The director of the Department of Health of the county of WhatCom, Erika Lautenbach, was suddenly placed on leave on Wednesday afternoon March 5, and her office would have been eliminated.
Two members of the county council who spoke with Cascadia Daily News said they had been left in the dark, hearing rumors for the first time on the situation of voters who noticed that the director of health and community services was absent from the meetings.
The senior assistant prosecutor George Roche sent an email to the members of the county council informing them that Lautenbach was “on leave” at 10 am on Tuesday, March 11. LAUTENBACH was appointed to the March 2020 post at the start of the cocovio-19 pandemic, and responsible for directing what has become one of the most important and complex departments of the county.
“We will update you when we have additional information to share,” said the email, which was obtained by a request for public files after the executive of the County Satpal Sidhu “privilege” in “the interest of transparency”.
E-mail did not contain any details whether Latuenbach would return to her post or to the reason why she was on leave. Lautenbach could not be reached immediately to comment. An e-mail at his work address earlier this week received an out-of-office response.
“It seems that she was dismissed, and no one says it,” said the county council, Todd Donovan, in Cascadia Daily News on Thursday, March 13. “The executive did not give us the courtesy to say what is going on.”
An interview scheduled with Lautenbach and another CDN journalist was canceled 10 minutes before they met on Thursday, March 6.
Donovan said that if it was a personnel case, Sidhu could have put the council at a speed at an executive session.
“If it’s just a regular” I reshuffle my leadership “, tell us that publicly,” said Donovan.
Donovan said he understood that Sidhu has the right to draw people and adapt to department leaders as he sees it necessary. However, Sidhu, who took the bar in 2019, has not yet dismissed a head of department.
“Given the thing with the director of previous public works, it simply shouts that we need more transparency on what is happening,” said Donovan. “I’m in the dark, again here.”
The former director of public works, Jon Hutchings, signed a separation agreement with the county after having resigned in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment, which finally led to a settlement of $ 225,000. THE The county council was blinded by circumstances concerning the departure of Hutchings and the regulations, apprenticeship Survey on PBS Cascade.
The member of the county council, Ben Elenbaas, said that a constituent was the first to put the problem on his radar. Elenbaas pushed him back, but when he contacted Lautenbach and obtained an outside office response, he started wondering.
“It seems that there is chaos here,” said Elenbaas. “I expect the public to expect it, only if there is something going on, that we should all be informed.”
Elenbaas said that although he often challenges the Department of Health of County Council meetings, he has a lot of respect for Lautenbach, recognizing how much she has grown the department since she took care of.
“If there is a change of leadership, which we have not been informed, what is Plan B?” Donovan said.
When the Director of County Parks and Leisure Retired in 2023Donovan noted that the county had made a national search.
“It was a process considered,” said Donovan, noting that he was not aware of a search for a replacement for the head of one of the “most consecutive departments in terms of complexity and budget” in the county.
When Lautenbach was hired, she had more than 15 years of public health experience and “demonstrated her ability to manage people, projects and organizations and to be strategic in her approach to the implementation of public health initiatives”, according to a press release in 2020.
Donovon noted that the Department, which employs around 150 people, provides a wide range of community services, veterans and mental health programs to immunization clinics and toxin elimination. He is also on the front line in the county’s response to the fentanyl crisis and homeless in the community. The ministry is also responsible for implementing the Healthy Healthy Fundaged children’s funds.
Deputy Director of the Health Department, Charlene Lamont, is acting director, the confirmed spokesperson for County Jed Holmes.
“In the absence of details, people will fill their own details. So I think that it is only responsible for people who know what’s going on to say what is going on, “said Elenbaas. “Obviously something happens.”
Isaac Stone Simonelli is a journalist in a company / CDN surveys; join it to isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.