Friday, Aug. 16

 

Union appealing IHFPB
decision to close LDC

[AUG. 16, 2002]  Supporters of the Lincoln Developmental Center are not giving up the fight to keep the facility open, even though the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board has granted the Department of Human Services a permit to close it.

And DHS is equally committed to closing the 125-year-old Lincoln center, which it contends is a health and safety hazard to its residents.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the majority of LDC workers, plans to appeal yesterday’s planning board ruling to shutter the Lincoln facility forever.

"We are appealing the ruling of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board on at least two counts," said Anne Irving, spokesperson for AFSCME Council 31. She said that LDC is needed to serve residents in the area, some of whom will have to move to Chicago to receive services, and that in spite of the state’s contention, money for its operation is not an issue.

Irving also said AFSCME attorneys are looking into the legitimacy of the 11th-hour appointments made by Gov. George Ryan, which dropped three of the 15 planning board members and replaced them with three new ones a few days ago. Terms of the three who were dropped had expired, but it is not unusual for board members to continue serving when terms expire.

 

Steve Yokich, AFSCME attorney, is filing an appeal of the planning board’s ruling with the Logan County Circuit Court and is also asking the court for a temporary restraining order to prevent DHS from moving more residents out of LDC. No date has been set yet for the appeal to be heard.

A previous injunction blocking the moves of LDC residents without their guardians’ consent was handed down by Logan County Judge Donald Behle, reversed by the appellate court and then reinstated by an Illinois Supreme Court ruling. That injunction prevented DHS from emptying the facility of residents until the planning board made its decision.

Now that the decision to issue the permit has been made, DHS is free to continue moving residents so LDC can be closed by the Aug. 31 deadline set by that agency and Gov. George Ryan.

DHS plans to move 46 of the remaining 153 residents out of the facility today and tomorrow, according to Dan Senters, AFSCME Local 425 spokesperson, and is scheduling more moves next week.

Some of the moves were already planned, Senters said, but he believes DHS scheduled more moves the minute the permit was issued.

Reginald Marsh, spokesperson for DHS, said the department is just continuing to move forward with its plans to close LDC by Aug. 31. He said the planning process has been under way for months, parents have been notified and employee layoff notices have gone out.

Although residents could not be moved without their consent while the injunction was in force, the planning process for moving them continued during the injunction, he said. Those residents whose guardians consented to a move were taken to other facilities during that time.

"We think the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board made the right decision. We think they recognized that the care and safety of the residents was an issue, and also appreciated that the General Assembly appropriated only $5 million for LDC this year, not the $35 million appropriated last year. If the IHFPB had not approved the permit, we would have run out of money to run LDC," Marsh said.

 

Also applauding the decision was the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities, an organization that advocates for people with developmental disabilities. In a statement issued to the press, the group pointed to state’s record of abuse and neglect at LDC, which they alleged had not been corrected.

AFSCME members and state Sen. Larry Bomke, who is also a party to the lawsuit that has kept LDC open, disagree with the opinion given to the planning board that money would not be available to operate LDC for another year. John Stevens, general counsel of the Bureau of the Budget, testified that according to the state constitution, DHS can not lawfully spend money for LDC operations if that money has not been appropriated and there is no line item in the budget for it.

 

[to top of second column in this article]

Bomke argued that DHS could fund Lincoln if it wished to, and that the General Assembly could appropriate funds to operate LDC. Irving said the state’s legalistic arguments are "splitting pretty fine hairs."

AFSCME also believes there are not enough services in the area if LDC is closed. Residents who have relatives in central Illinois are being moved to facilities in the Chicago area, Irving said, making it difficult if not impossible for their families to visit them.

AFSCME members and parents who attended the planning board meeting also questioned the procedures used in gathering information to give the board. Pat Brown of Leroy, co-president of the Lincoln Parents Association, said he believed the hearing in Lincoln in July, where parents and others committed to keeping LDC open testified for most of seven hours, was not given real consideration.

"We gave all that public testimony in Lincoln, but it was a waste of time. They held the hearing just to be able to say they did what they had to do legally."

Planning board members did not attend the public hearing but sent a representative from the Department of Public Health, the agency that provides staff to the appointed, non-paid 15-member board. DPH later sent the board a recommendation that included some of the testimony given at the hearing but not all of the testimony of those in favor of keeping LDC open. The testimony given at Lincoln was overwhelmingly in favor of keeping LDC open.

The board got transcripts of the Lincoln hearing, letters and other documents, as well as statements and documents from DHS.

"I doubt if any of those board members read all the testimony given at Lincoln," Brown said. "Maybe one gentleman alluded to it briefly."

 

Brown said he and other parents tried to give planning board members several articles that had been published by different news organizations since the hearing, but they were told they could not lobby the board prior to the meeting.

Parents and employees were not allowed to speak at the hearing. By law the only agency allowed to testify was the one requesting the permit. Melissa Wright, assistant director of the DHS Office of Developmental Disabilities, was asked questions and allowed to speak.

Brown said no board members asked questions of parents or employees.

"We are very disappointed with the way the system is set up and the way it operates," Brown said. "It was frustrating to hear someone giving testimony and not be able to rebut it."

"If the planning board members can’t even hear from the people most affected by their decision, how meaningful is the process?" Irving said.

The parents and employees who got on a bus at 5 a.m. and went to Chicago to sit in on the hearing knew they would not be able to give verbal testimony unless asked but wanted to make a show of solidarity, Senters said. To show their support for the parents, the Lincoln Chapter 1250 of the Knights of Columbus paid for the rental of the bus, a total of $900.

"It was something we wanted to do," said Grand Knight Tom Peifer. "The officers got together and decided it would be a nice thing to do to support the parents."

"We were not surprised at the ruling, but we were disappointed," Brown said. "Not one individual on that board went against the governor’s wishes."

The board also voted unanimously to issue permits to close Zeller Mental Center in Peoria and Singer Developmental Center in Rockford. Family members from both those facilities also attended the hearing.

[Joan Crabb]

 


Most requests are moderate as
county begins budget hearings

[AUG. 16, 2002]  As hearings for the county’s fiscal year 2002-03 budget began, most early proposals were in line with or even under the current budget. The one exception was a request from the Economic Development Council for a loan of about $650,000 to purchase land for a commerce park.

Finance Committee chair Rod White told the Logan County Board Thursday night that budget requests submitted to that point were not very different from entries in the 2001-02 budget. Several were at the same level, and requests for the ESDA and paramedics were lower. In fact, Dan Fulscher is asking $19,000 less for the Emergency Services and Disaster Agency. Fulscher said part of the reason for his modest request is that the ESDA reimbursement from the state is up.

Other budget requests will necessarily contain increases. For example, Sheriff Tony Solomon’s budget must accommodate the extra $26,746 negotiated for deputies’ salaries.

 

The Finance Committee conducted its first hearings this morning. At that time board member Terry Werth, representing the Economic Development Council, asked for $25,000 for EDC operations, the same as last year, and for the loan for the commerce park. The loan request was submitted orally and did not contain a precise number. Two figures mentioned were $640,000 and $683,000. White asked Werth to submit a formal proposal in writing.

In regard to the possible loan, board member Roger Bock asked, "Can we do that?" White said the proposal, once received, will be submitted to State’s Attorney Tim Huyett for a legal opinion. If it passes scrutiny, it will be filed with other requests to be weighed against expected revenues.

At the hearing, requests for the same amount as last year were also received from the Logan County Soil and Water Conservation District, Healthy Communities Partnership for its Mobile Health Unit, The Oasis senior center and Central Illinois Economic Development Corporation. The Oasis and CIEDC also submitted "best case" requests to emphasize that there are unmet needs for senior development. Bill Thomas of Atlanta asked for a new line item for the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum to renovate a 1927 boxcar and extend the railroad siding 40 feet.

Hearings will continue on Aug. 26, 27 and possibly 28. The budget must be passed by Dec. 1, the start of fiscal year 2002-03.

To bring the committee to full force for the hearings, board chair Dick Logan on Thursday appointed Cliff Sullivan to the Finance Committee. It has been one member short since Phil Mahler resigned from the board in July 2001 to become director of regional planning.

In other business at the board of the whole meeting, Insurance Committee chair Dale Voyles reported that Health Alliance, the county’s health insurer, lost $170,497 on the county policy in the first year it was in force. In 2001-02 the county paid a premium of $445,792. That figure was more than offset by $532,941 in total claims and $83,349 in other costs.

 

[to top of second column in this article]

In April the board voted to renew the policy with Health Alliance at a 23 percent increase. The R.W. Garrett Insurance Agency in Lincoln is the agent for Health Alliance. Voyles has indicated that bids will be sought when the health insurance policy comes up for renewal next spring.

Roger Bock’s Airport Committee report concerned three construction projects. Two bids were awarded in July for work at Logan County Airport. One project, reconstructing and extending taxiways, is complete except for striping. P.H. Broughton & Sons did that work at a cost to the county of $4,060.

The other project, installation of a waterline, was supposed to begin Aug. 12 but did not. Bock said the contractor, Twin Builders Construction of Bushnell, has not answered the phone. Roger Fennel of the Illinois Department of Transportation has offered to contact the company. Cost of the project is $56,705, with federal and state governments paying most of the bill. The county’s share is $4,551.

On Thursday the county board tentatively approved a third airport project, to be carried out in 2003. Hanson Engineers of Springfield will apply a porous friction course to one runway. Bock explained that the company will cut back from cracked areas, lay a new base and cover it with an inch of asphalt. The asphalt will contain less sand and a coarser aggregate so water does not stand on the runway. The treatment is expected to extend the life of the runway by eight to 10 years. The county’s share of the approximately $150,000 project is $14,000.

 

In other news, the county board learned that:

•  Interviews have been conducted for two positions. One candidate has been offered the job of assistant county engineer. Several people have been interviewed for director of economic development, but applications are still open.

•  County property has recently been appraised. Voyles reported that replacement cost for the courthouse is $14.7 million, for the safety complex $3.1 million and for the Dr. John Logan Building $482,000. He said the last figure is double what the county put into the building.

•  Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Illinois, will meet with Dick Logan, Lincoln Mayor Beth Davis and highway superintendent Tom Hickman regarding possible federal help to improve Fifth Street Road from the stoplight at Lincoln Parkway to Connolley Road.

•  A historical marker commemorating writer and editor William Maxwell’s boyhood home at 184 Ninth St. will be dedicated Saturday, Aug. 24, at 11 a.m.

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

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