Blunt Cronies at Mental Health Use Working Missourians as Pawns

Intra-agency battles at Missouri's Department of Mental Health between career staff and Governor Matt Blunt's hand-picked ex-consultant privatizers have now spilled over into the everyday lives of working Missourians.

The Post-Dispatch today chronicles the internal bureaucratic fighting, which saw contractor-cum-administrator Bernie Simons of the Division of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability square off with Mental Health Director Keith Schaefer after Simons tried to fire 29 Mental Health employees in one fell swoop.

The Department of Mental Health this week issued layoff notices to 29 workers in a north St. Louis County facility, only to rescind the notices hours later.

Middle managers at the department's Jefferson City headquarters agreed to issue the notices Wednesday morning for workers at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center — a rare move for an agency struggling to fill caregiver jobs.

Agency Director Keith Schafer learned of the layoffs that afternoon and reversed the move, said agency spokesman Bob Bax.

Though the Post-Dispatch doesn't identify the Mental Health "middle managers" who moved to terminate the nearly thirty workers without cause, it is an open secret that MRDD Division Director Bernie Simons is the ideologically rigid outsourcing maven who has made the privatization of state mental health services a first-order priority. Simons has consistently agitated for the firing of current state-employed caregivers and their replacement with temporary and employment agency staff.

FiredUp! Missouri has previously reported on Simons' propensity for selling off large chunks of the state's function to outside contractors. Earlier this year, Simons had attempted to bid out Mental Health "consulting services" with an RFP that was carefully tailored to give intrinsic advantage to a government contractor called The Columbus Organization, with which he was previously employed and from which he still receives compensation.

The announcement and quick rescission of the 29 firings at Mental Health is yet another outward sign that there is significant consternation within the Blunt Department of Mental Health, as those managers who have dedicated their careers to serving the needs of the disabled community push back against the slash-and-burn tactics of short-term firesale experts who seek to dismantle the work that they've done.

Schaefer's stunning repudiation of Simons' attempt to fire Mental Health workers indicates that there is perhaps limited internal appetite at DMH for the broad and rapid attempts, endorsed by Governor Blunt, to privatize state facilities like the Bellefontaine Habilitation Center. Blunt, Simons and crew may have bit off more than they can chew.