Daily News from New York, New York • 619

DAILYbNEWS FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1979 XQl Having a hoe down? By FRANK LOMBARDI Albany (News Bureau) State auditors have uncovered continued, administrative abuses at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village, including the circumventing of competitive bids for purchases and holding on to 324,000 in money that belonged to discharged and deceased patients. Some employes were found asleep on the job, or leaving patients without proper supervision, the audit said. The audit by Controller Edward V. Regan was a follow-up of a similar study of the center in 1975. "Many of the same inadequacies continued although the center had agreed to correct the deficiencies," the audit reported.

A spokesman for Creedmoor said that the administration had agreed with the criticisms and corrected all except those condemning patients inactivity. we receive increased staffing, we will do the very best that we can do." the administration had told Regan. "There is not one other thing there that he would find if he visited the spokesman said. Creedmoor has an annual budget of over S33 million and a staff of 2.500. It cares for 1.700 inpatients and another 8.000 outpatients.

The audit criticizes the center's purchasing practices, its cash handling procedures, payroll practices, its community store operations, audit inventory and equipment control. The center is supposed to obtain three competitive quotes on purchases of over S500. A review of S5.3 million in contracts revealed that on many occa-" sions orders were placed for similar products with the same supplier, with each rder worth just under S500 to avoid having to obtain the bids. Items bought included place mats, shampoo, hand lotion, men's socks, and smoke detectors. One flagrant example cited in the audit was the purchase of 700 bedspreads in 1977 from the D.J.

Sales one of the center's suppliers. The order totalled S5.250. The firm, however, delivered the spreads on three separate dates, and later submitted 11 separate billing vouchers, each for less than S500. In most instances, the state was able to buy the same products at cheaper prices than those paid by the center. There was no charge in the audit that personal gain was involved in the abuses.

Center officials told the auditors that they agreed with most of the findings and will heed recommendations to tighten up bidding controls and other reforms. The state auditors found that the center was still holding on to the S324.000 that belonged to discharged or deceased patients. No interest was credited to the accounts. Unclaimed money should have been turned over to the state if patients could not be located, the audit said. The auditors said they found 15 employes asleep on the job during two surprise night floor checks in April 1978.

Other employes left work early or signed out for each other. The auditors also said they found poor supervision on the ward. As a result, the auditors said they saw patients asleep on the floors and in the bathrooms and patients pacing up and down the hallways when they were supposed to be under supervision. Disciplinary action was recommended against the sleeping employes and those who falsified time sheets. The Creedmoor spokesman said that the institution was abiding by competitive bidding rules although it sometimes takes six to eight months to secure needed supplies because of the red tape involved.

Bids must be approved at the Albany headquarters of the Department of Mental Hygiene. The sleeping employees, he said, were served with disciplinary charges and a system of random spot checks by supervisors has been instituted. The former patients' money, he said, was the responsibility of an arm of the state Department of Mental Hygiene, which is charged with the job of finding patients who fail to claim theij I fir News photo by Nick Sorrentino Louise Willis uses hoe while Eric Meyer of Cornell University Extension cultivates garden plot at 107-12 159th South Jamaica. Members of university extension service are helping area residents to learn more about farming in urban plots as part of federally funded program. ueemite please pick your lip lip, Zip, Postmaster General William Bolger on the matter and had been told that a lOc affirmative response would be sufficient to have the Zip Code changed from the Brooklyn 112 to the Queens 111 number.

Ferraro said that if the votes favor the change, postal patrons will experience a temporary delay of up to one day in receiving mail on the day the change is made. The delay, she added, will take place as the post office changes its mailing schedules to the new postal zone. She also said the proposed change, if it should occur, will not decrease the present service standards provided to patrons in Ridgewood. A spokesman for Ferraro pointed out that the cost of sending the letters and ballots to the 38.000 residents of the zone was coverexLby the Glendale Chamber of Commerce and the Glendale Kiwanis Club. The office paid for the printing of the post cards and the covering letter.

The proposed change-over in Zip Codes has been endorsed by local churches and fraternal, business, professional, and civic groups in Ridgewood. including the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Paul Kerzner. a leader of the Ridgewood group, said supporting letters have been sent throughout the community urging a vote in favor of changing the Zip Code to a Queens designation. Stephen R. Schawaroch, the president of the civic association, said that residents of Ridgewood.

Queens, been denied fire insurance" because their Zip Code is in Brooklyn. He said senior citizens and others needing health care, or who must register for unemployment benefits, must also travel to Brooklyn, and that car owners must pay higher insurance premiums. In addition, he complained that Ridgewood and Glendale residents called for jury duty must serve in Brooklyn rather than in Queens. Schawaroch's contention about higher insurance rates, which he attributed to Ferraro. was originally disputed by an executive of the Insurance Information Institute.

He said auto insurance rates are not determined by Zip Codes and added. "Queens residents pay Queens insurance rates regardless of Zip Code." By BERNARD RABIN Thirty-eight thousand residents of Ridge-wood, Queens, have begun receiving ballots from a Queens lawmaker and local business and civic groups asking them to designate whether they prefer a Queens Postal Zip Code or would rather remain with the present, Ridgewood, Brooklyn, Zip Code The ballots, on cards requiring no postage, must be returned to Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D Forest Hills) no later than May 25. They contain boxes which must be checked indicating the resident's preference for either the present Brooklyn 112 Zip Code, or an appropriate Queens Zip Code as a mailing address. They can change to Queens 111 number In a covering letter to residents of the postal No-Man's Land, the lawmaker noted the Zip Code change was one of the questions most frequently asked of her during her election campaign last year.

She recalled she had met with representatives of.