Einterz calls on voters to counter the politicization of public health by Republicans

Outgoing St. Joseph County Health Officer Dr. Bob Einterz Thursday night said he had “no regrets” about taking the job three years ago, and he called on voters to take action in future elections to preserve the department’s accomplishments under his leadership.

Einterz, speaking to a packed room at IUSB’s Civil Rights Heritage Center, said the health department’s leaders and staff are some of the best in the country, and more people in the community should realize and appreciate that.

“Too many of them are disparaging of them, they denigrate them, and they coalesce around this cruelty, and that’s what brings them together,” Einterz said. “They try to destroy what we have built over the last three years, and we need to stop it. That’s my call to action.”

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Einterz quit in late December, a month after Republicans with hostile views of the department won majorities on the county council and board of commissioners, after Republican County Commissioner Carl Baxmeyer told him he would no longer be allowed to seek as many grants to fund new public health initiatives.

Einterz said he wasn’t yet sure what he will do next, but he plans to travel with his wife, Lee Ann, and visit their children and grandchildren around the country before making any decisions.

“This has not been easy for me,” he said. “It’s been hard, and I still feel a little bit of toxicity. I want that toxicity to dissipate.”

Einterz said he thanks Dr. Joseph H. Cerbin, a “wonderful person and an excellent physician,” for agreeing to serve as interim county health officer until a permanent one is hired, but he criticized the council and commissioners for “deliberately overlooking” deputy Health Officer Dr. Mark Fox and Dr. Jason Marker, a long-serving board of health member who was “yanked” from the board by county GOP chair Tyler Gillean.

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He called Fox and Marker “highly skilled” and said they could go “toe to toe with any health professional in the world.”

“The reality is we had a couple people who were the experts, who were the best in public health," Einterz said. "Dr. Fox, during the pandemic, up at 3, 4 in the morning, crunching the data. We’re meeting every single day with folks from Beacon Health System, Saint Joseph Health, South Bend Clinic and elected officials. He wasn’t being paid for that. The man is absolutely brilliant. But I think he has one flaw. He is not sufficiently obsequious when it comes to our elected officials.”

Despite the politicization of public health by elected Republicans, Einterz said he was proud of what the department accomplished to address the county’s top three health burdens — cancer, heart disease and mental illness — during his tenure. Other accomplishments include the following:

● A new initiative to address Adverse Childhood Experiences. Research shows that people who suffered mental or physical trauma as children are more likely to experience chronic illness as adults. The department hired a “positive and adverse childhood experiences coordinator.”

“What is the message I get from some elected officials?” Einterz said. “That’s not a place for government. That’s no place for a department of health. Get out of that. We’re not going to fund it.”

● Modernizing the department’s data systems. When he arrived in the position in early 2020, Einterz said, he was shocked to find the department was still using microfilm.

“Where was the investment?” he said. “It’s almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don’t invest in government services, if you don’t recognize and give your government employees a chance to spread their wings and flourish, it’s going to fail. So why fund government?”

● The county’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic at St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church. The effort, thanks to volunteers, saved thousands of lives, Einterz said. The clinic almost didn’t happen because County Council Member Mark Root, an Osceola Republican, wouldn’t vote to suspend the council’s rules to approve the clinic faster than the typical two to three months the process usually takes.

Root is now council president under the GOP majority.

“There are people in positions of authority who are antagonistic to the mission of this health department,” Einterz said.

● Increasing the department’s number of grants, meaning money that comes from outside of the county rather than county tax dollars, from five to 23. This has allowed the department to finally pay staff a “living wage” while balancing its annual budget for the first time in decades, Einterz said.

Einterz said the new Republican majority in county government wants the department’s scope “shrunk down” to only the minimum duties specified in Indiana statute: regulating septic systems, maintaining vital records, and inspecting food service businesses and public swimming pools.

“I say no, that’s not what health is about,” he said.

Afterward, Dr. Tom Felger, county health officer from 2010-2014, called Einterz’s farewell speech “incredible.”

“He covered a lot of ground and lot of worrisome issues,” Felger said. “ I was part-time and I can appreciate all that he’s done being full-time, and these new programs and the money. When I started, we had full-time clerks making $21,000 a year. You can’t live on $21,000 a year. I was able to get raises but nothing like he’s done.”

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Felger said he is worried about the Republican majority on the county council now and how politics are now “interfering” with public health. In particular, he referred to the commissioners vetoing acceptance of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that would have expanded health outreach efforts to minority communities in 2021. The then-Democrat-led county council overrode the veto.

“I’m not sure I see it changing, but I fervently hope so,” Felger said. “To have the council deny this money that’s already been donated to the community because they have a concern about ‘equity’ being used. That’s terrible. The entire medical community recognizes there are health care inequities, but yet we have council members who don’t want that word used.”

County Board of Health President Heidi Beidinger, Director of the Master’s of Science Global Health Program at the University of Notre Dame, recruited Einterz for the job as he was retiring from Indiana University in 2019.

“This was a master class in how to create a robust, equity-focused, data-driven health department,” she said afterward. “I hear him all the time, but to tell a good story in this way, it blows your mind what we’ve been able to do. When I came on the board, morale was in the toilet. It matters who you hire. You need people who have Bob’s skills, and it made all the difference.”

Beidinger lamented Einterz’s departure.

“The good news is, you’ve got Mark Fox and this amazing team of unit directors,” she said. “They understand leadership now, they understand budgets, and they’re going to be OK. The board of health needs to step in now and do our work with the county council and county commissioners, and say, 'This is what we need to do.' I need to network with the people in this room and put pressure on elected officials to say, 'Enough is enough. Stop messing with us.'”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joseph County Health Office Dr. Bob Einterz gives farewell speech