate the overtime costs at Fire Station 11 by assigning one Captain to that location to cover a long-term disability vacancy.
The cost difference between a Fire Captain and a Fire Apparatus Engineer position is approximately $5.20 per hour, with an annual increase of approximately $20,546 per position.
The department has expended $41,519 in overtime costs related to the open position at Station 11.
It is anticipated that an additional amount of overtime equal to or higher will be needed in the fiscal year 2022-23 budget to continue to cover the staffing needs if the positions are not allocated.
C. Information Technology (presented by Chief Information Officer John Devlin)
1. The board (5-0) approved the agreement with Valley Security and Alarm (a Geil Enterprises, Inc company) to replace the access control system.
Kings County is currently running a Honeywell Access Control System that a new system will replace by Digital Monitoring Products (DMP).
Valley Security and Alarm is the vendor that installed the DMP system at the new Sheriff’s Operations building.
Valley Security and Alarm installed the DMP access control system for the Sheriff operations building.
With the issues we were having with the Honeywell access control system, the staff opted to replace it with the DMP solution.
If the county were to stay with the Honeywell solution and upgrade all county access control locations, it would have cost approximately $30,000 more and still have an old technology platform.
Chief Information Officer John Devlin stated that the DMP solution will give the county a more robust administration software as well as the ability to upgrade for the future.
The closed session includes
- Workers compensation: (3 Cases) [Govt. Code Section 54956.95]
- Personnel matter: [Govt Code Section 54957] Public Employee Appointment: Job Training Office Director
The meeting lasted until 1 p.m. The next board meeting will be on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, at 9:00 a.m.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at Documenters-admin@fresnoland.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.