Audio Hiring freeze, cuts mean tough time for Hennepin County workers (story audio) Photos Darlene Lanning Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

	E-mail this page			Print this page

Hiring freeze, cuts mean tough time for Hennepin County workers
by Art Hughes, Minnesota Public Radio
November 14, 2003

Darlene Lanning, a foster care licenser for Hennepin County, says budget cuts are causing a backlog of services for vulnerable people. The average caseload has nearly doubled for some licensers in the past year. (MPR Photo/Art Hughes)

Hennepin County officials expect another overflow crowd for a hearing on funding cuts to many social service providers Friday. It's the third such hearing as the county wrestles with budget cuts brought on by reductions in state funding. The cuts in Hennepin's Human Services division is also taking it's toll on county employees. Officials expect to eliminate 114 positions in the division this January. About half those jobs are currently filled. One small group of Hennepin County social workers has stopped taking new clients because of their work load.

Minneapolis, Minn. — As a foster care licenser for Hennepin County, Darlene Lanning's job seems equal parts office clerk, therapist, matchmaker and detective. She walks potential new foster care-givers through the intricate process of getting licensed. She counsels others facing clients' allegations of abuse or neglect. She also keeps track of people and facilities whose histories fill manila folders three inches thick.

The providers are people willing to take in and care for adults with mental illness, developmental disabilities or brain injuries. There are some 900 such residents in foster care in the county.

This time last year, Lanning was one of eight full-time employees and one part-timer in her unit. Now the number of workers is down to five, and a hiring freeze keeps the positions unfilled.

Lanning said in her 34 years in social services, she's never seen this level of stress among her coworkers.

"It reminds me of the spinning plates," Lanning said. "You know, where you trying to keep all these plates spinning, and you're running back to the first one and starting over again. And the line of plates just seems to be getting longer now."

We've cut staff, we've cut dollars, but so far we haven't heard what work we're not going to do anymore. - Supervisor Kathleen Hartmann

The average caseload has nearly doubled for some licensers in the past year, according to unit supervisor Kathleen Hartmann.

"OK, we've cut staff, we've cut dollars, but so far we haven't heard what work we're not going to do anymore," Hartmann said. "We just have fewer resources, but somehow the inexplicit expectation is that we'll keep doing what we've been doing -- and it's impossible."

Right now, the county can't issue any new licenses because there's no one available to work them. Hartmann says requests for new licenses will continue to stack up until she can hire and train new staff.

Licensed providers are typically homier, less costly alternatives to nursing homes or similar, larger institutions. The job requires a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week committment, for a base compensation of $680.

While inspecting a foster home in Plymouth, Lanning gently prods two mentally ill residents with questions to assess how they're doing. Provider Lisa Casto said she and a friend, who's also a foster provider, welcome Lanning's expertise.

"We were talking about the fact that if it weren't for you, probably neither she nor I would be doing this," Casto told Lanning. "It is you that made it so appealing."

Casto grimaces when Lanning tells her the staff cuts will mean fewer visits. That also concerns Lanning, who said the personal contact is one of her main rewards.

"The logical thing to do is do fewer visits, and do more of the mandatory paper stuff that you have to get done on them," Lanning said. "That would really make it more of a paper-pushing job, and the joy would be gone."

Lanning said she mostly fears the network of support is heading for a breakdown. She said it will be harder for people to find help for a disabled loved one.

"Right now the general population doesn't see the fallout from this. They say, 'Oh well, so we tighten our belts and do more with less,' and all the cliches," said Lanning. "But I think you close shelters, you do some of this stuff -- people do not disappear. And it will be more visible. Right now I don't think it is for a lot of people. They say, 'Budget cuts don't bother me at all, it's not affecting me.' It will."

Hennepin County officials are on track to cut $41 million from the Human Services Division in the 2004 budget. And they're preparing for an equally difficult reduction a year from now.

News Headlines

Related Subjects