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1 1 COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2 3 HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE 4 STATE CAPITOL HARRISBURG, PA 5 IRVIS OFFICE BUILDING 6 ROOM G-50 7 WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013 9:00 A.M. 8 PRESENTATION ON 9 INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES WAITING LIST FOR SERVICES 10 BEFORE: 11 HONORABLE GENE DIGIROLAMO, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE MATT BAKER 12 HONORABLE JOE EMRICK HONORABLE MINDY FEE 13 HONORABLE LEE JAMES HONORABLE STEVEN MENTZER 14 HONORABLE TOM MURT HONORABLE MARCY TOEPEL 15 HONORABLE ANGEL CRUZ, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE MICHELLE BROWNLEE 16 HONORABLE PAMELA DELISSIO HONORABLE MADELEINE DEAN 17 HONORABLE PATTY KIM HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY 18 HONORABLE ERIN MOLCHANY HONORABLE MARK PAINTER 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 2 1 COMMITTEE STAFF PRESENT: MELANIE BROWN 2 MAJORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ELIZABETH YARNELL 3 MAJORITY RESEARCH ANALYST PAMELA HUSS 4 MAJORITY ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT 5 6 ASHLEY McCAHAN DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 3 1 I N D EX 2 OPENINGS REMARKS By Representative DiGirolamo, Chairman 5 3 INTRODUCTION OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS 5 - 6 4 OPENING REMARKS 5 By Representative Murt 6 - 7 6 PRESENTATION By Fred Lokuta 9 - 13 7 By Sheila Stasko 15 - 16 By Tom Carasiti 16 - 17 8 By Sheila Stasko 18 - 20 By Lisa Tesler 20 - 26 9 PRESENTATION 10 By Nancy Richey (on behalf of anonymous) 27 - 30 By Kathy Ross 30 - 34 11 By Patty Deutsch 34 - 37 By Ed McNicholas (on behalf of John Hettinger) 37 - 42 12 By Stacie DePrimo 42 - 43 13 PRESENTATION By Suzi Bergman 44 - 47 14 By Debbie Leggins 47 - 49 By Cynthia and Elizabeth Porter 49 - 52 15 By Tom Carasiti 52 - 55 By Ned Whitehead 55 - 56 16 VIDEO PRESENTATION 17 PRESENTATION 18 By Nancy Murray 58 - 61 By Audrey Coccia 61 - 66 19 By Maureen Devaney 66 - 70 20 PRESENTATION By Jim McFalls 70 - 73 21 CONCLUDING REMARKS 22 By Chairman DiGirolamo 73 - 74 23 COMMENT FROM COMMITTEE MEMBERS 74 - 77 24 STATEMENT By Fred Lokuta 78 - 79 25 SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 4 1 I N D E X (cont.) 2 CONCLUDING REMARKS 3 By Chairman DiGirolamo 79 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 5 1 P R O C E E D I N G 2 ----------------------------------------------------------- 3 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: Good evening. And welcome to 4 this meeting of the Human Services Committee. And I think the 5 first thing we ought to do is I might ask everyone to stand for 6 the Pledge of Allegiance. 7 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE RECITED 8 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: Okay. First, I'd just --- a 9 couple ground rules. I'll just let everybody know that the 10 cameras are rolling and we're being recorded. And the clock on 11 the wall is on Senate time. It's about 10 to 12 minutes fast 12 than what it really is. And I might first --- we're not going 13 to take roll, but I might start first and just let the members 14 just say hello and let you know who they are and where they're 15 from. And we will start with Representative Mentzer. 16 REPRESENTATIVE MENTZER: Steve Mentzer, 97th 17 District, which is Lancaster County, actually a northern 18 suburb. 19 REPRESENTATIVE FEE: Hi. I'm Mindy Fee, and I'm 20 from the 37th District. And it's the northern tier of 21 Lancaster County. 22 REPRESENTATIVE MOLCHANY: My name is Representative 23 Erin Molchany, and I'm from the 22nd District in Allegheny 24 County. And I'm sorry I sound like this. 25 REPRESENTATIVE KIM: Good morning. I'm Patty Kim, SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 6 1 with a normal voice this morning. I'm just kidding. I 2 represent the 103rd, which includes Harrisburg. Thank you. 3 REPRESENTATIVE PAINTER: Good morning. I'm Mark 4 Painter. I represent the good people of the 146th District in 5 western Montgomery County. 6 CHAIRMAN CRUZ: Good morning. I'm Representative. 7 Cruz, and I'm under the weather, too. 8 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: And Gene DiGirolamo from Bucks 9 County, Chairman of the Committee. 10 REPRESENTATIVE MURT: Tom Murt, 152nd District, 11 Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties. 12 REPRESENTATIVE BAKER: Matt Baker, Bradford and 13 Tioga Counties. 14 REPRESENTATIVE TOEPEL: Good morning. Marcy Toepel, 15 from 147th District, western Montgomery County. 16 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: With that, I'm going to turn 17 the microphone over to Representative Tom Murt for a few 18 opening statements. Tom is the Subcommittee Chair of Mental 19 Health and Intellectual Disabilities. Tom? 20 REPRESENTATIVE MURT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 21 Prior to the establishment of the Waiting List, there was no 22 uniform manner of identifying individuals in the community and 23 their levels of need. The Waiting List today provides vital 24 information for planning, not only on the individual level but 25 also at the local and state levels. SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 7 1 In 1999, the Waiting List Planning Group identified 2 411 people in emergency need of services and 3,244 in critical 3 need of services. Today, there are 4,187 people in emergency 4 need and 6,694 in critical need of services. As diagnostics, 5 assessment of need and developmental services have evolved, so 6 have changes in funding, resources and structure. 7 In light of the difficult economy, balanced with the 8 need to assure that our citizens with intellectual disabilities 9 receive appropriate services, it is important that we not only 10 understand the needs of individuals and their families but also 11 the system of service provision and the resources needed to 12 meet these needs, as well as needing to address the issues and 13 challenges surrounding the Waiting List. We are reminded that 14 there have been successes. Many of these success stories are 15 the result of advocacy and activism of our parents, service 16 providers, and families who have cared for a family member with 17 an intellectual or developmental disability with great love and 18 compassion for many years. Thank you to these dedicated 19 advocates for their service to our most vulnerable population 20 and for taking the time to educate our legislators about these 21 issues. We look forward to hearing from the testifiers today 22 who will share their perspectives on issues relating to the 23 Waiting List. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 24 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: Thank you, Tom. And just a 25 couple people I'd like to recognize, Pam Huss from my staff, SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 8 1 who's the administrative assistant for the committee. And also 2 I would like to recognize Liz Yarnell. Just a big --- big 3 round of thanks to Liz for putting this hearing together and 4 for all the hard work you do. And also Sheila Stasko, who's 5 here and helped very much in helping put this committee 6 together. And also we would like to recognize the president 7 --- the presence of a former colleague of mine, Representative 8 Joe Brennan, who's sitting in the back there. Joe, welcome, 9 and always good to see you. 10 Okay. With that, why don't we get started? And I 11 want to introduce our first person who's going to testify, Fred 12 Lokuta, who I met for the first time yesterday in my office. 13 And we had a really good discussion. Fred's the Deputy 14 Secretary for the Office of Developmental Programs in DPW. 15 Fred, welcome. Interested in what you have to say. And we had 16 a little discussion yesterday about St. Katharine Drexel, the 17 picture I have --- 18 MR. LOKUTA: Yes, we did. 19 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: --- in my --- in my office. 20 MR. LOKUTA: Yes, we did. It was a very enjoyable 21 meeting. 22 CHAIRMAN DIGIROLAMO: Okay. Whenever you're ready 23 to start. And just --- maybe just to set the ground rules up, 24 we do have to be out of this room by 11 o'clock, even though we 25 do not have session today. But we do have to be out by 11 SARGENT'S COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC. (814) 536-8908 9 1 o'clock. So I thought we might just let everybody testify. 2 And we do have a half-hour set aside from 10:30 until 11:00 for 3 maybe some questions and answers. But I want to make sure that 4 everybody that's here and is going to testify has the ability 5 to do that. So Fred, whenever you're ready. 6 MR. LOKUTA: Thank you. Good morning, Chairman 7 DiGirolamo, Chairman Cruz, and members of the House Human 8 Services Committee. My name is Fred Lokuta, Deputy Secretary 9 for the Office of Developmental Programs. I want to thank you 10 for this opportunity to come before the Committee to discuss 11 ODP's efforts to serve the people of the Commonwealth with 12 intellectual disabilities and provide them with the opportunity 13 to live independent, dignified lives in their communities. 14 Truly, the options for those receiving state 15 supports have never been as broad or as deep as they are today.