A total of 111 positions are being cut statewide, including additional layoffs at the Anoka-Metro Regional Treatment Center. A total of 2.5 full-time equivalent jobs also are being eliminated from Mankato’s Crisis Center, a 10-bed short-term facility.

The total cost savings for the state through the proposed cuts is estimated to be nearly $4.3 million, well short of the $15 million cited by Morrow and Sheran.

In his memorandum to human services employees, Mike Tessneer, State Operated Services chief executive officer, said another round of layoffs will be coming in September. Those job cuts will include food services and support employees at both the Minnesota State Hospital in St. Peter and the facility in Anoka, Tessneer said.

The announcement drew harsh criticism from AFSCME Minnesota’s executive director, Eliot Seide. He’s expecting most the cuts to be security staff. Administrators should have consulted with employees before making what are expected to be sweeping changes in facilities that house some of the state’s most dangerous people, Seide said.

A new facility, which will serve as a forensic nursing home, is being built on the Regional Treatment Center campus and is scheduled to open in spring 2009. If the layoffs were considered part of a restructuring, union members would have priority to be trained for jobs there, he said. Because the layoffs are taking place to address budget cuts, those assurances don’t exist.

“Our members who work in these very dangerous settings are the people who keep us safe,” Seide said. “We think workers who keep the public safe shouldn’t be disposable and treated like trash. We all want efficiency, but the front-line people are the ones to talk to for that. Not some bureaucrat in St. Paul.”