Health unit 'absolutely fabulous' place to work - departing acting CEO

Notwithstanding recent events, the staff at Algoma Public Health make it an "absolutely fabulous" place to work, its departing acting chief executive officer says.

Sandra Lacle, who will return to Sudbury when her contract expires at the end of August, told SooToday at a special board meeting today that she would "highly recommend" APH to anyone seeking to advance a career in public health.

Rocked since January by resignations and government probes, APH has no lack of high-level career opportunities right now.

The APH board voted this afternoon to hire an interim chief executive officer to replace Lacle when her contract expires August 31.

APH will retain an executive search firm to help find its interim CEO, expected to start work on September 1.

The interim position is expected to last up to one year.

The next meeting of the full health board isn't until September so the board voted to delegate authority to Chair Lee Mason and Vice Chair Ian Frazier to work on the issue through the summer. 

Mason and Frazier were similarly given authority to ensure appointment of an acting medical officer of health, replacing Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, who has ben renewing her contract month by month but is expected to end the arrangement at the end of August.

Algoma Public Health has been managed by separate medical officer of health and chief administrative officer positions since Dr. Kim Barker resigned from both duties in January.

Barker's career has rebounded since she left APH.

She is now employed as deputy chief medical officer of health in Nunavut.

As for a permanent medical officer of health/CEO in the Sault, the Ontario Ministry of Healh and Long-Term Care is working with APH on recruitment efforts.

The current arrangement of two full-time top administrators is expensive for APH but the health ministry has indicated that it may help with transitional costs on a one-time basis.

Today, the  APH board also accepted a letter of resignation from Wawa Mayor Ron Rody, who was the last of four board members asked by Health Minister Eric Hoskins to step down after a provincial assessment of the board was released earlier this month.

Ministry and APH officials held a teleconference on June 22 to map out the next steps in APH's response to the assessor's report.

Previous SooToday coverage of this story:

Look who's running Algoma Public Health now

Will Marchy Bruni resign? (7 photos) (updated)

(PHOTO: Sandra Lacle, acting chief executive officer of Algoma Public Health, is pictured in the March, 2015 file photo. David Helwig/SooToday)