VENTURA COUNTY ROUNDUP : Countywide : Data on Worker Morale Not Released

Responses to a survey on employee morale in the county’s Behavioral Health Department have been received, but union officials on Wednesday declined to release the results.

The survey was sent to 500 workers after Service Employees International Union, Local 998, received several calls from employees concerned about the potential effects of recent organizational changes.

Union leaders did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment on the results of the questionnaire. But sources in the Behavioral Health Department said the union is disappointed by the low response rate, about 20%.

Those who did respond told of their deep mistrust of the current Behavioral Health administration and said they are fearful that many jobs will be cut if the mental health agency loses millions of dollars in government funding, the sources said.

Their concerns are based on a sweeping reorganization ordered by Behavioral Health Director David Gudeman. In recent months, dozens of mid-level managers have been reassigned to new duties, action Gudeman has said is necessary to bring the department into compliance with federal health care billing rules.

But many mental health employees feel Gudeman is carrying out orders from his boss, Health Care Agency Director Pierre Durand, to consolidate Durand’s authority over the troubled mental health unit. Many other managers and supervisors of mental health clinics have resigned.

Gudeman and Durand have said changes are necessary to respond to U.S. Department of Justice allegations that the county has improperly billed the Medicare health care program for nearly a decade. County supervisors have agreed to repay $15.3 million to settle a federal lawsuit involving those claims.