By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
KEENE – State police will now have body and dash cameras and a whole new information system to support them after the Executive Council unanimously approved a new contract on Wednesday.
While other cities across the state have such systems, this is the first comprehensive one for all NHSP. The new Digital Evidence Management System for NHSP fulfills one of the recommendations of last year’s LEACT or Law Enforcement Accountability and Community and Transparency commission to provide better policing across the state.
The commission was chosen by Gov. Chris Sununu following protests in reaction to the May 2020 videotaped death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota.
The contract with Utility Associates Inc. in the amount of $3,372,600 is effective upon approval and runs through October 31, 2026, with an option to extend for one, two-year period.
It was among a number of contracts agreed to at the council’s regular meeting, held on the road at the Colonial Theatre’s Showroom in Keene.
The contract provides the network and associated hardware to support 320 body-worn and 522 vehicle cameras. There will be two cameras per vehicle.
There will also be 31 designated wireless access points across the state.
Manchester and several other New Hampshire cities use the same contractor.
There were five bids the state received for the system and Utility Associates had the highest scoring and lowest cost proposal, according to Robert L. Quinn, Commissioner of Safety.
Quinn thanked the governor and legislature for their support.
“This is a big change, Nate Noyes, colonel of the state police said, adding this involves a lot of data and evidence which will go out to prosecutors and defense attorneys.
He said it is long overdue and will provide better evidence and transparency, accountability of officers and noted that complaints go down and there is better communication and training.
Execurive Councilor Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, questioned the cost.
Noyes said this was the lowest cost and the highest quality contract offered.
It is more of a per-month subscription. If more cars need to be replaced they might have to come back for more money.
The rates are all fixed for five years but are based on today’s numbers of vehicles.
Seven states require these by law.
It is the same vendor as Manchester police have.
Council Visits Keene
The Executive Council is on its summer meeting tour of the state, visiting all five of the state’s council districts.
Three weeks ago, the meeting was held in District 1 at Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch.
This week, the meeting was in Keene, which is part of District 2. Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, of District 2, the Concord Democrat, was the event’s hostess.
While the main Colonial Theatre has been shuttered and undergoing construction since the pandemic began, the Showroom, a venue behind it for smaller productions staged the unusual live production, Wednesday, with state department heads in leading roles presenting plans going forward.
Many of them presented plans to spend some of the federal American Rescue Plan funds on the needs of New Hampshire citizens during the pandemic.
The “roadshow” was open to the public, Sununu said, and “provides a unique opportunity to engage on a one-on-one level.”
Breakfast was held at the Keene Public Library which the governor called “a gem.”
Mayor George Hansel welcomed all and discussed the city’s ability to collaborate to get things done, including the restoration of the theatre.
“This is our economic engine,” he said, “This sets us up for the next 100 years.”
Two years of construction has been compressed into one year with the main stage to be completed in March 2022. Following a few delays, due to the pandemic, the project has reached about 73 percent of the campaign goal of raising $12.5 million. About $4 million a year is pumped into the city’s coffers when the theatre is open.
The governor lauded the efforts and noted how hard the pandemic hit such live performance venues across the state. “You guys just rocked it,” Sununu said.
“I feel like a one-man act,” he said as he stood on the small stage.
Teenager Andrew Oliver read a poem about “praise for the mutilated world” and received a standing ovation.
Honored by the governor and council were Cameron Tease, recently retired executive director of the Keene Senior Center, who opened up his home for individuals with disabilities; Mindy Cambiar, founder of the Community Kitchen of Keene and the Little Indonesia cultural center in Somersworth.
Also honored were COVID-19 vaccine volunteers with the Greater Monadnock Public Health Network.
FEMA FLOOD IMPACT UPDATE
In Cheshire and Sullivan counties, there have been three major rainstorms this summer that have damaged roads and infrastructure.
FEMA is looking into providing disaster recovery funds.
The council was told that the process of assessment was kicked off in Keene and Rindge this week with impact assessment for repairs. It is a long process. The July 29 and July 18 floods were particularly hard in Acworth and the $2 million federal minimum thresholds for damage would be met with that damage alone, state DOT officials said.
Warmington said it looks like more than $10 million in damage so far.
Seventy-five percent would be covered by FEMA and the 25 percent would have to be borne by the municipality.
Before the meeting, Warmington toured some of the damage.
NOMINATIONS
The governor nominated two judges to the circuit court, Christine Casa of Portsmouth and Kevin Rauseo of Hudson; Mark Sanborn of Laconia as Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services at a salary of $108,212, and retired lobbyist Erle Pierce to the Lottery Commission.
BOARDING CRISIS UPDATE
Kenney asked Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette about the average wait time for emergency psychiatric care services and the state’s response to a court ruling.
She said the wait time is now less than a day and at some point, the state will have to define boarding as among hours not days.
The meeting included a presentation on how the state plans to get more beds for emergency psychiatric care to comply with a Supreme Court decision in the case of Jane Doe v. the Commissioner of DHHS and use federal relief money to accomplish a portion of it.
Shibinette, reported that the state has found more beds to care for elderly psychiatric patients and free up space for new admissions at both the state psychiatric hospital in Concord and the Glencliff Home in Grafton County, as the governor’s effort to find 150 new beds for children and adults continues.
The council authorized retroactive, sole-source contracts with eight nursing homes for establishing behavioral health long-term care bed capacity exclusively for patients to transfer from the New Hampshire Hospital or Glencliff Home in Grafton County, in an amount not to exceed $1,735,416.
This will free up beds at the state psychiatric hospital in Concord and is effective May 17, 2021, through May 31, 2022.
Shibinette said it was a sole-source contract and thus not bid out because the correct ruled the state must act immediately to address the crisis.
Sununu announced his executive order this spring to solve the so-called “boarding crisis” where those in search of psychiatric care go to emergency rooms and are held there until a bed can be found.
He called for 150 new beds to be found.
The state Supreme Court ruled days before the governor’s order that the state was violating those patients’ rights by not addressing their needs within 72 hours of emergency room admission, allowing them to languish for weeks and in some cases months while beds were found.
Contracts for 21 beds with facilities including Genesis Health Care facilities throughout the state and others in Rochester, Littleton, Whitefield, Dover, Portsmouth, and Keene are being paid for with the federal American Rescue Plan, related to COVID-19 recovery.
Also, the state is looking to locate six new beds in each of the state’s 10 counties for a total of 60 more beds.
By freeing up the state hospital’s elderly unit which provides short-term acute care, the number of people waiting in emergency rooms has dropped, Shibinette said.
She called it a “win-win” for people who are now in less restrictive environments.
CRISIS FOR NURSING HOME CARE
Shibinette said there is a statewide crisis to fill jobs in nursing homes and the state is going to move to out-of-state recruitment, rather than recycling the current in-state workforce.
Councilor Janet Stevens, R-Rye, noted that a second shift at the Glencliff is particularly hard hit.
The commissioner said Glencliff is uniquely in crisis because “they are in the middle of nowhere.”
WAIVER SOUGHT, PUBLIC HEARINGS PLANNED
The state is looking for a waiver from the federal government to include short-term inpatient and residential treatment services for Medicaid beneficiaries with serious mental illness, also known as SMI.
“This amendment gives New Hampshire the opportunity to transform delivery and access to mental health services and makes a real difference in the lives of thousands of Granite Staters experiencing mental health crises,” said Shibinette in a statement issued Tuesday.
“Along with continued investment in community-based alternatives to inpatient care and enhanced support for patients transitioning among different levels of care, improving access to short-term stays in IMDs is critical to addressing the state’s challenges related to psychiatric ED boarding.”
The hope is the waiver if approved will reduce lengths of stay in Emergency Departments, improve the availability of crisis stabilization services through call centers and mobile crisis units and intensive outpatient services;
improve access to community-based services to address the chronic mental health care needs of Medicaid beneficiaries with SMI and improve care coordination, especially continuity of care in the community.
The public is being asked to comment until August 31 and will also host two public hearings during the public comment period on Aug 9 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the DHHS’s Brown Building Auditorium, 129 Pleasant St., Concord, and Aug. 11 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Harbor Homes, 77 Northeastern Blvd., Nashua.
To read the proposed amendment, visit https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/ombp/medicaid/documents/smi-demo-amendment-draft.pdf.
For more information about the amendment application, submitting public comment, or attending a public hearing, visit https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/sud-imd/.
DELTA VARIANT IN LONG-TERM CARE
Stevens asked Shibinette about the COVID-19 Delta variant and whether there are enhanced measures to keep it out of long-term care facilities.
Currently, only one facility in Laconia is experiencing outbreaks.
Shibinette said the Centers for Medicaid Services still requires testing of facilities.
“What we have seen is an occasional positive usually among staff,” she said, which prompts more testing and possible containment.
“Everybody is taking the right precautions,” Shibinette stressed. “It is really a balance,” but she said what the state does not want to see is a return to closing the doors again to families and friends of the residents.
CONTRACTS ON REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES COMING IN SEPTEMBER
An abbreviated audit is expected in September for all of the state’s reproductive clinics which have state contracts, Shibinette said.
PREPAYMENT QUESTIONED ON $11M DCYF SERVICES CONTRACT
The council unanimously tabled an $11 million contract to keep youths out of DCYF’s Sununu Center with community-based counseling and had a heated debate about up-front payments in contracts now and going forward.
Stevens asked about up-front payments to the vendor Community Solutions Inc., of Bloomfield, Conn, for a new evidence-based practice designed to prevent youth from entering long-term, out-of-home care called Multisystemic Therapy.
The contract is for $10,964,020 with an advance payment in the amount of $480,661 to the vendor.
Joe Ripson, head of DCYF, said the contract was awarded to the contractor who was by far the best bidder and had success in Connecticut.
She asked what sort of therapists they are drawing from.
They have to be licensed clinicians with various expertise, Ripson said.
He said all vendors asked for upfront fees for this contract because they all had to stand up an operation.
In the private sector that is not heard of, said Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas, a Manchester Republican.
Ripson said that is not the way it works in state-run social services.
“I find it almost impossible to believe…they don’t have working capital,” Gatsas said.
Ripson said by rejecting the contract that might mean that the state does not have the services.
“We are going to have more kids…that don’t need to be there. This is a program to stop this,” Ripson said.
Shibinette and Ripson said the contract would be less than paying for a residential program.
Executive Councilor David Wheeler, R-Milford, asked to table the contract.
Stevens said she knows children have suffered but wants to be sure that the right practitioners are selected.
“I applaud what you are doing,” she said.
Shibinette said the goal has been to keep kids in their community and this comprehensive program is by far a cheaper alternative and a policy.
“I am not sure what questions are still out there,” Shibinette said.
The state would have to go back and perhaps re-RFP.
Gatsas said the department should know he is opposed to pre-payment of contract.
“I have heard from you,” Shibinette said, “I have heard your objection…but there is a long history of other departments doing that as well,” presenting 39 total contracts approved for five state agencies in an email sent to the governor and council in their email in early July.
Sununu said those prepayments amount to less than 1 percent of the contracts.
“This is not an abusive process,” the governor said. “This is the process and we risk losing new vendors coming into the state,” Sununu said. “I would tread with caution.”
One thing he said the state has lagged behind on is bringing out-of-state vendors in and this is part of breaking down that bad process.
Shibinette said while she did not believe a several weeks tabling would impact the four-year contract, she did not see how she could change the concern, other than going out to rebid the entire contract.
Kenney said in his previous term on the council several years ago, there were not as many pre-payments approved.
Shibinette said in the north country there are some nonprofits more than able to provide services but might not have the capital to bid on some contracts in the future if prepayment is not allowed.
CHOOSE LOVE BUS TOUR
Kenney said he would not support a contract for a Choose Love Bus Tour if there was not a stop in the North Country.
He was assured there would be a stop among nine in the beginning of the school year, making sure that kids set the tone for kindness.
Kenney wanted not only the north country but stops in the Upper Valley and the Lakes Region.
The $207,708 contract will be paid for through the American Rescue Plan to respond to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts.
SMALL TOWNS NOT APPLYING FOR ARP
The governor said he is frustrated that small towns are having a hard time with the federal process for applying for federal American Rescue Plan funds. The deadline for applying is this month. They can’t apply the second round if they don’t apply the first time and many are finding the process onerous.
Taylor Caswell, who is in charge of the GOFERR program, said the Aug. 18 deadline is looming and the councilors need to help push those municipalities and county governments in their districts to at least get the applications done.
HOUSING, CHILD CARE BLOCK GRANTS TO BERLIN, PLYMOUTH, SALEM AND BOSCAWEN
The council approved a number of block grants – some to improve child care – through the Community Development Finance Authority including $25,000 for Berlin’s
North Woods Learning Center Inc., to support its childcare planning study, $500,000 for Midstate Health in Plymouth will help support the renovation of a center for about 60 children.
Other grants would go to improve apartments at Millville Arms in Salem by increasing the contract amount by $46,200 and one for Boscawen for $379,246 to support the Mill House residential rehabilitation project.
The money for these grants comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding.
WIND TURBINES
A grant to study wind production in the Gulf of Maine was approved, but the state is a number of years away, said Jared Chicoine, commissioner of the state Department of Energy.
“The sooner the better,” Sununu said.
“But we wouldn’t see them?” Gatsas asked.
No, it would not likely be visible, he was told, and be outside state waters into federal waters.
The power would likely be coming into Seabrook, Gatsas said, and the state should maintain some of that power for the state.
There is an offshore study commission that is meeting and those are issues being discussed, he was told.
A power purchase agreement would likely come before the council, the governor said.
But Gatsas said the state should have the policy to procure that power before the contract came before the council.
The contract approved Wednesday was to expend $250,000 of American Rescue Plan State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, to fund an impacts assessment study on the deployment of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.
CHESS IN SCHOOLS
At the request of Education Commissioner Frank Edleblut, the council approved a $309,558 contract for integrating chess instruction into the state education curriculum.
The contract with Chess in Schools LLC of Hendersonville, N.C. is for “high-quality instruction to all NH education programs throughout the state,” to integrate chess into school curriculum. It is a sole-source contract that was not bid out.
Edleblut wrote these are the only people doing this in the country and that this is supported by federal COVID-19 relief funds.
He noted the popularity of the Netflix series the Queen’s Gambit as helping to popularize chess. The program will be launched this September. It will be integrated mostly into the math curriculum particularly at middle school and high school levels. Teachers “can own it” once it is stood up, the commissioner said. Schools can sign up to participate and it would provide a $150 stipend to the educator for training, the software, and chess boards.
Sununu said, “I love this idea.”
So does the Chess Association of New Hampshire, the commissioner said.
Two councilors voted against the contract, Kenney and Wheeler.
“Checkmate,” Sununu said. “You knew that was coming.”
CHILDREN’S SCHOLARSHIP FUND QUESTIONED, APPROVED
The families could hit the lottery and not be means-tested and still get funds from the state to attend private schools, Warmington told Edleblut.
She called the Education Freedom Accounts a major change by using state funds to pay for private schools for the poor.
Will the Department of Education be reporting on the outcomes of testing, she asked.
Yes, he said, not by school but information relative to the student.
Can they be used for out-of-state schools?
They cannot, he said.
Stevens applauded the program as a great advancement, particularly for low-income students.
Wheeler said it is something he has been looking forward to for 30 years. He noted that homeschooling his children saved money and he would have qualified under this grant to get the help. He said his wife gave up years of work.
Kenney said he supported the initiative. As a child growing up in a rural area and having to be bused to school more than 20 miles and hitchhiked to attend sports.
“I could have gone to a school a lot more local to me,” he said if the program was available. “I think the more options we give families in NH the more they want to stay in NH.”
Warmington voted no the measure.