Petrelis Files

S.F. Spends Almost $1M in Federal Money on AIDS Meetings

[This letter was snail mailed to HRSA today.]

Dr. Deborah Parham Hopson
Associate Administrator for HIV/AIDS
HRSA/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857

Re: Almost $1M for Ryan White CARE Council Meetings in S.F.

Dear Dr. Parham Hopson:

The minutes from the July 17 meeting of the San Francisco Health Commission show the commission voted to approve a request from the local Ryan White CARE Council to spend $889,457 in federal dollars over two-year period for the council’s administrative services.

I today formally request that you and the Department of Health and Human Services immediately cut the excessive amount spent (and wasted) by the San Francisco council for overhead expenses.

This is the pertinent section of the minutes I wish to bring to your attention:

“AIDS OFFICE-HIV Health Services - Request for approval of a contract modification with Shanti, in the amount of $179,734, for a total 2-year contract amount of $889,457 ($305,563 for year one and $583,894 for year two), to provide HIV Health Services Planning Council Support services, for the period of March 1, 2004 through February 28, 2006.” (Source: S.F. health department)

I must strongly object to almost $1 million dollars of Ryan White money being spent simply to run the San Francisco council responsible for dispersing the $28 million the city receives annually through the CARE Act. Administrative frugality is not one of this council’s core values, to the detriment of people with AIDS and HIV everywhere.

It is financially questionable why this local council allocates so much money for its meetings, professional minute-takers, highly paid ethicists and meeting facilitators.

The nearly $1 million should, in my opinion, be cut down to $10,000 yearly for the council’s support costs.

If you took the $889,457, reduced it by $20,000, for two years of San Francisco council meetings and support, and redirected the $869,457 left over into buying AIDS cocktails for patients, you’d be able to provide forty-eight people with AIDS a year’s worth of drugs.

Instead of allowing this council to allocate such a large sum for administration, redirect money from San Francisco to a program that purchases life-extending medicines for AIDS patients in Alabama.

Now, what’s more important? Getting life-extending drugs into bodies of patients, or, keeping the San Francisco CARE Council’s bureaucracy bloated?

While San Francisco spends an obscene amount in HRSA grants on infrastructure, Michelle Lampkin, an African-American woman living with AIDS in Alabama, is on a waiting list for AIDS drugs and other health care needs. Lampkin was featured on the cover of the July 2005 edition of POZ magazine.

In a heart-breaking story of her valiant struggle to receive a regular supply of AIDS drugs, readers learn about her desperate needs and those like her in the southern state. If you haven’t yet read about Lampkin, please go to the POZ site and read the article.

There simply is no justification for San Francisco to squander nearly $1 million of Ryan White grants, as people with AIDS around the country beg for medicines.

I repeat my request: Cut San Francisco’s amount for CARE Council expenses and ship the money saved to Alabama.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis