I continue to be bothered by the treatment that Dr. Cullen got at the Senate Director Nominations Committee hearing a couple weeks ago. Last week I sat down and put my thoughts to paper & sent in an op-ed to the Republic and Star. The Rep
It felt good to write this opinion piece – even though I know it probably won’t change anything. Here goes:
Senate Committee Doesn’t ‘Vet’ State Agency Nominees. It Sabotages Them
An Arizona Senate committee to review state agency director nominees looked good on paper. But it has turned out to be horrible in practice.
– Will Humble: opinion contributor
I’m a big fan of checks and balances. You might even call me an evangelist.
The founders of the U.S. and Arizona constitutions were careful to decentralize power. Divided government (and the natural tension between the branches) are big reasons why our republic is so resilient and has stood the test of time.
Legislative branch oversight of the executive branch is essential.
Why? Because legislative oversight of executive agencies builds accountability. Accountability makes government responsive and effective.
When I first heard about the new Arizona Senate Director Nominations Committee, I thought, now there’s a good idea. The new committee might provide more in-depth oversight of nominees to important director positions.
In my experience, the old method of screening director nominations in standing committees often led to cursory candidate reviews.
But what looked good on paper turned out to be bad in practice.
Real bad.
Dr. Cullen’s ‘hearing’ was a sham
Exhibit A comes last week when the newly formed Committee on Director Nominations heard Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominee for the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, Dr. Theresa Cullen.
That “hearing” foreshadowed a brutal, if not impossible, confirmation process more intent on using political litmus tests than vetting candidates’ professional qualifications for important director positions.
Cullen didn’t think COVID politics would derail confirmation
The committee hearing became an airing of grievances about many of the public health policy decisions made during the pandemic by the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Some members of the committee (mainly the chair) disagreed with those policy decisions and held Dr. Cullen responsible.
The committee spent three hours prosecuting Dr. Cullen, only to vote along party lines to deny her advancement.
Their decision to vote her down was clearly made well before the committee hearing. In short, it was a sham hearing.
A talented candidate has been lost
More than 30 medical and public health organizations submitted letters of support to the committee. Dr. Cullen was an ideal candidate to take the reins of an agency that has been sorely lacking in quality director-level leadership for many years.
None of that mattered in the end.
Sadly, a super-talented director candidate has been lost.
Dr. Cullen has had a decades-long career in health care and public health, having achieved the rank of admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service and assistant surgeon general.
She’s accomplished at running very large organizations with budgets well over a billion dollars. Her professional reputation is one of integrity, accountability and commitment to evidence-based policy.
It’s tough to find good agency leaders
It’s not just Dr. Cullen who received a political litmus test hearing rather than a professional vetting.
Elizabeth Alvarado-Thorson, Gov. Hobbs’ nominee for director of the Arizona Department of Administration, received the same treatment this week, this time about abortion of all things.
These positions are not easy to fill. They need a very specialized set of skills and expertise.
In some cases, folks moved their families across the county to Arizona, only to get caught in political quicksand upon their arrival. That quicksand hurts our ability to retain qualified staff within these agencies and makes it harder to recruit additional local and national leaders.
The committee is running off talent
Today, bitter partisanship and the way the Directors Nomination Committee is being managed is delaying director installations and sabotaging the opportunity to recruit talented and qualified candidates to key posts.
If the committee leadership were to change their objective and vet the professional qualifications for the director positions, their work would be providing a valuable service.
As it stands, the committee is basically just running off talent that Arizona state agencies desperately need.
That’s not checks and balances. It’s sabotage.
The problem isn’t the new committee. The problem is the way the committee is being led.
If it doesn’t change, and quick, we’re all in a heap of trouble and ordinary Arizonans will be the ones that suffer.
Will Humble is executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association and served as the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services for Gov. Jan Brewer (2009 – 2015). Reach him at willhumble@azpha.org.
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Note: I got a nice email from former ADHS Director Suzanne Dandoy on Saturday (1975-1980) in response to the piece. Thought some of you would enjoy it. Here it is:
Thank you for writing the article about political hearings on candidates to head state agencies, particularly the state health department. I was the director of that department 1975-1980 (long before your time) and had to meet some strange qualifications in existence in the 1970s.
I left the position at the request of Bruce Babbitt after he became Governor; I had been selected by a previous governor. Five years later I became director of the state health department in Utah, where I served for 7 years and left by my own choice, to become Deputy Director of the Virginia state health department.
In all 3 states politics played a decisive role in what I did. However, the politicalization of public health was certainly increased by the Covid pandemic. I am glad not to be a health director any longer; I retired in 2000.
You did all of us a favor by writing the opinion piece. Of course, I am not sure it will do any good. We shall see what happens when Governor Hobbs selects another candidate for the position at the state health department.
– Suzanne Dandoy, M.D., M.P.H.
Editorial Note: I delivered the Scottsdale Progress in ’75 & ’76 and always had a transistor radio hanging from my handlebar. I listened to KOY back then which had a lot of news breaks. Dr. Dandoy was frequently on the radio talking about public health stuff like hepatitis or TB or whatever.
I think I may have become interested in public health as a career because of listening to the broad interesting stuff she talked about on the radio.
