Ottawa County Health Department sees highest staff turnover in 10 years
OTTAWA COUNTY — Nearly 30 employees left the Ottawa County Health Department in 2023, the highest average of permanent employees in a decade, according to newly released data.
Health officials compiled the information and disclosed it to county commissioners after Deputy Health Officer Marcia Mansaray and Health Planning and Promotion Manager Lisa Uganski alerted the Health and Human Services Committee in December the department was struggling to fill open positions.
"Staffing capacity, hiring and retention issues were being experienced this calendar year in a way we haven’t experienced in previous years," Mansaray said Dec. 5. "Staff turnover this year is higher in 2023 than in any previous year since 2013."
At the meeting, Commissioners Gretchen Cosby and Allison Miedema asked Mansaray for data.
"It sounds like you've tracked since 2013 the turnover rate for the health department," Cosby said. "Are we able to get a look at that, would that be something you would provide to the board of commissioners?"
This week, Mansaray provided those answers, disclosing that 28 people left last year, more than 20% of all full-time employees in the department.
At the Dec. 5 meeting, Mansaray said the department previously saw an average of eight employee separations between 2015 and 2020. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is defined as 2020-2023 for the numbers provided, the highest number of separations was 35 in 2022 — which, at the time, only accounted for 13.6 percent of total full-time employees.
Mansaray defined "separations" as those who quit, retired or were fired from employment.
In a Jan. 3 email to the commissioners, Mansaray explained that of the 28, 21 were staff who left permanent positions — 15 quit, five retired and one was fired. Much institutional knowledge was lost, Mansaray said. The remaining seven positions were grant-funded and eliminated under the fiscal budget passed by the Ottawa Impact majority in September.
"The combined experience of the 21 permanent staff losses during this year are equivalent to losing more than a century of expertise and professional relationships; three alone had a combined 95 years of expertise," she wrote to commissioners.
She said the losses of permanent staff "are higher than any prior year, and 78% higher than the average yearly losses of the prior decade."
When the losses are adjusted as a proportion of full-time employees each year — which has slowly increased over 11 years — the losses are still the highest since 2013 and proportionally are 55% higher than the average over the prior decade.
The losses could be indicative of a volatile year, when the health department was under immense scrutiny by the new board's majority.
More: Ottawa Impact commissioners were sworn in one year ago. Here's a timeline
Board Chair Joe Moss and Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea orchestrated $4 million in cuts to the health department after spending the majority of 2023 arguing health officials overstepped their authority during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported "Marxist" ideologies like health equity.
Moss and Rhodea founded Ottawa Impact after they unsuccessfully challenged the previous board and county health officer over COVID-19 mitigation mandates in 2020 and 2021. OI now controls seven seats on the 11-member board.
The OI majority attempted to remove Health Officer Adeline Hambley on Jan. 3, 2023. She sued the board in February, claiming the board's OI majority attempted to unlawfully demote her and repeatedly interfered with her state-authorized health duties.
That case has an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Jan. 19, when some of non-OI commissioners and the county clerk are expected to testify on whether the board agreed to a $4 million settlement agreement with Hambley.
Other actions that underscore OI commissioners’ laser-focus on the health department:
Moss’ erroneous claim the department sponsored Grand Valley State University’s 2023 Sex Ed Week
Refusing, for a time, to approve federal grant-funded mental health positions and state-funded nonprofit projects
Claiming that Pride events “groom children,” and therefore are inappropriate for health workers to attend
Delaying the renewal of a contract with My Community Dental Centers to provide dental care for children and adults who don't have dental insurance or access to adequate oral healthcare
Having new corporation counsel Kallman Legal Group thrice revise the health department’s state-required plan of organization, an unprecedented intervention, according to health officials
Rejecting a grant for a social media campaign focused on mental health and suicide prevention in men, and another that would've helped make the department’s clinic more accessible and sensory-friendly
Mansaray said the separations, although concerning, don't show the totality of the effect on the department.
"Since Jan. 3, (2023), the (department) has experienced 49 staff ‘transitions,’ which leads to additional stress and strain on a workforce that had already spent 2.5 years as the lead agency for Ottawa County’s response to a historic pandemic."
"Transitions," she explained, include the 28 separations, but also account for 21 other employees who were promoted or transferred as a result of those separations — and hiring has been a challenge.
"Not only is retention a bigger issue in 2023 compared to the non-pandemic years," Mansaray told commissioners, "(but) hiring replacements has also been challenging. While I noted that 21 staff are doing new jobs, eventually the 'domino effect' ends and an external hire must be made. We are seeing fewer applications for open positions and, of those, fewer who respond to an offer to interview."
At the Dec. 5 meeting, Mansaray noted candidates don't seem eager to follow through with the application process to work for Ottawa County.
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"Recently, we had six interviews scheduled for an open clerical position and five candidates just no-showed on the interview day. We’re collecting and analyzing information to better understand what is occurring and how much, to the extent."
At the close of 2023 there were 13.5 full-time vacancies within the department, equating to 540 hours "each week unworked that were formerly filled by trained and experienced staff," she wrote to the commissioners this week.
— Sarah Leach is the executive editor of The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarahleach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SentinelLeach.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Ottawa County Health Department sees highest staff turnover in 10 years
