County representatives return from Washington, D.C. Kelso, Human Services director learned of national human services trends By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle Brown County's initiative to track the success of its human services department programs received positive feedback during County Executive Carol Kelso's trip to Washington, D.C. Kelso, her assistant Julie Knier and the director of the county's Human Services Department, Dr. Allen Parks, returned from Washington on Friday. Parks said they accomplished an important goal, paving the way for more discussion on how to document programs' success. They have looked at would be protected from unforeseen expenses. "It's still going to be Green Bay's water system," Nixon said. But Zima said the city had no reason to rush to make a deal - and he sounded as if he'd be just as happy without one. "Why do we keep lowering what we're asking?" he asked. "Let them (suburbs) get real. "I smell a skunk." Antonneau said he was against the public release of the numbers. "The council hasn't been shown respect," he said. Nixon said that because water costs were easy to figure, there was really nothing to hide. "I believe in being open and letting them try to match our numbers. I'll put my numbers up against there," he said. Zima moved to have the issue sent to the city's Improvement and Service Committee, but after discussion, the idea of a Monday council session took over. Andy Nicholson wanted at least some extra discussion before voting on the principles of negotiation, much less the offer. "Even Phat Dogs (hot dog vending) was referred," he said. But when Zima asked whether it was necessary for the city to expand its system, he was told yes, that the city would face a water shortage after 2005 without expanded filtering and pumping capabilities. Ald. Ken Dax was one of the few in favor of going ahead. "I'm beginning to understand why Howard took some of our business - I hope we don't lose the water business," he said. =94 The council voted 11-1 (Nicholson the lone no vote) on approving a some models presented through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. SAMSHA offers models for evidence-based practices in the areas of medication management, recovery service, supported employment, family-psycho education, co-occurring disorders and assertive community treatment. "They've done a lot of groundwork on this," Parks said of SAMSHA, and added the trip to Washington was a good opportunity to establish a relationship with the agency that could offer future technical assistance to the state and counties. As a result of the trip, Kelso said the county human services department probably would include performance standards in future contracts that enlist the services of private providers, most of which are nonprofit. Kelso said she believes the state and the county fare well, especially in the areas of child welfare, Wisconsin Works programs and in enforcing child support payments. "I think they felt we were really ahead of other states and counties with our programs," Kelso said. She said the trip revealed national trends in health and human services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is seeing a trend in people living longer in their homes with the help of medicines. They are allowing individuals to live in community settings whereas before they lived in institutions, Kelso said.