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"Forty-one years ago, it was pretty much handing out (welfare) checks,” said David Shafer, who is retiring as the agency's chief administrative officer after 41 years of DHS service.

"They had a big machine that printed up checks, and they passed out checks, ” Shafer said during his farewell speech at Tuesday's DHS Commission meeting.

In recent years, many "really fine programs have developed to help people help themselves,” he said.

DHS used to be an agency that was swimming in money, he said.

In the old days, then-director Lloyd Rader would call meetings in June to tell employees they needed to quickly spend $50 million or $60 million to avoid losing it at the end of the fiscal year, Shafer said.

The agency would respond by buying tractors and all kinds of equipment, he said.

"We had money it seemed like we couldn't get all spent,” he said. "Here today, we have so many great programs, such a great need, and yet we really have to struggle for the funding for those programs.”