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AFSCME says the
shortage exists because the Department of Human Services has
transferred technicians to other facilities.
"They transferred 16
staff people, nearly all techs, to other facilities to care for LDC
residents that were going to be sent to those other facilities but
never were," said Dan Senters, former AFSCME president and AFSCME
spokesman. "That’s 80 shifts a week those people aren’t working at
LDC."
"After we got the
citation for pica (a behavior in which a person eats inappropriate
materials) in September of 2001, a lot of individuals with those
behavior issues were put on one-to-one staff ratio," Senters said.
"Sometimes this was as many as four to five people in one area. This
upped the numbers of staff that had to be on one shift, but
management made no staff adjustment to compensate for it.
"About every third
day, most of the techs are required to put in overtime. About every
third day these techs are at LDC not 8½ hours, but 17. We have an
exhausted, stressed-out work force," he said. The extra half hour is
the unpaid lunchtime.
Adding to the stress
of the workers who do the hands-on work of caring for the residents
is the uncertainty about their jobs and the daily presence of
monitors — employees of other state-operated facilities — watching
their performance, Senters said. The function of the monitors,
according to a press release by Gov. George Ryan, is "to help
maintain a suitable standard of care for residents."
"Sometimes I question
their motives," Senters said. "They are looking over your shoulder
to see if you are going to make a mistake," he said.
Charlie Sanders,
AFSCME local vice-president, said he has compiled a tally of workers
actually on duty at LDC and compared it to the total required by the
formula used by Department of Human Services, the state agency that
oversees all facilities for the developmental disabled.
According to Sanders,
Unit I needs 126 staff members and has only 119 scheduled. However,
of the 119, only 107 are actually on the roster of active workers.
The other 12 are not working directly with residents. They may be on
administrative leave for various reasons.
"In the month of
April, Unit I had 232 shifts of overtime, and in May it had 269
shifts," Sanders said.
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In Unit III, the only
other unit on the campus now, 122 workers are needed and only 110
are scheduled, according to Sanders’ tally.
"Altogether we are 31
bodies short of what we need for a minimum," he said.
The overtime
situation has been going on for more than two years, although not
quite as extreme as it is now," Senters said.
However, Reginald
Marsh, spokesman for the Department of Human Services, said LDC is
not understaffed. "LDC has had and continues to have one of the
highest staff-to-resident ratios out of all 11 state-operated
facilities for the developmentally disabled. Two months ago they had
the highest ratio." He also said the Lincoln technician ratio is
comparable to that of other facilities.
He said overtime is
an issue at LDC, as it is in all facilities, but a higher-than-usual
absentee rate at LDC is part of the problem. Part of that is
probably due to what was "the continued uncertainty" about the
future of the 125-year-old Lincoln facility, he said.
That uncertainty may
be over, since Gov. George Ryan has ordered LDC closed completely
and hopes to have the campus emptied of residents and employees by
Sept. 1. However, AFSCME is pursuing legal remedies to keep LDC open
as long as possible. These include a court case that halted
transfers of residents and is not yet resolved, and a hearing before
the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board that must be scheduled
before Gov. Ryan can close the facility for good.
In the meantime,
Senters said, the staffing shortage is becoming a kind of vicious
cycle.
"More people are
calling in sick because they are under stress from having to work so
much overtime and being constantly watched to see if they are making
a mistake.
"They are working overtime, doing their
jobs, and being punished because they are fatigued and afraid they
might make more mistakes," he said. "And it is almost impossible for
them to get an extra day off to rest up or take a holiday. In the
meantime the staffing policy is causing stress and costing the state
a lot of money for overtime."
[Joan
Crabb]
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"Next week we ought
to be seeing concrete poured at the site," said Bill Ahal. Interior
masonry walls will also start going up at the Seventh Street site,
he said.
However, the target
date for opening the new 47,000-square-foot building has been moved
from Jan. 1 of 2003 to at least March, in part because of the need
to cut costs to keep the new school within its approximately $6
million budget.
"My best guess is
that we will be moving into the new school sometime between March
and August of 2003," Superintendent Robert Kidd said. Central
students will move into the new building; then junior high students
will move into the old Central School while the present junior high
building is demolished and a new one built.
At its regular
meeting Wednesday evening, the District 27 board continued approving
bids for construction work on the new school. Bids were approved on
equipment for the gymnasium, including a divider curtain mounted on
the ceiling, six basketball backstops, four of which will be
adjustable, and plastic rather than wooden bleachers. Gym equipment
came in just slightly over budget, Kidd said.
The board also
decided to stay with the original specifications for pulse-type
boilers rather than look for a cheaper alternative.
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Board president Bruce
Carmitchel said he believed it would be better to spend a few
dollars more for the better-quality boilers, which would heat the
building more evenly and are more fuel-efficient. Kidd said he
thought the district would eventually get its money back on savings
in fuel consumption.
Ahal reported that
the district may have to rebid kitchen supplies, as the manufacturer
that came in with the lowest bid has suddenly gone out of business.
"The owner took
everything the company had and is gone," he said. "It just happened
today. The company will have to forfeit the bid bond, but the low
bid we had is not there anymore," he said.
Superintendent Kidd
told the board that the district’s property tax rate dropped a
little over 7 cents per $100 equalized assessed valuation this year,
due to a $4.4 million increase in the total assessment of the
district. He said 80 percent of the district’s assessment comes from
houses and very little comes from farm ground, which is losing value
right now.
The total tax rate last year was $3.11
compared to this year’s $3.04, he said — the lowest tax rate in the
district since 1994. This will add $75,000 to the education fund,
$9,700 to the building fund and $3,800 to the transportation fund,
he said.
[Joan
Crabb]
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"The central goal of
the summit was to bring together local leaders from throughout
Illinois in order to create a genuine dialogue on homeland security
issues," said Gov. Ryan. "Not only that, but also to make policy
recommendations about where state homeland security policies and
programs should go from here."
This summit is the
culmination of 18 regional Homeland Security Workshops that have been
conducted around the state over the past three months. The summit also
builds on the 16 regional Homeland Security Seminars that the governor
sponsored for first responders and the public in November and December
of last year.
More than two years ago,
Gov. Ryan created the first-ever statewide Terrorism Task Force. Under
the direction of the Illinois State Director for
Homeland Security Matt
Bettenhausen as well as Illinois
Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Chamness, the task
force has provided an ongoing interagency forum to develop homeland
security policies and to direct state efforts toward planning,
preparation and response to terrorism in Illinois.
"One of the clear lessons
of Sept. 11, 2001, is that local actions are critical to protect
Americans against terrorism," said Illinois Homeland Security Director
Matt Bettenhausen. "Terrorist events and threats in the U.S. will occur
locally and will require local responses and resources. Response and
recovery plans must be prepared and exercised. We also must work to
develop plans that will prevent or even pre-empt a terrorist attack."
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According to Fire
Service Institute Director Richard Jaehne, "A key consideration in
bringing this summit together has been to include those individuals
who have a critical role to play in planning for and responding to a
terrorism event."
The summit provided
various break-out sessions allowing individual participants to
discuss specific areas of homeland security and to further planning
for dealing with different types of terrorist threats Illinois may
face in the future.
In Logan County,
local leaders and emergency response agencies meet every three
months to share information and participate in practices through
LEPC, the Local Emergency Planning Committee. Dan Fulscher serves as
coordinator.
A number of local leaders have been
attending preparatory seminars in their field of expertise, not only
through their professional organizations, but also through some of
the newly formed emergency response organizations. Logan County ESDA
Assistant Director Terry Storer recently attended an "Effective
Communications" seminar in Marion.
[Illinois Government News Network
press release / Jan
Youngquist]
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