Bill signing intrigue

COLUMBUS

A funny thing happened last week.

Gov. John Kasich traveled down to Cincinnati to sign a couple of bills into law.

That’s not the funny part.

One of the bills, HB 158, included provisions replacing the phrase “mental retardation” and comparable wording with “intellectual disability.” It’s an update of language that’s now viewed as derogatory.

Nothing funny about that.

The governor also signed HB 483, a mid-biennium budget bill with lots of law changes affecting programs for disabled residents.

An amendment added to the bill requires a study of residents being moved from state-run developmental centers that are set to close in the next year – namely the Youngstown Developmental Center and the Montgomery Developmental Center near Dayton.

The closures drew hundreds of people to the Statehouse during budget and other hearings last year, with hopes that the state would reverse course and allow the centers to remain open.

That didn’t happen, so Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, and others have been pushing for more information about how residents have been affected by the moves.

That’s where the HB 483 report comes into the picture, covering the “availability and appropriateness of care,” “the current living conditions of each relocated resident” and “reports of death, significant bodily injury, hospital and nursing homes stays” and other information about residents who have been moved, according to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Commission.

Here’s the funny part: The report was required to be completed by the end of June.

The governor’s signing ceremony took place a few days ago, in July.

Which means the governor added his signature after the deadline for the report had passed.

But the state Department of Developmental Disabilities was on top of it, with a report ready to release on the same day as the ceremony.

That’s lightning fast for state government – fulfilling the requirements of a new law before that new law even took effect.

In a cover letter to legislative leaders, John Martin, director of the Department of Developmental Disabilities, wrote, “… the vast majority of people that have left MDC and YDC are satisfied with their new home.”

Here are some of the findings in the report:

As of February 2015, there were 176 residents of centers in Youngstown and Montgomery counties. As of May 31 of this year, 89 had moved to other locations.

Wide majorities of those who have moved were happy in their new homes – 97.37 percent. More than 94 percent said they felt safe, and 99 percent were able to access care they needed.

“For the reporting period, 69 people have moved from the two closing centers into community settings. Out of the 69, six individuals returned to one of the eight remaining developmental centers following discharge from a closing center. Of those six, two were from homes receiving waiver services and four from an intermediate care facility.”

Five residents died during the time frame while they were still living at the centers. Five others died following their discharges. “… No suspicious deaths or deaths resulting from neglect were found.”

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.