Supervisors deny Board of Health reappointment

WASHINGTON — Washington County Supervisors caught public health officials off-guard Tuesday morning, after unexpectedly voting not to reappoint Washington County Board of Health Member Connie Larsen for another three-year term.

Larsen had been recommended for a second term by the Board of Health at a virtual meeting last week after minimal discussion, in a vote with three in favor, and Board Member Jack Seward Jr., who is also a County Supervisor, abstaining.

On Tuesday morning, Seward made the motion to fill Larsen’s seat with another applicant, who was informally interviewed by health officials when she applied for the same position vacated by an exiting board member.

In a follow-up interview, Seward said Larsen was "a reliable vote“ on the side of former Washington County Public Health Director Danielle Pettit-Majewski, who often clashed with the county’s conservative supervisors on COVID-19.

He said the decision not to reappoint was an apolitical attempt to install more critically thinking board of health members, not a retaliation for Larsen’s disagreements with county decision-makers.

“Members of the Board of Health should also have a healthy skepticism in examining what we’re being told and questioning the reasoning behind it,” Seward said. “I thought that it would be better to have a more questioning person on the board.”

The decision caught public health officials off-guard. Washington County Public Health Fiscal Administrator Peggy Wood said it was “news to everybody” at the agency, and after the meeting could be heard asking Seward why the plan wasn’t mentioned to Board of Health members in advance.

While Seward replied to Wood privately, he later said floating the idea at last week’s Board of Health meeting would have been unproductive.

“I felt like being in opposition to another board member at the time, and bringing it up like that, would be like picking a fight,” Seward said. “It would be inviting a ‘he-said, she-said,’ … I thought it was basically best just to let the Board of Health, without any interference, let them decide what to do. And let the Board of Supervisors decide what the Board of Supervisors want to do.”

Board of Health Chair Cathy Buffington said surprise was not a welcome one.

“I was disappointed that the Board of Supervisors didn’t approve Connie to be reappointed,” she said. “I’ve appreciated her input while she was on the board.”

Larsen, the now-outgoing Board of Health member, said her tendency to side with experts’ recommendations was not partisan.

“COVID was really, really hard on everyone, and then when you sit on a board of public health, you have to go by guidelines, because it was such an uncharted territory,” she said. “I don’t feel that I voted any way other than what I could have.”

Larsen said many of her decisions were forced by higher authorities than the county.

“I don’t feel like we, as board members, really had any control,” she said. “It should not have become personal, and I certainly didn’t look at it that way. I voted the way I voted because of the guidelines that we were handed from the state of Iowa.”

The vote to replace Larsen was a 4-1 decision, with Supervisor Bob Yoder the lone voice favoring her reappointment.

“The County Board of Health recommended (Larsen,) and that was fine with me,” Yoder said in an interview. “I’ve got every confidence that Connie would have done a nice job, but I got outvoted, so there’s nothing I can do.”

In Larsen’s place, the county has appointed Jenny Morgan to the position, which begins in January and runs for three years. Like Larsen, Morgan is a real estate agent, continuing the body’s tradition of keeping a member of the profession at the table for input on environmental health matters.

While the circumstances were unanticipated, Morgan said she accepted the appointment.

“I’m excited to learn a lot and do what’s best for our town and community,” she said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com