Anne Saker

asaker@enquirer.com

Just-released city government emails reveal an intense behind-the-scenes struggle over who will become the next health commissioner, a job that will oversee nearly $50 million in private and taxpayer money spent next year on the health of Cincinnati's residents.

Former Mayor Dwight Tillery, who runs a health nonprofit dependent on city grants for funding, went to Mayor John Cranley to intercede in the process, the emails say. Cranley then made phone calls to some board members to encourage them "to follow their consciences," his spokesman said.

The stakes in the contest are significant: The health commissioner is the lead executive of the Cincinnati Health Department, with 480 employees. Holding that job for the past 10 years until June 1 was Dr. Noble Maseru.

From its block-style office building on Burnet Avenue, the department conducts restaurant inspections, guards the public against widespread health dangers, and runs eight health centers and five dental centers that treat nearly 40,000 adults and children in Cincinnati. The 2017 department budget totals $49 million, about half in local tax money and half in federal grants.

Overseeing the department is the Board of Health – nine citizen volunteers, some with public-health experience, who the mayor appoints. The board is designed to be independent of electoral politics.

The emails show that at least five board members believed they were getting no leadership while they confronted buffeting political pressures from outside forces. With a breakfast meeting at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Mother's Day, three board members figured out how to move forward. Then the pressure only increased.

Simmering problem since September

The struggle over the job of health commissioner has simmered since September. Dr. O’dell Owens left the presidency of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College to become medical director at the Cincinnati Health Department, the No. 2 job. Maseru hinted then that the Cincinnati-born Owens, who also served once as Hamilton County's elected coroner, would be a fine candidate to succeed him.

Early this year, Maseru underwent a job evaluation and awaited the convening of a review committee. In February, the Board of Health elected a new chairman, Malcolm Timmons, and gave him the task of setting up Maseru’s review.

But then, Maseru said, nothing happened. As a result, Maseru said, he decided to retire. He had come from Detroit a decade ago to take the health commissioner’s job and to help his daughter rear her son. That grandchild graduated from Walnut Hills High School in May.

This week, Maseru minced no words about Timmons: “Clearly, his conduct and behavior is not what I believe is appropriate for a board chair. You know, his sense of judiciousness, how should I say this, is not necessarily one that bodes well for someone that doesn’t seem to be objective.”

Timmons said he did not schedule the evaluation review meeting because Maseru "was going to retire. That’s it. He was going to retire, and the board accepted his retirement.”

Turning up the heat

Maseru’s resignation dialed up the heat, but for four weeks, little was done. On April 26, at the board’s next regular monthly meeting, several public health advocates demanded that the board appoint Owens to succeed Maseru immediately.

The tone of that meeting grew tenser when Timmons announced that he had picked a “selection panel” to look at resumes. The other board members rebelled, and the meeting ended with no progress on the search for a successor. Maseru pushed back his departure one month to June 1 to complete an accreditation application for the health department.

The just-released city emails about the drama indicate that one wing of the divided Board of Health scrambled to decide a way forward. Some members nudged Timmons to call a special board meeting to set the agenda. Timmons promised to do so, but did not.

A May 4 email from board member Gary Hagopian suggested that other interests were entangled in the process. Writing to board members Phil Lichtenstein and Kate Schroder, Hagopian counted five board votes for Owens.

“The other 4 members have political favors that may favor someone other than Dr. Owens, so that is why the Chairman (twice) refused to consider naming Dr. Owens as interim health commissioner at our last meeting (both times at the suggestion of Dr. Maseru.)," Hagopian wrote. “I would like to make a motion at the May meeting and hopefully will have 5 votes in support. We cannot let the entire Dept of Health drift without a leader while we sort this mess out. It will not be over soon.”

The Mother’s Day meeting

Four days after this email, on Mother’s Day, three board members met for breakfast at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Norwood's Rookwood Commons shopping center: Schroder, Lichtenstein and Donna Shambley-Ebron. They drafted a two-pronged plan. With their five votes, they could vote in Owens as the permanent commission – or as the the interim with a solicitation for other candidates in a one-month job search.

On May 11, Lichtenstein wrote to board member Richard Schwen that Lichtenstein had presented the Mother’s Day draft plan to Timmons, who "took it well.”

But Lichtenstein added, “Dwight Tillery did not and subsequently called Mayor Cranley to voice his displeasure.”

Lichtenstein told The Enquirer that Cranley called after the conversation with Tillery, mostly to find out what was going on.

Cranley's spokesman, Jay Kincaid, said: "Recent decisions regarding changes in leadership at the Health Department have been made solely by the Board of Health. During this time of transition in the department, Mayor Cranley has occasionally spoken with board members to provide information and background when they have requested it. During these conversations he has encouraged board members to follow their consciences and do what they believe is in the best interest of the city."

Of the substance of Cranley's conversation with Tillery, Kincaid said, "Mayor Cranley won't comment on private conversations. Former Mayor Tillery is a valued advisor, but all decisions that Mayor Cranley has made have been his own."

Tillery’s stake in the decision

Since 2004, Tillery has been president and chief executive officer of The Center for Closing the Health Gap, a local nonprofit aimed at addressing racial and cultural disparities in receiving health care.

The center’s signature achievements are the Do Right campaign against obesity and a spring health expo held in Washington Park where thousands of residents get health screenings and information about care for themselves or family members.

Federal tax documents show that in 2014, Tillery made $232,822 in salary and benefits to lead the center. More than 90 percent of its income is from government grants. The city of Cincinnati has given the center $500,000 in 2015 and $750,000 in 2016 through the city’s Human Services Department.

The planned 2017 budget sets aside $1 million for the center. For the first time, that grant would be accounted for through the Cincinnati Health Department.

Tillery declined requests from The Enquirer. Through spokeswoman Ava Jones, he expressed surprise that he was mentioned by name in Lichtenstein’s May 12 email, but Tillery "doesn't have a seat on the board or the search committee and declines comment on the process,” Jones said.

‘Since we were little kids in the West End’

Yet Tillery has made his opinions clear. At the regular monthly board meeting May 24, Tillery arrived with at least a dozen supporters to complain that the selection process was not transparent or fair and was orchestrated to give the job to Owens without competition. The meeting became disorderly and acrimonious, and the board chairman, Timmons, accused the pro-Owens forces of trying to intimidate him.

Tillery scolded the board. “We know there’s been a very active campaign to appoint O’dell Owens to the health commissioner position,” he said. "I’ve known Dr. O’dell Owens since we were little kids in the West End. I was the best man at his wedding. His mom and my mom were best friends. That does not mean that I, if sitting in your position, that I could be unfair to everybody else who applies for the job.”

At the end, the board unanimously named Owens as the interim health commissioner and adopted most of the Mother’s Day action plan to choose the permanent head of the Health Department.

Timmons broadened the selection panel, which included board members Timothy Collier and Herschel Chalk, with some community members. The window for applications opened, and among the at least eight people who have applied is Dr. Robyn Chatman, a Cincinnati family-medicine physician. She said she applied for the health commissioner’s job 10 years ago but knew she needed more skills to be an appealing candidate, so she obtained a master’s degree in public health.

Chatman said inside the past month, she has directly signaled her interest in the health commissioner’s job to some members of the Board of Health – she has lunch monthly with her friend, board member Minette Cooper. Chatman also knows Tillery. She said that for a time in May, she worried that the board was simply going to appoint Owens, but Tillery encouraged her "like a big brother" to push for the job.

City Council jumps in

After the May 24 board meeting, Tillery expressed his concerns to other members of City Council. In early June, City Council member Charlie Winburn proposed a motion in a Budget Committee hearing urging the Board of Health to have a national search.

Schroder put out a call to her board colleagues to sign a letter she was composing that explained to City Council that the board was proceeding with its search. "A fair, open and expedient process to find a permanent health commissioner who can lead during these difficult times is more critical than ever.”

Six board members -- Schroder, Lichtenstein, Schwen, Shambley-Ebron, Hagopian and Collier -- signed that letter. Cooper and Chalk did not. Neither did Timmons. He was then in Louisville, comforting his friends, the family of Muhammad Ali, on the boxing legend's death. He wrote to Schroder that since the job search had opened, he did not want to say anything further: “I like your letter it is well thought out but I will not be signing it.”

The letter did not calm the waters at City Hall. At the second Budget Committee hearing for June, with Timmons and Chalk present, Winburn expressed anger at an “asinine” selection process. He demanded the release of emails that Board of Health members have exchanged over the past six weeks on the subject and threatened legal action if the process was not sufficiently transparent.

On June 28, hours before the regular monthly Board of Health meeting, Timmons gave an interview to WDBZ-AM radio host complaining that Schroder was demanding copies of the applications of other commissioner aspirants – which are public documents.

Then, minutes ahead of the meeting, Schwen resigned, two months before his term on the board ends.

“The Cincinnati Board of Health was created as an independent board to protect health decision making from inappropriate political influence,” Schwen’s letter said. “Unfortunately, members of City Council have recently taken unprecedented actions to influence board decisions . . . What other board decisions, or individuals, will be the next target?”

THE BOARD OF HEALTH

The nine members of the independent Board of Health in Cincinnati are appointed by the mayor to three-year terms. The unpaid job requires a board member to help oversee the operations of the Cincinnati Health Department.

Chairman:

Malcolm Timmons. Retired bus driver and union negotiator. Appointed to the board November 2014. Became chairman in February.

Board members:

Herschel Chalk. Cancer prevention advocate. Appointed to board March 2014.

Timothy Collier. Registered nurse. Appointed to board December 2014.

Minette Cooper. Former vice mayor, former City Council member. Appointed to board in October.

Gary Hagopian. Former associate general counsel of The Procter & Gamble Co. Appointed to board November 2014.

Phil Lichtenstein. Pediatrician at The Children's Home, Madisonville. Appointed to board in January.

Donna Shambley-Ebron. Director of Ph.D program, University of Cincinnati College of Nursing. Appointed to second term on the board August 2013. Term expires in August.

Kate Schroder. Senior director, Clinton Health Access Initiative. Appointed to board in January. Married to Assistant City Manager John Juech.