State Personnel Board Rules Against UAPD on Atascadero; UAPD Plans Appeal
Last year UAPD filed charges with the California State Personnel Board (SPB) over the contracting out of psychiatric services at the Department of Mental Health’s (DMH) Atascadero State Hospital facility. In 2007 DMH signed agreements with six contractors, offering them a total of $33,420,320 to provide psychiatrists to staff the facility. Under a Government Code, DMH is allowed to use contractors to perform work only under specific circumstances, which UAPD believes have not been met.
On February 4th the SPB’s Executive Officer ruled against us, claiming that DMH was justified in signing contracts because it was “unable to successfully hire suitable candidates” after having made “reasonable, good faith efforts to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified civil service employees to meet its staffing needs.” DMH markets its open positions in trade publications and on the internet, attends recruiting conferences, and uses a hiring agency. These acts were considered by SPB to constitute a good faith effort to hire civil servants.
UAPD is disappointed that the Executive Officer was not persuaded by our logical and commonsense argument –that no amount of marketing will fill civil service positions as long as the salaries are not high enough to attract qualified candidates. The Executive Officer did acknowledge our point that “even the most aggressive recruitment efforts are futile if the state refuses to pay market-based salary.” But then the Executive Officer claimed that UAPD’s argument “that low wages negatively impacted recruitment and retention…is only an unproven theory.” Through its attorneys, the UAPD will immediately appeal the ruling to the full State Personnel Board. We will continue to gather evidence of the obvious relationship between wages and recruitment.
Doctors know why Atascadero State Hospital cannot fill its open positions: even after the recent raises, the salaries at ASH are not high enough to attract a sufficient number of qualified psychiatrists. Only by increasing the salaries of a dedicated, full-time, civil service workforce--rather than paying over $200 an hour to outside contractors—will ASH solve its staffing crisis and ultimately save tax-payers money. This disastrous mismanagement of a state facility must be rectified quickly, either through a reversal of the SPB’s decision or in our next contract negotiations, which begin in April. Stay tuned.