ISU Extension names 19 new directors
Patton, Chizek to take on expanded director rolesBy LARRY KERSHNER, Messenger staff writer
Fact Box
Reorganization at a glance
Beginning July 1, 2010, the delivery of services of Iowa State University Extension will be altered to adjust to a $4.5 million budget cut for fiscal year 2010.
A reorganization of the system was announced April 30 by Jack Payne, vice president of Extension and Outreach. The plan includes:
The 97 county directors and five area directors positions will be eliminated. The publicly elected county councils will continue to serve.
- County offices will continue to stay open and the local staffs and field specialists will remain in place.
- All county offices will be regrouped into 20 regions, each headed by a regional director. Current directors can apply for 20 regional positions, or apply to be rehired into county systems to serve in educational or other roles, or opt for an early retirement package being offered.
- The smallest regions are grouped with three counties. The largest are in clusters of nine counties. The regional office will be placed in a major retail center within the group.
- Rather than the typical fee each county has paid to ISU for support of Extension staff on campus, which totaled about $4 million in fiscal year 2009, each county will pay just 2 percent of its tax levy in fiscal year 2010, or about $500,000 statewide.
- The balance of $3.5 million will remain with the county offices to be spent on local programming and services.
- The positions of Families and 4-H Youth, the Center for Industrial Research and Service, and Community and Economic Development will be merged, in an effort to bring their research disciplines into an efficient delivery system of services to Iowans.
- The campus Extension budget will be whittled by 10.7 percent. That will be recovered by eliminating 25 positions, through attrition, and by generating new revenue.
- ISU campus Extension will also consolidate from five areas of service to three - families and 4-H, agriculture and natural resources, and economic development.
Iowa State University Extension named 19 of its 20 new regional directors Tuesday, as the result of an overhaul of how Extension services will be delivered to Iowans. The new positions will go into effect Aug. 1.
Jim Patton, the current county director for Webster County, was named as the new Region 7 director. He will now oversee operations in the counties of Webster, Humboldt, Hamilton and Wright. Patton said Fort Dodge will be the regional office for the four-county entity.
Jerry Chizek, the current director for Calhoun County, was named to head up the new Region 6, which includes the counties of Calhoun, Cherokee, Buena Vista, Pocahontas, Ida and Sac. The regional office for this six-county group has not been named officially.
One of the 20 regional positions has not been filled, which is Region 2, encompassing the counties of Emmet, Palo Alto, Kossuth, Winnebago and Hancock.
In May, ISU Extension announced a major overhaul of its organization in an effort to save $4 million, due to the slumping state economy. By consolidating the number of directorships from nearly 100 to 20, the organization will save $2 million annually, Patton said. The rest will come from early retirements, attrition and possibly more staff cuts, maybe even at the campus level, he added.
In the reorganization, each existing county office will stay open and each will be directed by its nine-person county council. These exist by state law. All offices will continue to set tax levies within the restrictions of Iowa code.
''I think we have a pretty good draw,'' Patton said of Region 7's member counties. ''We already share 20 programs annually. Now we'll just be able to get to know each other better.''
Patton, who interviewed for the new position on June 15, will now oversee four budgets, four office staffs, work with four county councils and four county fairs. Chizek will have six to administer.
The upside to the reorganization, Patton said, is that Webster County's annual contribution to ISU for services rendered will be reduced from around $50,000 to less than $10,000.
''So we're going to have more discretionary funds for programming,'' he said.
Jack Payne, Iowa State University's vice president of Extension and Outreach, said annual contributions from all offices totaled $4 million. ISU will now get around $500,000.
''I'm returning $3.5 million of it,'' Payne said.
Webster County gets some additional benefits by being selected as the regional office, Patton said. These include a monthly rent from ISU for providing office space. That figure has not been confirmed by ISU, but Webster County is seeking $700 per month. In addition, the county will receive about $7,000 in various administrative services from ISU each year. In exchange, Webster County must provide the space and furnishings, as well as eight to 10 hours for clerical work as needed for ISU.
He said his current office manager, Audra Fisher, will be assigned to those extra clerical hours. Because Fisher has the most seniority as an office manager among the four in the new region, she'll also be in a position to help set policy, Patton said.
Two areas Patton wants the region's four councils to consider are creating a program for developing new leaders for their communities, and deciding how to serve the area's growing Latino population.
Patton said that he still has a concern about how the public will adjust to these changes.
"Everyone in Extension sees themselves as educators. But (the 20 new regional directors) will now be administrators."
On his conference table was a small branch with maple leaves with what appeared to be rust spots that someone left for him to research. "I won't have time for things like this anymore," Patton said.
"Last spring I met with 70 farmers about farmland leases. We'll still have the programs on leasing, but we won't be able to do the one-on-one anymore. It'll be an adjustment for the public," he said. "We all know how to do education, we'll just learn to do it differently."
Region 6 Director Chizek said the changes were necessary.
"If anyone is taking this personally, they shouldn't," Chizek said. "It's just a reflection of the economy. We aren't the only ones going through this."
Contact Larry Kershner at (515) 573-2141 or kersh@farm-news.com
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jaybares
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06-24-09 12:46 AM
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Regents should let Jack Payne oversee some of the really bloated depts at all their institutions. Imagine how much "rubber they could get on the road".
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