JON S. CORZINE Governor
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DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES DIVISION OF FAMILY DEVELOPMENT PO Box 716
TRENTON NJ 08625-0716
June 13,2008
JENNIFER VELEZ Commissioner
JEANETTE PAGE-HAWKINS Director
Anibal Ramos, Jr., Department Director Essex County Department of Citizen Services 18 Rector Street, 9th Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
TEL: (609) 588-2000
Dear Mr. Ramos:
I am writing to express my concerns over Essex County's inability to comply with our approved consolidation plan to assume full operational control of Newark's General Assistance (GA) program by July 1, 2008. In particular, there appears to be an insufficient number of full-time workers assigned to the GA program by the Essex County Division of Welfare, jeopardizing their ability to effectively operate this program once the transition period is completed by the end of this month.
Originally, we approved a consolidation plan submitted by Essex County Division of Welfare on January 4, 2008 costing $2,674,955, which reflected an agreed upon final Newark GA program conversion date of July 1, 2008. At my request, Bruce Nigro provided a progress report on the consolidation on March 5, 2008, which indicated that twenty-nine (29) workers were hired in midJanuary and they were expected to complete training no later than April 1, 2008. In addition, I was informed that the Essex County agency received approval to hire nine (9) additional workers effective mid-March. These two actions brought the total full-time staff approved to support the transfer of Newark's GA program to thirty-eight (38) positions, a staffing level consistent with the agreed upon funding we provided to Essex County for this purpose.
I am now being informed that Bruce is proposing to transfer five (5) workers and one supervisor from his child support program to provide immediate staff to the GA program. I do not approve this staff
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Given the noted concerns, I request that the Essex County Division of Welfare be given approval to hire the additional thirty-eight (38) staff to support the consolidation and ultimately provide Essex County withthe resources to assume the full administration of their entire GA caseload beginning July 1, 2008.
I am asking you to respond in writing within five (5) days of receipt of this letter. It is most urgent that this Division have a clear and concise understanding of how you plan to meet the stated staffing needs.
Sincerely,
Jeanette Page-Hawkins Director
Created by Readiris, Copyright IRIS 2005 Created by Readiris, Copyright IRIS 2005
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c Joyce Wilson Harley, Esq., County Administrator James W. Smith, Jr., Deputy Commissioner
Paul Hopkins, Essex County Treasurer
Bruce Nigro, Essex County Division of Welfare
New Jersey Is An Equal Opportunity Employer • Printed on Recycled Paper and Recyclable
May 20, 2008
Jennifer Velez, Esq., Commissioner
New Jersey Department of Human Services
222 South Warren Street
P.O. Box 700
Trenton, NJ 08625-0700
Re: Dire Staffing Dilemma
Dear Ms. Velez:
CWA Local 1081, the Union representing the non-managerial employees of the Essex County Division of Welfare, respectfully requests your assistance ensuring a sufficient number of staff is expeditiously hired, and maintained, within our agency due to the dire dearth of a sufficient number of employees now employed.
While the State of New Jersey has taken the prudent position our agency attain, and maintain, at least a total of 835 employees, the current complement of a total of only approximately 760 employees has resulted in numerically and qualitatively diminished services to our clients with resultant untenable stress suffered by our Union’s members. With our agency’s scheduled assumption of the Newark General Assistance clientele on July 1, 2008, the situation shall only worsen resulting in our Union’s ardent apprehension for the near, and foreseeable, future.
The attached statistical report of April 17, 2008, prepared by Essex County Division of Welfare Director Bruce Nigro for the edification of Essex County Department of Citizen Services Director Anibal Ramos, appositely agrees with our Union’s evaluation. The following are quotations from the report:
· Under the section, Client Waiting Time-February 2008, the report states “We continue to have concerns with the number of clients, 8% (last month 7%), that wait more than one hour”.
· Under the section, Client Flow Analysis-February 2008, the report states “The NPA FS caseload has stabilized at approximately 24,000 cases and GA has stabilized at about 2900 cases, although it will double once we assume the responsibility of the Newark GA beginning July 1, 2008. Medicaid caseloads total over 44,000 cases and have increased 29% since January 2006. However, because State Medicaid does not have a good MIS and its computer system is limited, it is difficult to get a fully accurate case count. The Medicaid caseload increase is becoming significant and based upon available staffing; we are no longer maintaining currency with all Medicaid work.”
· Also under the section Client Flow Analysis-February 2008, the report states “Client flow had increased approximately 26% from a monthly average of 21,347 in 2001, 24,298 in 2002, 26,354 in 2003, 26,378 in 2004, 25,206 in 2005, 24, 411 in 2006 and 26,906 in 2007. In 7 of 12 months last year, client flow has been over 27,000.”
· Under the section, MIS (Management Information Survey)-February 2008, the report states “There has been a decrease in field contact since December 2007 (from 1528 in 12/07 to 716 in 2/08.”
With a significant segment of our agency’s senior employees retiring as well as leaving their employ by other means, combined with an inextricably exceptional apparent reticence exhibited by the County to hire their replacements, the Essex County Division of Welfare is in a crises condition. Exacerbating this crises condition is an Essex County welfare-to-work program that has barely managed a paltry twenty percent (17%) client placement rate (it was recently as low as nine percent (9%)). Inasmuch as the federal client placement rate requirement for all states is fifty percent (50%), and inasmuch as Essex County comprises such a disproportional percentage of New Jersey’s welfare population, the fiscal TANF penalties required by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 will only serve to decrease available federal funding to our State while coinciding with an unprecedented State budgetary predicament.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
C: Jeanette Page-Hawkins
Joseph DiVincenzo
Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders
Anibal Ramos
Bruce Nigro
Lynn Buckley
Stephen Weissman, Esq.