First county mandatory layoff from shutdown
by Peter Bodley
Managing Editor
A handful of Anoka County employees were placed on mandatory leave Monday as the state government shutdown entered its second week.
They were four workers in the county health department after the child and teen checkup outreach program was deemed a non-essential service and would cease to function during the state shutdown, according to County Administrator Jerry Soma.
Another two employees in the health department had their hours reduced, Soma said.
The county receives state money for the program, which is designed to encourage parents to make sure their children get the proper vaccinations at the right time, he said.
As the state shutdown loomed in late June, the Anoka County Board put in place a mandatory leave policy for county employees as opposed to layoffs.
Employees placed on mandatory leave are allowed to stay on the county payroll and use their comp time, FTO (flexible time off) and any dollars that are in their personal conversion account, while keeping their health insurance.
Once an employee has exhausted those funds or has elected to go on a non-pay status, they are able to start the process of obtaining unemployment compensation.
When the state shutdown is over and dollars and functions are restored, those county employees on mandatory leave will return to work, Soma said.
The county board Tuesday took action to suspend 15 contracts it has with vendors to provide state services for people with disabilities in two different programs – SILS (semi independent living skills) and family support grants.
According to Soma, they were deemed non-essential by the courts.
The family support grant program, for which the county contracts with the Anoka County Community Action Program (ACCAP) has been providing assistance to 150 families in the county with children who have disabilities, Soma said.
The $150 a month that the state has been paying in assistance to those families is not being funded during the shutdown, he said.
The other 14 contracts are for vendors with whom the county has contracts to provide help 135 people with disabilities in the SILS program live independently, Soma said.
There is no more state money going into the program during the shutdown, he said.
But county social workers involved in the SILS program will be reviewing the cases to see if intervention is needed and if volunteers can help out, Soma said.
Instead of terminating the contracts outright, the county board has given the vendors the option of agreeing to suspension until the state funding is restored, according to Soma.
County Commissioner Dan Erhart voted no in the 4-1 vote on the contracts. Commissioners Rhonda Sivarajah and Jim Kordiak were not at the meeting.
According to Erhart, the state shutdown “will end up being destructive to the well-being of people who need help.”
While he realized that the county was not in a position to foot the state’s bills, he was concerned that the state shutdown would “severely hurt” people, Erhart said.
“It’s a terrible problem,” he said.
According to Soma, the county’s license centers continue to operate, although with reduced services.
And the closing of the state workforce center at the Anoka County Human Services Center has meant that more people are using the Anoka County libraries in their search for jobs, Soma said.
While part of the child care assistance program has been deemed by Judge Kathleen Gearin, the Ramsey County District Court chief judge, to be an essential state service for which funding should continue, another segment is currently not considered essential and is not funded, but no one is getting state checks because the state computer system can’t differentiate between the two, he said.
However, Special Master Kathleen Blatz, the former Minnesota Supreme Court chief justice, who makes recommendations to Gearin, has proposed that be changed to include that all child care assistance be funded and Gearin was expected to rule on that this week, Soma said.
According to Soma, another level of uncertainty is that Gearin’s rulings are only effective through the end of July and if the state shutdown persists into August, no one is sure what happens then.
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com
