Lori Brewster.

Suzanne Dorsey.

• 
• 

By Katie Redefer

Wicomico County officials are seeking help from the Maryland Department of the Environment amid recent turmoil within the county’s Health Department, which Health Officer Lori Brewster said has experienced a “mass exodus” of employees while struggling with a backlog of service requests.

In a rather grim report to the County Council, Brewster said all clerical employees working for the county’s Environmental Health Office resigned at the same time, leaving only two active employees in the office.

Brewster also announced she will be leaving her position by the end of this year, but will not be retiring as previously speculated and will instead secure other employment.

The county’s Health Department has faced an especially challenging last three years, having to confront the Covid-19 pandemic and an continuing crisis of opioid overdoses.

The department also grants permits for rural sewer and water systems – a job responsibility that often creates conflict situations with developers, housing contractors and real estate salespeople.

When meeting quarterly with the County Council, Brewster has repeatedly issued warnings that her staff was experiencing low morale, while facing work challenges on multiple fronts.

“(Those who resigned) went on to other state jobs that paid more,” Brewster told council members Oct. 18. “During their exit conference, they said that they felt as though they were being ‘beat up’ by the public, and I have no doubt that was probably occurring because people want things and they want them done quickly.”

Brewster went on to explain how the office’s lack of staff has caused a large backlog of services requested by the public; more specifically, the department currently has 41 septic permits waiting for approval as well as 81 land evaluations.

She noted that land evaluations can only be performed during the wet season, which typically occurs February through March, and this time constraint can contribute to delays.

To supplement the county department’s dwindling staff, Brewster said she is seeking to outsource employees through a state contract with the MDE, in the hopes of helping the county catch up with the backlog of requests.

“This is something that I have been working with the MDE on, advising that we are in a situation where we don't have enough staff to do the work in the county,” Brewster said. “So we have been working with the MDE on a potential contract with a vendor to provide some staffing in this county to help us bridge the gap that we can't bridge.”

Also attending last week’s council session was MDE Deputy Secretary Suzanne Dorsey, who said the state has seen complaints resulting from Wicomico’s Environmental Health Office for years – even prior to the recent mass resignation.

“(MDE) staff in 2015 received concerns about septic permitting and began to review permitting in Wicomico County, and they found a high number of permits to be deficient,” Dorsey said. “We responded by having MDE on site in the local department of health for retraining. We had staff here from October 2018 to October 2019, so a full year of retraining.

“By 2020,” she said, “we were again receiving concerns and complaints about premature septic failures.”

Dorsey said the state deployed more MDE staff members out to retrain the county department in 2021, but the problems within Wicomico have persisted regardless.

“We are talking about Wicomico daily and weekly in (meetings in) Baltimore. This issue crosses the secretary of health, the secretary of the environment, all the way up to the governor's office,” Dorsey said. “It is a huge concern.” 

She said the state is eager to help the county outsource more workers to combat the backlog, and they will work to finish a contract to present to the county council as soon as possible.eeds to get in, you don’t have a lot of staff, we need to make sure that you have the services both in the office getting rid of the backlog and in the field responding to the devastating story of a family with sewage in their back yard,” Dorsey said. “That is not acceptable, and I will make sure one of my staff is on site as soon as I can possibly get them there.”