'Timing was right,' Iowa Human Services chief says of retirement after teens' deaths

LEE ROOD   | The Des Moines Register

Charles Palmer, the embattled chief of Iowa’s Department of Human Services, announced his retirement Wednesday as investigations continue into the torture and deaths of two teens adopted out of state care.

No replacement has been named.

In an interview with The Des Moines Register, Palmer, 78, insisted the agency he led through a barrage of high-profile controversies is not in crisis following the high-profile deaths of Sabrina Ray of Perry on May 12 and Natalie Finn of West Des Moines on Oct. 24.

Reports of abuse were lodged against the parents of both 16-year-olds as they collected subsidies for adopting multiple children from the state.

“The timing was right with the new administration,” Palmer said. “… I just felt it was important that the new administration bring their own people together to put together their agenda.”

Legislators, the state ombudsman and Iowa's Child Death Review Team all have launched investigations into the girls' deaths.

Gov. Kim Reynolds took office last week after former Gov. Terry Branstad became ambassador to China. Praised by both Branstad and Reynolds as a dedicated public servant, Palmer slashed more than 800 workers and $24 million annually from Iowa’s Department of Human Services.

Palmer said most of the down-sizing and savings were the result of closing two mental hospitals and a state-run home for troubled girls — not from cuts to child protective services.

Reinventing health coverage

Palmer also led the rocky transfer of the administration of the state’s $4 billion Medicaid program to three for-profit management companies.

Advocates for people with mental illness credited his oversight of a 2014 reorganization of mental health services that shifted the state from a county-by-county system to one overseen by 15 regional authorities.

Palmer also helped lead the 2013 compromise effort under which Iowa agreed to accept hundreds of millions of federal dollars to expand its Medicaid program under Obamacare.

Most other states led by Republican governors initially rebuffed Medicaid expansion, but Branstad agreed to use a modified plan to add more than 150,000 poor Iowa adults to the public health insurance coverage.  

“Chuck has been a dedicated public servant who has spent his life trying to improve the lives of Iowans,” Reynolds said. "I want to wish him well as he enjoys his retirement with his wife and family.”

Palmer was also under fire this spring because of Human Services workers' treatment of people with intellectual disabilities.

The agency disclosed that 13 workers at the Glenwood State Resource Center were fired or resigned after being accused of mistreating residents. Seven of the former staffers face criminal charges.

Changing plans

In April, Palmer told the Register that he had no immediate plans to retire. He said he hoped to stay in the job “as long as I feel like I’m making a difference and I’m feeling good.”

But that was before the May 12 death of Sabrina Ray of Perry. The 16-year-old was the second malnourished, home-schooled teen to die in six months after being adopted out of state foster care, following Natalie Finn.

On Wednesday, three of Sabrina's adoptive relatives, including a brother and grandmother, were charged in her death. Her adoptive parents already faced charges.

Sabrina's brother Justin Ray was accused of drop-kicking her down the basement steps, preventing her from ever walking, talking or eating normally again, according to a criminal complaint.

A niece, Josie Raye Bousman, 20, was accused of helping injure Sabrina, as well as helping to keep her confined and deprived of food and water.

Grandmother Carla Bousman was accused of helping to kidnap, torture and confine Sabrina and two other adopted girls, as well as removing evidence and providing false testimony.

Handling child abuse

In 2014, Palmer oversaw an effort that funneled thousands of additional cases of low-level abuse toward services to keep families together, sidestepping more formal intervention involving juvenile court judges.

Other states had successfully designed such systems to focus child-welfare workers on the most serious abuse.

But the state of Oregon recently suspended a roll-out of the practice after a consultant found children too often were being left in unsafe situations.

Similar complaints have been voiced in Iowa, including from Michael Sorci, director of the Youth Law Center in Des Moines. The agency's lawyers represent children in child-protective cases.

Sorci said he hopes the new state director will focus more on child protection.

"What’s happening (in the changed system) is not only that there are resources shifting, but there's also no oversight," he said.

The current system also makes it less likely that children and others who report abuse will do so again because fewer reports are formally investigated, he said.

The Iowa Department of Human Services announced last week that it was hiring an outside consultant to take an in-depth look at policies and procedures in Iowa's child welfare system.

Investigations launched

Democratic members of the Senate Oversight Committee have been calling for Palmer's resignation for months.

Iowans outraged by the deaths, and the abuse suffered by former foster child Malayia Knapp of Des Moines, also have demanded his resignation.

A joint meeting of the state House and Senate Government Oversight committees has been scheduled for June 5.

Co-chairs Rep. Bobby Kaufmann and Sen. Mike Breitbach, both Republicans, said in a statement that "reforms need to be considered. Justice must be served to those responsible for these unconscionable crimes.”

But Sen. Matt McCoy, a Des Moines Democrat who began his own inquiry into Finn's death shortly after her parents were charged, said Republican leaders have yet to roll out a specific agenda for their inquiry.

On Wednesday, he accused Palmer and Republican leaders of covering up top-down problems in an understaffed, underfunded agency. The retirement announcement, he said, was only a partial victory.

Agency in disarray?

McCoy said numerous social workers within the department have told him top Human Services administrator Wendy Rickman misrepresented caseloads when appearing before some lawmakers during this year's session.

Rickman said that employees averaged about 13.8 cases, but workers tell him they can be as high as 30 or 40 per person. The problems also extend to human resources, he said.

"They have taken an approach that continues to pile on the work," McCoy said. "If people complain of not having enough time to do the job, they are told either they'll do it or they will be replaced."

McCoy said the department also has been "perversely incentivizing" bad foster care situations by paying Lutheran Social Services and Iowa KidsNet for each placement without taking into consideration a family's finances.

He said he's been told families on welfare, disability or those otherwise on a "financial bubble" are using foster care to bolster their income instead of acting from a desire to care for children.

Palmer to answer questions

Palmer, who won’t step down until June 16, said he intends to face oversight committee members Monday.

When asked in a brief interview why he had not been more vocal in addressing the explosion of concern over the deaths, he reiterated that the deaths were tragic and that others had spoken for the agency on his behalf.

He said worker caseloads vary and that “we’ll look forward to answering whatever issues the senator (McCoy) would like to raise.”

Rep. Dave Heaton, a Mount Pleasant Republican who serves on the House government oversight and health and human services budget committees, agreed the agency has lost many workers.

But he said the staff reductions began before Branstad and Reynolds took office, and legislators have not passed a salary bill for state workers in years.

Heaton said he hopes Reynolds does a national search for a new director because the high-profile position is a mammoth responsibility.

"Whoever is going to take this job not only has to have knowledge and experience, but also needs leadership skills to encourage people to continue to motivate them to do a better job," he said.

The Register's Tony Leys contributed to this report.

Charles Palmer: Key moments

Palmer served two appointments as director of the Iowa Department of Human Services from 1989 to 1999, and from 2011 until this month.

A one-time psychiatric social worker, he previously served as administrator of Iowa’s Division of Mental Health.

2014: Palmer closes the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, where the state housed and educated troubled teenage girls.

He and the governor are sued by state employees and accused of shutting out state lawmakers in the decision, but the lawsuit was dismissed.

Palmer also oversees the reorganization of services for Iowans with mental-health issues. Advocates for people with mental illness praise the shift as positive.

2015: Branstad directs Palmer to close the state's two mental hospitals in Cherokee and Mount Pleasant, saying the institutions are costly and outdated.

Both contend the services could be better provided by community agencies or the state’s other two mental hospitals.

Both draw fierce criticism from those who said they moved too quickly, without ensuring adequate replacement services for fragile patients with complicated combinations of mental and physical ailments. Three former longtime patients of the Clarinda hospital die shortly after their transfers to private nursing homes.

Critics say the closures worsened a critical shortage of inpatient mental-health services, leaving Iowa ranked last in the nation for state-run psychiatric beds. 

Branstad and Palmer are sued again by 20 legislators and the largest public employees union in the state. But the cuts were upheld upon appeal.

April 2016: Palmer leads the effort to shift management of Iowa’s Medicaid system to three private companies under orders from Branstad.

October 2016: Natalie Finn dies of starvation.

The Register's Reader's Watchdog reports numerous neighbors and school officials, including a school nurse and principal, had reported Finn was being abused.

January 2017: Branstad directs Iowa’s Department of Human Services to reduce spending by $20 million by June 30 as part of a plan to address an overall $110 million shortfall.

Palmer says he believes his agency will be able to absorb the $20 million cuts for this fiscal year without negatively impacting staff or programs.

A Watchdog probe discloses what happened after Urbandale 17-year-old Malayia Knapp ran away from the home in late 2015. 

Abuse allegations — including that Knapp and her sister were routinely locked in a basement room — were recounted to police and child-protective authorities. Mindy Knapp ultimately was found responsible for child abuse and convicted of assault. Yet four other adopted children were returned to her care.

Advocates and legislators call for improved screening of potential adoptive and home-schooling parents.

May 2017: Ray dies after her parents leave their home and daycare with a brother on a trip to Disney World.

The home-schooled girl weighed just 56 pounds at the time of her death. Two adoptive sisters also are taken to the hospital and a brother is placed in care.

A Watchdog probe finds the girl was separated from an older half-sister and four brothers before the age of 10. But she was not severely malnourished until after she was placed in the foster home of Marc and Misty Ray in 2011. Sabrina was adopted by the Rays in 2013.

Democrats on legislative oversight committees renew a call for Palmer to resign.