Sonoma County names Solano County official as new health services director

Sonoma County supervisors have appointed a new health director, naming a Solano County official and therapist as the head of the county’s second-largest department.

Stephan Betz, 57, currently oversees aging and disability services in Solano County. He will replace Rita Scardaci, who retired this month after 10 years as the Sonoma County’s health services director.

The Department of Health Services, with an annual budget of $247 million and 700 employees, has a broad range of responsibilities, including management of many state and federal programs in the county.

It also serves as the health provision and policy division for the Board of Supervisors, which has long sought to make Sonoma among the healthiest counties in the state.

“I’m excited about Sonoma County’s bold vision of becoming the healthiest county in California by 2020,” Betz said. “And because the (Board of Supervisors) and the community is so health-driven, we have a shot at being that exemplary.”

Betz has worked 12 years for Solano County, most recently serving as deputy director for Older and Disabled Adult Services.

Previously, he worked for Contra Costa County, in divisions overseeing family and community services and in the county administrator’s office. He is a board-certified therapist and has practiced in Australia and Germany, in addition to the United States.

Betz is taking over a department that has grown more than 3 percent over the past year and is expected to continue to take on major health care initiatives, including implementing a long-term plan to address the health and housing needs of the county’s growing senior population, expanding mental health services and funding universal preschool countywide.

Betz also is charged with ensuring President Barack Obama’s health care law, launched in January 2014, functions as it should locally. Those responsibilities include making sure patients covered under the Affordable Care Act - including private health care plans and Medi-Cal, California’s low-income health care program - can access health care services.

The department has struggled over the past year with several issues, including clearing its Medi-Cal backlog, a primary care physician shortage and several abrupt leadership changes in Animal Services. Betz acknowledged the issues and characterized some as challenges counties across California are grappling with.

“Many of these problems are so big that they cannot be solved by one county alone,” Betz said. “I’m looking forward to working on a regional approach to the continuum of care, so everyone has a medical home and medical care available to them.”

He is set to start work Oct. 6 and is under a three-year contract. His annual salary is $188,021.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter?@ahartreports.