Putnam County legislators on the Personnel Committee voted Feb. 13 to reclassify the county’s commissioner of health position to the title public health director and confirmed Rian Rodriguez as the county’s new public health director.

Personnel Director Mister Eldridge told the committee the county had difficulty filling the physician-required commissioner post and “we would need to reclassify the position of commissioner of health to a public health director.” He said state regulations allow counties under 250,000 population to have either a physician commissioner or a public health director and that the latter model requires the county to engage a medical consultant through the New York State Department of Health rules.

The reclassification matters because Putnam County struggled to recruit a physician to serve as health commissioner. Eldridge said a prior finalist withdrew after vetting, so the county readvertised and recruited for both titles. He told legislators the county has budgeted money in a sub-contingency to engage a medical consultant and that the reclassification would take effect only when a confirmed public health director starts; until then the incumbent would remain commissioner.

Rodriguez, whom the county executive nominated, told the committee he has a master’s in public health (epidemiology) and more than 30 years in health care delivery, including work at Columbia and Memorial Sloan Kettering and as a national director for the American Cancer Society. “I am a resident here, and I feel I have a set of skills that I would love to sort of bring to bear, to this community,” Rodriguez said during his introduction.

Committee members pressed staff on budget and operational implications. Legislator Elmer said he was concerned about cost increases and said the change had been presented during the budget process as a savings; he told the committee he was “very uncomfortable” after hearing there could be added costs associated with running two roles while also engaging a medical consultant. Eldridge acknowledged there would be additional fringe and benefits for any overlap and said finance had prepared numbers to reflect the change. Committee members also confirmed the public health director is a six-year term position under existing law.

Several committee members asked about the planned medical consultant—referred to during the meeting as “Doctor Mike”—and whether the consultant would be an employee or an independent contractor. Eldridge said the state does not require the consultant to be an employee and the county can contract or employ the person depending on what the candidate prefers and what the county approves.

The committee approved the reclassification by voice vote and then voted to confirm Rian Rodriguez as public health director. The committee record shows the votes carried by voice; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the meeting transcript.

The reclassification and appointment begin the administrative steps to change the county’s health leadership structure; staff said budget accounting for the title and consultant has been prepared and will be implemented when the new director starts.