Our View: Health district needs bigger, better candidate pool

The decision to fire Kim Thorburn as Spokane County’s top health officer is looking more hasty all the time.

In the two years the post has been vacant, only one candidate has been interviewed by the Spokane Regional Health District board, Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, and he has turned his back on the job twice, most recently this week.

The board appeared to be ready to select him in August, but Eberhart-Phillips withdrew, citing family considerations. Later he reapplied, and the board offered him the post last month, but for reasons that aren’t clear he has backed out again, even after negotiating the salary offer up to $165,000. That’s $40,000 more than Thorburn got, but her pay was notoriously low in comparison with what her counterparts around the state received.

The board can take some comfort in the fact that its contract with Texas-based Waters-Oldani Executive Recruitment is not satisfied until an acceptable health officer has been hired. But that may not mean much if the community has to endure a serious public health emergency without a health officer in place. There are reasons that such a position calls for a physician with solid public health administration credentials.

To date, the health district has paid Waters-Oldani $24,345 with another $5,000 due soon. That’s about 90 percent of the full, potential contracted amount. But those sums don’t cover the expense of bringing candidates to Spokane for interviews – not that there’s been much of that.

The conspicuous lack of progress over 24 months is in sharp contrast with the expectations voiced by then-board chairwoman and now Spokane Mayor Mary Verner in November 2006 that she hoped the vacancy could be filled in the first three months. In fact, the contract with Waters-Oldani wasn’t even signed until July 2007.

Obviously, the search needs to be revived, and soon. But to achieve a more successful outcome, the board will have to insist that Waters-Oldani comes up with a deeper pool of prospects. In the past two years only three applicants have made it as far as an interview with the executive team of district managers, and only Eberhart- Phillips, now public health officer in El Dorado, Calif., was summoned for a follow-up interview with the board.

You don’t have to be a seasoned personnel expert to recognize who holds the cards when the agency doing the hiring has only one candidate to choose from.