Wednesday, June 12

Newly reconstructed for your convenience!

DHS needs looking into, says Mitchell

[JUNE 12, 2002]  The Department of Human Services needs a thorough housecleaning, according to State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, one of several area legislators who lobbied hard to keep the Lincoln Developmental Center open.

Mitchell talked to the Lincoln Daily News shortly after the Senate failed to overturn Gov. George Ryan’s veto of funding for LDC for the coming fiscal year, a move that seems to ensure that the 125-year-old facility must close its doors. He said he believed shutting down LDC has been part of the DHS plan for some time. DHS is the agency that oversees the 11 state-operated facilities for the developmentally disabled.

"I do think these unelected people [in DHS] have had this mind-set for several years. Their timing was perfect. It’s a good way to save $35 million," he said.

"People are wondering who is in charge. It is certainly not our elected officials. It seems to be unelected bureaucrats [in DHS] who pursued this agenda aggressively.

"Now 600 families in Logan County don’t know where they are going to get their next paycheck. That’s what makes me mad."

 

He said he and House Republican Leader Lee Daniels, R-Elmhust, plan to sponsor legislation to break up the Department of Human Services.

"It’s about time we started looking at the Human Services bureaucracy. They have no loyalty to their party, no loyalty to any community, no loyalty even to the governor. The governor can only make a decision based on the quality of information he gets from the bureaucracy. All the governor heard day in and day out was how bad things were at Lincoln," he said.

"The next administration had better look to see about cleaning house. What I’ve seen in this last year is just an absolute arrogance of power by unelected people. That’s what gets me."

Rep. Jonathan Wright, R-Hartsburg, another local legislator who worked to keep LDC open, also believes DHS targeted the Lincoln facility for closure.

"I think that decision was made 12 to 18 months ago," he said.

"We found two problems fighting the battle. First was breaking through to Gov. Ryan. I am not here to excuse the governor’s decision, but his decision is only as good as the people around him. He relies heavily on people at DHS to provide information.

"We could never break through the inner circle to sit down with the governor and honestly apprise him of the situation.

 

[to top of second column in this article]

"The second problem was that we were also fighting against the Department of Public Health, which I think was being used as an arm of DHS in its ongoing surveys. We were always fighting Public Health using standards that could be enforced as strictly or as leniently as they wished."

The Department of Public Health is the agency that conducted the surveys that led to citations of abuse and neglect against the LDC staff.

"The new incidents [of neglect of residents] that happened last week were no coincidence," Wright continued. These incidents led to the governor’s final decision to close LDC.

"The incidents cited were really nonissues. For example, one resident was unsupervised for only three to five minutes. Another resident was unsupervised for five to 10 minutes. That wing was not adequately staffed, and that was a management problem."

Wright said he agreed with Mitchell that the Department of Human Services should be broken up. "They have over a $6 million budget. There is too much control by just a few people. The DHS is a prime example of bureaucracy running the state of Illinois and not elected officials running things."

Wright also said the whole budget process was flawed. The General Assembly voted for a budget knowing it was not a balanced budget and that the governor would use his line-item veto power to bring it into line.

 

"We allowed the governor to decide and control where the cuts were," he said. "I was thrilled when the LDC funding was restored, yet I voted against the budget because I thought it was dishonest for the people who work and live there."

Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, said he agreed with Mitchell that DHS has had a plan to close the Lincoln Developmental Center. He also said he thought the latest citations of neglect were "the straw that broke the camel’s back" in the Senate. The governor, he added, used those incidents as an excuse to close the facility.

"He [Gov. Ryan] has said repeatedly that this was not a budget issue. But in the budget address he alluded to a Republican lawmaker who was standing in the way of trying to correct this budget crisis. I believe he was referring to me and my support of LDC," Bomke said.

"I strongly believe if the state’s fiscal condition was better, he would have kept LDC open. I think that’s the real reason, which is wrong for the hardworking people at LDC."

[Joan Crabb]


Sept. 1 target date for final LDC closing

[JUNE 12, 2002]  The target date for the shutdown of Lincoln Developmental Center is Sept. 1, according to Reginald Marsh, spokesman for the Department of Human Services. He said DHS would like to begin the move of residents on July 1, the start of the state’s new fiscal year, but the date depends on court cases still pending.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and others have sued to stop the movement of residents, and that suit must be still be heard by the appellate court, AFSCME officials say.

Marsh said DHS has already spoken with some family members and guardians about where they want their loved ones placed. He said the department always confers with family members about the best placement before they move residents.

"We don’t just take people and put them anywhere," he said.

He also said he was not sure just how staff reductions will be managed.

"In an ideal situation we would reduce staff gradually, as we reduce the census of residents, but first we must check with the courts." There are currently 243 residents and 494 active staff members at LDC, and 90 percent of the staff are members of AFSCME, he said.

 

Closing the 125-year-old facility, Logan County’s largest employer, will have a devastating effect on the area, said Rep. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth, who lobbied hard to save LDC.

"No other facility in the state of Illinois has been hit as hard as Lincoln. This will have a devastating impact on a small county such as Logan County.

"What I’m going to do now is explore some options about what we can do with the facility. It’s a large campus, and I’d like to see some state employment at the campus. We owe something to Lincoln and Logan County."

"Closing LDC is going to be a blow," Rep. Jonathan Wright, R-Hartsburg, agreed. Another blow will come if the state decides to privatize dietary services at its correctional centers, he added.

The House overrode the governor’s veto of the bill that would prohibit private firms from providing food service to prisons, but the Senate did not, leaving the way open for the state to hire private firms. This could cost more Logan County workers jobs, he noted.

 

"I’m extremely disappointed that this occurred," said state Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. He said 17 Senate Republicans and four Democrats supported keeping LDC’s funding. Thirty-six votes were needed to override the governor’s veto.

"Had the Democrats supported it, we would have won," he said.

"However, we’ll continue our fight. I don’t know where it goes from this point. We have the court challenge that’s still ongoing. "

 

[to top of second column in this article]

Lincoln Mayor Beth Davis said she was very disappointed at the Senate’s actions on both LDC and prison food service privatization.

"I’m concerned about the safety issues and very concerned about the loss of an additional 30 jobs within this city," she said.

"I think this is very serious for the county," said Dick Logan, president of the Logan County Board. "We’re going to have to do something here to get some jobs going.

"I would like to see an industrial park be established in some area, whether it’s north or west, but preferably north. We can’t keep our kids here in Logan County now."

Mark Smith, director of economic development for Logan County, estimated that the total impact of the loss of 550 jobs, 65 percent of them in the county, would be around $75 million.

"If we look at the total budget, it’s closer to $100 million. That means dollars that are not going to be here anymore. They are not going to be here to purchase toothpaste and aspirin, go to the movies, go out to lunch or buy a car.

"Those dollars are going to have to be replaced. When we commissioned the study for the commercial park, we were looking at it being an enhancement for the local community. We assumed 455 jobs at full build-out over a 10-year period. Now even if it could be put in effect immediately, job for job, it would not even replace the jobs we are losing."

 

Bobbi Abbott, executive director of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, said ordinarily her concern would be for the impact of job losses on local businesses.

"I’m very concerned about the impact on our local businesses, but I also have a high concern for the residents and staff members at LDC. When I attended the rallies, I got to know the parents of several residents, and I have a great deal of compassion for those people, especially for parents in their late years who thought their loved ones were going to have stable care for the rest of their lives. And for the workers who, I think, have been the scapegoats for decisions made on the state level.

"I am very disappointed with the politics of this. I can’t believe how quickly the legislators accepted Governor Ryan’s proposed budget cuts. I had faith they would work throughout the summer to find a way not only to save LDC, but to save other programs that affect the health and welfare of the residents of our state.

"I think we can easily say this is the dirtiest side of politics, and we will look back at 2002 and the reign of Governor Ryan for many years and shake our heads and wonder how we let this happen."

[Joan Crabb]


Senate upholds governor’s cuts; AFSCME charges ‘reckless
indifference’ to human needs

[JUNE 12, 2002]  SPRINGFIELD — Senate Republicans today dealt a strong blow to social services, prisons and education after refusing to use previously approved borrowing authority to avoid deep cuts in state services.

"The Senate Republican caucus has joined with Governor Ryan to inflict devastating service cuts that show a reckless indifference to prison safety and human needs," said Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31. "The cuts in Corrections will worsen working conditions and endanger employees and inmates alike. The cuts in services to the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled will seriously compromise the care of some of the most vulnerable citizens in our state.

"From the outset Ryan has been bent on using the budgetary process to settle scores without regard for the damage he will inflict on the people of this state," said Bayer. "His final budget slashes funding for dozens of important services and programs and eliminates jobs that sustain thousands of Illinois families. This budget strikes directly at working families and at our most vulnerable citizens — the elderly, the disabled and our children."

 

The following cuts are those that directly affect AFSCME members:

•  Closure of Sheridan Correctional Center, a medium-security facility located in La Salle (422 employees). Medium security prisons in the state are currently operating at 161 percent of capacity, even with Sheridan open.

•  Closure of Illinois Youth Correctional at Valley View (180 employees).

•  Closure of the following work camps: Hanna City (80 employees), Paris (85 employees), Green County (75 employees).

•  Closure of Lincoln Developmental Center (550 employees).

•  Closure of Zeller Mental Health Center (243 employees).

•  Closure of the West Chicago office of Children and Family Services (180 employees).

•  Delays in opening Rushville IYC and Thomson Correctional Center, which will compound problems of overcrowding. 

 

[to top of second column in this article]

"Governor Ryan has already made it clear that at the end of his political career he feels no sense of responsibility for the fate of the state," said Bayer. "But Senate Republicans can and should be held responsible for the damage that they’ve colluded with him to inflict. They chose to do this even though the money was there to avoid it.

"Fifty-six million dollars would have stopped any correctional facility closures — that’s about another nickel on cigarettes," Bayer continued. "If they had used the borrowing authority that they had enacted just a week before, Lincoln Developmental Center and Zeller Mental Health could still provide crucial services to the developmentally disabled and mentally ill."

 

It’s a sad lesson in state politics that legislators’ pork projects remained untouched, Bayer said. "After doling out $1.5 billion in legislative pork Governor Ryan suddenly decided to pose as a fiscal conservative. And who suffers? Those who need services and those who provide them."

"There were a few men and women of principle who stood with us throughout these long months to support increased revenues and oppose cuts in vital services," Bayer said. "But too many members of the General Assembly turned their backs on the working people of this state. Our members won’t forget that."

[AFSCME Council 31 press release]


Articles from the past week

Tuesday:

  • Ryan to close LDC; union says set up to fail

  • Mitchell upset by LDC funding veto

  • LDC residents get loving care

  • Safety concerns force closure of Lincoln Developmental Center

 

Monday:

  • LDC citations are ‘suspect,’ AFSCME spokesman says

  • Circuit clerk improves service with technology

Saturday:

  • Crime Stoppers donates funds for new ERT vests

  • Teachers retiring in Lincoln area (Teaching & Learning)

  • Department of Public Health cites LDC

  • Mount Pulaski death under investigation

  • Illinois Senate week in review

  • Senate prescription drug plan awaits action by the governor

 

Friday:

  • Logan-Mason Rehabilitation Center helps the disabled meet their goals  (Part 2)

  • Wednesday seminar focuses on assisting domestic violence victims in the workplace

 

Thursday:

  • Gov. Ryan commends legislative action on Lincoln Presidential Library

Wednesday:

  • First sewer bids in under cost

  • Cool, wet spring

 


Back to top


 

News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries

Community | Perspectives | Law & Courts | Leisure Time | Spiritual Life | Health & Fitness | Calendar

Letters to the Editor