We now know that Archuleta County will be creating its own public health department, or finding a neighboring county — not La Plata County — with which to form a shared public health district. The new agency will need to be established by January 1, 2024.
Developing an Archuleta County public health department sounds like a lot of work, and county commissioners don’t always like to work hard. But developing a shared health district sounds like even more work, so I expect we will end up with our own local agency.
As if we all didn’t have enough to deal with, politically and socially, already.
Colorado requires each of its 64 counties to be served by a public health agency. Looking through the list of counties on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website, it would appear that 47 Colorado counties maintain their own individual public health departments, while 17 counties are served by joint districts that serve two or more counties.
Apparently, it’s not rocket science to operate a one-county public health agency. Most Colorado counties are already doing it.
And La Plata County seems to be already hot on the trail of their own agency, to judge by the November 15 meeting of the La Plata Board of County Commissioners. Here is County Manager Chuck Stevens, addressing his board:
“It’s our intent and desire, as stated in the joint resolution, that we want to [dissolve San Juan Basin Public Health district] in a planned and orderly process, because our top priority is that we minimize any disruption of public health services delivery to our constituents in either county…
“…The fiscal impact… I know this is a question that we’ve been getting a lot. So we’re making a lot of assumptions right now. We’re also working with a consultant group that is helping us do some analysis to really dig into what the cost of establishing our own county agency will look like.
“As the Board is aware, in the proposed 2023 Budget, we’ve included $750,000. We’re proposing to create a new fund; so instead of the four major funds that we always talk about in La Plata County, we would add a fifth. That would be for a county health agency or health department; we’re not sure what it would look like, just yet…”
The $750,000 in the La Plata County 2023 budget is an estimate, based on an analysis. Mr. Stevens noted that the dollar amount might get modified, if the County receives additional input from their consultants.
I found this discussion intriguing, and I went back to the 21-Arch-Co-Budget-Present-Oct6 2023 Archuleta County budget presentation, delivered on October 12 by our Finance Director Louise Woods. I searched in vain for any mention of funding for the now-required creation of an Archuleta County public health agency or department. I also didn’t find any money in the proposed budget itself that appeared to be earmarked for the creation of a new department, or hiring of public health staff. The only funding I found was to pay for the final year of San Juan Basin Public Health operations.
But our commissioner knew, already in October, that SJBPH would be dissolved. One might wonder if our commissioners are taking this task seriously?
Meanwhile, there was plenty of discussion, during the October 12 budget presentation, about building shiny new, multi-million-dollar Archuleta County buildings. I suppose we all have our priorities.
Perhaps those priorities have something to do with the decision, by the La Plata County commissioners, to dissolve the jointly-funded public health district?
Below, we are listening to La Plata Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton, La Plata County’s Board of Health representative, speaking on November 15. The commissioners had just finished with public comments on the joint resolution, which had consisted of one person, Gary McMurtrey, asking what exactly were the “different expectations between the two counties”, and wondering if County Manager Stevens could elaborate on those differences. He was directed to contact Manager Stevens directly via phone or email to get his questions answered.
Here’s Commissioner Porter-Norton:
“I really feel like this is a huge day. It’s a huge day for Archuleta County and La Plata County, so I wrote out some comments ahead of time — and I also wanted to hear what the public wanted to say…”
“I ran for office to create healthier communities, and I believe the dissolution of the [health] district will create healthier communities for the constituents we serve.
“This gets to the public member’s question; at least maybe a broad overview. But regarding some context and reasoning for my support for the dissolution, I go back to the April 28 meeting of the Board of Health — at the meeting where the specific purpose was to determine the future of the district, given the ongoing tensions, conflicts and disagreements among the two counties — the Board of Health made a recommendation to disband in an affirmative vote of all present.
“And we [the BOCC] received that report, as our County manager relayed. This was then reiterated, again, in a follow-up work session that the Board of Health had with us as commissioners.
“While in all honesty, the disagreements between the two counties were certainly exacerbated by the pandemic, these problems date back — and maybe are not always ‘problems’, but just different views — date back many years, and dissolution was also contemplated — many people don’t realize this — back in 2009.
“So, 13 years ago, we were in this same spot.”
(Well, not exactly the “same spot”. But maybe a “similar spot”?)
“As a commissioner, I rely on the Board of Health volunteer citizens who give hours and hours of time and expertise. And they care about everybody. And I take what they say very seriously, and that board has spoken to us. They believe a dissolution is in the best interests of the public of both counties. And I agree.
“If the public is wondering — which someone is today — what led to this, I would refer you to three things. And I’m not going to elaborate today; I don’t think this is the time or place, but if anyone wants to do some research, they can find it.
“First of all, I would refer to the Board of Health report itself…”
You can download that letter here.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.