Assembly Debates Its Human Service Role

     After years of on-and-off discussion, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates this week conducted its first formal debate over whether it should formally fund human service programs on the Cape.
     Individual human service providers have in the past benefited from surpluses generated through the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, but the stalled economy has caused that funding to dry up. An effort to channel $150,000 from the Fiscal Year 2009 budget toward human service grants was soundly defeated.
     Since 1998 the county has distributed $4.6 million in various grants, much of that funded through surpluses.
     Over the past decade, several members of the county body have warned of this financial dry spell and recommended establishing a formal policy for grant distribution, if it was indeed the will of the assembly to fund human services at all.
     Wednesday’s hour-long discussion made it clear that the entire assembly recognized the value of human service programs in a tight economic climate, and that the needs of Cape Codders would only increase in the near future, but delegates were divided on the county’s role in supporting those services.
     Julia C. Taylor of Falmouth was not firmly opposed to funding human service grants, though she questioned whether county government truly had a role in residents’ daily lives to the same degree as local or state government.
     Ms. Taylor added that to fund grants, the county would first have to nail down a dedicated funding source. She suggested conducting a thorough review of existing county-run programs to identify any ineffective or inefficient services that could be cut, with that money to go toward human services.
     Fred Schilpp of Truro agreed, and threw out the idea of establishing an entity similar to the Cape Cod Economic Development Council, which would have its own dedicated revenue stream and distribute grants on a competitive basis.
     Thomas K. Lynch of Barnstable responded that county officials had a chance to do that earlier this year, when they considered restructuring the Barnstable County Human Services Department, but instead chose to keep the department as more of a data collection and coordinating agency.
     Mr. Schilpp at first suggested diverting money from the EDC’s Cape Cod License Plate Program, but was quickly informed by his colleagues that that was not an option; the legislation that created the license plate program restricts the use of the revenue.
     “You don’t understand the EDC,” Marcia R. King of Mashpee said to Mr. Schilpp. She also chided Ms. Taylor for suggesting cutting county departments to fund human services, noting that Ms. Taylor did not support any FY09 budget cuts.
     Ms. King said she found the whole conversation “rather fanciful” and said if the county started formally distributing grants, it would just spark heated competition for the money between providers.
     However, Speaker Charlotte Streibel indicated that the county has already begun a grant program of sorts in the form of the brand-new Cape Cod Compassion Fund, which currently has $301 in it. “It’s a good idea, it just hasn’t gotten off the ground,” Ms. Streibel said.
     The fund, started last month, is managed by the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners, but a separate board will determine where the money will be spent.
     Thomas F. Keyes of Sandwich took a different approach and said the county should be more concerned with addressing the underlying cause of the region’s needs, namely the flagging local economy, rather than providing remediation.
     “Our economy is stagnant,” he said. “We do a very poor job on economic development.”
     Raymond C. Gottwald of Harwich called for a meeting between the assembly’s standing committee on human services; Elizabeth Albert, the new director of the human services department; and the Barnstable County Humans Services Advisory Council to determine if the county should fund human service grants, and if so, how.
     That meeting has yet to be scheduled.