State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney is speaking out against Senate Bill 2799, which would place four-year terms on not only agency heads but also members of government oversight boards.
Edney said during an appearance on The Gallo Show that the legislation – which quietly and overwhelmingly passed the Senate last month and now awaits further action in the House – would have a negative impact if signed into law.
“We have enough things in government that are broken and let’s don’t mess with the things that are not broken,” Edney pleaded.
Edney became Mississippi’s highest-ranking medical official in 2022 after taking over for Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who stepped down following the crux of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the interview, Edney admitted that the bill won’t affect him personally as he plans to retire before its planned implementation in 2028. However, if a four-year term was in place before he was offered the job, he probably would not have accepted.
His rationale for fighting against the legislation is that a new board and a new agency head, whether it be the Board of Health and the Department of Health or another pair of intertwined entities, is a bad recipe for long-term governmental sustainability. He argued that the most qualified candidates will reject agency positions if they are only guaranteed a minimum four years at the helm.
“When I came in as the new state health officer almost 18 months ago, I had a seasoned board that I could lean on, and my board chair was well-experienced. We walked through the first year together. If you have a brand-new state health officer and a brand-new Board of Health, that can be tricky,” Edney said.
“It would have been very hard for me to agree to leave private practice and take the income reduction with a very limited term and also having to be confirmed by the Senate and not knowing if that confirmation is going to be successful like you saw with the Board of Education recently. It makes you think two or three times before leaving the private sector.”
On the other hand, the bill’s author, Sen. Daniel Sparks, denies any malicious intent with the legislation and said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert that it’s simply to bring some conformity to the over 100 boards that work inside state government. It’s worth noting that with how the legislation was written before the House’s strike-all on Wednesday, some boards and agencies would be exempt from the decreased terms such as the Institutions of Higher Learning and any boards Constitutionally bound.
“The reason for the four-year term is we have a four-year term for the legislature, and we advise and consent many of these positions,” Sparks said. “So, I do think it’s good government.”
When asked about concerns such as Edney’s when it comes to attracting the best candidates for the position, Sparks believes that argument is meritless.
“Here’s your guarantee of employment: Do a good job. You’re going to be reappointed and reconfirmed. We have to run every four years, and if we don’t do a good job, we don’t get reconfirmed by our voters.”
Some have also theorized that if the bill is enacted, it would give future governors the ability to essentially take over the entirety of state government. Keep up with more of the legislative session here.
