Geauga Public Health Catches Up on Outstanding Bills
The Geauga County Board of Health passed multiple resolutions May 28 clearing up billing issues.
The Geauga County Board of Health passed multiple resolutions May 28 clearing up billing issues.
Two of the resolutions — then-and-now purchase orders to the Lake County General Health District not to exceed $324,236 and $25,050 — were part of the growing pains associated with the Lake/Geauga Cross-Jurisdictional Cooperative Agreement, which has been in place for two years now, Geauga Public Health Administrator Adam Litke explained, referring to the 2023 agreement between Lake and Geauga County’s health boards, the main driver of which was cost savings.
When trying to re-up the contract for Jan. 1, the board learned that they must both approve the change to the contract and also sign a separate document saying the change was approved, Litke explained, While the board had approved the change in November, the separate document was never signed.
The purchase order is for billing from January, February and March that was not done as the contract was not officially in place, Litke said.
“When you have something like the cross-jurisdictional, which is a first of its kind, there are some lessons that we learn,” Litke said. “This is one of those lessons that we learned. We now know the process they want to make it flow, and now we can do that.”
The health board approved a resolution paying $2,680 for 2023 pool licensing fees as well as a resolution for $4,249 for 2023 septic treatment system permit fees to the Ohio Department of Health.
The fees to the state were missed during the transfer of duties when the cross-jurisdictional agreement went into place, Litke said in a follow-up text June 2.
The health board also approved paying LCGHD $298,546 for the 2024 cross-jurisdictional agreement.
“The finance person at the time did not appropriate enough money to pay these bills,” Litke said. “So, we were going through a process trying to get these paid. We just got legal to tell us how to do it.”
Board President Ashely Jones questioned if the payment had been budgeted for. Litke confirmed it was.
“It was budgeted for. We had to figure out how to get the bill processed,” he explained.
In other news, the board voted to change their meeting dates from the fourth Wednesday of the month to the third Wednesday for the remainder of the year.
“We had a change in someone’s location, where they’re going to be working from, that they can’t be here,” Litke said.
While that person could step down, the Health District Advisory Council tends to do appointments in March, which would leave the board down a member for months, he explained.
The board agreed to reassess meeting dates at the end of the year.
