Senate hearing explores 'critical' staffing cuts at agency that cares for disabled

ALBANY — The vice president at one of New York's largest labor unions told a state Senate committee on Tuesday that years of staffing and budget cuts at the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities have created critical shortfalls in the ability to provide quality and accessible services for at-risk New Yorkers.

Randi DiAntonio, vice president of the Public Employees Federation (PEF), said the situation has been exacerbated by declining staffing levels during the coronavirus pandemic — and also by years of handing over services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to private providers in an effort to cut costs.

"The state of New York has embarked on a long-term effort to reduce funding and staffing at all of its agencies. OPWDD has seen some of the most dramatic reductions in staffing overtime," DiAntonio said in a written statement provided to the panel, noting that the agency had its workforce cut by 16 percent — nearly 3,800 employees — between 2011, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo began his first term, and 2020.

"This reduction in staff is directly attributable to the imposition of 'bare bones' budgeting at all of the state agencies that has been in place for years so the state can remain under the arbitrary 2 percent annual state spending cap," she added. "This budgeting approach left the state ill-prepared to address the (COVID-19) pandemic and has hampered the ability of the state to meet its ethical obligations to maintain the continuity of quality and accessible services for many at-risk New Yorkers, including individuals with developmental disabilities."

DiAntonio, under questioning from the panel, said nurses and other health care professionals "are leaving in droves," and morale and burnout in the industry are at an all-time low.

"You have a workforce issue that was created, but that means it also can be solved," she told the panel, noting that health care workers are spread so thin they are bouncing from assignment to assignment at a time when the numbers of group homes and available beds for disabled individuals are plummeting.

"The number of people with disabilities is not shrinking ... and the needs for people with children with autism are exponentially larger," she said. "The waiting list for services has not gone down. ... We've closed almost 5,000 beds."

Tom McCalvanah, executive director of New York Disability Advocates, told the Senate committee that there is a roughly 25 percent vacancy rate for direct care workers, which is about 75 percent higher than before the pandemic.

"Historically, (direct support professionals') wages were significantly higher than minimum wage, but due to years of lack of investment and cuts to the system, wages are now at minimum wage or just above in all regions across the state," he told the Senate.

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State Sen. John W. Mannion, chair of the Committee on Disabilities that conducted Tuesday's hearing, joined four other legislative chairs recently in signing a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul questioning OPWDD's relocation policies and urging her administration to halt those placements "until administrative and legislative changes can be implemented to ensure that these parents, guardians and their children are not intentionally or unintentionally stripped of their due process rights."

The lawmakers also asked the governor to direct OPWDD to restore funding for those individuals receiving treatment at out-of-state centers and schools.

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