Committee Work/Travel

As you may know, I am serving on the Human Services Committee (whose entire job is to oversee the Department of Social Service) and the Health and Education Committee (overseeing, among others, the Department of Health, Office for the Aging, and the Mental Health Clinic). I'm also the Board liaison to the Community Services Board, which oversees various mental health, substance abuse and developmental delay services throughout the county.  We got the annual statistical report from the Mental Health Clinic at the last Health & Ed meeting; let me know if you're interested in seeing it.

One of the more urgent issues before the Health and Education Committee (and, eventually, the full Board), is the senior meal program. It is one of the few large programs the County runs which is not required by State or federal law, and so is always on the chopping block come budget time. The contract with the company that provides the meals, and delivers many of them (the rest are delivered by volunteers) expires at the end of this year, and a new one is being negotiated. We've asked for a report on those negotiations at the May Health & Ed meeting, so I'll report any interesting developments then. If you know someone who benefits from the senior meal program, or feels strongly about it one way or another, the next few months would be the time to contact their Board Representative.

I'm also attending other committee meetings as well, now that I have more time, just to learn as much as I can about all areas of County functioning. I've attended all the Manor Committee meetings and Administration Committee meetings this calendar year, and I've also gotten to the Public Works Committee and the Solid Waste/Environmental Concerns Committee. This morning, I attended my first Public Safety Committee meeting.

Brian Pokorny, the IT manager for the County, kindly granted me my wish to have the chart detailing which departments report to which committees on the County website. You can find it here.

By the way – since nearly all the meetings are in Cooperstown, I'm driving a lot this year. I've decided that, as my contribution to the very tight county budget, I won't be claiming the mileage for reimbursement (although I will be claiming it as a deduction on my income taxes). I've traveled almost 1,000 miles to meetings since the beginning of the year (and car-pooled, when possible, to many more).