BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
When Mark Danowski of Davisburg read the story “State rep campaign turns negative” about state rep candidate Jose Aliaga, in the July 11 Clarkston News, he knew there was more to it.
“I thought, what a shame they don’t know the real story behind DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services),” Danowski said.
Danowski, who used to work at HHS with Aliaga, said the candidate’s unsatisfactory work record at the state agency in 2017-2018, as revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided anonymously to The Clarkston News, resulted from a broken system.
“With a caseload of 900 clients, you have about an hour and 15 minutes per year to address all their needs, food, medical care, childcare, welfare, electricity and gas bills. They have training webinars and seminars every month for the state’s 15,000 eligibility specialists. We’re all college educated, and not getting it after two years? It’s the software that’s the problem, not the personnel,” Danowski said. “He does his work extremely diligently – I think he would be a good guy, and I’m a Progressive Democrat. It’s sad, how people are treated like this.”
Aliaga, Andrea Schroeder, and Tony Bartolotta are running for the Republican nomination for the 43rd District seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.
Schroeder said neither she nor her campaign sent the FOIA request for the information. However, she has been using it in her campaign.
“Mr. Aliaga introduced his work with the state as a significant issue in the race, and should have expected that his job performance would be subject for debate,” she said. “As a state worker, his personnel records are available for public review. Jose is running for a taxpayer-funded job, making his previous work history with the state relevant.”
Aliaga’s HHS personnel file shows he was repeatedly given negative performance reviews for a year in his position before he left the job, which involved processing Medicaid, disability, childcare and emergency food and utility assistance claims.
The work record shows that Aliaga’s “failed actions resulted in multiple clients complaining and requesting a new caseworker.”
One complaint said, Aliaga’s “customer was in a difficult position because she did not have food, had a shutoff notice, and was very sick. (Aliaga) failed to return her calls and assist her as needed.”
Aliaga “lacked basic knowledge of process and policy” and required “constant monitoring,” with his supervisor noting, “even after direction and rules are communicated to Aliaga, he continues to not follow them.”
Aliaga said Schroeder does not understand the problems the state faces.
“She sees a bad performance review and assumes fault lies with the employee. However, this is not always the case,” he said. “It is quite easy to meet or exceed expectations in government work if you are willing to generate paperwork and care little about the details, putting quantity ahead of quality. I, however, took my work, and my responsibility, both to my clients and to the taxpayers, very seriously. My focus was on the quality of the work, not the quantity. I did the best I could with what I had, as did my colleagues.”
Aliaga also said employment records are personal and private.
“A person truly concerned about our state and wishing to make our government better would, upon presumably receiving these records in email, as she claimed, focus on how the private records of state employees are being leaked,” he said. “Andrea, instead, used it for personal gain. What a coincidence that these particular records just happened to be emailed to her.”
The Freedom of Information Act request was made by Page Watkins of MuckRock News, a non-profit, collaborative news website of journalists, researchers, activists, and citizens. According to postings at MuckRock.com, Watkins filed the FOIA request for Aliaga’s personnel file on June 11, 2018. The Department of Health and Human Services granted the request on June 19.
Bob Wheaton, public information officer for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said the department generally does not discuss personnel matters, and the records speak for themselves.
“The department always works to keep caseloads as low as possible. Caseloads have increased in recent years, however, the department expects caseworkers to be able to keep up with their caseloads and provide good customer service,” Wheaton said. “MDHHS is in the process of implementing a universal caseload system to improve the way cases are processed. Under this change, customers are supported by a team of caseworkers rather than having a single worker assigned to each case.”
The department is also in the process of modernizing the Bridges software, used for caseworkers to manage their caseloads, he said.
“While there is room for further improvement, the department has made numerous improvements to the system over the last six years to make it better for the benefit of our customers and our staff,” Wheaton said.
These improvements are needed because the current Bridges software is slow and cumbersome, Donowski said.
“They always go to low bidder, canned software, I call it,” he said. “It was developed for Texas for a different program, and sold to Michigan. Instead of fit what we do, we have to shoehorn our work processes into the software.”
“The State of Texas warned us against using the system, but state policy required us to take the lowest bid,” Aliaga said. “As a result, we got what was cheapest in the short-run with no real consideration of future costs. So, already, you have overworked staff and inadequate tools.”
Stronger laws aimed at cutting waste and fraud could also help, he said.
“Doing the job properly means taking the time to check for fraud, not just rubber-stamping everything. This is not always easy to do,” Aliaga said. “This is a problematic system I have seen first-hand. I want to go to Lansing to clean up the messes, help the people and make life better for all. I have always done my best in all my work and I promise to do so in Lansing.”
The 43rd House District includes Clarkston, Independence Township, and Lake Angelus, and part of Waterford Township. They are running to replace state Rep. Jim Tedder, who is seeking a state Senate seat in 2018. The Republican Primary Election will be on Aug. 7.