Riley County-Manhattan Board of Health January 27, 2010

Observer Report

Dr. Paul Stagner, Board President, has resigned. Brady Burton, Vice President,was elected to replace him. Dr. Paul Hesse agreed to be Vice President and Doug Finney agreed to continue as Finance Chairman. Sharolyn Flaming-Jackson has completed a three year term. Charles Murphy, Administrator, extended his appreciation for her service. Bob Strawn representing the City Commission has been reappointed and all other county appointments have agreed to continue to serve.
The board discussed finding local funds to replace those cut by the state; most noticeable is the loss of food service inspection funds of $53,224. Prior to this cut there is also the loss of approximately $24,000 in sewer and water enforcement funds plus the loss of tobacco funds of approximately $83.000. Charles Murphy, Administrator, recommends seeking local tax dollars for the food inspection and the sewer/water enforcement but not the tobacco funds as “not as critical”. The board authorized Mr. Murphy to seek these funds. Mr. Murphy stated that the Health Department would continue these endeavors until it is known if the city and county will support them.
Lauren Palmer, board member from city staff, suggested that wording be used to try to prevent this request from becoming a permanent plan. i.e. allowing the state to continue to shirk its responsibilities and therefore either passing on the costs to the local level or endangering the public by cutting these services. Mr. Murphy noted that the state has started taking funds collected as fees. Mr. Strawn noted that the state sets the fee for child care inspections which will not equal the cost. Mr. Murphy also noted that interest income from investments meant to support the Health Department are “way down” and some expenses are up such as drug costs. He has requested reimbursement for the HINI vaccine program expenses and expects them to be close to what was spent.
Discussion of the 2009 finance report led to the request from Bob Strawn for monthly reports which he felt would be important in interest of transparency. Mr. Murphy felt that monthly reports might be misleading since supporting funds were not on any consistent basis depending on the requirements of the grants and the timing of other funding entities and some cooperative funding. Nevertheless Mr. Strawn thought monthly reports would be good to have. There was some discussion of perhaps quarterly reports. This issue was not settled.
The board voted to approve the write off of all bad debt for charitable care according to the board policy of doing this for accounts 2 years old. Mr. Murphy was pleased to note that the amount of $20,657 was half of last year’s amount of $40, 659.
He thought this was at least partly due to new software that helped in collecting these funds.
There was not time for the presentation concerning Smart Start and only a brief discussion of two issues requested by board member Karen McCulloh concerning IT needs for the department. A subcommittee to discuss this issue will be formed for later review. Ms. McCulloh also discussed a “Healthy Counties” program as related to the Health Department’s concerns.

Sue Cohen, Observer