Public health needs governance change

As someone with over a decade of professional public health expertise at the local and national level, I was disturbed to read Sue Lani Madsen’s misguided February 25th opinion piece (“Public health decisions best made at local level”) on pending public health legislation.

Madsen argued that HB 1152 aims to empower “state level technocrats” over elected leaders “relying on the local knowledge of the public health officers they hire.” And yet we saw that elected leaders will not act in the best interest of the public’s health when the Spokane Regional Health District Board of Health, chaired by a county commissioner and overwhelmingly led by politicians, confirmed the wrongful termination of the county’s leading health official in the midst of a pandemic.

Outraged at the lack of power balance between electeds seeking reelection and the people affected by their decisions, real Spokane County residents with public health knowledge worked with Representative Riccelli to shape HB 1152 as a solution that will not only bring more public health expertise into decision making, but also finally begin to adequately fund the public health system. HB 1152 will protect Spokane and other Washington counties from politicians making public health decisions based on campaign finances and political disagreements.

Amber Lenhart

Spokane