Board of Health - May 27, 2021 Minutes

Regular Meeting: May 27, 2021

Opening: Noon, Virtual Meeting, Chelsey Matter called the meeting to order
Present: Chelsey Matter, Amy LaValla, DNP, PMHNP-BC, APRN, PHN, Tracie Newman, MD, MPH, FAAP, Arlette Preston, Pearl Mell BBA, MSOL, MHA,
Others Present: Melissa Perala, Desi Fleming, Larry Anenson, Suzanne Schaefer, Kim Vance Lori Sall
Absent: Bernie Dardis, Kayla Nelson DNP, APRN, FNP-C, Duane Breitling
Approval of Minutes: April 16th Meeting Minutes were approved. Motion to approve made by Dr. Lavalla, motion to approve seconded by Commissioner Preston. Unanimously approved.
Announcements:
Desi Fleming announced that Dr.Tracie Newman was selected as the new Fargo Cass Public Health Officer. Recommendation goes to commission June 1st, if approved the position begins on June 15th. Desi should be back in Fargo on June 9th and then will wait to be cleared to be in a public setting.
Budget:
Desi Fleming: The process has changed, City hall had sent out a template that separates, personnel cost, operating costs and capital costs. Most requests that FCPH made were for the Harm Reduction division. Melissa Perala: Revenue budget and the city template shown on screen. Majority of budget (86%) is salary and benefits. Revenue review: Federal funding grants that flow through ND Department of Health. Don’t expect many changes except for MCH Breastfeeding/Obesity grant which might disappear in October. CARES funding shown on screen is only a portion of the fund. FCPH’s Cares funding will expire June 30 and we will have spent all the local public health unit funds which was for 3 million dollars. Task force fund spent about 7.5 million dollars (most of which was spent by planning), we had received a budget of 9 million. Currently, FCPH has a $600,000 grant from North Dakota Department of Health and will get an additional $600,000 for continued COVID-19 work and this will go through November 2022. Another grant we have coming will be a $2.5 million dollar grant for immunization/health equity which runs through June of 2024. More information will come out when FCPH gets the specifics. There is also a $1 million dollar grant for ESG (Emergency Solutions Grant) COVID-19 money, specifically for homeless, this funding ends September of 2022. State grants from ND Department of Health, North Dakota Department of Human Services or North Dakota Department of Commerce (shelter funding). Tobacco prevention funding was decreased by $100,000 for a media campaign that will now be handled by the state going forward. FCPH also received $604,000 for the Mobile Outreach Program. FCPH will get $302,000 each year. State aid is not changing. Next section covered is local funding. The United Way is decreasing their contribution to the Nurse Family Partnership program down to $34,000 and then no funding after that. FCPH will be the service provider for Fargo Public and Cass County schools.
Self-Pay category includes client services, adult health, lab, employee health and there were no real changes there. For insurance and Medicaid, FCPH showed a slight decrease. Difficult to predict these numbers. For Environmental it is mostly self-pay for license fees, pool water testing fees etc. not a lot of changes in this item. Fines include Victim Impact Panel and Tobacco Program, no real changes here. As of today, FCPH estimates a $289,000 increase in revenue. It is hard to budget until we see those contracts.
Fees for environmental health were adjusted last year and there was no adjustments this year. Then because of COVID-19 the city refunded back to establishments due to closures.
Arlette Preston questioned NFP (Nurse Family Partnership) funding. United Way was a strong supporter of NFP but it was not to be long term funding, they would assist in the short term and then the cost would be absorbed into FCPH’s budget. The program is up and running and going strong but we are finding other sources of funds. Alcohol compliance is an item that represents the fines for businesses that fail the compliance checks. It’s good that the numbers aren’t higher because it means fewer establishments are failing but it is a struggle to check all of the establishments. Home Visiting (NFP) was a part of the American Rescue Plan. That funding started March 2nd. We also bill for Medicaid (for NFP) and get about $5,000 a month there. There is an additional $5,000 for that program but the program costs about $30,000 a month.
Larry Anenson addressed the lack of ability to monitor those alcohol establishments. It is because law enforcement is spread so thin that it’s difficult to coordinate officers and youth to do them. There are walk throughs to identify over served people or people who are too young. There is a variety of different issues. Larry will be meeting with Chief David Zibolski regarding compliance checks. Melissa continues to discuss the operating side of the budget.
Reiterate that it is a different process this year and it had to be submitted by May 3rd this year. Allows the ability to include narrative and code items as one time allocation or reoccurring and discretionary or non-discretionary. Reallocation process allowed the ability move line items around internally which gave us a more accurate picture of the budget. Melissa and Desi met with each division director and reviewed the 2019 budget instead of the disrupted year of 2020. Most line items did get reallocated. One time request for 2022 for $5,000 increase for strategic planning the only reoccurring item for $100,000 for the ongoing expenses for the harm reduction which is covered by the SOR (State Opioid Response) grant. Overall operating budget increases increased by $40,000. Largest decreases were in interpreter costs and contract services due to Tobacco Prevention change. The biggest increases were in Harm Reduction program. Cost of our new FTE (full time employees): staff and shift differentials for harm reductions, medical and coding help for harm reduction and a RN for Harm Reduction and an office associate for Administration. Two temporary staff in Harm Reduction became full time. Change in licensure for WIC staff and there would be cost of reclassification. One time operating expense increase of $5000. Capital requests for ongoing issues in the building like replacing refrigerators, new light notification system for WIC, and replace some copier/printers.
Strategic planning line item. FCPH hasn’t done strategic planning for about 10 years so we wanted to bring in a consultant to look at our programs and to assess what we need. It’s not a community needs assessment but it will tie in to it. The community assessment should happen this summer, the strategic planning will be coming later. Hopefully we will be wrapping up COVID events.
Next Meeting: August 13, 2021
Meeting adjourned