WICD reported during their 10 O'Clock newscast that Champaign County will consider a settlement with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. The County originally faced a fine of $50,000 due to a County Co-administrator's failure to properly comply with various regulations during the delayed construction of the new Champaign County Nursing Home. The settlement calls for the County to provide $19,000 in free services to area senior citizens - health screenings, diabetes testing, etc. Sounds like a great deal, doesn't it? $19,000 is a whole lot better than $50,000, right?
Well, as is always the case with anything involving CCNH, and specifically the County Board Facilities Committee, chaired by Steve Beckett, you have to read the fine print. We have $19,000 in taxpayer dollars spent on senior services to comply with the settlement, then you add the $26,000 in attorney fees through February, and all the sudden this settlement isn't looking all rosey, is it? Just wait until we get the bill for March, April and May!
I'd also point out that the settlement and legal fees for this issue alone will be greater than the salary of three full time employees (at $9.62/hr) who are about to be laid off at CCNH.
Somehow though, Denny Inman still has his ($100,000+/yr) job. Sad.
You're right, that is one fine settlement.
Should have let Mark S. handle the whole CNH thing; as the county's only perfect employee, we know there would never have been any problems.
Mark should could not have done any worse,,,,,Mark knows that when you are in a hole you stop digging,,,,the others like to blame everyone else for their ignorance. Now lets see, they are blaming it on the poor people that need help,too many of them,,,,,they are blaming it on the help that are just trying to do their jobs and make a decent living...everyone but themselves have been blamed.
"Should have let Mark S. handle the whole CNH thing; as the county's only perfect employee, we know there would never have been any problems."
I vote against Mark every election (sorry, Mark :)) but he is right on with these criticisms of the nursing home and county finances in general. $400k in legal fees? I'm sorry, but unless there's a risk of losing much more than that there's no reason to pay anything close to that cost in fees. I know there are local attorneys who are highly qualified who charge a lot less than the people the county has been dealing with. It's absolutely pitiful.
On this specific issue, the county has already paid $26k in legal fees and has more bills to come. I expect the county will end up paying more than $50k total to avoid paying the $50k fine.
Should have let Mark S. handle the whole CNH thing; as the county's only perfect employee, we know there would never have been any problems.
It never fails. Mark has been on top of this important issue for months and this is the argument? I guess what I'm thinking is, the powers-that-be know Mark posts here. What if Mark hadn't been the one person (who has been willing to take the heat as a whistleblower) to expose the many problems... imagine how many more tax dollars might very well have been wasted without the scrutiny?
At tonight's CB meeting Stan James wanted to ask about the legal fees incurred fighting this fine and he was immediately stopped by Chair Weibel - I have never seen Pius stifle discussion as fast as he did tonight. Weibel said that the legal fees had nothing to do with the agenda item (accepting the settlement) and that if Mr. James wanted to discuss it he should do so at the end of the meeting during other business. Of course after the closed session, the board adjourned and there was no other business. I found it very odd that the legal fees incurred on this issue really struck a nerve with Weibel.
I found that odd as well JJ. It was an absurd notion on Weibel's part that a discussion of the settlement agreement couldn't include a discussion of how much money it took to arrive at it. Finally, McGrath was allowed to speak and did say that the State's Attorney was negotiating with our "highly recommended" attorneys over the fee.
Since this will presumably be the last chance for Duane Morris to bill us, I'm not sure how amenable they'll be. I'm guessing that they ask for the February bill, skip March, April and May, and then Rietz will declare victory, even though there would be no fine if Duane Morris had done their job.
Where is IP when we need him. I do not know how to attach a link but the News Gazette had an article on their web page saying the nursing home cannot accept any Medicare or Medicaid patients and is not in compliance with a number of issues based on numerous inspections. Sounds like it may be in danger of being shut down if the problems are not addressed satisfactorily.
Why is the administrator still there???? I think most of the problems land directly on his watch.
"Where is IP when we need him. I do not know how to attach a link but the News Gazette had an article on their web page saying the nursing home cannot accept any Medicare or Medicaid patients and is not in compliance with a number of issues based on numerous inspections. Sounds like it may be in danger of being shut down if the problems are not addressed satisfactorily.
Why is the administrator still there???? I think most of the problems land directly on his watch."
Is this the article?
"Troubled nursing home's future at risk"
I am very concerned by the quotes of Beckett and Betts on both television and in the media,,,,,these two guys seem to have no idea of the seriousness of this situation,,,,the home could be shut down,,none of the high priced legal advice,,,or think tank people can help them with this, at all.