Legal Aid of North Carolina

Meeting Minutes - LANC Board of Directors
February 23, 2007

Site/Location: Holiday Inn Brownstone Hotel and Conference Center
                      Raleigh, NC

Call to Order and Welcome

Chairman Cal Adams called the regular business meeting to order at 9:50 a.m. and welcomed all in attendance.    

Members Present

Members Absent With Prior Notification

LANC Staff Members

George R. Hausen, Jr., LANC Executive Director
Chris Marks, Assistant Director of Finance & Administration
Celia Pistolis, Assistant Director of Advocacy & Compliance
Dock Kornegay, Director, Public Relations & Communications
Tonya Pruitt-Lyons, Administrative Assistant
Paula Spence, Office Manager
Mary Hedgepeth, Clients Council Coordinator
Richard Klein, Southeast Regional Manager/
                     Senior Managing Attorney, LANC Wilmington

LANC Affiliated Attendees

Michelle Cofield, Director of Public Service & Pro Bono Activity,
                         North Carolina Bar Association
Evelyn Pursley, Executive Director, IOLTA
Delsie Williams, wife of Willis Williams
Lynch Brown, member of the Clients Council
Ruby Cotton, member of the Clients Council

Approval of Minutes

Chairman Adams directed the Board’s attention to the minutes of November 8, 2006.  Following review and discussion of the minutes, a motion was made, duly seconded, and the minutes were UNAMANIMOUSLY APPROVED as written.  

Chairman’s Report

Chairman Adams reported that the Equal Access to Justice Commission will conduct a public hearing in October. This hearing will be an opportunity for the Commission members to hear from clients and others about access  and availability of legal services in North Carolina. He is working with the Commission’s Director, Michelle Cofield, and fellow Commission member, Carol Spruill, on the details and logistics for this hearing.  Also, he recently  attended a Legal Services Planning Council meeting. 

Chairman Adams recognized Evelyn Pursley to report on IOLTA.  Ms. Pursley reported that IOLTA is doing very well and that it had exceeded its 2006 goal of $ 4 million.  IOLTA funds totaled approximately $4.5 million in 2006 and the IOLTA Board has projected that the 2007 goal will be the same as 2006.

President’s Report

George Hausen reported that LANC hired seven new managers in 2006 and will be conducting  an in house management training for them on March 2, 2007.  Also,   Mr. Hausen reported that LSC again required all LSC funded programs, including LANC, to  perform self audits of  closed cases to determine whether the cases satisfy federal compliance standards. He stated that 349 cases were selected for review and that only 12 errors were found.  This error rate shows that LANC’s performance on compliance issues is good and will not require any corrective action. LANC’s  error rate will  be reported to LSC as required.

Further, Mr. Hausen reported that centralized intake is performing well and providing improved service to clients. Through the efforts of the Centralized Intake Unit  1000 more clients were served in 2006 than were served in 2005. The Unit will be adding the Pembroke and Fayetteville offices and will perform intake for those service areas next month. As more funding becomes available, centralized intake will expand to include other areas of the state.

A new venture is starting in Durham where LANC is partnering  with Duke Medical Center  and Duke Law School to launch  the Medical Legal Partnership.  This joint project will allow for the placement of an attorney in  health clinics serving  low income clients to create a holistic approach to a patient’s medical and legal needs.  The doctors will address the medical needs of clients while the attorney will coordinate legal services that directly impact the client’s health.  The Kellogg Foundation has awarded a  $25,000 grant and other funders are being sought to underwrite the project.  The Durham office will  staff the first model to be overseen by Managing Attorney C. J. Reilly there. The hope is that this project will expand to  the Winston Salem and Greenville  areas.

Mr. Hausen reported that LANC is considering an evaluation of its legal work to be conducted by an outside evaluation team.  The evaluation will begin in late 2007 or early 2008. 

Client Council Report
Willis Williams, Chair of the LANC Clients Council reported that the Clients Council met February 22, 2007 and that Evan Lewis and Sandy Murillo of LANC-Greenville Office provided training on tax issues including the Earned Income Tax Credit.  Also, the Council is interested in providing testimony and written information about clients’ legal problems and needs to the Equal Access to Justice Commission at its upcoming public hearing.

Mr. Williams reported that the Council reviewed its work plan for 2007 and will make changes regarding its partnership with the NC Justice Center in order to maximize its funds to benefit clients.

Legislative Update
Chairman Adams recognized Bill Rowe from the NC Justice Center to update the Board on state legislative developments. Rowe identified the following areas where the NC Justice Center hopes to use its legislative agenda to help low income residents of North Carolina:  affordable housing, training and support for workers, assistance for moderate wage families, health and safety for migrant workers, consumer protection, housing and foreclosures, improved access to health care, unfair tax practices, better public education, domestic violence, and lobbying reforms. The legislative session will begin next month and the NC Justice Center will be there working on behalf of the North Carolina poor.

Committee Reports

Client Affairs Committee
Willis Williams, Chair of the Client Affairs Committee, reported that there will be a slate of eligible clients presented  to the LANC Board at the June meeting to fill vacant client board seats. 

Nominating & Board Development Committee
Burton Craige, Chair of the Nominating & Board Development Committee, reported that the Nominating Committee met to identify those board members whose terms are expiring  in June 2007 and to discuss how to best fill vacancies.   He reported that various appointing organizations and local advisory councils will be contacted for nominations to fill the expiring and vacant seats.  

Finance Committee
Leto Copeley, Chair of the Finance Committee, reported that the committee met and discussed the status of the 2007 budget along with the retention of Romeo Wiggins to perform the 2006 LANC audit.  The committee agreed to retain the current auditor.

Ms. Copeley acknowledged that IOLTA had awarded LANC an additional $126,000 and expressed appreciation for this increased funding.

Chris Marks was recognized and reported that the LANC funded health plan is doing well.  He stated  that there was a 6% increase in health costs  in 2006 and  that an 11% increase in health costs is anticipated for the year 2007.

Janet Ward Black, President-Elect of the NCBA and Chair of the Triad Access to Justice Campaign, reported that the NCBA recently approved the establishment of  an endowment for Legal Aid of North Carolina.  Members will be able to make donations when renewing their memberships because the membership forms  will include a check off for donations to this endowment. The NCBA hopes to use the endowment as a  way to educate North Carolina attorneys about the needs of LANC and its clients.

Personnel Committee
Hada Haulsee, Chair of the Personnel Committee, was absent and Celia Pistolis presented  the Committee’s report.

Previously the  LANC Board  had  approved amending the LANC Retirement Plan to include a provision that would allow the Plan to make loans  to  current employees with a minimum loan amount of $2,500. Because of federal law (ERISA), the minimum loan amount must be $1,000.  In order to amend the Retirement Plan, the Board must approve a resolution to that effect and the Committee unanimously recommends that it do so.  Following review and discussion of this recommendation, the Board unanimously approved that the minimum loan amount be reduced to $1,000 and approved the execution of the attached resolution to amend the Retirement Plan.  

Also, the Personnel Committee had carefully considered a grievance of a terminated LANC employee pursuant to the LANC Personnel Policies. The Committee unanimously found that the employee’s termination did not violate any LANC policy and that there was just cause for the termination. Therefore, the Committee unanimously determined that the employee grievance should be denied. The Committee’s decision was final and no further Board action was required.

Operations Committee
Celia Pistolis was recognized to give the report in the absence of Willie Dawson, Chair of the Operations Committee.   She reported that LANC employees were completing their respective office work plans and that those would be provided to the Committee as part of its review of  LANC priorities.

As part of the priority process, LANC was conducting surveys of district court judges, clients and private lawyers about client needs and pro bono work across the state.  The judicial  survey was conducted electronically and emailed to approximately 130 judges. Ten per cent of the surveys were returned and the results were tabulated.  All judges reported their awareness with the local legal aid offices and that the offices can not represent every client in need of its representation.  Further results indicated that LANC attorneys represented their clients very well, although respective bars could improve their pro bono efforts.    The three top client needs noted from the judge’s survey were: family, housing and children’s rights.

The  client survey has been mailed to a random sample of approximately 3,000 clients and about fifteen percent of those surveys were returned.  Two television sets were raffled to those who sent in completed surveys. These results are being tabulated and will be provided to the Committee along with the results of an electronic survey of private attorneys. The electronic survey of the private bar will be conducted through the NCBA and the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers.

The Board was directed to review the  annual Local Advisory reports for the Ahoskie, Pembroke, Greensboro and Sylva offices found in the Board Notebook. 

Strategic Planning Committee
Glenn Barfield, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, reported that the Committee was continuing to finalize a strategic plan for LANC and expected to have this completed by the June meeting.

Grievance Committee
Phillip Leigh, Chair of the Grievance Committee, reported that the Committee had met to review a client grievance regarding the quality and manner of serviced provided by a staff attorney in the Ahoskie Office in 2004.  The Committee carefully considered this grievance and found that it was without merit.  The Committee’s decision was final and no further board action was required  Since 2002, this client grievance is the second one that has been appealed to the LANC Board level.

Resource Development Committee
Paul Shepard, Acting Chair of the Resource Development Committee, reported that research to develop an endowment fund continues, and that  letters have been sent to various groups seeking information for the rules and regulations regarding endowments. 

George Hausen reported that LANC is approaching its fifth year of operation and solicited the Board for ideas to mark this milestone.

New Business

Chairman Adams stated that there was no new business to discuss.

Adjournment

As there was no further business before the Board, Chair Adams adjourned the meeting at 12:15 p.m.

____________________________
Mary Flowers, Secretary,LANC Board of Directors