Letter to the editor

Register-Star
Published Mar. 25, 2009
To the Editor:

The Columbia County Board of Supervisors vote and decision to move the Department of Social Services out of the City of Hudson and to Ockawamick School in rural Claverack is not only the wrong decision, but it is extremely disappointing and outrageous. As one community-based organization director said, "This decision is going to outlast every elected official's term of office..this is a bad legacy."

To add insult to injury, several Supervisors who voted in favor of the decision had the audacity to say that "they listened to the people at the public hearings, the letters and all the other comments that people raised concerning the issues, the concerns for clients and workers." If that is the case, then how is it that they could come to this decision when every single person who spoke at the public hearing at the Hudson Middle School voiced their opposition to moving this agency out of Hudson? We can't recall any letter to the editor that thought this was a good idea. n addition, several human service agencies that provide regular services to DSS recipients have indicated the importance of keeping DSS in Hudson since many recipients require the services of multiple county and non-profit organizations.

No other county in New York State has its main social services office located outside of the County seat. Nassau County once proposed a similar proposition to move its Department of Social Services outside of the county seat. Because of public outcry and further review of the impact on the recipients, the plan was abandoned. You put the services where the majority of people being served live and where other support services are located.

After the public outcry when the plan to buy the Ockawamick School was first announced and it was suggested that DSS be moved there, the Board of Supervisors back stepped. It claimed it hadn't made any final decisions as to the move. A County Workspace Evaluation Subcommittee was created and over the next few months, supposedly it evaluated all county agencies' needs and even distributed a survey to all agency heads to fill out and submit. So why are the DSS survey results one of only two agencies (the other being the County District Attorney's Office) not published on the County website? We would be very interested in seeing the responses to the questions. Repeated requests for this information have been ignored. The public has a right to see the responses.

What is on the website is interesting-and telling. In the February 18 Subcommittee minutes, Chairman Baer said, responding to a question regarding satellite office for Department of Social Services in Hudson, stated it would be "just an intake office for people that could not make it to Ockawamick or need to be seen in Hudson on an emergency basis." It was added that "all administration, major support services and case workers would be located at Ockawamick." Later in that same meeting, a Supervisor asked how many clients need services of multiple County Departments. The response he received, "That information is not available." That's not true-if you look at the responses received from other agency heads, many of them mention the overlap with DSS clients. The information is available. The Subcommittee just didn't ask for it. It's clear from these responses that the satellite office is in no way intended to be a fully functioning office. Kudos to Supervisors Betty Young, Bart Delaney and William Hughes, Jr. for calling into question the adequateness of the satellite office. One of them described this office truly what it is-"a political band-aid that would do nothing for the clients." We also appreciate the other Supervisors who voted against this resolution.

From the get-go, the impact on people receiving county social services never appeared to be a real concern of many on the Board. The original weighted criteria the Board assigned in evaluating the DSS move last summer was flawed from the beginning and was primarily focused on cost and convenience to the County and its employees and very little weight was given on the impact that this move would have on the users of these services. What we have witnessed over the last few months, when the Board supposedly looked objectively at all agencies and their appropriateness to move to Ockawamick, was a sham. Once the County bought the building, DSS's fate was sealed.

And now we have "déja vu all over again" when we see Chairman Baer's statement that "nothing has been decided and no concrete numbers are in from the developer" of the proposed Pine Haven move to Valatie. Let's not hope so-but then again, how do we really know?

Sincerely,
Meg and Katy Cashen
Claverack