Measure targets OKC and Tulsa health departments
A state lawmaker wants Oklahoma' s commissioner of health to be able to recommend firing the directors of the Oklahoma City- County and Tulsa Health departments.
The legislation from Rep. Chris K anna dy, R-Oklahoma City, comes after the independent health departments have occasionally challenged the State Department of Health's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Bruce Dart, director of the Tulsa Health Department, warned in June that a Tulsa campaign rally for then-President Donald Trump could become a COVID -19“super spreader” event. He also said he wished the campaign rally could be postponed to a later date when the city wasn't seeing rising COVID-19 infections.
More recently, when the State Department of Health allowed school districts with mask mandates to waive quarantines for students and staff who had a COVID19 exposure, the Oklahoma City-County Health Department recommended local districts continue quarantining exposed students and employees.
Kan nady said House Bill 2504 is not intended to retaliate against Dart or other local health officials for their guidance during the pandemic.
A lieutenant colonel in the Oklahoma National Guard, Kannady was called up to serve during the pandemic. Through that, Kannady said, he became close with members of Gov. Kevin Stitt's COVID-19 response team, including Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Fr ye and Oklahoma' s Deputy Commissioner of Health Keith Reed, both of whom also serve in the Oklahoma National Guard.
"During that time, (I) ran into a lot of problems with chain of command and structure with the two citycounty health departments doing things that were completely different and, I would say, were contrary and negative toward the greater mission of trying to take care of what we needed to do during the pandemic," Kannady said.
The chain of command problems existed over time, but the pandemic exacerbated them, he said.
Kannady also questioned the transparency of the two local health departments, saying he struggled to get financial details from the Oklahoma City-County Health Department on how the entity spends state funds. The Oklahoma CityCounty Health Department is also funded through local property taxes from county residents.
HB 2504 would give the commissioner of health some say in the hiring and firing of the directors of the state's two largest health departments.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health — led by Frye, who was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt — oversees 68 local county health departments, but the health departments in Oklahoma City and Tulsa are independent due to the large populations they serve.
The bill originally sought to give the commissioner of health full hiring and firing power, but amended legislation that passed a House panel Tuesday decreased the health official' s influence on employment decisions.
In a Tulsa World opinion piece, Tulsa CityCounty Board of Health Chairwoman Ann Paul called the original bill “a blatant attempt to overstep and centralize power, placing control in the hands of political appointees with allegiances that will potentially undermine the health and safety of Tulsa County residents.”
Tulsa County residents have been safely guided through the COVID- 19 pandemic by the local health department that is committed to data, transparency, science and equity, she wrote.
The Oklahoma CityCounty Health Department declined to comment on the legislation.
The most recent version of HB 2504 would allow the state's health commissioner to recommend the removal of a city-county health department director by submitting a request to that city-county's board of health. The board then would consider the request, and the director would be removed if two-thirds of the board members approved the recommendation.
The bill also would allow the health commissioner to appoint one of the nine city-county board members in Oklahoma City and another in Tulsa and have a say in the hiring of a new health department director.
HB 2504 also would prevent the two local health departments from taking any action more stringent than state laws or actions of the State Board of Health.
Kan nady called the amended legislation a "good balance" that allows the city-county health departments to maintain their authority while also creating "administrative alignment" among the state and local health departments to respond to health crises and everyday health matters.