Coroner

Coroner Gordon Terry has come to the Health and Education Committee each of the five years I've been on the Committee, asking for funding to attend his professional conference – the Conference of the New York State Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners. Each year the funding has been budgeted, and in the past he has gotten permission to use that money to attend the conference each year he has asked. This year he did not.

Otsego County has four elected Coroners. They are not distributed geographically – all four could conceivably be elected from the same town – and they are paid on a per-call basis. All receive the same health insurance as other County employees (including the Reps). Here is the list of Otsego County Coroners and the number of calls each responded to in 2016: 

        James Dow:

28 initial calls for 2016

21 follow ups for 2016

Michael Fox:

33 initial calls for 2016

24 follow ups for 2016

Terry Knapp:

134 initial calls for 2016

113 follow ups for 2016

Gordon Terry:

13 initial calls for 2016

0 follow ups for 2016

This year, so far, the proportion has been about the same.

So the Health and Education Committee asked Coroner Terry to contact the other three Coroners and whoever else might help, and figure out a way to even out the calls over a year's time. They have thirty days to come up with a plan.

I voted to allow him to go, thinking that we should give him, and the other three, time to find a more equitable way to sort out the calls. Andrew Marietta agreed with me; Len Carson and Chair Dave Bliss did not. So Coroner Terry will need to pay his own way to the conference this year.

Salary Justice

Another important issue I've been working on is raises for M&C (Management and Confidential) employees. These are all the County non-union employees, usually in management positions or other positions of responsibility. Their salaries are set by full Board resolution every January and they've had one raise in nine years. The average Otsego County Department Head makes an average of $12,000 less than their colleagues in other upstate NY counties. At least a dozen M&C managers make less than people they manage.

When an M&C employee, and especially a Department Head, resigns or retires, we cannot, as you can imagine, find anyone to come to Otsego County at the same salary (and no one currently working in their department wants a promotion to a low-paying job with no history of raises). So we have been advertising these positions at much higher rates, with predictable and understandable protests regarding the injustice of continuing to pay remaining employees at such a low rate. As a result of this process, for instance, the Deputy Director of the Office for the Aging, a new (and, I think, very high-quality) hire, now makes more than the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services.

Last year, the Performance Review and Goal Setting Committee, along with Treasurer Dan Crowell and Personnel Director Penney Gentile, created a reasonable raise schedule for one year, providing everyone with a 3% raise, and $200/yr increase for every year of service up to five years. This was a stopgap measure, because – and this is the essential piece – we need a perpetual salary scale which determines raises – with a merit component – as automatically as possible, each year.

But even this stopgap measure was defeated, allegedly in favor of a salary study, which was proposed last fall and has just gone out for bid, for the second time. It will not be ready for the next salary resolution, at the January, 2018 full Board meeting.

Len Carson, a Rep from Oneonta, has been working with Dan and Penney this year to create another stopgap raise proposal, and it looks about the same as last years (which, to be fair, was hashed out and edited and debated and was about as good as something like that is going to get). It will cost less than $150,000, which is about one third the cost of one of the plow trucks we bought last year.

What needs to happen is that the current one-year raise needs to go into effect in January, and then the salary study needs to be carefully integrated into the personnel and budget process during 2018. Our employees – almost universally of high quality – must be compensated fairly. We cannot continue to kick this can down the road.

Full Board Resolution re: Faso Amendment

I almost forgot that the reason I started writing about the Faso-Collins Amendment was to outline the Otsego County Board's actions before and during the July meeting, regarding a resolution to support the Amendment.

Ed Frazier, of Unadilla, brought the support resolution to the Administration Committee, where that kind of thing is debated and approved. Ed and I are both on Admin. Ed felt – and still feels – strongly that the kind of unfunded mandate that the county Medicaid payments represent is an egregious injustice and must be addressed. I agree with him entirely.

However, as noted below, I do not think the Amendment will do that; in fact, I think it will do the opposite. So I voted against it in the Administration Committee, after an extensive debate. The other four members voted for it, so it was put on the full Board agenda for the July meeting.

On the full Board agenda, the resolution was listed as coming from the Administration Committee, with the names of all five members, even though I voted against it in committee. This is the way it is always done, and has always been done, for every resolution that comes from a committee. Whether you voted for it, or against it, or weren't even there, your names goes on the full Board resolution. My apologies to all who were confused by this.

As you probably know, a great many citizens, many of them professionals in the fields that are impacted by this Amendment, came to the full Board meeting and every one spoke against it – eloquently, with passion and precision. Thank you all.

The resolution was pulled from the Consent Agenda (all the resolutions that no one wants to debate or ask questions about, and which are voted on en masse) so it could be debated. Then the Chair of the Administration Committee, Craig Gelbsman, polled the members of Admin, who voted, 4-1, to pull the resolution from the full Board agenda permanently. Ed Frazier voted 'no,' meaning he'd still like to debate and vote on it. Ed has said, and I fully believe him, that his approach to this resolution was to address the unfunded mandate, and was completely unrelated to the ACHA.

Nevertheless, Otsego County will not go on record as supporting a cynical, manipulative amendment to a terrible, destructive Federal bill, thanks, no doubt, to the outpouring of citizen opinion.

So – democracy! Cool, eh?

SAS Update

Quick update on the Susquehanna Animal Shelter, and the County's attempts to support the health and safety services it provides:

• Dan Wilber, a County Rep from the western part of the county, will be proposing to the Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee, on July 17 at 9AM, that a lump sum – provided by the Sheriff from a fund he has and is willing to use – be provided to SAS to support this year's budget.
• I will be proposing a budget line at the Budget Committee meeting, on July 20 at 1PM, to provide support on an ongoing basis.

Anyone interested in this topic might attend these meetings, which are held in the third floor conference room of the County Office Building.

The Faso-Collins Amendment

Well, it's two recent posts regarding a Federal bill. At least this one is about an amendment designed to have an impact on NY counties.

The Faso-Collins Amendment, proposed by our Congressman John Faso, and Chris Collins, another upstate Congressman from western NY, purports to right a wrong. The wrong is that New York State, unlike any other state except one or two, requires Counties to contribute dollars to support Medicaid. Most other states take on the State portion of the Medicaid costs themselves, without burdening Counties. Not so in New York – Medicaid costs make up about 10% of the Otsego County annual budget.

The Faso-Collins Amendment to the ACHA that was passed by the House directs the Federal government to figure the amount of Medicaid dollars contributed by New York Counties, and reduce Medicaid payments to NYS by that amount. The assumption you are intended to make is that New York State will find that extra money and use it to bring the Medicaid funding up to full strength.

Sounds good, no? No.

I met with Congressman Faso in April, along with a number of other Otsego County professionals who were working on the question: how much will Otsego County lose if the ACHA is passed? Last we looked, it was nearly $800,000, mostly due to Medicaid reductions. During the meeting, Congressman Faso said only one thing that seemed to related to our agenda: that he felt strongly that the Federal government spends way too much on Medicaid: “Medicaid spending is out of control, and we have to reduce it.”

So – looking at the Faso-Collins Amendment through that lens, it's clear that it might be called the Faso-Collins Medicaid Support Reduction for NYS Amendment. Because it is naive and childish – something we cannot believe is true of Congressmen Faso and Collins – to believe that the Cuomo administration will make even the first move to restore the funding from State funds. Attorney General Schneiderman has already announced that he will sue the Federal government if the Faso-Collins Amendment becomes law. There has been talk in Albany of a “Faso tax,” a state tax on Counties in the exact amount of their Medicad obligation, which I think is the height of irony.

It's all in limbo, of course, until the Senate gets a bill passed, or doesn't. If it does, then the ACHA and the Senate bill goes into the Conference Committee and who knows what comes out. If this Amendment comes out intact, it will be time to make the popcorn.

County Support for the Animal Shelter

Yesterday I met with Stacie Haynes, Exec Dir of the Susquehanna Animal Shelter (SAS), and Gaylord Dillingham (Board member) and his wife Nicole Dillingham (who has done legal work for SAS over the years).  I sent this message to the Health and Education committee, which I'm on, and the Chair of the Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee, because I think the issue, as it involves us, impacts public health and public safety.  I also thought you might like an idea of what we're up to regarding the animal shelter:


After meeting for an hour and a half, I think I have the beginnings of an idea of how animal control works between the Towns and SAS.  I can go into it in more detail (and some of you are already ahead of me) at the meeting if you'd like.  The point is, I think that since the County has an official authority which can remove animals from a home (Sheriff) then we have some obligation in terms of providing for the animals that are removed.  In addition, we have legal responsibilities regarding public health, and we also need to take on the obligations that result from the animal control part of that.

In short:
 - SAS is the only facility in the County that we can partner with to fulfill certain specific legal obligations
 - In no other cases do we expect our partners to pay the cost of fulfilling our obligations.

Suggestion: that we enter into a contract with SAS and establish a line item in the budget to fund the contract.  Funds would be used to:

1.  First and foremost, to reimburse SAS for all costs incurred through care of seized animals by any law enforcement in the County - costs that are not, in the end, reimbursed through other means (owners, towns, etc.). 
2.  Support the daily costs of keeping SAS open and available 24/7 - since we need to use the shelter, we have some obligation to help keep it open, so it's there for us to use.
3.  Assist SAS in keeping the surrender fee low, or perhaps even lowering it.  The current fee - $40 - reflects the fact that over half of those who surrender animals do not pay the fee (the only way to force an owner to pay a fee is to refuse the animal; ethically, this would not be possible, since the animal would probably be killed or abandoned).  So those who are willing to pay the fee are shouldering the cost of those who do not.  If there were no safe place to take an animal to surrender it, you can imagine the public health crisis that would ensue.  I think by supporting SAS we appropriately spread this cost over all the County taxpayers - the people who benefit from a healthier and safer environment.

The number we talked about yesterday was $50,000.

We can talk more at the next Health and Ed meeting.

Thanks -

Gary

The ACHA Rises Again

I just came back from a meeting with our new Congressman, John Faso, and a group of actual experts in the healthcare field, including Bill Streck, who I had been working with on the impact of the ACHA on Otsego County, and Patricia Kennedy, CEO of Springbrook. It was coincidental that we met on the day that it became widely known that the ACHA had risen from the dead. Our goal was to try and summarize – in 30 minutes! - the harm that moving from the ACA to the ACHA would do to people in the region.

Faso did most of the talking, at it was at a technical level that was beyond me, and some others as well. Bill and Patricia kept up, as did Wayne Mellor, a business consultant with experience in the area. After a while, it seemed like this was a ploy, to avoid talking about wider issues, like how the changes will affect people here in Otsego County and in District 19.

He started the conversation by telling us that the ACHA would take Medicaid from being an entitlement (hasn't “being entitled” always had a negative connotation?) to – well, something else. He also said, right up front, that the reason for ACHA's changes to Medicaid was that the growth in Medicaid spending by the Federal government was “unsustainable.”

And that's where we knew that we lived, as we talked about afterwards, out on the sidewalk, in two different worlds. Congressman Faso made it clear, from the beginning, that this was about money. To us, it was about people.

I didn't get to say much (no one really did) but I did note, at the end, that my only concern was whether my constituents would have better healthcare after the ACHA was passed. The answer was not “Yes, definitely.”

An amendment to the zombie bill that would give the states wide discretion in whether folks with preexisting conditions ended up in high risk pools (which we all know don't solve any problems) and would also give states the choice of whether policies would include essential benefits, is apparently the compromise that is going to get the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Morning Group to support the bill. Please forgive me for being partisan, but leave it to the Congressional Republicans to finally agree on a major bill after it is made unimaginably worse.

We shall see.

The Tale of the Sherrif's Son

Well, it's been quite a day for Otsego County online. First the Strategic Plan is posted (see below), and then a confidential issue that the Board, and specifically the Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee, has been working on since January, appears online as well.

The article is pretty accurate – although there is always a lot that is not objective enough to publish – and the whole incident is pretty frightening. And there's more to come – most importantly, the disposition of the case and the consequences for the individuals involved. Make what you will of it.

I have to make it clear to my constituents that, during the first (of many) extensive executive session during which the Board first heard of this incident, I insisted a number of times that the Superintendents of the school districts that were threatened be notified immediately. I had great confidence that they would use the information wisely and serve as partners in this issue. It is my memory – I did not take notes – that I was assured, as we were adjourning, that one of the investigations that had been discussed would include notification of the schools. This did not happen.

I believe that this was a mistake. One of Oneonta's elementary schools is in my district, another is down the street. Colleagues who I respect and admire work there, and my neighbors send their children there. This was a very specific threat, and a terrible one. The individual was not put under surveillance or supervision; he still had access to his extensive personal armory. The Superintendents deal with this kind of threat occasionally, and are professionals. They are responsible for the safety of their staff and students. To leave them out of the loop was, I believe, misguided.

Strategic Plan Online

The Strategic Plan is finally online.

This is the document that is, theoretically, designed to guide the County Board in its thinking and decision-making for the forseeable future. It was proposed by the IGA Committee a two and a half years ago; it was important that we have it on the shelf when applying for grants. We paid a consultant around $60,000 to put it together, and they arranged dozens of meetings with stakeholders of every sort all around the County. I went to quite a number of those meetings, and they all involved interesting and energetic conversations. The consultants also assembled a wide variety of data regarding all facets of the County and life here, and assembled it all in a document that we got last fall. And finally, today, it's available to everyone.

I am, as you can tell, a little frustrated about the length of time it has taken, and (my opinion) the low level of priority that the Board has assigned it. A committee to implement the Plan was formed, many months after it was received, and I'm on that Committee.

The Strategic Plan Implementation Committee has met each month this year, and discussions there have been more energetic and – dare I say it – hopeful than would be the case in most committee meetings. Opportunities and possibilities abound in the Plan, and once we begin talking about it, we realize that many of them can actually come to pass.

So take a look at it. It's on the Otsego County home page, and it's called the Strategic Prioritization Plan. You might have been at a meeting during it's creation, which means you built it (thanks, by the way, if you're one of those people). Let me know what you think. The actual plan is actually less than 40 pages; the rest is data, and very interesting data about where we live and work. Go take a look.

The People's Government

For the last two years, during the County Board's organizational meeting in January, Kay Stuligross has moved that the time of the full County Board meeting be changed from 10:00 AM on the first Wednesday of each month, to later in the afternoon or evening on that same day. The goal was to increase the number of citizens who could attend the meetings, since they would be after most people were out of work, and not in the middle of the morning on a workday.

Objections to this change never seemed to make sense to me; they seemed incomplete and ineffectual. “Noone will come even if we change the time,” was a leading contender. It was almost as if there were another reason that no one wanted to discuss.

I believe that the reason that no one wanted to discuss was, and is, this: with daytime meetings, only people with flexible schedules can run for Representative. Very few people who work in schools, the professions or in most nine-to-five jobs have schedules flexible enough, whereas small businessmen, farmers and retired people do. The former tend to be Democrats, at least in this county, and the latter Republicans. The cards are stacked against us, on purpose.

I'd like to test the viability of this theory by winning the majority this time and changing the time of the meetings. More people can come to the meetings and have their voices heard, and a wider variety of citizens will be able to run for office. Wouldn't that be interesting? Are you listening, Thomas Jefferson?