Onondaga County Health Commissioner resigns

SYRACUSE — Dr. Cynthia Morrow, the Onondaga County Health Commissioner, today announced her resignation.

Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney has accepted Morrow’s resignation and appointed Deputy Health Commissioner Michele Mignano to serve as the interim commissioner.

Morrow in an afternoon news conference said she was resigning because Mahoney intends to remove some programs from the jurisdiction of the county’s health department. That’s according to cnycentral.com, the website of WSTM-TV and WTVH-TV, Syracuse’s NBC and CBS affiliates, respectively.

Morrow indicated that Mahoney wants the county’s Department of Children and Family Services to administer the programs Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Healthy Start, according to the online report.

WIC provides federal grants to states for “supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk,” according to the website of the United States Department of Agriculture.

The program Healthy Start seeks to help parents and their children “stay healthy with free classes, help quitting smoking, and help applying for WIC and public assistance,” according to ongov.net, the website for Onondaga County government.

“While Dr. Morrow’s work will certainly be missed, Onondaga County residents should be confident that the department is in good hands and we will immediately begin a search to select Dr. Morrow’s replacement,” Mahoney said in a statement.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com