Outside Audit of Health Agency Urged

San Diego County Supervisors Brian Bilbray and Paul Eckert on Friday called for an independent audit of the management and organization of the county’s Department of Health Services.

In a letter to their colleagues, Eckert and Bilbray asked that the board agree to hire a private consultant to do the job.

Eckert said he wants the study to determine if the huge department, which this year has a budget of more than $120 million, needs to be split up to reflect its various functions.

Eckert said he thinks the mental health and environmental health divisions might be large enough and complex enough to warrant their own independent administration.

The supervisor also said he wants the consultant to be free to approve the department’s present structure but say that its management has been inadequate.

“That will be one of the options,” he said.

The Health Services Department has been the subject of almost constant criticism this year, and its troubles contributed to the forced resignation July 3 of the county’s chief administrative officer, Clifford Graves.