Parking, collective bargaining top health agenda
The Flathead County Board of Health meets today to consider a variance request from the city of Whitefish, a new employee bargaining agreement and proposed changes in some community health services fees.
Scheduled for 2 p.m. in the conference room of the Earl Bennett Building, the board will decide whether to grant a 12-month extension of a variance for two unpaved parking lots in downtown Whitefish for use during reconstruction projects in the area. A variance was required to avoid spending $120,000 to pave the temporary lots.
The collective bargaining agreement up for approval makes no changes in the pay step matrix that has been in place for at least 10 years, according to Health Officer Joe Russell. He said contract negotiations took less than two hours and involved some tightening of the contract language.
“They’re realistic,” Russell said of the Montana Public Employees Association. “We’ve never really had a relationship where they have had to go to war with me or the board of health. They understand we do the best we can.”
Flathead City-County Health Department employees receive a yearly longevity increase through the matrix along with any cost of living increases granted by county commissioners. Due to recession-related revenue losses, commissioners have placed a freeze on COLA increases for all employees.
According to Russell, the department faces a budget impact from an increase of $528 per employee for health insurance paid as an employer contribution. Because commissioners deemed health department employees are not eligible for funding from the permissive levy for health insurance, the costs must come from cash reserves in lieu of a property tax increase.
Russell expects the department will tap cash reserves with the economic and political climate against additional taxes.
“A lot of people out there don’t have jobs,” he said. “That’s why we have a cash reserve.”
He added that the department has also had to lay off employees to balance its budget.
Russell said the community health service fee changes on the meeting agenda are “long overdue.” The current fees, in place since 2002, are lower than the department costs of providing the services with an average cost of salary and benefits for a nurse of $33.70 per hour.
The proposed changes are:
n Nursing services fee — charged to schools for vision, scoliosis, immunization assessments and other services, and to agencies for immunization and other nursing services — increases from $25 to $40 per hour.
n Travel consultation fee increases from $25 per consultation plus the cost of immunizations to $30 for a minimal visit, $40 for an intermediate visit and $50 for a comprehensive visit plus the cost of immunizations.
As the fee schedule now stands, a person pays the same rate for a consultation for Mexico as another pays for a complex consultation for travel to Africa.
Under the health officer’s report in the agenda, Russell announced that he has been tapped to speak at the National Association of County and City Health Officials annual meeting in Memphis, Tenn., in July. He will present the new guidelines from the Council to Improve Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response, which he helped to formulate as co-chairman.
He said the new guidelines provide a more robust response as a reaction to increasing food recalls related to the global food system. Russell recently accepted an award from the Food and Drug Administration on behalf of the council for these efforts.