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Q&A
Council Member Avilés questions Commissioner Park on racial equity plan and right to counsel program
2:50:35
·
3 min
Council Member Alexa Avilés questions Commissioner Molly Wasow Park about the Department of Social Services' racial equity plan and the right to counsel program. The discussion focuses on the availability of the equity plan and the performance-based contracts for the right to counsel program, including how the 10% performance allocation is handled.
- Commissioner Park agrees to provide the racial equity plan to the council
- Details of the performance-based contracts for right to counsel providers are explained
- Clarification is provided on how the 10% performance allocation is distributed and reimbursed
Alexa Avilés
2:50:35
I'm sorry.
2:50:36
I thought thank you.
2:50:38
Thank you.
2:50:38
Can you hear me?
2:50:39
No.
2:50:40
No.
2:50:40
Okay.
2:50:41
Try again.
2:50:43
Now?
2:50:43
Yes.
2:50:45
Sorta.
2:50:45
It's just low.
2:50:46
Okay.
2:50:46
I'll use my outside voice.
2:50:49
Thank you so much, deputy speaker.
2:50:52
So I I'd like to ask a little bit I guess I have two distinct distinct questions.
2:50:58
Has the agency can the agency supply the council with a copy of their preliminary racial justice racial equity plan?
Molly Wasow Park
2:51:12
Don't have it with me but yes we can certainly follow-up.
Alexa Avilés
2:51:15
Great, thank you.
2:51:17
Also in terms of right to counsel, why is the administration planning to penalize providers 10% in their contracts?
Molly Wasow Park
2:51:30
So let me talk about that.
2:51:34
I wouldn't frame it quite that way.
2:51:37
So right to counsel is an essential program.
2:51:40
We think it is really important that we are getting all eligible clients access to legal assistance.
2:51:49
We did not traditionally have performance based contracts.
2:51:53
We have pivoted to including some performance standards in the contracts because similar to what we talked about in the context of DHS, we think it's important that we are across the board accountable to the standards that we hold.
2:52:09
We have just passed that first six month metric.
2:52:14
All of the providers qualified for the performance standards for that first six months.
2:52:20
I will note there's variations in performance.
2:52:24
Not to say that there isn't variations in performance, but the way the standards were designed we were able to give we gave points for a variety of different factors and then we will continue to use that as a way to strengthen provider performance going forward.
Alexa Avilés
2:52:40
So given that the current contracts only cover about a third or 40% of eligible tenants, Would you consider withholding this additional 10% digging into the available program dollars?
Molly Wasow Park
2:52:56
I'm not sure where the third to a quarter comes from.
2:53:02
That doesn't exactly align with our numbers.
2:53:04
Happy to dig in with you offline.
2:53:06
But I think as I say, we have not withheld funds from anybody at this point.
2:53:11
All of our providers qualified for the initial performance allocation, but I think one of the things that we want to do is make sure that we are using dollars strategically.
2:53:22
If we do not use them, if a provider is not meeting the performance goals which means that there are clients that are not getting served, we want to have the opportunity to reallocate those funds and use them in a way that will get services into clients' hands.
Alexa Avilés
2:53:36
So I guess if you could talk to me operationalizes after you meet your contractual obligations.
2:53:45
Does that 10% is reimbursed to the organization or what happens with
Molly Wasow Park
2:53:52
those So we've done it in two we split it into two pieces.
2:53:56
So for the first half of the year, so for 5% of funds, because all the providers met their performance standards, they are now able to invoice for that and we'll make the payments.
Alexa Avilés
2:54:09
Okay.
2:54:09
And then so at the end of the contract period, the second five percent is reimbursed.
2:54:15
Great.
2:54:19
Great, thank
Molly Wasow Park
2:54:19
you.
2:54:21
Thank you, Trin.
Diana Ayala
2:54:22
Thank you.