Chair Lee presses on which programs saw service decreases from savings
Lee asks which programs and services were included in savings and whether any direct services see funding decreases. Pletnikoff explains savings came from maximizing revenue, sunsetting administrative contracts, IT savings, Esperanza closure, and slowing ramp-up of Fair Futures and Career Choice.
And so which programs and services, if at all, were included in the savings measures?
And will any direct services or programs see a decrease in funding from the savings exercise?
Sure.
So the majority of our savings initiatives actually came out of maximizing revenue.
So more than half came through.
realizing additional fringe that we were able to receive, as well as additional miscellaneous revenues out of audit.
In terms of programs that were sunsetted, we sunsetted some administrative contracts.
We made reductions for IT savings based on underspending in our Xerox contract.
We had some programs that had already sunset, including Esperanza.
We also looked at
looking at surpluses in our Committee on Special Education funding.
We slowed down the ramp up of some programs that we had received funding as of last exec for our Youth Safety and Success Initiative, and that includes identifying
accrued savings in FY26 for the Career Choice Program, as well as slowing the ramp up of our Fair Futures Program.
And then we also had savings through prevention contracts.
We are ending four contracts for prevention.
We believe there's still program capacity and so that all of the family and children will continue to be served.
Okay.
And a lot of the slowing of the ramp up was because of capacity, hiring processes, that sort of thing, like to onboard.
Okay.
I know that my colleagues probably have more questions about some of those, so I'll save that for them.