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Motion Expressing the Sense of Allegheny County Council encouraging and urging the Allegheny Delegation of the Pennsylvania State Legislature to work with the Conference of Allegheny Providers, an association of 54 organizations which provides a wide variety of human services to residents of Allegheny County, in addressing and alleviating the chronic financial problems facing the association.
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WHEREAS, the Conference of Allegheny Providers (CAP) is an association of 54 organizations providing a wide variety of human services to residents of Allegheny county; and
WHEREAS, services are provided to individuals with mental retardation, mental health issues, drug and alcohol addictions and other significant barriers to full social, personal, employment and residential participation of their choice; and
WHEREAS, CAP members employee more than 13,000 individuals and serve more than 145,000 children, adults and families; and
WHEREAS, this system has been chronically under-funded for many years and has now reached a crises point; and
WHEREAS, recruitment and retention of quality staff is no longer possible given the wages that the association can now afford to pay; and
WHEREAS, there is no parity with the salaries paid to employees in state centers and state hospitals who are making on average $7.00 per hour more as compared to direct care professionals in the community; and
WHEREAS, in order to avoid cuts in services and to insure the survival of human services providers, the Conference of Allegheny Providers is requesting to work with the Allegheny County delegation of the Pennsylvania State Legislature on the following issues:
§ Inclusion of a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) in Fiscal 04-05 Governor's Budget
§ Creation of a committee of CAP members and staff assigned to CAP form the House and Senate Appropriation Committees to develop a long term plan for the system to address the issues of staff wages
§ Work toward the goal of parity with state employed staff in state hospitals and state centers
§ Work with the Secretary of the Department of Public Welfare to develop a multi-year plan to phase in wage increases.
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS MOVED, AND IT IS THE SENSE OF THE COUNCIL OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY that this Council supports the efforts of the Conference of Allegheny Providers and hereby encourages and urges the Allegheny County Delegation of the Pennsylvania State legislature to work with this association with the goal of helping them to alleviate their chronic financial crises in order that they may continue to provide the highest quality services to the people they serve.