Berrien County is looking for someone to serve as its new acting health officer as the last day of current officer Courtney Davis is next Wednesday. Berrien County Administrator Brian Dissette told county commissioners Thursday getting a replacement is a challenge.
“We have had limited interest in taking on this role,” Dissette said. “It is quite a bit of work and it’s under a high degree of public scrutiny. So, I’ve reached out to former health officers, to former members of that department. I’ve reached out to Lakeland, I’ve reached out to the Michigan Department of health and Human services, surrounding counties. It’s been a fairly exhaustive process.”
Dissette said the county board of health, the county commission, and then the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will have to sign off on the replacement. The state has promised to expedite the process to reduce the gap during which the county has no health officer.
“And we will have a gap as far as an acting health officer. What I’m trying to do is minimize the amount of time that we have that gap in place.”
Dissette said a former health officer retired out of a neighboring county has expressed some interest, a neighboring county may be willing to contract its own staff to help in Berrien County, and there is one internal candidate who has expressed interest in recent days. He said he hopes to have one to three definite possibilities by the end of the week.
