Supervisors Receive Criticism From Former Employees
Mahaska County Courthouse
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors held the first regularly-scheduled meeting of the month on July 3.
During the public comments section of the meeting, former Mahaska County case manager Laura Buch read a prepared statement to the board in regards to the closing of Mahaska County Case Management.
In Mahaska County, around 85 individuals were served by the county’s case managers, which include three full time and one part time. Those case managers help assess and coordinate services and needs, which range from home health resources to transportation and skilled health care.
During the first board meeting in May, Doland said that it appeared that AmeriHealth Caritas was “definitely going to take all of our case management clients.”
Doland said they are not sure when that would happen, “They’ve sent out letters, initial letters saying that’s going to happen, but they haven’t said exactly when and how quickly.”
“There’s been a lot of angst about, not only in the clients that we’re sharing, that we’re serving. We’re trying to make sure we have a lot of, make sure we have a lot of input from everybody, and we’ve talked to the county attorney, and it seems like the easiest and the cleanest way to do this so that everybody, it’ll be more of a natural change, is that, we set a date, rather than just umm, have a transition period waiting for them. Most, a lot of case managements that Heather has been in contact with, some of them have already shut down, some of them were done at the end of April. Some of them are done at the end of June. And so, what we wanted to do, was to, um, set a date that transitions the cases over to AmeriHealth Caritas and work with them,” said Doland.
Doland said such a decision would give the county employees a “definite day” for preparations for other employment.
Doland said that the desire of the county was to then close Mahaska County case management on June 15, 2017, with the staff members remaining until the end of June 2017 in order to finish up any unforeseen business during that time.
Buch spoke about the May 1 vote by the board to cease the operation of county-run case management. Subsequently, the four case managers were then terminated on June 30 of 2017.
“As one of the four terminated case managers, I feel it necessary to convey my thoughts and concerns about these unfortunate actions.
Buch says she and the other case managers were advised that nothing would change with case management under the direction of Doland, that until their clients received a second letter from AmeriHealth Caritas “there would be no changes in case management services.”
Buch says that Mahaska County clients did receive their second notice after the vote from the board of supervisors in May to make the transition.
Buch states that after the May 1 meeting, she and another case manager asked their supervisor if anything of significance had been discussed. They were informed that nothing of any real importance had been discussed.
When the media reports of the meeting became available, they stated that the office would be closed and the employees would lose their jobs at the end of June. Those reports are how, Buch says, she became informed of the closure.
Buch stated that finding out about her termination in such a way was “highly unprofessional.”
When it came to the recommendation by Doland to close case management, “I would question the honesty and integrity of those making the recommendation.” Buch’s strong words also include the former case management supervisor and the county attorney, and she wonders why the case managers “were not alerted to this life changing vote.”
Buch stated that AmeriHealth Caritas was not prepared for the closure of Mahaska County Case Management, and were attempting to fill case management positions to fill the void left by the closure.
“By making the seemingly easy vote to disrupt the lives of persons with disabilities, it implies those making the recommendation have little regard for those clients, and their lives are less significant. I find that very disturbing and concerning, as do many others,” said Buch.
“The responsibility of the board of supervisors of Mahaska County is to represent all the citizens of this county with professionalism and integrity,” said Buch.
Buch then asked what the reason was for expediting the closure of Mahaska County Case Management.
Case management was paid for by reimbursement from Medicaid, and Buch asked what the reasoning was to “rush the closure.”
In closing, Buch stated, “To treat four employees from Mahaska County with a combined 64 years of faithful employment with such little respect also speaks volumes.”
“In addition, I am very disturbed by Chair Doland taking action into this transition independent of other board members,” said Buch, saying Doland met behind closed doors to discuss the closure of case management.
“It seems increasingly more common for him [Doland] to have discussion outside of the board meetings and then make executive decisions without the consult of the other two members,” added Buch. “It’s highly inappropriate for one board member to execute decisions according to his or her own agenda.”
In another action, the board heard a report from Paul Greufe of PJ Greufe and Associates in regards to an HR audit conducted by his company.
It approved a 28E agreement between the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office and the city of Fremont for law enforcement protection. One of the changes from previous years was in regards to changing the time-frame of the agreement from calendar year to fiscal year.
Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem mentioned applying for a COPS grant for the county to add an additional deputy. The grant would cover approximately $120,000 of the new deputy’s salary for three years.
Van Renterghem was unsure if there was enough time to complete the grant application, but was seeking board input in the event the grant was accepted.
A resolution to set a public hearing on issuing nearly 5 million dollars in general obligation bonds, based upon local option sales tax funds, was approved. The date is set for August 7, 2017 at 9:15 am.
