Local News

Commissioners forced to rescind resolution on Board of Health charter

Jul 15, 2015

The Okanogan County Commissioners on Monday were forced to rescind a resolution passed just a week before, restructuring the Charter and the makeup of the Board of Health.

On July 6^th, the commissioners passed resolution 72-2015 that took the board from 6 members, the three commissioners and three from the cities, down to five members, the three commissioners and two appointed by the commissioners.

It’s not that the Commissioners don’t have the authority to do that, the problem with the resolution was that it was not published on the Commissioner’s agenda, and therefore the public had no knowledge that it was happening.

On Monday, the Commissioners held a public, and published on the agenda, meeting to discuss Public health and the resolution.

Public Health officials acknowledged that county commissioners have the authority to change the makeup of the health district’s board of directors, but how it was done was the problem.

Environmental health director Dave Hilton told the commissioners, “We’re taken aback simply by how it was done.”

During public testimony on Monday, several citizens expressed concerns about the lack of transparency of the commissioners. On citizen expressed concerns because she had been following the issue and had been to several meetings where the charter was supposed to be discussed and was not. Then the resolution changing the charter got passed without being published on the agenda, despite the Commissioners knowing there are many citizens concerned about this issue.

During their afternoon meeting with County Planning Director Perry Huston, he recommended that the commissioners rescind the resolution and put it on the agenda, published, at a later date. He acknowledged that the way the resolution was passed, was not the normal way of doing business.

During that afternoon meeting with Huston, commissioner Sheilah Kennedy moved to rescind the resolution and discuss the charter at the Board of Health meeting on Tuesday. That motion passed.

The resolution adopted last week cited the health district’s “poor financial condition” as a reason for the change.

Ralph Malone, Omak city administrator who was removed from the health board by last week’s action, said the three city representatives did once outvote the county commissioners a couple of years ago, when only two of the commissioners were in attendance.

The issue was over a 10 percent pay raise for public health employees, who, Malone said, hadn’t gotten a raise in seven years, and were making “substantially” less than other public health employees in Washington counties of similar size.

As chairman of the board who only votes when there’s a tie, Malone said, “I broke the tie in favor of granting the increase.”

Commissioner Sheilah Kennedy referred to that vote at Monday’s meeting, saying she’s concerned about the health district’s financial stability, and about giving public health employees a raise in a year when no other county employees got one. She said she’d like to see the health district become a county health department, overseen completely by the county.

Ella Robbins, the public health’s administrative coordinator, said she disagrees that the health district is in poor financial condition.

She said several issues caused the health district to use $100,000 from its reserves last year — including a 20 percent cut in funds from the county when other departments took only a 10 percent hit. But, she said, the health district is on track to repay its reserve fund by the end of 2016, largely through employee furloughs.

Robbins said that although only 12 percent of the health district’s $1.16 million budget this year comes from the county, the drop from $150,000 to $120,000 came at a time when other financial issues came into play.

The charter was discussed further during Tuesday’s Board of Health meeting with several members of the public speaking about their concerns about the changes proposed by the County Commissioners.

Andi Ervin, Executive Director of the Okanogan County Community Coalition told the board that she has concerns about the proposed changes to the board makeup. Ervin said, “Having attended many Board of Health meetings this year, I am concerned that the same individuals who created the financial concerns are now adopting a charter that would give them a clear majority on the Board.” Ervin explained that these commissioners cut Public Health’s budget by 20 percent when all other county departments only say a 10 percent cut. She said, “It is important for Public Health to have some autonomy and a board focus that protects the overall public health in the community.”

Okanogan County Planning Director Perry Huston gave the Board of Health an overview and history of how the commissioners came to the conclusion that they needed to make changes to be in compliance with the Charter.

Board Member Neysa Roley expressed her concerns that going to a five-member board would create and imbalance of power.

Commissioner Kennedy then asked Huston to confirm that by law the county commissioners are the board of health, and Huston said they “yes, they can be if that is what the commissioners desire. But right now the Board of Health is a 6 member board by charter.”

After much discussion, the board appointed a committee to make a recommendation on what the structure of the board should be and changes to the charter. That committee will report back with recommendations by the next Board of Health meeting.