BOARD OF HEALTH MINUTES

North Haven, CT

December 8, 2011

4:30 PM

In attendance: A. McClure; J. Donaldson; M. Rochow; C. Goldberg; L. DeNegre; A. Levison; P. Marone;

B. Scott-Moore; A. Sofair; L. Balch, ex officio; D. Culligan, staff; Lellianne Canastra, student intern.  

Not in attendance: D. Cofrancesco; L. Ferrante Fernandes; L. Haddad; T. Gersdorf.   

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President McClure called the meeting to order at 4:35 p.m. She noted that the order of the agenda would be changed due to scheduling needs of QVHD staff and the preparation of written reports for the Board. She also reported that D. Cofrancesco was not present because he is currently on two Hamden Boards which is no longer allowed by the Hamden Charter. He is currently waiting for clarification from the town.

HEALTH DIRECTOR’S REPORT  

L. Balch briefly mentioned items from the following written report submitted to the Board.

Director of Health’s Report to the Board of QVHD

December 8, 2011

1. New Employee: Ryan Currier, B.S. Public Health, SCSU. Hired as of November 7, 2011. SAN I entry level. A great addition to our staff.
2. MRC (Medical Reserve Corps): QVHD will soon be converting our Public Health Volunteer group to a Federally-standardized MRC with the hopes of keeping them engaged in times of non-emergency, standardizing their preparation and training, and bringing greater recognition to their work for the public. Application is currently delayed due to a reorganizing of the State program which will strengthen the regional approach to MRCs in CT. We await notice that it is a go.
3. Dr. Bekany: On October 6, 2011, QVHD’s Medical Advisor, Dennis Bekany, died after a short illness. I spoke with him on October 3 and agreed to take the medical records when he closed the office because of all he has done for QVHD. The records arrived last week, and we are fulfilling record- requests from his patient’s.
4. Finance Committee Meeting:  Committee will need to meet in February and at least once again in early March so that the FY2013 budget can be prepared. I hope to have the proposed budget for a Public hearing at the March Board meeting.
5. Public Health logo and tag line: I have attached a copy of the national public health logo and tag line. This, in addition to the QVHD logo, will be included on our newly designed website and on some publications. I believe there is a benefit to being associated with national branding.
6. Social media: QVHD is now considering developing both a twitter account (for communications) and a Facebook page (for branding and communications). We will be working both with our IT consultants (PHEP funding permitting) and a student intern from SCSU during the Spring semester.
7. Student Intern: Healthy Homes program information developed for extended outreach to Bethany, North Haven and Woodbridge homeowners. Hamden is currently very active with renter properties, and because of the existence of the Hamden Housing Code, violations are much more likely to require a notice of violation. QVHD does not wish to be invited into a home by a homeowner and have to begin legal actions. The feasibility of conducting a Healthy Homes inspection before a dwelling is rented or sold is being considered.
8. Winter Storm: QVHD Towns were less impacted and/or better prepared after Irene. Less staff time was required, but new issues of sheltering have been raised statewide and QVHD will be working with District towns to clearly identify roles and responsibilities in sheltering of multiple departments, agencies and QVHD. Woodbridge meeting has occurred and others will be scheduled.
9. Woodbridge: L. Balch is scheduled to participate in a Civil Preparedness Program on behalf of QVHD, on January 24^th with a snow date of January 31, 2012.
10. Happy Holidays!

MINUTES

Motion by C. Goldberg to accept minutes of the September 22, 2011 meeting, seconded by A. Levison and accepted unanimously.      

FINANCIAL REPORT

L. Balch noted:

·         Financial report ending November 30, 2011: target 41%; revenue 44%; expenditures 37%.

·         The items that are overspent will most likely continue to be overspent due to circumstances such as the chimney repair. Continuing Education and periodicals will stay overspent due to L. Balch’s attendance at out-of-state conferences that are only partially reimbursed by scholarships and continuing education for environmental staff.  The unemployment line item was underestimated. QVHD is still paying unemployment for L. Warner (Bethany Sanitarian.)  

·         Some grant funds still need to be allocated to QVHD line items.  

·         It appears that there will be up to $34,000 revenue over expense from FY 2010, part of which will to reduce the $108,621 deficit-projection in the FY 2011 budget.

·         With staffing changes, salaries and medical insurance will be less than projected for this year.

Motion by B. Scott-Moore to place the financial report on file, seconded by M. Rochow. Voted unanimously.

ACTION ITEMS

Inclement Weather Policy L Balch distributed a table illustrating the policy content. After discussion, a motion to approve the policy as presented was made by C. Goldberg, seconded by L. DeNegre and passed with one abstention by J. Donaldson. 

Management Policy Revisions

L. Balch noted that these revisions were approved with grammatical corrections in June, 2011. The grammatical revisions will be made and distributed to Board members. Therefore, no action is required on this item.

2012 Proposed Meeting Dates for 2012 (See handout)

Motion to accept the proposed meeting dates as presented was made by J. Donaldson, seconded by A. Levison and passed with one abstention by M. Rochow.

Tentative Union Agreement

L. Balch distributed a copy of the tentative union agreement which has been ratified by the Union and reviewed the financial impact of each item.

A motion to accept the Union agreement was made by M. Rochow, seconded by L. DeNegre and passed unanimously. 

As Chair of the Personnel Committee, J. Donaldson made a motion to grant parody of union salary increases to management staff. The motion was seconded by C. Goldberg and passed unanimously.

Annual Appointment of Auditor

A motion to appoint Mark Federico as auditor for QVHD was made by L. DeNegre, seconded by B. Scott-Moore and passed unanimously. A. Sofair recommended that QVHD have a written contract with him spelling out a timeline for deliverables.

Informational Item: (See graph)

L. Balch informed Board members that she has submitted the annual request for the per capita to the towns, with an increase of 5 cents per capita; from $5.195 to $5.245. She distributed a graph showing the official State OPM (Office of Policy and Management) populations estimates, upon which the amount due the health district is made. She noted that the population in Hamden increased by 2,935 persons and in North Haven, there was an increase of 190 persons. Both Bethany and Woodbridge had slight declines in population, with 4 less persons in Bethany and 199 less persons in Woodbridge.

Several Board members questioned the need to increase the per capita by 5 cents instead of 2-3 cents and were particularly concerned about Hamden, due to the large population increase. L. Balch noted that Hamden gets more services from QVHD because it is larger, has a housing code enforced by QVHD, junk vehicle ordinances and student/boarding house requirements overseen by QVHD which the other towns do not have; that the increase in cost to Hamden is primarily due to the increase in population, not increase in fee request. Discussion followed the several factors which are involved in establishing the requested fee. Board members remain uncomfortable with a $0.05 per capita increase to their towns. J. Donaldson requested that L. Balch draft a document showing various per capita increases for the Board to review.  

COMMITTEE REPORTS

PERSONNEL COMMITTEE REPORT

J. Donaldson, Chair of the Personnel Committee proposed that for this year (2011-12) for the formal Health Director evaluation that the QVHD Board request of L. Balch professional goals, rationale for the goals and criteria for evaluating/accomplishment of the goals. She suggested that L. Balch would submit this information to the QVHD Board sometime in January, to be evaluated at the QVHD Board meeting in March 2012. J. Donaldson noted that she had discussed this with L. Balch, but had not formalized the process, pending discussion at the current Board meeting. It was suggested by other members of the Board that it would be important to have a job description first before beginning this process. P. Marone agreed to draft a job description and get it out to the Board sooner than March. Once the job description is developed, a time line will be drafted for the evaluation process which will consist of the elements proposed by J. Donaldson.

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS  

Health Education   D. Culligan distributed the following written report:

·         “Cocoon Program” Vaccination with Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) for persons over age 18 with infant  contact has concluded its first year. About 50 people were vaccinated. D. Culligan will continue to promote with area pediatricians and through local media. Information on this program will be included in the next issue of Qvhd-TIPS Family Health Letter.

·         Despite a misprint in a QVHD newspaper article which instructed people to cook their turkeys to an internal temperature of 1,065 degrees, no reports/complaints about exploding turkeys have been received by QVHD!

·         QVHD distributed a lot of education materials following both Storms Irene and Alfred. Most of the information requested was about food safety. The second most requested information packet was for mold (following Irene.)

·         Winter 2012 Qvhd-TIPS is almost complete and will be released in early January. D. Culligan will work with L. Balch to try and get superintendents to release directly via their list-serv (similar to how Bethany distributes) or at least note that it is available on the QVHD website.

·         In October, D. Culligan attended four day training on interviewing persons with TB. While certain aspects of this training were beneficial, she recommended in the follow-up evaluation that it could have been condensed into two days or two different trainings could have been offered based on the participant’s experience.

·         The Federal grant money awarded to QVHD for the equipment for Mom’s has been accessed. The computers have been purchased and should be installed any day.

·         Radon awareness month is in January. Press release and column will go out with education and offer of free radon kits.

·         QVHD participated in the Bethany Senior Health Fair. Attendance was less than hoped for. Display featured food safety for seniors.

·         D. Culligan continues to participate in ongoing committee activity such as the Asthma Coalition and the Hamden Partnership for Young Children.

A motion to adjourn was made at 6:05 p.m. by M. Rochow, seconded by A. Levison and passed unanimously.

The next QVHD Board of Health meeting is March 22, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. at the QVHD office.

Minutes prepared by: D. Culligan, QVHD staff