Two 32nd District lawmakers are polar opposites when it comes to the issue of whether an institution for the developmentally disabled in their district should be closed.
A bill to close Fircrest passed the Senate and is still being negotiated in the House, as legislators wrestles with a $2.6 billion budget deficit in a special session called to bridge that gap between revenue and spending.
Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, sponsored the bill to close Fircrest, one of the state’s five institutions for the developmentally disabled, located in Shoreline. The other institutions are Rainier School in Buckley, the Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton, Lakeland Village in Medical Lake and Yakima Valley in Selah. The legislation calls for consolidation of the state institutions because the number of clients housed in them has declined 75 percent since 1960. At that time there were over 1,000 clients at Fircrest. Now, most recent counts show there are only 255 residents living there, average age 47, who are cared for by over 700 employees. The legislation calls for moving these residents to one of the state’s four other institutions, into group homes or nursing homes and selling or leasing the property. Profits from the property would go into a trust — the Fircrest Legacy Trust — for all of the state’s developmentally disabled to utilize.
“The proposal to close Fircrest was not without heartache,” Fairley said. “We know the change would be hard for some families and residents but we are confident that the quality of care will remain outstanding.”
Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, is fighting that bill in the House of Representatives.
“Weighed against preserving critical jobs and critical care for the most vulnerable in our community, I question the net benefit to our state by the closure of Fircrest,” Chase said.
She says the decline in clients at the state institutions is artificial, and that the state Department of Health and Human Services has been improperly limiting admissions to the institutions, violating federal regulations.
She also argues that closing Fircrest would eliminate over 700 state union jobs, and would be traumatic for Fircrest residents because elderly parents that can’t make the drive to other institutions in the state would have to put their disabled adult children into group homes or nursing homes that may not be as well equipped as Fircrest to care for them.
Fairley says the federal Olmstead Act requires the state to place the developmentally disabled in the least restrictive living alternative and that DSHS has been responding to federal law. She said that while it would be a parent’s choice to put their children into community living situations, space and assistance would be made available for them at other institutions.
“The Senate capital budget sets aside money to build a nursing facility at Rainier School in Buckley to house the most medically fragile from Fircrest,” she said.
Chase says these capital improvements would cost the state at a time when the state has a deficit to address. Also, savings from Fircrest’s closure would not be realized until 2007.
“The annualized net savings to the state — $15 million per year — from closing Fircrest is simply minimal when compared to the enormity of our state’s budget deficit this year,” Chase stated in a letter to the House Democratic Caucus. “To achieve this $15 million savings, are we willing to sacrifice living wage jobs for over 700 state employees and to significantly disrupt the residential placement of 255 clients at Fircrest School?”
Fairley argues that with a $2.6 billion budget shortfall, “When we see an opportunity to save millions of dollars while preserving services for our most vulnerable citizens, we must take that opportunity.
“The savings in closing Fircrest come from consolidating vacancies among the five state facilities, not from forcing residents into the community,” she said. “The level of care at the remaining facilities will remain very strong. While Fircrest does have some severely disabled residents, the remaining facilities also have residents who are similarly disabled, and have equally dedicated staff and meet the same federal standards.”
Fairley also states that the Legacy would help more of the state’s disabled than are being helped right now.
“Using future savings to help provide services to the many families who are currently getting no help in caring for family members with developmental disabilities. For those people, $15 million per year would mean a great deal. That money could serve 300 of the 700 people with disabilities who are living with elderly parents,” she said.
Chase fears this would be at the detriment of the 255 residents at Fircrest and the over 700 employees.
“It is astounding to think that for a mere $15 million per year we are willing to significantly and permanently impact over 1,000 lives,” she said.
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