March 10, 2009
Anibal Ramos, Director
Essex County Department of Citizen Services
18 Rector Street, Floor 9
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance
Utilization of Newark GA Funding
Article I. Purpose
Article XXV. Non-Discrimination
Article XXX. Work Distribution and Practices
Article XLIX. Safety of Staff
Dear Mr. Ramos:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance, on behalf of all of our adversely affected and potentially adversely affected members employed by the Essex County Division of Welfare, to protest the insufficient utilization of the funding the County of Essex receives from the State of New Jersey to administer the General Assistance (GA) program formerly administered by the City of Newark until July 1, 2008. According to the article published within the June 12, 2008 edition of the Star Ledger, entitled “Newark welfare services transferred to county”:
Effective July 1, 2008 the Newark Municipal Welfare General Assistance Program will be transferred to the County of Essex. As a result, beginning Friday, those applying for general assistance must report to the Essex County Division of Welfare located at 18 Rector St. Cases will now be handled through the Food Stamp Office, 50 South Clinton St., 1st Floor, East Orange. Also effective Friday, participants will no longer receive checks for cash benefits. Instead, benefits will be given using the Family First Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card from the Essex County Division of Welfare.
Since the Essex County Division of Welfare involuntarily assumed the onerous responsibility of administering the GA program for Newark’s residents, the County has not hired, or deployed, sufficient numbers of personnel to service the clients thus apparently not fully utilizing the $2.4 million of annual funding provided by the State of New Jersey as stipulated. The results have proved long lines of people streaming down the sidewalk outside of the County-owned South Clinton Street, East Orange site waiting in the cold to be seen (see attached photographs); clients’ cases not being processed in a timely fashion as required by law; excruciating and debilitating stress upon the employees of the Division of Welfare valiantly attempting to service the clients and considerable contention between clients and workers and between clients and clients.
CWA Local 1081 respectfully reminds you, Mr. Ramos, our Union similarly passionately protested several years ago when the County assumed the East Orange GA program, along with more than $700,000 annually from the State to run it, when the County similarly did not hire and deploy sufficient numbers of employees to administer that program. This time, despite assurances to our Union from the County it would act differently, and responsibly, history has appeared to have regrettably repeated itself with the County’s assumption of the Newark GA program.
Director Nigro’s attached Step II Class Action Grievance denial response of February 13, 2009 is unacceptable to CWA Local 1081 and our Union’s adversely affected members. I take professional umbrage with Mr. Nigro’s assertion I “am under (sic) misconception about the expenditures and reimbursement of the General Assistance Program and appear not to have an understanding of the method utilized to report costs and obtain reimbursement from the state”. While our Union appreciates the Director having had Fiscal Officer Ron Sages provide our Union a presentation regarding this matter at the February 25, 2009 Work Practices Committee Meeting, I was fully cognizant of the pertinent points of his presentation prior to the meeting. Our Union was also fully cognizant of the attached September 2008 USDA audit finding that determined the Essex County Division of Welfare had appeared to have inaccurately ascribed federal funding to employees performing functions other than those for which the County had been reimbursed.
For all three counties included in our review, payroll
costs for employees were not appropriately charged to the work units for which
personnel were performing activities prior to allocating the costs to specific
programs. In Essex
County, we identified 42
employees whose payroll costs totaled almost $515,000 that were not charged to
the work unit for which they performed activities. (http://www.usda.gov/oig/
As the resolution to this grievance, CWA Local 1081 reiterates the following:
1. The County shall provide our Union a detailed delineation of all funds received from the State, to date, to assume and run the Newark GA program.
2. The County shall provide our Union a detailed delineation of how those funds have been dedicated, to date.
3. The County shall immediately hire, and deploy, sufficient numbers of employees to service the needs of the Newark GA client population.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President, CWA Local 1081