Peter Fontaine, who stepped down as director of finance and administration after nearly two years, quit over “conduct issues,” Sanmi Areola, MD, Nashville’s deputy public health director, told The Tennessean.
Mr. Fontaine “had to go,” Dr. Areola said.
Muriel Hodgson-Vargas, director of the bureau of community health, and Shoana Anderson, director the bureau of communicable disease and emergency response, also resigned. Ms. Hodgson-Vargas and Ms. Anderson told The Tennessean they resigned because of organizational problems within the Nashville Metro Public Health Department.
Ms. Hodgson-Vargas said in her exit interview that the agency has a “toxic organizational culture” that supported “bad behavior” from employees.
“There was a lot of talk about change … but unfortunately the status quo fights back,” Ms. Hodgson-Vargas told The Tennessean. “And when you don’t feel like you can do your job, well, I’m not in the business of sitting down and getting paid to do nothing.”
Brian Todd, a spokesman for the Nashville Metro Public Health Department, said the resigning officials were “entitled to their opinions.”
“While the simultaneous resignations were a surprise, they were handled with the professionalism and dedication that are the hallmark of the 500+ employees of the Metro Public Health Department,” Mr. Todd wrote in an email to The Tennessean.
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