The health board is open to building a Consolidated Human Services Agency but wants more details on what departments would be consolidated before supporting the shift.
At the Sept. 23 meeting of the Macon County Board of Health, members heard a presentation from Kristi Nickodem of the UNC School of Government on how the county could go about building a Consolidated Human Services Agency (CHSA) to administer related human services from multiple county departments — such as health, social, and animal services.
The presentation was given two weeks after the Board of Commissioners discussed, but did not vote on, building a CHSA by pairing the Health Department with county departments managing housing, veterans, seniors or animal services. Commissioners Barry Breeden and John Shearl said the shift would allow the Health Department to resolve personnel issues by placing department employees under the county’s Human Resources department.
According to Nickodem, there are three options that would accomplish the commissioners’ goal. The first would involve them taking over policy decisions for the Health Department, relegating the current health board to an advisory role. The second would be to combine the Health Department with at least one other county department to form a CSHA, to which a new CHSA board would be formed to create policy. The third option would both establish a CHSA and place the Board of Commissioners in charge of policy decisions.
Only the second option has been considered by the Board of Commissioners, and the draft resolution to establish a CSHA shared at the Sept. 9 meeting stated current Board of Health members would be immediately placed in control of the CHSA and given the power to recommend additional members to fill state-required slots for the CHSA board’s makeup.
Health board members said they were open to the idea of developing a CHSA, but requested commissioner liaisons John Shearl and Barry Breeden bring back more information on what specific departments they would want to consolidate.
Dr. Cortney Patrick, pharmacist on the health board, said making this kind of change while the department is also looking to hire a new health director would be challenging. “I heard [Commissioner Gary] Shields saying that he wants to do this one time, wants to do it right, make sure it’s the right department … I don’t want to hire someone and then a couple months down the road them not be eligible.”
“Thirty-two out of the 34 counties have gone with DSS, there has to be a good reason for that. I wanted to ask some more questions about that,” said board member Dr. Matt Corbin.
“I think the county commissioners are going to get us what we need,” board chair Garrett Higdon said.
Health director search
Macon County Human Resources director Tammy Keezer gave an update on the search for a new health director. The search began when the current director, Kathy McGaha announced she would be retiring effective Jan. 1.
“We have a very tight timeline to hire a health director,” Keezer said. “You have to have a director in place, or you have to search for an interim and appoint an interim.”
Keezer said the job was posted Sept. 11-26. The second step will be to provide the board with interview materials and schedule interviews to end by Oct. 24. The health board will then approve hiring and compensation by its Oct. 28 meeting, at which point a “contingent offer letter” will be given to the chosen candidate. The Board of Health will present their recommendations for hiring and compensation to commissioners, and upon approval an official offer will be extended to the candidate.
Keezer recommended that the new director start on Dec. 15 to ensure a couple weeks of overlap with McGaha.
The board voted to build an interview committee of five members — Angie Stone, Garrett Higdon, Dr. Nathan Feibelman, Dr. Cortney Patrick and Barry Breeden — to review candidates for the position.