Meeting Details: The GPH Board met in Regular Session at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH, on Jan 4, 2023 at 5 pm. The Agenda was available ahead of the meeting on the GPH website. Geauga County Automated Data Processing (ADP) live streamed this meeting and a recording is available here.
Board Attendance: (as seated, from L to R)
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Richard Piraino, President
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Dr. Ashley Jones, Pro Tem
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Lynn Roman
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Carolyn Brakey
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Dr. Mark Rood
Staff Attendance:
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Dr. Jeffrey Cameron - Medical Director/Health Commissioner
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Adam Litke – Administrator
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Carol Straniero – Population Health Director
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Daniel Lark, Environmental Health Director
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Alta Wendell, Administration Director - ABSENT
Call to Order: called to order at 5:00pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Approval of prior meeting minutes - This item was tabled after discussion. It was reported by Ms. Brakey that some minutes had sections missing. The minutes under consideration were for Dec. 12, 19 and 28 and January 4 and 11. Mr. Piraino thought it might have been a problem of poor recording quality. Mr. Litke stated that they were going to have a separate audio recording going forward. Brakey also said that during the December 12th meeting the Board allowed comments from everyone, but only one person spoke and that wasn’t clear in the minutes. She had another sentence that she wanted removed. Reviewer Comment: although not a substitute for Board minutes, LWVG Observer Reports are available for the GPHD meetings on Dec 12, Dec 19, Dec 28, Jan 4, Jan 11 and Jan 18. For additional reports visit the LWVG Observer Corps page.
INFORMATION SESSION
a. Environmental Health Division Update - Mr. Lark reported that in Parkman they will be starting the first well this week. Mr. Piraino asked if the EPA had given them the money and Mr. Litke said yes that they had received half of the money. He said that they had been working with county finance director Adrian Gorton to create an account and get it certified so that the money could be deposited into the proper account.
b. Population Health Division Update - Ms. Straino reported that there was a state change in the Covid classification from Class A to Class B (like the flu). She didn’t think this would impact reporting for skilled facilities since they still have to report weekly on Covid cases. She also didn’t foresee any changes in recommendations for vaccines.
c. Administration Division Update - Ms. Wendell was absent and no report was provided.
d. Administrator/Health Commissioner Update - Litke reported the following:
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There was nothing but praise from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) for the work of Mr. Lark.
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He is working to prepare for the two-year audit which will be continuing with the state audit for 2021-22.
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He is working on preparing for the Health District Advisory Commission (HDAC) meeting in March. One member’s term, Mr. Piraino will be up this year. Observer Note: The HDAC is a 22-member council comprised of 1 trustee from each of the 16 townships, 1 mayor or council member from each of the 5 municipalities and 1 commissioner from the Geauga Board of County Commissioners. HDAC annually appoints one member to the Geauga Health District Board to serve a five year term. List of 2023 HDAC Appointees and Alternates
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Mr. Litke is working to prepare for the April/May County Budget Commission meeting.
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Mr. Lark is working on the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) program. They are specifically working on nuisance complaints and how to track them. Mr. Lark said that they hope to have the O&M program up and running by June or earlier.
e. Finance Report - Only one item was noted and that was the fact that legal fees had been budgeted at $100,000 and that they are already at $60,000. Motion to approve the Finance Report was made and passed unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
Levy - Dr. Rood reviewed the fact that at the last Special meeting of the Board they had agreed not to proceed with a levy at this point in time. It had been decided that there was a need to firm up the financial information that would be based on whatever direction they decided on for the future of the Geauga Health District. The deadline for a May levy would have been February 1st and so it had been decided to review this later for a possible November ballot.
Operations Planning - Ms. Roman and Ms. Brakey reported on this item and stated that Trumbll and Portage Counties were not interested in any cooperative agreement with Geauga so they are proceeding to focus on Lake County. It was reported there might be additional programs available to Geauga County if they partner with Lake. Ms. Brakey reported that she had met with officials at the Ohio Department of Health in Columbus. She reported that they had no objections to any of the proposed plans and said they were doing a good job. Ms. Roman started to interject that someone had to sign off on the potential plan, but Ms. Brakey interrupted before she could finish her sentence and said “that’s not correct. There are only certain circumstances when that would be correct.” Ms. Roman continued to say that they weren’t ready to propose anything yet.
Administrator and Environmental Health Director Positions - it was reported by Ms. Jones that they had 29 applications and that the committee had interviewed 4 individuals. She felt that these should again be notified that the Board was not going to choose someone immediately as they might go in a different direction. There was some discussion about how long it could take to make a decision with Brakey emphasizing that more work needs to be done and Roman and Rood seeming to be more in favor of a quicker decision. It was decided to notify applicants of a possible delay.
Hiring vs. Cooperative Agreement Discussion - (Observer Note: This discussion can be accessed here at minutes 50-63.)
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Dr. Rood stated his opinion that by not pursuing applicants they were in fact making a decision to pursue the cooperative agreement with Lake County. A question was raised as to whether the Board should meet weekly in order to resolve the questions about which direction to proceed.
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Ms. Roman echoed Dr. Rood’s comments that it appeared that the Board is going forward with pursuing a cooperative agreement with Lake.
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Mr. Pirano said he thought it looked like that as well.
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Both Ms. Jones and Ms. Brakey said that the Board had to see a full package before making a decision. Ms. Brakey said that she didn’t think they should come before the board unless there was a full package as hard working employees could face consequences as a result of an agreement.
It was ultimately decided to just keep with the one regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 22nd unless something needed to be done sooner.
NEW BUSINESS
Rescind Resolution 2022-11 and Adopt Resolution 2022-11.a Capital Project Fund - Mr. Litke said that he was recommending this based on the advice of Auditor Walder who recommended that the cap on the fund should be $1 million rather than $500,000. Litke thought there was around $300,000 ready to be put in the fund.
Supplemental Appropriation - noted in the discussion that these items were for contracts services, no new salary items and that there was money being appropriated for wells. Motion to approve passed with Ms. Jones abstaining.
Zembretta Software - Mr. Lark explained that this software package was to provide an on-line payment portal. Resolution approved amount not to exceed $13,000.
Resolution 2023-1 – Five acre or less lot splits - This resolution will eliminate the necessity for property owners to go through the GPD septic study if the lot split is not being used to build another property. Ms. Allison Korbus, Planner II with the Geauga Planning Commission, estimated that this impacts about 10 property owners a year. The Planning Commission was in favor of this change and it was reported by Mr. Lark that this would save these property owners potentially thousands of dollars.
PUBLIC COMMENT SESSION
• Session to last 20 minutes per stated rules on Agenda.
Mr. Piraino went around the room to see if there were any comments.
Mary Briggs handed out several pages of documents that she said detailed the fact that the current Health Board Commissioner’s contract had expired as of December 31, 2022 as he had not been re-appointed. No one on the Board addressed this assertion. She also said that in her opinion if there is a shortfall of funds, ORC 3709.28 requires that the subdivisions in the county that are part of the HDAC would make up the difference.
Two gentlemen from Manchester Farm Owners Association wanted to know if there was any way they could get help from the Health Board or any grants to help with their private water system. This system provides water to 32 homes and they need to upgrade. They stated that the system is 70 years old. They were advised to speak with Mr. Lark after the meeting.
Executive Session: The Board moved into Executive Session at 5:52 pm for the purpose of discussing pending litigation or personnel, appointment, compensation or discipline. Mr. Piraino stated that he didn’t know if there would be further action after the Executive session. The Board was joined by their attorney, Mr. Bryan Kostura, of the firm Flannery, Georgalis. At 8:18 pm (after over 2 hours), the Board re-entered the regular session.
Following Executive Session a motion was passed to extend the staffing agreement with Lake County for Administrator and Environmental Health Director services until June 30, 2023.
Next meeting: February 22, 2023 at 5 pm (Regular). All meetings at Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH.
More Information: http://gphohio.org/
Approved minutes are shared on the GPH website through Nov 21, 2022 (scroll to middle of page).
Social media postings available here: https://www.facebook.com/GPHOHIO
Observer: Gail Roussey
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Shelly Lewis
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