The union that represents Maryland state government workers says staffing shortages are reducing the quality of services every state agency provides, from maintenance and repairs at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to the monitoring of people on court-ordered home detention.
Leaders with the state and local branches of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union detailed the impacts of vacancies at state agencies during a press conference Tuesday morning in Baltimore.
Bryan Goodman, a heavy equipment maintenance technician with the Maryland Aviation Administration and president of the union local representing MAA employees, typically repairs about six vehicles in a day. Because of staff shortages, lately he has been fixing twice that many. His coworkers who handle maintenance have to rush to meet deadlines set by the Federal Aviation Administration with inadequate staff, Goodman said.
“Without our work, the airport would shut down because if we don’t do our jobs, then the airlines and cargo companies can’t do theirs,” he said. “We’re rushing to complete work because we don’t have enough folks to help.”
At Clifton T. Perkins Hospital, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital run by the Maryland Department of Health, social worker Miriam Doyle said she is often the only social worker on a ward, when best practices suggest there should be at least two.
“When I'm the only social worker on the ward, there's only so many patients I can discharge, which in turn slows down how many new patients we can admit,” Doyle said. “That means there's desperately sick people in the jails that are languishing away waiting for a bed to open up at Perkins.”
Mary Townes, a family services caseworker and screener for the Department of Social Services in Baltimore City, said it’s her job to determine if a child is in danger or if the police need to investigate a case. Because of a high vacancy rate in the agency, she said she sometimes has to juggle the police and Child Protective Services while still answering the phone for new cases that come in.
“I know that if we had the staff and were able to train them and retain those with experience, we might actually have a fighting chance to fulfill our agency’s mission.”
Because of staffing shortages at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the division responsible for monitoring people on home detention has cut training that used to take about six months down to about three weeks, reducing the weapons training officers receive, according to Sgt. Oluwaseun Dada, an officer with the unit.
He also drives upwards of 500 miles a day, Dada said, as he criss-crosses the state to check in on a larger caseload of people on home detention. He said the division has a 50% vacancy rate — there are 11 sergeants, but there are supposed to be 22.
Asked about the vacancies a few weeks ago, a spokesman for Gov. Wes Moore said the administration has already reduced vacancies by more than 22% across state government.
“Since day one, Governor Moore has worked day and night to fix the overwhelming staffing shortages he was presented with at his inauguration,” spokesman Carter Elliott said in a statement last month. “Marylanders know that this is an administration they can actually count on to get the state government back firing on all cylinders. And, Governor Moore will continue to work with AFSCME, advocates, and the state legislature to get it done.”
According to an analysis by the state Department of Legislative Services, 10.4% of positions in the Maryland executive branch were vacant at the end of October.
This story has been updated to reflect that best practices suggest two social workers on a psychiatric hospital unit at a time.
