Shasta County Appoints New Public Health Officer Dr. James Mu

After an eighteen-month search, Shasta County Supervisors voted to appoint long-term local physician Dr. James Mu to the county’s top community health position towards the end of another marathon Board meeting yesterday, October 17.

The Board voted three to two for Dr. Mu’s appointment, with Supervisors Mary Rickert and Tim Garman opposing the appointment.

Public speakers who commented on Dr. Mu’s potential hiring just before the board’s vote included a former county health epidemiologist and a local physician. They shared opposite perspectives on his fitness for the role but neither had anything negative to say about Mu as a physician.

Stephanie Taylor who identified herself as having worked closely with the county’s former public health officer in the past during her more than a decade as an epidemiologist with county health, said she was concerned that Mu’s focus as a family medicine physician made him more qualified to help individuals with their health choices than to guide community health decisions.

But Dr. Paul Dhanuka, a local gastroenterologist disagreed, saying that Dr. Mu’s diverse range of experiences as a general practitioner have prepared him well for a public health position. Like Mu, Dhanuka was one of more than forty physicians who signed a collaborative physician letter publicly opposing state COVID mandates during the height of the pandemic.

Dhanuka also said he thought it was important for the public to keep in mind that while the Shasta County supervisors have recently reduced the credentials required for the role, the current Shasta County minimum qualifications are not lower than the state health code requirements for the position.

A Board vote in June changed the county requirements for public health officer to no longer necessitate a history of education or experience in public health. The vote was an attempt to widen the pool of applicants for the position after at least three failed attempts to hire. The board’s contract with Dr. Mu does specify that if he chooses to pursue a master’s in public health the county will reimburse him for his educational costs.

Supervisor Rickert had concerns about that potential cost as well as the cost of the contract’s severance agreement for Mu which requires him to be paid nine months’ salary if terminated. Rickert also expressed concerns that the contract allows Dr. Mu to continue to see patients in private practice while ostensibly working full-time as a health officer.

Supervisor Garman expressed different hesitations, saying that hiring Dr. Mu away from his local family medicine practice would further worsen Shasta County’s significant deficit of physicians.

Neither Garman nor Rickert’s hesitations swayed other members of the board although Supervisor Kevin Crye briefly engaged Garman about his concerns, asking what alternative plan of action he would suggest. Garman said he was unsure but still felt that hiring a local physician away from practice was a poor idea.

Well, Crye replied, “If we don’t have answers we have to have action.”

Before voting, the board also briefly discussed what role, if any, a community hiring panel for the position had played in recommending Dr. Mu for the position. Rickert, who was part of the panel, said she felt the community deserved to know what the panel’s recommendation for the position had been but was uncertain whether she was allowed to share the information.

In response, County Counsel Gretchen Stuhr said she felt it would be outside of normal practice to share information from a hiring panel publicly. County CEO David Rickert and Support Services Director Monica Fugitt supported Stuhr’s perspective with CEO Rickert adding that he felt sharing hiring panel information publicly could expose the county to liability.

According to the Board’s staff report, Dr. Mu is a local physician who has operated a private practice in Shasta County for approximately 30 years. He obtained his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin and his Family Medicine Residency training at Mercy Medical Center. His salary with the county will begin at $18,522 per month.

Mu must obtain California Medical Board certification within two years to maintain his position as the county’s leading public health professional. In his new role, he will oversee community public health across the county including mitigating and responding to infectious diseases, substance use, and suicide risks among many other areas of responsibility.

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