Supervisors Vote To Appeal DHS Decision

Mahaska-County-Courthouse

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The discussion was on what will happen with Mahaska County and the demand by the State of Iowa for the county to find a mental health region to join.

Mahaska County Supervisors took up the discussion on Wednesday afternoon in a special session after they received a letter back from Iowa Department of Human Services Director Charles Palmer. In the letter, Palmer rejected a request from Mid-Iowa Behavioral Health Region (Marion and Mahaska Counties) stating, “I have taken your request under consideration and will not be changing my decision.”

As it stands right now, Palmer says that Mahaska County has until August 1st to provide the DHS with a plan to transfer regional operations to a region contiguous to the county. That plan must then be operational no later than November 1, 2015. If those steps are not met, Palmer says in his letter that he “will assign each county to a MHDS region contiguous to the county.”

The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors passed on a 2-1 vote to appeal the decision by Palmer. Van Weelden was the dissenting vote.

Supervisors Van Weelden and Doland both agreed that the 3 county region to the south of Mahaska County would be the region they would like to see the county move to if needed. Supervisor Vander Molen would prefer to have the county move to the 10 county region to the north. That region is the same region Poweshiek and Jasper counties are a part of.

Letter to Mahaska County from Iowa Department of Human Services Director Charles Palmer.