Geauga Public Health (GPH) - Regular Meeting - March 20, 2024
Meeting Details: The GPH Board met in Regular Session at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite A333-A334, Chardon, OH, on March 20, 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.
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).
Staff Attendance:
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Adam Litke - Administrator (end of table left)
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Dan Lark, Environmental Health Director (end of table right)
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Ron Graham, Heath Commissioner for both Geauga and Lake County (seated at the end of the table right)
Legal Counsel: None
Others Present: This observer did not attend the meeting, but compiled these notes from the YouTube video. Several members of the public were present, including Gary Kauffman.
Call to Order: Called to order at 5:00 pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A quorum was declared and delivery of official notices of meeting was certified.
Minutes: The Board approved Minutes of the Regular Meeting on 2/28/24. Observer Note: Board of Health Published Minutes are up-to-date; the most recent minutes published are for the January 17, 2024 Regular Meeting. Use the down arrow under Select Category at the top to search for the correct year at the link provided.
Mr. Litke congratulated Board President Ms. Brakey for winning the Primary election (as a candidate for County Commissioner). Mr. Litke then invited the new Board member, Melissa Bowdren, to introduce herself. She is a nurse and a former social worker and lives in the Kenston School District.
Health District Staff Reports (Observer Note: These reports are available with the agenda on the GPH Facebook Page)
14:10 Population Health Report - Ms. Brakey asked if there were social media posts about the car seat program. Mr. Litke said that they are on the schedule. Dr. Rood mentioned that flu cases and RSV numbers are still high, and it is not too late to get vaccinated.
16:01 Environmental Health Report - Mr. Lark said they were at the Troy Township Trustee meeting on March 19 for an education session on the Operation and Maintenance program. They are on the third grouping of townships to be educated. They have been to six townships so far. Educational efforts are helping to dispel rumors and negative comments about the program.
17:45 Dump Site - Butternut Road (Observer Note: see the February 28 Observer Report for background on this issue). Mr. Lark said his team did a site visit of the dump site and noted that everything seems to be in line with all of the rules. He said that they need to go back in the spring/summer to complete the investigation when the sewage is undergoing spreading in the dry months. Gary Kauffman, owner of the dump site, said the allegations about his dump have been going on for 20 years, and some things that have been in the paper are not true. Commissioner Graham suggested it might be helpful if a sign is posted that the inspections have been done each year.
26:15 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 gave a presentation having to do with the cross-jurisdictional agreement (CJA) with Lake County; this presentation was a part of his Master’s degree completion. His presentation gave background information about each health department (Lake and Geauga). He noted that, when combined and viewed as a single grant applicant, the counties are the ninth largest applicant in Ohio. He discussed some of the hoped-for cost savings by having the CJA, such as accreditation costs, ODH grant management, and efficiencies for service providers, staff, software, administrative costs, etc. GPH makes policy decisions and maintains control over physical property and equipment. Mr. Litke described many other details of the CJA.
Mr. Litke compared expenses over the last few years, based on the Auditor’s report. In 2021 salary and fringe benefits were $1.9 million, and total expenses were $2.7 million. This included a full-time Health Commissioner and a full time Environmental Health Director until August/September of 2021 when there was a change to a part-time Commissioner and a part-time Administrator. Also, Mr. Litke specified that at that time he was a contract employee, and his contract for $60,000 for his finance responsibilities plus $75,000 as administrator should be added to the $1.9 million salary and benefits number. In 2022, salary and fringe benefits were $1.6 million, and $2.6 million was the total of all expenses. He said that the decrease in salary and fringe benefits is in part due to decreased expenses for COVID contact tracers, as well as the decrease to a part-time Commissioner. In Mr. Litke’s presentation materials that were provided to this observer, it was noted that the CJA budget predicted an estimated cost savings in personnel costs (including contractor costs) of $508,000 compared to the estimated budget for 2023 without the CJA. The primary driver for the cost savings is related to the two counties sharing the administrative costs of management. Mr. Litke also said that in 2023 there were many unplanned expenses over and above those in 2021 and 2022. These included the additional staff needed to implement the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) program, the work necessary to audit and correct the House Bill 110 (HB110) program, as well as other unplanned expenses.
Mr. Litke’s presentation then moved on to a discussion of primary benefits of the CJA to Lake County. Ms. Brakey asked how Lake County has received the CJA. Mr. Graham said Lake is very happy with it. Dr. Rood made a comparison with the consolidation of hospitals in greater Cleveland from 38 to 2, and how the quality of care has been maintained or improved. Mr. Litke also acknowledged some of the difficulties that happened with the transition, and how it could have been made smoother. He said several staff worked 60-80 hours a week to help implement the transition. He said the implementation of the O&M program went very well and has set a good example for other counties. Overall the culture among staff has improved and opportunities for staff for upward mobility have also improved. Additionally, staff received raises to be more in line with Lake County’s union contract and with comparable positions throughout the state. With a positive culture and increased raises, staff performance has been better.
Dr. Hendrickson said the Board and people of Geauga and Lake are incredibly grateful to staff leadership for their accomplishments with the CJA. Mr. Litke said his presentation will be posted on the website and Facebook to share with the public. There will also be a press release regarding the annual report which includes much of this same information.
1:07:50 Min. Health Commissioner’s Report - Mr. Graham said Lake County was re-accredited, and Geauga County will be a special category because of changes in the building, lawsuits, and other issues. Geauga has two more years to become re-accredited, which Mr. Graham feels is feasible. Observer Note: Accreditation of County Health Departments is on a five-year cycle and is required by the State of Ohio. See Ohio Department of Health for more information. Mr. Graham also provided Board members with a resolution that is going to the County Commissioners to create a Drug Overdose and Suicide Fatality Review Committee.
1:09:50 Old Business
Public Hearing - Several public hearings and meetings were discussed. A public meeting was held on March 7th for residents of Russell, Munson and Newbury to discuss the upcoming sampling at their homes of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System registered systems or spray systems. Thirty residents attended. Mr. Lark and Mr. Litke said that the most common comments were about how they picked the first group and inquiries about how other systems are going to be addressed. A public hearing was held for March 12th at 6pm in the 3rd floor conference room. The purpose of this hearing was to hear public comment related to the new $30 fee for a one-year operational permit. Staff is scheduled to attend Troy Township Trustee meeting on Tuesday March 19 to discuss the upcoming Operation and Maintenance program.
Resolution to Create Certain Fees, Operation & Maintenance Program, Second
Reading - The motion to approve the second reading was passed by roll call vote. Dr. Jones abstained.
1:12:45 New Business
6.01 Election of Board of Health President and President Pro Tempore
Dr. Hendrickson asked to be considered for President, and was approved by unanimous roll call vote. Dr. Rood was nominated and approved as President Pro Tempore by unanimous roll call vote.
6.02.01 Financial Reports, Resolution 24-03-06-01-01 - Approved (see Agenda for information)
Board members mentioned that payments were short this month. Mr. Litke said there was not a lot happening this month, which is common at the beginning of the year. Ms. Brakey asked about a couple of items that seemed to be cut off on the written materials, and Mr. Litke said it was probably a printer issue.
6.02.02 Permission to Approve Appropriations for Increase/Decrease - No vote was taken.
6.02.03 Permission to Rescind November 2023 Appropriations for Increase/Decrease - Approved
Appropriations that were made for the House Bill 110 (HB110) program in case additional funds were needed proved to be unnecessary.
6.03 Permission to Approve the Amended 2025 Geauga Public Health Budget - Approved by roll call vote. Mr. Litke said the $1 million that will be paid for HB110 payments should not be included in the 2025 balance as it will have already been paid. Reviewer Note: The GPH Budget was approved at the April 1, 2024 Budget Commission meeting.
6.04 Sybr-Aer Review - A resident (Christopher Frato) had contacted GPH and asked to have his permit credited back to him. Mr. Lark provided the relevant dates.
Summary for 8145 Chagrin Road in Bainbridge:
January 1, 1990 – Barbara Nailler is listed on the Auditor site as owner of 8145 Chagrin Rd.
August 2, 2018 – Replacement permit issued to Klarich Farms, LLC, to install a Spray
system for Barbara Nailler. Approved in August of 2018. Sybr-Aer system used for
pretreatment. No information as to the reason the system was replaced.
August 17, 2018 – Christopher and Deborah Frato are listed as owners of 8145 Chagrin Rd.
July 15, 2021 – Alteration permit was issued to Klarich Farms for a tank replacement.
Existing Syber-Aer replaced with an Aquasafe AS500L. No documentation of the reason the system was changed.
July 30, 2021 – Property sold to Brian Luria, Trustee.
Ms. Brakey said it seems like the statute of limitations has run out on refunding permit fees for these systems. It has been multiple years since the issue occurred, and the property has changed hands. Mr. Lark said GPH did inspections so work was done in exchange for the permit fees. The Board decided not to refund the fee.
There was a brief discussion of upcoming conferences.
1:28:38 Public Comments
A resident asked what happens when there is a public record request and the information is already on the website. Mr. Likte said GPH is still required to provide the information, but oftentimes if he responds and tells the requestor where the information can be found, they will accept that as a response. This same resident said she had submitted a public records request asking the names of the people who had submitted previous records requests. She did not mention a time frame for this.
A resident asked whether the Health District Advisory Council (HDAC) meetings could be posted on the GPH website, since HDAC doesn’t have its own website. Mr. Litke said there are some problems with that since HDAC is not part of the health department and they aren’t represented by the GPH lawyers. Mr. Litke is concerned about liability in case the post is incorrect or something is missed. The Board said the meeting dates are usually included in the Board agendas. Ms. Brakey suggested asking the GPH attorney whether it would be advisable to post the HDAC meetings on the website, since the Board wants to be transparent about the meetings. This resident also mentioned that one reason for the cross-jurisdictional agreement (CJA) was to improve the ability to receive grants, and she asked whether this has happened. Mr. Graham said they are in the process of applying for a grant on cardiovascular health that is in this category. Mr. Lark said they applied for a mosquito surveillance control grant that included both counties. He also said that there was an emergency preparedness grant that Geauga would not have qualified for since they would not have had a health commissioner. Mr. Graham said he has reached out to the Cleveland Foundation to see about the possibility of getting a grant for things like senior services and services for the disabled.
Executive Session - There was no Executive Session.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:29 pm.
Next Regular Meeting: April 24 at 5 pm. All meetings are held at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH.
More Information: Geauga Public Health
Observer: Nina Lalich
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Sarah McGlone
Submission Date: March 28, 2024
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