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Guest Commentary by Billy Golfus Page 5
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, iskould not hesitate. moment to prefer the latter ." - Thomas Jefferson
Access Press DHS Taken To Task PCATask Force - A DHS Set-Up? 'k'a 1 1
The bad news is that Bill Smith, Jr.- businessman, publisher, collector, jazz fan and legitimate 20th century renaissanceman-is nolonger here.
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I!eeting of thk6f!b-hg CommitteeoftheDepartment of Human Sem ices (DHS) Home Care Task Force, one
~ u r i n ~ l a s t ~ e session a r ' s the Legislature changed the PCA program effectiveJuly 1,1996 to cut off persons who cannot
The Department also did not give the Steeriq&et.ft@iz - -. a written state+enf regadmg the actual expenditures for
todothedevil'sownwork-to
quently provided to persons who cannot direct thkir own care, and to reduce the maximumnumberofhoursof PCA %ry&which couldbe authorized formost recipients. The Task Force was established to come up with proposals which would reduce the growth projected by the Department to no more than five percent over projected expenditures for 1995.
Department did not explain why actual expenses for tjx program apparently went' down but the estimated number of participants went up. Despite repeated requests for solid information about PCA costs and the number of persons actually receiving PCA service, Marge Brchan could only stateto the SteeringCommittee that the information provided to the Task Force and to the Legislature was "a multi-disciplinary, continuously refined data analysis effort" which was based upon "professional judgment". Such gobbledygook was not what the Task Force members were seeking. Rather, they wanted, but did not get, clear answersto specificquestions. For example, were recipients of waivered services excluded in the 1993 reports, and included in 1995? Or has there been some other change in the method of counting total PCA participants?
find another way to slash the PCA program. To some extsnt, the Task Force-&&jW &at., The Task Fom* .lapy 5 S~4-i pr&sa~~ for an alternatid menu of PCA services, but in circumstances in which the total amount ofservice hoursavailable would be reduced. This barebones proposal is not likely to be implementedthis coming Summer, for there are details to be worked out which could not be done in the Task Force committee process.
by Michael Sheehan Good news and bad news.
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complete by Bridget's birth in 1959.
With the need for Charlie to redirect his energiesand learn new skills, Bill, Renee, Bill 111, Charlie and Bridget headed west, to the hills of Prospect Park. There, in what might be described as a turnof-the-century New Orleans Victorian home, the family met their new life on their own terms.
In 1960, their hospitable natures lured Bill and Renee into the hospitality industry, with their acquisition of the elegant old Afton House in the scenicSt. Croix Valley. After The good news is that he was. taking up residence in the town, they became ex-officio Bill, co-founder and publish- host and hostess for the boater of Access Press, passed ing community and country Bill brought his considerable away last week of a sudden squireswho inhabitedthe val- managerial and people skills cerebral aneurysm. ley, interrupting the rhythms to the banking industry, soon of river living with the occa- becoming vice-presidentof St. Bom in Minneapolis in 1927, sional sound ofthe slidetrom- Paul's Hillcrest State Bank. he attended Marshall High bone as they provided a new He stayed until the bank was School and graduated from home base for one of their acquired by amulti-bankholdthe University of Minnesota mutual passions, the New ing company. With the with a major in mathematics Orleans Jazz Band. "hometown bank" human flaand a minor in geology. He vor diminished in favor of began his career... In 1948,he In 1967, however, life was to thin budgets and fat bottom married his high school sweet- take the Smith family in a lines, Bill threw caution- some heart, Renee, and in 1949they different direction. One sum- said sanity - to the winds and had their first son, W. A. mer's day while visiting his opened his own financial conSmith, Ill. Charlie arrived in grandparents, Charlie broke sulting business and Smith 1953and the family was made his neck. W m Smith - cont. on p. 6
The Task Force also approved, over the objection of some members of the Steering Committee, a proposal for up to a seven percent across the board cut in PCA hours if needed to make the required fiscal target for a cut in the PCA program expansion. This recommendation was initially proposed by the Task Force's Fiscal Subcommittee and approved by a majority of the Steering Committee as a flat seven percent cut in the PCA program, if the altemative program was not up and running by July 1, 1995. At the last meeting of the Steering Committee, the proposal was changed to "up to" seven percent and to "last resort" - if other alternatives to reduce the PCA program were not effective in meeting the "fiscal target", then the Task Force was supposed to meet.
The Department of Human Services actually made the work of the Task Force more difficult than it needed to be. For one thing nobody from the Department could give a straight answer to the question of what the fiscal target was for this five percent reduction. At an early meeting of the Task Force, George Hoffinan, the Department person who makes these Medical Assistance projections, said he did not know how this target was to be calculated. Marge Brchan, the Director of the DHS Home and Community Services Division, could not articulate at any of the meetings what the actual fiscal target was. The minutes of an early meeting ofthe Task Force SteeringCommittee said that savings of $19 million or $1 3 million have to be found. It was not until after the meeting of the Steering Committee that the Department stated in writing that the target was then figured to be $1 I million.
The Steering Committee, at its last meeting, did vote to recommend that the legislature repeal the changes that are slated for July I, 1996. In the text of the Task Force Report, however, this recommendation is stated only in two sentences in the introduction to the numbered, and therefore high lighted, recommendationsoftheSteering Committee. The Report does not point out that these
Task - cont. on p. 7