Health Officer Resigns Due To “Hostile Environment” with HDNW, Causing Ripple Effects For Benzie-Leelanau

Lisa Peacock announced she will be leaving her role as health officer for the Health Department of Northwest Michigan (HDNW), effective April 29, also creating also a vacancy for the same role within the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department (BLDHD).

“This decision is completely due to the hostile work environment created by some of the members of the HDNW board of health,” Peacock shared in her resignation letter to the board, which is comprised of two county commissioners each from Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet, and Otsego counties.

Peacock gave the required 60-day notice, unless the board wishes that she depart earlier. Because Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department (BLDHD) and HDNW are joined through an intergovernmental agreement to share the services of the health officer and medical director, Peacock’s contract with BLDHD will also expire at the end of the 60 days, explains Dianne Litzenburger, public information officer with HDNW.

Peacock shared that she is “very saddened” by this move, but it is “literally impossible for me to continue to support our team in this way in the face of ongoing efforts by the board of health to damage this strong health department and me as its leader.”

She noted that health department employees “are motivated to do this work because they are truly dedicated to serving the community and they also know that they are valued and supported by the organization’s leadership. The disconnect between this long-standing culture and the current board of health is both striking and damaging.”

The 90-year-old health department has “withstood decades of multiple terms of county commissioners and has never faltered in its ability to provide the highest quality public health services to the community,” she added.

Peacock, who has been health officer for HDNW and BLDHD since 2015, has a combined 28 years of public health, nursing, and management experience. Her announcement comes amid improving conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic (zero cases of COVID-19 in Benzie and Leelanau counties were reported on Monday Feb. 22, according to BLDHD) and on the heels of BLDHD announcing it was lifting the order which required masks to be worn in schools as of Feb. 17.

Backlash after Peacock issued a public health order requiring masking indoors in K-12 schools in six counties — Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego — plays a large role in her decision to leave: “I am most disappointed in the recent retaliation I have endured for the issuance of a public health order aimed at protecting children, school staff, and the general public. I am extremely disheartened by the board members who have questioned my integrity and intentions and have even expressed their belief that I deserve the abuse I have received. The public attacks and campaign of humiliation at public meetings is something I no longer have the strength to endure, and no reasonable professional would, either,” she wrote.

While she did not cite any turbulence associated specifically with her role with BLDHD as a reason for her departure, last fall, the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting in which the board voted 4-3 to ask the health officer to rescind the school mask mandate. (Peacock did not revoke the order.) Likewise, as the Benzie County Record-Patriot reported, the Benzie County Board of Commissioners questioned Peacock’s decision during a Sept. 1 special meeting, and later voted to withhold half of the funding the county usually gives to the BLDHD until questions on when the mandate would be lifted were answered. 

Amid the backlash, Peacock wrote a personal op-ed piece in which she described political misconduct and bullying she encountered as health director of HDNW. She described the effects of the threats and controversy to the Leelanau Ticker as “causing loss of staff who are valuable, skilled public servants,” and “creating unnecessary stress and fear for future stability as well as eroding trust in important public health measures.”

Then, in a bold move at its November 2 meeting, the HDNW board of directors made a motion to terminate Peacock. It failed 5-3.

Peacock herself had intended to stay in the role until retirement, noting in her letter, “I had a firm plan for building an effective succession through the continued development of our leadership team, including key positions who have now resigned amid the stress of the current environment — grave and unfortunate casualties of the reckless political agendas of some board of health members.”

Contradicting demands from the board of health were also at play in her decision, she says, with Peacock citing both a demand for a “reduction in budget, as proposed on the upcoming board of health agenda,” and certain counties considering separation from the HDNW, a “dangerous” action which she says “clearly comes with a dramatic increase in costs.”

Peacock pointed to specific current HDNW agenda items such as “eliminating the contractual arrangement with Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department for health officer services without any consideration of replacement revenue for the 30 percent of the health officer’s salary this arrangement covers,” and “the proposed reduction of funding by all counties by 10 percent over the next five years without any regard for the impact of reduction of corresponding services.”

She said these decisions will ultimately harm the health of the public. “The evidence points to an underlying effort to disrupt HDNW and gain more ‘local control,’ which not only might — but with absolute certainty will — result in both higher costs and lesser services,” she stated. “I cannot support these decisions nor carry out the actions that would be required to make them a reality.”

The HDNW meets again March 1. Peacock is working with the health department leadership team on a transition plan.