BAC Rutland

BRATTLEBORO — Advocates for the disabled spent most of this legislative session cautioning lawmakers against cutting programs in an attempt to close the budget gaps that seemed to grow wider with every economic forecast.

Now that the pink slips are going out, those same advocates are wondering who will pick up the slack as staff members in the human services are laid off.  As of Tuesday, 133 notices had gone out as the state attempts to trim 320 positions across most of the departments and agencies.

One of the positions that was cut included the director of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services for the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living.

Bert Carter, the president of the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, said the center routinely used Carrie Foster, the former advocate.

“We had a lot of interaction with Carrie. She was a real asset to us and the people we work with,” said Carter. “I don’t know who will do that now.”

Foster helped the deaf and hard of hearing all over the state and also trained state workers so they could more capably communicate with that population.

Since Foster was the only statewide advocate for the deaf, Carter hoped her position would be spared. And now that the position has been eliminated he is waiting to hear what the plan is. “We were hoping with the last minute budget negotiations that her position would be put back in,”

Carter said. “We don’t have staff designated to do that job; we’ll have to have a conversation with the Agency of Human Services to see who we should contact.”

Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living commissioner Joan Senecal said Foster’s main responsibility was to work with state workers and she said other deaf and hard of hearing advocates within state government will be able to help with that work

But the other work Foster did, like the help she gave the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Brattleboro, will be harder to replace.

“We will continue to do that work but it will not happen at the same pace,” Senecal said. “She was the ideal person to do that job and we will just have to work with a different model. In most cases we are spreading the work over the remaining staff.”

Senecal said staff members all over the state are going to be forced to take on extra work, but she said the right now they are handling with the fallout from the layoff notices.

“At this point the challenge is dealing with the morale and emotional upheaval,” she said. “We are one big family. Everybody knows everyone else and it has been very difficult.”
The cuts were ordered to trim about $12 million from the 2010 budget. Another $5 million or so may have to be slashed depending on ongoing negotiations with the state labor union.

Deputy Secretary of Administration Lynda McIntyre said the decisions on which positions would be eliminated came after a long series of discussions throughout many of the state departments and agencies.

Some of the positions will be absorbed through vacancies and retirements, though McIntyre said she was very aware that many of the layoffs will affect Vermonters from one end of the state to the other.

“I know these people. This has been very difficult,” she said. “Many of us saw these storm clouds on the horizon. We know there would be an economic downturn starting in November and nothing is telling us this will turn around in the short term.”