Geauga Public Health (GPH) - Regular Meeting - May 22, 2024
Meeting Details: The GPH Board met in Regular Session at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B167-168, Chardon, OH, on May 22, 2024 at 5 pm. This meeting was live-streamed by Geauga County ADP. Typically the Agenda is posted on their Facebook page a few days prior to the meeting. The video is available here. This observer did not attend the meeting in person, but viewed the video.
Public Comment Policy: There is no separate written policy, but in practice “Citizens’ Remarks” are listed on the agenda and are permitted as detailed there.
Board Attendance: (as seated, from L to R).
Staff Attendance:
-
Adam Litke - Administrator (end of table left)
-
Ron Graham, Heath Commissioner for both Geauga and Lake Counties (seated second from the end of the table right)
-
Dan Lark, Environmental Health Director (end of table far right)
Legal Counsel: Bryan Kostura, McDonald Hopkins, LLC
Others Present: Gerry Morgan, County Administrator; Linda Burhenne, Assistant County Administrator; Lynn Roman, former GPH Board member, and several members of the public were present.
Call to Order: Called to order at 5:00 pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A quorum was declared. Dr. Hendrickson certified the delivery of official notices of meeting.
Minutes: The Board approved Minutes of the Regular Meeting on 4/24/24. Observer Note: Board of Health Published Minutes are up-to-date; the most recent minutes published are for the March 20, 2024 Regular Meeting. Use the down arrow under “Select Category” at the top to search for the correct year at the link provided.
13:55 Lunchroom Discussion - Mr. Litke proposed having this discussion in advance of the staff reports so the guests (Mr. Morgan and Ms. Burhenne from the Board of County Commissioners Office (BOCC)) would not have to stay through the whole meeting. The BOCC are looking for space for ADP staff and would like to use the GPH lunchroom area and storage area. Some doorways would have to be re-routed to provide for emergency exits and to keep the GPH space secure. Ms. Brakey asked about the cost to taxpayers of this change. Ms. Burhenne said the initial estimate was $45,000, but they will need to finalize the design before they have a better estimate. Dr. Hendrickson asked for the current floor plan and the updated floor plan with the costs. Ms. Brakey said it seems that the Board is giving up this space but getting nothing in return, noting that there is still the outstanding dispute over rent. She also asked what the long term plan is for space, as it seems that ADP will be moving staff piecemeal to two areas in the new building without a long-term plan. Ms. Brakey said she felt this approach “seem(s) wasteful”. Mr. Graham and Mr. Lark said GPH will be hiring three additional people and will have temporary staff at times. Dr. Jones agreed that if the rent discussion is still an ongoing issue, it’s hard to commit to something when the Board doesn’t know where they’re going to be. She wondered what would happen if they have to hire 3 more people in the future, will they have enough room? Drs. Rood and Hendrickson agreed there are too many unknowns to make a commitment. The Board proposed forming a working group with Mr. Morgan, Ms. Burhenne, Mr. Litke and Dr. Hendrickson, and someone from ADP to try to find a solution.
28:10 Home construction close to wetland - A property owner appeared before the Board to request a variance for his septic system. Mr. Litke explained that the property owner’s property is partially wetland and anywhere he would choose to place a septic system on his property would be too close to the wetland area. The property owner explained that his property is in a platted subdivision and according to Ohio law, there has to be access to sewage. He said he had spoken to Mr. Lark about having a septic system and provided him with the part of the Ohio Revised Code that covers this. Mr. Litke said there was a time in 2015-2017 when an exception to the septic requirement could be made but that is no longer in effect. Mr. Lark said the septic has to be 50 feet from the wetland area. After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Lark’s recommendation was that the Board vote against issuing a variance. Mr. Lark and Mr. Litke expressed concern about setting a precedent by allowing the variance. The property owner said the ORC allows for a variance in case of hardship, and he explained his situation. Mr. Lark said the owner has three options if the Board denies his request. He can come back to the Board with new information, he can go to the Sewage Appeals Board, or he can go to court. The Sewage Appeals Board includes a member from the Ohio Department of Health and a member from the Probate Court, and one other member (Mr. Lark couldn’t remember who the third person was). Mr. Lark said their decision is final and cannot be appealed. The Board voted to deny the variance, with Ms. Jones abstaining from the roll call vote. There was further discussion about Mr. Litke and Mr. Lark continuing to work with the property owner to review his plan from Water and Sewer to install a drainage system to mitigate the wetland.
Reviewer Note: See ORC Section 3718.11 Administrative Rules.
Health District Staff Reports (Observer Note: These reports are available with the agenda on the GPH Facebook Page)
48:10 Environmental Health Report - Mr. Lark had to leave the meeting, so his report was provided first. He said there was a house that was issued orders in 2019 to correct an overflowing septic system. New complaints have been made that the septic is still overflowing. Mr. Lark has issued several notices to the property owner with no response, with the last notice being that the issue will be referred to the Prosecutor. Approval for referring this to the Prosecutor will be addressed under New Business.
Mr. Litke showed photos of the process of waste disposal on a dump site that had been discussed in previous Board meetings. (Observer Note: see the February 28 Observer Report and the March 20 Observer Report for background on this issue).
Mr. Litke told the Board that with the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) program taking off, they are getting 400-500 emails a day that Mr. Lark has been handling, also many phone calls. They would now like to consider hiring a clerical staff person to assist with the calls and emails. Mr. Litke said the O&M program is starting to have some money coming in, and the program has been well received at community meetings around the county now that people know it is a state requirement. Mr. Litke, Mr. Lark, and Mr. Graham are looking into revenue sources to help homeowners who can’t afford to fix or replace their septic system when it fails the new testing requirements.
59:37 Population Health Report - Mr. Litke said the DDC (Amish) clinic has asked if the GPH staff can take over the vaccinations to free up DDC staff for other things. Mr. Litke said GPH doesn’t have enough staff or funding for this. Ms. Jones and Ms. Bowdren discussed the possibility of working with local institutions to find nurses who could use their volunteer hours to support this effort. Mr. Litke said that might work as long as the volunteers are consistent. Reviewer Note: See information here about the DDC Clinic, which is a non-profit for special needs children - investigating causes of genetic disabilities and providing research and patient care, in particular to Amish children.
1:04:26 Administrator’s Report - Mr. Litke said he didn’t have much to add to his written report. (Observer Note: These reports are available with the agenda on the GPH Facebook Page). Mr. Litke attended the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners. At this meeting, there were discussions about potential staff issues across the government sector for positions like sanitarians, where the payscale is much lower than in the private sector. Mr. Graham said there might be a possibility to change the requirement for sanitarians in the health departments to have a lesser degree than a 4-year college degree.
1:07:20 Min. Health Commissioner’s Report - Mr. Graham has interns looking through many new grant opportunities that GPH and Lake County can apply for. He provided a list of the grants to the Board, but it was not included in the staff reports. There is a rating system from 1 to 5 depending on the applicability to Geauga and Lake, and things like whether the grant is solicited or unsolicited (i.e., open to any applicants).
Mr. Litke said a document has been found by the Health District Advisory Committee that confirms that the Health District entered into a contract with Chardon in 2002 to form a Combined Health District. Mr. Kostura said the document was signed by the Health Commissioner. It’s unclear whether the Board gave approval for the Health Commissioner to sign such a document, but Board meeting minutes around that time indicate the Board was aware of the plans for a contract. Given that the health district is a Combined Health District rather than a General Health District, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) can now charge rent for the GPH office space. The BOCC have been notified of this finding.
Mr. Litke said that the GPH does not expend a large amount of resources providing services to the City of Chardon. He said the more rural areas that are farther away and have fewer resources often require more services from GPH. Board members agreed that Chardon residents pay for the health district levy as do other county residents. Mr. Kostura said the contract to form a combined health district happened shortly after the 2000 Census when Chardon first expanded from being a village to a city. As a city, they were required to have their own health district. Since GPH was already providing services to Chardon it made sense to continue the same relationship.
Old Business - There was no old business
1:21:38 New Business
6.01 Resolutions
6.01.01 Financial Reports, Resolution 24-05-06-01-01 - There was a brief discussion of why there are still For Sale of Property (FSOP) septic inspections taking place, since they are no longer mandatory. Mr. Litke said the inspections that do occur are voluntary as far as GPH is concerned, and may often be required for FHA mortgage loans. Mr. Litke said the next financial report will reflect about 5 months of the Lake County agreement. The resolution was approved by voice vote.
6.01.02 Permission to Approve Appropriations for Increase/Decrease - This was for $5,000 owed to the State for food service fees. Approved by roll call vote.
6.02 Request for Legal Action Against Russell Nelson - This was discussed earlier as part of the Environmental Health Report. Approved by roll call vote, with Ms. Jones abstaining.
1:28:26 Public Comments
Ms. Roman, former Board member, said that the Board should start the rent negotiations with the BOCC at a very low rate. She said when she was a board member and the office move was initiated, the Board was not given any options or input into design or square footage of the new space. Mr. Litke said that he and Ms. Roman asked the BOCC at least 10 to 15 times what the rent would be in the new building and never received a response or were told not to worry about it. Ms. Roman said historically GPH had never before been charged rent that she was aware of. Mr. Litke said that ADP is currently occupying a small space in the new building that was originally part of the GPH space, but GPH offered to give the space to ADP since they need IT support in the new building. Mr. Graham said it might be good to go back and review meeting minutes. He recalled that during the discussions of having a cooperative agreement with Lake County, with Geauga having financial concerns and working to cut back on unnecessary expenses, they were told that rent would not be charged for a few years. Mr. Graham offered to summarize the meeting minutes and create a timeline.
Two members of the public agreed with Ms. Roman’s statements about the rent. One person suggested that Robert Weisdack, who was health commissioner in 2002, did a lot of things “underhandedly” and it would be worth checking to make sure he had the authority to enter into the contract with Chardon. Mr. Kostura reiterated that everything having to do with the GPH-Chardon contract in 2002 was done in the open, there are mentions of it in GPH Board meeting minutes as well as a city of Chardon resolution approving it.
Executive Session - There was no Executive Session.
The meeting was adjourned at an unknown time since this observer was not present in person and the video recording was not in sync with the actual time.
Next Regular Meeting: June 26 at 5:00 pm. All meetings are held at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B167-168, Chardon, OH.
More Information: Geauga Public Health
Observer: Nina Lalich
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submission Date: June 6, 2024
The League of Women Voters of Geauga is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. They do not support or oppose individual candidates or parties. Learn more about the LWVG at www.lwvgeauga.org.