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 Official data hasn’t been released since 2002, so public health officials are forced to work with outdated information and estimates.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.
