Chaffee County Department of Human Services staff presented a newly completed strategic plan and described workgroups formed to address internal communication, organizational culture, program access and external communications.

The department said it conducted three surveys—staff, clients and community partners—and followed those with focus groups to develop a mission, values and three organization-wide goals. Workgroups have been formed to implement the plan incrementally; staff reported initial changes that include all-staff meetings, a monthly newsletter, a “coffee talk” for staff, an agency-wide calendar and development of a consolidated county website presence with a universal online application to pre-screen applicants for multiple programs.

Department staff also briefed the board on potential federal policy changes being discussed in some Congressional committees and reported at a recent conference. Staff and commissioners referred to the package as “Triple B.” The director emphasized the legislative proposals are not final, and state and local impacts depend on subsequent state decisions if the federal measures pass.

Key potential impacts described to commissioners included:
- SNAP (food benefit) cost-sharing: proposals discussed would shift a portion of SNAP administration/benefit costs to states; staff reported an earlier Senate version discussed 50% state share but that negotiators were considering lowering that to 25% for some components. The director said Colorado’s current error rate for benefit administration is about 8%; the draft penalty/shared-cost schedule in one version ties local or state fiscal responsibility to error-rate thresholds, which could require states to absorb some share and potentially create county-level exposure depending on how the state allocates costs.
- Work requirements: proposals discussed would expand work requirements for SNAP recipients and raise the eligible age range in some drafts; staff said the Senate sought removal of a waiver that let counties assess exemptions and that some proposals would limit exemptions to 12 months for medical reasons.
- Obesity-prevention funding: staff reported a possible elimination of a roughly $550 million obesity-prevention grant line in a draft that would reduce school and community prevention funding starting in October if enacted.
- Medicaid changes: staff summarized numerous draft provisions that would increase administrative checks (for example, more frequent eligibility re-determinations—moving from annual to every six months in a draft) and reduce protections for primary residences in long-term-care “waiver” eligibility rules (one draft set an asset limit near $1 million for treatment of primary residence), among other items. Staff warned increased verification frequency and new data duties could double county workload and shift costs to local governments.

Staff estimated the potential administrative implementation cost to Colorado could be large; one conference estimate cited during the briefing placed a multi-million-dollar implementation need for the state (staff relayed a cited figure of roughly $57 million for Colorado out of a $100 million federal implementation line discussed at the conference). The director recommended monitoring the bills, emphasizing that the proposals remain under revision and that counties cannot yet know final impacts until state-level implementation decisions are made.

Department staff also highlighted internal program changes and local results: child-support staff received an award for improved collection performance, and the department is rolling out a website consolidation and universal application to make program access clearer for residents.

Ending: Commissioners asked for copies of the draft bill materials and requested staff return with more detailed fiscal and operational impact estimates if the legislation advances to final federal and state language.