OPEA

DHS Director Howard Hendrick meets with Council Chair Jim Darst and Board Member Jann Ensz

OPEA leaders from the Department of Human Services met Friday, January 4 to plan for legislative session and prepare for their quarterly meeting with Director Howard Hendrick.

“The Council made plans for OPEA and DHS Lobby Days,” said Council Chair Jim Darst.  “All DHS offices should make plans to send a delegation to each event.  Legislators must be told of the challenges we face every day as state employees.”

With DHS offices facing challenging caseloads, the Council asked that each office send a delegation to the both events.  They can represent others in the office by bringing letters and pictures from those who are “holding down the fort, or buy urging co-workers to call legislators that day.”

OPEA members in local offices should hold meetings and prepare for March 11, OPEA Lobby Day.  The Council emphasized that all state employees should attend.

“This is a good opportunity to introduce co-workers to OPEA,” said OPEA DHS Board Representative Jann Ensz.  “We will be discussing a state employee pay raise with legislators.  With the increased competition for the available dollars this year, we need a show of force to tell them state employees should be a priority.”

On April 16, OPEA DHS members will be meeting with legislators on the Human Services Subcommittees for Appropriations to discuss the critical needs of the agency.

“The DHS budget has been stretched and workers are serving record level caseloads,” said Darst.  “We must encourage legislators to fully fund our agency so that we can serve our clients.”

After discussing the DHS budget with legislators, participants will end the day meeting with Director Hendrick.

Director meeting successful

After making plans for session over lunch, DHS Council members met with Director Hendrick for the quarterly meeting.

The group began by asking the director how OPEA can help the agency in the upcoming legislative session.

Director Hendrick told them he had been meeting with appropriations chairs to explain to them the increasing demand for the agency’s services.

“Staff is very productive,” said Hendrick.  “We have two to four percent more staff and are certifying two times as many people as in 1998.  We are collecting 80 percent more in child support and investigating 20-30 percent more child welfare claims.”

He continued to list great achievements of the staff and discuss that the demand for services continues to increase.  With economic problems and high fuel costs, the needs could intensify.

“As revenue collections go down,” he said.  “Our caseloads go up.”

Participants asked that the agency streamline the hiring process and quickly fill vacant positions.  Hendrick responded that they would like to implement a web-based process that eliminates paper transfers and allows the steps to be completed quickly.

The negative reports in the newspaper were also a topic for discussion.  Hendrick responded that this is a problem across the nation because of fragile families and the work that the agency does. 

“Any one day, you can find stories in California, New York, Florida,” said Hendrick.  “We tell the press of the awards that this agency has been given and the wonderful work we do.  Only the negative stories are printed.”

Hendrick discussed the challenges of providing salary market adjustments. 

“Because of the size of the DHS workforce, providing a small adjustment can take a lot of money and affect several job families,” said Hendrick.  He told participants he will continue to compare DHS positions with the rest of the state workforce and provide adjustments where the budget allows.

Each participant was given time to discuss individual issues with their caseloads.  Hendrick responded with ways to follow up and address them.

“We had a productive meeting and look forward to working with the director in the future,” said Darst.  “Everyone should now make plans for the lobby days.  Let’s pack the house.”