After much consideration and many back-and-forth conversations, Geauga County Board of Health members decided not to place a 0.2-mill operating levy renewal on in May during their Jan. 11 meeting.
After much consideration and many back-and-forth conversations, Geauga County Board of Health members decided not to place a 0.2-mill operating levy renewal on in May during their Jan. 11 meeting.
“My problem with going for a levy this session for the deadline of the first week of February for filing is like trying to solve a math problem,” said board member Dr. Mark Rood. “We know pretty well what ‘x’ is, but we won’t know what ‘y’ and ‘z’ are until after the filing deadline. I find it very difficult to commit that we will bring something before the voters in May when we don’t have enough information to know how much we need as a millage of the levy to be and won’t know that until after the filing deadline in February.”
At 0.2 mills, the GPH operating levy is the lowest millage in the county and is set to expire in 2023 with final collections taking place in 2024.
“We have, as (County Auditor Chuck) Walder said last meeting, more bites at the apple available to us. For instance, we could go on the November ballot,” Rood added. “It, to me, makes more sense for us to wait until we can say to the voter, ‘This is how much millage we need for the levy and this is why.’ I have a very hard time knowing the answer to the how much and the why at this moment, therefore, I’m opposed to putting the levy on the ballot for the spring election.”
Rood said the board has a lot of work to do to be able to make their argument in a successful way for the voters.
“We need someone other than a board member to take lead on this, as well, and that’s going to take some time to find the right person who can lead that,” said Rood. “Board members can speak to the levy, but they need to speak factually and I have a hard time speaking factually when we have equations for which we have too many variables to solve.”
Board member Lynn Roman said she was also not in favor of putting the levy on the May ballot.
“I’m not sure what ‘x,’ ‘y’ and ‘z’ is in your mind, but until we have a plan for what we’re going to do to complete this work, I don’t think we have any good numbers that we can put together to suggest one,” said Roman. “If somebody came to me and asked me, ‘Why a levy?’ I wouldn’t have any good information right now to tell them.”
Board member Ashley Jones added all the uncertainty has to be prioritized and handled first.
“I would rather put the effort in, plan appropriately and have a little bit longer timeline to work with to make sure we have a good quality product per se,” she said.
In other business, Roman provided an update on the GPH administrator position. In December, Lake County General Health District announced it would be withdrawing from its contract with GPH as of Jan. 31. As a result, Adam Litke, who has been serving as administrator for both health districts, and Dan Lark, who has been serving as environmental health director for both districts, would return to working solely for LCGHD.
Roman said three of four possible candidates for Litke’s position were interviewed and the fourth candidate would be interviewed on Jan. 12.
“We did the tradition of asking questions, we have it documented so we know where we think people rank. After asking questions, we did tell them the state that we were in right now that we might have to sort of share services, go into a collaborative agreement,” said Roman. “We gave them the heads up. We basically told them that we have work to do on that front and that it would be roughly two to three weeks before we would come back to them regarding further interviews, second interviews or decisions on where we are.”
Jones said all of the candidates that have been interviewed are very qualified.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the pool that we had,” said Jones. “I’m not sure who Lynn’s favorite is. I think I do have a person in mind.”
Jones added the number of candidates for the position has increased to 27, but they would pursue the initial pool of candidates that were chosen.
“We’re still continuously reviewing those that come in, but still feel that the four that we chose to interview are truly the most qualified,” Jones added.
