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Q&A
Discussion on discretionary funding and multi-year contracting reform
1:03:03
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Council Member Stevens questions the effectiveness of multi-year discretionary contracting reform, citing providers who haven't received funding for years. Director Flores explains the implementation timeline and expected benefits of the new system.
- Flores clarifies that the multi-year discretionary process started in FY 2024, so earlier contracts wouldn't benefit from this change.
- The director acknowledges that the reform was not intended to be a 'silver bullet' but part of a larger set of recommendations.
- Preliminary data suggests a six to nine-month reduction in processing time for these contracts.
Althea V. Stevens
1:03:03
But one of my questions is I know, you know, we've been talking about like more money's been going out the door and then even here in your testimony you talked about the multi year discretionary contracting reform and how that's been helpful but people have not seen our discretionary money that we've been putting out because the system is so backed up from the contracts.
1:03:24
So can you talk a little bit about that because that has been one of the things, right?
1:03:27
We give these organizations money, they're excited, we're like yay, we're doing press conferences but they don't see the money for years and I'm talking about specifically the discretionary money and I know this whole idea around having it being a multi year contract was going to make it so much better which I didn't agree with but everyone said it would help and then even hearing your testimony talk, you speak that, you speak about how they're getting their money a year earlier when when I speak to providers, they haven't seen our discretionary money in about two years.
Lisa Flores
1:04:00
Thank you, council member.
1:04:02
So starting with the discretionary questions.
1:04:06
So we started the multiyear discretionary, I believe, in FY 'twenty four.
1:04:13
And so, as you know, then if there are providers who had discretionary contracts prior to the allocation FY 'twenty four, they weren't going to be wrapped up in the new multiyear discretionary process.
1:04:28
So, I'm sure that there are providers who did not who had contracts before that, who may be, still not seeing the benefit of the multiyear discretionary contracts.
1:04:38
I will say for the multiyear discretionary contracts, again, it was not intended to be the silver bullet.
1:04:44
As you know, in in collaboration with counsel, we had a number of recommendations, and that was the one that we could all agree on.
Althea V. Stevens
1:04:50
Oh, we all didn't agree on it.
Lisa Flores
1:04:52
I as as you know, there's there's always a menu of options, and happy to talk about the other items on the menu that didn't make it to the, to the table.
1:05:01
But we were able, as you know, taking responsibility at mocks and making sure that we were loading up those multiyear discretionaries to streamline and get this whole process started.
1:05:12
And as I said, we've seen preliminarily six to nine months shaved off of that process.
1:05:17
I I do think you'll see this year, hopefully, another big bump in really show showing the benefit of the multiyear discretionary contracts, but there are other options on the table that