BOH minutes 012109 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH January 21, 2009 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 5 January 21, 2009 services except mandated services have been considered for elimination. She stressed that the Commissioners will be faced with some tough decisions this year on budget cuts, therefore support and input to the Commissioners from the Board of Health will be critical to the department’s budget. She added that other departments will more apt to have community advocacy, but clients of Health Department services are not as likely to be willing or be able to attend a budget hearing and advocate for the services they receive at the department. B. Committee Reports Each of the standing committees met since the Board last met. Jim Stefanadis gave a brief report of the Clinical & Community Programs Committee and the Board was provided with a copy of the minutes from that meeting. Ernie Dodson reported that the Environmental Health, Preparedness and Quality Assurance Committee also met and discussed potential revisions to the on-site rules which will be presented at the February meeting. C. Informational Items a. Internal Transfer of Staff Positions: Rosemary Summers stated that In order to improve efficiency in billing and collections of fees and to foster more productive team work in personal health clinics, the front desk support staff unit and the Billing Specialist are being transferred to Personal Health Services from Central Administrative Services. The department is requesting that the personnel and operating costs associated with the transfer of this unit be transferred before we prepare the final budget for 09-10. This effectively reduces Central Administrative Services Division to six positions. b. Budget Reductions for 08-09: The Manager has requested that all departments reduce their operating budget by 2%. Carr Mill rent was excluded from this budget cut. Each division has proposed line items for these cuts. In addition, each division is closely monitoring their revenue earnings for 09-09 and will be making budget adjustments to compensate for lower revenues as stated in IV.B. The Board will receive more information on this in February. We have not received guidance from the state on budget reductions for the funds that we had budgetary commitments for. With the exception of the Aid to County funds, we have drawn down most of the state money allocated to the department. c. Funding Matrix to Commissioners: The attached funding matrix by department was prepared and sent to the Board of Commissioners (BOCC) in January for their retreat. It was prepared from the Inventory of Services that each department submitted to the budget office in December. At their recent retreat the BOCC chose as one of their top four priorities for the year, “assuring that safety net services are maintained”. This will be an important document both this coming year and in the future as the BOCC considers funding for mandatory services and discretionary services.