Thorburn fights back
Fired health officer Dr. Kim Thorburn plans to protest claims that she failed to communicate adequately with Spokane Regional Health District Board members.
The board will meet today in a special session to consider Thorburn’s written rebuttal to accusations that she didn’t return e-mails and phone calls or seek to improve battered relations with the board.
Thorburn said Wednesday she was not seeking reinstatement to her post and that she had no plans to sue the health district for wrongful firing.
“I want a chance to refute the allegations that I absolutely dispute,” Thorburn said Wednesday. “The goal is simply that it is in the public record.”
The meeting is one of the last legal steps in the dismissal of the 56-year-old health officer, who held the position for more than nine years, former board Chairman Todd Mielke said. Board members cited lingering communication problems as the reason for terminating her $125,000-a-year contract.
Thorburn said the board failed to follow procedures required under state law for dismissing a health officer during a Nov. 27 hearing. Board members listed no specific reasons for ending the contract until after Thorburn had spoken, she said. Then they adjourned the meeting without allowing her to respond.
State law requires board members to give notice of dismissal and to hold a hearing about reasons for the action, but Washington Revised Code 70.05.050 says nothing about allowing the employee to respond.
At the hearing, board members including Mielke and Mark Richard criticized Thorburn for not communicating well. Mielke said she let months lapse before returning calls and e-mails. Richard said she became “aggressive and assertive” during a meeting in her office.
Thorburn said she planned to submit a written rebuttal to the public record protesting those claims. In particular, she planned to include copies of e-mails sent to and from board members in which the officials praised Thorburn for communicating well.
A Spokesman-Review examination of nearly 300 pages of copied e-mails between Thorburn and board members during 2006 revealed regular communication, but also some terse exchanges, particularly in connection with the potential sale of the health district building at 1101 W. College Ave.
“I view the proposal to complete my evaluation at the same time that you discuss the building proposal as a threat,” Thorburn wrote to board members on March 31.
In recent months, communication appeared to have improved, with Thorburn sending notes about subjects from position vacancies to her weekly activities, and board members replying positively.
“Please accept my thanks for your communication with Board members about this situation, your thinking regarding the vacancy and the Program, and your solicitation of Board input,” wrote board member Mary Verner on Aug. 28.
Ultimately, however, board members felt the situation had not improved, Mielke said.
“The biggest issue is, how do you discontinue the relationship?” he added. “How do you say, ‘We do not wish to continue beyond a certain date?’ “
Under terms of Thorburn’s contract, board members must provide 60 days’ notice of termination and a year’s salary, a severance totaling about $150,000.