Mar 19, 2021 4 min read

The Washington County commissioners are creating an advisory board to help steer the county’s newly formed Department of Human Services.

The board will have between 13 and 17 members with different professional backgrounds related to human services, although it’s more likely the panel’s size will be on the lower end and include people with expertise in multiple areas.

“We’re making sure we have people from several areas in Washington County will allow for a more cooperative approach,” commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan said of human services.

She said the new human service department will offer “wraparound services” for people to be able to access multiple agencies, such as drug and alcohol treatment, mental health, behavioral services, among several other organizations and programs.

In addition to creating the advisory board during their Thursday voting meeting, the commissioners also approved the group’s bylaws that explain how it will function. Each member will serve a three-year term and the board will meet as needed.

Kim Rogers, the new administrator for the county’s human services, said the group will be a “sounding board” to make recommendations and then send them to the commissioners for consideration.

“We’ve had so many people active in our county and we believe people in the community will step up and get behind this, no doubt,” Rogers said. “This will be an active board, getting tasks accomplished.”

The commissioners will still oversee the department, but will likely lean on the advisory board for suggestions. Rogers pointed to how a “food coalition” within the board could help advise on how to handle hunger in the county.

“It would be important for the community to be part of the human services overall,” Rogers said. “We want this to be led by the community and the consumers of these programs.  … These will be the programs that impact their lives.”

The board will include current or former department members from Aging Services; Behavioral Health and Developmental Services; Children and Youth Services; Drug and Alcohol Services; Housing and Homeless Services; Victim-Centered Organization; and Veteran Affairs. The panel will also include representatives with areas of expertise in child care; employment and training; religion; food banks or pantries; law enforcement, health care; and education. Other community leaders, child advocates or ex-officio members could sit on the board.

“The importance is that we have the community represented and they are our sounding board for any ideas we have,” Rogers said of the wide variety with the board members. “They advise and offer feedback on programs.”

County officials moved Rogers into the administrator role last April after the commissioners decided to place several county agencies under the umbrella of the new Department of Human Services.

Anyone interested in participating on the board can contact Rogers at her office at 724-250-4122. She will send out an application with basic questions, and then forward prospective candidates to the commissioners for final consideration. The commissioners are planning to meet next week to begin discussing possible candidates and could vote on the advisory board members as soon as next month’s regular meeting.

Also during Thursday’s meeting, the commissioners approved a request from Washington County Recorder of Deeds Debbie Bardella to upgrade the office’s system to offer a fraud-monitoring component with deed transfers.

While fraud involving deed transfers is incredibly rare, Bardella told the commissioners in an email this week that it has occurred in the past and she has received inquiries from people concerned about it. At least 10 other counties in Pennsylvania are currently implementing such a monitoring system in which people can voluntarily sign up for the service to be alerted if there is a transfer on a property they own.

The upgrade, which includes a start-up price of $6,000 and a first-year support fee of $2,000, will be paid by the recorder’s office. Details on how someone could sign up with the recorder’s office for the monitoring were not immediately released Thursday.