County Auditor Tony Fabri and a County Board member both emailed me Fabri's memo from last week regarding contract nursing at the Champaign County Nursing Home, whcih was a topic on here last week. I don't know much about the issue, so I'm just going to post it for discussion.
The memo is here (converted to PDF).
Discuss.
What does Fabri know about running a nursing home? Did he learn that during law school?
Does he think the administrator at the CCNH is not trying to hire full-time nursing staff? I heard that Jan Anderson (D - Champaign) indicated during the board meeting that there is a critical shortage of qualified nursing help nationwide. Does Fabri want the patients at the CCNH to sufffer from lack of proper nursing care rather than hiring qualified contract nurses?
Why didn't Fabri bring up last year's increasing contract nursing fees when he was a member of the county board? Why didn't he contact the CCNH administrator and ask him about the issue instead of issuing this press release? Was he really concerned about the issue or did he just want to get his name in the press?
Does he really think people are so stupid that they can't see through this?
Thanks, Gordy, for posting the memo.
The CCNH has contracts with several nursing agencies. One of them costs us $76/hour plus travel expenses for a nurse to come to CCNH. In contrast, County-employed nurses make anywhere from $16 to $32/hour. Even factoring in pensions and other benefits, we pay twice as much for an outside contract nurse as we do for most in-house CCNH nurses.
When I was first elected to the County Board in 2000, contract nursing was recognized by Board members and CCNH administrators as a major budget-buster. We all made it a priority to reduce the nursing home's reliance on outside nurses, and after about a year of pressure from the Board and hard work by then-administrator Jeremy Maupin, CCNH employees, and AFSCME, we dramatically reduced what we spent on contract nurses (this is illustrated on the chart included on my memo to Finance). Unfortunately, contract nursing expenditures have crept back up, and we're now spending ten times what we spent as recently as 2003!
The point of my memo was to warn Board members (and the public) about this expensive and rapidly increasing cost at the CCNH, and to encourage them to address the probelm. As Auditor, that's what I'm supposed to do, even if it means getting attacked for doing so. I don't think it would've been right for me to just ignore this.
"Thanks, Gordy, for posting the memo."
Thanks for sending it to me. I was hoping that it would provoke more discussion, but I'm glad that people at least got to read it.
Unfortunately, contract nursing expenditures have crept back up, and we're now spending ten times what we spent as recently as 2003!
You were on the county board during the last four years when the contract nursing costs have "crept back up". Why didn't you send out any press releases about it when you were on the board?
You didn't make any effort to discuss this with the current CCNH administrator. Apparently, he was able to explain the situation to the county board since the news media reported they voted unanimously to allow the budget transfers. Maybe if you had taken the time to get all of the facts before "warning the public" you wouldn't feel like you're "getting attacked". I'm sure the CCNH administrator felt he was being attacked when you tried to discredit his performance in the press without getting the facts straight.
Brad, aka "What's he thinking?", help me understand. Are you saying that because Tony didn't raise this issue last year as a county board member, he shouldn't speak up today? By that logic you would never bring up issues today because you didn't discuss them yesterday. I'm just happy that someone is asking questions about the nursing home.
Unfortunately, county board members, lead on this blog by Scott Tapley, have decided to just trust the administrator. If the administration has all the answers and makes no mistakes then why even elect a county board?
Once again, you deceive by stating that a unanimous decision by the board means a rejection of Mr. Fabri. Read the memo again. He never asked the board to vote no on the transfer. He wanted them to ask questions of the administrator. As Gordy would say, reading is fundamental.
I hope that Tony keeps asking questions despite the attacks. If his opponent follows the same game plan from his losing campaign four years ago, he will be on the receiving end of a lot of mud.
Tony really will be attacked here no matter what he says I guess. His explanation above is very clear and I appreciate his making the warning with the memo. When I finally got to read the memo (thanks IP) I was surprised at how clear and correct it was --- had I only listened to people here you'd have thought he, well, made a mistake.
"Apparently, he was able to explain the situation to the county board since the news media reported they voted unanimously to allow the budget transfers."
The board's decision to support budget transfers for recent/pending work isn't a reflection of support for the general trend of spending way more for nursing--it's a realistic response to the immediate need for funds. And frankly, the CCNH administrator should feel like his performance is being questioned if he can't solve this real problem.
This issue was totally mishandled by Tony. First of all, if your concern was to let board members know, why did you not just go to the meeting and stress your concerns to the board. Instead you went to the press and made it look like the board was just sending the Nursing Home another $400,000. Secondly, to not even mention your concern to the NH Administrator and allow him to be blindsided by the news media was also wrong. You saw an opportunity to get your name and face on the news plain and simple.
This issue was totally mishandled by Tony. First of all, if your concern was to let board members know, why did you not just go to the meeting and stress your concerns to the board. Instead you went to the press and made it look like the board was just sending the Nursing Home another $400,000. Secondly, to not even mention your concern to the NH Administrator and allow him to be blindsided by the news media was also wrong. You saw an opportunity to get your name and face on the news plain and simple.
Funny ... it seems like if Tony hadn't publicly said anything and somebody else raised the issue, he would have been accused of not doing his job as auditor. But he did send a memo expressing his concerns and then gets accused of grandstanding.
Funny ... it seems like if Tony hadn't publicly said anything and somebody else raised the issue, he would have been accused of not doing his job as auditor. But he did send a memo expressing his concerns and then gets accused of grandstanding.
Try to get this one more time. The auditor could have chosen to raise this issue with the county board and the nursing home administrator. He instead decided to issue a press release to get his name out for election purposes. That is grandstanding.
I'm confused. If our auditor wanted to make the county board aware of an issue at the nursing home, why is he on Channel 3 doing it? Couldn't he just attend a board meeting?
Actually, I know for a fact that Tony raised this issue with the Nursing Home administrator, with the County Board Finance Committee, and with a majority of County Board members at several different meetings. All of these discussions happened before Tony went to the public with his concerns.
Anyway, the Auditor works for the public! There's absolutely nothing wrong with him letting us know what's going on behind closed doors.
The Brad Jones campaign complains that Frerichs didn't scream from the rafters about the county's problems. Now they complain that Fabri should be more quiet in his criticism. The only thing consistent about Brad's campaigning is its negativity.
"Actually, I know for a fact that Tony raised this issue with the Nursing Home administrator, with the County Board Finance Committee, and with a majority of County Board members at several different meetings. All of these discussions happened before Tony went to the public with his concerns."
If he did it would show up in board minutes (available online). It hasn't because he didn't. Keep spinning. Aren't you getting dizzy yet?
"If he did it would show up in board minutes (available online). It hasn't because he didn't."
One might assume from that definitive statement that you've actually read all County Board minutes from the past month or two. If not, how could you possibly say what's not in them?
Of course, the truth is you didn't do that. For example, you didn't read this month's Finance Committee meeting minutes -- they aren't online yet. (Of course, since we have Fabri's memo from this month's Finance Committee, it would be absurd to argue he didn't raise the issue there. Absurdly, that's what you just did, but somehow, I'm not surprised.) The truth is, you don't know what you're talking about, you're just blindly throwing mud at Tony, with no concern whatsoever about what's true and what isn't.
http://www.co.champaign.il.us/COUNTYBD/CB/070920AGENDAFULL.pdf
Page 42 is the Finance Committee action report from Sept. 13, 2007. There was no public participation and the Auditor's portion of the meeting consisted only of the normal spreadsheet of purchases not following policy. Additionally, checking with other finance committee members, and from comments made during the September full board meeting, Fabri was not in attendance.
"Additionally, checking with other finance committee members, and from comments made during the September full board meeting, Fabri was not in attendance."
Better not expose their lies Mr. Farney--they'll get angry and accuse you of attacking them.
So J.J. Are you saying that Tony's memo was not read at the september 13 Finance Meeting, or that the County Clerk's minutes are incomplete?
1) The County Clerk does not compile minutes or action reports of committee meetings, only full board meetings. Champaign County Administrative Services does committee meetings. The action reports in the link appear to be complete. If you believe they are incomplete, please speak to Mr.McGinty, Mr. Inman or Ms. Busey so that they may be corrected.
2) Mr. Fabri's memo was most likely included in the members packets. Without Mr. Fabri being there to reinforce his memo in person to the committee members, the memo was probably read by the individuals on the committee and returned to the packet of information and correspondence that they each receive prior to the meeting without much thought or discussion.
3) The original question was asked if Mr. Fabri was at the finance meeting. He was not. His presence would have been noted in the action report. That's all I was getting at.
Actually, the question was whether Fabri raised the issue of contract nursing with Board members anytime before he contacted the media about it. The memo is written proof that he did.
Of course, even that is a diversion from the real question: How can the County improve the finances (and long-term viability) of the County Nursing Home? Auditor Fabri stepped foward with what looks like a very reasonable and workable suggestion. No one has disputed his facts, they've just tried to muddy the political waters.
Yeah, go with that theory if it makes you feel better.