Human services cut to part time in July

    The Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) announced last week that it would convert 23 county offices from full-time to part-time beginning this July, including Washington County?s. According to a press release from April 5, the agency is also consolidating services such as child care programs and Medicaid applications into a single location.

    Iowa DHS Public Information Officer Roger Munns said today that no county offices are scheduled to close. He said that the transition from full-time to part-time simply means that those offices will be open by appointment only. The employees at the Washington County office will have to commute to full-time offices in neighboring counties.

    ?We know this is disruptive for our staff,?said Munns. ?We are doing all we can to make this the least disruptive as possible.?

    Munns said that part of the reason the agency is making this move is because so many DHS workers are retiring at the end of this year. Iowa DHS Director Charles Krogmeier said in the press release that the agency will have to move its workforce around to deal with the reduced staffing.

    ?With budget pressure and the inability to fill vacancies, this change will give us greater flexibility to deploy our staff,? said Krogmeier. 

For more, see our April 12 print edition.