Walla Walla's County Board of Commissioners is now engaged in a Priorities of Government (POG) exercise, asking the question: What is the most efficient way to ensure citizens receive human services? To answer this question, commissioners authorized a study to find out the effects of competitive bidding the Department of Human Services' (DHS) functions to a non-governmental, non-profit entity. The study concluded that without a decrease in service, competitive bidding of DHS services would reduce the size of county government by 46 full-time, benefited employees and 22 part-time and on-call employees. The county also would move from direct to indirect...
