HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-07 CCU 11441
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CCU U I UCUS Volume 16
Number 7
A Joyful "Good Luck" to Meg Garvey!
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Meg is leaving the Mental Health Clinic after twelve years of service as a Psychiatric
Social Worker. She'll be working in the counseling department at TC3 with an eye
toward teaching!
"I have been involved in individual and group therapy, emergency outreach services,
and the Critical Incident Negotiations Team. The loves of my life are critters
(particularly her dog Moto), the outdoors, campfires and singing around them, the
ocean, and a tremendous group of colleagues, the best friends in the world."
"Ditto to you Meg" your friends at Mental Health
REPORT
WI ^mom
FROM
THE COUNTY
S
ADMINISTRATOR ,
I- Alt
By Stephen Whicher
r
Record - Setting Budget Woes
It appears that the 2003 budget challenges were just a warm -up for the 2004 budget process. For 2004, the
increased costs of mandated programs combined with department over - target requests (OTRs), and estimated
costs for capital programs, exceed $14 million in new spending and would amount to a nearly 47% increase in
the tax rate.
The majority of the sharp increase in mandates ($4.4 million) is attributable to increases in Medicaid local share
costs and doubling of the costs for the Assigned Counsel program. Capital OTRs amount to nearly $4 million
dollars, with the Public Safety Communications System project being the largest proposed program. Unlike the
mandated programs, the capital programs have a certain degree of flexibility both in timing and financing.
Department OTRs exceed $6 million. The requests, sorted by committee, include:
• Consumer and Community Affairs — $525,595, a 16.5% increase over 2003;
• Health and Human Services — $1,087,911, a 16.8% increase;
• Public Safety — $2,506,441, a 39.3% increase;
• Planning, Development and Environmental Quality — $33,727, a 6% increase;
• Facilities and Infrastructure — $1,460,742, a 19.9% increase, and;
• Government Operations — $473,047, a 14.3 % increase.
Many factors have contributed to this perfect storm, including the State's continued campaign to reduce
individual tax rates, which has resulted in a sharp increase in real property taxes statewide, especially in upstate
New York. The consequences of the September 11 disaster, a general recession, and last year's collapse of the
stock market have exacerbated the situation. A direct result for departments has shown up in the increase in the
fringe rate from 28% to 39% and in reduced state aid.
The biggest difficulty we face this year is the increased cost of mandated programs. In addition, some capital
costs cannot be deferred. Thus, simply to achieve a 20% tax rate increase, more revenues must be developed
and/or $7 million in program and proposed capital costs must be removed from the requested budget.
Please remember that, while the situation is very serious, we are just at the beginning of a long process that will
have many yet unknown twists and turns. While I will not promise what I cannot deliver, I will promise you
that throughout the process we will do our best to keep you informed as the good and the bad news develops.
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Katie Prince (Health Dept. /center of photo) and two of her children, enjoying the
Statue of Liberty during the County bus trip to New York City on May 3 "
Vending Committee contacts needed
Submitted by Judy DeGrusso, Mental Health Dept.
With the departure of Meegan Teeter from the Purchasing Department, there will no
longer be a central contact for dealing with complaints and problems with the vending
machines in County facilities. The Vending Committee discussed this with our vendor
(Aramark) and decided that the best way to approach this is to have one person from
each facility with vending machines be the contact for employees experiencing
problems /trouble with the machines. It would be appreciated if this person also
becomes a member of the Vending Committee and attends monthly meetings in the
Mental Health building (second Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.). Committee members are kept
up -to -date on any changes in service, vending promotions, or requests for equipment, in
addition to planning county trips. Please contact John Davis (Highway Dept.), Judy
DeGrusso (Mental Health), Patty Stamm (Health Dept.), Lori Parker, or Donna Shaw
(Comptroller's Office) if you are interested. WHO I5 REPRESENTING YOUR
BUILDING?
3
,..
.,F Time to Roll Up Your Sleeve
and Donate!!
Cy.. ----aft Submitted by Cheryl Nelson
Yes, it's that time again! It's time for the Tompkins County employee- sponsored blood drive. This year's blood drive
will be held on Thursday, August 14th, 9:00 AM through 3:00 PM in the Library's Borg Warner Room. All
employees, their family members, and friends are encouraged to participate in this event.
Every minute of every clay, 38 units of blood or blood products are transfused in the United States. One unit of blood
may be separated into two or more components so that a single unit donation can help several individuals in need. Each
day, 1,200 people must volunteer to give blood in order to supply the 142 hospitals in the New York and Pennsylvania
Region.
Employees in each building have volunteered to serve as "building contacts ". These individuals will be contacting all of
the employees in that building and assisting the employees that will be donating with setting up donation times. If you
want to donate blood but you will be unavailable to donate on August 14th, you can contact the Red Cross at their
website address (www.Tompkins - redcross.org) to find other blood drive dates and times in Tompkins County.
Registration and canteen workers are also needed at this blood drive. If you are someone that is unable to donate blood
for whatever reason, maybe you would be interested in offering to assist for a one -hour shift for either of these other
duties. If so, please let your building contact know that you are interested and what time would work best for you.
Remember, if you are donating or volunteering with registration or canteen duties, you must get approval from your
supervisor. Donating takes about one hour, and canteen and registration duties are assigned in one -hour blocks.
So, please do your part and donate or volunteer if you can. This is the fourth annual Tompkins County employee -
sponsored blood drive. Every year, the donations collected come from first -time donors all the way to seasoned veterans.
The demand on a healthy and ample blood supply is always high, but even higher in the summer months. Your help with
keeping an adequate blood supply available will be greatly appreciated!
2001 F1mnlniiee.
P /
2003 Employee f
Golf Tournament
Circle your Calendar for the
9th Annual Tompkins Employee Golf Tournament
Friday, September 5, 2003.
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PLOYEE PROP j L
_" _ INNIL
(.
a Becky Kafka, Administrative Assistant
1 Mental Health Department
4 Years of Service: 21
1 Brief Job Summary: Manage the Billing Department to ensure proper billing of client services to
various payors. Meet with clients to gather billing information and set fee. Maintain department
4 statistics for budgeting and planning. Basically I'm responsible for the smooth running of the Mental
4 Health Billing Department and all that that entails.
4 Additional Comments: I started when I was just a teenager as a Stenographer for M.H.
4 Administration. After about five years I was then promoted to Senior Typist in the M.H. Clinic billing
office. A couple years later I was promoted to Administrative Assistant and have held that position for
fourteen years. I am fortunate to work with nice people, which make my life here at the Mental Health
4 Department a great place to work.
1 Personal Interests/Hobbies/Family: Main interest is my family. Married for 19 years and have three
4 children (two are teenagers) need I say more. I am kept pretty busy going to volleyball, soccer, and
softball games. Look forward to summers where we take the RV to a campsite near Raquette Lake (its
1 so peaceful and relaxing). We lounge on the beach, swim, go boating, fishing, etc. I read books, watch
movies, clean house, walk. I'm t r y i n g to make sure I get those 10,000 steps in! ! !
1
Submitted by Asher Hockett
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1 _
CLASSIFIEDS For more information, please call Judy Voorheis @ 274-
5266.
Wanted: I 1 Welcome:
WANTED: Do you have one or more phones (corded or • Kerseinya Wentworth, Psychiatric Social Worker,
cordless) that you no longer need? Also, wires that Mental Health Department
connect the phones to the wall outlets along with the
phones would also be appreciated. Adult Protective
Services can use them for their clients. Contact Louise
Tomei at DSS - 274 -5275. (No cell phones please). CLASSIFIEDS
Services: I Classified ads up to 25 words in length are free to County
employees, retirees and their immediate families. Ads may
Tioga Technical - Don't kill your computer! Let me help be for any purpose, however personal ads will not be
with troubleshooting, training, upgrades - whatever it takes accepted. No County addresses or telephone numbers
to get you and your computer working together again. Call may be listed in your ad, however, we do need your full
James Keegan at 273 -7957 evenings or weekends. name and County telephone number submitted with the
ad in case there are questions. Submit your ad to County
Tense? Stressed? Achy? Therapeutic Massage can put Corridors c/o Michelle Pottorff, Tompkins County
relaxation and comfort back into your life. For an Legislature, Courthouse, Ithaca, NY 14850 via US or
appointment or information call Richard Reed at 753- interdepartmental mail or e-mail to: mpottorff@tompkins-
6383.
co.org
Kinetic Performance — Custom racing carburetors parts,
NOTE:
and racing fabrication. Call Dayton or Margo Umholtz at If you would like to modify your classified or want to
277 - 6462 evenings /wknds or email run it again, you must re submit it!
KineticPerformance @theDirtforum.com or visit our
website: www.KineticPerformance.net DEADLINE: 1. TUESDAY OF THE MONTH
French Tutor — Call Sarah at 257 -3047. Please leave a Articles to be considered for the August 21S issue, must
message. be received by noon on Tuesday, August 5 Submit
articles via e-mail as an attachment or on disk in any file
Goosa Arts - See our beautiful and affordable traditional format that is readable by Word for Windows '95. Send
Russian arts: nesting dolls, eggs, jewelry boxes, amber, disk and hard copy to County Corridors c/o Michelle
etc. Alisa Mengel, 277 -2917, hours by appointment, 120 Pottorff, Tompkins County Legislature, Courthouse,
Linn St. Ithaca, NY 14850. Please include a contact number in case
questions arise.
Foster Care /Adoption Informational
Meetings
Submitted by Ellie Arnold, DSS COUNTY CORRIDORS
Articles and opinion pieces for County Corridors are
To anyone who may be considering becoming a foster selected by the Editorial Board based on their
parent or adoptive parent and wants ore information.
interest to Tompkins County employees and retirees.
WHERE: They do not necessarily express the opinions of the
Human Services Building, Room 142 Editorial Board. Material is solicited from current
employees, retirees and others. The Editorial Board
WHEN: reserves the right to edit submissions, except in the
August 14 instance of copyright materials.
September 11
October 9 EDITORIAL BOARD
November 13
December 11 Michelle Pottorff (Editor) TC Legislature
Iretta Ellis (Chair) Information Technology Services
TIME: Liz Croop Department of Mental Health
NOON TO 1 P.M. Katy Prince Health Department
Linnett Warner Solid Waste Division
Geri Lockwood Highway
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