Rockland executive’s heartless bid would ruin hundreds of lives NEW CITY — An ill-conceived and reckless bid to “redesign county government” is putting people’s lives in jeopardy and creating unnecessary anxiety for hundreds of Rockland County nursing home residents. Rockland County Executive Ed Day’s proposed 2016 budget has CSEA members and residents in an uproar after Day proposed to slash about 326 jobs and close the county nursing home. “What the county executive is calling a redesign of government is really a cruel plan that hurts middle-class Rockland families and literally inflicts pain on Summit Park residents facing the panic and trauma of being kicked out of their home,” said Southern Region President Billy Riccaldo. CSEA has called on legislators to stop Day’s plans to cut dozens of jobs across county departments and close Summit Park Hospital and Nursing Care Center by Dec. 31. The abrupt Summit Park closure plan comes after the buyer slated to purchase the facility couldn’t complete the deal by county officials’ Sept. 30 deadline. That company, Sympaticare, was willing to close the deal by late October if the county resolved lingering concerns. With the sale falling through, hundreds of nursing home residents and their families face the prospect of finding another place to live, a situation that is sending shock waves of anxiety through the community. Summit Park’s sale was underway through a local development corporation, but Sympticare’s owner hit numerous snags working with county officials on the transfer. CSEA leaders and Summit Park family members called on Day to salvage the deal with Sympaticare, but the county executive refused “What the county executive is calling a redesign of government is really a cruel plan that hurts middleclass Rockland families and literally inflicts pain on Summit Park residents facing the panic and trauma of being kicked out of their home.” — Billy Riccaldo, CSEA Southern Region President and said he’ll sell the county’s Sain Building in New City and move workers from there to the 10-story Summit Park building once vacated. While Day wants to kick residents out of Summit Park by year’s end, no state closure plan for Summit Park was in place as this edition went to press. CSEA leaders joined Braunstein and Summit Park families at county legislature meetings and Day’s budget forums to lobby for Summit Park. The nursing home portion of the facility is a major source of nursing home beds in Rockland County and a closure would no doubt force Summit Park residents and others in need of nursing care out of Rockland County and away from regular family visits. Despite no apparent closure plan approval, panicked nursing home residents were being moved to other nursing facilities within a week of Day’s closure announcement. Workers said their residents were taking any available bed in other Rockland facilities, many of which had lower quality ratings than Summit Park, in a panicked effort to remain close to family and friends. Victims of political budgeting Meanwhile, Day’s proposed budget also eliminates dozens of other jobs across county departments, a kick in the gut to workers that have already grappled with staff reductions despite growing workloads. In a political move that hurts CSEA members working as security guards in county buildings, Day proposed reassigning those duties to sheriff’s deputies in the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department but gave the sheriff no additional funding to cover the duties. CSEA is fighting that move, Riccaldo said. CSEA has represented the security guards monitoring county buildings since as far back as the early 1970s. Day, a retired NYPD captain, insulted their decades of dedication in a polished Facebook campaign touting his plan to replace them with sheriff’s deputies. What Day failed to mention, Riccaldo said, is that Day’s plan adds no funding to that department, meaning deputies would likely be forced off road patrol to do the security guards’ working staffing county buildings. — Jessica Ladlee Summit Park Hospital and Nursing Care Center November 2015 The Work Force 9
The Work Force - November 2015
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