Quote by Kathy McGaha
Two Macon County Board of Health members walked out of a closed session meeting last week and gave their resignations.
During the public portion of the regular monthly meeting on July 29, the board members discussed how to deal with employee complaints.
The agenda item followed a joint meeting with the county commissioners on July 8 and a special called meeting of the health board on July 17 in which commissioners and members of the public described a toxic workplace and poor leadership at the Health Department.
The board met in closed session from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Shortly after the closed session started, board members Carlos Vargas and Board Chair Jerry Hermanson left the meeting without comment. The Press confirmed Vargas and Hermanson turned in resignations, leaving three seats on the health board open.
Eight seats on the board are to be filled by professionals, while three are to be filled by members of the general public. One seat, to be filled by an optometrist, was empty before the July 29 meeting. While Vargas filled the physician seat, Dr. Nathan Feibelman III, who currently serves as a member of the general public, could fill the physician seat at the commissioners’ discretion, leaving two seats for the general public open.
The county will accept applications until 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7.
Complaint process
The Health Department has a policy for accepting and responding to patients’ complaints, but there is not a similar policy for staff. Pharmacist Courtney Patrick said one of the board’s subcommittees was discussing how to draft and implement such a policy.
The Health Department currently uses the county’s grievance procedure policy. Under the policy, employees have a right to present a written grievance first to their immediate supervisor without fear of retaliation within 30 days of an incident occurring. If the employee is dissatisfied with the supervisor’s response, they may file the grievance with the department head, who would then meet with the employee and issue a written decision.
If the employee remains dissatisfied, they may forward the grievance to either the county manager or their department’s corresponding authority, such as the sheriff, register of deeds or health director. If the employee is dissatisfied with that authority’s final decision, the employee’s remaining recourse would be legal action. Employees alleging sexual harassment against a direct supervisor may file a complaint directly with human resources.
Public Health Director Kathy McGaha told the Press on Aug. 5 that no formal employee grievances had been submitted in the past 12 months.
“We recognize not all concerns arrive via formal channels – many are informal, verbal or situational, which makes them harder to quantify,” she said. “Nevertheless, any issue – formal or informal – that is directed to the MCPH human resources coordinator is addressed swiftly and thoroughly in line with our established policies and procedures.”
County Manager Warren Cabe said he was not aware of any county policy that would either direct an employee to or prevent an employee from approaching their governing board.
McGaha said the complaints raised at the July 17 meeting had not been communicated to the health department’s human resources coordinator prior to that meeting.
“We recognize the importance of employee morale in achieving our agency’s mission,” McGaha said. “In response to concerns raised by staff, we are dedicated to addressing these issues promptly. We continue to take action to promote an environment where staff feel valued, supported and heard.”
The health board members agreed to post their phone numbers and email addresses on the Health Department’s webpage (maconnc.org/health-board) so people know how to contact them.
“Sharing our contact information is not necessarily for fielding all complaints. This is really to close the loop of like, you don’t feel like you’re being taken care of that an employee or, you’re not getting the right action, that this is the … go-to to close that loop,” said Patrick.
Board member Dr. Matt Corbin said, “But if [a complaint] goes through the proper channels and there’s no resolution, and they need an outlet, and they’re being told not to contact the Board of Health … I think we need to make our information available for those things that aren’t resolved in proper channels.”
As part of an effort to make progress on these issues, Corbin proposed the board meet once a month. The board approved the measure, and the next meeting should be scheduled for Aug. 26.
Complaints about complaint process
During the discussion on managing complaints, Commissioner John Shearl said, “Our ultimate goal is not, as [county] commissioners, to take over everything with the Health Department. I think what our goal is, is to have the employees of the Health Department the same as all the other county employees, and they can go through this chain of command, the county manager, and the county HR director … I don’t have people out here complaining about measles outbreaks and what doctors do … Most of my complaints in the Health Department have been employees.”
Commissioner Barry Breeden added, “You either want to be the Board of Health and you want to handle the personnel issues, or you want to be Board of Health and you want someone else to handle the personnel issues … it’s not a power grab, there’s no incentive for us to take over the Board of Health, there’s nothing for us. We field the complaints, we go to the board and say ‘Hey, here’s the complaints,’ you handle whatever you can handle and you report back.”
“As an elected official, our job is not to handle day-to-day operations,” Shearl said. “We have paid employees for day-to-day operations. As a Board of Health, you cannot address something that happens at 9:00 this morning … but how do we get to where we are?”
“Because you guys have a big list of complaints and you didn’t tell us about it,” board member Carlos Vargas said.
“You’ve been on the Board of Health forever,” Shearl said.
“You’ve had these complaints for how long?” Vargas said. “The disconnect is that what you didn’t do is present them to — ”
“So it’s my fault that the Health Department’s all to pieces?” Shearl interrupted.
“You didn’t share the complaints, we didn’t know,” Vargas said. “So what needs to happen is, you share the complaints, and then we deal with it.”
“No, the Health Department just needs to be ran smoothly and there are no complaints, how about that?” Shearl said.
The county commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on Sept. 9 to hear public opinion on whether the county should take over the Health Department, relegating the health board to an advisory role.
If such a change were made, the Board of Commissioners would be responsible for adopting Health Department policies and public health rules, as well as imposing public health fees, according to the UNC School of Government.
The public hearing will be held as part of the commissioners meeting beginning at 6 p.m. in the board room on the third floor of the courthouse.
- Shelby Powell
reporter@thefranklinpress.com