Angry citizens crowded into the Saratoga County Supervisors chamber on Wednesday, Jan. 9, to voice their objections once again over the supervisors’ plan to form an LDC to privatize the Maplewood Manor nursing home.
Before the public hearing, Kathy Garrison, Capital Region president of CSEA, led a group of picketers protesting the privatization.
“We think it’s wrong to not take care of people who have lived here their entire lives,” she said. “Now they need services at the end of their lives, and they deserve the best quality of life possible.”
Garrison said she was also concerned for the county employees who currently work at the facility.
“A lot of people look for alternate work when a facility is privatized,” she said. “A lot of people would like to stay. They stay because they love the work and like to take care of the residents. But it usually comes down to a financial decision whether they can afford to work for the wages and benefits provided. They’re usually slashed quite a bit.”
Dorothy Tyler, who has formed Citizens Advocate for Sustainable Maplewood Manor (CASMM) was also at the protest and spoke during the public hearing.
“We (CASMM) would like the county to stop the vote to form the LDC,” she said. “We have a plan that we would like to put forth that the supervisors could use to make Maplewood sustainable.”
During the public hearing, the accusations and protests flew as more than 14 residents voiced their concerns.
“Shame on you supervisors,” shouted Saratoga Resident Cliff Ammon. “You are so bound and determined to dispose of Maplewood. Where was the oversight for the past 10 years? Again I say shame on you.”
Tyler also lambasted the supervisors for not thinking ahead.
“If you have no solid plan for how to be successful, why are you going forward?” she asked. “Why haven’t you met openly and honestly with residents to slow down this process and give us your strategic plan?”
Saratoga resident Sam Brewer, an Iraqi veteran, had a more personal reason to protest the privatization. He said it is a simple matter of democracy.
“There are bonds that form the country together,” he said. “We have an obligation to take care of those vulnerable in society.”
Garrison was blunt regarding the fate of the county workers should Maplewood be privatized.
“Please don’t turn to us and say, ‘Yeah, it was really nice the job you did, but screw you now.’ That is unacceptable,” she said. “We all know this is a done deal, but it doesn’t pass the smell test.”
There is no question that the county-owned nursing home is in financial trouble. According to the 2013 budget, it is losing around $10 million a year, mainly because of untimely Medicaid reimbursements.
The question arises over whether the nursing home can be retained and continue to be run by the county or whether the county should cut its losses and sell the troubled facility.
The majority of the supervisors have said they feel selling Maplewood is the only option.
“This sale is the function of a system that doesn’t work,” said Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett. “Saratoga County, along with many other counties, is tackling this process.”
Barrett said he is voting for the privatization with a heavy heart, a feeling he says is shared by his fellow supervisors.
“This process is not one that any supervisors have entered into willingly,” he said. “As county supervisors, we can’t change the system. When you look at the budget and to see the nursing home experience such huge deficits, you see little hope of narrowing the gap.”
Barrett said the nursing home was “doomed from the start.” He said the facility loses $30,000 a day because of Medicaid reimbursements.
“That is starting off as an impossible situation,” he said. “How do you close a $30,000 a day deficit? You can’t do it.”
Barrett said it is an epidemic across the state.
“It is a system that, at the core, is irrational and broken,” he said. “Supervisors all over the state are facing the same issue with getting timely Medicaid reimbursements. … I hope when we go through the process that we learn from the mistakes of others and make good, sound fiscal decisions and at the same time protect the nursing home residents.”
Barrett said the current plan if an LDC is formed is for the county to maintain ownership for at least a year, with the nursing home employees continuing to have bargaining powers during that time.
“It is a very difficult situation,” he said.
Ballston Supervisor Patti Southworth disagreed with the need to privatize the facility and said she will be voting no at the Tuesday, Jan. 15, vote.
“It always comes down to numbers,” she said. “We need to find a way to follow our moral compass and find ways to reduce the costs of running the nursing home. … I think we are fooling ourselves if we form this LDC. We have to be realistic, but this is more than money, this is right versus wrong. It is part of our commitment to be good citizens.”
Southworth said a possible solution would be to put a vote to residents in the county and have them tell the supervisors if they want them to raise taxes to allow the facility to continue to be county-owned.
Tyler is trying to get a permissive referendum together, and she needs between 9,000 and 12,000 signatures. At that point it would go before the board, which could still refuse to put it to a public vote.
Tyler has 45 days from the Jan. 15 vote date, but she said she believes she can get that many signatures.
“They are telling us it is possible,” she said.