Let’s Reinvent State Government and Start with DSHS

By William W. Larson

Special to Washington State Wire

Editor’s Note, Aug. 5, 2010: William Larson is a freelance writer and former social worker at the Department of Social and Health Services. In this op-ed piece, Larson offers an insider’s view of the agency and challenges the notion that DSHS has cut services to the bone.

Here we go again.  The same song and dance comes with every fiscal emergency (and the latest one is an $8 billion dollar pip):  “We need to reinvent government.”

They talk about it every time. This summer the governor has appointed a commission to talk about it, and from the looks of things, that might be all it does. State government has grown like a malignant tumor with no effort whatever to slow the disease, and it’s going to take everyone quite a while to read those charts. You just have to hope the patient can wait that long.

Well, coming up with the prescription isn’t difficult. The hard part is swallowing the medicine. Any of us who have worked at a government agency – if we’re being honest about it – know that there are plenty of inefficiencies that the upper-echelon managers don’t want to talk about. Take it from me, a 15-year veteran of the Department of Social and Health Services.

It’s the state’s biggest agency, accounting for a third of the state budget and nearly a third of the state’s employees. It’s so large, so out-of-control, so inscrutable to anyone who doesn’t work there, that people who stand outside – legislators, for instance – seem to take managers’ word for it when they talk about the deep cuts they’ve made, and the horrible impact on the public if they do anything more.  The truth is they’ve got plenty more fat they can cut before they finally hit the beef. And since they seem to be having so much trouble finding it, let's tell them where to look.

We can start with the most striking fact about DSHS. The agency subcontracts approximately 70 percent of its work to private agency contractors.  So why does it need 18,000 employees?  The  truth is, it doesn’t.  The state should hire an outside consultant to determine which jobs can be consolidated, modified, or just plain eliminated.

Then let’s put an end to the practice of year-end giveaways to private agencies favored by DSHS management.  For some time it has been common practice to give away substantial sums of money to private agencies at year-end in order to justify budget requests for the next fiscal year.  Talk about a leak in the boat that needs to be mended!

When I was contracts manager in Region 5, for example, I was appalled by this practice, and I insisted that agencies being given unearned cash windfalls provide the state with home studies to offset the bonus. My supervisor objected because under agreements made with the union, home studies could not be outsourced. 

Nevertheless the contracts I wrote contained a clause requiring product.  I have no idea how contracts for these sums were written before or after my brief tenure.

Next, let’s take a hard look at the sizable cadre of middle managers employed by DSHS.  These bean counters rarely carry caseloads or supervise others, yet their average salaries with benefits often reach $80,000 per year or more.  Middle managers are a group of non-union employees who serve at the pleasure of the people of the state of Washington.  Many of these positions could simply be eliminated providing a substantial savings to the taxpayer.

Just think of it – if 15 percent of DSHS employees are exempt middle-managers, that’s a total of 2,850 people.  And if their average salary with benefits conservatively amounts to $65,000 per year, that’s a total of $185.2 million annually.  Eliminating a sizeable percentage of those positions could make a real dent in the state shortfall.

There are the programs that are top-heavy in management.  In Pierce County, for example, there is a major program serving adult citizens at risk for abuse and neglect that employs nine social workers.  These workers are supervised by a social work supervisor, a program manager, a deputy regional administrator, and the regional administrator himself.  That’s almost a two-to-one employee/manager ratio. What private business could survive using this kind of staffing arrangement?

Then take a look at the state’s foster care system.  The state should license homes, not private agency contractors who have thousands of dollars in financial incentives to bring kids into care, and to keep them there.  Yet the Legislature has now mandated that within a few years all child welfare services will be contracted to private agency contractors!

Here the Legislature once again listened to DSHS management and bought another lie: “Hand over control of children’s services to private organizations and you’ll get better service at a lower price.”  What a boondoggle. 

The Legislature looked at all the state jobs that would no longer be necessary if privatization of children’s services were to take place.  But they never considered that private agencies would likely require the same number of people to do the job.  They never considered the fact that private agencies lack the infrastructure to handle the overwhelming burden of monitoring more than 15,000 children in care.  They never considered the extensive training that will be needed to bring private agency personnel up to speed. 

In a recent study performed by MCPP Healthcare Consulting, Inc., and funded by the Stuart Foundation and the Washington State Coalition for Children, it is clear that privatization is going to cost Washington taxpayers big time.

Isn’t it time for someone to draw the line between public and private responsibility?  It’s one thing to privatize liquor stores and quite another to privatize vital services to vulnerable children.

Placements of children should be done directly by the state, with state social workers supervising those placements, not private agency contractors who are paid handsomely for their services and have a vested interest in keeping kids in care.

Some agencies charge thousands of dollars per child each month to supervise placements.  This abuse multiplies when you consider that there are currently more than 15,000 children in care. 

Yet by 2014, DSHS is mandated to privatize everything having to do with child placement.  That means that private agencies like Catholic Community Services and Children’s Home Society will be contracted to run the program and given complete control over foster care placements. 

Under the new plan, private agencies will be able to function as government entities and spend government money.  DSHS won’t have to face the music when children die in care because much of the liability will be transferred to the private agency.  But endowing private organizations with public power contravenes the tenants of democratic government.  It’s also like inviting the fox to guard the hen-house.

Let’s also consider contracting with county sheriff’s offices to handle CPS and APS investigations.  They’re better able to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect and as law enforcement personnel they are the only ones who may make use of the state’s protective custody laws.  Contracting with county sheriff’s offices would transfer a sizeable liability exposure and would result in better service to the people of the state of Washington. It would also be consistent with the purposes of government as outlined in our founding documents.

A little more attention to detail would also help the bottom line.  According to the state auditor’s office, a recent investigation of DSHS revealed that the agency was paying $350,000 in insurance premiums covering people who had long since left the state’s employ.  Given Washington’s present economic plight, that sort of slop is unforgivable.

And one last thing: The environment of DSHS needs radical change.  I can speak from experience.  The environment today is hostile, political, and arrogant. The internal landscape is rife with management silos and fiefdoms run by petty managers who would quickly be demoted to the janitorial staff of most well-run private organizations.

Employees often feel abused, discriminated against, or unappreciated. Many have resorted to sabotaging the organization. Several have become emotionally distant with no interest in doing anything but putting in their time and waiting for retirement. 

Some have left and successfully sued the agency for the manner in which they were treated.  And the agency’s stand on the matter seems to be:  “Go ahead and sue, it’s taxpayer money at stake, not ours.”

Talented workers join the organization, but soon leave when they experience the politically charged internal environment. And this is an agency that can’t afford to lose this kind of talent.

Even those who stay quickly develop passive-aggressive behaviors or learn to settle for substandard results.  When the organization's leadership occasionally comes up with ideas that are sound, they are met with resistance and skepticism. A spirit of negativism prevails.

A few months ago, the average CPS worker in the Pierce County office had worked for the agency under 2 years; statewide that number increases somewhat, but not by much.  Turnover is expensive, and the lower the term of longevity of employees the worse the service to the public.

Bear in mind that DSHS is only one agency of state government that needs major overhaul. But a real commitment to overhauling the structure of DSHS, as well as many of its policies and practices, would result in immediate savings of millions of dollars.

It is incomprehensible that the Washington State Legislature would enact tax increases to offset deficits without first fixing the problems that are rampant within state government itself.