PHOTO: Archuleta County Manager Derek Woodman (left in dark vest) addresses the Public Health Department Transitional Advisory Committee on April 3, 2023.
When I wrote Part One, yesterday, I imagined that Part Two would begin a dive into existentialism and also into Simone de Beauvoir’s ideas about women… as discussed in her 1949 book, The Second Sex.
As they relate to the peaceful transfer of power, in various situations.
Then I attended the Monday morning meeting of the Archuleta County Public Health Department Transitional Advisory Committee — a group of mostly women who are (supposedly) helping our County leadership design a new ‘health department’. The discussion lasted almost three hours.
I probably ought to shift gears, and report on that meeting, considering what might happen today, April 4, at the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners meeting, at 1:30pm.
As many of our readers are aware, the public health district that’s been serving La Plata and Archuleta counties for the past 70 years — San Juan Basin Public Health — will be dissolved at the end of December, as a result of a joint decision made last year by the La Plata and Archuleta boards of county commissioners.
As a result, each county must stand up its own independent public health department by January 1, 2024, according to Colorado law.
Earlier this year, the Archuleta BOCC appointed a committee of seven women — Kathy Campbell, Sally Kennedy, Andrea Phillips, Rhonda Webb, Ashley Wilson, Susanne Bryant, and Mary Helminski — and one man — John Ranson — to advise the BOCC on the structure of the new public health department.
One necessary part of the structure is the governing body, which Colorado law defines in some detail, and refers to as the “Board of Health”. That board can be either the BOCC itself, along with a member who is a qualified medical professional… or it can be a community-based board with minimal BOCC involvement.
What is best structure, for the health of the citizens of Archuleta County? BOCC-run, or community-based? You can read the legal requirements here, on page 11 of CRS 25-1-501 et seq.
After considering that question and the legal requirements, the Advisory Committee made the following recommendation for the composition:
“The recommendation of the Public Health Department Transitional Advisory Committee is that [a Board of Health] consisting of five members — one commissioner and four community members with expertise in public health and/or health care and other supportive disciplines — would help advise and craft policy guidance for the Archuleta County Public Health Department.”
One commissioner, and four community members.
But today at 1:30pm, the Archuleta BOCC will consider a resolution that describes a somewhat different Board of Health.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF ARCHULETA COUNTY, COLORADO, AS FOLLOWS:
- That a public health agency, is hereby created, through a county department to be known as the Archuleta County Public Health Department.
- A transitional Board of Health is hereby established, which shall consist of Commissioner Ronnie Maez, Commissioner Warren Brown and Commissioner Veronica Medina, who are appointed to the transitional Board of Health for the period effective as of the date of this resolution until such time in the fourth quarter of 2023 as a permanent Board of Health can be seated.
- The permanent Board of Health when seated shall consist of two Commissioners and either three or five members appointed to five-year terms, except that the terms of the initial appointments shall be staggered…
Some of the Advisory Committee members were surprised, yesterday, that the BOCC had apparently rejected the committee’s recommendation, without communicating with the committee. I would even go so far as to say, all of the committee members appeared to be surprised.
Apparently, the BOCC had not informed the committee that this resolution would be on today’s agenda.
This was not the only surprise included in the resolution and sprung on the Advisory Committee yesterday. The resolution also included this language:
6. The ACPHD will be a department of Archuleta County and as such, all employees of that department will report to the County Manager. The County Manager shall recruit, interview and hire a public health director and will assist the public health director in hiring department staff. It is important that the ACPHD answer to the County Manager for continuity of operations and succinct planning and communication.
This language appears to authorize the County Manager to hire the new Public Health Director.
Some of the Advisory Committee members were surprised by this section of the resolution, because it appears to be in conflict with Colorado CRS 25-1-508:
(5) In addition to all other powers and duties conferred and imposed upon a county board of health or a district board of health by the provisions of this subpart 3, a county board of health or a district board of health shall have and exercise the following specific powers and duties…
…(c) (I) To select a public health director to serve at the pleasure of the county or district board. The public health director shall possess such minimum qualifications as may be prescribed by the state board. A public health director may be a physician, a public health nurse, or other qualified public health professional. A public health director may practice medicine or nursing within his or her license and scope of practice, as necessary, to carry out the functions of the office of the public health director…
CRS 25-1-508 appears to grant the responsibility and authority for hiring the Public Health Director to the County ‘Board of Health’ specifically, rather than to the County Manager.
Did the Archuleta BOCC intend to violate Colorado law? Perhaps the County Attorney is not paying attention?
At any rate, the Advisory Committee suggested that, given the apparent conflicts written into the proposed resolution, the BOCC might want to table the resolution? And then schedule a meeting with their Advisory Committee, to discuss any differences of opinion?
Over the years, the Archuleta BOCC has maintained a time-honored tradition of appointing volunteer advisory committees, instructing them to spend weeks or months researching this or that community problem or situation, and then ignoring their advice.
It’s hard to let go of power, peacefully.
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.