The building permit guy gets his gold watch

I see that Patrick Allen, the dude who's been running the State of Oregon's health department for the last five years, is retiring before he gets fired by the new governor. He's taking the state's mental health chief with him.

[T]he agency has failed to help people with mental health and addiction problems, critics say. They point out it has been slow to distribute more than $1 billion to create behavioral health programs and new facilities, as well as addiction treatment networks as part of the rollout of Measure 110, Oregon’s drug decriminalization measure that included a plan to step up treatment. In national studies, the state has repeatedly had the highest or close to the highest rate of people with mental health and addiction problems in national studies.

Lawmakers allocated the money toward behavioral health in 2021 but the agency only finished distributing the biggest share of the money this August, a year later than scheduled.

A fond farewell to those two birds. What a mess they're leaving behind.  Now let's hope Governor Kohoutek finds somebody who's actually qualified to take over.