What’s next after guiding pandemic, wildfire response? Fresno County health leader retires
David Pomaville, who helped lead Fresno County through two of the biggest emergencies in memory as director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health, has retired after nearly two decades with the agency.
Pomaville was “steady, patient, calm (and) dedicated” as the department’s director, County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau said of his efforts through a flurry of challenges over the years. Those include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the Creek Fire, which last fall raged in eastern Fresno and Madera counties to become the largest single wildfire in recorded California history.
“This is a day I was hoping to avoid,” Rousseau told Pomaville as the county’s Board of Supervisors recognized Pomaville last week. “It’s been a pleasure working with you during some very difficult times.”
Pomaville, 57, said he anticipates continuing to serve the community in some manner after taking some time to unwind. But, he added, “I’m not exactly sure what it looks like.”
“The timing of my departure isn’t completely by accident,” he told the county supervisors. “I had been working toward this – I wasn’t sure exactly what the right time was. I certainly am glad to be doing it at a time when our (coronavirus) case rates are coming down and vaccinations are going up.”
Rousseau and the elected officials were unanimous in their praise for Pomaville’s leadership, relationships and collaborative demeanor steering the health department and its divisions through changes in animal control, jail medical services, and realignment of public health budgets and its effects on the department.
“You’ve done a commendable job during all of those,” Rousseau said.
But it was Pomaville’s work on the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that was most often cited in the congratulatory remarks.
Rousseau noted that Pomaville’s department forged a network of doctors, community organizations, health clinics, schools, hospitals, churches and other organizations that were marshaled to help with coronavirus education, testing and vaccine efforts across the county.
“You built relationships throughout the county that are going to outlive this pandemic, which was part of your plan” to bring medical resources to disadvantaged residents and communities that previously lacked access to care, Rousseau said. “You hoped to tear down (obstacles), and I think you did.”
Board of Supervisors chairman Steve Brandau said that because of the work of Pomaville and his team, “we probably won’t be caught this flat-footed in future crises like this.”
“I can’t imagine anybody doing what you’ve done for the past year at the capacity that you’ve done it and the expertise that you’ve done it,” Brandau added, “and really led the county and our response to COVID-19 and this pandemic.”
Supervisor Sal Quintero touched on Pomaville’s calm temperament in times of crisis. “You remind me of a duck out on the lake,” he said. “You see him above the water, all calm and everything, but underneath the legs are just battling like hell.”
For Supervisor Nathan Magsig, who represents the Clovis area and much of eastern Fresno County, the efforts of the county’s Office of Emergency Services overseen by Pomaville’s department, along with the county’s public works department, on tree mortality in the forests of the Sierra Nevada and removing hazard trees were critical when the Creek Fire ravaged communities including Shaver Lake and Big Creek last fall.
“Fresno County was and is the most active county in the state when it comes to making sure that we have adequate ingress and egress along our roadways,” Magsig said. “And your department’s vision, along with public works’ vision, to focus on that is one of the reasons we saw no deaths with the Creek Fire because we had 25,000 people that needed to be evacuated, not only in Fresno County but Madera County.”
“Those high-hazard trees would have and could have fallen along our roadways,” he added, “but they weren’t there because you had spent years clearing those trees out of there.”
David Luchini, who has been the assistant director of public health, is now serving as the interim director.
“I’m leaving the department in very capable hands,” Pomaville said. “There’s a great leadership team. … There’s a whole bunch of people out there that have grown tremendously through this pandemic response, who stepped up and are going to be great leaders in this county for years to come.”
The latest pandemic updates
Fresno County reported 46 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, pushing the county’s cumulative total to date to 101,451 since the first cases were identified 14 months ago. The death toll from COVID-19 in the county was reduced by one in a correction to previously reported data, bringing the number of fatalities in the pandemic to 1,677.
More than 277,000 residents in Fresno County have been “fully vaccinated” to date, meaning they’ve received either both doses of the two-shot regimen vaccines from Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna, or one dose of the single-shot Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Elsewhere in the central San Joaquin Valley, county updates on Wednesday included:
Kings County: 22 new cases, 22,933 to date; no additional deaths, 246 to date. The number of fully vaccinated residents in the county is up to 27,207.
Madera County: Four new cases, 16,319 to date; no additional deaths, 242 to date. A total of 39,771 Madera County residents are now fully vaccinated.
Mariposa County: One new case, 445 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date. The number of fully vaccinated residents in the county is up to 3,453.
Merced County: 19 new cases, 31,701 to date; no additional deaths, 454 to date. A total of 55,880 residents are now fully vaccinated in Merced County.
Tulare County: 18 new cases, including a reduction of one case to correct previously released data, 49,514 to date; no additional deaths, 837 to date. A total of 117,427 Tulare County residents are now fully vaccinated.
