Orange County NC Website
MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH <br />May 27, 2009 <br />Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 8 May 27,, 2009 <br />G. Informational Items <br /> <br /> a. Media Clips: Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce article regarding <br />emergency preparedness for businesses presentation in which the Health Department <br />was a joint participant. Donna King represented the Department. <br /> <br /> b. Legislative Items of Interest: House Bill 2, Smoking in Public Places, passed and <br />has been signed into law with an effective date of January 1, 2010. This may have <br />implications for the staff for enforcement purposes, although Orange County has <br />existing local rules that have similar enforcement steps. The law also has provisions for <br />local Boards of Health to adopt additional rules in this area. It requires that any Board <br />of Health rule in this area also be passed by the Board of Commissioners before being <br />enacted. <br /> <br /> The Senate Budget bill still has the Public Health Improvement Plan provision in it and <br />suspending the accreditation program for local public health. This calls for a special <br />task force to be appointed to study and recommend public health funding for the 10 <br />essential health services. There already is an officially approved Public Health <br />Improvement Plan that was developed by the existing Public Health Study Commission. <br />Staff believes that if these provisions remain in the bill it will destroy the accreditation <br />program and shift the funding even more dramatically to the local level to be able to <br />accomplish the 10 essential services. <br /> <br /> c. Pending and Recurring Items Review: This is intended to provide the Board a <br />forward look at upcoming agenda items and remind the Board of items that may have <br />been requested but have not yet been requested. <br /> <br />H. Resolution Against Section 10.26 of Senate Bill 202, “Public Health Improvement Plan” <br /> <br /> The 2009 Senate Appropriation Bill (Senate Bill 202) contained a special provision <br />(Section 10.26) to establish a Public Health Task Force that would develop a Public <br />Health Improvement Plan. The entire provision was added without input from local <br />government officials or local and State public health professionals. The Public Health <br />Improvement Plan includes the establishment of the flexible spending formula and the <br />flexible spending account would be based upon funds already received by public <br />health. The flexible spending account is equivalent to single stream funding which <br />would disrupt the reallocation in funding streams and be unnecessarily stressful to an <br />already fragile public health system, a system that is funded with too few dollars. <br />Commissioners will be asked to approve the same resolution. <br /> <br />Motion to approve a Resolution Against Section 10.26 of Senate Bill 202 “Public Health <br />Improvement Plan” was made by Anissa Vines, seconded by Ernie Dodson, and carried <br />without dissent. <br /> <br />VI. Board Comments/Announcements <br /> <br />Rosemary Summers brought the Board’s attention to the 2009 NC Women’s Health Report <br />Card which was included as part of the Board packet but was not on the agenda. The study <br />was done by UNC Center for Women’s Health Research. Key findings of the study were