Before Carroll County can begin its search for a new health officer, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene must approve an advertisement for the position.
The Carroll Board of County Commissioners is tasked with finding a new health officer, who will be in charge of the operations of the Carroll County Health Department. The position must be filled by the end of the year, when current Carroll County Health Officer Larry Leitch will be retiring.
Kim Frock, administrator of the Carroll County Bureau of Human Resources, told the board Thursday that the position requirements in the advertisement are the same as the ones that were in the advertisement used to hire Leitch in 1997: A health officer must be a licensed physician or meet certain education and work experience criteria.
If they are not a physician, applicants must either have a master's degree in public health and two years of work experience or have a bachelor's degree and five years of public health work experience, Frock said.
The commissioners batted around the idea of including more stringent requirements to get more qualified candidates.
Leitch advised the board against including more stringent education or experience requirements because it would limit the number of applications the county would receive. The commissioners agreed and kept the advertisement with the basic requirements.
Frock said she expects the Board of County Commissioners to get the advertisement back from the state in a week.
The board would then have to choose if it wants to immediately place the advertisement when the state sends it back or wait until the new Board of County Commissioners takes office in December.
Reach staff writer Christian Alexandersen at 410-857-7873 or christian.alexandersen@carrollcountytimes.com.
