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State Will Run City Health Agency

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 03:00 CDT

About 100 employees of Richmond's public-health department would become state employees under a plan to return control of the health department to the state.

About 10 city animal-control officers would remain city employees, with animal control transferred to the city police department, city spokesman Bill Farrar said. The other 100 or so workers would become state employees.

"We are actively working in that direction," Farrar said Friday. "We are in the process of working out a transition plan with the state. We have an Oct. 1 target date. That is a self-imposed deadline."

He said employees were told about the decision Thursday.

"We certainly want to be able to hear from them if they do have concerns and work with them on what their individual issues will be," Farrar said. "We don't anticipate this will have any negative effects."

Richmond and the counties of Fairfax and Arlington are Virginia's only three localities managing their own health departments. Before 1996, Richmond operated as a state affiliate. That changed when city leaders sought local control to better meet needs and to take advantage of health-care services that could be provided through VCU Medical Center, then called MCV Hospitals.

One of the recommendations of Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's "Efficiency and Effectiveness Committee Report" this spring was to "review the net benefits of returning to a state-managed public- health department and do so unless the identified costs outweigh the benefits." The report noted that some services provided by the health department were also provided by other city agencies.

"This will be an efficiency move that will only strengthen the service provisions," Farrar said.

State-affiliated health departments send local dollars to the state to help pay for services provided. Those percentages vary based on a locality's ability to pay. In the case of Richmond, the city pays about 42 percent of the city health department's budget, and the state picks up the balance. With the shift, the city would pay that 42 percent to the state, which would oversee local health department operations.

Dr. Janice M. Carson, who took over as city health director in July 2004, would likely remain in that position, Farrar said.

"I have not heard of any plans to change that," he said.

Carson replaced Dr. Herman M. Ellis, who left in September 2003 after clashing with city management over time he spent at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he worked part time as an associate professor, and over his concerns about city budget support to run the health department.

Ellis left the position after less than two years on the job. The city has had a difficult time keeping health directors; others before Ellis left after relatively short tenures on the job. When he left, Ellis wrote then-City Manager Calvin Jamison, whom he reported to, a letter accusing Jamison's administration of "undermining my authority and frustrating my efforts to administer the Department of Public Health."

Health directors of state-affiliated health departments report to the state health commissioner.

Jeff Lake, deputy commissioner for community health services at the Virginia Department of Health, will head up the transition team from the state's end.

Lake and Farrar both said residents should not see any change or disruption in health services during the transition.

Employees may see some benefits changes.

"As a general guiding principle, the intention is to have these folks move into state classifications without any requirement to compete for the jobs," Lake said. "That generally is how we have handled it. Typically, if a position is above a classification, then we try to hold that person harmless. . . . We do everything to the best of our ability to make sure people are making their current salary. I know the city and [the Virginia Retirement System] are working to make sure service credits get all straightened out."

At least one employee has a peculiar situation. That person worked for the Richmond health department when it was previously state-affiliated and retired from the state to keep the job when the city took over. That employee is drawing a state pension, but the rules generally prohibit anyone drawing a state pension from also being on the state payroll.

"Obviously that individual needs to make decisions about whether or not they try to come back to the state."

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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