Health Board Meets
Jan 10
Let's do some
background first.
Last Summer the County Commission found 3M dollars for Health Dept expansion, remodeling, rebuilding, or additions. That's free COVID money without a local match needed. FREE!
In the Fall a dimly lit letter (email actually) was written to the funders. That pee poor correspondence was OK'd by the Health Dept Board of Directors and penned by their Director Phillina Frame. In a nutshell, the letter included: we don't want your money.
Any free money is good money. To turn down the funds after 6 months of grant making efforts, dumb, dumber than a box of rocks as a matter of fact.
The actions of the Health Dept infuriated the County Commission (CCC) so badly, they demanded the Health Board convene a special meeting on the matter. We provided coverage of that Dec meeting on the COMMUNICATOR ONLINE newspaper section.
In public, during that special meeting, County Commissioners (all three were present) expressed their dismay, displeasure and embarrasment. To maintain civility, during that meeting, County Medical Officer Lela Patel MD did her best to keep things in order.
A long secret time was held where, in our opinion, it was a butt chewing session. We also think, during that closed door time, the arss chewing included, get another Director and for that matter, if the Board can't do better oversight, get another Board.
Since December, the CCC has been in patch up mode and working to get the $3M grant back on track. OK, that's a brief background as we know it
On Jan 10th the County Clay Board of Health held a public meeting. Dr Patel participated via an online service. Boardster Beth Hubbard was nowhere to be seen. Everybody in the room was masked up.
While Director Phillina Frame was present and sitting at the conference table, she neither ran the meeting nor spoke. Instead, Angela Brown made the remarks and went thru the various department presentations. It was obvious, change was in the air.
Remember the old West Virginia Civil Service Commission? It was an effort to take politics out of Govt hiring and firings. More recently, the Civil Service Commission changed it name to a Dept of Personnel. The "cast" rankings, or job classifications, remained.
Our local Health Dept is under that Dept of Personnel protocol. That means, a Director cannot be hired without going thru the rigors of the Dept of Personnel. To that end, we think the change to Angela Brown has been in the works and coming sometime real soon. When the announcement is made, Brown will be the next Health Dept Director.
The Health Dept is notorious for not following Open Meetings Law. For example, they NEVER provide attendees with an agenda. Another example, (they must be taking their cues from Dave Mullins of Sch Board fame), those wanting to participate in a public meeting, those folks have to register more than 15 minutes ahead of time. They also proclaim (in writing) that the public can only comment and are not allowed to ask questions of the public agency leadership.
For this Jan 10th meeting, Commissioner Fran King demanded an agenda and got it.
Got to tell ya listeners, with face masks on and people spaced out around the conference room, it was hard to hear everything spoken. In the way of new info, there was little.
One thing reported on was the Health Dept's new website. For those that want to take a gander, here's the link: https://www.cchdwv.org/. You might want to bookmark it for future reference.
It's one of those sites that require you to hunt around to find anything. If your looking for the COVID info, that can be easier found here: https://www.cchdwv.org/infectious-disease/covid-19
The heart of the battle was the $3M grant. During this meeting, Commissioner King reported that Terry Martin, after receiving a we promise to play better in the future letter, he is again working on the grant application. One issue for the grant is the decision to be made on rebuilding the current building or building a new facility or use the $$$ for some other purpose.
In 20 minutes the meeting adjourned. Next encounter comes Feb 7th at 4pm in the NH Dyer Health Dept Building on Main Street.
AW
Last Summer the County Commission found 3M dollars for Health Dept expansion, remodeling, rebuilding, or additions. That's free COVID money without a local match needed. FREE!
In the Fall a dimly lit letter (email actually) was written to the funders. That pee poor correspondence was OK'd by the Health Dept Board of Directors and penned by their Director Phillina Frame. In a nutshell, the letter included: we don't want your money.
Any free money is good money. To turn down the funds after 6 months of grant making efforts, dumb, dumber than a box of rocks as a matter of fact.
The actions of the Health Dept infuriated the County Commission (CCC) so badly, they demanded the Health Board convene a special meeting on the matter. We provided coverage of that Dec meeting on the COMMUNICATOR ONLINE newspaper section.
In public, during that special meeting, County Commissioners (all three were present) expressed their dismay, displeasure and embarrasment. To maintain civility, during that meeting, County Medical Officer Lela Patel MD did her best to keep things in order.
A long secret time was held where, in our opinion, it was a butt chewing session. We also think, during that closed door time, the arss chewing included, get another Director and for that matter, if the Board can't do better oversight, get another Board.
Since December, the CCC has been in patch up mode and working to get the $3M grant back on track. OK, that's a brief background as we know it
On Jan 10th the County Clay Board of Health held a public meeting. Dr Patel participated via an online service. Boardster Beth Hubbard was nowhere to be seen. Everybody in the room was masked up.
While Director Phillina Frame was present and sitting at the conference table, she neither ran the meeting nor spoke. Instead, Angela Brown made the remarks and went thru the various department presentations. It was obvious, change was in the air.
Remember the old West Virginia Civil Service Commission? It was an effort to take politics out of Govt hiring and firings. More recently, the Civil Service Commission changed it name to a Dept of Personnel. The "cast" rankings, or job classifications, remained.
Our local Health Dept is under that Dept of Personnel protocol. That means, a Director cannot be hired without going thru the rigors of the Dept of Personnel. To that end, we think the change to Angela Brown has been in the works and coming sometime real soon. When the announcement is made, Brown will be the next Health Dept Director.
The Health Dept is notorious for not following Open Meetings Law. For example, they NEVER provide attendees with an agenda. Another example, (they must be taking their cues from Dave Mullins of Sch Board fame), those wanting to participate in a public meeting, those folks have to register more than 15 minutes ahead of time. They also proclaim (in writing) that the public can only comment and are not allowed to ask questions of the public agency leadership.
For this Jan 10th meeting, Commissioner Fran King demanded an agenda and got it.
Got to tell ya listeners, with face masks on and people spaced out around the conference room, it was hard to hear everything spoken. In the way of new info, there was little.
One thing reported on was the Health Dept's new website. For those that want to take a gander, here's the link: https://www.cchdwv.org/. You might want to bookmark it for future reference.
It's one of those sites that require you to hunt around to find anything. If your looking for the COVID info, that can be easier found here: https://www.cchdwv.org/infectious-disease/covid-19
The heart of the battle was the $3M grant. During this meeting, Commissioner King reported that Terry Martin, after receiving a we promise to play better in the future letter, he is again working on the grant application. One issue for the grant is the decision to be made on rebuilding the current building or building a new facility or use the $$$ for some other purpose.
In 20 minutes the meeting adjourned. Next encounter comes Feb 7th at 4pm in the NH Dyer Health Dept Building on Main Street.
AW
Bd Chair Joyce McLaughlin County Commissioners
PA Angela Brown soon to be Health Dept Director on the left. That's Doctor Lela Patel on the screen in the background.
AW