County rejects full-time health officer proposal

Commissioners vote to post position as part-time, setting aside a proposal from the county health board to put more weight into public health. Plus, extended moratorium aimed at LEAP pipeline advances

• Today’s edition is sponsored by Tippecanoe County CASA. A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is a trained community volunteer who speaks up for the best interests of abused and neglected children in the Tippecanoe County court system. If you wish to become a CASA volunteer, please visit our website at tippecanoe.in.gov/CASA to apply, and see our fall schedule starting Oct. 3.    

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COUNTY REJECTS FULL-TIME HEALTH OFFICER PROPOSAL

A push to hire a full-time county health officer, one who would be stationed as a front-line physician on any number of public health matters, did not find traction Monday morning.

Tippecanoe County commissioners agreed during a time of transition for the health department to maintain the health officer’s role as a part-time position, rejecting a county health board recommendation to give the job more weight.

(Photo: Upslash)

The health board’s recommended job description came a month after Dr. Greg Loomis, a retired neurosurgeon, resigned as health officer out of frustration that county officials didn’t buy into his plans to beef up some of the health department’s clinical roles.

The conversation Monday morning was more measured than it had been at times when Loomis, who admitted frequently that he didn’t have the greatest filter, dropped lines like this one in the days after his resignation two years into his time as the county’s health officer:

“Who gets the right to tell a neurosurgeon of 40 years and a professor at a medical school, here's the line, you are not allowed to cross it when you see health care disparities on the other side?” Loomis said, taking aim at and naming county commissioners by profession. “How who has that right? A former sheriff? A dairy farmer? A banker who used to stack shelves at Pay Less? … Who has the right to say that? I think you know me well enough to know that I'm not going to sit back and watch this happen.”

But Dr. Julianne Stout, president of the county health board, said members found themselves, respectfully and unanimously, in line with what Loomis was saying about a more aggressive, more present role for the county health officer – a role Loomis had essentially piloted for the past two years.