Iowa DHS And Mahaska Supervisors Sit Down For Direct Communication
Mahaska-County-Courthouse
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Supervisors have been discussing the future of mental health services for Mahaska County residents.
On Monday, the Supervisors met with Iowa Department of Human Services director Chuck Palmer. Julie Jetter, Community Systems Consultant with Iowa Department of Human Services joined the board and the director for a discussion of what the future may look like for the county services.
Palmer said that the two entities are in a process with each other, “and haven’t had a chance to really meet each other across the table. I thought that would be important.”
Palmer said he understands that there is both a legal process underway and that the supervisors are working towards a plan B, if needed. Palmer said he was less interested in talking about his decision to force a change in the mental health region that the county is a part of, and instead wanted to focus on working with the county, “which ever path we end up on.”
Palmer said that he doesn’t consider the current situation between Mahaska County and Iowa DHS as “adversarial” but says his interest is in “making sure the people of this area, this county, are having full access to service.”
“I wanted to convey that commitment. I didn’t want to simply be a person sitting at the head of a large agency in Des Moines kind of making faceless decisions.” Added Palmer.
When or if Mahaska County applies and is accepted to a neighboring region, Palmer said that would be the choice of the supervisors and he wouldn’t play a part in that decision. His placement of the county into a region would take place only if the county failed to meet the requirements set forth by Palmer and Iowa DHS. “You are far better equipped to know what your best match is.” Added Palmer.
“Part of the legislation allows you to appoint us to a region, but we would rather pick who we’re going to be married to if it goes to that,” said Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Doland.
“I would rather have that,” said Palmer. “I didn’t want to be a match maker.”
“What was the plan if we had met all of our requirements under the provisional authority. When that two years was up, what was going to happen at that point,” Mahaska County Supervisor Mike Vander Molen asked Palmer.
Vander Molen wanted to know if the two year legislative agreement would facilitate the county a full region status, or was it really just intended as a temporary stop gap measure.
Palmer said that the possibility was in place for the two-county region of Mahaska and Marion county to be a full region with just the two counties, versus the state mandated three-county region. “Again, it was based upon the ability to meet all of the standards,” added Palmer.
Vander Molen asked Palmer how it would be handled if the appeal process for the county extended beyond the November deadline, for Mahaska County to be in a new mental health region, set by Palmer.
“We will work with you around that,” said Palmer.
An additional layer of complexity to the issue comes with the additional layer of administration provided by the mental health region Mahaska and Marion counties are a part of. Will the current region be moved as a whole to a new region, or would the individual counties be moved to separate regions? Palmer said that he would rather see the individual counties move to regions that best serve their residents. “I think, technically, you have a choice if you pursue this as a region or as a county,” added Palmer.
Palmer sees the situation as two individual counties making independent decisions based upon the current situation.
“Well, we want to work together with you. If things change, I guess we’ll be in contact with you,” said Doland.
“Feel free to pick up the phone,” added Palmer about the current situation.
Before the meeting adjourned, Vander Molen told the rest of the board that his preference would be to work with Marion County, but believes he stands alone in that line of thinking from his fellow board members.
“I think working with Marion County is the objective, if they want to go with us to the south,” added Doland. “I don’t think that we want to make it contingent.”
“If we were working with them, it would have been a join application to the region,” added Vander Molen. “From what I understand from Director Palmer, that’s a possibility. But it appears both of you don’t want to go that direction.”
Doland said he hasn’t talked with anyone from Marion County about what their intentions are in regards to a new region.
The decision of if the move will be done as a region or as a county is yet unclear. Still looming for the region is the decision by the administrative judge of if the region must be dissolved based upon Director Palmers decision.
