Lawrence Council reviews Council on Aging budget as director moves part‑time roles to full time and fields privacy, advisory council questions

Martha Velez, director of Health and Human Services, told the Lawrence City Council on May 22 that the Council on Aging’s portion of the Health and Human Services budget is $1,426,441, an increase of $5,972 from the prior year.

The increase is largely tied to personnel changes, Velez said: the department replaced four part‑time program assistants with three full‑time program assistants to improve continuity of service and provide benefits. “It was hard to find part time, 18 hours a week with people not getting benefits,” Velez said. She added that moving those roles to 35 hours a week produced a modest increase in pay for the employees.

The change matters because the council on aging provides large-scale services to older residents: Velez said the department served more than 6,900 people last year, delivered about 2,010 units of service and provided 76,000 meals to homebound elders. The department also runs citizenship and English classes and daily exercise programs that draw 60 to 90 participants, she said.

Councilors asked several follow‑up questions. Councilor Marmol sought detail on the program‑assistant staffing change and the salary impacts; Councilor Lazo pressed on the specific dollar increase tied to converting part‑time positions to full time. Velez responded that the combined change produced a higher hourly/annual cost because the three full‑time employees are on a benefits schedule that the part‑time roles did not receive.

Privacy and data access drew sustained scrutiny. Velez described a new client database used for intake and tracking across Health and Human Services programs and said access is tiered: administrators have full access and printing rights, while frontline staff have restricted entry privileges for appointments and records. Councilor Luzon raised past leaks of confidential documents and asked how the department will prevent inappropriate use of the database. Velez said only administrators can print names and phone numbers and that the system requires login credentials and role‑based permissions.

Councilors also raised the long‑dormant Council on Aging advisory group. Councilor Lazo said constituents had asked why the advisory council had not met since 2016 and noted the appointments are made by the mayor. Velez said the city has posted openings in the past but struggled to secure applicants and quorums; she said the advisory panel’s duties are advisory — to suggest policy and programming for seniors. Councilors offered to help publicize openings if the mayor’s office forwards candidate information.

The council did not take a formal vote on the Council on Aging budget section during the session; questions were answered and councilors requested further information on advisory‑council vacancies and access to the new database.

Velez closed by inviting council assistance with outreach and reiterated that some positions in the department are grant funded and therefore already accounted for in the grant budgets.