7 months after director retired, health district has no permanent leader. What gives?
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has not found a permanent replacement for its former director, one year after his announced retirement.
Dr. Anthony Chen in January 2023 announced plans to retire as TPCHD’s director of health in June. Since retiring, he’s worked on a contract basis, serving in a director emeritus/health officer capacity to continue departmental duties requiring specific medical background qualifications as required by state law.
In December, the TPCHD board approved a contract extension for Chen to continue assisting the department by supporting interim director Cindan Gizzi.
The latest extension is to expire June 30 and follows the same terms of previous extensions, with his pay for the January through June time period not to exceed $90,000.
Recruiting for the top department position has been an issue, historically, with officials during the last hiring process in 2008 acknowledging the difficulty of finding someone such as Chen — a doctor and someone with a public-health background.
That was well before the COVID-19 pandemic when political divisions took hold in upending disease-intervention programs, and societal/political tensions added further complexity to agencies struggling to support health care equity, including in Tacoma.
In March 2023, a report from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reported, “Nearly half of all employees in state and local public health agencies in the U.S. left their jobs between 2017 and 2021, and if such workforce contractions continue, more than 100,000 public health staff could leave their jobs by 2025.”
In September amid recruitment challenges, TPCHD’s board approved splitting the health department’s leadership position into two jobs — director and health officer — to separately address the administrative duties and medical requirements previously rolled into a solo director position.
The board approved a salary range for the director position of $166,782.72 to $214,780.80 annually and for the health officer $200,740.80 to $267,280 annually.
Kenny Via is TPCHD’s media representative. In response to questions, he said via email on Jan. 11 that three candidates are under consideration. Via did not offer further details.
“The Board of Health’s recruitment committee is considering three candidates. At this time and at the request of the candidates, we will not disclose their names or further information to protect their existing employment relationships,” he wrote.
The health department in July explained its vetting process and said 16 candidates had been screened before the field was winnowed to three for interviews with the board, community stakeholders and staff.
“The mayor of Tacoma and Pierce County executive will make the final selection, and the county and Tacoma city councils will confirm the appointment,” it added in a posting on its website.
Via told The News Tribune on Jan. 11, “More information may be available after the mayor and county executive announce their appointment.”
The recruitment committee is led by current board chair Catherine Ushka and is using a consulting firm in local and national recruitment.
After splitting the leadership job into two, the department later in September amended its contract with Karras Consulting for a new maximum contract sum of $135,000, an increase of $75,000 from previous terms set in March 2023. The amended contract runs through April 30, 2024.
At the September meeting in which the amended contract was unanimously approved by the board, Ushka told board members that “I don’t want to curse myself ... or ourselves by saying it won’t take us until April. But certainly the goal is to get it done as expeditiously and as well as possible.”
“We are meeting the board recruitment committee’s expected timelines,” Via told The News Tribune on Jan. 11.
When asked for more timeline details, Via wrote late Friday that “Our Board of Health recruitment committee anticipates making a recommendation in early 2024.”
He added that the committee will “continue to work through the interview process with these three candidates over the next few weeks. Once the committee makes a recommendation, the timeline for a potential hire will shift to the Tacoma and Pierce County councils.”
The health board meeting agenda Jan. 17 includes the election of chair and vice-chair for 2024 and adoption of a beginning 2024-2025 budget of more than $111 million for the department and more than 350 full-time employees.
The News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
