Advocacy Organization Calls on Oregon Lawmakers to Keep Their Promise to Fund Foundational Public Health Programs
PORTLAND, Ore. (May 06, 2025) Oregon’s 33 local public health authorities face severe and worsening workforce challenges, limiting their ability to protect the health and safety of Oregon’s 4.2 million residents.
Those are the findings from a new report issued by the Oregon Coalition of Local Health Officials (CLHO), the advocacy organization for local public health authorities.
The most significant issues include inadequate pay, chronic understaffing, burnout, leadership turnover and a lack of training, recruitment and retention resources.
“While these are not new challenges, they continue to worsen because of increased work coupled with drastic public health cuts at the federal level as well as chronic underfunding from all levels of government,” says Sarah Lochner, CLHO’s executive director. Ten years ago, Oregon lawmakers promised to fully fund essential public health programs like disease control, environmental health and emergency preparedness. So far, they’ve committed only half of the funding they promised. We’re calling on lawmakers this legislative session to keep their promise to fund these foundational programs.”
The new report’s findings and recommendations come from surveys and focus groups conducted in 2024 with public health administrators and human resource professionals in 29 of Oregon’s 33 public health authorities.
“The biggest workforce challenges have been reduced budgets, laying off staff and cutting FTE.”
— Jackson Baures, Jackson County Division Manager
Key findings:
- While the total number of full-time positions has increased since CLHO’s last workforce report in 2021, there are fewer nurses and epidemiologists, especially in rural counties.
- Although average wages for many positions, including nurses, epidemiologists and administrators increased, wages in public health are still significantly lower than in the private sector, especially for nurses.
- Inadequate pay, limited advancement opportunities and burnout are the top reasons public health workers leave their jobs.
- There is significant turnover among public health leadership. Between 2020-21, 16 public health administrators left their positions. Since then, another 17 have left.
- Many new hires lack basic public health training and skills needed to do their jobs.
- Counties struggle to recruit and retain qualified candidates due to limited resources; a lack of measurable diversity, equity and inclusion hiring goals; and a lack of affordable housing.
Key recommendations:
- Invest in competitive, sustainable compensation by increasing state funding and encouraging local investments.
- Fund tuition, scholarship, mentorship and leadership development programs in partnership with educational institutions.
- Expand job outreach by posting openings on culturally specific job platforms and through local and tribal colleges, particularly those serving historically excluded groups.
- Offer recruitment incentives such as relocation assistance, housing assistance and sign-on bonuses.
- Create and implement a statewide DEI hiring framework.
- Develop a centralized, publicly accessible onboarding “Public Health Essentials Toolkit” that could be adapted to fit the specific needs of the local workforce.
- Build capacity among staff to assume leadership positions.
The report concludes by stressing the importance of sustained funding increases to ensure that the public health workforce is prepared for the next pandemic, disease outbreak or environmental disaster.
“We don’t wait until there is a fire to ask for funding for the local fire department. Their funding structure allows them to respond immediately when a fire starts. We should fund public health the same way–if we have to wait for another public health emergency to receive funding for essential programs, more people will suffer and more people will die, said CLHO Chair Philip Mason-Joyner, who oversees public health and health and human services in Clackamas County.
CLHO is asking state lawmakers to invest an additional $65.2 million per biennium in local public health. Read about CLHO’s 2025 legislative priorities here.
