New Human Services commissioner pledges to rebuild trust

The incoming head of the Minnesota Department of Human Services pledged Wednesday to rebuild trust in the agency, which has seen its share of turmoil in recent months.

“There's nothing more important for the Minnesota Department of Human Services than to be trustworthy to the people of Minnesota," Jodi Harpstead told a state Senate hearing, emphasizing her point with a granite plaque etched with the word “trustworthy.”

She said she’s had the plaque on her desk for the last eight years as CEO of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and is bringing it with her to her new office, "not facing out to tell the world that we're trustworthy, but facing in so that every email and every phone call builds that trust.”

Harpstead, who was appointed by Gov. Tim Walz, takes over DHS after two months of massive upheaval among top-level staffers, including the resignation of former DHS Commissioner Tony Lourey and his chief of staff in July. Two deputy commissioners, Chuck Johnson and Claire Wilson, had also planned to resign but rescinded their resignations after Lourey’s departure.

But last week, Wilson again resigned from her post in DHS, as did another assistant commissioner, Marie Zimmerman, who ran the state’s Medicaid program.

The Walz administration hasn't explained all of the upheaval in the agency, and Republicans in the Legislature say they're frustrated.

"I've raised six teenage sons and sometimes they run into a curb or something and they dent the fender so they park the car so you can't see it but eventually you find out," Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, told Harpstead in the hearing. "I believe you'll be changing this, but historically the amount of information that has flowed out of DHS to us is the smallest bit that can be given, it seems like."

Lawmakers were generally friendly to Harpstead, who's only on her second day on the job. Before working at Lutheran Social Service, she spent two decades in the private sector. And she wasn't shy about proposing potentially big changes to the massive agency.

At roughly 6,700 employees, it's the largest agency in state government. It delivers a vast array of services to some of the most vulnerable residents in the state, including families on welfare, people struggling with substance abuse, even sex offenders.

Harpstead said she's open to breaking up the agency into several smaller ones, an idea floated by Republican legislators.

"In addition to filling open roles in the department, I am open to the conversation about the merits of separating parts of the department, especially the direct care and treatment area from the rest of DHS,” she said. “By doing that though I want to be really sure there aren't any unintended consequences that I'm aware of, and I expect a good discussion about that with stakeholders and the Legislature."

The agency has also been under fire for overpayments of federal dollars for services through Medicaid. That includes tens of millions of dollars paid to two tribes, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and White Earth Nation, for substance abuse treatments.

The tribes say they were instructed by staff at DHS on how to bill for those treatments and are not on the hook to pay the money back. Harpstead said she's still seeking more information on the payments.

"I reached out yesterday to both the White Earth tribe and the Leech Lake tribe, and we had cordial conversations about how we all want to see this resolved in a way that's not harmful to the tribes," she said.

But lawmakers still have a lot of lingering questions. Sen. Andrew Mathews, R-Milaca, said he's surprised how many constituents have come up to him asking about it.

"My answer is usually has been, I don't know, because we're not getting any answers," he said.

Harpstead is expected to testify in front of lawmakers again soon.