Gov. Inslee halts effort to dissolve Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department partnership
Dec 14, 2020, 4:02 PM | Updated: 4:59 pm
Gov. Jay Inslee issued a proclamation Monday, pausing any local efforts to terminate a health district or city-county health department, “such as what is currently taking place in Pierce County.”
Proposal seeks to dissolve Tacoma-Pierce County Health Dept. partnership
Pierce County had been set to vote Tuesday on a proposal sponsored by County Councilmember Pam Roach, to dissolve the 38-year-old interlocal agreement Tacoma has with the county health department. Inslee’s proclamation effectively halts that effort from moving forward, putting it on ice until the state’s COVID crisis “is put to rest.”
“This pause will allow public health workers to focus their energies on the most challenging chapter yet of our pandemic response,” Gov. Inslee said Monday. “It removes politics from public health, which at this moment would be a reckless and dangerous course.”
Leaders within the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department have been outspoken in their opposition to Roach’s proposal, with Director of Health Dr. Anthony Chen calling it “an unfortunate distraction” from the county’s pandemic response efforts.
The department also issued a statement Monday, saying that it was “glad the Governor intervened,” saying that it can now “put all of our attention on saving lives.”
Expressing his thoughts more candidly, Pierce County Councilmember Derek Young called Roach’s bill “without question, the stupidest idea” he’s seen in 22 years serving in local government.
But Roach and her fellow Republicans on the county council see it as a necessary shift in how the county’s health department is run, making it so the health director would report directly to the executive and council.
Pierce County’s ‘nimbleness’ has kept it functioning during shutdown
“It’s going to allow the people that have more input into what’s going on right now,” she told KTTH’s Jason Rantz last week. “Citizens can be the watchdog for the Department of Health, and I think that’s important.”
Prior to Inslee’s proclamation, the bill appeared to have the support of the 4-3 Republican majority on the Pierce County Council ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled vote. That majority will flip to 4-3 in favor of the council’s Democrats at the start of the new year. Given the opposition among those Democrats, it’s likely that Inslee’s pause will kill the proposal for the foreseeable future.
Despite that, Inslee insisted that his proclamation wasn’t issued for political purposes.
“I am not taking a position on any of the proposed changes, but right now these districts are launching the extraordinary task of disseminating vaccines, and we can’t distract or demoralize the staff or undermine public trust at this precarious moment,” he said.
