STATE OF WASHINGTON

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
1115 Washington Street SE, Olympia, Washington 98504?5010

January 5, 2016
Dear Teammates,

This week marks the third anniversary of my time as Secretary of DSHS. It has been an exciting
and profoundly important three years for me. It has also been exactly the kind of mission I had
hoped for. And like any mission, it has a beginning and an end and I've decided that three years
is the right measure for me. My role at DSHS was always a mission for me and never a job or a
career. I have let Governor Inslee know that I will be resigning my position once he selects a
successor.

It is very much my sense that the Governor and the DSHS Assistant Secretaries would like me to
stay on, which is proof, in part, that it is the right time to leave. It is evidence that we have a
strong mission focus and a strong team executing that mission. I feel deeply our shared
commitment to transforming lives and leave with complete certainty that that mission transcends
my small role in every respect.

I often say that our DSHS team works every day on challenges that are so hard that most people
cannot begin to identify solutions, much less implement them as you do every day. Child abuse,
homelessness, juvenile delinquency, severe mental illness, poverty, food instability. The list is
nearly endless. As you have heard me say so many times, we serve 2.5 million of our state's 7
million people and every one of them needs our help to transform some aspect of their life.
People outside DSHS typically cannot begin to understand our challenges but the expectation
they attach to you to solve every social ill, whether there is a funded social program or not, is
perhaps the best evidence of the indispensable role you play in making our state a great place.

In this immediate post-holiday season I'm reminded of the Christmas classic, It?s a Wonderful
Life, and the chance that the lead charter in that movie, George Bailey, got to glimpse how his
community would have changed radically for the worse if he had not been there bringing his
whole self to the task of serving his community. Your commitment to transforming lives has
made the same impact on your community and I clearly wish I had the means to show you what a
dramatic difference each of you has made (and is making). I hope deeply that you will never
lose a second questioning whether you are making an important difference because the reality is
that without your efforts this would not be the Washington we know and love.

The Governor's recently released 2016 Supplemental Budget sets the stage for another set of
critical repairs to the social safety net. It?s a repair effort he has pursued relentlessly since his
first budget and despite ?ercely competing priorities. If we succeed in getting this budget, or a
reasonable facsimile of this budget, adopted by the State Legislature we will enjoy forward
movement in every one of our DSHS administrations. I am deeply grateful that Governor Inslee
has made such a commitment to our clients.

Page Two
January 5, 2016

I hope you'll allow me a moment to praise just some of your great accomplishments of the past
three years. I hesitate because I will not touch each of your accomplishments because there are
simply too many. But to highlight just a few:

0 For seniors: the American Associations of Retired People (AARP) ranked
Washington as having the second-best long term support program in the country,
despite funding at the 34th lowest level;

0 For individuals with developmental disabilities: adding resources to serve 5,000
additional people and the successful restructuring of the state?s regional
residential centers that had been plagued with regulatory and quality control
problems;

a For the mentally ill: the creation of intensive child outpatient services that, when
fully implemented, will serve 5,800 children per year. Also, the ongoing process
of pulling the state?s hospitals back from the brink of court action and
decertification;

For vulnerable children: improvement in social worker caseloads, training and
services that have saved dozens of lives, the continued progress on ?Braam?
foster care quality?of?service measures, and the addition of foster services for
children 18-21 that are saving many youth from homelessness or worse;

0 For the poor: overseeing a food stamp program that is a national leader in
ef?ciency, and garnering millions in federal grants for innovative job training
programs. 

Your work, and this agency, are dear to me so it is my intention to give the Governor all the
leeway he needs to choose the right person to be honored with the chance to serve as the next
Secretary of DSHS. That means it could be weeks or months before I of?cially turn things over
to a successor. During that time it is as important as ever that we remain focused on our strategic
plans and the performance improvements we are striving for.

I know you will continue to bring commitment and innovation to your work. I hope you will
also continue your focus on mission, and on our values as an agency.

It has been and exceptional honor to have had this chance to work with you and to make my
contribution to facilitating your important work. Thank you for truly making the past three years
the most rewarding of my professional career.

    

Secretary

DSHS: Transforming Lives