GarCo to pay $2,000 bonuses to new jailers

By DENNIS WEBB
The Daily Sentinel

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said he will offer $2,000 hiring bonuses as the newest way of trying to address understaffing at the county jail.

Vallario also will offer a $500 recruiting incentive to employees who provide leads to people who end up being hired and work out well for the Sheriff’s Department.

The moves are the latest by Vallario to deal with a jail that has been 20 to 25 percent below full staffing for the last year.

Last fall, he increased starting jail deputy pay to $18.66 an hour. The 11 percent raise equalized pay between patrol and detention deputies.

However, Vallario continues to struggle to find enough help in an area where many employers in both the public and private sectors face similar problems.

He said he worries that overtime shifts and a reduction in training opportunities may be pushing a dedicated detention staff to its limits.

“If we don’t provide relief, I fear that the vacancy rate will get worse,” Vallario said in a memo to county commissioners.

He said if the bonuses work, they may be something other county departments might want to try, he said. He noted that many employers in the area already provide bonuses for new hires.

Vallario plans to pay for the program from an annual U.S. Department of Justice grant his department receives to help deal with apprehension of criminal aliens. Employee recruitment, retention and training are allowable expenses under the grant.

Vallario said the bonuses might help new employees with moving expenses, rental deposits or purchase of equipment not provided by the Sheriff’s Department. Finding housing and coming up with down payments or rental deposits is a major challenge for workers moving to the Glenwood Springs area because of high housing and rental costs.

The Sheriff’s Department will need to work out details of the program to make sure the hiring and recruitment bonuses aren’t paid out prematurely, to guard against cases in which new hires don’t work out, Vallario said.

E-mail Dennis Webb at dwebb@gjds.com.

Mexican workers who were stranded in Glenwood get an attorney

Lawsuit filed for lost wages

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20080126/VALLEYNEWS/160238665

Sixty-five Mexican workers came to Glenwood for work that was supposedly promised to them. Now attorney Don Kaufman, and his firm, Kaufman and Kaufman, have taken on the case pro bono, and are “suing human traffickers for ‘unpaid wages.’”

By Pete Fowler
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
January 26, 2008

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — About 65 Mexican citizens took legal action Thursday, demanding a total of more than $177,000 from companies they say brought them from Mexico to Glenwood Springs with the promise of work they never got.

Glenwood Springs attorney Don Kaufman filed the lawsuit for the workers free of charge. He said they had no money and no way to seek justice on their own.

“Normally these guys kind of blow away,” he said. “They come in twos and threes, become illegal or disappear. We’ve never seen a situation where so many people were disenfranchised at one time.”

The workers said they traveled from Mexico in hopes of working over Christmas to save money for their families. They arrived at the end of November and ended up in limbo at local hotels after not getting jobs they were contracted to do. All but about 10 left on Dec. 21 on buses sent by JNS Construction Services LLC.

As they were being sent home with no work, several said they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to repay loans they’d taken to get here. One man said they came here with nothing in their pocket but lies about the jobs.

Kaufman said the immigration debate is separate from this unfair treatment of legal workers.

“These are not the guys who jumped the border unlawfully,” he said. “These are the guys who stood in line, played by the rules and did everything legally.”

According to the complaint, all 65 men came to the U.S. with valid Mexican passports, identification and class H2B visas to work for the Texas-based JNS. JNS transports laborers from Mexico and gets them contract jobs. JNS said it contracted with Midwest Drywall Co. Both companies are named in the complaint, as well as Leno and Co. LLC. The complaint says Leno’s role was to organize the men, and JNS obtained visas for each of them.

Each plaintiff paid at least $650 to get to the U.S. with the promise of employment, Kaufman says, and they’re owed a total of $177,450 for lost wages plus other damages. The complaint says the men were each promised $910 per week for three weeks.

Denis Dieker, treasurer for Midwest, said, “What we see is JNS fraudulently used our name when they applied for visas for these guys. … We had asked for workers from JNS for another project earlier in the year, and they never delivered on those workers. We never asked for workers after that on the project they are talking about.”

The workers turned to Catholic Charities after getting stuck in Glenwood Springs with no work and hearing the organization might help. That led them to Kaufman.

John Herzor, who’s named in the lawsuit as a principal owner of JNS Construction, said previously he made a cash offer to the men and sent two buses for them to take them home. He hung up the phone after that statement and didn’t return a phone message Friday afternoon.

Tom Ziemann, director of Catholic Charities, said the cash offer was for $690. Some men received only $200 and others received none at all.

“I’m happy that Don is seeing this through,” Ziemann said. “We’re trying to seek justice for these 65 men.”

According to Ziemann, 10 men stayed and became illegal out of desperation.
“They tried to stay, play by the rules, and things didn’t work out,” he said.

The Mexican Consulate said it had attorneys looking into the situation. Kaufman said the Mexican government hired an attorney to help keep him in contact with the men, who are ready and willing to travel back to the U.S. to testify if need be.

“If we were to prevail, if somehow it were to become profitable to stop trafficking human beings, maybe people would stop doing it,” he said.

Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121
pfowler@postindependent.com

Don Kaufman Glenwood Springs Workers Compensation Attorney http://www.postindependent.com/article/20080126/VALLEYNEWS/160238665

“Speculative state sanctioned human trafficking futures market.”

Our most vulnerable are all too often the most wronged by our least scrupulous. I am filing this complaint on behalf of 65 men who did not have the means, mode nor method to seek justice.
The very germane debate concerning immigration is totally separate from the harm inflicted upon these innocent workers. These men traveled internationally, with valid visas, performed a service, played by the rules and were injured by the most dubious of bosses engaged in the “speculative state sanctioned human trafficking futures market.” (© TM Don Kaufman 2007)

These legal workers were held hostage by an economic devastation directly caused by the Defendants. They were trapped by poverty made much worse by the dishonorable dealings of the Defendants.
The trafficking of human beings is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation. It is estimated to be a $5 to $9 billion-a-year industry. Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power. Economic leverage can often make victim consent to the exploitation. The Defendants might argue that this was just a business deal gone bad, but for the workers it was pure human trafficking exploitation.

Today, by filing this complaint, these workers ask the court for justice and honesty if the form of promises kept and wages earned.


Don Kaufman, Attorney for the Workers January 25, 2008
http://www.coloradoattorney.org/clients.html
colorado workers compensation attorey glenwood silt rifle glenwood parachute carbondale.

Don Kaufman Attorney at Law, Glenwood Springs
401 23rd Suite 302
Glenwood Springs, Colorado 81601
(970) 945-2396

Injured Workers Have Pharmacy Options.

IWP is an outfit that provides Workers' Compensation medications for injured workers. They are an independent pharmacy service, which means they appear to be concerned with your interest. And yours alone.
If you call them they indicate that they will ship your Workers' Compensation medications right to your door, hassle free. The promise to work on your behalf, filling your prescription needs even if your claim has been denied or goes through litigation.
What does IWP promise?
• Your prescriptions and medical equipment when you need it
• A dedicated customer service team
• Licensed pharmacists available for consultation
• Free next day home delivery for all approved claims
• Multi-lingual assistance
• Caring, respectful, professional service
• Freedom from time and stress spent on phone calls and paperwork
What they might help with…?
• Confusing claim forms
• Out-of-pocket expenses on approved Workers' Compensation claims
• Waiting for reimbursement
Check them out if you are having issues. This might not be right for everyone but it might help many injured workers.

http://www.iwpharmacy.com

If you have questions please call the Law Firm of KAUMAN & KAUFMAN, LLC. We do not endorse nor not endorse specific products or services but think that this might really help some of our rural clients in Western Colorado. Don Kaufman 401 23rd Street, Suite 302, Glenwood Springs, Colorado 81601 (970) 945-2396 Fax (970) 945-7763 www.coloradoattorney.com

Strong safety records earn local businesses rewards

$133,256 in dividends paid

Local businesses that maintained good records for work-related accidents and for getting injured workers back on the job are being rewarded with thousands of dollars in dividends.
A variety of local businesses in the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association Workers' Comp Safety Group will receive $133,256 in dividends based on $3.4 million in annual worker's compensation policy premiums paid from July 1, 2001, to July 1, 2002.
"The large amount of dividends paid to Glenwood Springs chamber members is indicative of the commitment these companies have to providing safe workplaces and quality safety programs," noted Carol Valdez, marketing representative for nonprofit workers' compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance.
"The strength of the program is the commitment Glenwood Springs chamber members are making to keep their employees safe.
"Chamber members insured by Pinnacol Assurance through the Workers' Compensation Safety Group can qualify for a dividend by implementing a safety program, attending one safety seminar per year, maintaining a good loss ratio and being a chamber member in good standing," Valdez said.
More than $400,000 in workers comp dividends were earned by Glenwood chamber members in the past three years.
The chamber has been enrolled in the program since 1994. Benefits for members include savings up to 4 percent on qualified policies, industry specific safety and loss control plans and peer-to-peer counseling.
The chamber also offers a series of educational seminars and provides custom safety manuals for its safety group members.
"Pinnacol Assurance works closely with the Glenwood Springs chamber to provide safety programs, loss control plans, return-to-work assistance and educational seminars for members of the Workers' Comp Safety Group," Valdez said.

Aspen ski workers taking on Big Oil

Foundation pumps $34K into effort to limit or prevent Roan drilling

Scott Condon
Aspen, CO Colorado
January 16, 2008

ASPEN — A foundation funded by Aspen Skiing Co. employees on Tuesday jumped into the bitter battle between environmentalists and the oil industry over drilling for natural gas in western Colorado’s Roan Plateau.

The Environment Foundation announced that it awarded two grants directly tied to the Roan battle and two others indirectly connected. The four grants totaled $34,302, according to Matt Hamilton, executive director of the Environment Foundation.

“We’re not anti-drilling. We’re for smart drilling,” he said. The foundation’s board of directors felt it needed to join the effort to save “the last special places worth protecting in their entirety. The Roan is one of them.”

Greg Schnacke, president and CEO of Golden, Colo.-based Americans for American Energy, said the Skico workers’ foundation and a lot of other players in the Roan Plateau debate “don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Opponents of drilling for natural gas in western Colorado don’t make the connection that the gas that warms many of their homes and businesses comes from western Garfield County. Drilling foes want warm houses as long as the drilling doesn’t occur in their backyard, he said.

Litigation possible
One of the grants awarded by the Environment Foundation may help fund a lawsuit environmentalists are pondering over the Roan Plateau. Western Resource Advocates was given an $11,802 grant to fund legal work “to limit or eliminate drilling atop the Roan Plateau,” Hamilton said. Another environmental organization gave a similar-sized grant to fund the legal work, he said.

Colorado Mountain Club was awarded $5,000 to develop an economic analysis of the impact of drilling on the Roan. The Mountain Club has worked for years to rally citizens and governments of the Western Slope against drilling on 52,000 acres of public lands on Roan Plateau, an area west of Rifle that towers over the Colorado River Valley.

The Environment Foundation also granted $10,000 to Western Colorado Congress to educate residents of towns in western Garfield County about the health impacts of gas drilling. A documentary filmmaker was granted $7,500 to help production of her work, called Split Estate, which shows health impacts from drilling in western Colorado.

Hamilton said this grant cycle wasn’t the first time the Environment Foundation funded efforts related to natural gas drilling. Western Colorado Congress, for example, has received $56,000 over the last seven or eight years, he noted.

But this was the highest concentration of dollars thrown into the fray. The foundation’s board members felt a sense of urgency about the Roan Plateau because the area’s fate could be settled this year, Hamilton said.

Counter productive for business?
Schnacke said the Environment Foundation’s expenditures made no sense. It is funding groups that have goals that run counter to the Aspen Skiing Co.’s business interests, he claimed.

Schnacke previously charged that Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland and the town were hypocrites by opposing drilling on Roan Plateau while the town’s mansions suck down significantly higher amounts of energy than average U.S. homes.

On Tuesday, Schnacke also accused Skico employees of hypocrisy. The company relies on destination skiers, many of whom arrive for their vacation on private jets then stay in highly consumptive residences. Opposing energy production makes little sense for an area that depends so heavily on energy consumption, he said.

Schnacke challenged Environment Foundation members to read the Roan Plateau drilling plan, which he labeled one of the most environmentally responsible plans ever crafted for drilling in public lands. Surface disturbance will be limited to a few hundred acres among the 80 square miles, he said.

“I just don’t understand the skiing company’s point,” Schnacke said.

Hamilton defended the Environment Foundation’s direction. Its members love the outdoors, he said, and the organization has a 10-year history of protecting the environment. Its position is consistent on the Roan Plateau because it wants to make sure drilling is undertaken in the most responsible way, he said.

Hamilton stressed that the foundation is independent of the Aspen Skiing Co.

Record grant cycle
The Environment Foundation gave 13 organizations $100,000 in grants this cycle, a record amount. It also gave $70,000 in spring 2007. The largest individual grant also was awarded this cycle. Environment Colorado’s Research and Policy Center was given $20,000 to promote a state Climate Action Plan proposed by Gov. Bill Ritter.

The Environment Foundation is funded through voluntary contributions from Skico employees and supported by the Aspen Skiing Co. Family Fund and the Aspen Community Foundation.

In the decade since it was formed, the Environment Foundation has given $1.12 million to 233 environmental projects and causes.

scondon@aspentimes.com

www.coloradoattorney.com

Nation owes Rocky Flats workers

A panel charged with investigating whether health and radiation dose records were adequate enough at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility in Jefferson County may have met its charge, but it certainly has left former public servants in a lurch.

As a result, many of the former public employees, who were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation as they helped the nation build the nuclear bombs that ended the Cold War, will die before they receive the compensation rightfully theirs.

It’s rare for members of the Colorado congressional delegation to agree on anything, but on this they are united: The nation owes former Rocky Flats workers expedited claims status, similar to the status already given to workers at all the other nuclear weapons factories in the country.

Rocky Flats produced triggers for nuclear weapons starting in 1951 and continuing until the government shut down the plant in 1991. Triggers were ball-shaped components made of nuclear and explosive material meant to initiate the nuclear reaction of the bomb.

Rocky Flats had a history of spills, leaks, fires and explosions that exposed workers to excessive doses of radiation. The FBI raided the facility in 1989, and that investigation resulted in Rockwell International, the contractor, being fined $18.5 million.

Workers at Rocky Flats have waited patiently as first the Department of Energy botched its responsibility, and now the Department of Labor has continued to block timely payment of medical claims.

Just the process of trying to secure special exposure status has taken more than two years.

The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health did provide expedited status to plant workers there from 1959 to 1966. But workers after that time, even those diagnosed with any of 22 cancers typical of radiation exposure, will need to go through standard dosage reconstruction from dusty and incomplete records in order to receive compensation.

The nation owes these workers more. They need to have their claims processed while they are still alive and while they can use the money for treatment that might extend their lives.

If the federal bureaucracy cannot act expeditiously on their claims, then Congress will need to step in to assure that they receive what they are due.