Retired general to get $20K monthly to advise Pierce County exec on COVID-19 recovery
A department of one has been added to Pierce County government to help Executive Bruce Dammeier respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Disaster Recovery Office will bridge the response to the coronavirus across departments and advise the county executive on addressing public health needs while reopening the economy.
On Monday, Dammeier named Dr. Ken Farmer, a retired Army major general and physician, to do the job.
The six-month contract pays $20,000 a month. Farmer’s salary will be covered with money from $15 million FEMA granted the county to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. County Communications Director Libby Catalinich said the salary was negotiated.
Farmer told The News Tribune the role is an advisory one. He will attend various emergency management, finance and health meetings and report back to Dammeier.
“The main goal is to serve as a coordinator and work with a number of other entities to include the health department, the department of emergency management and many others,” Farmer said. “It’s to pull together data and information to advise the county executive on the way ahead, balancing the health needs with reopening the economy and moving on.”
His advice will help Dammeier determine how to allocate $158 million from the federal CARES Act to respond to the pandemic.
The council approved the $158 million budget last week that broke the funding into five categories: public health, economic recovery, community response, essential government services and reserves. The budget allows for flexible spending but left the majority of council concerned.
Dammeier said Farmer’s experience makes him the ideal candidate to organize recovery efforts.
“We are fortunate to have found a remarkable leader of Dr. Farmer’s caliber in our own community,” he said in a statement.
The Disaster Recovery Office was created in a 2014 Disaster Plan to respond to emergencies. Dammeier activated the office and notified the Pierce County Council.
Chairman Doug Richardson supported the decision.
“Given the severity of the COVID-19 crisis, it is prudent that we activate the temporary Office of Disaster Recovery to assist county government, as well as our residents and businesses, to recover as quickly as possible,” Richardson said in a statement.
Council member Derek Young agreed Farmer was a great fit to coordinate efforts.
“I’m impressed by his credentials,” Young said.
There wasn’t an issue of gaps or a lack of information between departments before he was hired, Farmer said.
“There was not a particular problem — it was, ‘Let’s activate the office to provide assistance,’” he said.
Farmer comes with experience running large hospital systems in the military. He retired from the Army in 2006 after 32 years and began working in the public and private sector, most recently as the CEO of Careage, a senior living facility company.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
