AFSCME union leader: Low staffing raises safety concerns

The leader of Iowa's largest public employees' union on Wednesday warned that inadequate staffing levels are posing safety and security concerns at the state's prisons, prompting him to urge the Legislature and Gov. Terry Branstad to consider a special legislative session to address what he viewed as funding shortcomings.

Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal (AFSCME) Iowa Council 61, said he wants to see lawmakers return to the state Capitol “as soon as possible” to consider more funding to hire additional staff at Iowa's correctional institutions and to keep open 36 Iowa Workforce Development offices slated for closing in coming months as leases expire.

“If we do not act as a state, I am extremely worried that the public, correctional workers and the working families who depend on Iowa Workforce Development are going to be hurt,” Homan said in a written statement issued Wednesday. “In fact, in our correctional institutions, I believe it is only a matter of time before something very serious happens.”

Homan said he believed that failure to reconvene for a special session to address areas of concern “could have serious consequences unlike anyone can imagine.”

The AFSCME leader's comments drew a strong rebuke from the governor's office, with Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht accusing Homan of “lobbing reckless allegations” when it was his union's failure to return to the bargaining table to undo a “sweetheart deal” with former Democratic Gov. Chet Culver that helped strain state finances for the current fiscal year.

“Danny Homan should heed his own advice and come back to the negotiating table to reverse the fiscally reckless course he created with massive salary increases,” Albrecht said in a written statement. “Danny Homan sat silent on the sidelines as Gov. Culver and legislative Democrats slashed funding for corrections by millions of dollars.

“Now, after years of reckless and irresponsible budgeting by Gov. Culver, and millions in unsustainable pay raises, Danny Homan wants to grandstand and take political cheap shots,” he added “Gov. Branstad recognizes public safety as a top priority, and increased funding to corrections by $25 million, after years of severe cuts by the Culver administration. Gov. Branstad's action prevented hundreds of layoffs in the Department of Corrections.”

Last week top legislative Democrats said they were circulating petitions aimed at gathering signatures of two-thirds of the members of the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate that would be required to call an extraordinary session prior to the General Assembly convening in regular session next January. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said he did not believe his 60-member majority caucus would support a special session that legislative Democrats were seeking to override Branstad's veto of funding designed to help keep IWD offices open this fiscal year.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he “appreciated” Homan's concerns regarding prison staffing and job services funding levels, but said he was uncertain whether there was more that the split-control Legislature would be able to do given GOP legislators reluctance to return to the Capitol after a hard-fought budget battle that produced a fiscal 2012 budget agreement on June 30.

“The Department of Corrections has been suffering from extreme understaffing,” Homan said in his written statement. “To make matters worse, in recent days, Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin has now told all institutions that no overtime is allowed to try and deal with that situation.”

At the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, Homan said, day and night shifts are running below critical numbers necessary to operate the prison safely, while officials at the Clarinda Correctional Facility were operating with no responders on duty and managers at “the already understaffed Anamosa State Penitentiary” have had to eliminate six officers from the second shift.

“Gang activity is through the roof. Assaults and use of force has doubled in the past year, with fewer staff than ever,” Homan said. “At institutions that for security reasons we cannot name, our security systems are ”falling apart,” antiquated and need updating. In at least two institutions, there will be non-essential trainings conducted regardless of the overtime required or cost, while overtime for shifts are being denied.”

Given that the state general fund has a projected surplus ending balance, Homan said “there is no excuse for allowing these issues to go unresolved.”