Agency’s Woes Muddle Search for New Leader

Ventura County supervisors face a challenge when they go looking for a new mental health chief next month: How does one recruit a leader for a department rocked by management turnover, turf wars and a federal investigation?

Once regarded as an innovator for mental health treatment, the Behavioral Health Department’s reputation has been shattered in recent years by a series of setbacks.

Most recent was the firing last month of its director, Dr. David Gudeman, following criticism that he couldn’t get along with other county managers and was driving talented employees out of the division.

Gudeman’s predecessor was forced out after psychiatrists fought with social workers for greater control over patients’ cases. And in 1999, the federal government fined the county $15.3 million for years of incorrect Medicare billings.

It has been a long and very public fall for the department.

“We have followed the [story in the] newspapers,” said Dave Meyer, Los Angeles County’s chief deputy of mental health services. “It’s been painful, frankly, for everyone in the mental health community to watch, because we are a very tight group.”

Supervisors are expected to launch a nationwide search for Gudeman’s replacement next month, said County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston, who acknowledged that the recruitment may be a challenge.

But key players, including the Board of Supervisors and the Mental Health Advisory Board, have made it clear in recent weeks that they are determined to put chronic troubles to rest, he said.

“Whenever there is controversy, that makes some people skeptical,” he said. “But based on meetings with the Mental Health Advisory group last week and our other partners, I think anybody who is interested will get a positive view of what we are doing. We are expecting to recruit top talent.”

In the mid-1980s, Ventura County designed a new way to deliver mental health services to the poor.

Agencies that previously had nothing to do with each other began working together to solve the many problems that mentally ill people face, including lack of housing and run-ins with police, and began practicing state-of-the-art medical treatment.

The model was adopted as a statewide standard and is now accepted practice in many areas, Meyer said. But the county’s standing began slipping when turf wars erupted within the department in 1998.

Officials who helped create the model program were ousted, and Behavioral Health employees began leaving in droves. Gudeman’s successor will have to rebuild trust among 400 employees while facing the possibility of painful cuts in the department’s $45-million budget.

Meyer believes the job is doable for the right person.

“There will be some people who will just say, ‘No way,’” he said. “But on the other hand, there is much to envy in Ventura County. It’s the right size and has the right mix of rural and suburban, of civility and toughness. Some will see it as a challenge.”

Johnston’s office is studying the possibility of separating Behavioral Health from the larger Health Care Agency. Although Meyer didn’t want to offer an opinion on that, he noted that Los Angeles’ mental health division works well as a stand-alone agency.

“We pulled out of the health agency several years ago,” he said. “We did that because we found that mental health services got lost in the larger health-care system.”

The Behavioral Health director position currently pays $115,000 a year. Supervisors could decide to increase the figure before they send out recruitment notices, said Barbara Journet, head of the county’s personnel department.