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Testimony before the Mandel Commission
Testimony by
Clare Whitbeck
40502 Port Place
Leonardtown, MD 20650
301-475-8014
clare@clarewhitbeck.com
First of all, I would like to say that press coverage of your working sessions might have caused more people to be willing to comment in more depth on your proposal. As it is, the report just surfaced a couple of weeks ago, and many people simply do not know what you plan to do. I would hope that any future commissions would work to ensure a presence by members of the press, so that the public receives adequate time for thoughtful consideration of what is proposed.
I have examined your report as rapidly as I had to in order to be here today to present comments. I note that on page one of the report’s executive summary, it states that the task was to examine and make recommendations concerning State government operations and the reorganization of independent agencies and commissions within the state government so that State government may provide necessary services to all Marylanders as effectively and economically as possible. To complete this task, the commission was to evaluate independent State programs and agencies and recommend to the governor the elimination, consolidation, or streamlining of programs and agencies. The commission was also to examine staffing patterns in State agencies and recommend changes that would lead to the elimination of wasteful practices and duplication of services. When government talks about providing essential services “as economically as possible”and “eliminating wasteful practices,” we as citizens understand that what is really meant is using less and less people to provide fewer and fewer essential services. In the case of seniors, one simply waits for them to die off, since they tend to do that at a higher rate than younger Marylanders, especially when they are not provided with essential services.
I am here to protest the suggestion on page 90 that recommends further study of certain other agencies including the Department of Aging for inclusion into the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. Even the name is unsuitable. The aging are not necessarily disabled, and their needs are age appropriate -- not “special.”
As a member of the senior population and a Board member of the State wide organization Voices for Quality Care (LTC), Inc, I speak on behalf of seniors and their families. In St. Mary’s County where I live, we expect the number of seniors in the year 2020 to be two and one half times the current number. We know that keeping up with providing services to seniors is going to tax our families and our government. Seniors in St. Mary’s recently successfully rejected a proposal by County Government to merge our Office on Aging into a Department of Services similar to the one you are proposing. We felt that proposal would simply add a level of bureaucracy that would muffle the voice of seniors so their government would be less likely to hear and respond to their needs. At the state level, some of the same facts apply. Seniors are also the fastest growing segment of Maryland’s population. Any attempt to “streamline,” which seniors know really means to reduce, senior services at a time when the number of seniors is rapidly expanding is contrary to common sense as well as very poor politics, because seniors vote. Please be assured that seniors are aware of what you have recommended, and the majority of them reject your idea of “streamlining” the Department of Aging at a time when the needs are rapidly increasing. We respectfully request that you “Streamline” somewhere else.
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