Department of Human Services:

Thoughts on Department of Human Services

Sheriff’s Report

After nearly three years of investigation of the Eau Claire Department of Human Services Department, the Eau Claire Sheriff’s Office turned over a lengthy report to the LaCrosse District Attorney’s office to review and bring possible charges. The Sheriff also turned over an audit of the department done by the WIPFLI accounting firm.

The La Crosse DA, Tim Gruenke, declined to issue any criminal charges. He also told county officials and staff that we really needed to get along better, but we already knew that. 

“While I can agree there were issues in the Eau Claire County Human Services Department regarding some of the accounting records and the handling of finances, I found no facts that were deserving of criminal offense…” he wrote. He later wrote: “Where there existed even the possibility of pursuing a criminal charge, I considered the fact that nobody profited personally from any funds or misused taxpayer funds to enrich themselves. “

Gruenke wrote that he hoped that, with the ending of the criminal investigation the county “… can begin to heal what seems to be an environment lacking cooperation and transparency both within the levels of government and amongst the departments…”  He wrote that is it obvious the investigation “has taken a toll on the morale and working environment of the entire county government.”

Von Briesen Report

 A non-criminal investigation of the Department of Human Services by the law firm von Briesen and Roper challenged many of the assumptions and findings made by the Sheriff’s Department and WIPFLI. They agreed the DHS director had not communicated well with the board, although by the time von Briesen delivered their findings, the director had retired. Von Briesen had some recommendations for accounting and record keeping. They recommended that the county update its code of ethics, which we did, and that additional training be done with county board members on the ethics code. But they did not recommend any disciplinary action be taken with staff.

“…We can all agree that this has been a painful and costly learning process,” Von Briesen wrote.  “We strongly encourage the County Board to move on and move forward in a positive fashion.”

A new outlook for DHS

The Department of Human Services had budget overruns culminating in 2019 when they were $3 million over budget. Some of the overage that year was due to unanticipated costs. Some was due to bad accounting. There was poor communication on all sides. But the solution to these problems was not a costly three-year police investigation. DHS needed more immediate repairs.  DHS began working with the finance director and has been on budget since 2019.

Now we have a new director of DHS. We have a new sheriff. We have a new chairwoman for the county board. As the von Briesen attorneys said, lets move on and move forward.