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People who arrive at one of Multnomah County’s community health clinics to get tested for herpes or have their teeth cleaned have little idea that the clinics they visit are enmeshed in a web of tangled power struggles, which have lately spun onto the desks of lawyers.
After being fired weeks ago following an investigation into his conduct, former Multnomah County Community Health Center interim executive director Anirudh Padmala said he’d been a scapegoat in a power struggle between county staff and the health center’s oversight board, run by community members. He has now escalated those allegations. Last week, his attorney filed a notice of claims for damages against the county, accusing staffers of discriminating against their former colleague Padmala and conspiring to sabotage his work, in the process inflicting grave emotional distress and reputational harm.
This, of course, is just Padmala’s side. And among the top leadership of the Multnomah County Community Health Center—Oregon’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center—there are many, many sides.
For example: While Padmala shared supportive notes he has received from colleagues, and said he had the support of multiple Multnomah County Community Health Center board members, two former board members tell WW they lost trust in his leadership months ago. They say they found him to be underhanded and controlling in his quest to get the board to mint him as permanent executive director, despite inadequate qualifications for the job.
And separately, at least two county employees raised concerns about Padmala’s leadership to investigators before his ouster, according to emails sent to health department officials and a copy of the investigation summary reviewed by WW.
Notably, in an indication of just how dysfunctional the oversight of the Multnomah County Community Health Center has been, three of those four people also no longer hold their former positions, having been ousted in recent months either by the county or fellow members of the oversight board.
Still, Padmala had characterized the county investigation that preceded his firing as the product of a disgruntled employee. The fact that several people in fact spoke critically of his leadership suggests concerns are more widely held about his work managing the center.
That “center” is really a collection of several Portland-area clinics and other health care sites, which provide a mix of medical, dental and pharmacy services to some 56,000 patients annually. According to a county spokesperson, the clinics have remained fully operational, stable and focused on patient care amid the “transition” at the top.
There have lately been numerous transitions at the top; Padmala was the center’s fifth leader in six years. It is hard to say precisely why—the county spokesperson says Padmala is one of two who left following investigations, while others cycled out after getting jobs elsewhere or relocating—but an unusual governance structure has seemed to contribute.
Though a county employee, the Multnomah County Community Health Center executive director gets hired and overseen by the Multnomah County Community Health Center board. And the federal government, which contributes many tens of millions of dollars annually to the operation, requires this board, which governs finances as well, to be largely made up of the center’s health care consumers.
Because patients have such a large say in the center, it is tempting to understand the recent tensions as a battle of institutionally empowered laypeople—with “lived experience,” in health system parlance—versus professional technocrats. But the factional disputes are somewhat muddier, with board members feuding at times not just with county staff, but among one another.
Brenda Chambers, who has been a health center patient, became board chair late last year after the previous one left amid complaints of bullying. Chambers says she took the post with the help and support of Padmala—but soon soured on him.
She says he cut her out of roles she was supposed to play, making it look like he was in charge of everything. She says he at one point told her he wished she had not been made chair. “He wanted to be the new executive director, and he thought he could have the board just vote him in,” Chambers tells WW. Chambers was impeached earlier this year by fellow board members, who she says saw her as a puppet of other county staff.
Later, in an email to board members, and in an interview with WW, another former board member, acting vice chair Bee Velazquez, said Padmala’s tendency to insert himself in board matters, like board member recruitment, undermined the oversight body’s independence as his supervisor.
Velazquez, too, was impeached from the infighting oversight board in a separate shakeup.
By spring, as the board was going through its troubles, an investigation of Padmala was underway, conducted by Barran Liebman LLP at the county’s request. The full investigation has not been made public, but a summary reviewed by WW said the probe had been initiated by an anonymous Good Government complaint. In time, the summary said, the investigation’s scope expanded to include additional ethical concerns regarding Padmala, including those raised by two county employees, Mavis Sanchez-Scholes and health center chief of staff Anna Johnston.
(Notably, Sanchez-Scholes, who was the board’s liaison to the county, also lost her job after being the subject of an investigation herself. That arm of the investigation was prompted, according to the summary, by allegations by Padmala and “other individuals.” Sanchez-Scholes declined to comment.)
Investigators broke the complaints against Padmala into two buckets. One, they said, concerned alleged unprofessional workplace behavior. In the end, investigators said Padmala did in fact violate policy on this front “by virtue of engaging in unwelcome or unwanted conduct or behavior.” Investigators added, “It is unequivocal that Mr. Padmala’s actions have resulted in the erosion of employee morale, at least in part by cultivating distrust in the workplace.”
Investigators said they also looked into allegations that Padmala was using his official position for personal gain. Here, though, they found no policy violation. Padmala, they found, “may have engaged more frequently and directly” with board members than past directors, conducted business operations differently, and “expressed his desire” to obtain the permanent executive director position. Yet, investigators found he did not violate ethical obligations under the rule in question.
Padmala has said he worked hard to bolster morale in the workplace, and faced discrimination on the job for months. “I have been a standout employee since October 2020,” he told WW after he was fired, “and it seems my only mistake is my ambition to be the FQHC director.”
When asked for his perspective for this story, Padmala referred WW to his attorney, Zack Duffly, who said Padmala has no further comment, and showed WW a tort claim notice—often a precursor to a lawsuit—filed with the county July 13.
The notice alleges a “pattern of retaliation, harassment, and unlawful interference” following Padmala’s “good-faith reporting of workplace misconduct and his internal complaints regarding a hostile work environment.”
It does not go into great detail, but says Padmala “properly escalated a report” from a subordinate county employee describing sexually inappropriate workplace conduct by another county employee, implicating a board member.
After this, the notice said, Padmala faced increased scrutiny and adverse treatment by county staff, prompting him to complain to health department leaders that his work was being undermined and sabotaged. The issues were not remedied, the notice says.
However that gets resolved, the search for Padmala’s replacement must now begin. “One of the county’s top priorities is breaking this cycle of turnover and establishing long-term, stable leadership,” a county spokesperson says.
Still, the county evidently sees its powers here as limited. The health center board makes the final director hiring decision, the county notes. And the county has said in emails that it has limited authority to shape the board’s makeup.
The board, meanwhile, carries on. Reached by phone, board chair Darrell Wade said he would send a statement by email with his perspective, but none arrived by press deadline. The board has added new members in recent weeks, and others, judging from the board roster, appear to have cycled out, in some cases having expressed great frustration with the direction of the oversight body.
“Board member Yalila Alcarez stated the board has lost its objective and vision,” recounted the minutes of a meeting in May. “She expressed that at this point she is disappointed with all the issues going on within the board. She stated she joined this board to be the voice for the community as a patient and community member. Yalila stated she doesn’t understand why there are so many issues on the board. She stated it’s as if the board is on two teams instead of one.”
