The recent relocation of North County Being Alive, the only HIV/AIDS coordinated services center in North County, has caused a rift to develop between North County staff and Being Alive’s San Diego headquarters. Reduction in staff, hours of operation and services coupled with dissatisfaction with the new location and allegations that the move was handled poorly prompted North County’s director, Dennis Finnell, to file a grievance with the board of directors calling for the resignation of Being Alive San Diego’s executive director, Shannon Wagner.

Finnell filed his grievance on Feb. 15, and received a request for further information from Being Alive’s executive board, which he submitted March 3. A board meeting had been scheduled for Monday, but was cancelled because several board members were ill. A new date has not been set.

Wagner told the Gay & Lesbian Times that she is unable to discuss the grievance until the board completes its process, which they are hoping to resolve in the next two weeks.

She did confirm that Being Alive North County’s previous location had changed ownership and the accompanying rise in rent costs was more per month than the reimbursement the county gives the North County office for operation costs.

“The total monthly reimbursement covered one-third of the salary costs for three of the four part-time staff people we had up there, and one-third of the space costs,” Wagner explained. “So you know right off the bat that the $50,000 is one-third of the $150,000 required for the three part-time staff and the space. That’s before you get to an audit, insurance, phone, everything else that would be associated with a businesses.”

Private donations and grants that have helped Being Alive North County leverage their expenses have expired, and the facility is now relying solely on a $50,000 county contract, which is why services and hours had to be reduced.

North County Being Alive serves 147 ongoing clients, as well as people who come in for information or referrals, Finnell said. Being Alive North County is now open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

One North County staff member resigned because of the reduction in hours, pay and benefits, and another quit for other reasons, Wagner said. The San Diego office has hired one new staff member to run the office along with Finnell. A part-time mover with Being Alive’s Helping Hands program works at the office 10 hours a week.

Consumers were “very upset” with the way the move to the new location was handled, Finnell said, and that coupled with the poor treatment he feels he and his staff received from San Diego headquarters is the reason for his grievance.

Karen Lee, a North County Being Alive consumer, spearheaded a letter of complaint to Terry Cunningham, chief of San Diego County’s Office of AIDS Coordination, signed by 20 North County Being Alive consumers.

The letter said that North County staff and consumers were notified Dec. 12 that the office needed to be moved by Jan. 31, and that they were not told the new location of the office until 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 31.

Because of the last-minute nature of the move, a portion of the office’s contents were left locked in the moving truck overnight, Lee said. The office did not reopen until Feb. 3.

The letter went on to say that North County staff and consumers have had difficulty accessing Being Alive’s public board meetings, and have been treated poorly by the San Diego office when they’ve called to obtain information and complain about the situation, including one phone call from the San Diego office asking North County clients to “stop harassing” them.

“We do not feel that calling and [sic] agency’s boss to find out what is going on with our services is harassment,” the letter said.

Additionally, the phone lines were shut down with no forwarding number left. “Finally, I called [the San Diego office] and I said, ‘It makes it sound like we’re out of business,’” Finnell said. “So they put a number on [re-routing callers to the San Diego office], but they put the wrong number on by one digit, so I had to call them again and say, ‘You know, you guys still don’t have it right, this is still not the right number.’”

Wagner was unable to comment on the matter pending resolution of Finnell’s grievance, but said that that the forwarding number was only off by one digit for approximately two hours.

In response to the letter of complaint, Cunningham called a meeting at North County Health Services on March 9 to discuss North County Being Alive’s concerns. Karen Waters-Montijo and Patricia Honeycutt, who oversee contracts at the Office of AIDS Coordination, were also on hand to answer questions from the 20 North County Being Alive consumers, former staff, service providers and community members who attended.

Consumers at the meeting said the new location is accessible by bus, but the commute, which takes anywhere from 45 minutes to two and a half hours for some consumers, makes accessing services difficult. Additionally, the office is located adjacent to a bar, and consumers in recovery and those with children feel unsafe going there.

Cunningham stressed that his office could only address issues pertaining to the $50,000 yearly contract the county grants for an HIV/AIDS coordinated services center in North County, but said he would look into concerns that the new location impinges upon consumers’ ability to obtain the core services stipulated in the contract. Core services include access to primary medical care, case management, a walk-in center, language translation services and counseling.

San Diego County has experienced $1 million in cuts to federal HIV/AIDS funding in the last year, Cunningham explained. HIV/AIDS service providers throughout the county have had to make substantial cuts to services, he added, though core services should remain.

“The picture is very bleak,” Cunningham said. “Something’s got to give. We only have so much money and have to make cuts.”

He also said he understands the economics of Being Alive San Diego’s need to cut hours and services with only $50,000 to keep the North County office afloat. Being Alive San Diego also has a $50,000 contract with the county, earmarked for their peer advocacy program, and has to look elsewhere for funding for both offices. Cunningham is traveling to Washington, D.C., this week to lobby for reinstatement of Ryan White Care Act federal funding for San Diego County.

San Diego’s Priority Setting Committee and HIV Planning Council are holding meetings this month to decide where this year’s new round of funding cuts will be applied.