S-3526.1 _______________________________________________
SENATE BILL 6166
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State of Washington 56th Legislature 2000 Regular Session
By Senator Fairley
Read first time 01/10/2000. Referred to Committee on Labor & Workforce Development.
AN ACT Relating to creating a department of work force services; creating a new section; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1)(a) The legislature finds that the department of social and health services is inadequately responsive to the needs of those it serves. Over the years, the department has grown dysfunctionally large and unfocused. Citizen problems with the department range from failure to return phone calls and provide answers to questions regarding needed services, to serious endangerment of the lives and safety of those the department was designed to protect. The dysfunctionality of the department has resulted in tragedy for some clients, and litigation for the state. Given the fact that the department is responsible for those in our society least able to care for themselves, including children, the frail, elderly and disabled, and families struggling with poverty or abuse, it is imperative that the state reevaluate the role of the department, and redesign state agencies to better serve and protect Washington families.
(b) The legislature therefor intends that a new department be created that is designed to help working families. The department of work force services should consist of employment security functions, combined with the WorkFirst program, and low-income child care. The legislature intends that this realignment of essential state services be used as an opportunity to dedicate state resources to helping working families, those emerging from poverty, and children in need, enabling the functions that remain in a separate, newly designed department of social and health services to become more responsive and focused upon the needs of clients.
(c) The governor shall propose a plan of reorganization, for legislative consideration in a timely manner, in a collaborative effort to make life better, safer, and more promising for Washingtonians in need.
(2) By January 8, 2001, the governor shall submit a plan to the legislature for creating a department of work force services to improve and restructure the delivery of employment and welfare services, including appropriate child care components.
(3) The goals of the plan are:
(a) Improved delivery of job and welfare services to Washington residents;
(b) Improved efficiencies in administration of service delivery;
(c) Appropriate restructuring of public agencies and programs primarily charged with direct or contractual delivery of job and welfare services, in order to improve the assessment of the needs of Washington residents and provide more timely and appropriate response to such needs, with reduced duplication of effort and correction of illogical or inconsistent placement of programs;
(d) A reexamination of the principles that were the foundation of the department of social and health services, and whether those principles remain operative in the structure of welfare, employment, and human services delivery by the state; and
(e) Creation of a model of job and welfare delivery that emphasizes:
(i) Ongoing positive outcomes, based upon performance measures;
(ii) Ease of public access to information and services;
(iii) Reliable review and analysis of efficiencies in agency administrative structures; and
(iv) Accountability to the public and the legislature.
(4) This section expires January 31, 2001.
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