Last week, without any input from Maine’s 27 community health coalitions, the Department of Health and Human Services and the state’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dismantled and reorganized the coalition network funded by Healthy Maine Partnerships.

The DHHS and CDC split the 27 coalitions, naming nine as “lead” agencies and the remaining 18 as reporting agencies. It was done to consolidate the number of contracts the state enters into with these various groups.

Consolidating administration makes good sense.

Not seeking formal “lead” bids, or at least informal input, from the coalitions to be consolidated does not. And, yet, that’s exactly what happened.

Administrators of DHHS and CDC said they didn’t have time for such consultation. They blamed the Legislature for taking too long to pass a budget to close an $83 million DHHS budget gap, forcing quick — and covert — decisions on funding distributions.

Sen. Margaret Craven, who serves on the board of Healthy Androscoggin, has challenged the way bureaucrats assigned leads and divided funding behind closed doors.

She’s not suggesting the work didn’t need to be done, but she is questioning the process.

We question it, too, and hope that Craven’s request for an emergency meeting with DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew and CDC Director Sheila Pinette for an explanation — especially since Craven is part of the Legislature blamed for creating this time crunch — is honored.

One option is to defer the July 1 contract deadline a month, giving coalitions an opportunity to weigh in on their future, especially since the state isn’t even sure the newly structured coalitions are going to meet the July deadline anyway.

These community health coalitions understand funding has been cut. And they know how to work together.

They are cooperative entities and we are certain that, if asked, their directors and employees — the folks who implement the programs that will be cut and those that can be saved — would have tremendous insight and advice about effective and efficient restructuring.

Meaningful consolidation with little disruption in our communities should be our primary goal.

The DHHS/CDC directive doesn’t give us that.

Healthy Androscoggin is an innovative coalition that has modeled public health programming for more than a decade for neighboring coalitions in Franklin and Oxford counties. It is, in the tri-county area, the largest and most active coalition, serving a population of 102,000.

It was, inexplicably, not selected as a “lead” agency even though in practice it has been a local leader.

Instead, the much smaller River Valley Healthy Communities — much to the surprise of Executive Director Patricia Duguay — was named the lead agency for Franklin, Androscoggin and Oxford counties, including now being responsible for Franklin Community Health Network and Healthy Oxford Hills, which are facing 29 percent and 17 percent funding cuts, respectively.

Healthy Androscoggin will lose 64 percent of its funding under the new structure and will have to end programs and lay off employees.

River Valley Healthy Communities will gain 84 percent in funding and will have to implement programs and hire employees.

That’s a lot of unnecessary turmoil.

We have every expectation that Duguay is up to the challenge as leading director. She is a committed, energetic and insightful public health advocate.

So, while she scrambles this week to boost her coalition to assume the responsibility as lead, the de-facto local lead — Healthy Androscoggin —will be dismantled.

That’s not consolidation.

That’s reinventing the wheel.

jmeyer@sunjournal.com

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.

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