Critics and supporters agree on this about Rochelle Chronister's tenure at SRS: There's been no shortage of change.
Few, if any, state government officials have presided over more change than welfare secretary Rochelle Chronister.
First, she brought the state into compliance with federal welfare-reform measures, which meant a complete overhaul of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services' approach to caring for the poor.
Then she closed Winfield and Topeka state hospitals, transferred most of SRS' responsibilities for the elderly to the Department on Aging, and opened up the state's child-support collection efforts to competitive bidding.
Finally, she privatized most of the state's services for abused, neglected and runaway children.
All that in four and a half years.
"Secretary Chronister has provided an unusual level of leadership during a time of massive change in the delivery of social services," said Ann Weick, dean of the Kansas University School of Social Welfare.
"She's a no-nonsense person," Weick said. "She's a very able administrator. She's very clear in what it is she wants to see happen, and she's shown strong leadership in dealing with the Legislature."
'I'm tired'
Earlier this month, Chronister, 60, announced her Oct. 1 retirement.
"I'm tired," she said during a recent interview with the Journal-World. " And I've accomplished most of what I came here to do, so it's time to find something else to do."
Chronister, who is from Neodesha, spent 17 years in the Kansas House of Representatives before becoming SRS secretary May 18, 1995.
No other woman has served in the Legislature longer, and she remains the only woman to chair the budget committee in either the House or Senate.
Chronister says it's too early to measure the successes and failures of her tenure.
"Part of that is because a lot of these things take time," she said, "and part of it's because things change. We can do something today that's absolutely the right way to deliver social services; three years later, it'll be seen as the wrong way.
"Does that mean we're wrong? No, it just means the 'best way' is changing all the time."
During the Chronister years, the numbers of adults and children -- mothers and small children, mostly -- on public assistance have plummeted.
Reform or abandonment?
Today, for example, there are fewer than half as many people on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as there were five years ago: 86,000 in 1994 vs. 33,000 in 1999.
Chronister says that's good. It means welfare reform is working. Her critics say it's a dismal failure.
"We haven't reformed welfare; we've abandoned it," said Paul Johnson of the Public Assistance Coalition of Kansas.
"The Chronister legacy? It's just been horrible," he said. "She gave cover to the governor and to the Legislature during the dismantling of the basic economic protections for women and children in this state.
"We haven't solved anything; we're just moving the shells around."
Chronister's policies, Johnson said, have hurt -- not helped -- the poor.
But last week, Kansas Senate President Dick Bond, R-Overland Park, called Chronister's tenure "the capstone of a truly brilliant career in public service."
Which critique -- Bond's or Johnson's -- is correct remains to be seen.
"I don't know, and at this point I don't think anybody knows," said Nancy McCarthy Snyder, associate professor of public administration at Wichita State University. "The people who are familiar with the old system are very uneasy with what she's done, but I haven't seen any real evidence of the disastrous things that those people say are going to happen. We'll just have to see."
-- Dave Ranney's phone message number is 832-7222. His e-mail is dranney@ljworld.com.
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