County Public Health Director Dr. Takashi Wada has spent the better part of the past six years dodging the political, fiscal, and bureaucratic equivalents of incoming meteors; this week, he announced he is stepping down in January to take a newly created post as deputy medical director of CenCal Health, which administers health insurance for 120,000 low-income Santa Barbara residents.
News of Wada’s imminent departure came as a surprise to some denizens of the fourth floor of the County Administration building, home to county supervisors and executive administrators. Only earlier this week did supervisors first officially hear Wada — highly regarded for the competence and quiet calm with which he addressed his department’s many challenges — was even exploring other job options. Wada’s departure comes at the same time two longtime supervisors — Salud Carbajal and Doreen Farr — are also about to step down, and two new ones — Das Williams and Joan Hartmann — are about to be sworn in. Wada denied the changing of the supervisorial guard influenced his decision. Instead, he said, the CenCal post provided a better opportunity to put his medical and clinical training to use.
As CenCal’s new deputy medical director, Wada will play a major role addressing issues of clinical care quality, care efficiency, and provider utilization — wonky labels that define how much care is available to low-income residents of both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, with what kind of restrictions, and at what cost.