The Cayuga County Health and Human Services committee Thursday night voted in favor of creating a part-time clerk position at the county nursing home.

The committee voted 4-3, with Patrick Mahunik, Patrick McIntosh and Peter Tortorici dissenting. The request - for a person each day from 5 to 7 p.m. - came from county nursing home administrator Deb English and sparked some debate among committee members.

“I would just feel more comfortable waiting until we do the budget,” Tortorici, R-Auburn, said.

The nursing home has looked at every other alternative but nothing seems to be working, English said.

“We have tried everything we can think of before putting a body in the desk,” she said. “It's a need for the residents to be protected.”

During the dinner hours of 5 to 7 p.m., residents have been let out of the building by visitors. Currently, the facility doors magnetically lock when there is no receptionist and only people with the passcode can enter and exit the building. However, visitors are given the code so that they can leave when they need to and the staff can continue working productively, English said.

While there is a receptionist between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, there is nobody at the door after 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. or on the weekends.

Because the rest of the staff is busy getting residents to the dining room, serving the food and tending to other resident needs, that window is a difficult time to provide security for the residents, English said.

Tortorici said he's concerned that the need for the desk clerk will grow from two hours to four hours and even more, he said.

“I want to see them do more with the staff they have,” Tortorici said.

But English thinks that hiring a part-time receptionist, who will be paid $7.15 per hour or roughly $5,200 a year, will resolve the current issues.

“I'd like to try these two hours of peak time and see if it works,” English said. “We've experimented with this for a while now. If we could just elongate our day for those two more hours so that somebody is on the desk from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. that will make things flow a lot better.”

Mahunik, D-Auburn, is also concerned about adding a new position on county payroll.

“It's not that I voted against hiring a part-time receptionist,” Mahunik said. “I voted against the creation of a position at the nursing home. We have to look at our staff and see how we can use them more efficiently instead of creating new positions.”

The upcoming budget season will be extremely difficult, Mahunik said. At this time, he cannot support the creation of new jobs given the possibility that certain positions may have to be cut next year.

Dan Sincebaugh, D-Auburn, was less concerned with money and more concerned with providing residents a safe and secure place to live.

“People don't realize if you have a loved one with dementia, it's important for someone to get out there” to fill the position, he said.

Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net