Work to keep Options open

Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call. Because it could be Janet Wagner, and she's not letting you off the hook.

'I have to tell you, I'm angry,” said Wagner, who was among the multitude who came to Options of Linn County Tuesday night to meet with the Board of Supervisors. It took nearly every chair in the joint to accommodate the gathering.

Supervisors called the meeting to discuss the future of Options, a unique county facility that serves more than 200 disabled adults. Many of those clients also work in Options' sheltered workshop, doing piecework jobs for contract employers.

Funding woes and more aggressive federal efforts to move people with disabilities out of workshops and into integrated work settings are threatening the facility. Families and clients of Options strongly decried those threats Tuesday with voices steeped in anguish and anger.

'Who's making these decisions? We all disagree,” said Wagner, whose daughter Brook, is an Options client who recently lost her job at a local company. Wagner said that company's fear of new federal rules was a factor.

'They can't do this to our children without us saying what's best for them. Can they?” Wagner said.

Supervisors say they're in a box built with federal and state decisions.

'None of us want this to happen,” said Supervisor Ben Rogers.

In the wake of the nightmarish story of Henry's Turkey Service and the squalid Atalissa bunkhouse that housed disabled men paid pennies to do backbreaking work, the Department of Justice is more aggressively enforcing laws governing disabled workers. The feds are focusing on segregated workshops while also pushing to have some disabled workers paid at least minimum wage.

It's yet another classic tale of good, understandable intentions resulting in some bad, unintended consequences. Atalissa and Options, housed in a new facility that looks like it belongs on a Silicon Valley tech campus, are light years apart. Linn County's facility is a certified, proven and successful setting, staffed with a trained union workforce of highly skilled, long-term employees. One employee said, at five years on the job, she's still the 'new girl.”

But Options' Medicaid funding, including federal and state dollars, is in jeopardy. The county can't raise its own mental health levy to fill the gap because it's capped by state law. Only the Legislature can change that.

It's still possible the county can navigate federal rules and find a way to save at least part of the program. A task force is looking for a way, and there's stilll time. Supervisor Brent Oleson suggested seeking a waiver to make Options a model pilot program the feds can monitor and evaluate. But optimism is tempered.

'If the federal government orders us to shut down, we will have no choice but to shut down,” said Supervisor Linda Langston.

Clearly, after listening to these families, that would be a huge mistake. Welcome federal efforts to protect vulnerable workers should not harm these people and a valuable program. I think Oleson's waiver idea has merit. There's got to be a way.

And if you're running for office this fall, you'd better take a stand on Options. Janet Wagner and the multitude will be asking.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com