MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards says he willing to negotiate with employees of the Chautauqua County Home as long as they present their plan to restructure their contract by Dec. 12. In a media release (below) sent out late yesterday afternoon, the county executive said he is asking the CSEA – the union representing the employees – to submit a proposal that is responsive to a letter he sent union leaders 10 months ago. He said that if he can get a response by Dec. 12, he would be willing to review and consider their terms.
The CSEA is requesting that contract negotiations for employees at the Chautauqua County Nursing Home be separated from negotiations for the remainder of the Chautauqua County Employee Unit 6300. This request is predicated upon full funding of the County Home (including IGT match) and implementation of other cost-saving and revenue enhancing recommendations made in the Center for Governmental Research report.
Edwards noted the poor timing of the request by the union, saying that it is less than a month prior to the county legislature’s review of the contract to sell the County Home to Altitude Health Services, Inc. of Chicago for $16.5 million.
According to Edwards, the County Home is projected to lose more than $700,000, or approximately $9,000 per day.
Read Full statement from County Executive Greg Edwards:
Mayville: — On November 21, 2012 my office received the attached letter from Penny Gleason. You will note the letter disclosed that there were others who were copied on the correspondence. On Monday, November 26, 2012 I met with County Attorney Steve Abdella and Human Resource Director Joseph Porpiglia to review the letter to attempt to discern the meaning of the third paragraph. In addition I discussed with these professionals what could be proposed by the County in response, since the Union had left negotiations and declared impasse many months ago resulting in the start of the Mediation, Fact Finding, and other processes as required by law in Civil Service Contract negotiations.
This letter was delivered less than 30 days from the time the Legislature will be reviewing the actual contract to sell the County Home. The Union’s letter conditions any potential negotiations by the CSEA on my promise that I will guarantee that the taxpayers of Chautauqua County will spend $1.6 million of our property taxes, and another $1.6 million of our State and Federal taxes every year going forward to keep the Skilled Nursing Home owned by the County. Not stopping there it also requires that I promise that the significantly flawed CGR report recommendations be guaranteed to be implemented. If, I commit the taxpayers of our County to funneling of over 3.2 million tax dollars into the County Home each year, and implement flawed changes, then, the CSEA will negotiate changes to their contract.
Over 10 months ago, I sent the attached letter to the President of the CSEA on the same day I was going forward with the retention of Marcus and Millichap to market the County Home. The CSEA failed to even acknowledge the letter, never responded and never made any proposals to address the issues at the County Home. On October 24, 2012 the Chautauqua County Legislature voted 16 in favor and only 8 opposed to direct me to negotiate a contract for the sale of the County Home with Altitude Health Services, Inc. I have been engaged in these negotiations and will have a contract for the Legislature to review for their December 19, 2012 meeting.
In spite of the above, I have prepared and delivered to Penny Gleason of the CSEA the attached letter offering to the CSEA another opportunity to deliver on the invitation I made to the union over 10 months ago to step up and propose changes to eliminate the deficits in County Home operations. In deference to the Legislators who will be reviewing the contract for sale at their meeting on December 19, 2012, the response if any must be received prior to December 12, 2012.
Every day that passes the County Home loses another estimated $9,000 per day. The taxpayers of Chautauqua County can no longer be asked to fund these losses, when a private sector company is willing to pay $16.5 million to purchase the skilled nursing facility, commit to operating it in a similar manner with likely improved quality, and pay property taxes to the County municipalities of approximately $800,000 per year. This means instead of losing $9,000 per day we could be earning $2,190 per day and have the opportunity for expanded health care for our seniors.
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