HomeMy WebLinkAboutLife's Choices Kauai-Drug Response, DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET CALL-BACKS FY 2014-15 4/21/2014
DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET CALL-BACKS FY 2014-15
• LIFE'S CHOICES KAUAI - DRUG RESPONSE PLAN
April 21, 2014
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There being no objections, the Committee was called back to order at 1:49 p.m. and
proceeded as follows:
Life's Choices Kauai—Drug Response Plan
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Mason K. Chock, Sr.
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Chair Furfaro: Okay. We are back from our recess. We are
accordingly going to focus ourselves now on Life's Choices and in particular the Drug
Response Plan. I would like to remind everybody that the Response Plan is for discussion
today for the next hour and that the actual item on the future use of the treatment facility
and/or how do we get to a treatment facility is actually scheduled for July 23rd. This is a
review of the current plan, its accomplishments and shortfalls and that is what our focus
will be on for the next hour. On that note the rules are suspended. Theresa, along with
Nadine, I believe you are coming up. You passed out this particular piece at the recess?
Okay. Do you have a PowerPoint that you are going to be doing? The floor is yours.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
THERESA KOKI, Life's Choices Kaua`i Coordinator: Sorry. Good
afternoon Chair and members of the Council, Theresa Koki, for the record.
Chair Furfaro: Good afternoon.
Ms. Koki: Good afternoon. Today I would like to present
our Kaua`i Community Drug Response Plan for 2008-2013 and this is an update of our
goals. Just a little bit of history about our program in February of 2003 the County Council
here authored by Mel Rapozo introduced a resolution to have a community-based effort to
deal with the island wide drug problem. Then our Office was created. Then we had our
first Drug Plan for 2004-2009. Here we are today, with our Drug Plan that was from 2008-
2013. This Drug Plan was dedicated in memory to Mayor Bryan Baptiste for his leadership
in initiating this effort. So we will start with prevention. Our prevention vision is to
engage and empower our youth, adults, and families to make the choice to be drug-free.
Our first goal for prevention was to develop the structure of the Drug Plan to provide
effective coordination and implementation of prevention programs for youth and families on
Kauai. So here are a few measures of success. We had consistent attendance at meetings.
Our prevention meetings have collective impact discussions for all of our prevention
providers. We had three years' of consistent attendance from 2009 to 2011 and that was
because we had a strategic prevention grant for our prevention providers. We increased
representation by...we identified the missing agencies using the prevention community
stakeholders wheel and extended invitations to our providers and gave them a meeting
calendar to block off the date to make a commitment to be part of the prevention team. We
are building prevention system infrastructure through the SPF process which is the
Strategic Prevention Framework. Our new mission at that time was created, most recently,
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actually and it was to engage and empower the community to promote positive outcomes in
their Life's Choices. Funding was secured for coordination and support. The first phase of
strategic prevention framework State incentive grant funds was $313,000 for assessment
and capacity-building. That also included funds for personnel in our Office. Later in 2009
we were able to continue the Big Brothers, Big Sisters mentoring program on Kauai for an
additional two years with funding from the Office of Youth Services and Title V community
prevention grant efforts most recently in 2013 we were awarded again from the Office of
Youth Services to provide a structured program for our suspended youth. Working with the
Department of Education, we identified that when kids get suspended for drug use on
school property, they get suspended for 90 days, leaving them without any supervision or
structure to complete their school year. The service provider for that contract is Hale Kipa.
Then also in 2009 we received $1.2 million in Phase II of the strategic prevention
framework grant which allowed the County to award, through the request for proposal
process nine prevention agencies with funding to provide evidence based programs in the
schools and communities island wide. The programs that we are operating were eight new
evidence-based programs in the schools and communities throughout the island. They were
implementing strategies on the top substance-abuse issues that are identified by the State
in its subcommittees and that was under aged drinking. Here is our strategic prevention
framework subcontractors. We have Hale Opio, and the areas that they taught their
program. They target 120 youth and they actually got 98% of that goal. Their contract
time was from November 2010 to September 2011. Hale Kipa was another provider. Alu
Like was another provider. They went way over the amount that they targeted at 174%.
Hina Mauka targeted such a large amount that they only reached 15% of the goal. They
did very good work, but they...the number...the targeted group area was just too much.
They did not realize the effort that it would have taken to accomplish that 100%. We had
the Boys and Girls Club of Kaua`i, Circles of Light and Hale Kipa II, meaning that they
applied for an additional grant when the second request for proposal went out. Kaua`i
Economic Opportunity and the YWCA which also exceeded their goal and did 184%. Based
on the accomplishments of the providers, we were able to allow them a no-cost extension,
four of our prevention providers continued their programs until the end of the grant in
September of 2012. They were Alu Like, Boys and Girls Club, Circles of Light, and the
YWCA. These are the evidenced based programs that were implemented in the school and
in the community. There is All-Stars, life's skills training, positive action, project alert,
sports, too good for drugs, and then that is prevention education. We also have our
environmental strategies which was community mobilizing for change on alcohol called
CMC and then an information dissemination program, called Stars for Families. This is
where kids would bring home packets to interact with their parents. Again continuing
with our programs continued and expanded, in 2012 Phase III of the SPF grant allowed
prevention providers to apply directly for funding to the State of Hawai`i Department of
Health Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division to continue again their evidence-based programs.
As part of their sustainability plan, two of the programs continue to teach positive action,
which is an evidence-based program until today with other funding and that was the YWCA
and Hale Opio. Right now we are currently working with the Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Division on a partnership for success grant to continue to address under aged drinking.
Problem ages 12-20 and the prescription drug misuse and abuse among individuals 12-25.
Here is another program that was continued and expanded through money from the Kaua`i
County Council, we were able to give funding through the Hawai`i Community Foundation
for pre-school and after-school pilot programs. So the first-round of funding was awarded to
six organizations and their second round will be available in May of this year. So here are
the six organizations that got funding. Circles of Light, Aloha School Early Learning
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Center, Hanalei School PTSA, Island School, Koloa Early School, and Hale Opio Kaua`i.
The measures of success was the final one was decrease in first drug use among Kauai
middle and high school students as shown on the Department of Health youth behaviors
surveillance survey. Here we are, where we did good in some areas and not so well in other
areas. So if we look...this is a school survey that taken in school every three years and they
are trying to implement it every year. Goal number two for prevention was to promote the
availability of public and other transportation for youth to and from activities. One
measure was the number of transportation partnerships formed with providers and clients.
We had the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Program partner with Kamehameha Schools and
they offered seven children to go to a mentoring program through Kamehameha Schools.
The County of Kauai also partnered with Hina Mauka in three fifteen passenger vans and
the County Transportation Agency worked together with the prevention providers and 112
participants were riding the bus to go to these evidence-based programs. Extended bus
coverage was one of the other measures. The committee worked on a survey to assess the
need for late evening and weekend support services. We submitted that to our County
Transportation Department and with the Administration and County Council working
together, they funded extended routes / hours and youth were better ability to access the
programs that they attend.
For our treatment and community integration part, whose mission is local access to
an affordable, effective drug treatment and support that offers all a hope for a happy,
productive life without drugs. These are two themes that in the beginning in 2003 started
separately, but realized that they are were related and formed one team. Their first goal
was to establish additional residential treatment services and facilities for youth and
adults. Our measures of success would be that on-island treatment is available and we have
clean and sober homes that have been established for adults on Kauai. We recently
completed the feasibility study for the adolescent drug treatment center. Community
acceptance of treatment facilities, the majority of the community has accepted the need for
treatment facilities, but we still need to put more outreach for the community's acceptance
and education. The majority of provider outcomes achieved in 2011 the State Department
of Health ADAD partnered with Kaua`i, utilizing the access to recovery grant called ATR
and the State was awarded $11 million for four years and Kaua`i has a fee for service
contract with ADAD and treatment providers including the County Transportation Agency.
I am not sure that you know, but today is the day that people can go to the park over here
and get their bus pass for free. They get an assessment and the need is evaluated and they
get their bus passes.
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, you are talking about the park in
front of the Historical Society?
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: It looks like it is a success. There are a lot of
people.
Ms. Koki: They actually go to where their clients are and
that is unusual, instead of expecting them to come to an Office.
Chair Furfaro: Very unique, thank you.
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Ms. Koki: We have a coordinated assessment of treatment
system that is ongoing and in the back of the Drug Plan and it is a continuum of care and
we do need to update that. For number four measures of success, we had beds allocated for
Kaua`i clients. We currently eight beds allocated on Oahu through Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services for our youth. Adult bed space on the other islands are on a first-
come, first-served basis. Funds secured to support beds when empty or insurance not
available...we had a grant secured for adult residential treatment in 2008-2011. It was
contracted with Hina Mauka. At that time at least 53 adults received grant-in-aid for off-
island treatment. On the satisfaction of referring agencies with the process, we know we
have referrals made by supporting agencies which is the Department of Education, Office
the Prosecuting Attorney, KPD, Drug Court, Family Court, and Hope Probation, and the
Veterans Administration. To-date a satisfaction survey has not been completed. We know
that referrals are not being made, but we are not sure how satisfied that they are with the
process. Goal two of the Drug Plan was changed. It was establishing an on-island
therapeutic living facility and then it was changed to establishing on-island clean and sober
living homes. The positive community response to facilities in this case was a plan was
created for community outreach and education to minimize resistance. We facilitated ten
island wide meetings in 2010-2013 to provide that community outreach and education. We
currently have six clean and sober homes for adults on the island and that is a new facility
established. Referrals made by supporting agencies, agencies continue to refer youth and
adults off-island for residential treatment. Goal number three for treatment and
community integration was to expand drug treatment services within the Kaua`i
Community Correctional Center to support the recovery of prisoners. In KCCC, the
treatment in-house is the Salvation Army curriculum, freedom to change a level II
substance-abuse rehabilitation program that provides inmates the highest level of
treatment available here on the island. KCCC has allowed for other agencies to come into
the facility and assist with treatment services. The number of people receiving treatment
services right now in the program includes about 42 participants and that offers in-facility
counseling, support groups, and transitional services after inmates are released. About 80
more inmates need in-house treatment. The number referred to community treatment
services upon release, all who attend the program are referred to continuous treatment and
wrap around services. All inmates have an exit plan six months prior to their release
through the re-entry program. This is a program recently worked on with our treatment
and community integration team. They did an excellent job to work with people in KCCC
and our Workforce Investment Act, Office of Economic Development for the re-entry,
reinvestment act for the workers that includes people from getting released from KCCC as
well as other incarcerated facilities that we contract with. And also Drug Court clients who
are in recovery. Goal number four was to ensure that transportation options are available
to those seeking services for substance-abuse. Again with transportation available to
clients at hours and in locations needed, we had conducted a survey in 2009 with the
providers and treatment clients and our findings was that bus services were not available
after sessions were completed and some bus stops were too far away from treatment
services. So the week day extended hours of service proposed by the Administration and
approved by the County Council had greatly assisted the clients. Treatment providers now
use access to bus stops as criteria for selecting their facilities. Clients utilize expanded
routes. In 2011, Kaua`i received the Access to Recovery Grant from the Department of
Health, which is $11 million for four years and Access to Recovery gives out vouchers for
people who need transportation. Four agencies report frequent use of the Kaua`i Bus as the
only mode of transportation for their clients participating. Agencies include Positive
Parenting, Women in Need, Love the Journey, and Hoola Lahui Hawai`i. This is our
expanded routes as of April 16th, last week and how many people on that grant are
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receiving vouchers for their bus passes. In February, it was 44. In March it was 194. And
as of April 16th, which is just halfway through the month, there was 324 vouchers that
were issued. Goal number five of the treatment and community integration goal was to
participate in the legislative process to ensure needed funding and services for drug
treatment and community integration. The measures of success was needed legislation
passed and signed. Kaua`i's voice heard statewide on substance-abuse issues and due to the
limited resources, this goal has not been pursued. For our enforcement group whose vision
is to work together to interdict drugs and prosecute drug users and dealers and reduce
crime. Their first goal was to improve communications with the community. The measures
of success was the quantity of projects initiated following from community problems and
one of the accomplishments were the neighborhood watch program increased from 6 to 15
active communities. In the Summer of 2012, we were able to grant KPD $24,000 to conduct
17 under aged drinking surveillance and park sweeps resulting in 7 citations, 1 arrest, and
five detainments. The other measure of success was a decrease in overall crime statistics in
areas where projects were initiated. It is difficult to compare a decrease in crime because
now there are more accessible ways to report crime. Using the 411 crime mapping and all
the anonymous tips, more crime is being reported. It shows that there is an increase and
the neighborhood watch program there is another way for them to report crimes. Here are
some of our drug statistics that were available up until 2011. It went down in some areas
and it went up in others. Goal number two for enforcement was to secure funding and
other resources needed to support law enforcement and intervention programs. Our
measures of success, number one was to fill vacancies at the Police Department and the
recruitment and retention of personnel, especially sworn Officers remains a high priority
for the Kauai Police Department. The training resource and development in personnel
sections are taking lead roles in addressing this County critical area. With that in the last
five years we had 63 Officers fill vacancies.
Chair Furfaro: Theresa on that slide, do you have anything that
shows what the attrition of departing Officers was for the same period?
Ms. Koki: No, I do not. I am sorry. I know one of the goals
was to have a three-year retention and we found a few for various reasons did not stay,
whether it was because of an evaluation or they decided it was not for them. We could work
better and closer with the Police Department to get the statistics.
Chair Furfaro: I will send the question over to the Police
Department. I just wanted it for comparison.
Ms. Koki: So the number of vacancies filled again, they
received...the Police received the COPS grant, which is community-oriented policing grant
from the U.S. Department of Justice to hire six additional Police Officers. Here is the
retention of...the retention of newly trained Officers for three years. With subsidized
vehicles and Collective Bargaining Unit pay increases that serves as incentives to retain
current Officers and attract new Officers. Goal number three was to expand the demand
reduction programs. One of the ways that Chief Perry decided to do that was to have the
Citizens Police Academy. It was established in 2012 as an interactive program designated
to educate the public about KPD's policies and the criminal justice system and the Academy
is prepared to hold a third class this spring and graduated 19 citizens thus far. Another
demand reduction program is the Kaua`i Police Activities League and today we were able to
support KPAL with grant funding again for their Sea Scouts, wrestling, basketball, boxing,
and flag football.
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Chair Furfaro: Is there money in this year's budget for KPAL?
Ms. Koki: I am not sure.
NADINE K. NAKAMURA, Managing Director: I believe there was funding
for a position for KPAL this year in the budget as a re-described position. So that there
could be one full-time staff person dedicated to KPAL, overseeing KPAL activities.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Nadine.
Ms. Yukimura: Is that an Officer position or a civilian position?
Ms. Nakamura: It is an Officer position.
Ms. Koki: The reason why we could support this with our
grant funding, it was part of the environmental strategy...it was not evidence-based, but it
was our environmental strategy. The number of collaborative cases accomplished was
difficult to measure. Number of suspects and clients integrated was also difficult to
measure. The number of presentations given within the last five years was 624
presentations. The number of actionable leads from the presentations, again, that is
unknown. Goal number four is continue to strengthen working relationships among all
County, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies. The number of Federal cases for
prosecution is unknown and the number of cases for State prosecution is also unknown.
Finally our Drug Action Team, whose vision is uniting the community to resist drug use,
support the enforcement of anti-drug laws, and provide caring treatment and support for
those affected by drug use. Their first goal was to identify and secure sustainable funding
for drug programs. I am sorry on the Drug Action Team we have our chairs of all of our
committees. So I am the leader of the Drug Action Team. I facilitate those meetings and
our prevention chairs for these next two years is Melinda Montgomery of Hale Kipa and
Maile Murray of Child and Family Services. For treatment and community integration, we
have Merrilee Worrell who is retired and used to work in mental health, kokua, and family
guidance center. Her Vice Chair is Jack Vile who works at KCCC. For enforcement we
have Tina Higashi from the judiciary and her Vice Chair is Tim Tobin from the Prosecutor's
Office. We are very grateful for all of the community hours that they put in for free and the
respect that their supervisors let them come to these meetings that are an hour and a half
once a month. Sustainable funding to secure program was the first measure of success and
although grant funds are not sustainable funding Kaua`i continues to receive Federal and
State grant funding for treatment and prevention providers. I am not sure how much the
amount of funds raised at this time are, as individual agencies can apply for dollars directly
themselves. New and continuing funding secured by providers, the information from the
providers are not available at this time. Goal number two is to sustain a management
system to support and coordinate implementation of the plan over the next five years and
maintain timely communications for all involved. The measure of success number one was
funding for anti-drug office secured. In 2008, we had one full-time and one part-time
employee that was General Funded. In 2009, we had one full-time employee, General
Funded and three grant-funded positions. From September 2012, when the grant ended we
have one full-time employee. Here is our operational budget that we had in 2009 we had
$40,000. 2010 the same. 2011 we had to start cutting our funding with $31,000. 2012,
$31,000 and this current fiscal year I only have $19,000.
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Chair Furfaro: Going back to those positions that were funded,
we funded one position and the other positions were funded by grants?
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Going forward, we are still funding our position,
but there was no money for grants?
Ms. Koki: Not for personnel, no.
Chair Furfaro: So that was a change in the grant policies?
Ms. Koki: The grant ended in 2012.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you.
Ms. Koki: So measures of success number two was
management systems in place. What we did was reorganize our teams. When I was with
the Office of Boards and Commissions we tried to make it more in line with the Boards and
Commissions especially since one of the staff members there was taking my minutes from
my teams, as well as Boards and Commissions teams. So in order to streamline some of the
things they have to do, we tried to reorganize our teams. We have new leadership for each
team. We had Officers from 2003 that were still participating in 2010. That was a little bit
too much years. So we kind of thanked them and had nominations opened. Mason is
smiling. Nominations for officers now are every two years. This is for them to avoid
burnout and to have other people who have been part of the team to step up and be the
Chair or Co-Chair. Our committee satisfaction we had increased participation at meetings
and planned updates and ongoing activities. The Life's Choices committee is currently
working on a survey instrument to make sure we gather that satisfaction and measure it
within six months and one year. Goal number three was to develop and make available
information on community resources to help individuals and families. We had distributed
over five years an average of 1,500 packets per year at various offices, events, and
activities. A resource directory is given now to any inmate leaving Kaua`i Correctional
Facility and that is where you can get food, where you can get support, where you can get
prevention program for your children, and all kinds of resources that we have put together.
Our Life's Choices website is updated with links directly to service providers. If you go
online and you click on "love the journey," it goes directly to their website to show the
hours. Our visitors especially like the part to look up where is an NA or AA Meeting where
they are staying. So that is very helpful for them. Not everybody shows up and says that I
got this resource packet and I am here to get help, but we continue to refer people to
services and other referrals may come from Hina Mauka Teen Care, the Department of
Education, the court, Kaua`i Drug Court, Family Court, Kaua`i Police Department, Adult
Probation, Hope Probation, and the Veterans Affairs, and the Kaua`i Community
Correctional Facility. Goal number four for the Drug Action Team was to coordinate
messages to the public to heighten awareness on the goals, activities, and outcomes of the
Kaua`i Community Drug Response Plan. So here we are out in the community, we have an
annual health and wellness fair. We have alcohol awareness month, which we do high
school and community presentations. This year we hosted a Drug Summit, where 80 of our
County supervisors and managers received training in mandatory reasonable suspicion and
drug recognition. That is mandated by Bargaining Units and they needed four hours, but
they got six continuing education credits. We also had continuing education credits for
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certified substance-abuse counselors and certified prevention specialists. Measures of
success, the number of times messages are in the media, newspaper and we had a monthly
column with The Garden Island newspaper and publicity spots. A number of positive
comments received by Anti-Drug Departments are difficult to measure. The number of
drug-related arrested is difficult to measure and that is the end.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Theresa for a pretty complete
presentation. Let me ask you, did we not solicit any comments from anti-drug partners
that we have? Do you have any kind of feedback from slide 75, your last slide?
Ms. Koki: Regarding the coordinated messages to the
public, the measure was positive comments received by Anti-Drug Office. We do surveys
when we have events. So we definitely do surveys from the Drug Summit that we recently
got. Most of the comments were positive. At our health and wellness fair we also had
surveys, but they critiqued the booths. They did not critique the anti-drug programs. They
critique the vendors.
Chair Furfaro: On page 21 of your slide, I will ask them to put
that slide back up. You went very quickly through that slide, but could you walk us through
one of our least favorable agenda items for feedback?
Ms. Koki: I am sorry?
Chair Furfaro: Slide 21, page 21, whichever it is. Would you
walk us through one or two examples?
Ms. Koki: Sure. Like I said this survey is distributed from
the Department of Health to the schools every three years. We are trying to get better than
that. The information being compiled in the year after they hand it in. For example, drank
alcohol for the first time before age 13 other than a few sips, on Kaua`i, 20.5 response in
2007...it looks like it went higher in 2011. So in that area we know we did not do very well.
I am sorry...0.4, sorry. Had at least one drink of alcohol at least one day in the past 30
days. It looks like we went down there by 9.9.
Chair Furfaro: I guess the one I am interested in is the second to
the bottom. Ever taken prescription drugs without a doctor's prescription?
Ms. Koki: I think with the rise of prescription drug uses we
have been getting education out there and the doctors are being very good at educating.
Before you got a drug prescription it would last a year and now the doctors say in three
days your prescription is expired. I think with the education that parents are getting they
are not too quick to offer their children Vicodin for pain from a sports injury and so doctors
and parents are being better at that.
Chair Furfaro: Could I ask to you work with the transportation
vouchers, you keep track of who is riding and so forth. But to us, in reaching out to give
access to some transportation, do you know what the value of those transportation vouchers
are?
Ms. Koki: I think it is a one-month pass every time they get
it.
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Chair Furfaro: So how many have we given out?
Ms. Koki: This month, just halfway through the month, 300
something, yes.
Chair Furfaro: So that is a pretty substantial increase and it is
basically a complimentary pass?
Ms. Koki: Yes it is. It is an access to recovery grant and
keep in mind, the transportation is an access to their treatment provider. They have
recreational activities that they can participate in as part of their recovery or just the basic
daily needs such as going to the store to take care of their families and themselves. We
have made a commitment, the Department of Transportation has to give me the stats on an
ongoing basis.
Chair Furfaro: Could you ask if they could expand that to say
what they gave in the way of vouchers, but also what the value of those vouchers were?
Ms. Koki: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead, Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Hooser: The access to recovery grant, is that funds that
are paid to the Department of Transportation for the bus pass?
Ms. Koki: We have worked out a way we can do it on
consignment and so they have X amount of vouchers that they get from the Transportation
Department. It is like a fee-for-service. They pay them.
Mr. Hooser: So the County actually receives income from this
grant?
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: That is the point I wanted to make that the
County is not offering free bus trips.
Ms. Koki: No, we are not. We had a long discussion
because we did not want to take away from the bus. So we had...first we looked at their
Ordinance to see what we could work with. It was a long transformation between Celia and
myself, Kalawaia, and the access to recovery lady from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Division. So we had several meetings before we came to the conclusion of what we exactly
could do. It seems to be working out.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: But I still want to know the value of those?
Ms. Koki: Yes, I will get that for you.
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Chair Furfaro: That is covered by grant money as Mr. Hooser is
pointing out, right? But we should be keeping clear track on the value of those vouchers. I
think that is all of my questions. JoAnn.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Theresa and Nadine. This is the first
time that I have seen in a report the actual drug use statistics that were put up there on
page 21. So thank you very much for doing that. You know, it is good when we have people
attending meetings sustainably and so forth, but the real bottom line is are our young
people using less drugs? Are they not starting early? You know, those kinds of things. So
it is good to get a report back like this and it is also really good to hear that they might be
doing these surveys every year. That would give us much better indication or feedback as
to whether our efforts are working. So this list, there is actually five places where it is gone
down and the rest have actually gone up in different degrees. So I mean, for example, look
at the "tried marijuana for the first time before age 13." It was 11.7 in 2007 and 16.4 in
2011.
Ms. Nakamura: If you compare the Kaua`i numbers, in 2007 it
was 8.1 and went up to 16.4, three years later.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. It went down for a couple of years
and then it went up.
Ms. Nakamura: The first two columns are the Hawai`i Statewide
numbers and the next two columns are the County's comparison.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: So this is one where we have doubled.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes. Thank you.
Ms. Koki: To address that, we concentrated a lot on under
aged drinking and we are trying to find ways with our teams when we discuss...to find
ways when we have a grant specified for a certain drug, we really have to cover everything.
We cannot do just under aged drinking and marijuana starts going up, but we have to have
education on all the substances.
Ms. Yukimura: If you fund programs that actually help kids
make good choices, it does not matter what the drug is. So that is the power of really
getting clear what cause-and-effect is in terms of kids making choices? I know that in the
Life's Skill Program, that is the crux of the effort, to help kids understand how to analyze
the consequences of their choices? Where to go for help? To get engaged in really positive
activities that really meet their needs for confidence and self-esteem. So that is one way to
address it. So for example, this is only an example, I think there are other ways of showing
it...when you go to your...I am looking at slide 67 or even 69. Where you measure success
by number of packets distributed. How do you know that the packets are actually having
the impact you want to have in terms of people's choices? Because if it is not having an
impact, no matter how many packets you distribute, it is not going to really make a
difference in what you want to make a difference.
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Ms. Koki: This measure of success was included in the drug
plan as that.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, but then maybe it is not the proper
measure of success.
Ms. Koki: Perhaps it is not, I agree.
Ms. Nakamura: That is why, this Drug Plan, the most updated
one, this discussion is based on is for the period of 2008-2013. So last year the
Administration included funds to update this Drug Plan, because of the expiration date of
this Plan and it was not approved. This year, while we wanted to have funding to update
the Plan, because of our fiscal situation, it was not included in the budget.
Ms. Yukimura: We gave money for this Plan and this Plan has
measures that to me are not really the real measures to look at. So to fund something else
that is going to update it and come back with measures that do not make a difference that
would be one of my concerns.
Ms. Nakamura: So if there was a good process where maybe the
measures were more pertinent or something that is actually measurable or something that
will actually change outcomes.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Ms. Nakamura: That is really where we would need to go.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Ms. Nakamura: It is very clear that for some of these
measurements, they were not good indicators of success.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Ms. Koki: When we were going through this eight years or
five years' worth of accomplishments in the last two weeks, we noted that we were stuck to
a certain measure, but we did so much more, but it was not the measurement that we were
addressing.
Ms. Yukimura: Even if you did so much more, what does that so
much more lead to? Because you are having kind of an internal measurement when you say
"so much more." But what did that lead to is the question? I mean, when we first started
this out in 2003, we had the communities that care model and they were highly...they used
the survey, the Department of Health survey, page 21 that we were looking at. But
somewhere along the line, we lost track of those measures. So the question is what
happened there? How did we lose track? So if there is a proposal to update this Plan, that
would be one of my questions, how are we going to really do a Plan that gets us to where we
want to go? How do we know whether we are getting there or not? I really believe that a
plan should be flexible. So if it is not working, like if the measures are not good measures,
how do we change it and stay on-track?
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Ms. Koki: You know, I realize that these indicators and
these measurements and all the numbers and surveys are so crucial to assess all of this, but
it is again as you saw on the slide, it is just me. So in order to implement this Drug Plan, it
did say it called for some staffing, which we did not get.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, I just know that now there is this whole
Keiki to Career effort and that is an effort to look at more than just drug use of kids. So
one of my questions is how does that integrate? If there is what Keiki to Career says it is
doing and if it is supporting our young people in becoming confident, competent, caring and
healthy, which all four of those adjectives, confident, confident, confident, means that drug
use is not the option really. How are we getting there? Through Keiki to Career or through
a Drug Plan?
Ms. Koki: Well, we have discussed that with Stacy, some of
our members in our prevention team, Stacy Gillette from Kaua`i Planning and Action
Alliance, who spearheads the...along with all of us, Mason has a part in there and JoAnn,
that we talked about even including that in the prevention parts of our plan. She comes to
our prevention meetings and presented the plan and got other members to participate in
her prevention...I mean her Life's Skills and Parenting section. So that is up for more
discussion. Just to clarify, last year when I put in the budget, it was not for a new Drug
Plan, because I only asked for $25,000. A Drug Plan usually costs anywhere from $40,000
to $50,000. It was to assess the Plan that is what I was asking for, to do all of these.
Because I am sure there are more things to report here for agencies that succeeded in
helping us do it, but they might no longer come to a meeting or they have changed. I mean,
with this Plan in the middle of it was the economic downturn and offices that had four or
five people are now down to one or two and sometimes they are not able to come to all of
the meetings. We keep sending them the minutes and they keep in touch, but not all the
time that they can participate. So there might be a lot of other things that we did not have.
Ms. Yukimura: You know there is a place where you mentioned
doing a survey, putting that together. That is a future action, do you remember where that
is? A satisfaction survey. I see one on page 67.
Ms. Nakamura: Page 67.
Ms. Koki: 67 was the part that we are going to be working
on a survey instrument.
Ms. Yukimura: I do not know that committees know how to put
really good surveys together.
Ms. Koki: Actually we are going to ask our boss, who is a
planner to help us. She has several surveys she has used for years in her company. So we
are going to try and see. Would you like to help us, too?
Ms. Yukimura: No, no, I am not a survey expert, but I mean, I
am really asking a legitimate question. Surveys take a particular skill and art, if you want
to get the right information.
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Ms. Koki: Exactly. We had a public relations firm a couple
of years back, who came up with a survey tool, but it did not really assess what the teams
wanted to have in. So we still need to work in that area.
Ms. Nakamura: I would like to add too, that I think that the
questions that you are asking about the satisfaction that current participants have in this
pretty comprehensive program and then the whole discussion with Keiki to Career, which
the County also funds, you know, I think it is a good time to have the discussion, open it up
for possibilities and then see what is the best way to reorganize, if we need to, moving
forward? But really take into account, that there are other initiatives going on and if it
makes sense to dovetail or to coordinate further, we should be doing that.
Ms. Yukimura: Committee satisfaction with management
systems, I am not even sure that is where we should be focusing on. It seems to me we
should be focusing on are we getting the results in community with our youth in terms of
drug use, drug prevention, drug treatment, and drug enforcement? You know, I think that
issue came up with the Liquor Commission and doing their...what do you call it Theresa?
Ms. Koki: The compliance checks.
Ms. Yukimura: The compliance checks. They are not showing
that much compliance you know? We do it over and over every year and we are not making
really big strides. But I am convinced that there are ways to make strides in this, but we
have not yet found the effective ways to do it and partly, maybe that we are not measuring
what we need to measure. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chock, do you wanted to add to that?
Mr. Chock: Thank you. I think what I heard from Nadine is
that it is a good time for us to kind of take a step back, now that we have come to this place
and looking back at the Plan and seeing it for its merits and its faults. There is a lot of
opportunity here and what I would look at is how do we restructure? What does it look like
moving forward? Maybe we do not take on the measurement part or maybe we do?
Whatever it is, this Plan is so big, it tried to accomplish so much and the resources at times
were not there. So there are a lot of community efforts out there as you mentioned, as you
said Keiki to Career. I love some of the things that you talked about where they are
integrated into our other Departments that were very successful. The Transportation
Agency and those things that I thought they are a win-win for us. They are easy to
implement. But we need to really refocus and that is what I want to hear from you Theresa,
because you are the one leading it. What does it look like for you in the areas that are going
to be most productive for our participation from the County standpoint? Because you know
you cannot do it all. There are efforts out there in the community that we can plug into just
to make it much more solid.
Ms. Koki: Well, I think using the resources that we have
existing in the County, like the Workforce Investment Act, and what about prisoners? We
looked at that we were so lucky to have a probation officer go to Hope Probation to KCCC
and he partnered and was willing to be our Vice Chair on our enforcement group. There is
only one day on the island that you would actually starve, because there are six
opportunities for you to go to a soup kitchen and what we would like to make sure when
someone is incarcerated their family already knows about those resources. I could get
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excited about a whole lot of things but our reentry plan was done based on the visits that
the Mayor and I went to the KCCC to visit the lifetime stand program and the inmates
inside. The information that they told us. One of the things that came up was the cycle of
incarceration and grandpa, son, and grandson at KCCC and it is one of the things that we
are trying to break the chain, so to speak and we are looking into that. The re-entry
program on the Big Island was funded through a grant from Public Safety and we did ours
for free just working with the people that we had and we are going to start measuring our
success there, because it is a new program for us. But there is another opportunity, like
with...I agree with Councilmember Yukimura about Life's Skills in the schools. We have
got to start going to our target audience and cannot just keep hosting events and we have to
go to where the kids are. I think Vice Chair Chock you are familiar with that. You were
hands-on directly to Kapa'a School and implemented your leadership program there. So
working cohesively again with the Department of Education, I know their hands are tied
with the curriculum and standards that they have to implement themselves, but I am sure
if we all got together and talked about that, we could do great things. The other, we have to
keep in mind that we just do not work with children and we work with families and we also
work with kupuna. I have been working on a couple of things with Kealoha Takahashi and
we do our kupuna educational thing where we have a lot of grandparents taking care of the
grandchildren because the parents are incarcerated because of drugs.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you for your very in-depth presentation. I
agree with the Life's Choices broad concept in terms of teaching and supporting people to
make the right choices. Young people and old people. But I believe that there is a
different...some choices are worse than others, and looking at the survey the Department of
Health did the survey, is that it?
Ms. Koki: That is correct.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. I noticed a lot of attention paid to alcohol
and marijuana and very little paid to methamphetamine or Oxycontin. When I am out in
the community, those two topics come up over and over again in terms of the most
destructive of the substances that are being abused. One could argue that alcohol is more
destructive, but in terms of other drugs it would be Oxycontin and meth. My question, are
you able to work on those particular issues and things like...Oxycontin is prescribed by
physicians and often it is my understanding that there are some physicians, perhaps abuse
their prescriptive authority. Is there any kind of activity or focus on what I consider the
really worst of the worst?
Ms. Koki: Well, recently we have started this prescription
drug campaign and we had youth do commercials on it about prescription drugs, and I can
send you the script, if you want. They created it themselves about how you should not be
sharing your medication. It was done by two students, who actually attend Kamehameha
Schools, but in the summers they come back and help me with whatever. It was really
interesting and we paid for it to run a month on the air, for the station, they usually listen
to Pandora and not radio stations, but even to educate people in our age bracket, we went
through Hits 99 and they did our commercials. We work with the Hawaiian Meth Project
not directly, but they have youth leaders in all of the schools. At our recent drug summits
one of the evening sessions was for the youth to come and plan their future with us and
cocaine use is coming up as you mentioned and methammphetamine, which is very scary
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because some of them mentioned about their aunties and uncles and parents and they
started to spearhead peer education programs in schools. I think the only school that I do
not have and currently working on is St. Theresa, but I have Island School youth leaders
and Kaua`i High School and we will have to start going younger to middle schools as well.
Mr. Hooser: I was not able to attend the drug summit, but
from reading the literature, it looked like it was marijuana-focused and begged the question
why it was not or maybe there was more focus on the Oxycontin and meth, and that kind of
thing.
Ms. Koki: Based on the Legislative bills going through the
House and Senate, there was over 100, either medical marijuana changing laws or
recreational use for marijuana. We had an opportunity to partner with the Smart
Approaches to Marijuana and the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawai`i called me and the
morning session on Thursday was about marijuana. We looked at all of our bills and which
ones were alive, which was only four at the time. And was called smart approaches to
marijuana. We also had some nurses and a physician work on the medical marijuana part
with the guy...
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, I have to stop you right there. I let it
go as long as I could without a tape change. We are going to take a five-minute tape change
here. Why do not we take ten minutes and do the caption break at the same time?
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 2:52 p.m.
There being no objections, the Committee was called back to order at 3:06 p.m. and
proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: We are back from our recess and tape change
and I would like to do some summary and start with you, Mr. Hooser, we have ten minutes.
Mr. Hooser: Just a follow-up question. What is cost of the
recent Drug Summit to the County?
Ms. Koki: The recent Drug Summit cost $14,000.
Mr. Hooser: And those were operating funds, General Funds?
Ms. Koki: That is General Funds, correct.
Mr. Hooser: Okay and you had mentioned one of the reasons
that the topic was selected was because of the Legislative agenda. Who determines the
position on the County on those items? Is it the Mayor or your committee? I mean the
point in case, medical marijuana, there were several bills, and I personally felt that several
of them were deserving of support, that right now people who have legitimate needs for
medical marijuana, do not have a legal way to get it. So I was support something of those
measures and was the County opposing those measures?
Ms. Koki: No, actually we have realized for years that our
medical marijuana laws are flawed. The first thing, where do you get your legal plants
from? So the Mayor did say he supports the medical part of it, that is to help our sick
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people and that we needed to work on that. There was a press conference as well that he
talked about it. We have also been saying that for years. He has worked closely with the
Police and DEA regarding marijuana. I know the DEA right now is actually helping the
family get a permit for their child who has seizures to extract the oils.
Mr. Hooser: Excuse me, if you could take your conversation
outside, it is probably better. Thank you. I apologize.
Ms. Koki: That is okay. We do work closely with the DEA
and Police Department and feel that the medical marijuana law is flawed and needs to be
worked on.
Mr. Hooser: So the policy comes from the Mayor's Office and
not from the committee?
Ms. Koki: Our committee is the Mayor's Advisory
Committee and they provide the education and we all talk about it and see where the
Mayor is going to come up on this. I know he has sent in testimony to some of the bills.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: I want to follow-up on that.
Chair Furfaro: Your mic.
Mr. Bynum: You do not have to answer now, but I want to
know as a follow-up, you mentioned the organization Smart Alternatives to Marijuana.
Ms. Koki: Smart Approaches.
Mr. Bynum: Was there any funds expended directed at that
organization?
Ms. Koki: No. They came on their own. We did pay for the
two speakers that came on Friday to discuss all other drugs and to train our County
managers, our substance-abuse counselors and certified prevention specialists.
Mr. Bynum: You said that the medical marijuana laws are
flawed and what law are you proposing to repair it?
Ms. Koki: I cannot think what the number is right now.
We want to make sure that the first transaction is legal, where they can get their
prescription from. We want to make sure that the caregiver part with the amount of plants
that they can have is more regulated.
Mr. Bynum: So I will follow-up later. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, we are on the last four minutes of the
ten-minute session for them. Go ahead.
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Ms. Yukimura: Page 29, where you talk about the ADAD giving
us...the State getting $11 million for four years to provide transportation. Is this just...so
this is four years, what is that? $2 million. $2.75 million a year to the State, divided
among four Counties. How much is Kaua`i getting? Do you know?
Ms. Koki: It is not divided within four Counties, but it is for
Oahu and they did a pilot program and we put in for Kaua`i to be the pilot program. It is
based on a fee for service for Kaua`i, so there is no set amount. It is not just for
transportation, but for treatment providers including transportation. I think I mentioned
earlier they can get recreational use and their treatment covered and all of that.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, if they get a bus pass for a month that
covers all of their needs actually.
Ms. Koki: Access to their needs.
Ms. Yukimura: Right. Clients of treatment providers. So I
would like to know how much money is coming to Kaua`i for this? And who is eligible? Is it
just drug-related or do mental health people get qualified for transportation?
Ms. Koki: This is for drug treatment services. However, a
lot of people have dual diagnoses.
Ms. Yukimura: If they only have a mental health and not a drug-
related disorder then they do not qualify?
Ms. Koki: I believe it started with drug treatment. I am not
sure.
Ms. Yukimura: It is coming through ADAD, so you would guess
that. I would like to get a copy of the contract, the fee-for-service contract.
Ms. Koki: With all the provider's contracts or of the
transportation?
Ms. Yukimura: If we could, I would like to see them all. You
said that we are looking at slide 29, by the way. Coordinated assessment of treatment
system is ongoing. Or it needs to be updated?
Ms. Koki: It is ongoing. We did not make a new one yet, but
we have been taking the information.
Ms. Yukimura: Well if you are talking about a new one, what
does the old one look like? Is it a document?
Ms. Koki: It is a document that was crafted by the people
who helped with the Drug Plan and it is attached in the back.
Ms. Yukimura: It is attached to the Drug Plan?
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Ms. Koki: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Or is it attached to the PowerPoint?
Ms. Koki: No it is attached to the Drug Plan.
Ms. Yukimura: I do not have mines here but I will look at it.
There is one that has a date when it was accepted or whatever and it needs to be updated
now. What are our plans for updating it? Is that part of the update for the Plan or is there
a separate track by which it is being updated?
Ms. Koki: We update it at every meeting that we have.
Ms. Yukimura: This is the treatment committee?
Ms. Koki: Treatment and community integration.
Ms. Yukimura: Treatment and community integration
committee. You update it every meeting that you have?
Ms. Koki: Every time we have something new or a new
provider or new service.
Ms. Yukimura: I see.
Ms. Koki: We do a roundtable and we take that information
from whatever information they give.
Ms. Yukimura: So the update is actually like you say here
ongoing.
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: It is just that you said in your oral presentation
"needs to be updated" so I was wondering what that was. Maybe is the latest copy, the
updated copy then available through the Drug Plan? Or can you make that available to us?
Ms. Koki: I cannot make it available right now.
Ms. Yukimura: No, no.
Ms. Koki: It is in minutes of every meeting, I am going to
have to extract that information and start typing it into a document.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, it probably needs to be done, if it is a
document that people refer to. Okay. If we could have that, that would be useful. As a
follow-up, not right now.
Ms. Koki: Again, I am a party of one, so I do not know how
long it will give me to do that, but I am really not ready to hand it over right now.
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Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Let me make a suggestion. Would you be able to
have it ready by July 27th when we are talking further in the Council session as related to
the Adolescent Drug Treatment Center? Would that be fair enough to say by July 27th?
Ms. Koki: I will have the information updated as best as I
can by that time.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. To the best of your ability, so we will look
forward to July 27th.
Ms. Koki: Extracting information from people can
sometimes be difficult, but I can certainly do my best.
Ms. Yukimura: I know that the Adolescent Drug Treatment
Center there was talk about it being parts of the continuum of care. So it would be timely.
Thank you. That is it. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Ladies, I just want to say thank you very
much for your presentation. We will visit more on this on July 27th, but for the discussion
here, I would say that is all there is. I do want to point out after the review of the Police
budget, there is the $50,000 in KPAL in the budget line for Police. So I would be very
interested in how your working with them on extracting staff support will be mutually
beneficial for all. Thank you very much. Okay. We are going to go now into the Public
Works, Solid Waste Division and I am going to ask Mr. Dill to come up and Paula thank
you very much for being here with the Drug Treatment Facility of the Life's Choices
program. Thank you.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 3:16 p.m.