A Letter to County Employees: Goodbye for Now, Love Steve
On Monday, Stevie Thunder issued a letter entitled “A Letter
to County Employees, From Steve Neuhaus”
In this missive with a central theme of discharging
county owned properties (excluding Camp LaGuardia, airports and golf courses)
Auntie and the team found some interesting items. One is that it seems roads are more important than PEOPLE in nursing homes. (And dear Nieces and Nephews, We don't still have to point out the sarcastic parts, do we?)
STEVE SAID: (excerpt from letter-comments in red, ours)
WOULD SELLING VALLEY VIEW HELP TO FIX THE BUDGET?
WOULD SELLING VALLEY VIEW HELP TO FIX THE BUDGET?
“There are
currently 10 nursing homes in Orange County.(Don't forget Dain's mid-level service) Only Valley View is subsidized by
the County. I believe it is more important to fund things like roads, (A good thing, so that when you kick the Valley View residents
to the curb, at least the road will be nice) social services to help the
poor (which the residents of VV will need when/if they are
poor AND have no home) and law enforcement, than use taxpayer’s subsidies
to compete against nine other nursing homes” (Is competition is a dirty word? I thought competition was a
good thing and that government should run like a business, which involves competition.)
The second paragraph claims that selling Valley View will save 300 county jobs. (Wow! the county workers must really dislike being used as bargaining chips by the CE! The message is obvious: SELL VALLEY VIEW OR I WILL FIRE EVERYONE!!!WAH WAH WAH!!!)
“Nor would a sale mean the end of CSEA jobs. On the
contrary. selling Valley View to a new owner would mean jobs for it's workers (That is NOT guaranteed and they would NOT be CSEA jobs- Civil Service Employees Association- in the private sector) and expanded services for our seniors" (How can you say that? You will not have any control over services offered once it is a private nursing home!)
And the CE goes on to compare Orange County to Ulster County and if they did it, we can do it blah blah blah! We wonder why he did not compare our situation to that of Rockland County. Maybe because the Rockland County Executive, Ed Day purposely make a public declaration that the two situations were NOT the same. (midhudsonnews.com). Also, the mid hudson news today tells us that in the purchaser's agreement for Summit Park, there is a provision to keep all current patients and residents who cannot be moved (...cannot be moved? What does that mean? If you can put patients and residents on a gurney, they CAN be moved?) and the purchaser, Mr Braunstein of Sympaticare LLC will consider (note: "consider") keeping the current employees, so, Steve's statement above is even more unbelievable. The DIFFERENCE between Valley View and Summit Park is that Valley View is NOT the financial drain on Orange County that Summit Park appears to have been on Rockland, which makes it difficult to understand the County Executive's sense of urgency in selling Valley View.
Unless there is something he's not telling us...
Stevie Thunder mentions in his letter that there is only $20 million left in the fund balance and repeats the $60 million deficit theme. (Remember those magic numbers that Auntie told you about: 20-40-60!)
Steve Said: "Previous county leadership drained the county's fund balance over the past three years- about $40 million a year. The "fund balance" is our county's savings account. The legislature used that "fund balance" to save county jobs.(Did they now?) Now, there is only about $20 million in it. That, along with the tax cap law, is why changes have to be made" and "The fact remains however, that Orange County faces a budget gap of approximately $60 million in 2015. The law requires me to balance our finances" (underlines ours)
ABOUT $40 Million?
ABOUT $20 Million?
APPROXIMATELY $60 Million?
Steve, don't you know?
Let's compare messages: Back in 2013, then County Executive Edward Diana, the"Previous county leadership" presented the following regarding the budget in his budget message:
Unless there is something he's not telling us...
Stevie Thunder mentions in his letter that there is only $20 million left in the fund balance and repeats the $60 million deficit theme. (Remember those magic numbers that Auntie told you about: 20-40-60!)
Steve Said: "Previous county leadership drained the county's fund balance over the past three years- about $40 million a year. The "fund balance" is our county's savings account. The legislature used that "fund balance" to save county jobs.(Did they now?) Now, there is only about $20 million in it. That, along with the tax cap law, is why changes have to be made" and "The fact remains however, that Orange County faces a budget gap of approximately $60 million in 2015. The law requires me to balance our finances" (underlines ours)
ABOUT $40 Million?
ABOUT $20 Million?
APPROXIMATELY $60 Million?
Steve, don't you know?
Let's compare messages: Back in 2013, then County Executive Edward Diana, the"Previous county leadership" presented the following regarding the budget in his budget message:
County Executive Diana presented a proposed Operating
Budget for Fiscal Year 2014 in the amount of $731million which represents a decrease of
3% from the 2013 approved budget of $756.6 million. Of this total budget, $386.2million
will be collected locally though sales and property tax. The County sales tax
rate will remain unchanged at 3 ¾% and is projected to generate approximately
$272 million in revenue, of which $200.5 million will be used to support County
programs and services. More than $71 million of the collected sales tax will be
distributed among Orange County’s municipalities to help ease their financial
burdens. (underlines ours)
Very Specific message, don't you think?
Somebody is just plain wrong. Care to wager on whom?
Very Specific message, don't you think?
Somebody is just plain wrong. Care to wager on whom?
posted by Auntie Alibi @ 8:09 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
When you say a fund balance, doesn't that mean surplus? And who says you have to use your surplus? Aren't there other sources of income to use first?
Let's all face it. In our CE's first 6-mos. of office he has done more to alienate the people in OC than our former CE did in his entire 12-yrs. in office. His orations make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and personally I think he should have done his homework before shoving his 'plan' to close an 'alleged' $60M deficit saving plan down our throats... especially when it is isolated to selling VVC as the root of all monetary evils. Time after time we are discovering discrepancies in his master plan. Suggestions from other agencies I am sure can come up with several other cost saving measures but our CE can only focus on one thing to save the county. And that unfortunately is the lives of 360 people, the jobs of 400 people, and 180-acres of prime land. HE can make no guarantees as to their future, their fate and to insinuate and to make promises that their lives and quality of care will improve is an insult. Ask the CE who the prospective buyers are that walk through the halls on the tours. Maybe Auntie should be doing some research on this too. VVC should be nowhere in the equation to close an 'alleged' deficit.
Absolutely! It is sooo obvious that it doesn't make sense that selling Valley View would be the solution to the all of the county's problems!!!
There IS something else going on here, if the County Executive is just so attached to the idea of the sale. Who, just who, is making money on this deal???
Speaking of possible VVC buyers, does Dain's old Uncle Bill and his OAS crew have right of first refusal?
Legislators must demand a complete report of all income and expenditures related to the county's budget (to the nearest dollar) – then go over it with a fine tooth comb.
And while we’re speaking about budget line items – who’s paying the expenses of the Valley View’s Local Development Corporation board.
Most of what comes out of Diana’s and Neuhaus’ mouth related to Valley View and the OC Gov’t Center cannot be believed and if they were someone else, someplace else they’d be investigated and charged with a conspiracy and schemes to defraud the people.
Without knowing anything about the other counties actions with their own nursing home deals – I don’t believe them either.
Rockland just sold its nursing home. There has been coverage on lohud.com. A quick search of the new owner/administrator's name doesn't show the most positive results in terms of quality care. Not sure how all these county executives can swear up and down that care will be the same. It's not.
It is time to go back to the records of the Donnery Commission Report where it was proven of the corruption being perpetrated against VVC and the made up company of OAS and administrator Bill Pascocello. And now we have nephew Dain Pascocello as spokesperson for our CE. What was he, the CE thinking and why isn't anyone screaming foul. The new owner of Summit Park, Mr. Shalom Blaustein, is in the process of building a 7,000 sq. ft. home (almost in the $1M range) with six bedrooms and an attic that if finished will need a sprinkler system !!! So these are the types of buyers cropping up buying the county nursing homes that cannot make a dime, but they sure know how to fill their pockets with gold. And the only way they can do that is by giving so little quality of care to the residents it would make any loved one cringe in fear. So these CE cannot make any promises and for a fact they are lying out of their teeth. If the truth be told, they are going to make a profit selling to the buyer who will make them 'the deal'. Our politicians are worse than the criminals who ran around with machine guns in the 20's. But they had a better code of honor.
Now Hear this. Navy lingo. Seaman STEPHAN NEUHAUS and Sea Scout LANGDON CHAPMAN,have been replaced by ADMIRAL DAINY BOY PASCOCELLO. Chain of command is as follows: WILLIAM (THE CLOSER) PASCOCELLO, Nephew DAIN PASCOCELLO, LANGDON CHAPMAN,ESQ., STEPHAN NEUHAUSE. Oh yes the Deputy O.C. Executive wattts his name. AUNTIE you are a true PATRIOT.
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