After a bit of wrangling within the county and some constructive debate in state legislative circles, it became official last month: The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is now managing Milwaukee County’s Income Maintenance program.

    DHS will assume control of the Milwaukee County Call Center on July 1, and the rest of the Income Maintenance programs on Jan. 1, 2010. In all, 270 members of AFSCME Locals 594, 645 and 1654 who work in the County’s Economic Support Division now will be supervised by state-hired administrators — but, crucially, they’ll remain in their collective bargaining units and under the bargaining agreements they currently have with the county.

    Just as crucially, the hybrid management model enables Milwaukee County to get the program back one day.

    “I know some people are apprehensive — it’s a change,” says Local 594 President Dave Eisner. “But from our dealings with the state, I have a positive feeling about it. The state’s been open and interested in working with us. I think the transition will go well.”

    Considering the way the crisis began, a smooth transition might have seemed like a long shot. The what-to-do-with-Income-Maintenance debate started when DHS was slapped with a federal lawsuit over the failure of the county to provide services; the responsibility to administer the benefits rests with the state.

    At first, the state planned to take over the whole program. But then state officials, with input from Council 48, developed a different management model, as presented in Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.

    Under the hybrid arrangement, DHS and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) would retain county eligibility, clerical, and program-integrity and certification staff. The idea: to enable the state to build upon the experiences of front-line workers already familiar with the county’s issues.

    Retaining the employees also would go a long way toward preventing delays in awarding and monitoring benefits, and providing services during the transition. It’s also critical to helping ensure a smoother program transition back to the county.

    It wasn’t DC 48’s first choice to go hybrid here, and it’s certainly elicited considerable concern in County Supervisor circles. But Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and program administrators “failed to provide the adequate funding, resources and leadership necessary to implement a successful Income Maintenance program” in a county with the kind of challenges Milwaukee has, as DC 48 Executive Director Rich Abelson told members of the Assembly Committee on Labor on April 8.

    “You are familiar with the limitations of the County Board and its members to act outside of the authority of the County Executive, and to take over and operate the program on their own,” he continued. “For these reasons, the responsibility to meet our obligations under federal law falls to the state as represented by the Administration and the respective departments, and you and your colleagues in the Legislature.”

    Legislators did their part. The legislative components were key. To allow for the hybrid management model, protect AFSCME members’ collective bargaining and preserve the possibility that the county one day would resume program management responsibilities, legislation needed to be enacted. Enter Assembly Bill 194 and Senate Bill 161 — aka “The Milwaukee County Worker Protection Act.” In particular, specific language was required to:

    * Grant the state authority to allow DHS/DCF state employees to supervise county employees;

    * Allow any county worker who applies, and is hired, for a state supervisory position to retain his or her county pension and consideration of county years of service for state leave policy;

    * Cap the county annual contribution toward the cost of funding Income Maintenance administration at $2.7 million (plus adjustments commensurate with annual increases to wages and benefits); and

    * Provide that the state and county will discuss the parameters and benchmarks to be achieved by the county in order for the program to be returned to the county at a later date.

    “AFSCME Council 48, its officers and members believe that the plan laid out by the [Doyle] Administration, with these provisions, will allow for the implementation of a program that will meet the state obligation under federal law,” Abelson said. “More important, this bill and the state takeover will provide access and benefits to services for Milwaukee County’s most vulnerable children and families.”

    On April 28, the Assembly and Senate passed their respective bills, just days before the state was to begin determining eligibility for all applications submitted through ACCESS on May 1. Gov. Doyle was expected to sign the bill as of press time.

    “Our community and our county employees deserve dedicated leadership and a commitment to reform that will result in improved services for our neighborhoods,” said State Rep. Tamara Grigsby, a Milwaukee Democrat who represents the 18th Assembly District and chairs the Assembly Committee on Children and Families, in an April 28 prepared statement. “When it comes to the best interests of Milwaukee County, this bill takes us in the right direction.”

    For 270 AFSCME-represented county employees — 247 from Local 594, 21 from Local 645 and two from Local 1654 — it’s the “beginning of a new era,” as the state put it in a flyer headlined “New State Supervised Milwaukee Change/Call Center Opportunity.”

    Beginning July 1, the state will supervise the Milwaukee Change/Call Center operation, the first section in a new Milwaukee Enrollment Services agency.

    To be managed by one section chief, the section will feature four units, each providing similar duties and rotating functions. Each unit will have one supervisor, one quality assurance technician and 12 economic support specialists (ESS). Newly hired state supervisors will manage county staff.

    “Voluntarily, you can move from a county ESS position into this section,” Eisner says, adding that employees were to have made their decision to move by May 11. “This is the only facet of the new operation that involves carrying a caseload.”

    This isn’t like ‘Child Welfare.’ The state and DC 48 agreed that the 12 ESSs in each unit would have a blend of experience, with four having fewer than five years of seniority; four with five to 15 years; and four with 15-plus years. If not enough ESSs volunteer to fill the 48 positions by July 1, positions will be filled in “inverse seniority order” within the aforementioned seniority bands. But employees will not have to reapply for jobs.

    ”That was key — if the state had taken it over completely, employees would have to reapply,” Eisner says, adding that AFSCME members remember how things devolved after that scenario took place during the state’s takeover of Child Welfare.

    Meanwhile, the new agency continues to take shape. A 27-member Milwaukee Enrollment Services Project “community advisory group” — DC 48’s represented — will meet periodically to discuss Income Maintenance and Wisconsin Shares program policy, process changes and the best way to implement them.

    On Jan. 1, 2010, the state will be fully responsible for Income Maintenance programs and Wisconsin Shares in Milwaukee County.

    “Bottom line, I think we’ll be fine, in terms of maintaining our jobs,” Eisner says.