Vilsack says consultant is being asked to return travel fees

Governor Tom Vilsack continues to defend his department of human services director — but he is asking a controversial, high-priced D-H-S consultant to return 54-thousand dollars. That’s how much was spent on the consultant’s travel.Vilsack says there were 400-million dollars worth of private contractors working for the state when he took office. He’s asked for an investigation of all contract work being done for the state. Vilsack says the contracting was done by previous administrations to cut back on the number of state employees.Pressure’s mounting for D-H-S director Jesse Rasmussen’s ouster in the wake of two, high-profile child abuse cases. The D-H-S is accused of dropping the ball in earlier investigations of the abuse of Shelby Duis of Spirit Lake and Frank Charbonneau, Junior, of Oskaloosa. Vilsack says Rasmussen is one of the best problem solvers in his administration, and he sees no reason to remove her from the job.