Commissioner Jodi Harpstead gave lawmakers a progress report 90 days after taking the helm at the troubled state Human Services Department — and Willmar Republican Dave Baker asked, “Has anybody yet been reassigned or disciplined for the mistake that obviously was made?” Harpstead said, “What has changed is the Operation Stopgap, so that people have to have signatures documented. We know who made every decision going forward. No one in the department has been disciplined for decisions made many years ago.” Baker responded a commissioner who wants respect must hold people “I’m not saying everybody’s got to get terminated that were a part of that, but reassigned.”
Harpstead says D-H-S is a “high capacity department” that’s “soft around the edges” — but maintains the agency is not in “free-fall” or “chaos.” Harpstead says part of her improvement plan is an outside advisory council that will include former Medtronic C-E-O Bill George.