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CMH cuts costs, but
jobs preserved
Protesters rally to save positions with Peckham
By Kara Richardson, Lansing State Journal, August 23,
2002
More than 200 workers with disabilities, their families and
supporters filled the Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Community Mental
Health board meeting room Thursday night, trying to save their
jobs.
"There's a lot of people, like me, who need the work," said
Vince Fortino, 37, who works for Peckham Vocational
Industries.
"We might be slow but we get the job done."
Protesters were worried about the agency's proposal to cut
$176,000 from Lansing-based Peckham, which runs job-training
programs for people with disabilities.
The board approved the budget-balancing plan 10-1 Thursday
night, Chairwoman Pamela Stants said.
But clients will still have jobs, she said, and will be able
to pick their job site.
The savings is in the salaries of the supervisors, not the
salaries of the clients, said Chris Swope, a CMH board member
and Ingham County commissioner.
CMH employees may do more supervision of clients on the job -
as Peckham does now - themselves.
Many Peckham workers could get assigned to similar work at
other CMH facilities, Stants said.
"Consumers - or clients - will have the right to choose where
they want to work," Stants said.
The agency also will talk with Peckham about how to cut costs,
including making some of the jobs more community-based. That
would make them less costly, said Jeff Fleming, president of
the CMH employees union.
The cuts are among ways the agency is trying to deal with a
$3.2 million deficit. Officials say flat state funding is
primarily responsible.
Fortino, 37, of Lansing told the board he takes pride in his
work.
"This is something I can do and I'm getting better every day,"
Fortino said.
"If you close this up a lot of people will be sad. Not sad -
mad."
CMH assists 11,000 people who suffer from mental illness,
developmental disabilities and substance abuse problems at
more than 100 sites in the tri-county area.
Other cuts are proposed to balance the agency's $65 million
budget. Twenty or fewer CMH workers would be laid off - down
from the 100 feared earlier this year.
Peckham currently receives about $450,000 a year from CMH. The
Peckham employees are paid based on production rates.
The jobs include light assembly on products such as cargo nets
and safety belt comfort systems for General Motors Corp.
Bob Worgul, whose son Andy works at Peckham, said the proposed
cuts would be devastating to its employees.
"It brings out the best in my son," said Worgul, who lives in
Delta Township.
"Peckham is Lansing's crown jewel," Bob Worgul said.
Contact Kara Richardson at 267-1301 or
krichard@lsj.com.
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