Counties challenge distribution of human service funds

Foster County commissioners are officially requesting nearly $100,000 from Wells County, which they argue amounts to four years' worth of social service payments owed to Foster County that haven't been distributed since 2020.

A letter being drafted by Foster County State's Attorney Kara Brinster at the request of commissioners, will soon be sent to the Wells County commission requesting exactly $92,757.88.

A motion to send the letter was carried unanimously at Foster County's commission meeting on July 17, when Brinster and commissioners all seemed to agree that any rejection by Wells County could require involvement of the North Dakota Attorney General's office.

The letter comes after a meeting of the Central Prairie Human Services Zone Board on Wednesday, June 26, which – according to multiple people who attended the meeting – became "contentious" when the issue was brought up.

Becky Hagel, a Foster County commissioner and member of the zone board, told her fellow commissioners that she's brought up the problem multiple times at meetings, but has never seen progress on the issue.

However, State's Attorney Brinster told the Independent on Monday that the dispute has become far less acrimonious since that June 26 meeting, and that Foster County is now expecting a positive response from officials in Wells.

The source of this dispute begins in 2019 with the creation of "human service zones" in North Dakota, which took the responsibility of social services away from each county and instead established a number of state-funded "zones."

Foster and Wells counties are joined by Eddy County to comprise the Central Prairie Human Service Zone (Central Prairie), which provides critical social services – such as Medicaid and assistance for abused and neglected children – to residents of each community.

The State of North Dakota has 19 human service zones in total, and each has a "host county" which receives state funding for their zone.

According to the N.D. Health and Human Services website, each zone's host county is responsible for administrative functions, such as payroll and human resources.

They also receive all of that zone's state funding, with the expectation that some of those funds will then be distributed to each of the zone's other counties, thereby ensuring everyone is properly reimbursed for costs related to human services.

As Central Prairie's host county, Wells County has been receiving state funding since Central Prairie's creation in 2019. However, none of that money has ever been distributed to Foster or Eddy County.

And that's despite Central Prairie's own plan dictating that those funds must be distributed.

Central Prairie's zone plan states, "The board of county commissioners acknowledge that the Department will pay ... for indirect costs according to a formula established by the Department, which will be paid to the host county ... and the host county will then distribute the payment to each county within the Human Service Zone."

The amount of funding received by Wells County has been $143,768.10 per year, for each of the past four years – funds which are meant to cover each county's "indirect costs" associated with human services.

For example, the social service offices in Foster County are housed within their courthouse, meaning costs to keep their courthouse operational – such as electricity, water and maintenance – also keep the social service offices operational. The county would therefore get some reimbursement for those costs.

The amount of state funding received by the host county is pre-determined by a formula, which accounts for each county's indirect costs. But how that money is distributed is a question for each service zone's board.

Madison Crisman, Central Prairie's newly-hired director who is now working to resolve this issue, said each service zone distributes their funding a little differently. However, in the case of Central Prairie, it appears their zone plan could have been more clear on how that money should be distributed.

Prior to a recent amendment, Page 15 of their zone plan stated that funding will be distributed "according to the amounts established by the counties participating within the Human Service Zone."

But according to several people familiar with the situation, Eddy, Foster and Wells Counties never explicitly made that determination. State's Attorney Brinster told the Independent that she's looking through prior meeting minutes of the zone board to make sure, but that she's not expecting to find any agreement.

And in the absence of such an agreement, Foster County is requesting the exact amount determined by the indirect costs formula for their county, which has been approximately $23,000 per year from 2020 through 2023, totaling just shy of $93,000.

Eddy County, meanwhile, is not yet requesting any specific amount from Wells County.

Glenda Collier, Eddy County commissioner and member of the Central Prairie Zone board, said they're waiting to receive information from Crisman before determining how much should be allocated to their county.

Meanwhile, at a board meeting on Wednesday, July 24, the Central Prairie zone board made an amendment to their plan clarifying exactly how funding will be distributed moving forward.

Regarding previous payments, however, the counties will have to come to a retroactive agreement about how much each county is owed.

As it stands, no retroactive agreements have been made and it's unclear whether Wells County will agree to Foster County's request of nearly $100,000.

As for how this issue has gone unresolved for so long, Collier said that despite it being brought up at Central Prairie meetings for years, the issue never appeared to be effectively communicated with Wells County Auditor Dan Stutlien, who she said first learned of the problem at their June 26 meeting.

Commissioner Hagel also noted that Wells County and Central Prairie have seen some turnover at the auditor and director positions, respectively, which may have contributed to a lack of communication and/or confusion about the issue.

She also said that everyone appears to be cooperating with one another now, and that she expects the problem to be resolved amicably.

The Independent reached out to Dan Stutlien and Wells County Commission Chairman Stan Buxa for comment, but had not heard back as of press time.