- All right, hi there. It is June 26th, 2025. Hello everybody in the room and everybody online. I'm gonna follow this meeting of Monroe County Board of Health to order gavel. I wanna just say that we will have limited public comment today at the end of the meeting and limited only by timeframe, because we don't wanna be here till midnight, but we will open it up
- and we're going to be talking about our draft public comment policy first. We thought that was a better way to do it so that people that wanted to comment, because they were concerned about that, could hear our discussion first and then hopefully make their comments pertaining to what it was we had discussed. Ms. Walter. Hey there. So I came thinking that the public comment would be first, because I've got
- another commitment. So can I leave my comments? You can either leave them or you can send them to the board email for more of a public record. But if you leave them, somebody can read them. I don't know. That's what I'm saying. I'll just, I'll just, what, what is the right, my, my copy. So what is the right,
- email them. Board of Health. Okay. Oh, one word Board of Health at co.monroe.in.us. And I apologize in advance if my comments are irrelevant. I get it. I get it. See, that's why we thought it would be smarter tonight to have the public comment after our discussion because then people might say, Oh, never mind. Yeah. Yeah.
- But you're going to talk about other things first, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And I don't want to let her out. Thank you. Thank you for coming. All right. Let's go right into it. Approval of previous meeting minutes. I read them. They looked good to me. Does anybody have any changes on minutes? If you guys see anything that wasn't quite right.
- I move we adopt them as written. We have a move. I'll second that. Second. Motion? All in favor? Aye. Minutes are adopted. We have missed it. Where is Diane? We do not know. Has she been present for the two meetings? We can probably talk about this after this. That's okay.
- Lori has some important things to share with us that might not be printed. So I'm going to turn it over. Some pretty things. Some pretty things too. Some pretty things too, yay! Don't print this.
- So quite a few things. So the maternal nutrition program from bump to baby is set to begin with the first session starting July 9th. So this program will run one day a week for four weeks at the Monroe County Public Library Southwest Branch teaching kitchen from four to five p.m.
- This is going to provide prenatal and postnatal nutrition education recipes, information on common maternal complications. The maximum capacity is 15 participants just due to space, but we are promoting it and we've had a few individuals sign up already. If you guys haven't ever seen that space, it is amazing. It's beautiful. It will blow your mind.
- Thank you. Our school liaison is addressing three core service KPIs this year. I met with her just for a monthly check-in earlier today. So she's focusing some areas on trauma and injury prevention, maternal and child health, and tobacco and vaping prevention and cessation. So as part of her goals so far this year, she's hosted 10 CPR classes for school personnel.
- for safe center classes to middle school students and has a goal of providing tobacco education to 500 students this year. I'm curious about the second one in there. So is that so that they understand what it takes or so that when they're babysitting, they understand children, what's the meaning between maternal and child health?
- that it because the safe sitter classes kind of fall under that category. We did recently assist with providing new AED supplies to some of the schools in need. This was including schools with MCC SC Seven Oaks and Harmony. Today the commissioners approved the service agreement for contaminated homes due to the methamphetamine lab so that
- came to the board previously. So that's now been approved and we'll begin working with the contractor to clear those homes from the list. If we're able to clear all of the 11 homes to our knowledge, it would be the only county in the state with zero homes listed as contaminated properties. So I think environmental is really excited about this.
- Public health preparedness had a power outage workshop on June 11th. Home preparedness kits were distributed. All employees in the department are currently working on updates for our continuity of operations plans. This is going to be reviewed and discussed further in group activities when we have the department meeting in August.
- Additionally, in environmental, so education is going to be provided on tick awareness with leaders at Wheeler Mission and Beacon on July 16th. Cody has been invited to attend a GIS training in July with the surveyors office, so he's pretty excited about that. And Alyssa, the senior food specialist, has completed the Indiana food allergy awareness training.
- The fall prevention class movement for fall prevention program at Governor Park is going well. The classes are a mixture of Tai Chi movements and balance, and participants are receiving little handouts with movements that they can practice on their own throughout the week.
- both received scholarships to attend a workshop on wastewater monitoring for public health action on July 14th. This is going to be hosted in California. Costs are being covered by the scholarship. So this is through the National Association of County and City Health Officials. So I'm pretty excited about that and what we can learn.
- In July, requests are being made to the County Council to move all currently funded Health First Indiana positions except for the Health Administrator and Director of Vital Records and Administrative Support to the County Fund. So the reason for this is due to the legislative changes that are requiring the HFI funds to be used on services for Indiana residents lawfully in the United States.
- Our tobacco cessation programming will suspend as of July 1st. If approved by council to move employees and programming under county funding, super services will resume at that time. If the maternal and child health coordinator, if we can secure that position under alternative funding, she is planning to partner with our school liaison on providing that education at the schools.
- Kathy Hertz and I met with county attorneys Molly and Justin recently to discuss these legislative changes. Legal has advised that we need to obtain proof of identification in Indiana residency from individuals receiving services and supplies that are funded through Health First Indiana dollars. So we're planning on
- placing a statement to the website. We'll be updating our internal forms on this statement and the purpose. And identification will be birth certificate, passport, certificate of citizenship, and a document for proof of address. Some of the programs that are going to be impacted will be our maternal child health and behavioral health and wellness services.
- We've really put a lot of money into supplies for those positions so also that fresh, fresh program. Yes, and I was getting ready to talk about that no no no you're fine.
- Due to these changes, we will no longer be moving forward with health net for that program. So we, we understand that it would be a really challenging situation for for health net to to navigate Christina and I.
- met with them and discussed that, we certainly understand. So Christina and I met this morning with the individual who oversees the County Veterans Office and we're making plans to discuss working with the Bloomington Clinic to see if we can offer that Fresh Connect program that way.
- An offer has been accepted for the disease intervention specialist position. We are still waiting to see if we can receive approval for a fourth position. The amended contract with the additional funding is expected to be sent out in July. If we are unable to obtain approval for the additional position, we would need to return those grant funds that are being sent.
- We're currently assisting with two of the additional new counties and the Indiana Department of Health is assisting with covering the other two additional. And I was going to review some budget updates. Which version did you want up the Excel spreadsheet? Yeah, both the original one and Eric's. Probably Eric's.
- Let's see. So there are a lot of old funds and grants that Eric has and I have been trying to work with the auditor's office to go through and, you know, clean up, reconcile and see essentially kind of what to do with this money. Are you able to zoom out maybe at all with some of these notes?
- Might be hard for me to see, but oh, okay. Yeah, so some of these in these date backs, some of the grants go all the way back to like, around 2013 or 2014. So, some of these we have been able to work through reconcile.
- figure out kind of how to move forward to either spend or return the funds and close the accounts out. But there's really still just a lot more work left to do. And what we're finding is that this is really taking a lot of our time and attention away from current business. Some of these, I mean, they're so old, trying to find documentation is really challenging.
- We don't even, some of it dates back to where the budget system wasn't even being used at that time. So trying to find records and documentation on that has been challenging. Is there a chance that somebody a year or two from now could try to call back some money and that it's not there then because we've gotten rid of it? Well, I think the intention, what we're trying to do is find out, is there a contact that we can say, how do we send this money back? Or can you approve for us to
- We have it and spend it and some of these offices are have been closed and it's really challenging to find a contact. So I think that. You know, we're kind of just looking for direction and guidance on how to move forward. Can you say? Can you?
- If you've made every attempt you can make and let's say the office is closed or you can't find a contact person, like it's just not possible. To me, that should be your end point and you send it back to the audience. Is that okay? What are they instructing you to do further? Because I don't, you're not a magician.
- to find a contact, to follow what was outlined in the current original grant terms, which many of these have expired. Some of them, some of them we've still been looking for. Some of the documents we've been able, or Eric's been able to find this week just because sorting through other folders. And so they were just kind of- And is all state grants? No.
- Yeah, so what are the other funding sources? So some of them are local. And so some of those have been a little bit challenging too. And because local, but so kind of buffeted into one, but numerous different like grants and stuff to then try to. And do we know why the county auditor's office didn't take care of this in a timely manner?
- or tell the department in 2013, or whenever it was, that it needed to be taken care of, I do not. It's a great opportunity, you know, just extra money we can apply for something we really want to do. It doesn't sound like that's the goal. So I think there are how many funds total? How many buckets, so to speak? Let's see. One, two, three.
- four, five, six, seven, eight. And so there's a few different ones in my one fund, so. So my thought is that you have spent all this time and effort trying to do due diligence. Some of the offices are even closed. There's no finding a paper trail.
- In order to make life similar, my proposal would be that anything less than $30,000, we just suggest to the auditor, we don't have a paper trail for this. You figure out how we send this money back to you because we can't be responsible for the step by step by step. And we don't want to be held accountable later on when you say, well, where's the documentation for this?
- So, and they didn't do it in 2013 and 2014. And some of, one of them's in Ebola preparedness. Well, this is in. That was quite a while ago. So I propose that all of those, we communicate with the auditor. We've done our due diligence. You've spent several months on this. We will send these funds back to you. You figure out how to, where to apply them, et cetera. That's not our responsibility.
- The funds that are over 30,000, if we can't have a paper trail or can't figure that out within a timeframe, such as another 60 days, because it's very difficult for Eric and you to contact all the people, then we ask, I assume, can we go to the council then and ask to have those funds re-appropriated into our general fund
- so that it's sort of cleaned up once and for all, or how does that work? I think that the goal with a lot of these, which some of them, the goal of the auditor's office was that they would have been kind of reconciled and spent last year, and then now recently this year to see if we can finish doing this and figure out which ones can be spent, get those spent, which ones have to be returned, and then go through the process of returning that.
- Of course, we're happy to keep working on this. And I mean, Eric has done a really great job working through all of these, and I know that he will. I just don't know that we could even make the deadline by the end of this year. It takes so long, and there's a part of me, those bold future grants, I almost feel like we would need an independent contractor to help go through and reconcile some of these.
- And one of the most extreme examples of this was how many hours or weeks that we spend trying to find one cent that one of these old grants was off. You didn't have any idea, Eric? No, that one was, I think it was probably about a week. Yeah, spent a week trying to find a penny. I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, we have other job duties to take care of. I mean, that's an extreme example.
- But that's the kind of thing that we're being asked to do. And that's just beyond all reason. And it's just that- So how much due diligence do you think we have to do to protect ourselves from somebody coming after us later and saying, you owe us 30,000 back or something? There's no rule. If you can't find the documentation, you're kind of hanging out there. You don't have to post it publicly or anything for people who are out there.
- So are you saying the best course would be to, we could actually do something with that money or return it? I mean, I think the best course is to keep looking and see what you can find. Because we don't know, I mean, I don't know what the grant agreement says. Yeah. So I can't tell you whether they address that, what to do with unused funds.
- So why is that Lori's responsibility or our responsibility in this is 2025 and some of these things are back to 2013? How do we how do we mitigate that? Because we have the Board of Health. We have all of our other stuff to do to to conduct business and this is a lot of time that we're being asked to do. So how would you recommend we would recommend you address it when you have time?
- It's a health board grant. So if you're asking the auditor to research that for you, they might just say, no, that's your grant. You know, you're responsible for it. And you'll figure it out when you figure it out. Well, I think the two is they've given us a deadline, right? By the time they've already wanted it, right?
- Yes, but I mean, I think they express that they realize that there's a lot more of these than in some of the other departments. But I think, well, number one, you know, being held responsible for something that we weren't.
- we didn't actually obtain the grants. I don't feel comfortable moving forward with these until I have something in writing that I know exactly what you can and cannot do with the funds moving forward. And so I'm just not going to make a decision on what to do with the dollars until I have that solid documentation to go off of. It's just going to take time. And I don't think that
- It would, I don't think all of this can be worked out before the end of this year. Or if it can, then I don't want to make an employee work overtime on these. It's just going to have to be a matter of, if we can slowly work away at it as we're able, then we'll keep doing that. Sounds like that's what James has been about to do.
- Sounds like that's yeah, that's maybe that's what we need to do. So what what would the process be to return funds? If we are not able to. Get the documentation we need for whatever reason. What is the process Dave to return funds? How does that look? What does how? What's that process?
- Well, you would just submit a claim if you if you were able to determine where the funds are supposed to go, either submit a claim and now write a check to whoever is entitled to it. OK, and that's the easy part. Sorry, not any other question. Is there a possible audio?
- contacting the funding agency and saying, we can't find the documentation. I mean, I'm not sure you would do that. Are we allowed to just keep this money and still spend it? Are we? Well, obviously, the Ebola preparedness, you know, that's, that's why we're over the dam. So what do you do with that money? And we know what came from the state, right? So, couldn't you call somebody, they won't
- somebody in the state auditor's office or something to say, we've got this money. How do we get it back to you? Yes. So, and we've done that a little bit. Was it with a bio, the bioterrorism? What about contacting like preparedness individuals asking like, hey, do you know who else we can ask? Yeah, certainly the bioterrorism, we contacted the contract, although there was more to it. It wasn't the correct contract, but they said,
- depending upon style or type of grant it is, whether it's reimbursable grant or a deliverable grant, will vary as far as how we can or if we can return the money. And that reimbursable is supposed to spend the expended the money and then the state can reimburse us for getting those expenses. So it's truly the county's money on that side. So, but yeah,
- We just have to go through their process to get sending it back. And so going forward from here, the current contracts that we just signed recently, how do we not let them end up being in the same situation 10 years from now when we're all gone? So just staying on top of it. So there was some money recently that we just had to send back that wasn't spent. And so just doing that in a timely manner rather than carrying that over.
- By the way, we did find that penny. We did. We did find it. Thanks a minute. It's locating the documents. This is the hardest part. Thank you, Eric. I can't even imagine what it's been like trying to dig through this mess. And I appreciate all of the idle records in there.
- efforts to make this work because it looks like an actual forest and there are way too many trees and I'm sorry they weren't cut down a long time ago. It sounds to me like we need to let the auditor's office know that we will continue working on this but
- we will need an extension on their timelines and we will finish when we possibly can, but we will continue to work on it. Any other questions? That was really wonderful. Thank you. Before we get to the next item, I forgot to mention something. We are piloting a new online forms for those of you that are online.
- If you think that you're going to want to make a public comment at the end of the meeting, I'd like to tell you where our new forum is. And if it doesn't work, we'll try some other method, but we're hoping this is going to be awesome. So in order to track, just like we do, if you were in the room, we have folks who want to make public comments, sign up on a sheet of paper so that we can make sure to know who everybody is. And then, Connie.
- Make sure everyone gets heard. We now have an online form so and we wanted to put it in the chat, but the chat has been turned off. So if you wouldn't mind if you think you want to say something later, it's on the county's web page. So co.monroe.in.us you would go to the events calendar. You would pick today's date. You would find the Health Department meeting and it is
- Right there under event description and it's really short. Just open it up, fill it out and we will receive it and that way when we open it up for public comment will know who all of you are and will be able to call on you. Thank you. Review of draft new board member orientation documents so. We think this this is something we had.
- It's been a long time since we had new board members, but as you know, this year we got two new board members. And it occurred to a couple of us that even though they get a great packet from the commissioners and it has some information from the state as well, it's very, I mean, it is a great packet. It's not unique to how we do business. And so several of us had just stuck a lot of our ideas
- in one document, and that's what you will see in your packet. And it's simply things like how we run our meetings here as opposed to some other county health department. And I guess I would like to make this, Steve has a couple minor changes, just things like to make it more of a living document rather than, for example, calling the health administrator sheet
- which in the future we may not have a sheet, right? So we're gonna meet those changes. But other than that, I was hoping that we could kind of all kind of say, yeah, this looks good. And we'll change it in the future as needed, but it would just be something that when we got a new board member, we'd be able to add to their packet to maybe help make our process a little less mysterious. As an old board member,
- I would have appreciated having this in my hands at the time when I signed on. Me too. I think it gives a lot of good, kind of straightforward, easy to digest bullet-pointed information. Thank you. Well, I had help from others. Well, I had one comment. On the second page, you talked about tobacco cessation is recommended.
- And we received something about Health First Indiana funds could not be used for that. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's going to need to be updated as things change. You're right. So that would need to be taken now, I guess. Yeah. So I don't mind editing this if you guys
- If you guys want to go through this document and make changes right on it and give it to me, I'll just collect them all. I'll fix it up. I'm not sure we need to vote. Do we need to vote? It's actually, I don't know. It's just part of the package. It's internal. It does have little stars on it, you're right, Lee, but it's really internal.
- So yeah, so by the end of the meeting, if you guys could just give me your changes on that, that would be great. And thanks. I think it would be helpful for these people too. OK, review and discussion of draft policy on public comment. So you all have a copy of this. I'm sorry it's messy. I want to say thank you so much to the board members that worked on putting this together. And thank you to Dave for his legal advice.
- We incorporated some of that. And I think there's a lot here, especially in the beginning, that's probably not going to be too controversial for folks. I think we pretty much agree on a lot of the beginning things. We'll allow public comment at regular meetings, at special meetings, possibly at public comment only sessions, of course. That's what they're for.
- And so then I think if we're able to kind of hash through the rest of this, what I'm hoping tonight is if we could come up with a second draft that we all feel like is about as good as we can make it, then we can have a public session in July and let the public do nothing. It won't be a board meeting. It will just be to hear public comment.
- on the public comment policy, because this body has never had a public comment policy. And we've done things exactly the same way, always. And I think it's good sometimes to have things in writing. So I wanna thank those who worked on it. And if we could, I guess I'd suggest- How are we gonna have discussion on when we haven't really, no one else has?
- They're not discussing it right now. We're discussing it. We're going to have discussion with them after we have a second draft after tonight. We're going to post. So I thought you said public comments were at the end today. They are. They might have something to do with this. Maybe on what we've discussed after. Yeah. Yeah. What we've discussed.
- So I think the first, if you start with two, I guess the first thing, sign up individuals wishing to speak must sign up before the meeting begins, either in person or via an online forum. So I just have issues with that part. I have issues with three parts. The first part is the sign up. I just feel really strongly that people should be able to either show up at the meeting
- or raise their hand online and be addressed and not have to sign up ahead of time. That's just my... But they are signing up ahead of time. It's right there. They've signed up before the meeting begins. This is a change in the policy or they've always done it? We have no policy, Lisa. I know that. I'm saying I disagree with... Well, we do have a policy and that's the Indiana Open Door.
- Section 15, I mean, we follow that, and that's what we've done in the past. When people come in the room, they're asked to sign in if they want to make public comment, right? I'm just saying, I'm saying I don't think they should have to sign up ahead of time. That was my interpretation of. You mean prior to the meeting? Correct, that they can just come to the meeting and sign a sign in sheet and or raise their hand on online.
- like we've always done. I guess that part, no. Am I incorrect? In the past, we did have a sign up sheet just to know who they were. Okay. You know, and we could say, Sally, you're next or da da da. So they would sign up with their name. But I think you're saying sign up prior. I mean, like hours or days. I'm sorry, that person sign up ahead of time online as opposed to
- right before the meeting is what I'm saying. No, we've not. Yeah, I agree with you on that. OK, so does the does the person who was here who drafted this document wish to say anything about the logic? Well, it's been our practice that people show up in person and sign in at the door. We are now in a new era where online.
- people can sign up. And it seems a little awkward to have someone just raise their hand and then somehow sign in. That's, oh, I'm sorry. I agree. Okay. So, I mean, we could do it that way, I suppose, argue that they could not. Piloting the online form or sign up tonight to see how it works. So we're going to have more information.
- about that, but we're trying to make it equal between those in the room and those online. Okay, so what was the quote, the unsaid policy before this policy? What is that quote policy that we're trying to work through? People would sign up when they came through the door. Right. And so how would the online people indicate they wanted to speak? Raise their hand. Okay. And then how would we acknowledge them? There is no procedure.
- Well, you see who they are that's raised their hand, but we also do not necessarily know who they are. Well, if they sign in with their name, you can just add it to the list as they sign in. They don't need to put their name on the screen. They can raise their hand and have any avatar in the world, so you do not know who they are. Okay, so how does the council address that when there's online people?
- They don't want to speak. The commissioners, for instance, or council commissioners. I don't believe we've had an occasion where people don't use their actual names, but I've only been there for six months. Yeah, usually they'll have their name up there or they'll say, we have a hand raised from 765. We don't know who that is, but if that's your number,
- This is your time to talk. And then they'll ask them to identify themselves at that time. We might also ask them to turn their camera on so we see who they are. Yeah. We have been the victims at least once of something called Zoom bombing, where someone simply shows up and starts screaming at us. No identification, no anything, but they have- Which included profanities and- Yeah.
- But they had sometimes gotten themselves identified as a person speaking. So it's a bit of a conundrum here. That has happened in other boards. When Zoom first came in, it happened more often than that. And now the person running the meeting just clips them off, shuts them right down.
- So you would be calling on people, for instance, they called in to say something after everybody who was physically here has spoken or how do you alternate? How do you form a queue so that they're not to wait? That's a good question. A suggested way of handling that
- would be to have one person in the room make a comment and then go to one person online and then back and forth. Those are the things. I know it's all stupid, but those are the things we're trying to think through so that it's a little more fair.
- OK, so if we're going to work through this document, then someone needs to propose, I guess, what is a more discussion about. So there's two issues, right? How the person is going to identify themselves and how we're going to discuss what how we're going to proceed discussing with them. So whether I'm sorry, whether they're going to sign up online ahead of time or they're going to sign up when they arrive and raise their hand online. And then the second part is.
- how we're going to address each person, whether we do it every other or? Correct. The online form asks for the name that they're using, their screen name, and it asks for their actual name. And then the topic that they want to address, just like that sheet there, asks for their name and the topic that they would like to address.
- And I just have issues with it. I feel like people should be able to sign up or it should be an easy process if they want to speak, they should be able to speak and us making it difficult for them to sign up first, say their subject matter and then be able to speak I think is not what we want. We want open communication.
- If we don't, the decorum is, if they are misbehaving, then we have the right to make a policy to say, no, we're not going to be having profanity or et cetera. I'm really having a hard time understanding what you're saying, because Jodi walked into the room, signed the sheet,
- and sat down, and I don't think he was particularly onerous. That part is fine. She's not saying. I'm saying online. But she said in person. The person should not have to register online, in my opinion. It does seem a little cumbersome right now, because you have to go to a couple sites and then find the Boston depot. Well, it should be.
- Our intention was to have it in the meeting, and the chat wasn't working. So that's another barrier to people being able to come and say their opinion. So I guess I think we should first, if we're going to have this section sign up, we vote on as a body whether or not people have to sign up online. So you would propose moving the
- thing that says or via an online form kind of out of there and otherwise you're okay with what that says. They come in the room before the meeting, they sign the paper in person. Yes. Okay. Or if they show up late, then they sign in before the public comment hearing. That's how we've, that's how we've always done it.
- That could be amended. Yes. And so Lisa and Kay then, what's your suggestion for managing online public comment? Same as we've always done. That's my, and that's, yeah.
- OK, I'm trying to anticipate a situation where we have something that a whole lot of people want to talk about and we have limited time. Let's say it was a really long meeting. And we have five people in the room wanting to make a comment and we have five people online wanting to make a comment. And we feel like. For whatever reason. We can only hear five comments.
- Does that happen? How do we decide? What do we do? Well, I think we can handle that when we limit the amount that they can speak. I don't have a problem with five people who are going to speak three minutes and then another five that are going to speak three minutes. OK, so. So the way it's done in other meetings is that. You would ask. How many people are there online who wish to make a comment? Would you please raise your virtual hand?
- You count them up, you count how many people are in the room. If you only have this 10 minutes, you can divide it among those people, period, and say, okay, you all get, each one gets one minute to speak. And if you hear a comment that's already covering what you have to say, we'd invite you to put your hand back down so that someone else has an opportunity.
- That's reasonable. Thank you for suggesting it. Yeah, there's several ways that bodies do that. They can do a drawing or they can just say in the order that you sign up or at the time you raise your hand or whatever. The one thing that you can't do
- is give a preference to people based on what they want to talk about. So that's one thing that makes me a little nervous about asking for the topic that you want to speak about, because then somebody can come back and say, hey, they excluded five people who speak on this topic because they didn't want to hear about it. So that's a concern that you guys might want to consider. There are plenty of ways to deal with that.
- as long as they're not content-based and they're fair. And the back and forth, that's it. And that's one based on who signed up first and given the first comment here. Does the County Council have a amount of time that they allot for comments, a total amount of time? I'm not aware of a total amount of time that they do that. But typically, if you're gonna open up the meeting for general public comments,
- Most of them say 30 minutes is a reasonable minimum. Those other bodies very often have their meetings to midnight or two o'clock in the morning. We did not do that. Well, 30 minutes for us.
- I think we are our meetings are generally not very long, so I don't see how public comment is going to. I mean, this is my opinion. This public comment generally doesn't add that much time to it, so I'm actually. At first I thought. Having people sign up with the 50, but then with their. Topic. Was a good idea, but now I'm sort of leaning back, especially with that for what they've said and.
- I think you should be able to talk about anything you want to talk about. Yeah, sir. You guys are not. It's amazing. Having people declare their topic does not mean that they will be restricted based on their topic. It feels like it gives you us an understanding of what the topics are so that we could, for example, if we wanted to say everyone who wants to talk about skeptic, we're going to hear from you now.
- Well, you can say that anything. Just say it at the top. Yeah, but if we don't know what the topics are, how can we say it? Well, many of these outfits that have meetings that last till midnight have a public comment period after each agenda item. Thank you. And we are here proposing that it be at the end of the meeting. Or I have a little bit of an issue
- I don't think we should be limiting someone's comment to one minute. I mean, I'm from the south and it takes me a minute to say it's not enough. I think we should limit it to three minutes and because that's sort of a standard. I agree. Now there is the two different kinds of public comment that you're dealing with.
- your public comment on agenda items, you have to let them speak on that topic before you vote. But you don't have to allow public comment on agenda items. On action items? I don't think so. No. You don't have to allow public comment. Right. Because we've never done that.
- And I think, I can't remember if that's in this policy or not. Do you remember? No. Okay. Okay. So we're still, we're still doing things like we did before with just general comments, whether or not it's agenda items or non agenda items. I think, I guess my concern is you're either allowed public comment or you don't, because if you allowed on the agenda items and not open,
- public comments, then you're making content distinctions. But I mean, going by the agenda is more what I'm asking you. Like the county council does. When they discuss something before they vote, they say, is there any public comment on the side? We've never done that in that way. But that doesn't mean a person couldn't come to a meeting and make a comment about an item on the agenda. It just means we don't
- We don't take it individually before the vote. But if you are going to take any comment, allow people to comment on something that might be on the agenda, they have to make that comment. They have to be allowed to make that comment before you vote on it. So you couldn't say, here's our agenda. We passed this, that, and the other. OK, now you can comment on it at the general comment section. That would violate the agenda. Well, if we had an agenda and we had public comments first,
- We assume that they've read the agenda and they could make their comment on what. That would comply. OK, that's that's well. So basically. I'm leaning towards just going back the way we we've done it before. Just have. I make it not cumbersome. Let people raise their hand. We have a broad depth of experience and knowledge here. We can answer any question that they that I mean, I feel like I I can. I know you can. Or he can.
- everybody else here can answer other questions as they come. And if somebody gets unruly, well, then that rule will always apply. There are certain things. But then we go into the rest of our discussion here. Section 15, I think, says that. I think one of the sections allows you, it says that the board can control the conduct, the means, the demeanor.
- You give them three warnings. You can call the sheriff and have them escort it out. And we've done that in the past. We have had that happen, yes. The one thing I would like to see is that we make it very clear that whatever the comment should be, and I think people should be able to say whatever they want to as far as it's something that's in the dedication of this board. You know, something that we can do.
- because we've had comments come in and we have nothing to do. We have no say or we're really out of it. So I'm going to suggest, just like I was trying to say to Steve, if we don't have a policy for our board, we can't limit that. We can't say to someone, here's our policy. You can't be abusive and insult staff
- And you can only talk to us about things that are in the purview of the Board of College. Because. Right, well, because they need to say, but really basically what I'm talking about right now is access. And that's easy, it's just. There we can still talk about. Decorum, which really what it boils down to in the rest of this. That I think this is very pertinent. But.
- about access if we just keep it like it is, then anyone has access. No one can complain about that. Well, somebody can, but they shouldn't. So you would say, so kind of picking up from where we left off with Lisa and Kay, we'll leave the combat procedures and the sign up just the same as it is. We won't have people online. Do a form.
- have them raise their hands. And then identify themselves. And then you would, so what about the statement? Because this is pretty moral of life. The public will be, comment procedures will be briefly stated by the board chair prior to comment period. The public will be reminded that comments should be directed to the board and that comments will not be discussed at the meeting.
- Conduct expectations are addressed under number three. So that's all, again, that's pretty standard. Comments must be within the authority of the Board of Health or TUPF. We're gonna take out the timeframe. I talked to Dave about that. So. Kind of strike everything. So. Contact expectations, I think that we should read that.
- It would go right to conduct expectations. Hang on, Matt. Let's just continue. The time limit. If you leave this, may I ask, do you want to eliminate the words before the meeting begins from the first bullet and number two? I think probably. That's what they're saying. That's the thrust of what Lisa said. Yeah, I think that- Okay, before the meeting begins is out.
- I think that would take care of it, George. So time limit each speaker is allotted to three minutes. That's the way it's always been. The chair may adjust this limited, this limit based on the number of speakers and agenda length. Again, the same way it's always been. Attending speakers were alternate with online speakers. What do you think about that? Are we using an alternate method or are we
- I don't think it's fair if we let everybody in the room go and then say, oh, we're out of time. Nobody online can talk. So I would favor an alternating method. Then you have to have a list of who signed in first, second, third, fourth, fifth. That's what I'm saying. Right. Somebody would need to do that during the meeting to make sure that they don't get left until the end. Unless you guys can think of another way to do it.
- Okay, so alternate it is. Topic relevance, oral comments at meetings must pertain to items on the agenda and within the board's jurisdiction. I think that just needs to remain. Yeah, yeah. So if we just say, must pertain to items within the board's jurisdiction. Okay. And then the proposal in this draft
- is that we have another method where people who don't feel comfortable with public speaking or don't want to come to the meeting, they can write us an email at the Board of Health email on any topic and express themselves. Hang on, Sarah. And this will be forwarded to the board. Is that section okay with you guys? Who reviews the comments or someone?
- It doesn't say it probably should. I mean, I've volunteered to take that on. I don't or my administration. Well, these guys, these guys are the only ones that can access openly email and then they've been sending it to me and I've been sending it to you guys, Sarah. So I think that one thing I would add to what you just said is that where it says that, you know, comments need to
- apply to things that are within our jurisdiction. I think we need to link then to either to our website. I think people don't necessarily know the purview of this board and what it can and cannot do. And I'm sure that we've had people come to us who've said, oh, I want you to do this. And we've went, wait.
- You've come to the wrong place. So we can put in that same right after that, please refer to Monroe County Health Department for more information on boards. Exactly, but I think we need that link. Okay. Everybody agree? I think that's a good idea. So comments, okay.
- And so a question that I was asked, which I think is a good question and we should think about it, how, what can we do to assure that person making a written comment on the email that their comment has been received and read? My thought was simply put an automatic reply on all of them since we know we're going to receive them and read them. So thank you very much.
- Great comment. Please be assured someone from the Board of Health is going to read this and then some kind of disclaimer about. You know, we may want to contact you to ask you to provide us more information if you'd want to do that and we may not talk about this at a meeting. If you see what I mean, like either way so that they didn't think that just because they wrote us that meant that we were going to take action. You know that they were heard, yeah?
- Yeah, I don't think we need to reassure them that we may not speak about the meeting. I think that's assumed. OK, this is just representative. Reply OK. Received and forwarded to the appropriate people. OK. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Thank you for your comment. Number three, conduct expectations.
- So this was lifted from the law, some of it. So personal attacks, profanity, disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Speakers must address the board, not individual members or staff. The chair may issue warnings or remove individuals.
- So people who violate it will be declared out of order. If the attendee receives three warnings, the chair may punish me. Third warning, direct the attendee to leave the meeting. So that's just lifted right from the law. Is that okay with everybody? Okay. Now this new section on virtual participation, it sounds like you guys are saying you don't want this. Well, I think that with respect to that,
- In the conduct expectations, there may need to be an additional statement of, if you are found to be of order, you will be muted. I think. Oh, for the online people? Yeah. Because we do have online. Because this really refers to in-person people. Exactly. OK. OK. And I think we need to deal with the conduct expectations of virtual attendees as well. Right. Thank you.
- OK, I'm making a note. So what do you guys want to do about number four virtual participation? Remote access virtual attendees may raise their hand to risk request to speak. I think you said you want to do that. And that they must adhere to the content. It was previously mentioned that everybody, whether you're here or.
- Online, will I adhere to the same rules? I just have a question concerning. I don't know that since since COVID, I don't think I access to meeting via zoom or zoom. Are all of our meetings through Microsoft Teams? OK, I think what Jody suggested that they do would be a very good idea to put into our participation,
- making it clear that anyone making a public comment in that open section needs to identify themselves and come and... Turn on camera? Yes, turn on their cameras. I think they should have the camera on. To make a public comment, absolutely.
- I was just going to say, sometimes people phone in. I know. They're driving down the street or whatever. That's true. Well, that's very dangerous, and they should not be doing that. We're the board. We don't want to encourage that behavior. If you're driving, please pull over. Yes. No, but seriously, what about our having a requirement that they turn on their cameras? Are you saying we can't do that? Well, you're saying it's inconvenient. Yeah.
- I don't know why you couldn't, but... Have you ever had that happen, Jodi? When they refuse to turn on their... Well, like they were on their phones or something and said, I can't, I'm driving or whatever. I'm sure that that has happened or they don't have the bandwidth. And then we just, I mean, or frankly, they don't have the tech capability, you know, and then we just are like, you know, say your name and, you know. Audio only.
- But we would still ask for their name. Okay, thanks. Might even ask them to spell it. Anything else that needs to be in number four? Maybe something about the alternation with the in-person. Repeat that here again, you think? Yeah, I think that's reasonable. Maybe there should be. Yeah, that's fine. I'll put that there too. That's good. Okay.
- Thank you. Okay, so people to come in late. People who come in late maybe don't know the rules of the game. Is there a place on the on the when you log in that you can give you the they can come to this policy? We're going to need to think of all kinds of ways to publicize this.
- for the people who come in here and for the online people. But then hear your little spiel before you start. People come in late at night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What you're saying? It should be posted along with our agenda. I think it should be posted at the front door. It should be posted with the agenda. And then the president will go over before them real briefly, not in this much detail, but real briefly. OK, that sounds like that would be good.
- Accessibility and inclusion. Do we have the ability to do both these things? Provide accommodations for individuals with disabilities when requested in advance. Same thing with interpretation services requested in advance. Yeah, we just have to take care of it. I think our county policy requires 72 hours.
- 72 hours. I'll put 72 hours here. But how about when the number of people that are coming? We find out that 50 people are coming or in this room. We won't know that 50 people are coming because they're not required to sign up in advance, so we can't meet the law. We would have to not have the meeting. I mean, I don't know what we would do about that. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I mean, you would just have to. Law just says if you are aware, it doesn't say
- You must be aware, but if you are aware that it exceeds your capacity, you're required to find a bigger venue. So you can adjourn the meeting and reconvene it at another location or reschedule it. Yeah, I think that's what we have to do.
- Policy review, policy review of annually may be amended based on public feedback and operational needs. And what is missing from here? I think the bibliography should also contain the section 15 of the open door law. Yes, it should.
- bibliography was offered as much for the information and the board as anything else. I don't see any point of including it for the general public. Oh, I think it's good to have. I think it's real good to have. I'm really glad. I'm really glad you did this. To show that we didn't just pull this out of our heads or out of your head. I think it's good. Excellent. Yes. Thank you. No, this is outstanding. So just please let's go back to number two for just a moment.
- Starts with comments must be within the authority of the Board of Health for both topic and timeframe. Okay, that's fine. Take out timeframe. Take out timeframe. We're leaving topic. They have to talk to us about something that they can't come talk to us about. Police.
- or something, that wouldn't make sense. Okay, so then this part, this means comments must relate to a health topic within the board's purview. Yep. But I think we need to take out the one that says that is a query. Correct, correct. Or which may occur in the near future. Correct. No comments may be abusive or obscene, and then you're taking out irrelevant as who's going to determine if it's irrelevant or it will be allowed.
- Well, we're going to determine if it's irrelevant. They want to come talk to us about police. It's the topic that has to be in our jurisdiction. OK. I think for the sake of public comment here that we should state clearly that. So for those of you waiting to comment, maybe at the end about public,
- comment is that there aren't going to be any restrictions on public comment other than just common sense rules on conduct, basically, and a few of the other things that were included in here. So that allows us to manage the time better and give more opportunities for people that may not be comfortable with public speaking. So if you're getting ready to speak about
- public comment not being allowed. That's not going to happen. So you're perfectly welcome to comment on it. I think the general tenor of this should be we welcome. We want comments. We're not trying to find ways to not get comments. And I think some of this has a negativity to it.
- Added to the prefatory paragraph on page one. Yes, we encourage or not patient release. We're happy to hear we want to hear from them. Yeah, we realize that not everybody is happy with everything we do or I do since I've been singled out a few times. Yeah, it should be a positive job, but that's but you know that's. For me, the main thing that this gives us is or emphasizes is that.
- hearing comments on something we can't do anything about is not useful. And for us, where it's not useful for our overall objective, it's not useful for the health department in general. And we want to hear comments, but we want it to be things we can do something about. Sure.
- So are you, how are you all feeling by revise this based on everything I wrote down, which is everything that you said. And I will get you a draft after I've done revisions. Do you think we will be ready on July 14th to have a public comment meeting on the public comment policy? Okay, so then that's going to happen. There's your news, Donnie.
- That's actually going to happen. And I can't wait to hear what people have to say about it. It will be. It will be seriously. We have the room reserved, right? It will be in the Nat. You held room over in the in the square on the third floor. Send the TSA will have to help you at 430. There OK, yeah. OK, so anyone wishing to make further comments on this policy? It will be a nice big room, not like this little tiny room.
- You are welcome to come. We will post this online so that people can read it beforehand. And I will get you all a draft. Thank you very much for your great work. And thanks to all the rest of you for your comments. Where are you? No, no, no, no. It's OK. No, no. We needed this discussion.
- Well, I think we did. And you started, yeah. I think we did. All right. I'm going to turn it over to Lisa, New Business Statement for County Council. So I just wanted to talk to the board about in light of we are continuing to be asked by members of council, especially about
- Futures and there's concern over over futures, etc. And I think in an effort to kind of put that to rest, I would like to come up with a statement. I would like the. Executive. Or so that would be myself, Aurora and Steve. To come up with a statement that gives sort of a timeline.
- and with Lori's input as well. So it gives a timeline of what happened with futures that shows that it was, you know, it was a complex process. Also discusses in a kind of open fashion, exactly why we could discuss this thing and we couldn't discuss that thing. And we sort of, our hands were tied at several junctures there. So that there's in one space,
- in a public setting, we can say, okay, this is kind of what happened with future. So hopefully we just don't keep having to address that so that we can get on with the business of what we're doing. So I just, you know, I want everyone's- And your hope with this would be that it is successful and that we never have to address it with council again because they actually listen to it and accept it because- Sure.
- We've done this. We've done this. I understand. So many times. And I think we've been asked to do it yet again. And I think if we do that in a public fashion so that everyone we have a statement we asked to be on the agenda. We give the statement so everyone understands exactly sort of what happened. I think that that would be helpful and then we can reference that in future. So you're asking to do that.
- at a council meeting. Is that what you're saying? I'm asking for us to be, yes, to be able to draft a step-by-step sort of what happened in a concise fashion. Yes. That we would all agree on and vote on, right, as our statement. Yes, we can, yes, we would all agree on that statement and then present it to council. We make it clear once again
- that personnel issues cannot be addressed in short. That would be one of the many things that we would be stating. Yes. Thanks for stating that, though. Yes. I think we have to keep stating it because there seems to be some perseveration around the personnel issues.
- I wasn't here at that time, but were there any lessons to be learned that we can apply in the future to make it more positive? Well, we had a whole meeting on lessons learned. I know, but I'm just saying for the purpose of the council to see that we're acknowledging here are some things that we can do in the future to prevent ending up in the same situation. That would be a nice conclusion to the statement. That's the problem. Yes, Lee, the answer is yes. There were.
- Yes, there were, and yes, we can say it again. That might help. So who would like to? Listen, would you like to draft this? Do you want to draft this? I can work on a draft and I need help because I wasn't here for all of it. If you want to send me a draft, I can plug in things like dates and
- stopped if you want to just like leave a space you know like well and this happened yeah we have a timeline that has been provided already but we will look at the time yeah okay do you have that shall i send that to you i i have the timeline okay okay you probably use that okay um are we all are we all cool with that sure yes okay
- Ophioid. Settlement approval. So I feel like, yes. Do we need to make sure that you can vote on this? Do we need to vote on this? I would like a vote just to give us permission to work on the document, then we'll present it to the board. Does someone want to make a motion? I'll make the Ophioid.
- We're going back now. I would like to make a motion that the executive committee be authorized by the board to make a statement that will be read in a council meeting. In an effort to satisfy the futures topic and so that we can put this to rest. I'm happy to sign the death certificate.
- Okay, all those in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Now we're doing opioid settlement approval and we do need a vote, but you tell us what we need to know. So given some of the grant funding cuts that have just been occurring, we typically have been receiving
- grant funding for the harm reduction specialist position. We are anticipating receiving some, but we, the state has still not received any award. And so there's really just a lot of uncertainty around what funding we may or may not receive and when that may occur. So
- What I'm proposing here is that we submit an application to the OPU and Settlement Application Review Board to be able to secure some funding to keep that full-time farm reduction specialist position and request just a small amount, so less than $20,000 for part-time workers to help support that program. Let me have a backup plan in case
- We get zero. Our backup plan is that the position is currently funded to November. We don't have anything else to support that position, right? And with the changes to Health First Indiana and the citizenship requirements, I think it would be quite challenging to operate the program. So we could lose it. I think the request was very well written.
- Exactly. That's presumed, don't worry. Kathy Hewis, actually. Oh, Kathy. Okay. I worked on this with Kathy. Both of you. Congratulations, and I would move that we approve this as an official board decision. I'll second. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? There we go. Board member.
- and health officer comments with any. I just wanted to briefly mention that we just finished another cycle with community health assessment and from that will come a community health improvement plan and that I think it should there should be an open item in our agenda to measure the progress against that plan to make sure we're we're actually doing something. It turns out that one talk to one or two items on this assessment are they
- identical that they've been for 15 years. Access, substitutes, et cetera, et cetera, right, disease we talked about. But I think we need to have something to spur us along because, you know, there's no one being held accountable if we don't achieve our goals. And so I think this board bears some responsibility. When you say we and another cycle, are you talking about Monroe County Health Department's community? Health assessment every three years, the one we just finished.
- Yeah, because I didn't think we were doing a health improvement plan. I thought that was good. We're not doing health improvement plan, so now I'm confused about, you know, so what happens to the assessment? Where does it go? Just there gets posted. We read it. It sits there. We use it to make program plans. And the the current disease management we talked about with the board and measles. What are those? That is our initiative based on.
- If you are guys reading of the Community Health Needs Assessment, that's what you wanted to prioritize. So that's a board effort. You're referencing IU's? It's ours, the one we just published. Right. From the Board of Health. So I would recommend that we have an open item in the agenda to discuss how we're doing with whichever plans we decide to follow. I think we need to push that along.
- because I don't see improvement over the last 15 years. And? We prioritized chronic disease prevention with low pressure in the vaccinations, right? Sorry, so this was finished when we told me they just finished it. This was published by last year. Last year it just came out. He just published it. Yeah, yeah, the last CHIP was in 2022.
- It's the health departments, community, health itself. IU Health did a separate CHA this time. And it advises not just Monroe County, but a whole region. If you don't have a copy, should lower your opinion. But are you, should we, is your suggestion that on our agenda, as a regular agenda item, we have, which is not a bad idea, we have a standing agenda item
- to report on the chronic disease management, the blood pressure, and the vaccinations, which we as a board identified as the priority. And in our last minutes, we asked that public health give us some feedback. And that was something I wanted to ask, have we gotten any feedback on those? So we had a meeting.
- And so the gist of the meeting was we are supposed to be getting the data. There was, I guess, a mix up of how we were obtaining the data. Did I understand that correctly, that with blood pressures, et cetera, that these things were getting done, but we're not actually getting the data. So I'm not sure where we are with that.
- Well, we asked them to do blood pressures in the clinic on everyone over 16, right? Regardless of why the reason they came in outreach settings. Yes, yes. And then and they were including some statistics from outreach things, but not the statistics in the department. So that eliminated a whole bunch of people. Yeah, not not getting it. Well, they weren't doing them. On a lot of people and.
- We pointed out that typically, we used to do them in our dental office and people came in for their recall appointments to get their teeth planned. We did blood pressure screenings, run into people who don't know they have high blood pressure, or they're taking medication and it's still not controlled. So it's good information to have and it's important if we're getting ready to do some surgery or something. So anyway, we asked them to do that.
- In the same meeting they promised Lindsey promised also to reach out to a couple of the employees in the department. I don't know if that's actually happened yet or not, so. So that we can have a little better cooperation between the clinic and our employees here that are interested in.
- Partnering partner. Yeah, they're doing the same sort of the same services so. They promised better cooperation and you know I I don't know what the follow up is not that so going going back to Lee's idea. I think we should add an item on our future agendas beginning in July under old and continuing business. A standing item for an update
- on the board's priorities for chronic disease prevention and vaccination. And we can talk every month about just that. Well, the thing is, correct. But we need, like, Lindsay, should Lindsay have been here today to present us? Lindsay's on vacation. Oh, Lindsay's on vacation. Lindsay will be at our July meeting, and the school health liaison will be at our August meeting. OK. So how can we pull people accountable to just get these basic things that we need?
- Can I say something? Yes, please. So as far as how the monthly report, the monthly commissioner reports will have the data as far as the number of vaccines that have been administered and the blood pressures. So there was an issue where the
- in-house or in-clinic blood pressure screenings had been removed. I requested that to be added back in. We had that conversation. So that data is now returning to distribution between in-house blood pressure screenings and then outreach. I'm going to talk about having a goal and data to say, are we exceeding the goal or are we still doing eight people per month or what are we doing? Because otherwise we're not going to progress. So again, data-driven.
- Yeah, we don't even have our baseline yet though, so hopefully next month maybe we'll start to have our baseline and then we can set some goals around that. So we'll put that on as a standing agenda item and discuss that. I mean, you might be able to look through some of those historical records and get kind of that baseline. One suggestion I might have though, if actual
- goals and criteria are going to be formed around those or to structure it the way that we need to for the KPIs for Health First Indiana. Yes. Because that's what we are being required for. For sure. And that's why every every section in the department had to create a KPI that they're working on this year. Thank you. Other board member or health officer comments and then you have to do public comment if there is an
- Anybody else want to say anything? I guess the only thing I'd started out with is just that we don't even know really at this point where all the funding is since the federal legislation may have been passed, but there has been no budget reconciliation done. So we have no idea what our Congress is going to do in terms of
- actually funding anything and a reminder that all this all this money has been removed from one section to go into this new and doesn't even exist yet, which means that we're all sitting here in limbo. It's not bad enough. We're dealing with the state, but we're also dealing with the federal government and
- And I just admire our administrator for doing what she can to make sure that we are still able to handle people in our community who may not be here as what's called legal residents and certainly people who may not be legal Indiana residents, but we can still provide
- healthcare to our population. And I'm very grateful to her for all of her work in that area. You're here. Thank you. Okay. Did we, did anyone fill out a form online so we can see if it works? That would be so exciting. No, they didn't. No, they didn't. Okay. Let me go outside and I'll call you. Okay. Thank you.
- My eyes can't see the screen super well. Do we have anyone who is attending virtually who wants to make a public comment during the public comment session, which is right now. We don't have anyone in the room who wants to make a public comment. Do you see anybody in the name? Okay.
- It looks like there is nobody with their hand up who would like to make a comment. So I'm going to close that and I will entertain a motion to adjourn if anyone would like to make that. All in favor? Aye. You guys get me the copies of your new member orientation with whatever changes you want me to make. Pass those over.
- Can we send them to you?