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Ex- Director Goldhagen Leaves Health Department He Had Been Expected to Depart Months Ago Following a Dispute Over Teaching at UNF.

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 18:00 CST

By DAVID BAUERLEIN

The Jeffrey Goldhagen era at the Duval County Health Department has come to a quiet close, with his leaving the department he'd led since 1993.

Goldhagen's departure had been expected since October, which is when he and the Florida Department of Health could not agree on contract terms amid a messy dispute over $25,000 Goldhagen received for teaching at the University of North Florida while he was Duval County health director.

After those contract talks broke down, Goldhagen continued in an advisory role with the health department while a national search began for his replacement. Goldhagen said Saturday that the new year seemed like a good time to make the break and his position as a consultant ended.

An acting director was named Friday.

Goldhagen, a pediatrician, said he will work as a University of Florida professor and remain involved in supporting the health department's activities, particularly children's health issues.

"I'm still 100 percent interested in their mission and their goals and their work for the community," he said Saturday. "There's no sour grapes. What happened, happened."

The state appointed Belinda Johnson-Cornett as acting director of the county health department. Johnson-Cornett joined the county health department as director of nursing in 2002 and has served the past two years as chief of the health services division.

She will not be applying in the ongoing search for a permanent director, said Charles Griggs, communications director for the health department.

Last summer, the state health department's inspector general said Goldhagen violated state ethics law by teaching at the University of North Florida while working as health director. The state originally intended to fire Goldhagen but backed off when local officials rallied in favor of keeping him in the post. He disputed violating any ethics law and refused to sign a contract that would have forced him to pay the county health department $25,000 to settle the ethics violation claim.

During his tenure, the health department grew to nearly 800 employees with a $45 million budget, compared to 300 employees and a $13 million budget in the early 1990s. The department operates 21 health centers and clinics at 15 locations.

Goldhagen said the department has benefited from partnerships created in the past decade with academia, including the University of Florida and Shands Jacksonville, the University of North Florida and Florida A&M University's pharmacy program. The health department draws its physicians from the ranks of university faculty.

"I would hope the state would be as committed as we have been to recruit the kind of individual who is going to be able to advance and sustain that endeavor," he said.

The state plans to begin interviewing the top contenders for health director at the end of January, Griggs said.david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581

Source: Florida Times Union

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