Valley Hi privatization on hold

McHenry County leaders Tuesday applied the brakes on their drive toward privatizing management of its $14 million Valley Hi nursing home, choosing instead to take a slow approach toward replacing the facility's outgoing administrator.

Meeting as a special committee, the McHenry County Board voted to postpone a decision on the proposal until after would-be managers appear before the panel to explain the benefits of going private.

"I think (privatizing) is the best idea to pursue right now, but bringing in these firms for presentations is the next step in the process," board member James Kennedy said.

Under the proposal, the county would hire a private management firm to install an administrator who would run the 127-bed home near Woodstock. Other staff at the facility would remain county employees.

The decision not to make an immediate decision came after it became evident Tuesday that there was no clear consensus on the next step for Valley Hi. Although the board's Valley Hi Committee endorsed the privatization plan last week, several board members balked Tuesday over concerns it would alter the home's mission of serving the county's indigent seniors.

"Are we running a business to make money, or do we follow the mission that we've expressed to the public?" board member Barbara Wheeler asked. "That's my primary concern."

Talk of privatizing Valley Hi management arose last month when Timothy Wenberg, the home's administrator since 2002, resigned abruptly after a scathing report that labeled the facility "managerially dysfunctional."

The audit found that facility administrators were letting costs rise rapidly while failing to take advantage of numerous revenue-producing opportunities. The result was a gap between income and expenses that had grown from about $331,000 in 2001 to more than $2 million in 2006.

"Our revenue is pretty flat and our costs are increasing pretty significantly," County Administrator Peter Austin said. "We need to change something."

Some, however, questioned whether that change should be turning over operations to a private firm that would install its own administrator instead of the county hiring an administrator on its own.

"They're just going to pay the administrator what we would pay, except they're going to mark it up so they make a profit," board member Daniel Ryan said.

Officials said there is no set timeline for a final decision, but hope to have a new administrator -- private or their own -- in place before Wenberg's last day in November.