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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOH minutes 022400MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 24, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Donna Cates 1 February 24, 2000 ORANGE COUNTY MISSION STATEMENT: To enhance the quality of life, promote the health, and preserve the environment for all the people in the Orange County Community. THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH met on Thursday, February 24, 2000 at the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS PRESENT: Barry Adler, Jonathan Klein, Rick Marinshaw, Mel Hurston, Janet Southerland, Barry Jacobs, Lee Werley, Martha Stucker BOARD OF HEALTH MEMBERS ABSENT: Ron Cammarata, Sandra Quinn, Brenda Crowder-Gaines STAFF PRESENT: Rosemary Summers, Health Director; John Sauls, Animal Control Services Director; Joyce Lee, Central Administrative Services Director; Ron Holdway, Environmental Health Services Director; Eileen Kugler, Personal Health Services Director. GUESTS PRESENT: Bethann Finndel, Jill Alhafez I. CALL TO ORDER Dr. Klein called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. and asked members to introduce themselves since there were new board members present. Lee Werley, the new pharmacist representative to the Board of Health was sworn in by Joan Terry, Clerk of Superior Court of Orange County. II. ACTION ITEMS A. Adoption of February 24, 2000 Board of Health Agenda and Approval of February 3, 2000 Board of Health minutes. There was one editorial change to the minutes, to change the slash to a period on page two, at the end of the second paragraph. The motion to approve the agenda of February 24, 2000 as stated was made by Barry Adler and seconded by Janet Southerland, and carried without dissent. The motion to accept the minutes as amended was made by Lee Werley and seconded by Barry Jacobs, and carried without dissent. III. REPORTS/ACTIONS FROM COMMITTEES A. Executive Committee 1. Guidelines for Conducting Committee Meetings Rosemary Summers presented the proposed "Guidelines" that were part of the Board packet. She informed the Board that there is no requirement in the open meeting law for public comment, that the Board is required to have meetings in places where the public may attend and listen to discussion, but there is no requirement to allow the public to speak. This is in contrast to a public hearing, where public comment is expected. This Board and the Health Department does want public input and comment. These guidelines attempt to strike a balance between receiving public comment and conducting the business of the Board in a timely manner. These same guidelines are intended to apply to committee meetings as well. It would help guide each meeting if the Chair clarifies at the beginning expectations for the meeting, especially if it is a single agenda item meeting. Some of the recent confusion around some issues is what the Board's limits are regarding actions it is authorized to take versus what people think the scope of the board’s authority is. An example is the review of the A.P.S. contract. The Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee is reviewing the provisions contained in the contract between the A.P.S. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 24, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Donna Cates 2 February 24, 2000 and the County for animal shelter operations. Part of that review includes reviewing the shelter procedures. The committee is not going to make any decisions regarding that contract, rather they are going to make recommendations to this Board both for changes they would like to see the A.P.S. make and changes they would recommend that this Board consider in revising the contract. Then this Board would look at those and forward recommendations to the Commissioners. Neither the Commissioners nor this Board or its committee has the authority to require the A.P.S. to do anything. The Commissioners have the authority to either renew the contract, not renew the contract, or ask that certain provisions be included in the contract. Understanding these limitations are important not only for the public, but for committee and Board members to understand. It would be useful for the chair to clarify the scope of the decision and the specific decisions needed at the beginning of the meeting. Page two contains procedural issues that may be subject to change tonight. The sign-up sheets, meeting summaries, and minutes are part of the recommended procedures to be followed. The public does not have any input into the content of the minutes. Presenters who have been invited to meetings can speak to clarify what they said, but it is the committees or Board's responsibility to make sure minutes are correct. There are other requirements the Department must follow regarding access to public documents, and sometimes the distinctions between open meeting law and public access to documents is confusing. Neither the Board nor the Department is required to provide copies of attachments to the agenda at the meeting, nor are we required to send them to people ahead of time. We are required to make them publicly available. The Department's current procedure for the Board of Health meetings is to make a complete agenda packet available at the Orange County Public Library, the Chapel Hill Public Library, the Clerk’s office to the Commissioners. If public members want to look at a complete agenda packet they can access it in those locations. We do bring extra copies to the meeting as a courtesy. The proposed room set-up is intended to have committee members be able to see each other as well as to have some clarity of who is a committee member and who is a member of the public or an invited presenter. Barry Jacobs commented that he thought the guidelines were very important, because while most meetings tend to be very civil, at other times we may have issues that inspire people to be more aggressive. It’s good to have a standard way of dealing with things up front. He used as an illustration the Planning Board Ordinance Review Committee, made up of three people that reviews mobile home park standards. When the three committee members started the meeting, there were so many people from the public in attendance that they had to move into the big room at the courthouse. It’s times like this that it’s good to have a structure you can rely on. Rick Marinshaw suggested that the number of minutes allowed for public comment is 3-5 minutes per person. While it's good to have it specified up front, if there is just one person you have more flexibility and could allow them more time for comments, but if you have 30 or 40 people, it really is important to keep it moving and short. That should be left to the discretion of whoever is running the meeting. For committee meetings, it would be good to state in the beginning that it’s not a public hearing. If it is a committee meeting, we should make it known that the committee will not be making any final decisions, we’re just trying to gather information to present to the board. The full board will vote on it to make any final decisions. We should make known what the committee has the authority to do. I think that it’s good to state up front the expectations of the meeting before you say who is going to make presentations. That leads into what the meeting is about and what you expect to do. Then it leads into who is giving presentations or giving reports. It would also be useful to mention to the public that written comments could be submitted to the Health Director or the Board. MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 24, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Donna Cates 3 February 24, 2000 A motion was made by Mel Hurston and seconded by Martha Stucker to approve the guidelines with the understanding that the bullets are not in any particular order, but are recommendations for committee chairs to follow in conducting meetings with an additional provision for written comments to be sent by the public to the Board of Health or the Health Director. The motion carried without dissent. A friendly amendment was approved that specified that staff would be allowed to ask questions during the meeting. 2. April Board of Health Work Session Dr. Klein asked for the Board to select a date and the topics for the spring work session. Typically there are two sessions a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The Board uses this as an opportunity to discuss “hot” topics in detail. No final decisions are made during these sessions since they are "advertised" as work sessions rather than regular meetings. There was some confusion regarding whether the work sessions were considered open meetings and Rosemary Summers clarified that they are considered open meetings. She said that there was no specific prohibition from making decisions at work sessions, rather the Board had adopted that procedure by custom. Dr. Klein reminded the Board that the last work session discussed three separate issues. The first was intensive livestock, the second was defining safety net services, and the last was Dental Health expansion. Three issues filled the time frame of the session. Several years ago the Board used the work sessions to define the Board of Health goals. Dr. Klein's suggestion is that perhaps in the fall the Board should consider redefining Board goals since at least half of the Board will be new members. The staff is suggesting three items for the spring work session agenda. Members discussed at length whether to use the work session for orientation of new board members versus discussion of specific issues. It was generally decided that orientation of new board members would occur prior to the April work session and that the April session would begin to focus on the Board's development of new directions or new goals. To that end, it was recommended that the work session consist of: 1) a brief presentation on community diagnosis with an eye to the integration efforts of all the various parties that are conducting or have conducted various community assessments. Short data summaries but not an involved data presentation is desired. 2) A list of "hot topic" or "top ten statewide concerns" would be presented by staff. 3) A list of local "hot topics" or "issues of concern" that the Board should consider (examples by Board members included well testing in landfill area, Shearon Harris evacuation plans, air quality issues). The discussion are intended to be general in nature in developing and refining these lists, not necessarily inclusive or exclusive for the work session. The Board members' preferences were to hold the work session on Friday afternoon beginning with lunch at 12:30 with the business portion of the agenda to begin at 1:00 p.m. Members expressed a preference for the session to be held at Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill. B. Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee 1. Report on Adult Care Homes Dr. Klein asked Rick Marinshaw to report for the Animal Control and Environmental Health Committee. Rick Marinshaw called attention to the meeting summary for the committee meeting that was held regarding Adult Care Homes, as a report of what had taken place at the meeting. This was a joint meeting with the Dental and Personal Health Service Committee. The Adult Care Home issue was brought to the committee by Sherry Rosemond who is the Chair of the Orange County Adult Care Home Advisory Committee (ACHAC), that functions in relationship to the Department of Aging in the county. The ACHAC has two MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 24, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Donna Cates 4 February 24, 2000 primary concerns, various hygiene and facility issues and personal care issues with certain homes. Regulation, compliance authority, sanctions, etc. are confusing in this area since they are split between state agencies and local agencies. The Committee spent a fair amount of time trying to understand the issues in this area and what the Health Department's role in this might be. The ACHAC is organizing a roundtable discussion to be held in the fall to clarify many of the issues and discuss strategic approaches to impacting the problems. Agencies that currently deal with this population will be invited to the table and the health department is one of those. Currently the health department's involvement in this area is limited to environmental health inspection of the homes as part of its regular institutional inspection program. Personal Health Services has not been involved with this population due to staffing limitations. Barry Jacobs added that Commissioner Carey is on a committee of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners that is dealing with issues regarding the aging population. Mr. Jacobs reported that some of Orange County's local legislators are interesting in trying to work on these issues as well. He stated that he thought there should be more responsibility on the state to fund local levels appropriately to monitor situations such as this one rather than trying to manage it from the state level that seems to be ineffective. 2. Update on Animal Shelter Review The Committee met to continue its process, but has nothing further to report at this time. 3. FY 98-99 Animal Control Program Report John Sauls, Animal Control Services Director presented annual statistics from the Animal Control Services Division for the fiscal year 1998-99. Please see copies of overheads for further information. C. Dental and Personal Health Committee 1. Memorandum of Agreement Renewal with UNC School of Dentistry for Smart Start Grant This is an annual renewal of the agreement with the School of Dentistry for the services of project staff for the preschool screening and education project funded by the Orange County Partnership for Young Children (Smart Start) with the Health Department. A motion was made by Mel Hurston and seconded by Janet Southerland to approve the renewal of the memorandum of agreement as presented in the Board packet. The motion carried without dissent. 2. FY 98-99 Program Report Eileen Kugler, Personal Health Services Director presented annual statistics from the Personal Health Services Division for the fiscal year 1998-99. Please see copies of overheads for further information. D. Community Programs Committee 1. FY 98-99 Health Education Program Report Cornelia Ramsey, Health Promotion and Education Services Director and Louise Echols, Health Educator presented annual statistics from Health Education for fiscal year 1998-99 and gave the Board an overview of health education theory and practice. IV. Board Member Comments Dr. Klein introduced the last agenda item "Board Comments" which is new. This is intended to develop future agenda items that are board driven. Dr. Klein began with his of interest. He MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 24, 2000 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Donna Cates 5 February 24, 2000 expressed a desire for Orange County to be known as "Orange, the County for Health" or "Orange, the County of Health." The Durham signs declaring it the “City of Medicine” inspire this. Dr. Klein feels that this county represents the best of health with very strong university schools of public health, nursing, pharmacy, and a great Health Department. An identification of "Health" as a central issue for our county might have some effect on community perceptions of what they need to do to maintain their health and that it's important to set up different programs around the theme of Health in Orange County as they have in Durham. There was some discussion around how to approach this further and it was agree d that the Board could discuss it further at the April work session. Dr. Southerland commented that she felt that the Board needed to review the Board's mission statement, that perhaps could be done as a part of a goal review at the retreat and that there is a need to do a bylaws review. For example, the state law says we must have an engineer on the Board, but our present bylaws don’t specify that. The latter matter was referred to the Nominating and By-laws Committee for review and action. V. Public Comments None. VI. Adjournment The motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Mel Hurston, seconded by Janet Southerland and was unanimously passed. Respectfully submitted, Rosemary L. Summers, MPH, DrPH Health Director Secretary to the Board