Comptroller Questions Meals Plan By HEATHER HADDON City Comptroller Bill Thompson has added his voice to growing criticism of the city's plan to overhaul the Meals on Wheels program for homebound seniors in the Bronx. In an initial study by his office, Thompson found that the controversial plan to consolidate the number of current Bronx providers and give some seniors frozen meals actually costs the city more than the current setup. "That analysis raises serious questions about whether the pilot program will generate any meaningful savings," said Thompson in a letter to Department for the Aging (DFTA) Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago on March 22. Adding to the controversy, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion registered his strong opposition to the plan -- and agreement with Thompson's conclusions -- even though all of his Bronx Democratic allies are siding with the Bloomberg administration. "The administration is making a careless assumption here that senior centers currently serving the Bronx are, somehow, not doing the job of providing for Bronx seniors," said Carrion in a statement last Tuesday. "This is yet another example of the mayor's top down style of managing New Yorkers." DFTA has said that the pilot program, which it announced last winter, will provide savings by consolidating the number of Bronx providers from 17 to three, each of whom will need to deliver to an average of over 180,000 meals. The final version of the Request for Proposals (RFP) requires providers to give frozen meals to 30 percent of their clients and only spend $5 per meal. While Mendez-Santiago said that he welcomes Thompson's efforts, he disagrees with his conclusions. "We remain certain that there are economies of scale and other efficiencies that will enhance the Bronx' home delivered meal system's capacity, operations, and overall effectiveness," said Mendez-Santiago in a statement e-mailed from DFTA. While DFTA has revealed few specifics over how those savings would be achieved, Mendez-Santiago indicated previously that the overhaul would help address an $8 million cut to the agency's budget last year. "The subcontractors would be better able to compete for prices for contracts," said Mendez-Santiago at a Bronx hearing last November. "Frozen meals are the most economical, and seniors prefer pre-packaged meals in many cases." But Thompson, and many advocates, disagree. The comptroller's analysis of projected costs found that the overhaul would actually cost $185,400 over the current contract amount, or a 5.6 percent increase in spending. "We don't see a savings, at least definitely not in the first year or year and a half," said Thompson at a press conference on Monday. "With the assumptions that we have worked with, this is going to cost more." The report acknowledged that there would be a savings of $550,000 because of the $5 cap on meals (the current average is $6). But a long list of startup fees chips away at that savings. Those fees include: case assessments to determine which seniors can handle frozen meals, retrofitting transportation vehicles to keep the meals cold, and providing microwaves and additional refrigeration devices to seniors who need them. Don Bluestone, executive director of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC), thinks that the additional costs will pile up quickly. MMCC estimates that only 10 percent of its clients have the proper equipment to handle the frozen meals. Their vans are also not equipped to keep the meals frozen. "There is nothing in the current proposal to fund that," Bluestone said. Additionally, Bluestone thinks that the process of assessing which seniors can handle frozen meals will be costly and time consuming. "Case workers are overloaded as is," he said. Thompson's assessment also includes ongoing costs associated with the overhaul. Clients who receive frozen meals will be entitled to telephone support to replace the human contact of getting a daily meal, according to DFTA. But that will cost $457,600 -- which is over two-thirds of the total anticipated savings under the overhaul, according to the report. DFTA plans to award the contracts by late spring for a program start date of July 1. But the agency has not yet put the telephone-support services into place, according to Thompson, and therefore would have to rely on current case management agencies. But MMCC, which provides case management for seniors in Community Boards 7 and 8, has yet to hear if its contract for these services was renewed by DFTA for July. Bluestone is skeptical about DFTA's ability to absorb the additional case management load when providers still haven't heard about their contracts. "How are the case managers going to do that É if they don't know if they have their jobs?" he asked. The additional costs, and the $5, are too burdensome for area providers. MMCC did not apply for one of the contracts themselves, but is included in a consortium with Aging in America, a larger Bronx provider. As the Norwood News reported last month, critics charge that the $5 meals and other costs can only be met by agencies who have non-unionized labor. A current provider vying for the contracts -- Regional Aid for Interim Needs (RAIN) of the east Bronx -- does not use unionized labor. "This proposal was designed to give the contracts to RAIN," Bluestone said. The paper also reported that Louis Vasquez, RAIN's executive director, and his wife have close ties to DFTA and Bronx Democrats who support the proposal. DFTA officials said they are still examining Thompson's report. "I appreciate and welcome the comptroller's interest in the Bronx Home Delivered Meals pilot," Mendez- Santiago stated. "[DFTA] is in the process of responding to his questions and concerns." Thompson seems intent on getting an answer. "It is imperative that my office, the City Council, the providers and the public understand DFTA's estimates of the fiscal implications of the proposed reorganization," he said.
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