In a letter dated March 14 to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, former San Benito County Health Officer Dr. George Gellert detailed his dissatisfaction with Tracey Belton, executive director of the San Benito County Health and Human Services agency.
Gellert said his letter was in response to being notified March 11 that he would no longer be employed by the county following his probationary period. In his letter (see attachment below) Gellert says that Belton has “frequently undermined and continues to place at risk the effective performance and service of the Public Health Services division.”
Gellert served in the department for the last 20 months, and was promoted from Deputy Health Officer to Health Officer on Sept. 28, 2021, to replace Dr. David Ghilarducci.
Gellert said that, upon being hired as deputy health officer, Belton said she would “rely upon and defer to our expertise,” a statement which he described as “purely rhetorical and not actual.”
He claimed that Belton would “revise many established—and successful—public health processes,” the impact of which was “always disruptive,” saying that “SBC Public Health Services succeeded during the pandemic despite Ms. Belton’s undermining impact, not because of it.”
Gellert said Belton was highly critical of Lynn Mello, deputy director of public health and supervisor of public health nursing.
“Ms. Belton stated that she had poor visibility into the management of Public Health and approached most matters within public health assuming Ms. Mello’s incompetence, with suspicion and distrust,” he wrote.
According to Gellert, Mello was “highly effective and successful, and I could not observe evidence supporting Ms. Belton’s constant focus and concern with her management.”
He characterized Belton’s opinion of the public health team as being “a mess” and that she “sought to fix something that was not broken, undermining a team that was working well and efficiently.”
Gellert detailed an interaction with the League of United Latin American Citizens, when a representative from the organization suggested having Spanish-speaking people on staff at local pharmacies, specifically CVS, to help provide information to non-English-speaking people coming for vaccinations.
He said that when he brought the matter up to Belton, she instructed him not to contact CVS, saying it was not the job of the local health agency and that “LULAC is constantly making requests like this, and these problems are their job, not ours.”
He also mentioned an occasion when a school principal requested guidance regarding school closures. Belton told Gellert to respond only with links to existing guidance rather than direct answers. Gellert responded to the questions, though Belton described that as “problematic” because “then every school in the county would be contacting us for guidance.”
“I found Ms. Belton’s indifference to the concerns and request for guidance from a local educator about pandemic response very alarming,” he said.
Gellert went on to complain about Belton’s “inexplicable hiring strategy,” and her “ignoring Health Officer Guidance on important public health issues.” He described her as having “consistently demonstrated disdain and contempt for the Public Health team.”
Public Information Officer David Westrick, who had no additional information about the letter, said Ghilarducci will return to the post until a replacement for Gellert can be found.
BenitoLink reached out to Belton and Mello but has not received responses.
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.
You must be logged in to post a comment.