Mahaska County Employee Shares Concerns Over Possible HIPAA Violations

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk expressed concern that only one bid was received for the new radio system, and wanted to find out why Motorola declined to submit a bid.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – During the public comments portion of the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors on Monday, Kim Newendorp, General Assistance Director for Mahaska County, shared her concerns that potential HIPAA and safety concerns were not being addressed by the county and the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors.

Her belief is that the county needs to hire an in-house HR person, or a county manager, because of the following reason.

Newendorp said that another county employee locked a member of the public in the Annex Building and left. “This person was waiting for me, but in doing so, she left all of the case management confidential and HIPAA information unlocked and accessible to that person. This is a HIPAA violation.”

“I’m very frustrated that this situation has not been addressed,” added Newendorp. “I immediately notified my boss, which is one of the board of supervisors. There was no response. I then went to speak to Jim Blomgren who is the chief privacy officer for Mahaska County due to HIPAA.”

Newendorp says that Blomgren then passed along the information to those hired to handle county HR needs.

Newendorp says that on April 18th, she filed an official grievance with the board of supervisors, “who passed it back to Jim, who passed it on to Paul, our HR guy. Again with no result.”

Newendorp said the individuals who have case files in the Annex Building “have civil rights and they have been violated.”

Newendorp said the case files in question were still not locked away before she addressed the board of supervisors on Monday.

“I feel you have not taken my safety into consideration in this matter,” added Newendorp. “You’ve taken measures to make the courthouse a safer place by locking the doors, clearing out the basement, you even have a lock on the county attorney’s office. To find someone locked in the Annex Building was a scary situation. My safety and my security is just as important as those employees who work here in the courthouse.”

Newendorp referenced Mahaska County Employee Handbook work rule #16, “violation of a county safety rule or practice or creating or contributing to an unsafe, unhealthy, unsatisfactory condition.”

“I’m disappointed this situation has not been handled,” added Newendorp. “Especially due to the importance of HIPAA. The state DHS official has come forward to say that this situation is an issue, and yet nothing has been done.”

“Why are we paying for services that are not benefiting Mahaska County”, Newendorp asked the Supervisors of the contracted HR services.

“Why are mammoth bones more secure in this county than people’s HIPAA documents,” added Newendorp.

“If you let this go, it clearly shows that county government is a free-for-all, and clearly no oversight,” said Newendorp. “I understand this topic may not be as important to you as roads, 911, and the airport, but I can tell you that the people’s right to have their personal information locked and secured is important to the hundreds of past clients of Mahaska County Case Management, and their families and myself.”

“I could respond to some of that but at this time I won’t,” said Mahaska County Supervisors Board Chairman Willie Van Weelden at the meeting. “Some things were done by me at that time, but we won’t discuss that.”

“I didn’t sit on my hands 100%”, added Van Weelden.

Oskaloosa News reached out to Mahaska County Attorney Jim Blomgren about the concerns Newendorp raised. Blomgren responded by saying, “Since the comments of the employee at the meeting of the Board of Supervisors involves personnel issues and alleged HIPAA infractions I do not believe I am at liberty to discuss them.”

After a work session on Thursday with the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors and Paul Greufe of PJ Greufe & Associates. Oskaloosa News spoke with Van Weelden after that work session about the comments from Newendorp. “We went through the channels to take care of Kim’s questions.”

“I have spoken with the county attorney, and so we’re working through these things,” added Van Weelden. “We haven’t been sitting on our hands.”

“I think in most counties, the board of supervisors, you would never do an investigation into HIPAA. You would never do a human resources investigation. No county I know of would have their board do that,” said Greufe to Oskaloosa News. Greufe explained that most counties hire professional services such as his to do the HR work, and would direct those people to start an investigation. “And so that was the process that was followed to the letter.”

The board approved a payroll change, placing Jessica Jones on payroll effective September 4, 2018, at the rate of $13.00 per hour.

The board heard a conservation report from Dave Sedivec, where he said that things continue to progress at the new environmental learning center.

Approved an agreement with Mahaska County Public Health.

The board is considering a contract with Rey Freeman to explore why Motorola didn’t submit a bid for the proposed new radio system.

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk referenced that Freeman had suggested making three changes to the RFP that the Emergency Management Commission had submitted. “I don’t know if some of the language was going on or what, but uh, I didn’t know if we wanted to know why Motorola didn’t respond. I got to thinking about this over the weekend. Is it even a legal RFP.”

“Then that goes back to who has authority to be doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” added Groenendyk.

“Can we go back and revisit the RFP,” asked Van Weelden.

“You talk to Jim?” asked Van Weelden of Groenendyk.

“I have not, no”, replied Groenendyk. ” I just thought about this over the weekend.”

“I understand where you’re coming from,” replied Van Weelden to Groenendyk.

“I don’t understand why you’re going to build a system of this magnitude and you only get one bid,” said Supervisor Steve Wanders. “To me, to do the taxpayers justice, I think they need, you know, you need several bids out there, and I don’t know why only one bid I guess, so,” said Wanders. “But I’m not up to speed on that. It’s more your commission and the commission’s duty to figure it out I guess.”

“It’s the 911 Board’s responsibility,” added Groenendyk.

“Right so, I guess I’m not up to speed without sitting on that commission,” added Wanders, who said he believes that it’s common to have several bids to “a project of this size, to be fair to the taxpayers of Mahaska County.”

“Once it’s out and it comes back, I’m like Willie, I don’t know what we can do with it for sure,” added Wanders.

Groenendyk said he believes that, by the language, no one is tied to anything that responded to it [RFP].

According to Mahaska County Emergency Management Director Jamey Robinson, Motorola submitted no bid, but didn’t explain why they decided not to bid on the project.

Van Weelden said that he would like to know why Motorola declined to bid on the project before the county spends any money with Rey Freeman.

“I just thought it was weird why we only got one bid too,” added Groenendyk.

“I know that there’s not that many companies out there, I understand that also,” added Van Weelden.

The board decided to have Groenendyk speak with the county attorney and see about having Groenendyk contact Motorola to find out why they didn’t submit a bid for the radio system.

“I think a system that’s going to be this expensive needs to have some looking into,” added Wanders.

The supervisors approved a setback variance for Meland Co along Indian Way and O St. in Oskaloosa to build storage for boats and campers.