January 4, 2007
Fenty’s Agency Overhaul, Continued
Mayor Adrian Fenty’s major campaign pledges mostly dealt with the District’s troubled schools and public safety departments, so it’s no surprise that changes in those departments get the headlines during this transition period. However, in the new administration, no struggling agency is spared, including the underachieving Administration for HIV Policy and Programs (AHPP). After officially being sworn in on Tuesday, the Mayor noted that AHPP director Marsha Martin – who had only been on the job for 16 months – would not be reappointed.
Ms. Martin left a successful tenure with AIDS Action to lead AHPP in September 2005 and her arrival was accompanied by high expectations. Announcing her appointment, Mayor Williams lauded, "Ms. Martin brings with her a wealth of knowledge and considerable expertise in the field of HIV/AIDS… She has the skills that are needed to move the agency forward." She replaced Lydia Watts, who only lasted 11 tumultuous months.
Martin quickly discovered the office’s sorry state of affairs. AHPP is understaffed (the Post notes that Baltimore’s AIDS office has six field investigators and a supervisor while D.C.’s office has three investigators and no supervisor), and the small staff is underpaid. “There's been neglect to this part of the system for unfortunately more years than we know," she said.
The AHPP’s problems are numerous and well-chronicled. Just last week, the Post ran a story depicting an overwhelmed agency that can’t even keep up with data entry. Despite the urgency necessary to confront the city’s most critical health issue, the agency isn’t up to the task of merely tracking and reporting the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the District. Official data hasn’t been released since 2002, so public health officials are forced to work with outdated information and estimates. The Post story again contrasts this with Baltimore, which issues annual and quarterly reports on HIV/AIDS case data.
Getting a handle on the huge backlog of case data for the city needs to be the first priority of Martin’s replacement. While the frequent turnover of directors certainly doesn’t help matters much, we applaud Fenty for stepping up to confront the crisis head-on, and are hopeful that he’ll hold his appointee to the same level of accountability as the more high-profile agencies.
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someone else please correct me if they have more info, but it sorta sounds like the agency needs an influx of money, not simply just a new director. i hope that's included in fenty's overhaul as well.
Alyssa,
I would have to disagree, I believe that the agency needs accountability much more than money at this point.
In fact, it is not unusual for AHPP to have money (in the millions) left over at the end of the year. It's also not unusual for AHPP to waste money. This year they wasted money on thousands of HIV tests that never got used and eventually either expired or were given away. And of course, the previous Director Lydia Watts is remembered for spending $438,000 on a single World AIDS Day event.
While there are places in the United States where money is very much the issue (like South Carolina that currently has a waiting list for people in need of life-saving HIV medications), DC is not one of them.
Marsha Martin inherited a very troubled organization. While her time at AHPP was far from perfect, I do feel like we were at least moving in the right direction.
Now we are without a leader. It is imperative that Fenty make hiring a qualified director a top priority. I hope for all our sakes that he already has someone picked out.
David
For those who'd like to delve a little deeper and learn a lot more about HIV/AIDS in D.C., you should check in on David's blog Fight HIV in DC. David and I haven't met, but few have more passion about AIDS advocacy than him.
all good to know, david. thank you for your detailed response. i didn't have the history and from just reading the post article the points that you bring up weren't really touched on.
i'm checking out your blog as we speak. i also want to sincerely thank you for your dedicated work on this issue.
-alyssa