 The board consists of
eight voting members plus Mark Hilliard, health department
administrator; Margie Harris, assistant administrator; and Sally Gosda, director of finance.For this month's meeting, five members
of the board were present: Todd Walker, vice president; Mike Rohrer,
secretary-treasurer; Dr. Paul Kasa, medical adviser; Maxine Lolling;
and Dr. Richard Bivin.
The topic of greatest concern was the financial condition of the
agency. There was also a discussion concerning public properties
that pose public health concerns in the county.
Gosda discusses finances
The county health department relies heavily on grants and
reimbursements from the state of Illinois for the funding of its
daily operations.
Like every other state-funded entity in Illinois, the local
agency is feeling the bite of the state's inability to pay its
obligations and therefore is running with a serious cash deficit.
Gosda reported that as of the end of June, the agency is in the
red to the tune of $588,000.
While programs are operating within their budgets, lack of
payment from the state means that the agency is paying its
obligations from the general fund with very little money coming into
it.
Gosda reported that the agency had received some payments in
June, including $31,600 from the Local Health Protection Grant. She
explained that this is funding that is normally received in late
December or early January, meaning the state is about six months
behind in making that payment.
In addition, the agency received a $27,000 reimbursement for the
Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. However, Gosda noted
that the money received was reimbursement due from October of 2009.
Finally, she reported a receipt of $13,000 for the Family Case
Management program, and she said that in total the funding received
came to approximately $90,000, leaving the agency $63,000 in the
hole for the month of June.
When the board held a special meeting in June, one of the
programs they were most concerned about was the Illinois Breast and
Cervical Cancer Program. The board heard then that the program was
not receiving its reimbursements, but in addition there had been no
indication as of that date that the state would continue to fund the
program.
Monday night Gosda said that the health department had received a
one-page summary of funding for the year that did include the IBCCP.
The Illinois Department of Human Services grant that covers WIC,
Teen Parent Services, HealthWorks and Family Case Management has
been awarded for the coming year, but Gosda noted that overall the
funding decreased by just over $2,000.
HealthWorks is the second program that was an issue at the
special meeting in June. Gosda noted that this program was listed in
the DHS grant, but that the county department had also heard from
the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that they
will be taking over that funding, which will be a plus for the local
agency.
Harris noted that this means that 75 percent of the funding for
HealthWorks will come from the federal level, which equates to a
better pay schedule. She said that payments on the grant would be
made quarterly, which should help that program run more smoothly.
Hilliard reports on recent changes in the state comptroller's
office
The state of Illinois runs on a fiscal year of July 1 through
June 30. According to its own laws, once the fiscal year closes, the
comptroller's office has 60 days to settle all the old accounts.
Generally speaking this means that agencies such as the county
health department have known in the past that even if the state is
running behind, they have to get caught up by the end of August each
year.
However, the state recently extended its own grace period for
covering old obligations to the end of the calendar year.
Hilliard read excerpts from an e-newsletter he'd received from
the administrators association late last week.
In summary, the newsletter warned that because the state has
extended its own grace period, the odds of any new fiscal year money
being paid before January of 2011 are highly unlikely.
It is also highly unlikely that any of the old obligations will
be settled in a timely fashion.
Hilliard said that as he had predicted at the special meeting in
June, this means that the state is going to continue falling further
behind in its payments as it uses new fiscal year revenues to pay
past year obligations.
He also noted that this was going to make local support such as
tax payments from the county all that much more important for the
daily operations of the department.
[to top of second column]
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 Health department assists county in cleaning up
problem properties
It was observed in March that some of the problem properties in
the unincorporated areas of the county fall under the county's
junkyard ordinance. Will D'Andrea, Logan County's zoning officer,
identified that the ordinance had a lot of health department
language in its definitions for enforcement and jurisdiction,
inspection and penalties. There is a renewed attempt under way to
clean up these problem properties.
Many of these nuisance properties have an environmental violation
aspect. As such, the health department's director of environmental
health, Don Cavi, was asked in April to participate in attempting to
get property owners to clean up these properties. Cavi's duties
include issuing citations for county ordinance violations as they
pertain to public health and safety.
The Logan County Board's liaison, David Hepler, was absent from
the Monday night meeting of the Board of Health, and Hilliard
relayed information from Hepler.
When the county board's planning and zoning committee met earlier
this month, Hepler had heard from Cavi. According to Hepler, Cavi
has issued some citations and sent e-mails to the state's attorney's
office, but no response about the status of those citations has been
received.
Hepler asked Hilliard to follow through with this issue and
discuss it with the board members present.
Hilliard read from the Illinois State Code a portion that said it
was the duty of the state's attorney to prosecute health code
violations in a timely manner.
He said that Hepler had suggested that the next step should be a
letter to the attorney, Michael McIntosh, expressing the concerns of the board on this
issue.
Hilliard asked for approval to put together such a letter and
received the full support of the board.
Other health department news
Harris reported that a $19,000 immunization grant that was
awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is
nearing its completion with funds remaining. She has requested and
received permission to use the remaining funds for the purchase of a
vaccine cooler unit.
She said that this cooler, coupled with a large refrigerator that
was purchased with H1N1 funding, will replace three old refrigerators
previously used in the Lincoln facility.
The board also went through a revision of the personnel policies
for health department employees. Hilliard told the board that the
majority of the work had focused on clearing up the language and
clarifying certain portions of the policy.
He went through the new document with the board, noting
clarifications in flextime policy, overtime policy and dress code as
well as minor changes in the grievance procedure and a change in
meal reimbursement policy for local travel.
Hilliard also reported that the Illinois Project for Local
Assessment of Needs is still under construction.
Kristi Melton, a Logan County native currently studying for her
master's in public health at the University of Illinois Springfield,
facilitated meetings of the Community Health Committee earlier this
year and is currently compiling information, which will be ready for
submission to the State Board of Health later this fall.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Logan County Board of Health is scheduled
for Sept. 13.
Under the Illinois Open Meetings Act, anyone who is interested in
attending these meetings is invited to do so.
[By NILA SMITH]
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