Riley County
Commission February 23, 2015
Commissioners
Ron Wells and Ben Wilson present, Wells presiding. Commissioner Boyd was absent.
During the
review of the minutes of the February 19th meeting, regarding a
letter submitted by Counselor Clancy Holeman expressing some concerns about a
bill that might adversely affect public building commissions, Commissioner
Wilson said the minutes should reflect that he was not in favor of the letter
and, essentially, not in agreement with the other Commissioners positions on
public building commissions.
Robin Cole,
director of Pawnee Mental Health Center, discussed problems at Ossawatomie
State Hospital. In reaction to
overcrowding at the hospital federal officials have taken steps that could
cause OSH to lose up to 25% of its Medicaid income. The hospital now is refusing all voluntary
admissions – situations in which the individual knows he or she is mentally ill
and a danger to self or others and is willing to seek treatment at the
hospital. Only involuntary admissions
are now allowed – where the individual refuses treatment but is deemed to be a
threat to self or others.
Following
the first investigation, federal officials conducted a second investigation
that found that situations existed at the hospital which could be harmful to patients. The hospital has undertaken a $3 million
upgrade to come into compliance.
According to Cole the problems have been caused by negligence occurring
over many years. Another full inspection
will be underway again shortly.
SB 123 is a
bill that is of concern to physicians and mental health centers. It essentially would remove decisions as to
appropriate medication for patients with mental illness from the patient’s
physician and put it in the hands of Kansas’ three managed care
organizations. The concern is that the
patient’s physician knows how that individual reacts to a medication while the
managed care organization likely would choose medications without ever seeing
the patient.
Riley County
Health Department nurse Patti Grub provided an excellent presentation on the
importance of vaccines.
Allen Todd
in the appraiser’s office reported a 3% overall increase in sales prices for
real estate. The median cost for houses
has grown over the past year from $172,000 to $175,000.
County Clerk
Rich Vargo said the mail vote for the April 7 Riley County election closes at
noon on Tuesday. He noted an increase in
the number of voters due to the ease of mail-in voting.
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I am adding
a statement attached to the Final Minutes of February 9, as written and
submitted by Commissioner Wilson. The
vote was on signing an agreement to accept funds for the Meals on Wheels program.
“I very much
appreciate programs like Meals on Wheels that make it affordable for seniors to
live independently with access to good food.
But we always have to ask, ‘who is paying for it?’ And whenever we’re
talking about tax dollars, the answer is ‘everyone’. Those of us who are pretty well off may be
happy to pay a few extra dollars for a good cause like this, but too often we
forget about our other neighbors who are struggling to get by and literally
can’t afford it. I would be happy to spend my own money or volunteer my own
time to support these programs, but ultimately we are talking about other
people’s money and compassion can’t be coerced. I would much rather see community
organizations like charities and churches along with families, friends and
other individuals voluntarily provide services to those in need rather than the
federal government getting involved and forcing people to pay. I realize that it will take a lot of
volunteer work on someone’s part to organize this and raise the necessary
funds, and I can understand arguments that the government shouldn’t be cutting
funding to programs like these without first ensuring adequate private
funding. But as long as I prefer local,
private support over government bureaucracy I can’t in good conscience ask the
federal government to spend more tax money in this area.”
