Council delays vote on health commissioner salary

The following letter to City Council from Gary Arthur, President Pro Tempe of the Norwood Board of Health, appeared on Tuesday’s council agenda. The letter describes the qualifications of the candidate selected for the health commissioner position and stated the salary offered. Mr. Arthur states, “Members of the Norwood Board of Health will be on hand at the August 23rd meeting to answer any questions you may have about Mr. King and our requests for salary and residence waiver.” Instead, no member of Board of Health was on hand to answer questions, and there were several, including: why was the salary offered $5,000 above the low end of the allowable range, do the candidate’s qualifications exceed what is necessary, and were candidates living in Norwood recruited and considered?

With none of their questions answered, council decided not to approve the salary and residence waiver and tabled the matter until the next regular council meeting on September 13. A letter from council is being sent asking the Board of Health to attend the meeting.


August 15, 2011

Ms. Jane Grote, President, and
Norwood City Council
4645 Montgomery Road
Norwood Ohio 45212

Dear Jane and Members of Council:

At special meetings in July and August 2011, the Norwood Board of Health interviewed candidates for the position of Health Commissioner. Each of the candidates had their own strengths, but ultimately the Board decided to offer the position to Bradley King, RS, MPH. As you can see from the attached resume, Mr. King is a Registered Sanitarian and has a Masters in Public Health. He is currently Director of Environmental Health for Warren County Health Department. We believe that Mr. King will make an excellent addition to our Norwood Health Department staff.

Because of his education and experience, we are requesting that Norwood City Council approve a starting pay rate of (deleted)**per year. Also, because Mr. King has children who are enrolled in school and because of the ongoing housing slump, we are also requesting that Norwood City Council waive the residence requirement for this position per Section 159.04(f) of the Norwood Codified Ordinances which states: “Any position of employment which because of the special expertise cannot be filled by a Norwood resident, or a person moving to Norwood, may be filled by a non-resident only upon application to Council by the requesting department head and such appointment is predicated upon Council’s express authorization.”

Members of the Norwood Board of Health will be on hand at the August 23rd meeting to answer any questions you may have about Mr. King and our requests for salary and residence waiver. Thank you in advance for your positive consideration of these matters.

Respectfully,

Gary Arthur
President Pro Tempe
Norwood Board of Health

**CBN deleted this because we do not publish the salaries of individual City employees.