Two Leflore County lawmakers threatened Wednesday night to vote against funding the state's mental health system unless their concerns about race relations at the regional center are addressed.
State Sen. David Jordan and Rep. Willie Perkins reiterated that blacks are being unjustly fired and are under-represented in the upper management of Life Help, the state's Region 6 mental health center. They addressed their criticisms to Dr. Randy Hendrix, the state's executive director of mental health, at a Greenwood Voters League meeting.
Perkins, who said he has always voted in favor of mental health issues, says his support might be wavering.
"I have never voted against you, but I may if I go back and folks out there aren't satisfied," he warned Hendrix. "You need to let the folks up here know that some of your supporters in the Legislature have a problem with how they're doing business here."
Hendrix, who spoke to the Voters League about Mississippi's mental health system and treatment of mental illness, retardation and addiction, said he has no authority on personnel matters at the regional centers.
"I didn't know about the concerns you're talking about tonight," he said. "I'll be glad to speak with the people at Life Help. But I wouldn't want to say something inappropriate tonight without having all the information."
His department manages the state's six psychiatric hospitals and six mental retardation facilities but only intermittently inspects the 15 regional centers to keep them in line with state and federal standards, such as staff-to-consumer ratios and facility square footage, he said. Regular operations are overseen by a local board of commissioners appointed by county supervisors in Region 6.
Robert Moore, president of the Leflore County Board of Supervisors, said he will vote to replace the county's current commissioner, Hank Hodges, when his term is up. Still, Moore said, one new commissioner likely won't affect the overall chemistry of a board that includes representatives from all eight Region 6 counties.
"If we pulled our appointment back, the situation would not change one iota," Moore said.
Based on the peer reviews and spot checks the state department conducts, though, Region 6 is exemplary, Hendrix said. He spoke directly to Life Help staff members in the audience.
"Region 6, when reviewed by us and by peer reviewers, always gets good reports on the quality of its programs and what you staff members are doing to meet the needs of your clients," he said.
Meanwhile, Region 6 officials are defending Life Help's integrity.
"We are 62 percent African Americans in our employment, and that's not low levels. That's some of the higher paid salaries, the professional staff," Madolyn Smith, Life Help's executive director, said this morning.
"I would dare say we're one of the most diverse agencies in the state. And I think as years go on, we'll be even more diverse at the top."
The confrontation Wednesday night flared up as former Life Help employees continued voicing complaints against the mental health center. The outcry began last month when employees whom Life Help terminated in the spring picketed outside the Region 6 office on Browning Road, linking their firings to a work environment that favors whites over blacks.
Three of the terminations were finalized after former employees made final appeals to Life Help's Board of Commissioners on Aug. 21. But their protests continue and have incited complaints from other former employees.
On Wednesday, Lawrence McDonald, one of the fired workers, told Hendrix that the local board's decision still doesn't resolve the situation.
"We have gripes nobody has been able to answer. There's something wrong with the way some of these programs are run in this area, and it needs to be looked into."
During the termination hearings, Region 6 administrators defended the integrity of Life Help, noting that the three positions had already been filled with black applicants. Black employees also hold the majority of the middle management and created positions, they said.
But Jordan says disregard of low-level black workers reflects a broader problem of racial-preferencing within Life Help's administration. Few of the upper-level administrators are black, he points out.
"To have a predominantly African-American county with most of the consumers coming from that county and to have not one African American in the upper echelons of the administration is ridiculous," Jordan said.
Smith said efforts are being made to diversify the upper management.
"Yes, at the upper level we're not as diverse as we would like to be, but I think we are progressive and keep working toward more diversity at the top," she said.
Two of the seven Life Help program coordinators are black, she said, and the agency has plans to hire a black applicant at its "very upper level."
"For long time, we have had plans to address our upper-management diversity, and that's prior to any of this," Smith said.
