Reorganization of state human services agency unveiled

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Human Services outlined a major restructuring proposal that would streamline services and functions after the agency faced steep budget cuts.

The plan would reduce the number of regional offices from eight to five and consolidate the department's central office functions.

DHS Director Charles Krogmeier is scheduled to outline the proposal to the Human Services Council, which is expected to vote on it Wednesday.

“The recent 10 percent across-the-board budget reductions and the likely 2011 budget situation make these changes no longer a choice but an imperative to align ourselves in the best way to provide the services Iowans need from DHS,” Krogmeier wrote in a memo to staff.

Regional offices currently are located in Des Moines, Davenport, Dubuque, Ames, Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Waterloo and Cedar Rapids.

The new plan would put Sioux City and Council Bluffs within the same region, Dubuque and Davenport within the same region, and Des Moines and Ames in the same region. The new regional headquarters will be announced at a later date. The restructuring of the regional offices will cause some supervisory positions to be eliminated, officials said.

All 99 county offices will remain in place, although additional counties might be open less than full time under the proposal.

Krogmeier stressed the importance of maintaining frontline workers who administer benefits programs such as food assistance and Medicaid and workers in the child welfare system, which includes foster care and child abuse investigations.

Caseloads have skyrocketed, especially for benefits programs, Krogmeier said. At the same time, the department has lost 78 frontline positions since a hiring freeze was implemented. Those positions will remain unfilled.

DHS spokesman Roger Munns said the restructuring will not change response times for child abuse or neglect complaints. Response times also are expected to remain the same for determining whether people are eligible for the services the department provides.

“There may be a delay in delivering those services, simply because the caseloads are so enormous,” Munns said.

State Rep. Renee Schulte, R-Cedar Rapids, expressed some concern over the size of two of the new regions. She pointed to a new region that would serve several counties in western Iowa and another region that would cover the north-central and northeastern part of the state.

“How are those services still going to be delivered especially in the rural communities? That's the part that's going to be the most challenging, I think,” said Schulte, who serves as an ex-officio member of the Human Services Council.

At the DHS central office, nine administrative divisions will be consolidated into six.

The new divisions include the Division of Adult, Children and Family Services, which will oversee child welfare, childcare licensing and welfare programs.

A new Division of Field Operations will oversee the five regional offices plus the Child Support Recovery Unit, which now has its own division.

The Mental Health and Disabilities Services division will be responsible for all DHS institutions, including resource centers, juvenile facilities, mental health institutes and the civil commitment unit for sex offenders in Cherokee. Those institutions are overseen now by the deputy director for field operations.

Officials say several supervisors will be reassigned and some of their positions will be eliminated.

The reorganization of the agency, which employs about 5,700, represents the first restructuring since 2002.

The changes, if approved by the council, would not begin being implemented until January, Munns said. Although the department officials are not certain they need legislative approval to reduce the number of regional offices, they will ask lawmakers for the authority to do so, Munns said.