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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH October 26, 2006 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 4 October 26, 2006 Rosemary Summers reported that the Brunswick County Board of Health and the New Hanover County Board of Health are spearheading an effort to have legislation introduced that would allow local counties to set fees for food and lodging inspections. Currently, each restaurant pays the state an annual fee of $50. The state returns approximately 60-75% of this fee to local health departments, depending on the local department’s compliance rate. Because this fee is “charged” at the state level, there is a prohibition for local health departments to charge a fee. The amount Orange County receives annually from the state for this program ranges from $7,500 to $10,000. Roughly $360,000 each year is spent in personnel and operating costs for this program, with nearly all of the cost being in personnel. This cost estimate does not include capital expenditures such as vehicles and computers. Included in this resolution is a provision for the state to be “held harmless” in the amount of money they currently receive from this process should the responsibility shift to the local level. The state currently maintains staff to manage the statewide database and provide consultative services in the program to all areas of the state. This would require some form of “rebate” to the state by local health departments from the fees collected by local agencies, or retention of state “Aid to County” funds. The NC Association of Local Health Directors is asking local Boards of Health to consider passing similar resolutions in support of legislation such as this being introduced. Previous attempts to introduce and pass similar legislation have met with stiff resistance from the restaurant association. Staff has discussed this proposal and feel that the cost of billing and collection will outweigh the cost of recovery process. Even if only 50% of the cost can be attributed to restaurants, the fee would be approximately $400 - $500 per year for each restaurant. This would not include additional staff needed for billing and collection purposes. Staff feels that an alternative that urges the state to raise the current fees to a more appropriate level and distribute that across the state would be a better alternative for this county. Alan Rimer expressed the opinion that the fee for service, at an increased inspection fee of $500, is a cost of doing business and would amount to pennies per customer and would not impact the at-large population of the county that does not frequent restaurants. Rosemary Summers stated that the department feels that fees should be raised but the question remained of whether it should be collected at the state or local level. Moses Carey, Jr. agreed that fees needed to be increased for cost recovery at both state and local levels. Sharon Van Horn asked about when and how the fees are paid. Tom Konsler replied that the state invoices once per year and fees are remitted to the state. Staff is also concerned that legislation if passed would contain limitations on fee amounts, hampering local attempts to recover costs.