Is coronavirus challenge scaring away candidates for SC’s top health job?
With the coronavirus threat surging, South Carolina’s search for a new health and environmental director has attracted far fewer candidates than the last time the state sought to fill the position overseeing public health.
Only 57 people have applied for the $178,000-a-year post, compared to 135 during the search that ultimately landed Rick Toomey in 2018, agency spokeswoman Cristi Moore said Thursday. Toomey quit six months ago after a series of health problems.
DHEC’s board, already facing criticism over the deliberate pace of the search, has interviewed five candidates for the director’s job in recent weeks.
The board, which met Thursday, has retained a search firm to help but has declined to say who has been interviewed. It was not known if more candidates were to be interviewed Thursday.
The department’s effort to find a new director faces competition from other states. The nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has put a premium on hiring and retaining people experienced in dealing with public health crises, say those following the search in South Carolina.
Nationally, the states of Ohio, Connecticut and Washington are among those that have recently sought health directors or health secretaries, according to the state Association of State and Territorial Health Officials website. At the same time, President-elect Joe Biden is seeking public health experts to serve in his administration.
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat, said DHEC needs to pick up the pace and hire a qualified person for the post. But Harpootlian said he fears DHEC has become an agency that scares off the best candidates.
“I am concerned and afraid that this position has now gotten the reputation for being nothing more than a political appointment,’’ he said. “With this COVID crisis, this is the worst possible situation to be in.’’
Harpootlian’s comments this week follow concerns he and state Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, raised during a meeting with DHEC board chairman Mark Elam two months ago. At the meeting, Elam said a new director would be hired in November, Harpootlian said. Now, the agency is saying it will be December before a decision is made.
Elam also said the agency, one of the largest in the state, had limited its search to target people from South Carolina, the Richland County senator said.
Since March, the coronavirus has killed more than 4,000 South Carolina residents. All told, the virus has infected more than 188,000 South Carolinians.
Statistics show cases are again rising as winter approaches and more people spend time inside, making it easier to spread the virus. The state’s infection rates are substantially higher than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they should be.
Spokeswoman Moore said Thursday that the lower number of candidates for the position “doesn’t’ speak to the quality of the candidates.’’
DHEC’s search for a new director marks the department’s fourth in 10 years. DHEC was without a permanent director for nearly 18 months before the board hired Toomey, a fellow board member, in December 2018.
Toomey, a retired hospital executive, quit in the middle of the crisis last May, citing health problems unrelated to Covid and the desire to spend time with his family. His departure was among several other decisions by high-level health staff to leave DHEC during the coronavirus pandemic.
Health director Joan Duwve quit to return to the Midwest after just a few months in South Carolina, as pressure mounted on the agency to support reopening businesses and after news surfaced about disputes between DHEC and Gov. Henry McMaster’s staff.
Before Duwve took the post in the spring, DHEC had not had a permanent health division director for about a year.
Some state leaders have praised DHEC’s effort in dealing with Covid 19, despite the departures. The department has, among other things, stressed the need to wear masks and it has run public service announcements seeking to limit contact between infected people. The release of coronavirus data has improved since the outbreak was first documented last March.
Still, Harpootlian said that overall, the agency’s response hasn’t been forceful enough. The department should have sought to shut down bars and restaurants where the disease is being spread, he said.
Republican Gov. McMaster allowed bars to reopen after briefly shuttering them in the spring when the virus first surfaced. But DHEC is not a Cabinet agency directly under McMaster’s control.
DHEC board member Rick Lee said hiring a person who has expertise with a pandemic like the coronavirus outbreak is easier said than done.
“There probably aren’t a whole lot of candidates anywhere who have experience like this,’’ Lee said.
While COVID-19 is a substantial threat, the agency has many responsibilities that will exist after the crisis is over, Lee said. It will be important for a new DHEC chief to use lessons learned from the pandemic to deal with such a crisis in the future, he said.
Both Lee and a spokesman for McMaster expressed confidence the agency would find the right person for the job.
“It’s never been more evident how important DHEC is to our state and its people than it has been over the past several months,’’ McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said in an email. “The bottom line is that the governor wants the best person for the job — no ifs and or buts about it. He has confidence in the ongoing search process and will have more to add when appropriate.’’
DHEC is South Carolina’s health and environmental agency. One of the few departments in the country to combine both, DHEC oversees everything from public health and hospital expansions to permits for industries seeking to discharge air and water pollution. The department has about 3,500 workers.
This story has been updated from an earlier version to reflect the latest number of candidates.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 7:09 PM.
