Gregoire gives DSHS chief key post

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published December 23, 2008

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The leader of the state's largest and often highest-profile agency is joining Gov. Chris Gregoire's policy team, leaving another post-election cabinet vacancy.

Department of Social and Health Services Secretary Robin Arnold-Williams will become Gregoire's director of executive policy, a key position in shaping the governor's stance on a host of issues.

Laurie Dolan, who has held the top policy position since Gregoire took office in 2005, is retiring. In a message to co-workers, she said she looks forward to spending more time with her family as she deals with a long-term cancer.

Arnold-Williams' new position will be closer to Gregoire and further from the public spotlight that shines on an agency charged with protecting abused children, the disabled, the elderly and the poor.

"I love this work. ... but after having done it so long in another state, and four years here, it really was time for a change," said Arnold-Williams, 52.

Advocates for the disadvantaged and legislators have given her good marks, and rumors of her pending departure began swirling a month before Gregoire won re-election in November.

"This woman totally, totally, gets it. She has so much experience in this work, there's nothing she is not familiar with," said Charles Shelan, executive director of Community Youth Services in Olympia, speaking before Arnold-Williams announced her departure Monday.

As head of Social and Health Services, Arnold-Williams led 20,000 state workers, and oversaw a $9 billion budget, much of it spent on health care for low-income and disabled people.

Gregoire hired her away from Utah, where she directed a similar agency. Within a week of taking up her Washington state post, Arnold-Williams had to deal with a sub-agency that had overspent its budget by $12 million.

That was the Children's' Administration, which has been a focal point for Gregoire and Arnold-Williams ever since. With the Legislature, they added $50 million to its budget, and 300 social workers to respond to reports of abuse and manage foster children's cases.

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