Salary and other hiring measures for the next Washington County Public Health Director were discussed further by the Board of Health Tuesday.

The board held a special meeting after they approved to extend a job offer to applicant G during their regular meeting last week. For salary, Interim Director Chris Estle recommended they start at a lower number with contingency to increase following 30, 60, and 90 day evaluations. The hiring range that the board gave applicants was $70,000-90,000. The board also debated whether to have November 8th as the start date, as the applicant informed the board of a period of time she will be unavailable in November. The board ultimately approved for a start date of November 29th and to offer a starting pay of $70,000 to increase to $80,000 at the start of the next fiscal year given a list of professional competencies are met by the director.

Some confusion was had over who was directed last week to contact the applicants’ three professional references, and County Human Resources Director Amber Armbruster stated she emailed the references last Friday and had not heard back from all of them. The board directed Chair Cathy Buffington to call those references, and ask the applicant for three personal references to contact. Estle, Fiscal Administrator Peggy Wood and Regional Community Health Consultant with Iowa Department of Public Health Burdette Davis will work on the list of competencies, and the board plans to meet Tuesday, November 2nd as well as any subsequent week in November depending on background check results and other hiring factors.