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community-based children’s mental health center and an OCFS residential- treatment facility. The state commissioner of mental


health is authorized to close, consolidate, reduce, transfer or otherwise redesign services of hospitals, other facilities and


programs with just 60 days prior notice. The commissioner may also significantly reduce and reconfigure services involving up to 600 beds. Only 30-days notice is required this year for service reductions.


Insurance + Banking = DFS The state departments of Banking and Insurance will be merged into a new


Department of Financial Services (DFS). Most parts of this merger are effective October 3, but some are effective immediately, including the transfer of employees to the new DFS. All employees will be transferred to DFS to the same or similar job titles, in the same bargaining units and with the same civil service classifications, status and rights.


Consumer Board to DOS The governor had proposed including


the state Consumer Protection Board in the merger to create DFS, but the Legislature rejected it. Instead, most of the board’s


responsibilities, including the “Do Not Call Registry,” and employees are transferred to a separate Consumer Protection Division within the state Department of State. All employees will be transferred to


PEF leaders and staff talk withAssemblyMember PeterAbbate Jr. (far right) about possible state employee salary and benefit concessions and the layoff threat if concessions are not agreed to by the unions.


DOS to the same or similar job titles, in the same bargaining units and with the same civil service classifications, status and rights.


— Photo by Richard Dillard PEF supporting cost-benefit, nursing bills in Legislature


By SHERRY HALBROOK For years, PEF has tried to get a state


law passed that would require state agencies to carefully analyze and consider whether work could be done as well and at less cost by their own employees, before handing it off to private consultants. In the past, such a bill has been


passed by both houses of the state Legislature, only to be vetoed by the governor. At other times, governors have issued executive orders directing state agency heads to make such analyses before awarding contracts to consultants. This year, two Rochester-area


legislators have introduced identical bills in both houses of the Legislature that would make it the law. Republican Sen. Joseph Robach introduced S.3093A and Assembly Member Harry Bronson, a Democrat, introduced A.5128A in the Assembly. The legislation provides a state agency


could not contract for consultant services costing more than $500,000 in a 12- month period, unless the agency had conducted a review to determine if state employees could do the work adequately for the same or lower cost. The bill allows reasonable exceptions for emergencies or to meet very short-term needs. “State government exists for a reason,”


Page 6—The Communicator May 2011


said PEF President Ken Brynien. “It provides a wide range of services essential to public safety, health and a viable economy. Each year, the state wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on costly consultants when state employees could provide the same services at an equivalent or better quality for comparable or lower cost.” That’s not the only long-time PEF bill


afoot in the Legislature again this year. Two bills intended to protect patients


and their caregivers are also in the mix. One aims to reduce lifting injuries in health care facilities, and the other requires safe staffing levels in those facilities. State Assembly Member Rory


Lancman, a Queens Democrat, and state Sen. George Maziarz of Brockport, a Republican, are each sponsoring the Safe Patient Handling bill in their respective houses. The legislation, A.1370/S.2470, would create a Safe Patient Handling Task Force at the state Health Department to develop a statewide policy on eliminating the hazards of manually lifting patients. The task force would also oversee the policy’s implementation in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities throughout the state. “Facilities that have developed


programs for safe patient handling have


dramatically reduced both their patients’ and employees’ injury rates, employee absences, workers’ compensation and overtime costs and their medical and indemnity costs,” Brynien said. The chairs of the state Assembly and


Senate health committees, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat, and Republican Sen. Kemp Hannon of Nassau County, have introduced the Safe Staffing Bill, A.921/S.4553. The legislation would: • direct the state health commissioner


to develop standards for safe staffing for nurses in hospitals; • set minimum staffing ratios for


certain hospital units; • establish requirements for minimum


staffing levels of nursing and other health care personnel in nursing homes; and • establish an advisory council to make


recommendations on nursing home staffing and require public disclosure and reporting of nursing home staffing. The PEF Nurses Committee is


organizing a day of meetings with legislators to discuss the Safe Staffing and the Safe Patient Handling bills. (See notice on page 7.) PEF’s Political Action Liaison


volunteers (PALs) will meet with their assigned lawmakers on the Cost-Benefit Analysis legislation.


PEF Information Line: 1-800-553-2445


LEGISLATIVE ACTION


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