Perry Cook

"I've really stirred up a ball of wax!" Perry Cook, an electrical foreman at Ypsilanti State Hospital since 1970, says. It took him three years to get someone to take his allegations about misuse of funds and personnel at the hospital seriously, he says. Now, it seems, there are people who ; are taking his charges too seriously. About one-and-a-half weeks ago, two signs appeared on the bulletin board of ithe maintenance department which he regards as threats: "Hoffa First, Cook Second ... Mafia" and "Hoffa Gone, Cook Next ... Mafia." He has been on sick leave since those signs appeared under doctor's rders for "mental harrassment from the j anee department; mental anguish ; I ing my nerves and ability to wörk." "I don't appreciate being called 'a dog' ! I lor what I've dóne," he says, 'claiming ' I that a staf f person has called him that. I "But I have four granddaughters. One day, one of them might end up in a menI tal institution and I don't want them to I suffer the way patients do now." And although he claims he has spent over $700 in telephone calis and trips to the State Capitol in Lansing in attempts to get someone to listen to his . tions, he saySj "I feel it was worth it. I'd doit again." Cook has made something of an avocaI tion of monitoring the state agencies I where he has worked. Back in 1970, when he was an electriI cian with the Department of State HighI ways, he complained to the State HighI way Department about abuses that carne ■ to his attention in the course of his job. I (He worked on the Zilwaukee and St; I Clair Bridges "and every rest área in thé I state.") He proudly displays a letter he reI ceived from the highway commission aftI er they had investigated his charges. It states that they were "implementing certain recommendations affecting supervisory personnel and procedures of the maintenance division's statewide emergency crew." i "I got a promotion after that," Cook boasls. The promotion was to his present .job at Ypsilanti State Hospital. "The guys I blew the whistle on in the highway department weren't too happy" about his continued presence in that department, Cook concedes. "It (the YSH job) was an open position in mental health. but it was offered to me. And it l_vms_a_better job, so I touk it." He now calis the day he switched from highways to mental health "a dark day - there iasn't as much graft in highways as there is in mental health." Whilé many of his allegations about Ypsilanti State Hospital have been regarded as serious and a matter of ; tigation by the Auditor General's office, Cook's insistence that vast amounts of i money were spent on purchasing popcorn tends to danage his credibility. On the one hand, the audit report verified his claim that several areas recently remodeled at the hospital had since been closed down. The report also agreed with his contentiöns that there were still problems - minor ones - with the recently i installed fire alarm and smoke detection i system in one of the buildings at the 1, pital. The report also substantiated his charge that unlicensed personnel had re-J ! paired eleyators, against state regula' tions. On the other hand, despite his initial; allegation that around $10,000 had been spent by the hospital on popcorn in the last five years, the state auditor determined that "only 645 pounds of popcorn and one gallon of popcorn oil were 1 sitioned by the maintenance depart-j ment." And, the auditor reported, the , popcorn was consumed mostly by tients who worked in the laundry, grounds, safety and maintenance departments. It didn't appear that the popcorn was eaten by hospital employés as Cook alleged and apparently still believes. Cook can be a man of the theatrical gesture. At a meeting held yesterday in the office of State Sen. Gilbert Bursley (R-Ann Arbor) to give Cook's allegations a full lairing, Cook brought along a paper bag whichf obviously contained a heavy object, In the midst of the discussion about 1 the alleged discrepancies in the ' "pifar s électncjy system, (Jook said, "I want to show you something but you'd' i better get me an lold newspaper to put this thing on." ' What was in the bág? .Conversation stopped and all present sat waiting for Cook to divulge what was inside. Out carne a glob of crystallized dirt with a wire poking out at one end. (see picture, page 19. That Avas his evidence that 10 amp fuses were being used in the street lighting system at the hospital where only 6.6 amp fuses should be. "The poles and the ground will burn but the fuses will never blow," Cook'cha'rged dramatically. The eléctrica! inspéetoffiojB hospital a clean bilí of health admitted to I him, Cook said, that they didn't I stand the street lighting system at the I hospital. Superintendent of Ypsilanti State I pital Dr. Vernon A. Stehman, present at I the meeting, reacted by calling for a I view of the lightiijig system. , Douglas Smith, assistani to Sen. I ley, asked Cook, "What are your I sibilities as an eléctrica foreman for I correcting situations like this?" Cook replied, "I make out a I with a carbon for, myself because I I learned long ago that I shouíd keep a re I cord of everything I do- and put it on the I desk of my immediate supervisor. The I business administrator ttfld me that once I it's on his (the supervisor's) desk, 'Yóu I can forget it. It's not your worry.' So I I don 't worry about it. "I ordered the proper fuses in 1971 but I they didn't want to bother getting them I from St. Louis. So they've never replaced I the fuses- they won't blow- and we've I had light poles actually burning." Cook also questioned where 12 larger I fuses costing $77 a piece wëre. "They I were left on. the job site. Where are they I now?" "We can 't confirm whether or not Uiey mmaswam ■ anr gcükI ÍTTéTveTreceived.1 replied Walter Kenzie, assistant superintendent of Ypsilanti State Hospital. , 1 "That's just like the shop drawings we ■ never got," Cook retorted. I Cook is also a man of paradoxes. At one point he challenged priorities ín I hospital remodeling: "The majority of thé remodeling has been done for the employées' benefit and not for the patients." But he also charged that the hospital is overstaffed. "In 1970 Ypsilanti had only 800 employées for 2,800 patients. Today we've got 1,000 staff and 1,000 patients. Does that sound right to you?" Although his figures aren't up-to-date (Ypsilanti has about 1,028 staff to approximately 980 patients right now), that doesn't appear to be the primary concern of those who would oppose such a state■ I "'boÜi Dr Stehman and Acting Director 1 ■ of the Department of Mental Health Dr. lüonald C. Smith say that adequate pa I tient care caq be achieved only wrth I I proved staff-to-patient ratios, although I those staffing guidelines have yet to be I Many of 'the allegations Cook brought _ 1 ■ to the state auditor's attention have been ■ "isolated cases occurring over a one-to■ seven year period, and have been disconI toued in recent years," the audit report Nevertheless, he regards what he has ■ done as valuable. 'Tm not oneto throw ■ any piece of paper away. You never ■ know when it might come in handy ... I when people are telling you a lot of crap, I hp savs. I Perry Cook, on eléctrica! foreI man af Ypsilanti State Hospital, I has somefimes had a hard time I geffing anone to toke bis charges I of abuses of funós af fhe insfifufion I seriously. But people in high places were lisfening yesterday af a I I ing in Sen. Gilberf Bursley office. I I From leff in photo are Dick Krieger ; I 1 and Roy Vernellis of the state audiI tor generáis office; Waíter Kenzie, I administrative officer of Ypsihnti I Sfafe Hospifaí; and Doug Smith, ossisfont to Sen. Bursíey. (See story I on Page 19.) I ' I