County’s Delays Threaten Millions in Health Funds

The Los Angeles County health director admitted Tuesday that administrative bottlenecks had forced the return or left unspent millions of federal tax dollars available to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases but vowed, “It won’t happen again.”

Health Services Director Robert C. Gates came under blistering criticism from Supervisor Gloria Molina after conceding that the deficit-plagued county Department of Health Services had actually sent back $1.1 million in federal tuberculosis money and left in doubt millions more because it has been so slow to move in hiring health workers.

Gates, in a report to the Board of Supervisors, said the Health Services Department from now on would expedite a plan to get county programs financed by federal money within 60 days of formal notification by the U.S. government.

Molina said Gates and the department were providing “no leadership in this area of public health.” The supervisor said that when she recently tried to convince a federal official that the county had a need for more public health dollars the official retorted “you guys are sending us back money.”

“That is pretty embarrassing when you are trying to make a case for more funds,” Molina told Gates.

“It is, and it won’t happen again,” Gates replied. Gates said one of the problems was a hiring freeze that prevented his agency from going through the administrative steps necessary to get various disease-prevention programs off the ground.

At issue is $7.5 million in federal money for various health programs. The money is available to be spent to pay for vaccination programs, hire staff for tuberculosis detection and prevention programs, and to bolster various AIDS and sexually transmitted disease programs.

In a related development, The Times obtained a copy of a letter sent by six current county public health officials to a top Gates aide, Dr. Caswell A. Evans Jr., asking for a meeting with Evans and complaining that “serious barriers exist to spending funds derived from county and non-county sources such as grants from the (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control and state of California.”

The letter also complained of “the apparent lack of clear priorities in the department and absence of a planning process that incorporates input from individuals such as ourselves who are responsible for (communicable disease) program development, implementation, day-to-day activities and evaluation.”

Molina, who also apparently received a copy of the letter, read the officials’ names to Gates when the health services chief challenged an assertion she made that officials under him were not happy.

Evans, sitting next to Gates during the hearing, conceded under questioning by Molina that Evans’ last meeting with the agency chiefs was nine months ago.