Editorial: Chance for fresh start at Health Department

Controversy goes with the territory at the state Health Department. But Dianne Mandernach, who announced on Tuesday that she will step down as commissioner of health on Oct. 2, endured -- and generated -- more than her share.

Four and a half years ago, Mandernach took the helm of a department known for nation-leading efforts to discourage tobacco use and for outstanding ability to diagnose and respond to contagious illness outbreaks and threats from environmental toxins.

On Mandernach's watch, the department began generating news of a different sort. Misleading information about a breast cancer link with abortion appeared on the department's website. Employees were forbidden to speak to journalists or legislators. The antismoking effort that brought the department acclaim was shut down during a budget crisis, without protest from the commissioner.

And for nearly a year, Mandernach refused to go public with word of a growing public health crisis on the Iron Range. The number of cases of a rare, asbestos-related cancer had spiked among taconite workers. Minnesotans needed to know. She waited far too long to tell them.

Mandernach was accused of political protectionism when the coverup was revealed, but evidence didn't point in that direction. Rather, the former Moose Lake hospital administrator and former Franciscan nun seemed to us to be uncomfortable with the public-information obligation that's integral to the public health trust she held.

That should not be true of her successor. Mandernach's resignation gives Gov. Tim Pawlenty a chance to select a new leader schooled in public health, committed to transparency and capable of vigorous advocacy for the department and its work. The health commissioner's job is said to be among state government's most demanding. It should be filled by a proven leader of complex, highly visible organizations.

The governor acknowledged in 2003 that Mandernach's desire to outlaw abortion played a role in her appointment. Given Pawlenty's close association with antiabortion politics, it's too much to ask for him to appoint a health commissioner with a prochoice view. But an antiabortion opinion should not outrank more substantive qualifications in the governor's eyes. The next commissioner needs to be up to the task of repairing the damage to public trust that occurred on Mandernach's watch.