Sacramento County workers have priced themselves so high that the public they serve is sometimes better off when county government bows out.
The transitional housing program at the Mather Community Campus set to be taken over by Volunteers of America this week illustrtrates the phenomenon.
In 1996, a voter-approved ordinance made it easier for Sacramento County to contract out for services to organizations like VOA. But that ordinance, codified as 71J in the county charter, also barred the county from displacing existing county workers with private sector employees.
With the county in tough economic times and county workers facing layoffs, Sacramento County Counsel Robert Ryan has interpreted 71J and state civil service case law to mean that county workers can displace private sector contract workers in any job that county workers can perform. Displacement is permitted even if the county worker is more costly and less skilled and experienced than the contract worker, and even when county workers are taking on jobs they’ve never performed in the past.
Armed with that interpretation, county case managers threatened with layoffs from county social service agencies last year were able to displace private case managers for formerly homeless clients at the Mather Community Campus.
Because county worker pay and benefits were so much higher, six private workers had to be laid off to bring in just three county employees. Case loads at Mather immediately doubled and services suffered.
It gets worse. Private case managers were more flexible. Many worked evenings and weekends when the clients most needed them. That allowed the nonprofit agency running the program to keep paid staff on site virtually around the clock.
Under the terms of their union contracts, county workers’ hours were more restricted. Most worked regular weekday hours when many of the clients were either at work or attending classes.
By pulling out all county general fund money from the Mather Community Campus, county supervisors freed VOA to bring back private case managers, save money and restore common-sense efficiencies to the program. Homeless clients and the public will be better off.
But Mather Community Campus is just one example of dozens of nonprofit agencies in Sacramento County threatened by 71J. Across the county, private workers providing vital services to some of the county’s most needy residents are being displaced by more expensive and, often, less experienced county employees.
Private mental health providers complain that their programs are being decimated by 71J. Some have challenged the county’s interpretation of the local ordinances. They argue that state mental health law requires “mental health services to be accomplished using available private resources and facilities so as to provide quality services at the least possible cost.”
Eventually the courts may have to decide if replacing contract workers with more costly, less skilled or experienced county employees violates the law. It doesn’t take a court to recognize that the ordinance, as interpreted by the county, does a disservice to the mentally ill and the public.