Rice County Review: 3-2 Vote Denies Social Services Hires

Commissioner Galen Malecha in this video talks about a 3-2 vote this week to not hire four employees to help with a backlog in the county's Social Services department.

The county is facing a fine from the Minnesota Department of Human Services for not meeting deadlines in providing benefits to county residents.

Mark Shaw, the county’s social services director, wanted to make the hires to help catch up and stay up-to-date on benefit requests and distribution.

Shaw said in a March Board of Commissioners meeting that guidelines call for up to a 30-day waiting period for food benefits and 45 days for health-care benefits.

According to Rice County records, food support cases have increased from 997 in December 2007 to 1,654 (3,500 recipients) in February 2012. 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, according to county records.

In short, Shaw said the county social services department can’t keep up with the pace of new requests and renewals of existing cases. He said his department has implemented new systems and is updating others to better address workflow.

The county is currently putting in a new computer system to help streamline the process.

Malecha says he expects a vote to hire at least two social workers will come before the board in the future.

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