By Roger Gitlin – EYE ON DEL NORTE – October 13, 2021
Del Norte County Public Health Officer Dr. Aaron Stutz just got himself a very nice pay raise and an extension of his contract until June 30, 2022.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously 4-0 (Supervisor Short was absent) to waive the residency requirement for Dr. Stutz who is also the Public Health Officer for Siskiyou County. Dr. Stutz lives in Yreka.
Dept. of Health and Human Services Director Heather Snow covered her derriere by asking the Board to waive the residency requirement she previously overlooked and the Board obediently obliged and upped Dr. Stutz salary for the remaining eight months of the Contract, not to exceed $156,000 from August 10, 2021 to June 30, 2022. According to the Contract, the good Dr. agrees to provide up to15 hours per week which comes out to a crisp $15,000 per month. The $156,000 combined with $143,999 Siskiyou Public Health Officer salary is a pretty nice gig for the dual role Dr. Stutz finds himself in.
AND if Dr. Stutz cannot handle the heavy duties burdened upon him from the miniscule 1% lethality rate of the.Covid 19 virus in Del Norte County, he can ask the newly-hired Assistant Public Health Officer Palak Patel who comes to Del. Norte for the bargain price of $109,200 per annum. LOTZA $$.
Why is all this important for you to know?
This is YOUR money: Public Money.
I wonder if these hefty allocations are what you voters had in mind when you voted to raise your local COUNTY sales tax 14% from 7.5% to 8.5%.
There is an election right about the time these contracts expire.
You folks in Ft Dick, Smith River, Hiouchi and Gasquet will have your opportunity to flex your influence at the ballot box on Hemmingsen and Howard.
Boy, we’ve sure come a long way since circa2014 when Thomas Martinelli, MD was the Public Health Officer making a paltry $36,000 per year even after moving from Hiouchi to Santa Barbara.
Where ‘s Denzel the Great Equalizer when you R E A L L Y need him?
In DHHS world, $156,000 is just a drop in the bucket of “money down the toilet”. There have been so many times that DHHS has wasted money on some type of program or project.
It is ironic that it was almost exactly one year ago when DHHS and the county sent a couple of million dollars down the toilet with a project known as Project HomeKey/Legacy Project for the homeless. I guess that once you waste millions with zero true accountability, wasting $156,000 just is not a big deal.
DHHS and the Board of Supervisors both need to be held accountable for both of these “money down the toilet” misadventures, but sadly they will not be held accountable. The only question is just how long until DHHS and the Board of Supervisors send even more money down the toilet.
RT,
You are right!!
DHHS wastes money and no one cares. Why is it that no one at DHSS has been fired over the incompetent way that the Project HomeKey/Legacy Project has been run? Nothing will change until DHSS is held accountable. So it will never change.
I am confused. If DHHS has wasted money time and time again, why is the DHHS leadership team still working there? If the Board of Supervisors refuses to fire people from DHHS why have they not been recalled? The answer is that the voters of Del Norte County simply do not care about this issue. Maybe one way of improving the county is to vote out the Board of Supervisors. So here we are.
At least Siskiyou county is close by. The Public Health Officer for Mendocino County lives in San Diego.