Shared from the 9/5/2016 Connecticut Post eEdition

BRIDGEPORT

State puts pressure on Ganim to hire health chief

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Horton

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Kristin duBay Horton, former Director of Health and Social Services for Bridgeport.

Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT — Mayor Joe Ganim’s decision to lay off the city’spublic health director could hurt the health of his budget.

Specifically, the administration’s failure to find a permanent replacement has jeopardized $154,605 in state aid. That represents half of health grant funds provided Bridgeport for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Ganim has laid off dozens of union and nonunion employees, blaming a $20 million deficit inherited from former Mayor Bill Finch when he was sworn in Dec. 1.

One of the more high-profile job cuts was Health and Social Services Director Kristin duBay Horton. That department juggles a variety of responsibilities — testing for sexually transmitted diseases; combatting other health threats such as the West Nile and Zika viruses; inspecting restaurants, beauty salons and other businesses; preventing lead poisoning; and promoting healthy eating and living.

Horton received her pink slip in March after having assumed her position was secure. Finch hired her in 2011 and reappointed her last October after losing the Democratic primary to Ganim.

The Ganim administration argued, however, her reappointment required and never received City Council approval. Ganim elevated city sanitarian Albertina Baptista to acting health chief.

Baptista has remained in that position. But according to the state, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Raul Pino wrote Ganim in June and again in July that Bridgeport hire a permanent health director within three months of Horton’s departure or see half of its aid withheld.

Ganim in an Aug. 3 letter obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media pleaded with Pino for more time. The mayor outlined a time-line promising to nominate a candidate by Aug. 31 and predicted that individual could receive council approval and be sworn in by Sept. 21.

Arguing his administration was preoccupied with balancing the budget, Ganim also emphasized the loss of any state money would hurt his “fiscally distressed municipality ... with one of the, if not the, highest effective tax rates in the state.”

Aug. 31 came and went without Ganim announcing a candidate.

Danny Roach, Ganim’s chief-of-staff, this week said the administration was now receiving resumes through Sept. 16 and assembling a search committee to help make a selection.

“We’re hoping to have the full council vote on and approve the eventual candidate on Monday, Oct. 17,” Roach said.

Maura Downes, director of communications for the state health department, wrote in an email Friday to Hearst: “Local health directors serve a critical role in their communities, and the state Department of Public Health appreciates that the search for a highly qualified and competent candidate is not a task taken lightly by municipal leaders.

“We are pleased that the mayor and his staff are engaged in the process of hiring a permanent health director and look forward to receiving notification of his appointment,” Downes continued. But, Downes added, “There are statutory requirements for appointing a permanent health director that have not been met in this case. Until they are, we will be withholding a portion of state grant funds from the city.”

Horton in an interview speculated it will be a challenge to attract candidates to run Bridgeport’s health department given the job losses.

Since Ganim took office Dec. 1, Horton and two other employees were laid off, and 11 others took the mayor up on early retirement incentives.

“So you are leading a totally decimated staff — in size and in spirit and experience — to meet a need that is continuing to expand,” Horton said.

Ganim in his August letter to Pino said Baptista was in the running for the full time health chief job.

After being let go in March, Horton suggested Ganim acted illegally. There was confusion at the time over the role the state was to play in her being let go.

Horton this week said she has been consulting with attorneys and weighing her options.

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