Ex-Health Chief Wins Large Severance Package

Friday was Mark Finucane’s last day of work as Los Angeles County health director. But it will not be his final day on the public payroll.

A severance package approved by the Board of Supervisors allows him to work as a consultant for the county for the next year. He will continue to earn his $241,000 salary, receive full benefits and enjoy free county office space, his county-issued laptop, cellular phone and gasoline credit card.

With the cash-strapped health department cutting jobs and facing huge deficits in coming years, some at the county Hall of Administration are growling over the deal, which was approved in March but not disclosed publicly.

“It was an outrageous severance package,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who questioned the deal in a confidential memorandum at the time.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke disagreed. She acknowledged that supervisors usually provide six months of severance pay to departing heads of county agencies. But she said that supervisors were willing to pay more because they need Finucane to stick around as a consultant during a critical time for the health department.

“There’s no question that there are some things we can’t just bring somebody to come in and take over,” Burke said.

County officials also speculated that the severance package was cheaper than the cost of fighting a potential lawsuit by Finucane over his departure. Several officials said the health director was pushed out by a board that was increasingly dissatisfied with his performance.

Finucane did not return phone calls seeking comment this week.

Like all non-elected department chiefs, Finucane served at the will of the five county supervisors. He came to Los Angeles in early 1996, just after a $1-billion federal bailout staved off the collapse of the county’s massive health system.

As leader of the largest and most complex county department, which is the size of some federal Cabinet-level agencies, Finucane was also the highest-paid county department head.

He was charged with streamlining the notoriously inefficient agency, and what his bosses viewed as his inability to meet his goals angered them. Supervisors regularly browbeat Finucane at public meetings, but they also resisted cuts in their favorite programs.

Last summer, Finucane helped secure a five-year extension of the federal bailout. Still, the federal government is paying less and less money to the county every year. With new deficits looming, supervisors pushed the health director to prepare for a new round of cuts but were openly skeptical of his ability to make them.

This spring, the supervisors’ disenchantment with Finucane reached new levels and, led by current board Chairman Antonovich, they asked him to go, numerous county officials said. Finucane agreed to resign, and supervisors approved a three-page amendment to his employment agreement allowing him to continue to receive his salary, 401(k) contributions and other benefits for 12 months, or until he starts a full-time job.

County Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said he does not think it will be long before Finucane begins another job. In an interview earlier this month, when asked what he would be doing after his final day at the county, Finucane replied: “consulting.”

The payout is not the only cost of the health director’s departure. Because the job is so tough, Burke said, supervisors might have to dig deep into the public’s pockets again to lure a successor.