Health board seeks county department status

The Salt Lake Valley Health Department is acting on a vow made after the Nancy Workman hiring scandal to gain greater access to the county mayor's office.

A big first step would be for the agency to be officially designated what it is commonly called — a department, county health board chairwoman Cheryl Cook told mayor-elect Peter Corroon last week.

Department status would not only give the agency the status it deserves within the county government hierarchy, it would more accurately signify its actual and vital role in the community, Cook said. Department designation would automatically make communication with the mayor's office routine.

Cook and outgoing health department director Patti Pavey have said numerous times that lack of communication with Workman was largely to blame for the hiring scandal that cost Workman her job.

"If I were in a position closer to the person in charge — the mayor — this wouldn't have happened," Pavey said in a meeting this past October, adding that county government had created a "don't ask, don't tell" work environment.

"Public health is a fundamental government service affecting every resident of the county," Cook wrote in a follow-up letter to the meeting with Corroon. "The executive branch must be aware of and involved in policies and decisions affecting public health and safety."

Workman used health department money to pay for an accounting position at the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Valley, resulting in a "ghost employee" in public health.

Corroon is sympathetic to health officials, though he stops short of making the health department its own county department reporting directly to the mayor's office. (The county has three departments: community and support services, public works and human services.)

"The first thing to do is improve communication," through such things as monthly meetings between the health department director and the mayor, Corroon said. "If that solves the problem, then great. If not, then we can talk about" organizational changes.

Creating new departments can conceivably spread top county officials too thin, and Corroon conceded that if health is made into its own county department, other organizations (Clark Planetarium, for instance) might agitate for a similar bump in status.

What Workman's problems really boiled down to, he said, was a failure to listen. Pavey and other health officials "were upfront about it, bringing their concerns to the mayor. Unfortunately, they were ignored."

---

E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com