During a lengthy, four-hour long meeting last night, Northampton County Council adopted Executive Lamont McClure's $15.5 million plan to recruit and retain staff at Gracedale with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
His plan calls for the following: $2.5 million for nursing agencies to supply manpower until more staff is hired; $2 million to build an on-site Daycare for Gracedale staff at no cost to them; $10 million for bonuses paid to keep and recruit staff over a two-year window; and $1 million for capital projects.
The only part of the plan to pass unanimously was the $1 million set aside for capital projects at Gracedale.
The $10 million for recruiting and retention bonuses was amended at the request of Council member John Goffredo to exclude Administrator Jennifer Stewart-King as well as the Nursing Director and her top deputy. This bonus is a $2,500 annual payment over four years to all staff. The only Council member opposed was John Brown.
The most controversial aspect of the plan is $2 million for an on-site Daycare. At the request of Council member John Cusick, this was amended to include workers at 911 and forensic center, if possible. Council was advised that this daycare is a pilot program, and might ultimately be expanded to include the entire county.
The only Council members opposed to the daycare were John Brown and John Goffredo.
On Monday, I will go in the more detail with the pros and cons made by Council members.
50 comments:
Brownie is just upset that the voters of PA kicked his rear to the curb on Tuesday. Best thing they ever did was vote him out of office. Thanks Brownie!
Good idea but there are many concerns going forward. Thís could turn into an unnecessary financial landmine.
McClure and the county council are so out of touch. If you think $2500 is going to help retain employees, you haven’t been paying attention.
The inevitable is going to happen to Gracedale and it’s time that we realize this.
This is literally a waste of money.
None of this will "rescue" anything, of course. We've just given a heroin addict a quick fix of more heroin, rather than deal with the addict's affliction. We'll be back very shortly to discuss how to rescue Gracedale again ... and again ... and again .......
Get rid of Council for voting to spend money on only some NC employees and not ALL NC employees. Also, for spending taxpayer money on a daycare. I will vote them all out when they come up for election. The employees should have to pay towards the daycare not the taxpayers, just like outside daycare. Why should I pay for their daycare costs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! County Council and Administration have no brains! Take it out of their salaries
Actually Council passed a 14.5 million plan. $1.5 million was cut.
No matter what you throw at people to work at Gracedale, until you get rid of the current Administration people will leave.
God bless Lamont McClure!
McClure’s plan is great… he has the team to get it done. John Brown in last place yet again!
Lori could have worked with McClure to usher this in. Now it’s just Council passes McClure’s plan. This should be a lesson learned for Lori. Lamont still has wild public support and is an executive for the people. She needs to now support the adults in the room. She looked so petty last night.
Brown and little John Paul with an assist from their Democrat friend Lori wanted to question. The plan to death and have it die on the vine. McClure’s team was so good last night and heard the employees. They are giving money to front line workers, looking to help recruit new people to the home and trying to keep Gracedale viable post pandemic. I can’t believe that Lori joined those that wanted to push the home off a cliff.
This whole country is going nuts. Who is going to pay for all these programs. I want to help by paying my fair share but when is someone going to address what is truly my fair share? Help. I'm drowning in national debt and I can't get up. I'm 80 years ole living on a fixed income and my COLA'S for social security don't even come close to keeping up with the soaring rates for meats, gas, etc. Block up the tax loopholes and have everyone pay the same taxes (15% sounds about right). Look at all the people we could take off the government payroll when we implement a flat tax. Enough is enough already. Someone is going to pay for all these millions the FEDS are spending. Bend over and grab your ankles, It's coming.
God Bless Lamont!
Do the right thing! I applaud our county Executive for his leadership on this critical core function of local government. Money well spent from the Federal coffers. He has distributed the pandemic funds fairly and I'm sure that was not an easy task. Lamont may have his faults but he hit a home run with this initiative.
Executive for the people??!! Wow!! Talk about living under a rock. He is not liked by many county workers. You need a reality check
This “executive” and his administration is laughable. Going to sit back and watch this blow up in his face…
" I applaud our county Executive for his leadership on this critical core function of local government."
A nursing home is not a core function of local government.
"Lori could have worked with McClure to usher this in. Now it’s just Council passes McClure’s plan. This should be a lesson learned for Lori. Lamont still has wild public support and is an executive for the people. She needs to now support the adults in the room. She looked so petty last night."
I'll disagree with this smear on Lori Vargo Heffner from the McClure camp. She voted for the plan, with some tweaks here and there. She did her job as a member of Council by questioning a major expenditure of county funds and making it a bit better. Instead of $2,500 bonuses for two years, it is $2,500 for four years. That is thanks to her, Tom Giovanni, John Cusick and John Goffredo. She wants to review the agency funding again in a few months to see if more $ is needed, though it will be.
They did their jobs.
I believe the events over the past few days have shed a real insight into each Council member and I intend to do my best in shedding some light on each of them.
Council is not supposed to be the Exec's rubber stamp.
McClure had an innovative plan, but Council made it better by pressing the pause button two weeks ago. While I think the bonus $ and agency funding was needed quickly, there was no rush on anything else.
I do understand taking the bonuses away from the Admin and the Director and Ass't Director of Nursing. I would have instead tied their bonuses to Gracedale's star rating. Right now it is a two-star or below average home. I'd give the top people bonuses if they can raise the star rating.
Then stop voting against your own interest and stop voting Republican because they are NOT on your side. They work for the corporations and billionaires.
Republicans just voted against gas gouging and the ability to help families get baby formula faster!
FUCK Republicans.
"Actually Council passed a 14.5 million plan. $1.5 million was cut."
They approved $14 million of a $15.5 million plan last night. So we both fail math, lol.
I am sure that they will approve the remaining $1.5 million as well. Steve Barron told Council that the county is burning $ bringing in agency nurses. He'll need the rest of that $ very soon.
I couldn’t agree more
The bottom line is that the County should NOT be in the Senior care business. This will only temporarily cover up the issues going on there. In a few years when things are back to normal we will hear about this money pit. So, in my opinion the 15 million dollars can be spend more wisely somewhere else. It will take a County Executive and a county council that has the balls to sell it to fix the problem. Mark my words...
Are NC employee not taxpayers too? this talk of using taxpayer dollars... tax dollars are already going towards day care for people who needs assistance; subsidized childcare under TANF.
I can understand your praise for Lamont up to a point. The council and Administration is finally doing something about the wages at Gracedale but what about us in the rest of the County. Some of that money could easily have been directed to repairing some of our Bridges, imoroving our parks, and preserving open space, and addressing the next to poverty wages we are paid as the "greatest asset the County has". As long as you keep praising McClure and this rubber stamp council, nothing will ever be done for the front line workers at the Courthouse. We need help and we need it now. Look at the turnover rate at the courthouse. It speaks for itself. Does the County do an "exit conference when someone leaves? I'd like to see some of those replies.
Why should county tax payers pay for a daycare that can only be used by employees? This makes no sense. Where in the future budget will money come from for operational uses? Do city taxes pay for a daycare at city halls just for city employees?
I needed a good laugh. Thanks for that
Get rid and of the administration, including the administrative secretary, Amy Kahler, who walks around thinking she is everyone’s boss, and maybe you wouldn’t have staffing issues and can retain what little employees you have left. Otherwise, this won’t solve anything
@11:36
Let’s cap the pay of the EXECUTIVES at Gracedale to 2 x the lowest paid employee. Then you will see how everyone would be paid better throughout the organization. Also, all bonuses will be prorated through your job function and passed to everyone as a year end bonus depending on the rating of the nursing home. Time for change…..
Explain to me again how this helps anyone or anything. You have the same failing facility with the same disastrous administration still in charge overseen by the same clueless county executive. This “bandaid” on a “gaping” wound does nothing to help. There will be no successful daycare (anyone check for asbestos lately) because that is not what will bring Gracedale to the staffing it needs. $2500 bonuses will work for awhile but the facility will continue to license over 200 beds in “the hopes that they might be filled”but will never get there because of the toxic work environment.
Who is buying this anymore? At the end of the investment, Gracedale will be forced to close or be sold due to noncompliance with staffing or CMS guidelines for those 2 bedrooms. McClure knows this and doesn’t care since by then he’ll be on his way out to another job and or to a county pension. You’ve all been fooled again!
The problems at Gracedale can't be fixed by short term bonuses and day care. It makes them appear to be trying to save the home but it honestly won't be effective. And they know that. No one wants to be the person who sells the home. But apparently they aren't competent to run a home and know what it takes to succeed for the long term. So let's appear we care by wasting 15 million dollars and when it fails the blame is not on them. But it will be to those that understand the executive and the council did nothing to make it succeed. Still no plan and 15million gone. If you cared about the residents you'd care about the environment they live in which is less than pleasant. It you really cared about the employees you'd want the home to be there for them in the future. They simply don't care. Lehigh county cares!!
Bernie, you deserve some of the blame. For years you have made a saint out of your boy McClure. You damned any council members, except Cusick, who questioned him or his plans. Now you damn county council members for trying to save Gracedale. Is it because you are one of the original dump Gracedale people?
I watched both meetings and I think That most of Council did a good job. Of course, Zirinski just babbled on and on reading her McClure script and Lott is a sure McClure vote on anything. The others all asked good questions and voiced concerns. It was clear the overarching sentiment was to help the home and therefore the residents. McClure was as usual his arrogant and stubborn self and argued rather than deal with concerns. He is the original my way or the highway Executive. He is no leader. You helped create him, so take a bow.
Gracedale is still important to many families and I give county council a big plus for all their efforts even if I did not agree with all their comments. It is clear in these posts that the dump Gracedale people are still alive and vocal. You however will pick winners and losers based on your feelings. Just remember, you constantly tell us that McClure is a great Executive.
It's a riot watching Democrats flail at solutions to a problem that is exclusively their creation. Gracedale always ran better under Republicans. A Democrat once tried to sell the place. Now, we have more bailing wire and duct tape from another Democrat who's broken records with his abominable, deadly mismanagement. He considered the elderly our most precious asset - right before presiding over one of the most tragic culling of elderly ever executed by government in this country. I hear Lamont lives comfortably in a nice house, though. All of his supporters and the families of those who died in Gracedale - alone, without family by their sides, many with no funerals - should be comforted by that. Thanks Lamont. I doubt you're going to get a canonization column from Bernie after you croak. But the guy who just did was the only executive in county history who actually tried to sell Gracedale. There's always hope ....
We rather you go screw yourself. Nice language
This. Perfectly said. McClure is just kicking the can down the street with an infusion of money that could be used for other county projects.
I voted to sell Gracedale but the other side won. I thought ok, the people have spoken I hope it works out. I had a feeling that this was going to happen and now Gracedale is nothing more than a money pit. Government should be involved in fixing roads and bridges, running jails, investigating child abuse, taking care of our parks, and enforcing the law..........not running nursing homes! At least not on the county level. Think of what we could have done with all this federal government money given to us that was borrowed from our children to bail out all these poorly run states. It's all going to be wasted and the end result will be that closure of the nursing home anyway.
Hey all of you complaining about the 15.5 millions just take a step back and think about the business welfare LVEDC and others has put out to business in the region. It is probably 100's of millions if you accumulate the annualized the give a ways that have lasted for 5, 10 years and longer.
Heck LVEDC is given millions of dollars a year out of the hospitality taxes which could go to other things too.
And many other organizations in the valley that I will not call out because .........
If you are fighting to stop one stop it all. or quit your crying because this again is the world we live in today. Full of hypocritical morons that don't think or understand any further then the tv news they watch or social media liars they entrust to forming their lives. It is all about themselves and their petty perspective. Screw the rest of the world if they get their own way.
Lynch makes more sense than any politician and you to Bernie.
Wish the administration cared about other NC employees as much as they do about Gracedale. Creating positions tailored for people with no experience, hiring family members without posting open positions, renaming/reclassifying jobs in order to cover the salaries of those newly created positions. Paid below other counties, cannot advance unless you know the right people, and aren't even appreciated for still showing up day after day.
8:57 PM May 21..............If you can prove anything that you wrote, please put it in writing and this issue will definitely be looked into. If anyone violated the hiring practices of the county, they have put their job in jeopardy. Report it here. You don't have to sign your name. Any member of Council or The Administration who knowingly and willfully violates the Rules of the County will forfeit their job.
Perception and reality are two different things. I remember when that Bastard, Jim Hickey, was Director of Admin. A rather attractive woman was promoted to a managerial position over someone who had more seniority. Throughout the courthouse, the rumor was that she got the job in exchange for sexual favors.
I confronted Hickey over this.
"TaKe a close look at me," he said as he was smoking three cigarettes simultaneously while talking on four cellphones as an occasional monkey flew out his ass.
"Do you honestly think someone who looks as good as her would in a million years want anything to do with me, even if it meant more money?"
"Point taken."
How many NC employees (all buildings) left, either by quitting or retiring during McClure's reign vs. Brown's reign? Any idea Bernie?
The idea of a "bonus" will be a failure. When a bonus is paid more than a couple times, it will be expected, and spent regardless of how many years it has been budgeted for. That bonus is about 1.25/hour. Put it in the wage. That is the only way.
As for the daycare, you are opening pandoras box. Once one group of employees gets it, everyone will have their me me me hands out. You will be setting a precident. A daycare is also a liability for the tax payers.
Gracedale needs to be sold to a party who knows how to manage it.
This has been happening under the current administration for years. And the union backs them up. What could you possibly do?? Countless employees have tried to tell council this administration is NO GOOD!! They lie, threaten staff and management, cover up for each other and terminate employees for no good reason, while others they turn the other cheek. This has happened numerous times. As soon as you cause waves and question admin, you automatically get a target on your back. This is why they cannot retain staff or hire any. Why work where you continuously have to look over your shoulder, walk on egg shells or be afraid to speak up. GET RID OF THE ADMINISTRATION!!!!!
It doesn't have to do with how people look, it has to do with what a person is willing to do to move ahead. Some people will do anything to advance, even demean themselves or lower their standards.
"How many NC employees (all buildings) left, either by quitting or retiring during McClure's reign vs. Brown's reign? Any idea Bernie?"
I know for a fact that a record was set under Brown. I have not looked at things under McClure, but know that 40 Gracedale workers quit instead of taking the federally mandated vaccine. Since that was something over which McClure had no control, I think it would be unfair to make a comparison.
@10:22 or lie, cheat, steal, threaten are other things which people in politics re willing to do
Bernie, it’s more than fair to say McClure’s numbers are WAY higher when it comes to employees abandoning ship under his tenure. Go on the county website and you can see for yourself how many job openings are available. And it has nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with him and his “administration”. Take the blinders off
Once again. why is no one actually talking about this main point. We are putting the carriage in front of the horses. This all means nothing if the unions at gracedale dont take what Lamont and chuckie are offering them in the new CBA. No negotiations no talk . Here it is take it or you will get none of it .
So why are we doing all this. Wait until the new CBA is signed. Because this is a way to make chuckie and his buddy look like heroes. A union deal gets done. If they don't sign the union deal then the union looks greedy.
And we all know how those two tubby negotiate. He it is take it or arbitration.
No good faith meetings no talks.
It's a win ,win for chucky, and Lamont.
Why doesn't a council member ask why this is all contingent on a new CBA being signed.
Because its chuckie and giving you something in one hand and stealing it in the other.
Grow a set Bernie and all the other council members as him. Tell him make this happen before the CBA is signed. it's all about leverage. Its pressure he can put on the union and doesn't cost him a penny.
What about the exemptions the county failed to grant? Not even to one person.
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