Approved Minutes of January 22, 2025

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH January 22, 2025 school, including teachers, students, and parents, and that the response was very positive. He said that he hoped that Orange County School System and the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Systems would adopt a similar system soon. Keith Bagby Mr. Bagby shared that he and his wife are planning to move to Virginia in May or June of this year, and that he will have to step down from the Board of Health. He asked if the board would prefer for him to step down now in order to try to bring on a new member in time to participate in the board retreat. Commissioner Fowler suggested checking with Tara May, Deputy Clerk to the Board of County Commissioners, about the process, though it is unlikely that a month and a half would be enough time to interview, select, and onboard a new board member; Ms. Stewart shared that there are several current applicants but agreed that the timeline was likely too tight to bring on a new member before the retreat in mid-March. Ms. Stewart told Mr. Bagby to submit a formal resignation statement by letter or email and include by what date he will have to leave the board. Several board members expressed their appreciation for Mr. Bagby's service and said that Virginia will be lucky to have him. Tony Whitaker Mr. Whitaker mentioned that he had read the recent newsletter from the National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH), which included a recording of a webinar by Dr. Karl Johnson, a professor at UNC Gillings who previously came to speak to the Behavioral Health Committee about screen use and mental health. This webinar focuses on effective training of BOH members to provide better tools and information for local public health decision making. Mr. Whitaker encouraged other board members to watch the webinar. Dr. Aparna Jonnal Dr. Jonnal thanked Dr. Baldwin for bringing up the news story about cell phones and encouraged other people to consider having screen-free homes. Dr. Jonnal also shared that she has been reappointed chief of medical staff at Person Memorial Hospital and as a condition of her accepting the appointment she needs the hospital to speak more openly about the brokenness of the US Healthcare System. She added that since the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO, she has been thinking a lot about how there are now a handful of people with the money and influence to create systems that decide whether millions of other people, especially those from poor and less historically fortunate groups, live and die. She concluded by saying that she's been wondering what, if anything, separates this from a modern genocide. Commissioner Amy Fowler Commissioner Fowler shared that on Tuesday night the BOCC passed a resolution that they are sending to the Department of Environmental Quality opposing UNC's application for conversion of the coal power plant to instead burn pellets that are 50% wood and 50% plastics, which have an unknown risk of PFAs not really understood yet by the CDC or EPA. She invited other board members to send personal letters opposing this application but added that the S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agendas &Abstracts\2025 Agenda and Abstracts/ January Page 2