New DSHS boss has daunting task

Judging by Robin Arnold-Williams’ resume, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire has placed the Department of Social and Health Services in capable hands. It needs them.

DSHS is a monster agency with challenges to match, some of them beyond its control and some of its own making. But they all demand effective management, especially in the economically tight times that persist in Washington state.

In appointing Arnold-Williams, Gregoire gets a DSHS director with more than a quarter-century in the field, a national reputation, influential connections at the federal level and experience dealing with some of the difficulties that have haunted her new agency.

In Utah, where she attended college and spent almost 25 years rising through the human services ranks, some observers expected her to move to the other Washington, the one where former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt has moved to take over the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for President Bush. Leavitt, under whom Arnold-Williams served as director of Human Services from 1997 until this past January, could prove a handy friend to have in the federal government.

Not that she is a stranger to Washington, D.C. She’s been there to testify before congressional committees about social service issues, a reflection of the respect her peers have for her. But one of her most compelling assets is the experience she had directing a makeover of Utah’s child welfare system. A lawsuit brought against the state resulted in a finding that the foster care system was a mess, or, as the Salt Lake Tribune put it, “so mismanaged it violated the constitutional rights of every child in state custody.” That’s an indictment that DSHS officials will recognize. Washington also faced a suit, brought by the same National Center for Youth Law that sued Utah, also over foster care. Washington settled.

In fact, Washington has paid about $100 million since the early 1990s in conjunction with claims filed over various actions and decisions by the Department of Social and Health Services. The situation was bad enough that Arnold-Williams’ predecessor, Dennis Braddock, took the unorthodox step of writing Chief Justice Gerry Alexander of the Washington Supreme Court to complain that the publicity generated by lawyers and reporters was hurting the agency.

With her experience in Utah, Arnold-Williams should be in a position to design and promote structural improvements that will prevent similar problems in the future. If so – and it’s a challenge that has overwhelmed other managers – her appointment may rank among Gregoire’s top achievements.