On October 27 I received an email that DDS director Andy
Reese circulated broadly among DDS partners.
It described a number of personnel and organizational changes intended to eliminate duplication of operational and quality assurance services
for DDA and RSA. The most significant
announcement was the creation of a new Quality Assurance
Administration to be headed by Jared Morris, and the elevation of Winslow Woodland
(“temporarily” according to the message) to be acting deputy director for DDA.
What’s most noteworthy is what the email doesn’t say. A significant number of (mostly) senior-level
folks have in fact been let go, foremost among them Pamela Downing-Hosten,
named just last year as deputy director for the Rehabilitation Services
Administration. (I hear Andy will be overseeing RSA directly until a successor is chosen.) But there are quite a
few others leaving who, though their names may be less familiar, have been linchpins of the
Incident Management and Enforcement Unit (which now will report directly to
Winslow) and the Health and Wellness Unit.
I did not know most of these individuals well enough to judge for myself whether the changes are for the good or not, but I know some are concerned about whether too much expertise has walked out the door. We’ll see.
I’ll also be watching a couple of other developments. Andy’s message announced that the State
Office of Disability Administration, or SODA, will now become the Office of
Policy, Planning and Innovation in the DDS director’s office. While the new name may better describe what
the SODA has been doing recently, its original designation as the “state” office
gave it a potentially more robust oversight and coordination role vis-à-vis the
“city” Department on Disability Services.
These state offices have been established across the D.C. government to
assert that we are a jurisdiction equivalent in many ways to the fifty states, so I
see the name change as unfortunate and symbolically important. I hope it doesn’t also mean a demotion for
the SODA.
I’m also hearing that Andy is lighting a fire under service
coordinators, expecting more of them than pushing papers and chairing ISP meetings. It’s hard to argue with this change, if it’s
implemented properly and doesn’t lead to a “gotcha” mentality among
service coordinators trying to look active. For the moment though, most of the service
coordinators I’ve encountered have been too passive, so I’m watching this
cautiously and will judge by the results.
From what I can tell, most other folks are adopting a
similar “wait and see” attitude. Some also
expect there will be more changes to come, so keep your ears to the ground, as
I will!
Before closing, just a couple of postscripts on subjects I’ve
covered in other recent posts:
·
Bill 22-0154, also known as the CIDCRRA (https://tinyurl.com/y75822ov), has happily not faded away. I understand that the
chair of the council’s Human Services Committee, Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1), has a
new staffer who’s getting up to speed on the bill and also looking at the shape of a stronger DDS internal grievance mechanism, which was discussed
quite a bit in the June 15 hearing on the bill (see my post, “Slow and Steady
Wins the Race,” June 28).
·
ABLE accounts.
In several recent posts I’ve talked about briefings in the SF CoP (see my
Acronyms page!) on ABLE accounts in general, and the new D.C. ABLE account in
particular. I’m still waiting for
answers to a few questions I’ve posed directly to the D.C. government and we haven’t yet
opened an account – I’ll let you know more when I hear more or actually open one. I’m also still hoping that
there will be follow-through in the SF CoP on the financial briefings that were
promised at the last meeting.
·
And speaking of the Supporting Families
Community of Practice, things may be on a go-slow due to the departure of
Alison Whyte, a longtime staffer at the DDS/SODA (last time I’ll write that!). Wishing her well, let’s
hope someone energetic picks up the ball soon on all the good work that group
has done.