Health director Tony Lo Giudice tapped to head consolidated agency
Alamance County’s commissioners have given their final all-clear to a bureaucratic reshuffle that will bring the county’s services for veterans and victims of domestic violence under the same umbrella as the local health department.
The commissioners formalized the creation of this new consolidated human services agency in a 5-to-0 decision at their latest regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday. At the same time, they conferred their unanimous nod to the inaugural membership of a new board that will oversee this agency’s operations.
The commissioners have, so far, appointed 12 of the 17 members that are ultimately expected to comprise this consolidated human services board. These newly-confirmed appointees include 11 whose names were passed along to the commissioners by an ad hoc nominating committee, which the county had previously assembled from various advisory boards.
A number of the committee’s recommendations to the commissioners concerned seats that, under state statute, are reserved for people with specific professional backgrounds. The committees picks for these occupational positions included Ariam Diaz-Mathusek to serve as the new board’s physician; Rosyln Crisp as its designated dentist; Deanna Tickle to be the board’s veterinarian; Ann Riley-Caldwell as the resident pharmacist; and Marielena Moreno Garcia to fill a position reserved for a registered nurse.
The nominating committee had also suggested Dan Paist for a post earmarked for an engineer. In the meantime, it recommended veterans Cliff Carter and Brian Pierce, along with Cindy Brady, the former director of Alamance County’s family justice center, to represent two groups of residents that the new consolidated agency will serve. Rounding out the committee’s suggestions were Richard Blanchard and Caitlin McArthur as representatives of the general public.
The commissioners went on to confirm all 11 of the committee’s nominees at Monday’s meeting. In addition, they tapped fellow commissioners Kelly Allen to serve as their own eyes and ears on the new consolidated human services board.
According to county manager Heidi York, the county will now have to circulate ads to drum up applicants for the rest of the board’s seats. She added that four of these openings are occupation-al-specific positions that call for a psychiatrist, a social worker, an optometrist, and a psychologist. York has also proposed the appointment of another member of the general public to bring the new board’s final composition to 17 members.
York went on to assure the commissioners that, in toto, the members of this new board will provide adequate representation for each county service that has been folded into the new agency. In addition to the local health department, these organizational constituents include the county’s veterans services office as well as its family justice center – a one-stop shop for victims of domestic violence and similar crimes.
Prior to Monday’s meeting, the commissioners had heard some concerns from veterans advocates who felt that their collective influence would be diluted by the proposed institutional merger. York told the commissioners that she and her colleagues recently met with the county’s veterans services board to address these objections.
“We were there for over two hours,” she recalled. “We felt that there was an opportunity for the veterans advisory committee to remain intact as it currently exists…and when it comes to the appointees to the new board, veterans will also have good representation.”
The county’s new consolidated human services board went on to hold its inaugural meeting on Tuesday. During the course of this gathering, the board’s members gave some thought to the agency’s prospective director, and they went on to recommend Alamance County’s health director Tony Lo Giudice for the position. York announced that she had accepted this recommendation on Wednesday, clearing the way for Lo Giudice’s promotion.
