February 2016 – Page 44 – Welcome to Wyandotte Daily!

As state cuts mental health programs, Wyandot Inc. eliminates 26 positions

by Dan Margolies, Mike Sherry, Heartland Health Monitor

Hit by recent cuts in state mental health programs, Wyandot Inc., an umbrella organization for four nonprofit agencies in Kansas City, Kan., has eliminated 26 positions.

Six of the positions were vacant and won’t be filled and six other employees accepted transfers to other positions in the organization, leaving a total of 14 who lost their jobs.

“The reason for the layoffs and reductions in services was the cumulative effect of a number of revenue losses we experienced due to state policy changes and reductions from managed care organizations,” said Randy Callstrom, president and CEO of Wyandot Inc.

Callstrom said the losses amounted to more than $1 million and stemmed from two significant policy changes: the state’s decision to no longer use community mental health centers as gatekeepers who completed hospital assessments for Medicaid recipients and to eliminate funding for a pilot “health home” program designed to improve the health of people with severe and persistent mental illnesses.

“We’ve already stopped getting referrals,” Callstrom said of the health home program. “Staff is starting to leave and we’re having to wind the program down.”

Kansas began the program in August 2014, when it put community mental health centers in charge of coordinating care for Medicaid patients with severe mental illnesses. In January, Budget Director Shawn Sullivan recommended that the state end the pilot program, which he says hadn’t produced significant results.

Critics of the decision said the program hadn’t been given enough time to show results.

The layoffs at Wyandot weren’t entirely unexpected. Last week, Wyandot Inc. ended drop-in services at the Frank Williams Housing Resource Center, which it operated. The Kansas City Star reported that about 100 people, many of them homeless, used the services on a daily basis.

Callstrom said that the elimination of the drop-in program and the layoffs were based on whether the services in question had their own funding sources.

“So we really looked at those unfunded services that we’ve been providing that were not attached to any funding in any way, and that led to the elimination of the 26 positions,” he said.

Wyandot Inc. is the parent company of a group of nonprofit agencies, including Wyandot Center, which is Wyandotte County’s designated community mental health center and operates Rainbow Services Inc.; Paces, which addresses emotional and behavioral problems among children and adolescents; Kim Wilson Housing Inc., which helps develop housing options for the homeless; and City Vision, which promotes sustainable economic development in the urban core of Kansas City, Kan.

Wyandot traces its roots to 1953. It and its subsidiary agencies have more than 500 employees and a combined budget of about $32 million.

Callstrom said he did not anticipate more layoffs, unless the state makes additional mental health cuts.

Therese Horvat, Wyandot’s vice president for communications, said the 14 people who were let go were given the chance to move to other positions, but they were either uninterested or not qualified.

She said the agencies primarily affected were Wyandot Inc., Wyandot Center and Paces.

“As much as we believe in resilience for our clients, we also have been resilient as an organization,” she said. “We have grown through the years. While this was a difficult decision to make, we are turning a corner and looking ahead. Our focus is on our core mission, which is to be a mental health center for people.”

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/as-state-cuts-mental-health-programs-wyandot-inc.-eliminates-26-positions#sthash.JcuiFOq3.dpuf

Warm windy weather in forecast, with high fire danger tomorrow

Today’s forecast will be sunny with a high near 56 and a south wind of 6 to 13 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Winds will pick up, and Wyandotte County is in a “fire weather watch” for Thursday and Friday, the weather service said.

Tonight’s low will be 44 with a south southeast wind of 6 to 13 mph.

Thursday, the high will reach near 72, the weather service said. A south southwest wind will increase from 14 to 24 mph, gusting as high as 34, according to the weather service.

Thursday night, the low will be around 51, according to the weather service. The south southwest wind of 21 to 23 mph will gust as high as 33 mph, the weather service said.

Friday’s forecast will be sunny with a high of 70, according to the weather service. There will be a west wind of 11 to 20 mph, gusting as high as 26 mph. Friday night’s low will be around 42.

Saturday, expect mostly sunny skies and a high of 67, the weather service said. Saturday night, there will be a 30 percent chance of showers with a low of 42, according to the weather service.

Sunday’s forecast is mostly sunny with a high near 58, according to the weather service. Sunday night’s low will be around 33.

Some legislators not in favor of using STAR bonds for American Royal to move to near 126th and State

UG hoping legislative dislike for American Royal STAR bond project doesn’t affect current projects underway at 98th and Parallel

by Mary Rupert

A preliminary plan to use sales tax revenue (STAR) bonds on moving the American Royal from the Kemper Arena area in the Kansas City, Mo., bottoms to an area near 126th and State Avenue in Wyandotte County met with some opposition in the Kansas Legislature today.

Mike Taylor, Unified Government lobbyist, said some legislators opposed the idea of the American Royal project using STAR bonds today because they believed the money from future sales taxes that will expire at The Legends Outlets should go back to the state’s general fund.

About $42 million is expected to become available to the state in sales taxes when the Legends Outlets STAR bonds are paid off within the next year.

The proposed American Royal site is not yet firm, according to Taylor. Under discussion but without an agreement yet, is a site near Wyandotte County Park, Bonner Springs, at 126th and State, and also near the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, the former Sandstone Amphitheater (now called Providence Medical Center Amphitheater), the Wyandotte County Museum and the Renaissance Festival site.

A proposed amendment today was worded in a way that it might delay any future use of STAR bonds, according to Taylor, and the UG is currently studying it to see if it would have any effect on auto dealerships and the U.S. Soccer complex being built with STAR bonds near 98th and Parallel Parkway.

That project is separate from any proposal for the American Royal. The dealerships and U.S. Soccer training complex are currently under construction, and use STAR bonds previously approved for the Schlitterbahn complex, according to Taylor.

Taylor said he didn’t think the car dealership and U.S. Soccer projects would be affected, but the UG is reviewing the language of the amendment to see what would be affected.

“No one denies that Village West and the Legends area was hugely successful,” Taylor said. “Wyandotte County per se is not being targeted.”

Instead, some legislators are focused on the amount of money that the state might be giving up if it approves the STAR bond project, he added.

“They’re in such desperate income situation because they cut income taxes so deeply, they want every dime they can find,” he said. Some legislators don’t want government to divert the funding to another project, they’d rather have it in the treasury to fill the budget hole, he added.

Schlitterbahn’s STAR bonds were approved at least eight years ago, and were not issued until just recently, according to Taylor. Schlitterbahn had planned a large retail development, but when the economy tanked in 2008, Schlitterbahn decided to scale back its plans, adding development a little bit at a time and privately financing it, he added.

Current laws do not require legislative approval of STAR bond projects, but the Legislature now is taking an interest in the STAR bond projects, Taylor said.

The American Royal project became public this morning when a legislative committee weighed in on a Department of Commerce financing proposal. Previously, it was kept under wraps by the state government. Details of the plan were contained in a story from the Associated Press that said the project included a 5,000-seat hockey arena, children’s museum, hotel, stores and restaurants. The American Royal is a horse and livestock show, with a rodeo, that traces its history to 1899.

Taylor said it wasn’t a Unified Government idea, but the UG has been listening to the proposal and working with the state government and American Royal on it.

“It wasn’t our idea, not something we proposed, but we agreed to sit down and have discussions with the state and American Royal officials about how it would work,” he said. Those discussions are still going on, he added. The UG has not committed yet to do anything or to make the deal happen, he said.

He added that the UG does not want to use its portion of the local sales taxes that would come off the Legends Outlets for the American Royal project, but wants that local portion to go back to the community projects and uses that are currently under discussion by Mayor Mark Holland in his series of town hall meetings with the public.

That $12 million to $13 million in local sales tax revenues will not be considered for this project, Taylor said. “That money has to come back to the citizens of Wyandotte County as their pay off for the project they’ve done out there,” Taylor said.

But the state is a different question, he added, and it could do the project without the UG STAR bond local sales taxes, he added.

The American Royal project would have to go through some sort of local agreement or resolution at some point to move forward, and it is not at that point yet, he added.

One Wyandotte County legislator, who requested to remain nameless, was for the American Royal project in general and thought it would be a good addition to the county.

Calls to other sources, including the Department of Commerce and other legislators, were not returned in time for this story.