Career state welfare worker takes administrator’s post

Wednesday, May 24, 2000 | 10:37 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- "I bleed welfare blue," Mike Willden says.

The week after he turned 21 he was hired as an eligibility case worker for the state Welfare Division in Las Vegas and he has been with the agency since.

Willden, 44, was appointed administrator of the division Tuesday to succeed Myla Florence, who was promoted to become director of the state Department of Employment, Rehabilitation and Training.

After a year and a half in Las Vegas, Willden moved to Carson City where he has worked in every facet of the division ranging from child support enforcement to public assistance, to internal auditor, to deputy director for financial services.

He's been part of the welfare reform program, which has witnessed the numbers on public assistance drop from 42,703 in March 1995 to 16,421 last month.

Willden said there's some "fine tuning" still to do on welfare reform but nothing major is in the works.

Willden will oversee an annual budget of about $300 million that finances such areas as child support enforcement, monthly checks to welfare families, the aged and blind, employment and training projects, homeless grants and payments to help people with their energy bills.

One of the major problems facing the division is getting NOMADS, the agency's new computer system, certified by the federal government. But Gov. Kenny Guinn said that Florence will continue to oversee that project.

NOMADS started as a $22 million project and its costs are exceeding $100 million. It was due to be completed in 1995 but won't be ready for federal inspection until later this year. The state has already been fined several million dollars by the federal government but could get that money back if the system passes muster this year.

Willden said he will be working on Guinn's fundamental review of state government, looking for efficiencies and ways to cut costs. He said he will be keeping an eye on Congress for any new legislation on public assistance.

Guinn made two major shifts Tuesday, jettisoning Carol Jackson, who has been director of the Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department since its inception, and Prison Director Bob Bayer. Both were appointed by former Gov. Bob Miller.

Administration sources said the management style of both contributed to their departure. Morale suffered in both agencies and neither delegated authority, sources said. There also were complaints on how they treated their employees, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.

In the case of Jackson, her firing of longtime state Employment Security Director Stan Jones shortly before Christmas did not sit well with the Guinn administration. He was given only hours to clean out his desk.

Jackson, the highest-ranking black woman in the Guinn cabinet, sent her farewells to the employees, saying changes made during her administration "have given Nevada's employers and workers a strong, more qualified work force."

"Together we have achieved many milestones -- most recently the successful operation of our QuickClaim telephone claims center for automation of the Unemployment Insurance Benefit process," she said.

In Bayer's case, a recent performance audit found that maintenance programs could be improved at the various prisons. The audit also said it took an average 70 days to hire new people to fill vacancies on the staff. And it said the prison system now takes an average of nearly 28 days from the time a purchase is approved until the supplies arrive.

Bayer, according to the sources, was an expert in the field of corrections but his weakness came in management.