Geauga Public Health (GPH) – Regular Meeting September 27, 2023
Meeting Details: The GPH Board met in Regular Session at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH, on September 27, 2023 at 5 pm. The agenda was available on the GPHD facebook page. Geauga County Automated Data Processing (ADP) live streamed this meeting and the recording is available here. At publication, the recording has been viewed 35 times. Due to the fact that a video is available, this report will only contain highlights of this meeting. Topics discussed will be noted by the time that they appear in the video for easy reference.
Public Comment Policy: There is no separate written policy, but in practice, “Citizens’ Remarks” are included on the agenda and are permitted as detailed there.
Board Attendance: (as seated, from L to R).
-
Carolyn Brakey, President
-
Dr. Ashley Jones, Pro Tem
-
Lynn Roman
-
Dr. Mark Hendrickson
Dr. Mark Rood was absent
Staff Attendance:
-
Adam Litke - Administrator (end of table left)
-
Daniel Lark - Environmental Health Director (end of table right)
-
Ron Graham, Heath Commissioner (end of table left)
Legal Counsel: Not present
Others Present: Unknown
Call to Order: Called to order at 5:06 pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A quorum was declared and a certification of delivery of official notices of meeting.
Minutes: Approved Minutes of the Regular Meeting on August 23, 2023 by voice vote.
Reviewer Comment: Prior to the March 15, 2023, cross jurisdictional agreement with Lake County General Health District, approved GPH minutes were promptly shared on the GPH website. At publication, the most recent published minutes are for the March 2, 2023 Special Meeting. LWVG Observer Reports are available online for information purposes but are not substitutes for GPH minutes.
The Agenda is listed below: Please refer to the video for additional information. Key discussions are included in this report at the time they were discussed. Note that the minutes on the tape do not correspond to the actual time as the recording started prior to 5 pm.
Health District Staff Reports
12.32 Min - Population Health Report - Mr. Litke said that there are thresholds for some State grants but that Safe Communities and Workforce Development grants are still available. Mrs. Roman asked a question about Covid - 400% increase but not deaths. Mr. Litke said they are seeing Covid but not deaths and hospitalizations. Mrs. Roman asked about whether GPH is administering Covid vaccines. Mr. Litke said no, because it will be a privately administered vaccine.
16.35 Min. - Environmental Health Report - Mr. Lark discussed a couple referrals for inspections. The following is a fee schedule for restaurants and others with licenses to sell food. It was stated that they would not be voting on fees at this meeting. Fees are based on actual time spent on restaurant inspections. There will be a substantial jump in fees. Mr. Lark stated that GPH is four years behind in fees. These will be on the Agenda again in October., November and December. There will be a Public hearing on the fees on October 18.
This is the chart of past and proposed yearly fees presented at the meeting including current costs and proposed fees:
Commercial
Small Prior Proposed
1 $ 187.00 $ 244.00
2 $ 208.00 $ 278.00
3 $ 383.00 $ 546.00
4 $ 480.00 $ 698.00
Large
1 $ 262.00 $ 360.00
2 $ 275.00 $ 380.00
3 $ 931.00 $1,394.00
4 $ 986.00 $1,480.00
Non Commercial
Small
1 $ 93.50 $ 122.00
2 $ 104.00 $ 138.00
3 $ 191.50 $ 272.00
4 $ 240.00 $ 348.00
Large
1 $ 131.00 $ 180.00
2 $ 137.50 $ 190.00
3 $ 465.50 $ 696.00
4 $ 493.00 $ 740.00
Mobile $ 90.00 $ 225.00
Mrs. Brakey spoke in favor of aligning fees with service
Ms. Jones asked a question about Parkman wells that were being redrilled due to salt contamination. Mr. Litke said that they are in Phase II now. The Ohio EPA approved. Hopefully these will be complete by the end of the month.
Mr. Lark said that they sent out 500 letters to all those whose fees will go up.
30.30 Administrator’s Report
Attended Ohio Association of Health Commissioners Conference
Getting a credit card for Geauga Public Health.
Parkman Wells - added 6 or 7 new wells. Trying to get this done.
Health District Advisory County meeting last week. Mr. Litke stated that there were comments at the meeting about workload issues. Mr. Litke said there have been late hours during the audit and that there will be more staff hours with Operations and Maintenance (O&M) starting up. “We are down in revenue until we get O&M up running,” Mr. Litke said. They will be ready to meet with the public if they get a letter about their National Pollution Discharge Elimination system.
Mr. Litke says staff morale is good and that staff volunteered for the Geauga County Fair, giving away 900-1200 frisbees.
For O&M, he said they will need two sanitarians at some point, but the current priority is hiring a clerk. Mrs. Brakey said she was in favor of additional employees as needed. Mr. Litke also talked about staffing challenges. They have two clerks for Geauga (where they previously had three or four) but one person is retiring, so they will need to hire a person.
44:58 Min. Financial - Mr. Litke said that they haven’t been billed by Lake County as yet.
One expense will be to Conduit Health Partners for the Needs Assessment that they complete every three years.
Mrs. Roman asked for an explanation of all the zero dollars (generally a contract with no exchange of money).
Mr. Litke said that the report is formatted differently and that they had a lot of Then and Nows Certifications, especially for attorneys Flannery and Georgalis. Mrs. Brakey asked for the total for legal fees but Mr. Litke said that he didn’t have the figures for those fees.
Observer Comment: The Financial Report was not available to the public, but after a Public Records request, the payment report was forwarded to this Observer. It appears that a total of $99,893.79 was paid to the law firm of Flannery & Georglis and $4,824 was paid to McDonald Hopkins. The payments were split into two accounts, but it appears that these were the totals. It was not clear what time periods these payments covered.
Health Administrator Report
Mr. Litke said they are working on Accreditation and trying to do this without an Accreditation coordinator. They have received an extension until the end of December.
Local Public Service Collaborative - There were questions on what to do about the e-clinical software, that cost $12,000 to buy into, but nothing happened with it. Dr. Jones said that she thought it was time to revisit discussions about software.
Mr. Litke suggested that he thinks a quarterly newsletter would be a good idea.
Mr. Litke stated that through Project Dawn, GPH is still offering Narcan, even though there is over the counter Narcan. It was decided to keep doing that.
Committee Meeting reports - none
Old Business
56.54 Min. - Rent at New County Office Building:
Mr. Litke gave an overview of space that they are currently using, space that could be given to ADP and other configurations. By giving away space, Litke said they could get down to $20,000/year, based on $8/sq. ft.
Dr. Hendrickson asked who else will be charged rent? Mr. Litke said it would be Soil and Water and Veterans Services. The Title Agency will also be billed but they are a separate entity.
Mr. Litke said there is no contract as yet.
Mrs. Roman stated several times that they paid no rent in the prior building. She said that as a taxpayer, she felt that GPH is already paying for this. She felt that being accountable for utilities makes sense. She said that they had no choice to move into this building, and wasn’t happy about now being asked to pay rent.
There was a great deal of discussion about reconfiguring the office so that they would pay lower rent. In order to do that, some staff would have to be virtual for all or part of the week. Dr. Jones was definitely not in favor of reducing staff time in the office and no one else really liked that solution either.
Mr. Litke said that the back up generator in the New County Office Building does not run the HVAC system in the event of loss of power. If there is a power failure, they would need to send employees home if the temperature varied too much. Mr. Litke also wondered what would happen to the pipes?
Dr. Hendrickson and Mrs. Roman said they’d like to know if the Commissioners will pay to replace medications in the GPH refrigerator in the event of a HVAC failure?
There is a Special Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, October 4th at 5 pm to discuss the rent situation with the Commissioners.
1:30 Min. New Business
The following motions were approved unanimously (Dr. Jones abstaining from the last Resolution):
-
Motion to approve Resolution to approve the Financial Report passed
-
Permission to Approve Appropriations for Increase/Decrease of Unemployment fund
-
Resolution 2023-18: Then and Now Purchase Order to DEX Imaging, Not to Exceed $7,926.00 - Copier that was purchased
-
Resolution 2023-19: Then and Now Purchase Order to McDonald Hopkins LLC, Not to Exceed $6,568.40
-
Resolution 2023-20: Then and Now Purchase Order to Donamarc Inc., Not to Exceed $19,241.73 (Phase I of the wells)
-
Resolution 2023-21: Then and Now Purchase Order to Biosolutions LLC, Not to Exceed $500.00 (Dr. Jones abstaining)
1:36 Min - The Following legal settlements were approved
These issues had to do with Residents who did not respond to requests based on systems that were not
working. Three of these, after letters, responded, and are in the process of being resolved.
-
Request For Legal Action Against Robyn and Joseph Hencsh
-
Request For Legal Action Against Katherine and Ryan Cahalane
-
Request For Legal Action Against Erma and Owen Miller Jr.
-
Request For Legal Action Against Eli Miller Jr.
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - Phase II StormWater Plans - Plans need to be made about how to manage stormwater. The GPH portion of this is for sampling. These still have to be signed and approved by the County Commissioners.
1:45 Min. Public Comments - none
1:46 pm Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:35pm
Next regular meeting: October 25 at 5 pm. All meetings at Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH.
Special Meeting - Wednesday, October 4 @ 5 pm with County Commissioners
More Information: Geauga Public Health
Observer: Gail Roussey
Editor and Reviewer: Anne Ondrey
Submission Date: 10/2/23
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.