Union Puts Morale to Test With a Survey

Spurred by fears of job losses, county government’s largest labor union is surveying Behavioral Health Department employees to gauge what some say is plummeting worker morale in the wake of financial scandals and a management shake-up.

Union officials recently distributed questionnaires to 450 Behavioral Health employees--partly in response to workers’ concerns about potential harassment and retaliation by a new mental-health administration, union deputy director Ellyn Dembowski said Monday.

But employees also fear that administrators are drawing up layoff plans in anticipation of the loss of millions in annual mental-health funding, including $5.4 million the county agency receives each year from the state Department of Mental Health.

Union officials played down those concerns, however, saying they have been assured by Mental Health Director David Gudeman that no layoff proposal is in the works. Gudeman and his boss, Health Care Agency Director Pierre Durand, are working hard to bring about changes that they hope will stave off a catastrophic loss in funding, Dembowski said.

The union, Service Employees International Union Local 998, expects to collect about 100 completed surveys this week and will tabulate responses in coming weeks, Dembowksi said. The survey asks about fear of job losses, whether concerns are “based on facts or fueled by rumors” and what can be done to improve relations in the department.

“We want to know if that fear is pervasive in all employee groups or if it is just a small group of people,” Dembowski said.

Half a dozen investigations by state and federal regulators into problems in the Behavioral Health Department were spurred by the Board of Supervisors’ decision last year to merge the county’s mental-health and social services agencies.

The board rescinded the decision after federal regulators said it violated Medicare billing guidelines. But the county is still dealing with the fallout from other problems uncovered by the merger.

Supervisors agreed this summer to repay $15.3 million in improperly billed Medicare claims alleged in a federal lawsuit by the Department of Justice. And since July, 34 of the county’s mental-health and medical clinics have received reduced Medicare funding as a result of another probe.

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Health Care Agency administrators have refused repeated requests by The Times to detail how much revenue the county will lose each year. But some officials estimate the amount at $2 million.

Perhaps the most ominous review for the mental-health department is one underway by the state Department of Mental Health.

State regulators have tentatively found that Ventura County’s mental-health agency is no longer a leader in the delivery of mental-health services and, unless improvements are made, will not be entitled to $5.4 million a year in special funding.

A loss of that magnitude--10% of Behavioral Health’s $50-million budget--would almost certainly require tough decisions about reductions in mental-health programs and staff, county administrators privately concede.

But so far no official is willing to publicly speculate how widespread the job losses would be. Financial worries come on top of a massive reorganization of the Behavioral Health Department.

Kaplan was ousted after the merger’s failure. In the past nine months, other top- and middle-level managers have been reshuffled. The result is an administration that includes several psychiatrists who opposed the merger--including Gudeman, who was appointed director in June.

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Gudeman, who could not be reached for comment, has told employees that it was necessary to install doctors in administrative positions to meet strict Medicare billing rules that call for physician oversight of mental-health services.

But many mental-health employees believe the doctors were elevated because their opposition to the merger aligned them with Durand.

Some employees fear that their loyalty to Kaplan’s administration puts their jobs at risk. And the fear of layoffs magnifies those concerns, said Jim Otteson, a psychologist.

“There is a general feeling of fear and mistrust because of all that has happened,” Otteson said.

But union leaders say allegations of unfair worker treatment appear unfounded.

“There has not been one case of retaliation or harassment to a rank-and-file employee,” said Scott VanderZee, a union steward who works in the mental-health agency. “I just haven’t heard it. But people nonetheless are fearful.”

Dembowksi said the overriding message in the surveys she has received is that lower-level employees believe they are not being adequately informed about the many changes underway.

“They want some more communication,” she said. “Then they will feel more in control of their destiny.”