Orange County NC Website
H._ is .J <br />In terms of the impact of the Manager's proposed budget <br />in environmental health, Mr. Robinson stated his department <br />would be able to meet all required minimal work loads and <br />activities. He recommended that the Board delay any attempt <br />to regulate private and semi-private water supplies until next <br />fiscal year. Not providing this service will cut free revenue <br />potential approximately in half. In family planning, the <br />Department will continue as at present; however, Mr. Robinson <br />pointed out that by not doing certain activities now will lead <br />to additional cost later. The generalised preventative health <br />education effort for the community will not be implemented. The <br />Department will not act on a recommendation to hire a V.D. worker <br />in the family planning program. The Department will not be able to <br />give proper attention to tuberculosis as proposed, will not attempt <br />any colorectal cancer screening, but will expand the present level <br />of other chronic disease screening. The Maternal Health and Child <br />program will continue as at present. Mr. Robinson recommended <br />that the Board not continue to provide more aid to Chapel Hill- <br />Carrboro schools than to Orange County schools in regard to school <br />health. He envisioned the school health situation as getting <br />worse without expansion a.n this area. <br />Mr. Robinson pointed out that as inflation rises, more people <br />are using the services of the Health Department, particularly for <br />preventative clinical services. He stated he would have to either <br />turn people away or provide less of something else. The Health <br />Director stated his department had picked up momentum and are <br />progressing; however, a hold-the-line budget will be disastrous <br />to the department. <br />Finally, the Health Director spoke of the use of non-local <br />funds used by his department. He stated the Finance Director <br />had informed him that if certain programs generate revenue, then <br />that revenue should be used to offset the local cost of these <br />programs. The County Manager indicated to him that this policy <br />would not prohibit using new revenue unrelated to existing <br />programs to open a new service, if paid for totally by the new <br />revenue. <br />Mr. Robinson stated his problem with these sentiments are: <br />(a) Public Health program funding is not that categorical and <br />the expectation is for the department to finance new efforts by <br />generating new revenue from existing programs; (b) given the <br />depressed level of non-local funding, the department could never <br />expand its services ,. but decrease the local tax dependency by the <br />department by a small margin. This philosophy would exclude the <br />Health Department from a vast amount of potential federal programs <br />because guidelines state that federal monies cannot be used to <br />offset local cost. <br />Dr. Mayes informed the Board that on May 18, 1978, the I3ealth <br />Board adopted a policy to charge a fee for services not to exceed <br />a certain amount for selective environmental services. The Board <br />feels these fees should be collected because a certain privilege <br />group is not paying for services that the general taxpayer in the <br />County is paying. He added that the Health Board strongly urged <br />that the fees be directed back to the Health Department. By the <br />selective privilege group, Dr. Mayes stated he was referring to <br />developers and individual home builders. <br />Commissioner Walker stated these services are mandated and the <br />developers usually pass this cast on to the consumer. He added <br />the Health Department is funded by the tax dollar to provide a <br />service. Sy charging a fee for these services, taxpayers are <br />paying taxes twice. He stated that he was totally in disagreement <br />with charging fees for services. <br />