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Time runs out:  LDC will close Sept. 1

[AUG. 24, 2002]  Time and legal remedies have run out for the Lincoln Developmental Center, and its doors will close on Sept. 1.

The last hope LDC supporters had, an appeal to Logan County Circuit Court Judge Donald Behle to block the Department of Human Services from moving the remaining LDC residents, faded Friday afternoon when Judge Behle declined to issue a temporary restraining order.

That means DHS can go ahead with its plan to close the Lincoln facility completely by the end of this month, as Gov. George Ryan ordered the agency to do last June.

The issue of funding, which was cited by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board when it granted DHS a permit to close the Lincoln facility, came up again in Judge Behle’s ruling.

Behle said he could not find “good cause” to grant the stay, because it would require “the expenditure of funds without appropriation by the government or legislature, which is in violation of separations of power.”

Also, he said, there would be a risk to residents who remained at LDC if there was no money for their care.

 

DHS attorneys have argued that, since the legislature appropriated only $5 million to fund LDC in the current fiscal year, the facility would run out of money by Aug. 31 and there would be no legal way to pay its bills.

Gov. Ryan cut LDC’s funding for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003) to $11 million in February, down from the previous year’s $35 million, when he announced a plan to keep 100 residents on the campus.  Later, when he announced that LDC would be closed entirely, the funding was cut to $5 million.

Two area legislators, state Representatives Jonathan Wright, R-Hartsburg, and Bill Mitchell, R-Forsythe, filed an amendment to restore the funding to $27 million, which would have allowed LDC to keep 240 residents, but the bill failed to get out of the rules committee.  Last fall, before DHS began moving residents, the Lincoln facility had 375 residents and about 700 employees.

Judge Behle’s Friday ruling also questioned of the success of the legal challenge to the ruling of the Health Facilities Planning Board, saying he did not find “a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits” of the challenge.

Plaintiffs in the suit, which include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and parents of an LDC resident, have declared the Planning Board’s ruling illegal and are asking the courts to overturn it.  They asked for the temporary restraining order to keep LDC open while the courts decided the case.

 

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Robert Seltzer, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the appeal of the ruling still stands, even though the temporary restraining order was not issued.  He said ultimately both sides will file evidence and arguments and the courts will decide the issue.

“It raises an interesting question if the courts decide the planning board shouldn’t have granted the permit, and yet the facility is closed.  I can’t even begin to speculate on that,” he said.

Reginald Marsh, spokesperson for DHS, said the agency will continue to move residents as planned.  All residents will be out by August 30; August 31 will be the last day for staff to be present.

He said the moves are proceeding in an orderly fashion, with all parents and guardians receiving notice 24 hours before the move of a family member.

“Parents and guardians know that all residents will be moved by Aug. 30.  Guardians were told in June, and we have held continued conversations with them since then,” he said.

Marsh said he did not know of any plans for future use of the facility.  “Our main concern has been to get residents out and in their new homes.”

In the report given to the Planning Board, DHS indicated that the physical plant would revert to the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services.

Union officials said Friday they intend to carry the fight for LDC into the political arena.

“We will be working to get candidates elected who will restore LDC and bring those individuals back whose families want them to return to the area,” said Don Todd, president of AFSCME local 425.

 

Both gubernatorial candidates have indicated they would support reopening LDC, if possible.

“We will also continue to work to get the truth about LDC told, not the manipulation of information that has been given out by DHS,” Todd said.  “We would like to see an impartial outside agency investigate what happened at Lincoln so the truth can come out.”

AFSCME has charged that the allegations of abuse and neglect that led to LDC’s closure were overstated and that the facility was “set up to fail” by DHS officials who wanted it closed.  DHS contends that LDC has had a long history of infractions, which it repeatedly tried to correct but without success.

 

[Joan Crabb]


Articles from the past week

Friday:

  • Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival (Tourism)
  • Flood watch in effect

Thursday:

  • Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival (Tourism)
  • Judge weighing decision on injunction; hope fades for LDC
  • Flood watch issued for tonight and Friday

Wednesday:

Tuesday:

  • City sales tax increase will be on the ballot

  • Jennifer Sydney awarded Steppenwolf internship  (Leisure)

Monday:

  • DHS moving LDC residents out fast

  • Ethanol production study funded

Saturday:

  • Maxwell plaque to be dedicated Aug. 24

  • New DARE ATV shouts style

  • Astronaut will spend a day in Lincoln

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