The Mills County Board of Supervisors and the county’s Board of Health have dismissed seven staffers in the Mills County Public Health Department. Both boards cite mismanagement and the county’s potential legal liability for the misuse of grant money
The county’s public health administrator and a former administrator who had been working as a consultant have been fired. Five other staff members were laid off. Two home health aides and a public health nurse are being retained. Mills County Supervisor Jack Sayers serves on the county’s board of health.
“Home health care is something that we need to protect,” Sayers said during a meeting on Wednesday, “and make sure that our aging population has the services that they need.”
Mills County Supervisor Richard Crouch said county officials have been wrestling with the situation for months. “It’s been a slow, nagging process,” Crouch says, “and it’s finally come to this.”
According to a written statement, Mills County Supervisors determined they are “legally prohibited” from directing county tax dollars to the agency due to ongoing investigations into the Mills County Board of Health’s misuse of funds and lack of transparency. The now-fired public health administrator for Mills County has said she did everything she could to mitigate problems with how grant money had been improperly distributed and there are no current concerns about how grant money is being spent.
(By Mike Peterson, KMA, Shenandoah)