Health and Human Services returns to better fiscal standing

More than a year of belt-tightening measures brought positive news May 21 from Southwest Health and Human Services officials.
SWHHS director Beth Wilms and fiscal manager Sarah Kirchner updated county commissioners on the organization’s financial progress over the past 18 months.
“Our cost-saving measures continue,” Wilms said. “The goal Sarah and I have set for ourselves is to have $8 million in reserves. That’s a big goal and it is certainly not done overnight.”
Wilms took over the SWHHS helm in 2017 with no budget reserve and a projected budget shortfall of $2 million by June 2018.
However, the shortfall did not materialize. In its place was a positive $1.6 million balance.
In April the SWHHS balance grew to $2.6 million, bringing the six-county agency to 2016 levels but well below the $8 million it had in December 2014.
“We are basically back to where we were at the same time in 2016,” Kirchner said. “You can see we are going in the right direction and we hope to continue those balances.”
Several measures were immediately put into place at Wilms’ arrival, including a new hiring process.
Each staff vacancy is examined and paperwork submitted to the finance committee outlining how the position would be financed, something not previously done.
No finance committee existed prior to Wilms’ arrival.
In 2018 SWHHS employed 233 people, up from 220 in 2014 but down from a high of 247 in 2017.
Each area of SWHHS has undergone scrutiny and resulted in cost savings for the agency:
•Twenty-two of the agency’s 35 vehicles are now leased rather than owned. Kirchner said she continues to examine the specific savings of leasing versus owning. However, having newer models results in employees using agency vehicles rather than their own, dropping mileage reimbursement from $60,412 in 2014 to last year’s $18,744.
•A centralized supply location was initiated, dropping order costs $87,388 from 2014 to 2018.
•Copier costs saw a savings over a year’s timeframe of $46,313. “No color copies, unless absolutely necessary,” Kirchner said.
•Outside staff training was limited, saving $76,580 from 2017 to 2018.
•Updating equipment was put on hold and is under evaluation for a new replacement program, saving $119,447 from 2017 to 2018.
Kirchner said the importance of time reporting has been stressed with employees. Time reporting determines SWHHS reimbursements from state and federal agencies.
In 2018 revenue from time reporting increased to $3.9 million, up from $3.6 million in 2017 and $3.3 million in 2014.
SWHHS provides social services to Rock, Pipestone, Lyon, Murray, Lincoln and Redwood counties.
A 7.93-percent increase was requested from member counties last year to further develop SWHHS reserves. Rock County will pay $1.385 million in 2019.
SWHHS expenditures for 2018 were $26.2 million.
“(We) asked for a 7-percent increase last year because we were trying to be as true to our budget as we possibly could be,” Wilms said.