The Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee met on April 23, 2026 (the approved minutes are dated April 20, 2026, a discrepancy noted) to review the FY27 Operating Budget and FY27-32 Capital Improvements Program for four areas: the Office of Human Rights, DHHS Aging and Disability Services, DHHS Behavioral Health and Crisis Services, and the new DHHS Social Services Office. The committee recommended approval of several budget items, added multiple items to the Reconciliation List for full Council consideration, and discussed service trends, provider supplements, and the impact of federal and state changes. Council action is scheduled for May 2026.
All right, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the second operating budget meeting for the Health and Human Services Committee. Today we will be discussing four agenda items. We apologize for the delay. But before we get started, I want to thank my colleagues, Councilmembers Friedson and Ludke, and we also have our colleague, Councilmember Mink, also joining us as well. We have, as I mentioned, four agenda items beginning with the Office of Human Rights, focusing on its role in enforcing the anti-discrimination laws and ensuring equitable access to protections across our community. Next, we will turn to aging and disability services, where we will learn a bit more about how the county is supporting our older adults and individuals with disabilities to live in dignity and independence and how we're preparing for this population moving forward. We will then review behavioral health and crisis services with particular attention to the continuum of care model, crisis response capacity, and access to mental health and substance use services. And then finally, we will consider the Social Services Office, which serves as a critical safety net for our vulnerable residents, and discuss service delivery caseload trends and outcomes related to family stability and economic support. And so we have Miss Selena who will be joining us and will get us started. Good afternoon, Councilmember and Chair, Sales, Council Members Ludke, Friedson, and Mink. I'd like to call to the table Director Stowe and Miss Garcia as well as Ms. Arnham from OBM. Would you like me to start with the budget or would you like Miss Director Stowe to give some remarks? Well, you can get started, let them get settled. Okay. All right. So I'm going to talk about the executive summary and the key issues for the committee to review first. So the county executive recommends a decrease of 28,394 or 1.32% from the FY26 approved operating budget of 2,145. The county executive's budget includes no items that must be placed on the reconciliation list for the council's council president's budget approach. Increases recommended for the Office of Human Rights consist entirely of compensation adjustments and non-discretionary operating expensive. The operating budget tool, the OBET, the two the Office of Human Rights received a commitment level rating of six, demonstrating a sustained commitment to advancing racial equity and social justice. With respect to the budget in particular, the budget discussion items. A little more about the OBET score. ORESJ suggests, though, that additional budget resources would enable the Office of Human Rights to develop effective internal partnerships, tracking systems, communication mechanisms, and engagement strategies, which will help the office deliver on its commitment to advancing racial equity and social justice. And the full description by the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice is at circle six. There's also in circle seven. It's related to the public services intern position. And Director Stowe might want to talk about that a little. That is all that I have to share. Chair. Thank you, Miss Singleton. And now we will hear from the Office of Human Resources. Right, it's not reasonable. Human rights. Thank you. Did you have a presentation or Annalith? Welcome. Good morning. Good morning, sir. How are you doing? Let me change it again. Oh, good at the afternoon. We're all we're all gaining our bearings. So we are pleased to be here today to just uh comment on a couple of things relative to what we're doing with the Office of Human Rights. Um in terms of the positions that were described earlier on. Um we had been engaged prior to COVID in an actual program involving testing. Uh this was match testing that was done in the community, trying to, of course, uh simulate a actual rental application experience. Uh of course, shortly after that, COVID came in, and so obviously we're not doing anything in person. Uh, and that was something that again became an opportunity for savings in our programs, and so it began to take on that role uh for some time after COVID. And so this time around, it was accepted as an opportunity for some savings within the program itself.