Health district chief wins raise, nerve disorder fight

One year after being struck down by a rare nerve disorder, Dr. Kim Thorburn celebrated by climbing Mount Rainier and getting a raise.

The Spokane Regional Board of Health on Thursday unanimously approved an annual salary of $125,000 for Thorburn, a 6.8 percent raise. She had not received a raise since 2002.

The raise will be retroactive to May 1. Her job evaluation was in April and the board had delayed making a salary decision until now.

“Her evaluation was excellent,” said board member John Roskelley. “We’re fortunate to have someone who can manage a huge agency like this as well as have knowledge on the medical side.”

In prior meetings, board members have said it’s important to make the health officer’s salary competitive with other comparable jobs in the state. Thorburn’s counterpart in Tacoma, Federico Cruz-Uribe, director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, makes $130,478 annually.

During Thursday’s board meeting, Thorburn said she had reached the summit of Mount Rainier last weekend. She planned the climb to mark the anniversary of a serious illness.

Last year, she spent two weeks in the hospital with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a nerve disorder that typically follows a viral infection and can cause paralysis. Thorburn believes she contracted West Nile virus in Ohio, which triggered the Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Thorburn said it’s a tradition to pick up a rock on the mountain’s summit and give it to another mountaineer. She presented a small rock to Roskelley, who climbed Mount Everest last year and advised her as she trained for the Rainier climb.

In other action, the health board approved a fee schedule for 2005. Most fees will not change. There will be fee increases for some lab tests and some water quality testing. Fees to operate swimming and wading pools and inspection fees for food caterers and some types of restaurants also will increase. For example, the annual inspection fee for a full-service restaurant was raised from $444 to $495.

Health district fees are calculated based on actual costs over three years and adjusted for inflation.