AN ORDINANCE adopting the Best Start for Kids implementation plan required by Ordinance 19267, Section 7, to govern the expenditure of Best Start for Kids levy proceeds from 2022 through 2027, to promote improved health and well-being outcomes of children and youth, as well as the families and communities in which they live.
Very well. It will be on the consent agenda this coming Tuesday in full council. Thank you. And that takes the Zone six proposed ordinance 2021 288, which would adopt the best charge for kids implementation plan for the years 2022 to 2027. The ordinance was duly referred to the Regional Policy Committee and the Committee of the Hall. We had an initial briefing on this legislation in Cowan, September 15th, and the ordinance was passed with amendments in our P.S. on October 13th, Brenda Luskin and Wendy Sue, who from council staff are here to provide the staff report. This was. CONAN And Mr. Who? Please go ahead. Great. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Good morning. Good morning. Members of the committee. For the record, Miranda Luskin in with a brief staff report for today, essentially kind of reiterating what the chair had just noted as a refresher for the committee. So as committee members are aware, this item was a dual referral to the RTC as a mandatory referral and then to this committee. Both committees receive briefings on the proposed plan. And as was noted by the Chair last Wednesday, October the 13th, the Regional Policy Committee took action and passed the ordinance as amended just for members. I will note that a summary of the pieces action last Wednesday is provided in your staff report on pages 41 through 42 of your packet materials. The last thing I'll note for today is just a process note. So as was noted, this item was a mandatory referral to the original policy committee. So assuming that this committee passes the legislation on to the full council and that either this committee or the council were to amend the legislation that would necessitate a re referral back to the RTC, such that the RTC would have that item back before it for its consideration before possible final action by the full Council. And then Amendment four to the staff report does provide the amendment deadlines scheduled for the proposed ordinance. And, Mr. Chair, that concludes the remarks for today. Thank you. Questions, colleagues. All right. Would someone. Are you ready to move in, Mr. Chair? I'm ready to move. Motion 2021 288. Let's do. It. I move. Adoption of the Duke Pass recommendation. Thank you. Councilmember Damascus moved adoption of motion that we give you do pass recommendation to motion 2021 288 discussion. On behalf of the motion. Mr. Chair, I really appreciate Councilmember von Right past chair and the Regional Policy Committee facilitating a process with our regional partners and us to work in some some amendments to refine the plan a bit. I think we should also thank our county executive and the team there for putting together a really good plan that didn't need many amendments. And this is. A pretty exciting. Initiative by the county, and I think it speaks volumes that the voters renewed it overwhelmingly, you know, and I think in the low 60% in terms of what we did in the first six years. And I'm excited to see the progress that we can make for young people around the county in the next six. So there's a lot that could be said, but I think we're ready to go. Let me just briefly say for myself that the best charge for kids Levy is an exceptional piece of progressive work, in my view, in that it is trying to make the upstream early investments. We just made an appointment to the District Court where both of you know, most of the people we interviewed today spoke to the way that district court can interrupt lives in a positive way. And what that starts for kids is attempting to do is actually address issues much earlier in life that thus no one can have the best start possible and not end up in the criminal in the criminal legal system and other negative outcomes with avoiding that and sending people off on a very positive path as early as possible. Further comments. Member Council member LAMBERT Thank you. I'm excited about this because the sooner that we can get kids lives back on track and the better that will be. And we know that if a child is homeless and they're youth, that they have a much higher percentage possibility of being homeless later on. So all the things that we can do to surround children on the best path, this is really important. So I think this is great work that's been done. I agree with what you just said about how Sheila and her team and our team has done a great job of putting this together and it being a regional collaboration . I really like several points that I want to hold out, and that is that this information will be coming to us on a regular basis by zip code so that we can monitor if there are any needs that might be dropping through the cracks, that shouldn't be. So I think that's really important and not supplant language so that we can have supporters all across the county and not worry about hitting one junior taxing district against another. I think that's really important. I think having the services earlier on in the system, as we've been doing the last couple of years and I know two particular projects in my district have expanded greatly, hired more people, more interpreters and are having some very positive impacts. One of the projects now has kids doing incredible things that were street kids before, and when I was there they were talking about applying for college, which is pretty exciting. The other thing is that the Safe Place program, which is one of the many good programs I really like because it gives an opportunity for kids to self-refer. They have to wait to go to somebody else to get help or to say I. I need to be part of a long system to get in and they can just go straight there and say, I need help and make it a much shorter time to getting that help. And we know how important that is. So I think we've learned a lot of great things at the last level, and I look forward to more great things happening in the study. Thank you. And the discussion. You? No. Madam Cook, would you please call the Royal? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council Member Ritchie Guy. Council member Demovsky. I don't. Remember. Done. Councilmember Dunn. Council member calls on Council Member Level II. Council member of the Grove, Councilmember Yvonne. Done votes. I think you. Councilmember one right now we're. Council members are high. Hi. Mr. Chair. Hi. Mr. Chair. The vote is eight zero notes. Council members are excused. Thank you. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to Motion 2021 288 and we will send that to full council on the regular course of action. I believe we were just joined. Yes, indeed. I see that Curran Gill is here. Curran Gill is the executive's council liaison. I'd just like to particularly welcome, though it's unusual for me to do so. Mr. Gill to the call because he is spending part of his birthday with us. And with that, we'll move on to item seven on today's agenda.