Cascade County Commission planning to interview health officer candidates next week
Cascade County is planning to interview three candidates for health officer next week.
During the March 4 health board meeting, County Commissioner Joe Briggs thanked the board for reviewing and scoring the applicants.
The human resources department was setting up interviews with the top three candidates for March 11, he said, and hopefully all of the candidates could interview that day, otherwise they’d set up a second day.
Briggs said commissioners will repeat the same process they used in late December when they interviewed two candidates, but decided to readvertise the position. A third candidate dropped out of the interviews.
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“We definitely got a broader pool and a deeper pool than the first time,” Briggs said.
He said the commission will work with the health board for a consensus on the next health officer.
The county made significant cuts to CCHD over the last year in an effort to reduce expenses as grant funding has been cut and revenues haven’t kept up with costs. More reductions may be needed, Trista Besich, county finance officer, told the health board on March 4 since immunization revenue was coming in significantly under projected levels.
She said they’d already made reductions noticing the slower participation at immunization clinics, but the revenue was currently about 65-70 percent of what was budgeted.
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Besich told board that they may need another $300,000 cut to account for that shortfall.
After working with commissioners to make those budget adjustments over the last year, former county health officer Abigail Hill resigned, effective Dec. 5.
The county has been operating without a health officer since and the interim administrator for the department quit the week after Hill.
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Briggs told The Electric in December that the county can operate for up to 30 days without a designated public health officer, “although that is not our plan or desire. The county is currently in contract negotiations with an individual that is qualified to be the interim public health officer. We are hopeful of having that individual aboard shortly.”
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State law includes a provision that if a local health board fails to appoint a health officer within 30 days, the Montana Department of Health and Human Services may step in and appoint a health officer.
During Jan. 2 meeting, commissioners voted to approve agreement with Gladys Young for her to serve as interim public health officer from Jan. 1 through June 30 at $500 monthly rate, plus time for Young’s services onsite or electronically at $150 per hour with the minimum incremental charge for services of 15 minutes.
The county will reimburse Young for six months of medical malpractice insurance coverage beginning Jan. 1.
Young is a licensed and certified medical doctor in Montana with previous public health officer experience in Liberty County during the pandemic, according to the county.
In late December, commissioners interviewed two candidates for health officer, but weren’t satisfied with the options, so with approval from the health board, opted to readvertise the position and seek more candidates.
During the Feb. 4 health board meeting, Briggs said that county human resources had notified commissioners that 11 applications had been received so they closed the position. HR revied the applications, which were sent to the health board for scoring and the top three scheduled for interviews.
Briggs said he was told it was a strong candidate pool and the number of applicants was improved from the first round.
For the first round, the county had received five applications with some withdrawals after scoring, so interviews were scheduled with the three remaining candidates.
One candidate didn’t appear on Zoom for her scheduled slot or answer phone calls.
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During the Jan. 7 health board meeting, Briggs said he’d initially had a level of confidence that they had someone in that pool with the experience needed to take CCHD forward, but after interviewing the two remaining candidates, “I was not personally excited by their actual experience.”
In reposting the position, Briggs said he didn’t want to exclude those who’d previously interviewed but “I really think we need some experience at the health department.”
During the January meeting, Wilson said both interviewed candidates had good points but “not the experience our department needs to move forward.”
