Former Milwaukee health commissioner speaks out after resignation of Kirsten Johnson

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The job search is underway for the fifth Milwaukee health commissioner in the last five years. The department's high turnover rate is raising eyebrows, but a former commissioner isn't surprised.

Add Kirsten Johnson to this list of Milwaukee health commissioners who have left the job since 2018.

"It's been a trying, stressful two years and she's been at the epicenter," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

Mayor Johnson confirms he did not ask Johnson to resign.

"The health department has had a number of challenges over the course of the past couple of years and she has diligently been working to right the ship here," said Mayor Johnson.

Dr. Jeanette Kowalik has some insight. She was the city's health commissioner when the pandemic first hit.

"Some folks had acquired three and four jobs because people had resigned and as you know that's burnout," said Dr. Kowalik.

Dr Kowalik says an emergency order forced her to then also keep an eye on all of Milwaukee County.

"I mean like 16 hours, days, and it just got too stressful, too dangerous for my own health, my family, just all of the threats to public health workers," said Dr. Kowalik.

Dr Kowalik's path to commissioner started as an intern in 2002. She says it was good back then under Dr. Seth Foley, but things began to change during Bevan Baker's tenure.

"Gaslighting, putting, throwing staff under the bus, you know not being clear about goals, objectives. Just very, very toxic and my colleagues that pretty much watched me grow up in public health, we would just have moments like is it us? Is it something that we're doing?" said Dr. Kowalik.

Baker resigned in 2018 amid a lead poisoning scandal. But his attorney tells us his client was "the scapegoat" and the city "hasn't been able to replace a PhD chemist and it's terrible."

Kowalik returned nine months after Baker resigned. When she recounted, there was a lot to clean up.

"You know there were just a variety of problems that had manifested over the years. Still encountering issues with bringing on candidates that were rock stars. Because of the salary challenges, the City of Milwaukee salaries were way under market. We were losing social workers left and right. They were going from the health department into other organizations making $15-20,000 more a year and you can't compete with that," said Dr. Kowalik.

We asked the mayor's office about salary and got this response from city spokesman Jeff Fleming: "The mayor has worked to fairly compensate employees based on comparable salaries in specific fields. This is taking place in a time of serious fiscal challenges for Milwaukee. The mayor is also working to address specific workplace challenges that are brought to his attention."