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Union and veteran staffer ask House panel to restore eliminated Health Department FTE
Summary
A union and the senior research technician whose job was removed from the Department of Health’s budget asked the House Finance subcommittee to restore the position, arguing the elimination occurred without a clear plan to reassign duties and may yield no net savings because of the worker’s seniority protections.
Union leaders and the employee whose position was eliminated urged the House Finance subcommittee to restore a Department of Health senior research technician post that was cut from the department’s proposed budget.
Jim Sanarini of Rhode Island Council 94 (AFSCME Council 94) told the committee the position elimination is "quizzical" and that the senior research technician, Paula Polano, has more than 33 years with the Department of Health and 40 years of state service. Sanarini said the position appears to have been cut without a clear reorganization plan to absorb the duties and that cutting the post likely will produce no savings given the employee’s statutory status and reemployment protections.
Polano described her duties as the point of contact in the Office of Health Systems Development, responding to inquiries related to certificate-of-need changes and other planning work. She asked the committee to restore the FTE so she can continue that work. Union witnesses noted there was no public evidence that the duties would be reassigned, transferred or eliminated and said the cut could amount to an internal realignment between agencies rather than a bona fide reduction in services.
Why it matters: committee members were not presented with a published plan outlining where the work would go if the position were eliminated. Union testimony said the employee’s seniority and statutory status mean she could be placed elsewhere in state service with the same pay grade, producing little or no budgetary savings. The union requested the subcommittee restore the FTE in the department’s budget.
Sources and evidence: testimony from Rhode Island Council 94 representative Jim Sanarini, senior research technician Paula Polano, and union president Stephanie Ponce.
