Markeshia Ricks Photo
The saying goes that you can’t catch flies with vinegar. And apparently you can’t catch a permanent, full-time, health department director and doctor with a $125,000 salary. Especially if you want to hire someone with a track record of improving health care by reducing avoidable trips to the doctor’s office.
At least that’s what the city’s community services administrator told the Board of Alders finance committee Wednesday night in a public hearing. The city has watched potential candidates for the long-vacant director of health job slip through its fingers, lured away by bigger dollar signs in other towns. Administrator Martha Okafor (pictured above) said that has happened on at least three occasions when the city has either offered a candidate the job, or been poised to do so.
“We have not been able to fill the position since Mayor Toni Harp came into office,” she said. “During that time period, the director of health was not reappointed and the city started a search.”
Okafor said a person with a medical degree, who has completed a residency, could expect to earn a starting salary of about $150,000, and even that is considered to be low.
The failure to hire a permanent health chief has cost the city $154,274 in per capita grant funding to date. She told alders that the city has received three letters from the state because of its failure to appoint a permanent director, and it is refusing to release the funding to the city until that position is filled. The city is not allowed to have an acting director of health for more than three months for health and safety reasons, she said.
The committee OK’d Okafor’s request to designate the health director as a key employee and bump up the salary for the position by $20,000, with hopes that it would make the position more attractive to a future candidate. The increase ultimately will have to be approved by the entire Board of Alders. The city already has chosen a candidate for the position who Okafor said has the requisite medical and public health credentials.
Fourth Time A Charm?
The candidate of choice is Dr. Byron S. Kennedy (pictured), who received all of his degrees, including his doctorate, from Yale University. He apparently is interested in coming to New Haven for less money than he could get elsewhere, just not so much less than he already makes. Kennedy is currently the health commissioner for Monroe County in New York where he earns an annual salary of $165,000.
Okafor said Kennedy is willing to take the job for less because “he felt like we have a city that is ready and willing to make a positive difference in the community health,” she said. “For him, it’s not just about being the [director] of public health but the ability to … make a difference in disparities in public health and promote community health and well being.”
Hill Alder Latrice James wanted to know the city’s plan for covering the $15,000 shortfall the increased salary would create for the next fiscal year. The mayor’s budget requests $130,000 for the position.
City budget director Joe Clerkin didn’t have an immediate way to plug the hole, but said that in such situations shortfalls for salaries are typically filled with other revenue or cuts, and that officials would be looking to make the salary work within the budget.
East Shore Alderman Alphonse Paolillo Jr. (pictured) wanted to know how the salary compared to salaries for the position in similarly sized cities in the state. Hartford pays its health director $123,084. But Okafor said that other cities don’t require the same credentials that the Harp administration wants the next director to have, namely a medical degree as well as a public health degree. That prompted East Rock Alder Anna Festa to ask if the city’s candidate was possibly over qualified for the position. “Do we need those qualifications,” she asked.
Okafor said she didn’t think the city could find even a less-qualified candidate who would accept the current salary. If they found one who would, she said, that person might not have the skills necessary to move the needle on some of the health issues facing the city’s residents.
“We need someone with experience to move and change the health outcomes for us,” Okafor said. She suggested that the city would be getting Kennedy at a bargain for $145,000 given his years of experience as a medical doctor and his background in public health and social epidemiology, especially considering the social factors that are causing health related deaths in New Haven.
Food For Thought
Festa (pictured) also asked what the health department was willing to give up not only for the increase in salary for the director’s position, but also the five additional positions that the the department has requested, and the mayor has included in her budget. “We can’t just keep giving and giving and giving without knowing what cuts are going to be made,” she said. “What are you willing to give up to compensate for not only this position, but the other positions that your department is asking for.”
Festa said her question was “food for thought,” but also a question that needs to be answered because it isn’t just a salary. Benefits must also be provided in addition to the salary, she said.
Paolillo said that the current administration, and previous administrations, have had people serving as “acting” in important positions for extended time periods, and “that doesn’t serve the citizens well, doesn’t serve our city government well.” He said the health department position was too important to let it remain without a permanent head any longer. The health department has had an acting director for nearly a year and a half, a violation of state requirements.
Board of Health Commissioner and pediatrician (pictured at right), Dr. Tamika Jackson McArthur, sang Kennedy’s praises Wednesday night suggesting that he could make the health department something that it isn’t currently: a force in the city’s medical community.
“He is interested in New Haven,” she said. “He said specifically that he is not doing enough in urban areas in Rochester and that’s where he wants to go. I have been practicing medicine in New Haven since 1998 … I can see the need for someone innovative like this. As far as the salary, I know we have to find the money, but it is remarkable that he will take it and come to New Haven.”
Okafor said in his current role in New York, he has had success in transforming that community’s asthma management process. New Haven currently has the highest avoidable inpatient care for asthma in the state. She said he was able to work with hospitals and school-based clinics to reduce the incidence of avoidable inpatient care. “When you reduce that, you improve not only the health of the kids, but you increase their attendance at school,” she said. “It also allows parents to be at work.”