Some counties are battling the Pawlenty administration over the governor's plan for service collaborations, writes the Owatonna People's Press. They say the concept is good, but the execution needs work.

County human services directors oppose parts of the plan that would designate regions of human service collaborations based on populations of 250,000.

For example, Steele, Dodge, Rice and Olmsted counties could be put into one region. Services, programs and funding would then be divided in the counties based on populations. Since Olmsted is the largest of those counties, it could then receive more money from the state than the others. Furthermore, residents possibly might have to go to Olmsted County to receive certain services or some services would simply not be provided in Steele County.

“Services are at risk, funding is at risk, employment is at risk. The whole system is at risk under Gov. Pawlenty’s proposal,” said Kelly Harder, Steele County Human Services director.

She's been testifying before Minnesota House and Senate committees to prohibit this type of model and to keep the services regulations at the county level.

“We all know when you work with a large bureaucracy how responsive that is compared to a local entity that is accountable to the local commissioners,” Harder said. “Pawlenty’s plan is fundamentally flawed from  Day One, because he has driven 15 politically motivated ideological service regions around the state with no or minimal credit to the local infrastructure in place.”

The Association of Minnesota Counties has introduced its own plan, which calls for counties with populations of 55,000 to be certified to offer human services while counties with populations of less than 55,000 would form joint consortiums. But Pawlenty said that's not bold enough and is expected to demand his approach during session-ending negotiations.