Changes in AIDS Office

Re “County Health Director Reorganizing AIDS Office,” Dec. 26: As a former interim director of the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy, and more importantly a community service provider for 10 years, I found the comments made by L.A. County officials as well as the conclusion drawn by the article quite misleading.

For a member of the Board of Supervisors to refer to the staff and management of the office as ineffective “Keystone Kops” is inappropriate. The last I knew, the staffs of all county program offices report to the supervisors, who represent the people of Los Angeles County.

As the director of a program providing services to families with children, it has been my privilege to work with individuals at all levels and with a range of responsibilities. Everyone has been knowledgeable and expedient in providing information as requested.

If anything impedes “provider relationships,” it is the numerous layers of county bureaucracy and politics that are far outside the scope of any program office. We have come a long way in developing these relationships and have been through some particularly difficult times. To say now that “failure to . . . maintain positive provider relations will result in disciplinary action” [as County Health Director Mark Finucane’s report does] implies that the AIDS office staff are not effective in these relationships. Staff are caught in an ongoing dilemma between service providers and those who are the decision makers in the county: the five supervisors. It is impossible to do the “right thing” in the eyes of all who are watching.

MARCY KAPLAN, Director

Los Angeles Pediatric

and Family AIDS Network