EVERETT – Dr. M. Ward Hinds, the county’s top public health official for nearly two decades, announced Tuesday that he will retire in January.
His tenure has spanned the height of the AIDS epidemic, threats from bioterrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and preparing the county for a possible worldwide flu outbreak.
“There’s no perfect time,” Hinds said of the timing of his decision to step down as the Snohomish Health District’s chief administrator. “There’s always something going on – anthrax, smallpox, pandemic flu.”
Hinds, 61, will step down on Jan. 16. He is paid $131,784 a year.
He will be leaving a department that has grown by about two thirds since he first arrived in September 1986. It now has 250 employees and a budget of about $18 million.
When he arrived, public health focused on issues such as working to improve the safety of food preparation in restaurants to prevent food poisoning and tracking arsenic in the drinking water.
“It was a much smaller and more limited operation,” Hinds said.
Since then, public health agencies, both in Snohomish County and nationally, have taken on much broader roles, from how to respond to possible bioterrorism attacks to gearing up for a possible worldwide flu pandemic.
County Councilman Gary Nelson, chairman of the health district board, said that the public health agency will conduct a national search for a replacement.
Nelson said he hoped to have finalists selected by November and a replacement on board by January. That would allow some time for Hinds to provide assistance for his replacement and give the new top administrator “a running start in the position,” Nelson said.
Nelson said the health district board may have to review the salary level needed to attract a new top administrator. He said he could remember at least four times Hinds accepted only cost-of-living increases, turning down additional raises.
Hinds took on some tough issues during his tenure, including a long fight to establish a needle exchange program in the county to help prevent the spread of HIV and other diseases.
At the time, it was highly controversial. Some board members strenuously objected to the suggestion, saying it sent the wrong message, that using intravenous drugs was OK.
Nevertheless, a pilot needle exchange program was launched in December 1993 as part of an overall drug and AIDS outreach program that included drug counseling.
At the time, the program was one of only a handful of such programs in the country. Now they are considered mainstream.
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