County’s Mental Health Director Steps Down
Saying that his participation has become superfluous, the executive director of the Ventura County Mental Health Board stepped down Tuesday.
Shlomo Kreitzer’s resignation comes two weeks after the county Board of Supervisors removed the panel’s chairman, John Chaudier. The supervisors’ vote went against the recommendation of an advisory panel to reappoint Chaudier for a third term.
“At this time, I don’t believe the current management of the Behavioral Health Department wants the active involvement of the Mental Health Board,” Kreitzer told supervisors. “Nor do I think the majority of this board values the opinion of the Mental Health Board.”
Kreitzer, a retired clinical psychologist who worked at the former Camarillo State Hospital for 34 years, is the latest casualty in the county’s failed mental health merger.
Some members of the Mental Health Board believe Chaudier was ousted because he supported the county’s ill-fated attempt to merge its departments of mental health and behavioral health. The resulting agency was dismantled in December, after federal officials determined that it violated organizational rules.
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