Malecha on Social Services Reform, County Finances

In this week's video, Commissioner Galen Malecha talks about People for a Better Rice County, a group pushing for social services changes in the county.

On Thursday, members of the group met with Rice County officials at to discuss creating a social services committee.

"We have various committees that commissioners and staff sit on ... but we don't have a social services committee," Malecha told Patch.

On Tuesday, Malecha will ask his fellow commissioners to create a social services committee with two commissioners and two social services staff members "basically to look how we can improve our delivery of services."

The push for the committee follows months of criticism of the county's social services department, which has  with meeting state requirements for deliving services to residents.

County food support cases have increased from 997 in December 2007 to 1,654 (3,500 recipients) in February 2012, according to county records. For health care, cases increased from 916 in December 2007 to 3,925 (6,623 recipients) in November 2011, and family cash program cases increased from 72 in December 2007 to 310 (879 recipients) in November 2011. Overall, the department’s caseload more than tripled from 2,117 cases four years ago to nearly 6,500 in 2012.

In June, the county voted 3-2 against hiring  to help with the social services backlog. Commissioners later approved hiring two social services workers.

Also in June, commissioners voted to back out of a planned 12-county .

MORE ON THIS

• Rice County board denies social services hiring -- for now

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