Despite being $20 billion in the hole, Governor finds way to harrass IHSS consumers

I guess it isn't enough that the Governor has had IHSS providers (workers) in his crosshairs since the day he took office. Apparently our (both providers and consumers (clients)) mere existence is unacceptable. Always looking for a new and devastating way to burn his fellow Californians, he's going after IHSS consumers (clients). You know, the low income elderly and disabled not to mention usually frail neighbors and family we care for that are our neighbors, friends and family. My friend's who cares for his father with dementia, my wife with Cerebral Palsy, my friend who cares for her child with Spina Bifida these are the latest group he's added to his list of usual suspects. This man has no conscious: he'll attack the poor and weak to perpetuate the illusion his efforts are saving money. But as I've written before the pennies he's saving are far outweighed by the dollars he's spending. Take, for example, the $3.5 million spent in Sacramento County to find fraud. Nineteen cases of fraud were detected for their efforts. That is a monumental waste of our, the taxpayers, money and an affront to 99% of honest IHSS providers. Now his administration is mulling over the purchase several hundred of these "MorphoTrak 'mobile biometric identification' device[s]". I checked out their website and found 2 devices that seem to fit the description in the Sacramento Bee article. Clearly this is speculative, but these devices seem overpriced and are more like mobile homecare terrorizing devices. Take your pick. What's next: a 1984-esque television that watches back?

See, if the guy gathering your information just smiles at you  it's make the criminalization of your job/disability so much easier to swallow! Seriously what a condescending smirk!

Or how about this one. Why not just go for broke and bring a lie detector to every consumer's house?

I see a few problems with the devices and their use. Here in Sonoma county, and I presume other organized counties, the contract between the county and the union reaffirms the long standing (e.g. before unionization) consumer right to "[d]etermine in advance and under all circumstances who may and may not enter their home." This is from section 3.1 (A) (3) of all contracts since we became organized in Sonoma county. What if a consumer can't come to the door? Hmmmmm. This privacy clause applies to unannounced house visits, but the Zombies are too busy hiring an army of lawyers from 4 law firms to fight NUHW in court next week to care about what really matters.

Second is the cost of these devices. These devices appear to be functionally equivalent to what I've listed below, at a price well below the 5 grand estimated cost of these mobile terrorizing units. Is this the best the Governator can come up with to fight fraud and save money? He can have both without spending a fortune of taxpayers money (which is not his money).

Finger print scanner: $39-$64
Digital camera: $29 & up
Netbook (a stripped down notebook computer): $250 & up (or better yet this one)

Add them up and what do you get, outside of a vendor who found a pot of gold hiding in the state budget?

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$318 (just under $350 with tax)

The software to operate the fingerprint reader is included with the reader itself and any computer from 2001 forward can retrieve pictures from a digital camera with any additional software.

Finally, as stated in the article the new legislation does not mention photographing consumers. Sounds like the State is getting in on the harassment of consumers normally performed by fraudsters.

So it appears that yet again the Governator's plans to destroy homecare will cost far money than it can ever hope to save. I'm so happy he's terming out of office next year.