August
26, 2016
To
the Honorable Members of
The
Illinois House of Representatives,
99th
General Assembly:
Today I return
House Bill 5104 with specific recommendations for change. The bill would
prohibit the Department of Corrections from considering outside vendors to
provide medical care to inmates unless the Department retains every single
medical personnel employed by the Department as of January 1, 2016. This
mandate would hamstring the Department’s ability to determine how best to care
for persons in its custody and waste taxpayer dollars.
The
Department of Corrections, like every state agency, must be thoughtful when it
considers using outside vendors. In deciding whether contracting with an
outside vendor would more efficiently use scarce taxpayer dollars, the
Department should analyze its operational needs, the needs of its inmates, and any
impact on current state employees.
But House
Bill 5104 does not afford the Department the opportunity to undertake this type
of analysis. Instead, the bill would categorically prohibit the Department from
contracting out medical services unless the Department continued to employ all
medical personnel on its staff as of January 1, 2016. That date is arbitrary;
no one testifying in support of the bill could explain why that date was
selected. As we work together on a bipartisan basis to reform our criminal
justice system and reduce our prison population, that date would become more
and more artificial, potentially leading to a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The bill
would also interfere with the Department’s ability to implement the
court-approved settlement agreement reached between the Department and
plaintiffs in Rasho v. Baldwin, which concerns mental health services
for persons in the Department’s custody. The Department is undertaking a
holistic look at how best to provide all medical services at Department
facilities. Statutory restrictions, like the one proposed in House Bill 5104,
could hamper the Department’s ability to successfully implement the settlement
agreement.
Nor is
the bill necessary for the Department to consider the impact of any contracting
on its employees. The most recent collective bargaining agreement with the
Illinois Nurses Association (INA) provided that it is State policy “to make
every reasonable effort to utilize its employees to perform work they are
qualified to do, and to that end, the [State] will avoid, insofar as is
practicable, the sub-contracting of work performed by employees in the
bargaining unit.” The agreement also required the State to provide the union
with a cost comparison between performing the work with employees and with a
third-party contractor before undertaking any subcontracting. If the State did
move forward with any subcontracting, the State was required to provide advance
notice to the union and to meet with the union to discuss the decision. The
State proposed to retain these employee protections by agreement with the union
and agreed to additional procedures in the form of a labor-management committee
and a commitment to discussing alternatives to subcontracting.
The
provisions described above—which were negotiated with INA—offer a more
reasonable and flexible alternative to House Bill 5104. These provisions afford
employees reasonable protections against the potential impacts of
subcontracting and allow the union to submit alternative proposals, which is
the type of labor-management cooperation that we should welcome. These
provisions also enable the Department to respond to its operational needs and
ever-changing custodial population in a cost-effective manner. By contrast,
requiring the Department to maintain a minimum level of staffing and
restricting contracting rights will continue to drive up the cost of government
at taxpayers’ expense. House Bill 5104 is another special interest giveaway.
We
should all acknowledge the circumstances under which INA pushed for this bill.
During recent collective bargaining, representatives of INA and the State
reached a tentative agreement, which included the provisions described above.
Almost immediately after signing the tentative agreement, INA reneged on the
deal and proceeded instead to lobby the General Assembly to take away the
Department’s ability to consider outside vendors. Like AFSCME’s compulsory
arbitration bill that I vetoed, House Bill 5104 is an unaffordable and
dangerous end run around the collective bargaining process. Neither INA,
AFSCME, nor any other union should be permitted to circumvent good faith
collective bargaining negotiations.
My
Administration stands by the subcontracting provisions negotiated with INA. The
changes recommended below would codify the basic provisions, while more
detailed provisions would be included in the collective bargaining agreement. Because
subcontracting is one of the subjects of collective bargaining, the union retains
its ability to advocate for further protections through the collective
bargaining process.
Therefore,
pursuant to Section 9(e) of Article IV of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I
hereby return House Bill 5104, entitled “AN ACT concerning State government”,
with the following specific recommendation for change:
On page 13, by replacing lines 8
through 14 with “Act of the 99th General Assembly, before letting bids for
contracts that would have the effect of reducing the number of Department
employees whose employment is related to the provision of medical or mental
health services, the Department shall prepare a cost comparison between the
projected expenses if the work continued to be performed by Department
employees and the projected expenses if a third party provided such services
and shall allow for a reasonable time to meet with the affected employees or
their labor organization representatives and discuss alternatives.”.
With this
change, House Bill 5104 will have my approval. I respectfully request your
concurrence.
Sincerely,
Bruce
Rauner
GOVERNOR