Washington County health officials deliberate new director

Washington County Health officials met Thursday for a Board of Health meeting, most of which was spent discussing the search process for a new Department of Public Health director.

“It’s difficult to navigate through the hiring process when this isn’t something that you do frequently,” interim Public Health Director Chris Estle said. “This is not something we do all the time, we’re not a professional HR department, we’re not a professional hiring committee.”

Estle said the board needed to determine its priorities before further narrowing its list of viable candidates.

“How do you see him or her functioning? What is the goal? Do you have a specific educational background requirement? Do you have a specific number years for experience in public health?” she said. “I think those are some very important questions that the board is going to have to answer moving forward.”

Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Young, who is a member of the applicant review committee for the new director, agreed that members needed to get on the same page about their goals.

“When I was reviewing them, I was sitting there going, ‘What are the criteria?’” he said. “We’ve got to set some criteria for what we want that person to be, and then we could probably narrow this down to three or four.”

Estle said the director position’s uniquely high demands made pinpointing the ideal candidate even harder.

“It’s not an easy job, especially the last two years, and there’s certain things you never ever learn in nursing school that you’re charged with,” Estle said. “We all know that this virus versus H1N1 has been politicized out the wazoo. And this director needs to be able to handle not only medical stuff, but political stuff … you have to bring a lot of things to the table, or he or she will never survive in this environment.”

Health officials are still in the process of drafting interview questions for their candidates, planning to reach out to personnel lower in the chain of command to help brainstorm.

“I’d like to suggest that at some point during this process, we include the staff,” department first five coordinator Roberta Sloat said. “They might have questions that they want asked, or opinions about what questions should be asked. We have been through a lot, and it is important that we get feedback.”

Washington County HR Administrator Amber Armbruster said the board would have to juggle its many decisions for the rest of the hiring process.

“While the committee is doing their thing, determining what they’re doing, the board also needs to review interview questions, we need to figure out who the committees are that are going to be interviewing,” she said. “That stuff needs to be going on at the same time so that when we have those people chosen, we’re ready to go. I can call them, set up an interview, and we’re moving forward.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com