“We do not frighten recipients,” said Christine Applegate, director of the county’s Community Services Agency. “We do not coerce or frighten.”

Several people among 26 speakers said otherwise.

“It’s really sad how people come to my home and treat me like a criminal when I did nothing wrong,” said Julie Valenzuela, one of 6,241 recipients in this county. She said she has 12 stents in her heart.

“Your tactics are bringing dishonor and disgrace to Stanislaus County,” said Doug Moore, a union executive. “We’re not going to stand silent and let you get away with it.”

Many others spoke in similar terms, accusing supervisors of recently raising their own pay 3.75 percent and conspiring to lower providers’ wages, they said, while state and federal agencies reimburse the county’s In-Home Supportive Services program.

But officials flatly rebutted both claims.

Whoever has been spreading a rumor about supervisors voting themselves more pay is ignoring that they rejected the proposed raise, leaders said. Like all other county employees, supervisors accepted a 5 percent pay cut over the next two years, said Rick Robinson, the county’s chief executive officer.

And though it’s true that state and federal money covers most of the home-care program’s $60 million cost, the county kicks in $3.4 million from its general fund, Applegate said.

“The county is responsible for hundreds of programs, not just IHSS,” Robinson said, noting the county’s $37 million drop in discretionary revenue in just three years.

Waving a green mailer sent to providers by their union, United Domestic Workers, Danny Garcia hotly demanded, “Are you calling our union a liar?”

Officials said they don’t know who is spreading misinformation but insisted the county’s version is the truth.

Protesters landed emotional blows with some speakers, some of whom cried at the rostrum.

“If I had to go to a care home, I would die,” Betty Friday said from her wheelchair, questioning whether providers would quit because of the pay cut.

Josie Halcon, a seasonal cannery worker, spoke of mental and physical exhaustion from caring for an adult son, paralyzed by multiple sclerosis, who can’t walk, talk or eat without help.

“Walk a mile in my shoes,” said provider Diane Mejia of Modesto. “I challenge you to take care one day of a severely disabled person.”

Union organizer Steve Mehlman said those protesting represent “some of the most vulnerable people in the county. … If what you’ve seen and heard over the last several weeks doesn’t make you understand that this is not like other programs, I don’t know what it will take.”

The providers’ labor contract with the county expired Saturday, but Moore warned that Fresno County tried unilaterally imposing a wage cut on care providers, drawing a court order stopping the reduction.

Applegate said fraud investigators sometimes ask to go through belongings, such as underwear drawers, because that helps determine who really lives in a home. Lying about household composition is an example of fraud, she said.

LaDean Burnett, another provider, said two clients became suicidal when she shared her intent to speak at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Most protesters walked out of the meeting chamber just before supervisors began responding, as they did several weeks ago. Leaders said that shows disrespect.

Supervisor Vito Chiesa said, “What one person considers a raid, we consider a visit.” He said investigators now wear lapel microphones and inform people that they’re recording visits. And Supervisor Jim DeMartini said the fraud unit “is necessary if we’re going to be good stewards of the public’s money.”

Supervisor Dick Monteith said he had wanted to praise providers for loyal service under difficult circumstances but was disappointed because they already had left in a huff.

Jeff Grover, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said choosing cuts among the county’s hundreds of programs is like Solomon having to “divide the baby.”

While agencies pay for care in more than 6,000 homes, Grover said, “there are tens of thousands of homes in our county where people take care of a loved one and don’t ask for help.” The county’s budget woes, he said, “are going to get worse, but government never has been and never will be the answer to all our problems.”

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or 578-2390.Other items on the agenda.Page B-3

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