(Des Moines)– The Director of the Iowa Department of Human Services has released additional details on how the agency will be re-structured. The changes stem from Governor’s Vilsack’s four-point-three percent across-the-board budget reduction.
Under the plan by DHS Director Jesse Rasmussen, 38 multi-county supervisor positions and five regional offices will be eliminated. They’ll be replaced by eight regional service centers. 15 counties in northwest Iowa will be served by the regional service center in Sioux City. Bob Peters, currently of the Sioux City office, will become the service area manager. The Sioux City office will cover Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Ida, Kossuth, Lyon, Monona, O’Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Sioux and Woodbury counties.
Of those, the offices in Cherokee, Ida, Kossuth, Lyon, Monona, O’Brien, Osceola and Palo Alto counties will be converted to part-time. Rasmussen says it will be up to the new regional managers to determine new hours for the offices going to part-time operations.
Under her plan, Rasmussen says no offices will be closed entirely.
