Director’s Activities Highlights Department Directives

1. Executive Directors ReportTony AndersonExecutive Director Valley Mountain Regional CenterOctober2018 Director’s Activities Highlights Department Directives

2. Directors Activities Highlights Organizational Activities Activities with Community Partners Board Development Communications

3. Organizational & Professional Development (page 1) • Senior leadership has started to review the policies and procedures that have been amended by our training and development workgroups and have approved four policies. • The training and development Workgroup and all the sub-workgroups continue to meet and make progress on updating policies and procedures, auditing the LMS courses, and developing trainings. • We hosted a training for staff on End of Life Issues featuring speakers from the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California. • Our Abilities Expo committee continues to meet to organize an adaptive equipment event at VMRC.

4. Organizational & Professional Development (page 2) • We turned in our caseload ratios report which included two public hearing forums. • We held our performance contract public hearing and will bring it back to the board for final approval. • Our Human Resources department contracted with a quality online training provider and our management completed their bi-annual sexual harassment prevention training. • Our representatives for management Bud Mullanix and Cindy Mix continued their diligent collaborative work with our union representatives to negotiate the new labor agreement and it was approved last week.

5. Organizational & Professional Development (page 3) • Attended an all day meeting on Person Centered Thinking with our VMRC PCT Coaches who have dedicated several hours of training to help lead our person centered transformation in VMRC and our community. • Our Senior Leadership has approved four Administrative Policies updates, in process and discussion of approving 3 others, and has a current list 10 more recommended AP updates and rewrites to approve. These updates have been written by the Training and Development Workgroups.

6. Activities with community partners (page 1) • Met with the DDS Director and discussed a variety of administrative issues important to our regional center. • Attended the fund raiser for VCDI one of our providers in Stanislaus County. • DDS sent a team to meet with us to discuss our risk management processes. They are traveling across the state to visit with regional centers to explore our SIR reporting and how we interface with various community partners. • I was the Master of Ceremonies for the last day of the Supported Life Conference and facilitated a breakout for the conference on our people with disabilities, families, providers and regional center employees can talk to their legislators and advocate for their own needs.

7. Activities with community partners (page 2) • We facilitated a focus group that began to work on the problem of Patch services. Providers have stopped accepting people needing patch services. On Monday September 17th several of us attended the memorial service for our consumer Andre. • Cindy Mix and attended the community memorial project services in Stockton and Manteca • Attended the State Council's Advisory Committee in Stockton and gave updates on the projects of the regional center. • I spoke at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry day long symposium on the campus in Stockton. I provided an overview of the regional centers and Mary Sheehan organized the guest speakers for the event. • I have scheduled meetings with advisory groups of providers, families, and consumers.

8. Activities with community partners (page 3) • Claire Lazaro continues to manage the Self-Determination advisory committee which is a joint committee of Valley Mountain Regional Center and the Local Office of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities and Cindy Mix will be attending the statewide advisory committee meetings with the DDS director. • Our published Self-Determination list maximum is now 100 people, and our list of interested individuals for the program is now at 300. We received our list of participants on Oct 2, 2018. • Wrote a grant application to Coca-Cola company in support of our Mental Health Services Act grant . • Attended the San Joaquin Behavioral health Board meeting in Stockton. In the meeting we acknowledge Cara Dunn for her recent assistance in support one of our consumers in needing emergency mental health services.

9. Activities with community partners (page 4) • The state's HCBS Advisory Group met for the first time since March of 2017. I am an appointed member of this Advisory committee. • Met with the San Joaquin Choral group (our employment specialist met the director at a chamber of commerce meeting) and we are working on organizing some venue for our staff and consumers and families etc. in the near future. • Met with the school district and SELPA directors in our region. We discussed trends in population and regional center/school collaboration, and VMRC's efforts to improve outreach with our Spanish Speaking community. • I attended a great meeting organized by SCDD North Valley Hills office, with our provider community to discuss an initiative to create promotional materials for use in local newspapers etc. highlighting the many good works and positive stories about our community and service system.

10. Board development • Our Special Events Committee, chaired by Kori Huevel, held their kick off meeting at VMRC. We identified additional members needed and agreed to an event format (to be reported on during the board meeting). • Bylaws committee met again and made great progress on updating the articles of incorporation and the bylaws documents. The committee will bring it forward to the board in October for a December vote. • Worked on completing the technology survey with one of our board members and discussed a variety technology issues

11. Communication/Outreach • Continued work with our Social Media Team and our website teams and Jan and I attended a two day weekend training on WordPress, the software that we use to manage our website. • We created an appreciation email campaign in recognition of the national direct support professionals week and included several inspirational articles and resources for the profession. • Starting after this October 2018 Board meeting I will be sending board members a short email on the “Director’s Travels” to communicate a short look at where the leadership is focusing it’s time and why and or what we’re trying to accomplish. • The “Director’s Travels” will also be posted on our VMRC InsidExchange to better inform the employees about progress and status on advancing our goals. • Finally, we’ll be regularly sending out short blog linked stories/reports to our email list to increase our community engagement.

12. Department correspondence

13. 2018 STATE CAPITOL 87TH ANNUAL TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY • The Department of Developmental Services, (DDS) has been asked once again to participate in the official State Capitol Tree Lighting Ceremony. • We are sending out requests for ornaments to all regional centers, developmental centers, and community art programs. • To be included on the tree, all ornaments must be received at DDS headquarters by Friday, November 9.

14. INSTRUCTIONS FOR REQUESTING HEALTH AND SAFETY WAIVER EXEMPTIONS AS A RESULT OF LOCAL MINIMUM WAGE • The purpose of this correspondence is to provide a detailed description of the information the Department must receive to consider an exemption request in the timeliest manner possible. The following documentation must be submitted to the Department when requesting an exemption due to a LMW ordinance: • (see the attached DDS Correspondence October 2018 Board Meeting)

15. REVISED E-1 ALLOCATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018-19 • Attached are worksheets displaying revised and corrected allocation amounts to be included in the 2018-19 E-1 Contract Amendment that your regional center will receive within the next few weeks. The revision includes a net $3,627,000 reduction in Core Staffing and Operating Expenses as compared to the original E-1 Intent Letter dated 08/15/2018. This resulted from a correction to the number of intakes and assessments upon which Intake Worker, Supervising Intake Counselor, and Secretary I positions are based. The Department worked with ARCA and reached agreement on the revised allocation.

16. MEDI-CAL RATE INCREASE FOR HOME HEALTH SERVICES • On September 17, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved California’s State Plan Amendment (SPA), authorizing increases in Medi-Cal rates effective July 1, 2018 for some services, including rates for Home Health Agency and nursing services. As a result, this increases the maximum rates for regional center funded services established using the “Schedule of Maximum Allowances”, as referenced in Title 17, California Code of Regulations, Section 57322. For applicable services and providers, regional centers should process rate adjustments with an effective date of July 1, 2018.

17. Letter from Marie kannepoulsen, ph.d chair of the interagency coordinating council to director mac taylor the legislative analyst office

18. Questions?