State clears BMHI of Big Brother charge

After a two-month investigation, state officials have concluded that Bangor Mental Health Institute did not improperly use security cameras and guards to spy on employees as charged by two labor unions.

But state investigators said an environment of distrust already existing at the mental health hospital was aggravated by management’s inability to explain why it added the new security precautions.

“The communication strategy employed to prepare employees for the implementation of technological advances and other significant operational changes was largely ineffective,” according to a report released this week by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

The report said labor unrest at BMHI had not affected patient care.

BMHI Superintendent N. Lawrence Ventura said management and the unions met Wednesday to discuss the report and to begin working on improving communication.

“We want to hire a facilitator to have meetings and to put these things on the table,” he said. “I think we all walked out of that meeting saying we’re moving forward.”

In a Sept. 7 letter written by union representatives Ron Ahlquist and Beverly Bustin Hathaway, the state was asked to investigate reports that the security changes had created a Big Brother atmosphere. “We have become concerned over the past year that BMHI has become a workplace of mistrust, with an atmosphere which is less than desirable to work in,” the letter said.

The state interviewed 56 employees about the changes, which include new automated time clocks, new security cameras and hiring an outside security force to replace internal security guards.

Portions of the report were kept secret because they deal with complaints about a particular individual. They will be made public if substantiated in a later report, said Christopher Leighton, an assistant attorney general.

Among the conclusions made public, the department found that the administration’s “good intentions” to safeguard employees and patients had been misunderstood, and that general mistrust exists at BMHI. In addition, the report said management had raised concerns among workers over how time clocks were being used when it broadly addressed issues related to the conduct of just a few individuals.

The report also recommended that several personnel procedures be reviewed.

Another meeting between BMHI administration and labor unions will be held next week, said Ventura.