Great Falls weighs new plan for Board of Health governing body makeup
City Commissioner Joe McKenney delivered an update and a draft proposal regarding negotiations with the county about the makeup of the governing entire body that will oversee the Board of Health and fitness throughout Tuesday night’s get the job done session.
McKenney’s proposal for the make-up of the system, necessary following the Legislature’s passage of HB 121, would be to include things like two county commissioners and one metropolis commissioner that would provide as voting customers. McKenney stated this comes right after weeks of discussions with County Commissioner Joe Briggs, as perfectly as the other users of the county commission independently.
“They can settle for it, they can reject it, or they can make a counteroffer,” McKenney mentioned Tuesday. “The county commissioner and I, we built development, we built a great deal of development, but we’re at an deadlock in which we just can’t concur to a last choice. But we are near sufficient that I required to deliver it up to this human body for dialogue.”
The governing physique would have the electricity to amend selections designed by the Board of Wellbeing in a time of crisis. HB 121 handed in reaction to mask necessities executed by area Wellness Officers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. McKenney’s draft also outlines that customers in the governing overall body also not be users on the Board of Health.
The makeup of the interim governing body includes all three county commissioners and an ex-officio member from the town, Mayor Bob Kelly has served in that ability in the latest weeks. The interim entire body labored with each other to maintain interviews and in the long run select CCHD nurse Abigail Hill as the future Public Well being Officer pursuing Trisha Gardner’s departure in December.
The interim agreement between the city and county is set to dissolve in June.
The city and county are also included in litigation surrounding the dispute more than the makeup of this governing body. The metropolis sought to get lawful impression soon after the county contended that the entire body really should be built up completely of county commissioners, without the need of an ex-officio town member.
The dispute is currently in Decide Elizabeth Best’s courtroom, but there’s prospective that the town and county can come to an arrangement outside the house of court docket.
In the course of Tuesday night’s get the job done session, McKenney stated he spoke with the sponsor for HB 121, Rep. David Bedey of Hamilton, who mentioned when it will come to a a number of jurisdictional wellness department, like the Metropolis-County Health and fitness Division, any elected formal may perhaps provide on the governing human body.
The proposal would have to be place on the agenda for an forthcoming metropolis assembly to allow for public enter, Mayor Kelly said during the session.
The town and county’s doing work connection bordering the Metropolis-County Health and fitness Division was agreed to in 1975. McKenney said that the county wanted to use the conversations encompassing this governing body to explore the 1975 settlement as perfectly as other city-county agreements that day back to the same period of time.
Briggs introduced these similar points up when metropolis and county officials initially satisfied to focus on the governing board issue in the summer of 2021.
McKenney’s draft of the proposal for the make-up of the governing physique, as it presently reads, would involve all other disorders in the 1975 agreement encompassing the health and fitness office.
The proposal is built to be signed by all 3 county commissioners as properly as Town Manager Greg Doyon with approval signatures from each city and county lawyers.
