CLAYTON — Despite unanimously confirming three other political appointees of St. Louis County Executive Sam Page on Tuesday, the County Council delayed a nonbinding vote to confirm Acting Public Health Director Dr. Faisal Khan until he presents a plan for addressing animal welfare activists’ complaints about the county pet shelter.
The delay will not affect Khan’s status as head of the Department of Public Health. While confirmation would make Khan’s appointment official, the charter allows appointees to continue to serve in acting roles if not confirmed, Page spokesman Doug Moore said.
Khan, 48, has led the department since March, when he returned to the agency where he worked for eight years from his post as chief executive of the federally funded Samuel Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City. He previously led the department from 2015 until 2018, when he resigned over frustration with political battles between the County Council and then-County Executive Steve Stenger.
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At a hearing Friday, Khan promised the council he would provide them a “transformational” plan to address continued complaints about the work environment and kill rates at the county’s animal shelter, which the department oversees.
“The chronic programmatic and personnel issues as well as the public relations and perception piece continues to be a nagging issue,” Khan said during a Friday hearing. “We have to do something truly transformational to get away from that.”
Councilman Tim Fitch, R-3rd District, on Tuesday asked Council Chair Rita Days, D-1st District, to withhold a motion to vote to confirm Khan until after “we see this plan and agree this plan is worth moving forward on,” Fitch said.On Friday, Fitch also asked Khan why he would return to the county, pointing out that the council in 2018 had been chaired by Page.
Khan said communication then had completely broken down between the branches of government. He said he ran into Page recently at an event, who asked whether he would be interested in returning.
After leaving, Khan was commuting back and forth between his post in Kansas City and St. Louis, where his family remained. He also felt called to help combat a “once-in-a-lifetime public health emergency” in his hometown.
Khan, who has been serving as acting director since February, was asked what he would have done differently to combat the pandemic. He said health authorities locally, at the state level and nationally could have done better coordinating messaging, because it has largely been “a battle of narrative.”
“I don’t think the CDC (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has done a good enough job of communication, as in yesterday, when we received only a 30-minute notice before the announcement (lifting mask requirements) was made,” Khan said.
As to the county’s public health and scientific response, which included capacity and operating restrictions at businesses and other venues, Khan said he wouldn’t have done much differently.
Three win approval
The council on Tuesday also voted unanimously to approve three Page appointees to boards overseeing the county jail, police department and homeless services.
Beth Huebner, who studies incarceration at the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, was confirmed to the Justice Services Advisory Board. The oversight board makes recommendations to improve county jail operations.
Huebner replaces Mary Zabawa Taylor, who resigned in April alleging a lack of transparency from county attorneys over investigations into jail deaths in 2019.
During the Friday hearing, Huebner said it should be a priority to reduce the jail population in the county, an effort she has studied directly as principal investigator for the St. Louis County MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge.
“I think the biggest challenge is also the jail population,” she said. “The jail population has increased dramatically since COVID.”
Brian Ashworth, an Edward Jones executive, was confirmed to a three-year term on the Board of Police Commissioners, which hires the St. Louis County Police chief and oversees disciplinary efforts and other reforms to the department.
Ashworth mostly avoided direct stands on controversial issues Friday. Council members asked what he thought of Chief Mary Barton’s performance, and he said he would wait to form an opinion until serving on the board.
“I know where this board stands on it,” he said, referring to the no-confidence vote Democrats on the council took last month.
He maintained that the board should be independent and resist political pressure in its decisions over the police department. And he said there was no need for a civilian oversight board because the Board of Police Commissioners serves that function.
Ashworth replaces William Ray Price, who resigned March 3 for personal reasons after chairing the panel for a year and a half.
Bishop Lawrence Wooten, a county resident and pastor of Williams Temple in St. Louis, was confirmed to the Housing Resources Commission, which oversees funds for homeless services and affordable housing.
Jacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.