Advisers Miffed at Mental Health Appointment : Board Members Complain That They Weren’t Consulted in Choosing Director

The appointment of a county mental health director, widely praised last week, is drawing fire this week from some members of an advisory board who say they should have been consulted before the selection was made.

“We’ve had this problem for years. They bypass us all the time,” Harry Ashton, a member of the county Mental Health Advisory Board, said Tuesday.

Most board members learned of the selection of Areta Crowell, a Los Angeles mental health administrator, from newspaper reports Friday, he said.

State law requires the board to “make recommendations regarding the appointment of a local director of mental health services.” The only participation by the board in the process, Ashton noted, was that its chairwoman, Cheryl Noncarrow, was part of a committee that screened applicants before recommending three finalists to J. William Cox, director of the San Diego County Department of Health Services.

“At no time did the board have a motion to give the chairperson or the executive committee permission to act as the board,” he said.

However, Ron Yardley, spokesman for the health department, said the department feels that Noncarrow’s participation in the screening committee fulfilled the requirements of the law. He noted that the committee had been kept informed about the recruitment and selection process as it proceeded.

Ashton said the disgruntled members of the committee, when they meet tonight in their monthly session, may accept a compromise: letting the board review the resumes of the three finalists from whom Crowell was chosen. The board could then make a pro forma recommendation on the candidates.

“We may come up with the answer that all three of them are fine,” he said.

Helen Teisher, another board member, said she believes that the spirit of informing the board was followed, even if some members are concerned about technicalities. She said she hopes the compromise soothes feelings on the board because she agrees that Crowell is an outstanding choice to direct the county’s mental health services for indigents.

“It will be a way to make everybody feel better,” Teisher said. “My concern is that Dr. Crowell come to San Diego with arms welcoming her, instead of coming into a situation where there’s bad feeling.”