Three major resignations were accepted by the Panhandle Health District Board of Health on Thursday. 

Leaving their positions were District Director Erik Ketner, Financial Officer Christine Crummer and Human Resources Specialist Sandee Riggs.

Following nearly a two-hour executive session amid the special meeting, Dr. Thomas Fletcher, a Board of Health representative from Bonner County, was named the district’s interim director. Meanwhile, the district has not named new head HR and financial positions.

The Board had no public discussion about the resignations of Ketner, Crummer and Riggs during Thursday’s special meeting. Fletcher, who also declined to comment to the Press about the three resignations, said Panhandle Health recently incurred six to eight additional resignations among its staff.

“I think we’re going to be fine,” Fletcher said of Panhandle Health's future. “In fact, I think we’re going to be healthier.”

It is unclear who will carry out HR and financial roles of those duties on an interim basis.

“Why not outsource HR to the professionals that can do it?” Fletcher said. “It may even be cheaper that way.”

Panhandle Health operates five clinics within its district, which includes Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Shoshone and Kootenai counties. 

According to Dr. Gregory D. Pennock, who oversees district clinical services, Panhandle Health currently has three nurses. The district averages about 5,000 unique patient visits per year.

The District receives financial support from each of the five counties. Budget disagreements, however, have persisted over the past year, with some representatives questioning whether funds should focus more on the District’s environmental services rather than clinical, suggesting that those needs are being met via private practices.

Kootenai County Commissioner Bruce Mattare, who was in the Health Board’s executive session Thursday, told the Coeur d’Alene Press after the meeting that clinical services “are a pretty important component of Panhandle Health.”

He said this “in essence” could be the final year the board tries to make Panhandle’s clinical services work or “we would not continue it" and that new models for alternatives to healthcare services could be made.

Mattare said he was disappointed in the three resignations happening simultaneously and that they potentially occurred “out of protest.”

“The only thing that I can imagine,” he said of the departures, “they did not like the policy decisions that were coming out of the board.” 

Thursday’s resignations were also met with commentary on Panhandle Health’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The district issued a universal mask mandate for everyone living in its five-county purview, which caused public uproar.

A post-meeting press release issued by the Panhandle Health District regarding the resignations touched on how pandemic decisions made by the district “damaged trust among the people of Northern Idaho.”

“You won't find me pleading the fifth 111 times,” Fletcher said, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Mattare also later told the Coeur d’Alene Press that the COVID-19 pandemic probably shouldn’t be an argument used in regard to Thursday’s three resignations but that the decisions made in 2020 are “still fresh” in people’s minds.

Valerie Wade, who formerly worked for the Panhandle’s environmental services, was in attendance at Thursday’s meeting. She said there needs to be a series of checks and balances to protect public health.

She also offered overall thoughts on the Panhandle Health District's handling of the resignations.

“It’s concerning that they’re so out of touch,” she said.

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The Coeur d'Alene Press was unable to reach Ketner for comment upon deadline.