As an interested and informed member of the public and one who has found the controversy surrounding our Health Unit, the Board of Health and Dr Arra himself disturbing, dismaying and disheartening, I had hoped for a far better response from our Board of Health. The role of chair is a serious one. It is their job to press for the best health unit possible, not to uncritically back our MOH. The Board should value ongoing, constructive dialogue with the public. THIS is the response the public should have received from Sue Patterson, Chairperson for the Board of Health:
Re: GREY-BRUCE PUBLIC HEALTH UNIT
We thank our area councillors and others for their ongoing interest in our local health unit. We welcome any and all constructive comments and critical observations. We know we need to be at our very best during this global crisis and oftentimes public input helps us to do just that. We recognize that external criticism can be helpful. In addition, we understand that we cannot ask for the trust of the community without being transparent. To that end, we will publicly respond to the questions you and your peers have put to the Board. We may not be able to answer all of them and, if not, we will give reasons for that. We may have to agree to disagree but the public, of course, then has the right to appeal through the Freedom of Information process.
Some suggest that we cannot answer queries because it distracts from our efforts to combat COVID. I assure you that our institution is (and should always be) robust enough to both handle questions and to effectively deal with our health crisis.
Additionally:
Allow me to apologize for the upsetting and uncalled for comments Dr. Arra made about a man emerging from the grave and taking a flamethrower to a councillor’s seat. I was in the back of the council chamber at that time and was too surprised to correct him. That was wrong. We have corrected my error and have told Dr. Arra that this kind of public communication to an elected leader is unacceptable and have demanded that he apologize to Mr. Tamming under separate cover.
As for the issue of Dr. Arra’s 2020 compensation, we have retained BDO to perform a complete audit of his claimed overtime pay, which appears to be close to $300,000. That does seem a little high, so we understand the ongoing public reaction to that figure. We have asked BDO as well to examine when and how he was authorized to perform and bill for such overtime. To the extent that this may involve some interviews with Dr. Arra himself, we will be mindful with regard to his time and attention at this critical time. It may be that this forensic fiscal report may take some months to complete and we trust that possibility is satisfactory.
As for the “organizational chaos” that has been alleged, as Chair I have looked deeper into this issue. I agree that there has been a perplexing amount of managerial turnover. By talking to people directly involved, I learned that in the last 15 months, one program has gone through 4 managers, another program has had 5 different managers assigned and another program has had no fewer than 6 managers. Immunization alone has had 3 managers and one staff member confessed that she and some of her peers don’t exactly know who their manager is anymore. These numbers may be approximate but clearly I have learned things that I did not know before. The current level of turnover is disturbing to me and the other Board members which has caused us to request a special board meeting to draw up a plan of action. The Board will also press for an outside management consultant to meet with Dr. Arra, to conduct interviews of current and former staff and to report back to the Board. I will urge the Board to put no limits on any recommendations that the consultant may make.
Micheline Mann, Owen Sound
image: screen shot from Sue Paterson's deputation to Owen Sound council
