Sunday, May 19, 2013

Should Board replace Salgado on PHHS?

County Board Chair Tina Hill has said she intends to dump Sandra Salgado from the Public Health & Human Services (PHHS) Committee. Hill re-appointed Salgado after the November 2012 elections and now is apparently upset.

Salgado reportedly had asked not to be re-appointed to the PHHS Committee, but she was. Now Hill wants to dump her and appoint first-term County Board Member Bob Martens.

I was going to write about this last week but held off. I know Bob and like him and wasn't sure just how to express my opinion that he might bring too much baggage to the appointment. The Northwest Herald put this on the table in today's Our View.

While the business of the Mental Health Board is just one area of interest of the PHHS Committee, Bob Martens' ties are too close, based on Hill's concerns about a possible conflict-of-interest on the part of Salgado.

Maybe there is really no conflict-of-interest by either Salgado or Martens.

Martens' conflict, if it exists at all, could be based on his former position as CEO of the now-defunct Family Service and Community Mental Health Center. Family Service was funded, in part, by the Mental Health Board. The Mental Health Board distributed over $1,000,000 in a last-ditch effort to keep Family Service afloat. Public awareness of the financial peril of Family Service arose so quickly that many wondered how long it had been brewing. That million dollars may have been akin to latching the watertight doors on the Titanic, not understanding that water was going to flow into the hatches from the open areas at the top of the walls.

If Hill is going to toss a yellow "flag"on the field over Salgado, then she must explore similar conflicts for every Committee appointment.

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