At a special public meeting on Thursday, the Polk County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of creating a new department focusing on behavioral health and disability services in the community. The resolution creates a new nine-person department, which will be led by an interim CEO to replace the Polk County Health Services CEO, Liz Cox. Supervisor Matt McCoy voted against the resolution.

The move follows a vote approved by the supervisors in their March 29 meeting to not renew the board’s contract with Polk County Health Services. The nonprofit entity was created by Polk County in 1976 to develop and oversee a local network of services and support for people who have disabilities. The private, nonprofit organization was governed by a separate community board.

“The creation of the new department will make administrative modifications to the delivery of mental health and disability services by placing them under the direction of Polk County,” the supervisors said in a press release. “Services were formerly delivered by a nonprofit, Polk County Health Services, Inc. As part of this process, current employees of the non-profit will become employees of Polk County.”

The interim CEO position will pay an annual salary between $123,486 and $163,052; five program planner positions will be paid between $97,398 and $128,429 per year. The department will also be staffed with a budget coordinator, a coordination specialist and an office generalist. The total estimated cost of the department for the county in the first year is estimated at $300,330, increasing to $1,342,181 in the subsequent year, according to the resolution.   

Jon Cahill, community relations specialist with Polk County, said Annie Uetz, program planner at Polk County Health Services, will be the interim CEO for the new department.

Cox said in a call with the Business Record that Polk County Health Services will continue on as a nonprofit. Outside of the long-standing contract with the county, the nonprofit for many years has owned and operated 75 residences across the county as group homes for people with disabilities, and that work will continue, she said.

“We’re not going away,” Cox said. “We will continue to be a viable nonprofit providing mental health services here in Central Iowa.”

Regarding not being asked to apply to head the county department, Cox said, “A lot of what’s happening has occurred swiftly and without my input. So I really don’t have much to say.”

The supervisors say the decision to create the new department will “remove a layer of unnecessary governance that was created when the state moved to a regional model of mental health service delivery. This model was not efficient for Polk County, who operated as a stand-alone region.”

Iowa changed from a county-based system in July 2014 with the creation of 14 mental health and disability services. Each of the districts is made up of several counties. The exception is Polk County, which is designated as its own region that was served by Polk County Health Services.

“This move will create more accountability and transparency to the delivery of mental health services,” Supervisor Robert Brownell said in a statement. “It creates a clearer line of communication with providers and the state as it will now be overseen directly by the five elected members of the Polk County Board of Supervisors.”

Polk County leaders stressed that current clients and service providers of Polk County Health Services Corp. should notice little, if any, change in operations or delivery of services in this new administration. Board Chair Angela Connolly said of Polk County’s commitment to behavioral health and disability services, “Polk County is nationally recognized for the implementation of our crisis services, and we are excited that this allows us to return to our core mission.”