Offer lacked ‘essential’ parts

The contract rejected by a California candidate for the job of Spokane’s health officer didn’t include severance pay, and it required him to clear his professional opinions with the Health Board before taking positions on issues.

Spokane’s last health officer, Dr. Kim Thorburn, was fired two years ago for what the Health Board called communication problems; she was paid $150,000 in salary and benefits according to the terms in her contract.

Chuck Anderson, whose firm Waters-Oldani Executive Recruitment has a $32,000 contract with the Spokane Regional Health District to search for Thorburn’s replacement, expressed surprise that the contract offered to Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips didn’t include severance pay.

“You bet these things are important,” Anderson said.

“A competitive offer will include certain things, and the top three are strong salary, a fair severance, and strong benefits along with a good relocation plan,” he said. “These are essential, especially during these unsettled economic times.”

David Crump, health board chairman, described the contract offered to Eberhart-Phillips as a draft proposal. He asked Eberhart-Phillips to review the offer in hopes the sides could work out a deal, he said, and told the physician that severance and moving expenses weren’t part of the offer but could be negotiated.

Crump added the board does not want to extend the sort of severance clause included in Thorburn’s contract.

Anderson will continue to work with the board on its search and plans to meet with the board in December to retool the criteria that netted only Eberhart-Phillips as a finalist.

One problem is the narrow field of qualified public health officers. The successful candidate must be a physician and hold a master’s degree in public health administration.

They must agree to work for a government salary much lower than salaries doctors can earn in private practice.

In rejecting the contract last week, Eberhart-Phillips issued a statement through the health district that did not list his reasons for withdrawing. Crump said it wasn’t his impression that the lack of severance sank the deal. He thought the problems were the $160,000 salary offer and the uncertainty for Eberhart-Phillips of moving his family and selling his home during unsettled economic times.

In addition, Crump said, Eberhart-Phillips’ current employer, El Dorado County, Calif., asked him to stay.

Crump said he lacked board authority to go much higher on the salary scale.“We think it’s right where it ought to be,” he said.

And he rejected any notion that the board was seeking a health official who would set aside his or her professional opinion and blindly agree with a board made up of elected officials and political appointments.

“A yes-man or a puppet and anything like that – no way,” Crump said. “We need someone with expertise and judgment.”

One part of the contract would have required the new health officer to “seek the concurrence of the SRHD Board of Health prior to taking a public position on potentially controversial issues surrounding public health.”

Crump acknowledged that Eberhart-Phillips had questions regarding that language.

“We talked about that one quite a bit,” he said. “What we were really trying to say … if the board has taken a formal public stand, we’d expect the health officer to go along.

“It doesn’t mean you can’t say anything without going to the board first.”

Eberhart-Phillips was satisfied with that explanation, Crump said, adding that the clause should have been reworded.

“It’s really too bad he isn’t coming,” said Dr. Larry Jecha, the health officer for Benton and Franklin counties who has filled in as needed in Spokane in the two years since Thorburn was fired.

Jecha said his contract in Benton and Franklin counties pays more than Spokane is offering, and includes a severance clause ensuring he is paid through the life of the pact.

In his opinion, he said, a new health officer would need a degree of job security backed up by a decent severance package.

Though Jecha has worked with the Spokane health district free of charge during the past two years, he said his board will now negotiate a fee schedule in the wake of tightened budgets and the extension of the Spokane health officer search.

“This was supposed to be just for a few months,” Jecha said.