County Commission Learns Health Department Funds Are Short

Representatives of the Department of Public Health, which is basically the parent agency to the Jasper County Health Department, painted a glum picture for Jasper County Commissioners Monday saying that if the county cannot find some more money for the health department it may have to close, at least some days of the week.

Nancy Mason, the financial services manager for the Macon health district that includes Jasper, said that at the end of September the Jasper County Health Department had $17,800 in the bank. She said the September payroll was more than $18,000, showing it may be hard to operate another month.

She said there is already a $29,000 deficit in the health department. She said she is concerned about keeping the doors open and the department running. She said the local office manager had been released and the financials were being run out of the Macon office.

She said they have released a nurse-practitioner contract and plan to release the contract environmental health specialist. They have also released a five day a week LPN from the office.

She, and her associate, Christy Sims, explained that the problem was not just local. For example, the state has changed funding formulas. The representatiaves said the office had billed the state agencies, WellCare, PeachState and Ameri-group $3,000 so far this fiscal year, and received $200. That is a result of state policies, apparently.

Ms. Mason said that the auditors had been in, and that she was told they would probably have to write some concerns into the audit.

County Commission Chairman Jack Bernard said that he sits on the health board and voted against approving the current budget it is operating under until revenues were shown to offset expenses. He also said that he had voted to release the contract sanitarian long ago.

Commissioner Carl Pennamon asked why the commissioners were just learning of this terrible problem if one of their own members sits on the Board of Health and was aware of the problems. He said the board should have been kept abreast of the situation. Mr. Bernard said that the board was unaware as the books were being done incorrectly by the staff.

The representatives from Macon indicated the situation had deteriorated quickly.

Commissioner Bob Yarbrough wanted to know if the ladies had been to the city [presumably, Monticello] and the school. The representatives told him no, the commission was the first place they came when they realized the problem.

Commissioner Pennamon asked them if they had been to the state seeking help. They said a legislative review committee was coming up and hopefully would understand the need. She said small counties need help.

Commissioner Yarbrough commented that the commission would not have seen this, even if it had been further along in its budget process. He said whether it is falsifying records or an error, the numbers were misrepresented. He talked about the commission being “crucified” for its actions.

The commissioners did vote during the meeting to increase some fees at the health department.
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After hearing the health department woes, the commission heard from Dennis Brooks with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

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The NRCS is a national agency. The office that serves Jasper has an agent that serves just Jasper and Newton Counties, and Newton picks up most of the tab for this service, said Mr. Brooks. The NRCS is asking Jasper County to pay for the telephone line and DSL service for its office which serves Jasper, a total of some $1,800 annually.

Commissioners took no action on any funding requests, deferring those until the budget is developed.

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Darlow Maxwell, the county’s Chief Financial Officer, presented the commission members with notebooks presumably containing financial statements and other financial data. He said a notebook just like that is available for public review at any time in the commission office. He said it will be left on the table for easy access for all interested citizens.

In explaining some of the challenges with the budget, Mr. Maxwell said, “If we were in a fiscal year it would never be an issue, but since we’re on a calendar year it is.”

In other financial business, after much discussion, the commissioners agreed to authorize the County Manager and Chief Financial Officer to transfer money between various county accounts.
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Commissioners heard animal control statistics, that the county has paid Butts County $11,840 since May of this year for storage, euthanization and cremation of animals, according to Planning and Zoning, under which department animal control falls. Also during that time, the county’s sole animal control officer has collected about $1,150 in overtime pay.

County Manager Greg Williams said that he had talked with Larry Thurman, Public Works Director, and that he has a position open for a laborer. Mr. Thurman said he would be glad to fill the position and the employee could also be responsible for some duties with animal control.

As for fees to Butts County, the P&Z proposal says that Jasper County can purchase a used crematory for about $15,000, and that would eliminate much of the money spent in Butts County. Chris Anderson’s proposal said that the cost of equipment for a crematory would be recovered within a year.

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In other business at Monday’s regular monthly County Commission meeting, commissioners:

•Heard from Kelly Fox that therewill be no increase in the county’s health insurance until Oct. 1, 2007.

•Named Robert James to the Scenic Byway Committee.

•Named David Dammann to be the citizen member from Jasper County at the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center.

•Named all members of Planning and Zoning—Debbie Dammann, Lee Holman, Joe Lewis, John Moore, Justin Owens—to the Impact Fee study committee along with Paul Kelly and Rusty Bullard. The law requires that 40 percent of the committee be comprised of “members of the development community. Mr. Bernard said Mr. Holman, Mrs. Dammann, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Bullard were developers.

•Named the following people to the Multi-County Transportation Study Advisory Group: Walter Smith, Ken McMichael, Robert Jordan, Bill O’Keeffe, David Dyer, and Jerry Lazar.

•Deferred action on naming someone to Jasper County Water & Sewer Authority on the advice of the county attorney. He said the commission had an executive session at the end of the meeting, and that the nominee should not be named to the authority until after that.

•Commissioners agreed that others could be added to the Impact Fee and Transportation Study Committees. Mr. Bernard indicated those that were named had asked to be put on those committees after the opportunities were advertised.

•Approved a Office of Homeland Security performance partnership agreement. The documentation allows the county to receive nearly $4,000 for its Emergency Management Agency, an offshoot of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It is basically the same partnership that Jasper has participated in for a dozen years.

•Deferred action on a policy to accept roads into county maintenance until Planning and Zoning could consider the policy and have public hearings on it.

Several members of the public had comments to make to the commissioners at the beginning and end of the open portion of the meeting.

•Francis Cason again suggested that when the commission is going into closed session to put why. He said they don’t need to shield it like it is a secret. If they are going to talk about pending litigation, list it. All pending litigation is public record. If it is potential litigation or other matters, some specifics could be given, he said. Mr. Cason suggested the appearance of secrecy does not gain public trust.

•Mary Patrick said that Raymond Rogers, the code enforcement officer, is continually working with animal control. She questioned how many code enforcement cases have been brought before the courts both in relation to animal control and in other areas Mr. Rogers is supposed to pursue.

She suggested animal control is putting down as many dogs as possible to create statistics to justify the need for a crematorium. She further said that she did not feel like animal control is conducive to the adoption process. She questioned when the center is open for adoption; how does one find out what animals are there, and such as that. She also asked who supervises the animal control employee, Elizabeth Rolfe.

•Tate Turner suggested the county’s districts have a disparate number of voters and that they should be changed before the next election. He said his district, three, has considerably more population than any other district. He also asked how the county got snook-ered into paying for the turn lane at the new high school on Hwy. 11 north.

•Charles Forsythe asked about the fiduciary responsibility of the Board of Health which is supposed to govern the Health Department and allowed it to get in such bad shape.
He questioned where were the members of the humane society. He said when the county was trying to institute animal control, the humane society was vocal at every commission meeting.

Now, when questions are raised at each meeting about animal control, there is no one from the humane society to help provide answers.

•This reporter said that at each meeting commissioners hear why animal control isn’t working or can’t work or won’t work. Perhaps if the goal was to make it work; come up with a plan how it could work rather than why it cannot, progress could be made.

The commissioners went into closed session to discuss pending litigation and adjourned without taking any further action.