Health district to cut staff, some services
The Spokane Regional Health District plans to make minor cuts in staffing that will have a major impact on several public health programs.
The district plans to downsize by the equivalent of 2.6 full-time positions between now and July 1, saving itself $62,800 out of a $22 million operating budget, Health Officer Dr. Kim Thorburn said. Because the staff already was spread thin, the reductions will mean elimination of several programs, including a drowning-prevention coalition, an effort to improve the sanitary conditions of restaurants, and a program that helps women and children in needy families. Programs that help foster children and improve the nutrition of the elderly will be reduced, she said.
“We’ve tried in all other areas of operations to tighten our belts, but we’ve hit rock bottom,” Thorburn said, adding that the district had avoided making personnel cuts in recent years by trimming back on supplies and other expenditures. “There’s a point when you have to buy toilet paper.”
Thorburn blames the cuts on several factors. Spokane County reduced its annual $2 million contribution to the district by $44,000 this year. The district also didn’t receive some grants it had been anticipating, and Medicaid funding has declined.
“There are some changes at the federal level trickling down and impacting the state,” Thorburn said.
The voter-approved reduction in the motor vehicle excise tax also dealt a financial blow to the district, as it did to other government entities.
The district also recently reached a contract agreement with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 17, the union that represents most of the district’s 260 employees. Aside from cost of living increases, the district’s salaries hadn’t been evaluated since the early 1990s, Thorburn said. The negotiations resulted in an average pay increase of $4,100 per employee – regardless of whether the positions were represented by the union or not.
“I am very supportive of this change in the salaries,” Thorburn said. “We are professionals with lots of education and lots of training.”
Thorburn herself received a 6.8 percent raise last July.
Union representative Roberta Burnett said there’s an unwillingness among the public to support public health and that the cuts will have a negative effect on the community.
“My concern is that the people that need the services the most are going to be the most impacted,” she said.
Burnett said Spokane’s poor economy already is hurting people. Half of all babies in the district receive assistance from the Women Infants and Children nutrition program, she said.
Burnett, who was reached after the district closed Friday, said she’d been told the equivalent of 4.8 positions would be cut. Thorburn couldn’t be reached again to clarify the discrepancy.
Other impacts of the district reductions include the laying off of the district’s only medical epidemiologist. The district will retain four epidemiologists who aren’t physicians.
The district also will begin referring all indoor air quality problems, such as mold issues, to the state. And individuals seeking food-handling permits now will need to study for the test independently rather than taking a class with a district instructor. A program that trains restaurant managers in food safety will be eliminated.