Lake County workers could lose Winchester House jobs

Nearly 200 public employees would lose their jobs if the Lake County Board opts to have a private company operate the Winchester House nursing home, officials said Tuesday.

After a two-hour debate, the board’s health and community services committee voted to seek bids from independent businesses to manage and operate the Libertyville facility.

County employees now run Winchester House, although laundry and cleaning services are handled by a private firm.

Outsourcing the management and operation of Winchester House is being considered as a cost-cutting move, County Administrator Barry Burton said. The board has insisted Winchester House should operate within the county’s annual budgetary restrictions and that taxes not be raised to fund it.

Salaries and benefits for the center’s 192 employees are the biggest fiscal drain for Winchester House, officials said.

“We pay significantly more than the private sector,” Burton said.

The county would continue to own the facility if it is privatized.

At Tuesday’s meeting, senior nursing assistant Barbara Janowitz pleaded with committee members not to privatize Winchester House operations, saying it would be bad for patients and county residents.

“I ask you not to turn your back on them,” Janowitz said.

Although sympathetic to the potential impact on the employees, committee members voted 6-1 to seek bids for privatization.

“It is a very painful day,” Libertyville Republican Carol Calabresa said. “I never thought I would see the day when we would be faced with this kind of decision.”

Grayslake Democrat Melinda Bush cast the lone opposition vote. She thought officials were moving toward privatization too quickly and had asked they delay seeking bids for a month.

Waukegan Democrat Mary Ross Cunningham also spoke against privatization but left before the vote was called.

County officials are negotiating now with the union representing Winchester House workers, she said, and “we don’t know what they’re going to do” about possible pay cuts or other money-saving steps.

Plans to tear down the aging facility, which dates to the 19th century, and build a smaller and more specialized center nearby have been on hold for more than a year. An architect was hired in 2009, but construction never began.

The original plan was to build a $32 million facility that would be completed by 2012. The proposed price tag has since risen to $36 million, according to county documents released Tuesday.

Construction could begin in summer 2012 and be finished in late 2013, officials said.

The county board’s finance committee will discuss the proposal at 1 p.m. Wednesday. The full board could vote on the matter June 14.