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The national scene feels wobbly as Mr. Trump flails away in a manner which, had we witnessed it from afar, we would not have hesitated to call an attempted coup. Meanwhile, we are adrift without leadership in Spokane as we head into what is likely to be the worst of the Covid pandemic. The Spokane Regional Health District has gone quiet, silenced by the firing of Dr. Lutz.

Former President of the City of Spokane City Council Ben Stuckart captured the situation into which the SRHD Board and Administrator has thrust our region. In a Faceback post last Monday, November 9, copied below with his permission is his accurate assessment of our predicament and how we got there [the bracketed links are mine]:

895 new cases in the last 4 days. People – those numbers shatter all records. I heard SRHD won’t be commenting for another week? Where are the clusters? What are we doing to get this under control? Who is available, since we haven’t heard from the new interim health officer, to address this? How is contact tracing going? Should we go back to free tests sites all over Spokane to see how widespread it is right now?

To recap:

1) Health District Admin. [Amelia Clark] and Board of Health (BOH) Chair illegally fire Health Officer [Thursday, October 29]

2) Health District Admin. and BOH Chair hold the worst press conference ever, they lie and admit to breaking law [Friday, October 30, youtube of press conference]

3) County Commissioner accidentally caught on KREM 2 mic discussing how we need to “open back up” [Al French dodging and weaving on a KREM 2 interview October 30 with broader KREM 2 coverage here.]

4) Board of Health holds a CYA meeting and fire health officer officially [full 4 hour meeting youtube]

5) BOH immediately appoint someone with ZERO public health experience to the position [Dr. Francisco Velazquez Resume]

6) Spokane Mayor accidentally sends a note to everyone calling this the “best news [she] has heard in a long time” [the letter].

7) Mayor says she didn’t mean what she actually said out loud

8) State Board of Health unanimously opens independent investigation of firing sequence [Inlander article]

9) Community left wondering why no one has addressed the 895 case new cases in the last 4 days. Cannot find new health officer or health administrator.

How long until they ask for phase 3??? Just bet on it. Numbers be damned!

A search of the Spokesman website for Covid-19:Local (free Covid coverage) offers just one article since November 6, one week ago. SRHD has gone dark, it’s public face, Dr. Lutz, fired by the business community under the leadership, one suspects, of Spokane County Commissioner Al French, with assistance from Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, and to the delight of Mayor Woodward. It is the triumph of local business interests over science and non-corporate medicine, parallel to our lack of national leadership from a lame duck President who refuses even to meet with his own Covid task force. 

Here in Spokane we are left to wonder when Al French’s acquaintance in the Spokane business community, pathologist, and personal pick for Health Officer, Dr. Velazquez, will appear on the scene and what we should think of the guidance he offers when he does.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

P.S. Al French knows the levers of local power. He is by far the most senior of the three Spokane County Commissioners, and, as such, is in the most powerful elected position in Spokane County. He mentioned during the SRHD BOH meeting at which Dr. Lutz was voted out that he, Al French, served on that Board in 2002. (I do not have his entire CV to understand the specifics–Ballotpedia and Wikipedia are good sources for background only down to federal and state elected officials, not county level and below,) Mr. French is listed as absent in the minutes of 22 consecutive BOH meetings leading up to May, 2020. He reappeared in May, but on available videos of subsequent meetings (there are still no posted minutes) Mr. French’s face rarely appears. Still, he made it to the extended Executive Session at the firing meeting of the Board. Immediately after the Executive Session Mr. French stepped up to make the motion to fire Dr.Lutz. Once that vote was taken, Mr. French stepped up again with a motion to appoint Dr. Velazquez interim Health Officer–a motion that appeared to take several of the Board members by surprise. I find it inconceivable that Commissioner French wasn’t behind Amelia Clark’s abortive, ill-timed, poorly documented, and illegal attempted firing of Dr. Lutz that preceded the Board meeting we witnessed. I don’t wish to let Ms. Clark off the hook either, but let us not forget the likely man behind the curtain.

I’m taking the day off, but I want to offer links to the ongoing controversy over the firing of our Health Officer, Dr. Bob Lutz, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. As you read, consider that Commissioner Al French gets almost no mention in this drama, even though he was the dominant character and motion offerer at the Spokane Regional Health District’s Board of Health meeting at which Dr. Lutz was formally fired. Amelia Clark, the relatively inexperienced Administrator of SRHD, is in the headlights. Does anyone really imagine that Ms. Clark, on her very own initiative, decided to fire Dr. Lutz on October 29th just as Covid cases were spiking in the County, a firing that was clearly not authorized by the Bylaws of the BOH? Commissioner French and Sheriff Knezovich must be delighted not to be sharing the glare of the headlights. Mayor Woodward, perhaps a little less politically saavy, is working on damage control over her comment, “the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

Two local reporters, Samantha Wohlfeil of The Inlander, and Arielle Dreyer of the Spokesman have been following the controversy swirling around Ms. Clark and Tuesday’s State Board of Health meeting addressing Clark’s action.

Wohlfeil (no paywall): Washington Board of Health to investigate claims SRHD administrator broke law by firing Lutz

Dreyer (possible paywall): State health board approves investigation into firing of Dr. Bob Lutz

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

What follows below is a lengthy commentary addressing what I saw on display at the meeting last Thursday when the Board of Health voted to fire Dr. Lutz, the Health Office, in the midst of a pandemic. The story is not quite over. Today, Monday, November 9, at roughly 2:45PM, the Washington State Board of Health will address complaints lodged with the State Board over this firing. Here is the link to that meeting’s agenda containing a link to that online meeting. Arielle Dreyer of the Spokesman continued her excellent series of articles on this controversy with this article in Sunday’s paper: Moving forward: Spokane County health board acknowledges work ahead of them after dismissing health officer.

One more note: I currently plan to take the day off on Wednesday this week.

Onward:

A Lesson and Window on Civics and Politics
Spokane Regional Health District Board of Health Meeting, Thursday, November 5, 2020, 3-7:20PM

Last Thursday an average audience of about 2000 watched the Board of Health (BOH) meeting at which the members of the Board voted to terminate the employment of Dr. Bob Lutz, the District Health Officer. Dr. Lutz has been the face of pandemic management in Eastern Washington. The meeting and the vote offered glimpses into a corner of local government where few citizens ever look and even fewer understand.

We elect officials to city and county governments mostly based on campaign rhetoric. Then, in most cases, unless an official is caught doing something that grabs human attention, like sex or money, we mostly ignore them for the next four years.

Background:

The Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) employs around 300 people. SRHD’s physical offices are in the large, cream-colored building with a cylindrical corners with domed tops just north of Kendall Yards near the Spokane County Courts. In non-Covid times SRHD employees are run programs most of us hardly notice (until something goes wrong), like tuberculosis surveillance and treatment, drinking water and food safety monitoring, infectious disease monitoring and control, and the general promotion of public health. The people who work at SRHD toil in relative obscurity to keep the citizens of Spokane County healthy and safe.

The day to day workings of SRHD are overseen by Amelia Clark, the District’s Health Administrator. Ms. Clark was hired by the SRHD Board after a lengthy search just over a year ago in September, 2019.

The Board of Health meets for a few hours once a month, ten months out of the year. Much of the information The Board of Health members receive about the day-to-day function of SRHD comes to them through Ms. Clark. Nine of the members of the Board of Health are officials elected to positions in city or county government and represent those governments as members of the board. This service is only one of multitude of duties. The other three members of the Board, the members-at-large, are volunteers nominated to the Board by the County Commissioners. 

Recently, Dr. Bob Lutz has reported to Board of Health meetings for only ten or fifteen minutes, primarily to offer a report on the current state of the pandemic in Eastern Washington. Dr. Lutz was appointed by the BOH to the position of District Health Officer in June of 2017. (Click here to read his compelling bio presented in the Spokesman at the time of his appointment.) Four candidates were interviewed for the position. The selection, according to the minutes, was made by Torney Smith (the Administrator at the time) “after input from the hiring committee.”

Dr. Lutz was well known to the members of the Board at the time of his hiring in 2017. For eight years before his appointment Dr. Lutz served on the Board of Health as a member-at-large, an unpaid position. He sat shoulder-to-shoulder at meetings with six Board members who still sit on the twelve member Board: City of Spokane City Council Members Karen Stratton and Breean Beggs, Mayor Kevin Freeman of Millwood, Member-at-large Chuck Hafner, and Spokane County Commissioners Josh Kerns and Al French. The latter four contributed four of the eight votes cast to fire Dr. Lutz last Thursday.

The Meeting:

At the Board of Health Meeting last Thursday, November 5, Administrator Clark presented a flood of grievances against Dr. Lutz which she had accumulated over the last year, plus a few stragglers she had dredged from the files. It was a firehose of complaint mostly documenting that she and Dr. Lutz neither like nor respect each other. The Board was going to have to chose either the administrator whom the Board had hired a year ago or the highly skilled and credentialed, sometimes abrasive and dismissive doctor and epidemiologist who six of the twelve Board members had known for years. Nothing in Ms. Clark’s litany of complaints against Dr. Lutz explains the timing she chose to launch her first (ultimately abortive) attempt to fire him without a public vote of the Board. There was no pressing issue demanding that the District Health Officer be fired in the face of rising pandemic numbers five days before a media-dominating national election. Nor was there an explanation how she, as an administrator who should have read and understood the Bylaws, thought she could fire Dr. Lutz without a public vote of the Board.  

If one focuses solely on the issue of chain of command and ignores all else, a Board member forced to chose between these two might give the edge to Ms Clark, since the Bylaws have Dr. Lutz reporting to her as his superior. That fealty to organizational structure may explain some of the votes for dismissal. That structure is faulty without further guidance and guardrails. Dr. Lutz, as an M.D., answers not just to the SRHD structure but also to the oath he took as a physician and the terms of his professional licensure. 
 
There are several things about the Thursday meeting and its aftermath that smell of a political hatchet job. Commissioner Al French, nominally a member of the Board, has missed 22 BOH meetings in a row. At last Thursday’s meeting, Commissioner French’s face was seen on screen only intermittently, a lurking presence. Nonetheless, he attended the one hour and twenty minute long Executive Session away from the public eye that occurred during the meeting. Mr. French re-appeared from the Executive Session and almost immediately offered a motion to fire Dr. Lutz (at 3:20:15 in the video). There was a lengthy pause after Chairman Wick asked if there were a second to the motion. Finally, Commissioner Kerns seconded, ending the silence. In presenting his motion, Mr. French took the time to read out loud a letter from Sheriff Knezovich critical of Dr. Lutz’ performance. The lack of relevance felt jarring. Why elevate the Sheriff’s opinion, especially after numerous organizations and more than a thousand community members had lodged comments with the Board, comments overwhelmingly in favor of retaining Dr. Lutz? The reading reeked of local Republican power politics. Then, after the vote, Mr. French was ready with a surprise motion to appoint Dr. Francisco Velazquez as interim Health Officer. French’s whole performance was one of raw political power.

After hearing from French (and from Ozzie Knezovich through French) there was one more voice that appeared the next morning in the Spokesman article about the meeting:

Though the City of Spokane’s representatives [Beggs, Wilkerson, and Stratton] on the health board voted to retain Lutz, Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward supported the firing, calling it [the original announcement that Clark had fired Dr. Lutz, before it was clear the Bylaws required a public meeting and vote of the Board] the “best news I’ve heard in a long time,” in a letter she submitted to board members as part of public comment ahead of today’s [last Thursday’s] vote.

She described herself as “frustrated” as Spokane County has been stuck in Phase 2 of the economic reopening plan to the detriment of people and businesses.

“Important community decisions are being made by a single entity,” she said of Lutz. “Information sharing with partners has slowed to a trickle. Public communication has come from one source.

“That, as the data has been telling us for months now, does not work.”

Health board members said during the meeting that economic considerations were not part of their decision to fire Lutz. Instead, they turned to the allegations leveled by Clark.

Commissioner French, Sheriff Knezovich, and Nadine Woodward knew what they wanted: a compliant, business-minded Health Officer. They got one step closer by harnessing the tension between Clark and Lutz and using it to sway the Board of Health vote. 

Government is complex, messy business. The longer an official is in office the greater their grip on the levers of power. Al French and company have a firm grip. In organizing and supporting the removal of Dr. Lutz they are operating against the will of a strong chorus of local voters. Remember that in 2022, assuming we survive this pandemic.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

P.S. For contrast to French’s exercise in power politics I recommend listening to Breean Begg’s presentation in the discussion of French’s motion to fire Dr. Lutz. (3:28:30 to 3:36:48 in the video) Beggs reminds us of “the importance of presuming the good intentions” of people with whom we differ. He then opines at length over his community-minded reasons to vote against firing Dr. Lutz–reasons I find compelling. Contrast Beggs’ words to Woodward’s vindictive statement, “best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

With nearly 2000 others last evening I watched the twelve members of the Spokane Regional Board of Health struggle to understand and cope with a contest of personalities and power between their two most prominent and high value employees, the District Health Officer, Dr. Bob Lutz snd Amelia Clark, the District’s Health Administrator. The meeting lasted 4 hours and 23 minutes. You can watch it here. That youtube video, at the time I write this the next morning, has accumulated nearly 10,000 clicks. 

In the end, the Board voted eight to four to terminate Dr. Lutz’ employment with the District. I need time to organize my thoughts on what I saw. So, until later, I want to comment on the final outcome:

After the vote to terminate Dr. Lutz employment, the exhausted Board was presented with a motion by Al French, Spokane County Commission, for the interim appointment of Dr. Francisco Velazquez to fill Dr. Lutz position. The motion seemed to take the other Board members by surprise, although I can imagine a certain sense of relief that someone (French) had found an interim replacement for Dr. Lutz.

Breean Beggs offered a motion (which was seconded and passed) to amend French’s motion. The amendment was to revisit the interim appointment of Dr. Velaquez at the regular December SRHD Board meeting. (However, I am reminded of the old saw that possession is nine-tenths of the law.)

Without commenting much on the meeting itself I have to wonder where this leaves us. Twice in fifteen years the SRHD has fired a highly qualified District Health Officer. (Dr. Kim Thorburn was fired in 2006.) It seems likely that it will be far harder to find a qualified replacement for Dr. Lutz than it would have been to find a new administrator. Who would want this job? That brings me to: 

Dr. Francisco Velasquez, the man elevated by French’s motion, has no training in epidemiology that I can find. At least in 2016, Dr Velasquez was President and CEO of Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories, a pathologist working as an administrator, a business person skilled in corporate medicine, not a practicing physician interacting with patients. 

Dr. Velasquez may be extremely community-minded, a great physician and leader who is willing, as a civic duty, to step up and take on the mantle of Health Officer in the middle of a contentious pandemic, but his last minute elevation to that contentious position through a motion to an exhausted Board by Commissioner Al French raises many questions. The appointment begs for comparison to the national scene where Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuro-radiologist with no background in epidemiology was elevated in the Trump administration as a prime advisor on the management of the Covid pandemic. 

Dr. Velasquez will bear watching.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

Here is the link to watch the 3PM Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) Board of Health meeting this afternoon at 3PM:

https://www.youtube.com/user/spokanehealthdist/videos?view=57&flow=grid

Visiting that page is a bit of an education. Most of the videos listed have been viewed between 100 and 200 times. In contrast, last Thursday’s (October 29, 2020) Board of Health Meeting has been viewed 1,100 times. Interest is high. That meeting contains a roughly 30 minute “Executive Session” during which the we presume that Amelia Clark (the Administrator) presented the “personnel issue” for which she went ahead, demanded Dr. Lutz’ resign by the next day and removed his access to SRHD. The timeline is covered in the article from the Spokesman I’ve copied below as a guide. 

A few comments from my review of the October 29th meeting video: Watching the part of the meeting open to the public, I was struck by how different the actual function of government is than what one might think of based on the rhetoric we hear in election campaigns. Ben Wick, Mayor of the City of Spokane Valley is the current Chairman. He conducts the meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order, the proper way. The whole process is slow and dry, especially if you don’t know the faces and backgrounds of the people in attendance. The focus of the meeting is on the dry business at hand. 

Al French, arguably the most powerful elected official currently serving within Spokane County, routinely misses these Board Meetings, but he appeared for this one at the beginning and disappeared from the screen shortly after the Executive Session. Curious. 

Dr. Lutz, at around 1:57, offers a three minute summary of the Covid situation in the County. Then he endures questions, first from Jason Kinley and then from a voice that I think is that of Andrea Frostad. The thrust of both is to question how death certificates are written–hinting at a conspiracy theory prevalent on the political right that Covid death numbers are being intentionally inflated. Dr. Lutz endures this line of questioning and calmly answers over the next eight and a half minutes. No other questions come from anyone else. Dr. Lutz exits to attend another meeting. 

Jason Kinley, an ally of Matt Shea, is trained as a naturopath. Andrea Frostad is a dental hygienist. Each was nominated by a County Commissioner, Commissioner Kerns and Commissioner French, respectively. These two are the only two on the Board with any credentials related to the practice of medicine. Neither is likely personally conversant with death certification.

There is friction here that is barely polite. Dr. Lutz’ patience is commendable.  Watch these two this afternoon–and watch the Commissioners.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

What to expect from the Board of Health meeting about Dr. Bob Lutz on Thursday
by Arielle Dreyer
November 4, 2020

A week after Spokane County’s public health officer was forced out of the Spokane Regional Health District, the community is poised to learn why on Thursday.

Administrator Amelia Clark is asking the Board of Health to fire Dr. Bob Lutz based on personnel and performance issues, which she will address during a special 3 p.m. Thursday meeting.

Due to COVID-19 guidelines, all board members will attend the meeting virtually. Members of the public can tune in to the online meeting on the health district’s Youtube channel or listen in by phone.

There is no public comment period; people who want to submit comments must email them to public_comment@srhd.org before 11 a.m. Thursday.

Those comments will go into the official agenda packet for board members and into the public record.

Hundreds of community members have already flooded board members with their concerns and support for Lutz. There were protests over the weekend with both current and former employees speaking out in support of the doctor, and many local and state medical associations representing thousands of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals have signed petitions and put their name on statements questioning the wisdom and reasoning for firing Lutz.

Board members did not fire Lutz in their executive session last week. However, a misreading of the health board’s bylaws led administrator Clark to believe she had the authority and board buy-in after a private meeting to dismiss Lutz.

According to Lutz, Clark demanded he give up his keys, agency badge, laptop and cellphone. She told him to contact HR regarding a severance package and a time to retrieve his personal belongings at a later date.

Instead he hired a lawyer.

The ensuing chaos has left the district in disarray.

In an email, Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, who also serves as a health board member, noted the bungled effort last week to fire Lutz.

“The board left the meeting with the understanding that there would be progressive discipline via written communication based on the advice of legal counsel,” Beggs wrote in an email to Clark and the health board’s attorney, Michelle Fossum.

To make matters more complicated, the health district sent out a press release Friday stating that the Board of Health had asked Lutz to resign before the press conference that day.

Beggs wrote his email in response to this announcement and before the Zoom press conference Friday.

“First, any matters in an executive session are confidential until the board votes to make them public. Second, it would likely be illegal under the Open Public Meetings Act for the board to make a decision during executive session,” he wrote.

While Clark is Lutz’s supervisor, the health board alone has the power and authority to fire the health officer.

The press conference held Friday clarified nothing about the situation, with Clark refusing to answer questions about whether Lutz had resigned or been fired. On Saturday, Lutz announced that he’d hired an attorney and plans to fight the board’s decision should he be fired. He also clarified that he did not resign.

The health district has refused to say who is discharging the duties of the health officer since Lutz was stripped of his health district access and equipment.

Lutz, for his part, released a statement through his attorney on Monday clarifying that he believes Clark wrongly fired him.

Clark has not explained her urgency to dismiss Lutz in the midst of a pandemic. The district has said she could not discuss personnel matters publicly without the consent of Lutz. On Thursday, however, she will be able to address the personnel issues with Dr. Lutz at the special meeting.

Clark will speak first for 30 minutes, then Lutz will speak for 30 minutes.

Board members will then have the opportunity to ask both Clark and Lutz questions.

What happens after that will be up to the board. There is a potential executive session listed on the agenda, in which board members could evaluate the case against Lutz, review his performance and discuss legal advice or potential litigation. They cannot vote in private, however.

There are three possible items board members could vote on Thursday, according to the agenda.

They could vote on something that was discussed in an executive session; they could vote to fire Lutz; and they could vote to approve the appointment of an acting health officer.

Dr. Mary Bergum, a licensed physician for the district’s treatment services division, has been named as possible interim replacement for Lutz. Board members could vote to approve her in that role on Thursday.

The sudden decision to remove Lutz from the district’s second-highest post comes as Spokane County is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases. The health district confirmed 97 new cases on Wednesday, and another resident died from the virus. There are 70 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Spokane hospitals, and 52 are county residents.

Young adults in their 20s and 30s continue to drive up case counts in Spokane County, but teens and younger children also are beginning to test positive in higher numbers.

There continue to be outbreaks in long-term care facilities throughout the county.

The Panhandle Health District confirmed 96 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, and there are 43 residents from the five-county Idaho region hospitalized with the virus. Kootenai Health continues to take care of the majority of the Panhandle’s COVID hospitalizations. Kootenai Health is treating 42 COVID patients, 14 of whom require critical care.

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Arielle Dreher’s reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.

As we wait to see what our ill-conceived, archaic Electoral College system will yield this time, life and drama continue locally. 

The Spokane Regional Health District’s Board of Health has announced a special (and public) meeting to be held tomorrow, Thursday, November 5, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. It is a Zoom meeting that should be open to viewing by the interested parties by searching “SRHD” on youtube.com near the time of the meeting or with audio on a phone in the U.S. by dialing 

United States: 1.509.495.1007

Access Code: 638 923 36#

[With proper preparation watching this meeting could be part of a student’s civic education. This is the way government actually works.] 

Only written public comment will be accepted. Written comment received prior to November 5 at 11:00 a.m. will be included in the agenda packet and will become part of the official meeting record. Submit written comments at public_comment@srhd.org.

At the meeting members of the Board (a quorum is six of the twelve members) will hear the allegations of a “personnel issue” against Dr. Bob Lutz, the District Health Officer, made by the SRHD’s Administrator, Amelia Clark. The Board will hear Dr. Lutz’ response to the allegations, and determine by majority vote (of the Board members present) whether to terminate Dr. Lutz’ employment.

The members of the Board of Health usually perform their duties in relative obscurity. Six of them are elected officials from Spokane County cities and towns, three are the three County Commissioners and and the final three are people nominated by a County Commissioner from that Commissioner’s district and approved by the Board (Frostad, Hafner, and Kinley). (See below for the cast of characters.) It seems likely that the 6 to 6 balance between County and City/Town votes was intended–a balance worth watching as the meeting unfolds. All of these people have multiple other commitments. During a normal year the time commitment to the Board of Health is likely to be a relatively minor portion of the commitments these people juggle. (The Board’s regular meetings are on the last Thursday of the month ten months of the year.)

This is your opportunity to observe some of the workings of your local government. Ordinarily, attendance would require a trip downtown, hassling the parking, and possibly offering verbal testimony to the Board. Probably few of my readers have ever attended a Board of Health Meeting. 

For help in making sense of the meeting I’ve retained the email I wrote Monday below. Pay particular attention to the cast of characters. That should help with orientation. 

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry

Link to Monday, November 2 email

The most consequential election of my long life looms tomorrow.

Be sure to vote, check that you ballot was accepted, encourage your friends to do the same, and cross your fingers. Join your favor candidates get out the vote efforts. 

May I rejoin you on the other side to greet elections for the presidency, the Senate, and down ballot that are both welcome and resoundingly unequivocal. Whatever happens a lot of work will remain.

Keep to the high ground,
Jerry