Board Names Gudeman to Health Post

Following a contentious three-hour public hearing Tuesday, a split Ventura County Board of Supervisors named David Gudeman permanent director of the troubled Behavioral Health Department.

The board voted 3 to 2 in selecting Gudeman, who has served as interim director of the department for three months.

By moving swiftly to name a permanent chief, the board majority hopes to bring some stability to an agency that has been mired in political and financial controversy for the last year, following the failed merger of the department with the Public Social Services Agency.

“It’s time we move ahead; we need to move ahead,” Supervisor Frank Schillo said. “Prolonging this for recruitment isn’t the right thing to do right now.”

But Supervisors Susan Lacey and Kathy Long rejected the appointment, saying Gudeman lacked the requisite experience to lead the 560-employee department. They also said the county should have opened the position to candidates from across the country.

“We have a chance to take some steps toward healing,” Long said of a candidate search. “We need to take a whole system and make it well again. . . . That would have gone a long way toward healing.”

About 20 people, including a number of mental health professionals, voiced both support and objections to Gudeman’s appointment.

Former Rep. Robert Lagomarsino supported Gudeman, saying that leaving an agency as important as behavioral health without an administrator and in such disrepair is a grave disservice to the public.

“What the system needs is leadership and stability,” he said. “I think we need to get on with it, and the candidate who has been recommended is the right one.”

John Chaudier, chairman of the Ventura County Mental Health Board, vehemently objected to Gudeman’s appointment, saying it would “devastate what’s left of the Behavioral Health Department.”

“I have never seen such divisions in a department,” he said.

His detractors fear that Gudeman will not adequately address the problems that threaten the $5.4 million in special funding the department receives from the state for running innovative programs.

Following a state audit, state mental health officials threatened to withhold that money if the department did not fix what was called a troubling deterioration in services. The review is one of five state and federal audits being conducted.

The department has been wracked by controversy since last year’s disastrous merger with the Public Social Services Agency. The merger was rescinded after nine months, in part because federal Medicare reviewers said it violated federal billing regulations.

Gudeman, 39, moved to the county in 1996 from a post as research psychiatrist at UCLA.

He was appointed interim head of the department in March by Health Care Agency Director Pierre Durand, who has come under fire for past personnel changes.

Gudeman listened intently to the public comments and debate concerning his appointment.

After the vote, he strolled from the room, shaking hands with well-wishers and opponents alike.

“This is the start of a long journey that we all need to take together,” he said. “We’re building a new system and we can now focus on that.”