PHOTO: From left, Ashley Wilson, Mary Helminski, Sally Kennedy (and also at the table, John Ranson) at the May 22, 2023 meeting of the Archuleta County Health Department Transitional Advisory Committee.
A friend mentioned, yesterday, her disappointment with the Archuleta County government, and the way the decisions were made to dissolve the two-county San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) district and create an independent Archuleta County Public Health Department. La Plata County, the other partner county served by SJBPH for the past 72 years, is likewise creating its own independent public health agency.
Granted, a great deal of money, time and effort are going to be spent creating these new departments, and we can assume that many mistakes will be made in the process.
Perhaps have already been made.
Additionally, my friend had heard that Archuleta County will now be spending four times as much of our local tax dollars operating the new department, compared with our past contributions to SJBPH, in order to provide the same level of service.
I’ve been attending most of the Monday morning meetings of the Archuleta County Health Department Transitional Advisory Committee, and I’ve not formed the impression that an independent health department will cost our local tax payers “four times are much” as SJBPH was costing. That impression is based on the fact that the lion’s share of the money that funded SJBPH programs has come from state and federal grants, not from local taxpayers.
The trick to paying for our own health department is to make sure someone applies for, and receives those same grants.
Some of the available grants will not apply to Archuleta County. For example, La Plata County has one of highest rates of suicide in Colorado — high enough to qualify for funding for a special suicide prevention program. Archuleta County doesn’t qualify for that grant.
Another example is the rate of syphilis in La Plata County.
From the Southern Ute Drum, in May 2022:
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has issued an alert for La Plata County for an increase in syphilis cases over the past 12 months in comparison to previous years. San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) encourages residents in both Archuleta and La Plata counties to educate themselves and take action toward reaching their best sexual health. In SJBPH’s jurisdiction, cases of syphilis were 40 percent higher in 2021 than in 2020, with the trend continuing to increase in 2022…
Syphilis is not seeing a noticeable increase in Archuleta County. We also don’t have a university like Fort Lewis College. Whether those two facts are related, I can’t say.
Additional funding for the new department will come from fees and charges for service. Approval of a new septic system, for example, or inspection of an existing septic system during a real estate sale, will be accompanied by noticeable County fees.
The latest news, here in Pagosa, is the hiring of Ashley Wilson as the interim Director for the new department. She is being referred to as the “transitional public health director’, implying that she might not be the “permanent public health director’.
Ms. Wilson is — or was — part of the Transitional Advisory Committee. At the committee’s meeting last week, it was not clear whether Ms. Wilson will be allowed to continue voting on decisions by the committee.
A committee which recent lost two of its members.
On May 16, committee member Dr. Rhonda Webb wrote to County Executive Assistant Mary Helminski:
“Those of us on the Archuleta County Public Health Transitional Advisory Committee volunteer our time to this committee because how our new public health is structured will significantly impact the health of every person in this County. While those of us on the Advisory Committee understand that the County makes final decisions, we devote our time and our expertise to provide advice.
“It would be wrong for Archuleta County to proceed to make a decision on an employment offer to an executive director without receiving or considering the advice of those of us on the Advisory Committee. If the County proceeds to make such an important decision without considering the advice of the Committee, then the Committee is devalued to the point of being meaningless and I will resign.”
It appears that the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners did indeed proceed to hire Ms. Wilson without considering the advice of the Advisory Committee, and Dr. Webb did submit her letter of resignation, as did Committee chair Kathy Campbell.
This means — if Ms. Wilson is told she can no longer vote on Advisory Committee decisions — then the committee has been reduced from eight members down to five members. But maybe that doesn’t matter, if the BOCC isn’t actually interested in input from the committee?
In a letter to the Pagosa Springs SUN, published on May 25, Kathy Campbell wrote:
‘I quit’ is not something I take lightly. It’s just not part of my DNA. So, to resign from the Transitional Advisory Committee for Public Health was not an easy decision.
To be clear, I volunteered for this committee because I was appalled that our County Commissioners poisoned the relationship with San Juan Basin Pubic Health (SJBPH), and I was very concerned about how our County officials would manage creating our own Public Health department.
One would think that having the word Advisory in our title would mean that there was an expectation that we would be able to Advise. But, nearly four months of meetings revealed almost no Advising. Many of the wonderful people on our committee are quite experienced in health care, community organizations, private businesses, and local government. So, you’d think the county manager and commissioners would want our Advice. Isn’t that what we volunteered for, and spent hours and hours of time committed to this project? Apparently not.
This ‘no-Advising’ has occurred at each weekly meeting, where we learned of new decisions that had been made by the County Manager and BOCC pertaining to the public health department with zero input from our committee. I realized that our committee was serving no real purpose, because County officials were going to do what they wanted to do, regardless of any input or Advice we may bring to the table…
…I really wanted to be involved with something this important. But this committee is not an Advisory committee, it is a false front to the community and is not something I can tolerate. And then there’s the bottom line: our County, meaning all of us, will spend 3 times the amount of money as we were spending with SJBPH to create a Public Health Department.
Archuleta County citizens, ask questions and stay informed. Voting really matters.
Amen.