Privatizing county food-service operations is on the menu

LACONIA — Belknap County could save about $100,000 yearly by privatizing nursing home food-service operations, an idea that doesn’t sit well with some of the people who now work there and enjoy the benefits of government work.

The county’s Board of Commissioners will consider this evening a recommendation from County Administrator Debra Shackett and Nursing Home Director Shelley Richardson that Glendale Senior Dining take over these operations.

The annual cost of running the kitchen, which also provides food for the county jail, now stands at $1.3 million, which would drop to $1.2 million under the privatization plan, Shackett said.

She also said Glendale Senior Dining will offer jobs to all of the county employees now working in the kitchen and they will earn more than they are earning now.

The sticking point is job benefits.

As county employees, these workers now are building up a pension and have a health plan under which they do not have to pay monthly premiums. If the service is privatized, they would lose their zero-premium health plan and no longer be covered by a pension, Shackett said.

Last week, Amanda Horne, one of the workers, spoke at a commission hearing to express concerns about privatization.

“I’ve been employed here for 21 years,” she said. “When I took this job, I knew it wasn't going to make me rich. I took it for the benefits and for the pension.

“I started off around $10 an hour. Now, I’m only making about $14.96 an hour. Obviously I’m not here for the money.

“I’m concerned that the vote to privatize will take away the stability, just like it will take me out of the pension system. I’m here today as a reminder that this vote will have a real impact on real people. I’d like you to think of me and my co-workers when you do this vote.’”

In a letter to the editor, Commissioner Hunter Taylor said turnover has been a major concern.

“The primary reason for the privatization recommendation is the long history of staffing difficulty with the dietary unit, which has intensified significantly in the last two years and which continues to trend in the wrong direction,” he said.

That staff includes a salaried full-time manager, 14 full-time hourly employees and 10 part-time workers. Their collective bargaining agreement expired at the end of last year and they have been working without a contract.

“Despite considerable recruitment efforts over the last two years, the unit is still short-handed, with one full-time cook and four dietary aides lacking,” Taylor said. “The cook position has been unfilled for almost the entire time from September 2018 until now.

“That continued vacancy has resulted in the need for the dietary manager to regularly fill a shift as cook, which has in turn meant that for the last six months, she has regularly worked at least six days a week and most of the time over 50 hours per week.”

He said Glendale Senior Dining runs kitchen operations at 30 senior care centers in five states, including eight in New Hampshire.

It has been providing food service for the Rockingham County Nursing Home since March 2017.

“The data suggests that partnering with Glendale will ultimately produce pluses far outweighing any minuses,” Taylor said. “We have learned that prior to privatization, Rockingham had a dietary staff of 47 and for two years had been operating with several unfilled positions.”

He said 44 of the original staff are still there, two have retired and one has been transferred. Eight new employees have been added as well.

Taylor also said the quality of the food is good.

Taylor and his fellow commissioners will meet this evening at 5:15 to take up the issue of privatizing dietary services. The meeting will take place in conference room No. 1 at the County Complex, located at 34 County Drive in Laconia. The meeting is open to the public.