Bill Would Keep Group in Charge of Aging Services

By KATHIE DURBIN

OLYMPIA – Rep. Jim Moeller is waging a legislative battle to preserve the Human Services Council’s designation as the area agency on aging for five Southwest Washington counties.

The vehicle for that campaign is Senate Bill 6660, prime- sponsored by Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, which passed a Senate committee last week.

It would state clearly that the Washington Department of Social and Health Services may designate either a single-purpose agency or a multipurpose agency to serve as an area agency on aging, and that it may not discriminate between public and private nonprofit agencies in making those designations.

It would also state that as long as at least 55 percent of an agency’s clients are senior citizens, that agency is eligible to be designated an area agency on aging.

Moeller said the bill would undercut the state’s main argument for withdrawing that designation – that area agencies on aging should be single-purpose organizations focused only on providing senior services.

“We want the entire Human Services Council and all our services to be considered an AAA,” said Moeller, chairman of the board of the Vancouver-based council. He said those services include acting as a transportation broker for seniors, providing nutritional services to seniors, and enlisting volunteers to support seniors, as well as licensing in-home caregivers and performing case management for the elderly.

“Whether we lose the designation is not addressed in the bill, but when you take away that issue, it raises the question of what they have left,” Moeller said.

The state’s 13 area agencies on aging distribute funding to carry out programs and services for seniors under the federal Older Americans Act. DSHS is responsible for designating those area agencies.

The Vancouver-based agency serving Clark, Skamania, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum and Klickitat counties is the only area agency on aging in the state that is operated by a nonprofit. All the others are administered by councils of government.

Advocates for the council allege that the state wants to eliminate its last contract with a nonprofit so that all 13 agencies are run by local governments.

DSHS has been trying for two years to terminate its contract with the council. In a review of the council’s operations, it concluded that the council had overspent on administrative costs and had failed to draw clean lines between its own costs and those covered by taxpayers.

Moeller and Mary Lou Ritter, the council’s acting director, say the council has solved most of those problems. Moeller has appealed the state’s effort to “dedesignate” the council as the area agency on aging. He says the state was “making up the rules as it went along.”

In September, the federal Health and Human Services Department faulted the state for not giving the council enough notice before moving to sever its contract, which accounts for most of the council’s revenue – about $6.6 million in 2006.

“A dedesignation like this has never happened before,’ Moeller said. “I wanted to clean up the way that dedesignation might happen in the future, so everyone knows what happens and why.”

‘Compliance problems’

Kathy Leitch, assistant secretary of aging and disabilities at DSHS, said the department opposes the bill, as does the statewide organization of area agencies on aging.

“We have a lot of concerns with it because it has significant compliance problems with federal law,” Leitch said. The Older Americans Act sets forth specific rules for dedesignating an area agency on aging, she said. “We also think that the overall definition dilutes the focus of an area agency on aging,” which should be on providing services to seniors, she said.

Clark County Commissioner Betty Sue Morris sent a letter to the committee urging the bill’s defeat because of the potential cost to the county.

The bill was amended in committee to make it clear that Clark County would not be left footing the bill if the council loses its designation and is forced to cancel its 10-year lease of a suite of offices on Northeast 73rd Street.

Another amendment gives DSHS the authority to establish disciplinary procedures for area agencies on aging.

Morris said she still opposes a part of the bill that requires 55 percent of clients served by the council be senior citizens.

“It is a significant change, and would really diminish the role of the area agency on aging,” she said. It would allow the council to treat the agency “as if it was just another program” not as a separate agency with its own budget authority, she said.

Battle will continue

Moeller said he intends to continue battling the state over its efforts to dedesignate the council, both legislatively and through the administrative process.

“If it’s tossed back to the state, I’m going to go plant myself in the governor’s office until she sees me,” he said. “The governor’s office has given a hands-off to this issue from the beginning. Why won’t she hold her employee accountable?”

Johnathan Seib, a policy adviser to the governor, said Gregoire had not seen the bill and had no position on it.

“She’s comfortable with the process the department is going through and will let that play out,” Seib said.

Moeller also said he’s realistic about the Senate bill’s chances. His own companion House bill did not get a hearing.

“I’m going to push like hell to get it out,” he said. “When it’s over here (in the House) I will have more control over it. It’s still alive and breathing, but it has a long way to go before it sleeps.”

Kathie Durbin can be reached in The Columbian’s Olympia bureau at

kathie.durbin@columbian.com or 360-586-2437. Staff writer Michael Andersen contributed to this report.

Originally published by KATHIE DURBIN Columbian staff writer.

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