Iowa Senate committee advances Palmer confirmation as DHS director

DES MOINES - State human services leader Chuck Palmer cleared a key hurdle Tuesday on his rocky path to likely Senate confirmation.

With one dissenting vote, members of the Senate Human Resources Committee agreed to forward Palmer's nomination by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad to another four-year stint as director of the Iowa Department of Human Services to the full committee without recommendation. Sen. Rich Taylor, D-Mount Pleasant, cast the lone 'no” vote.

'I think he's worth keeping,” said Sen. Mark Segebart, R-Vail, who noted Palmer has fixed DHS problems his constituents have had with 'remarkable” effectiveness. 'I think he's done a wonderful job.”

Some senators cited concerns about the lack of transparency and communications by the Branstad administration in closing the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, setting in motion the closure of mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda by the end of the current fiscal year June 30, and embarking on a Medicaid switch to managed care without legislative input.

'I believe that Director Palmer has lost his way,” said Taylor in registering a vote of no confidence.

Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said Palmer's job is 'probably the most challenging in state government,” but the lack of communication and transparency in involving the legislative branch in a 'huge” decision has become a growing concern that has undercut a relatively good working relationship over the years.

Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, noted that DHS leadership was 'a revolving door” when he began his legislative work in 1999 and, while he agreed there's a need for better communications, he said stability within the DHS is 'absolutely needed” with so many elements of social service delivery being transformed with the regional mental health switchover and the move to providing Medicaid services via a managed care system that hasn't yet been defined.

Committee chairwoman Liz Mathis, D-Cedar Rapids, who plans to vote for Palmer's confirmation, said she expects he will receive the two-thirds majority affirmative support that he needs from at least 34 senators to continue in his current post for four more years. But she said passage won't be without hesitation and vocal criticism from senators.

'I would say, if we felt adamantly about holding him back or about not confirming him, it would happened here at the committee level,” Mathis told reporters after the committee meeting. 'If this committee felt so moved as to not even bring his name out onto the Senate floor, you would have seen more than one no vote on a short form call.”