Commissioners interview health officer candidate

The sole candidate for public health officer in Flathead County says he’d have a “hard learning curve” ahead of him if offered the job, but that he’s up for the task.

Candidate Michael Chambers visited Kalispell this week for two days of public interviews, first with the Flathead City-County Board of Health on Tuesday, then with the Flathead County Commissioners on Wednesday.

Chambers is the first applicant for the position to make it to the public interview process since the search for a full-time health officer began more than two years ago. The county needs to fill the role by June, when Interim Health Officer Joe Russell’s most recent contract expires.

Chambers currently serves as administrator for the Macon County Health Department in Missouri, and has held that role since 2015. Prior to that, he was operations manager for Samaritan Hospital in Macon, Missouri from 2004-2015, and was environmental services supervisor for North Kansas City Hospital in Missouri from 2001-2004. He holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration and health care management. 

Chambers is married and has four grown children.

In his meeting with the commissioners, Chambers noted that the Macon County Health Department is considerably smaller than Flathead County’s. Currently he oversees 14 employees, he said.

There are about 67 full-time employees at the Flathead County Health Department.

Still, he assured the commissioners that he’d be able to step into the role with time.

“You do a lot of things different than what I’m used to, and I don’t have experience in everything that happens in public health here,” he said.

“I want you to know that right up front. But after talking with my wife yesterday, and then sleeping on it, I can do this job. I have a hard learning curve, but that’s something I look forward to. But I can do the job, and in time I can do the job very well.”

The commissioners grilled Chambers on his experience with budgets, human resources and his leadership style.

“I like to enable my staff to do what they do well,” he said. “I don’t micromanage my staff.”

“What I’m there for is to support them and make sure they have what they need to be successful.”

He described the Flathead Health Department’s $1.5 million budget as “more complex” than what he deals with at his current role in Missouri.

Chambers noted an allegation of age discrimination he faced as administrator in Macon County.

In communicating with an employee, he said “mistakes were made on both sides.” He said he was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing by the Missouri Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“I did learn from that, that I was very weak in human resources,” Chambers told the commissioners. “So I took a couple years to figure out that part and become educated on human resources so I wouldn’t make that mistake again.”

He described the last two years during the Covid-19 pandemic as “brutal” for public health, but he believes with appropriate collaborations in place, public health can “grow and become more valuable to the community.”

He said he faced challenges during the peak of the pandemic in working with school districts and other stakeholders.

“We had to make decisions on the fly,” he said. “Especially with all the different information that was out on social media and the news, and it did conflict with what we were supposed to do. We continued doing what we felt was right. We stayed the course, followed the guidelines and didn’t waver from those. We did make some mistakes, but thankfully they weren’t harmful.”

Chambers said Macon County never issued mandates during the pandemic, and that they worked with the school districts to develop guidelines, such as masking for close contacts, that helped ease quarantine requirements.

“It was challenging and we had our problems, but most of the schools fared very well,” he said.

In his interview with the Flathead City-County Board of Health, Chambers said he believes vaccines are a choice.

“That hasn’t changed with Covid,” he said.

“We encourage vaccines. We educate to let them know how it improves lives.”

He said the role of a health officer is to make health available to everyone.

“It’s health equity, if you want to use that term.”

He said public health is about taking care of a community.

“Over the last seven years, I’ve grown to have a passion for it,” he said.

Flathead County Commissioners are tasked with hiring the health officer, but gave no indication Wednesday about when they'll make a decision on Chambers.

The salary for the position is listed at $125,000, plus benefits and an additional $12,500 to cover moving expenses.

The health officer reports to the county commissioners and the board of health.

Montana law requires that a health officer holds a master’s in public health, be a physician or have equivalent experience and education.