Doing away with City Health Dept.????

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   So Spider what is the deal with the City and the Health District?  I understand they want to close it basically and move it to where....to Hamilton or somewhere else in Butler County?  So the City would basically have no more Health District in Middletown is that correct?

City Managers Report:
Health District Discussion
The Mayor, Dave Winfough, Russ Carolus and I met to discuss the timeline for examination of the creation of a Combined Health District with the County, Hamilton and other jurisdictions.  We also discussed simply contracting with the County for health services, like the City of Fairfield.   The Combined District will take a couple of years or more to work through the system of multiple entities.   Contracting with the County is always an option that could be explored much quicker.  

My bottom line is to reduce the general fund subsidy to the health department to $100,000 per year or less.  Currently we subsidize the health department by $265,000.  While we have a great staff and provide high quality health services, my priority would be to spend less in health and more in police, fire and streets.  

Our decision was to continue working toward a combined health district, but in the mean time, the subsidy to the health dept. would be reduced each year. 

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic
Pacman Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jun 02 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2612	Post Options Post Reply Quote Pacman Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Doing away with City Health Dept.???? Posted: Nov 15 2008 at 2:56pm
	So Spider what is the deal with the City and the Health District? I understand they want to close it basically and move it to where....to Hamilton or somewhere else in Butler County? So the City would basically have no more Health District in Middletown is that correct? City Managers Report: Health District Discussion The Mayor, Dave Winfough, Russ Carolus and I met to discuss the timeline for examination of the creation of a Combined Health District with the County, Hamilton and other jurisdictions. We also discussed simply contracting with the County for health services, like the City of Fairfield. The Combined District will take a couple of years or more to work through the system of multiple entities. Contracting with the County is always an option that could be explored much quicker. My bottom line is to reduce the general fund subsidy to the health department to $100,000 per year or less. Currently we subsidize the health department by $265,000. While we have a great staff and provide high quality health services, my priority would be to spend less in health and more in police, fire and streets. Our decision was to continue working toward a combined health district, but in the mean time, the subsidy to the health dept. would be reduced each year.

spiderjohn Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 01 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2749	Post Options Post Reply Quote spiderjohn Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Nov 17 2008 at 8:38am
	Pacman--the city's preferred plan is to merge the local independant(also very functional and efficient) health dept. with Hamilton and Butler County. The other(less desired) options are to be taken over by Butler County or to leave things as they are. IF WE MERGE: We would appoint local reps to serve on the combined board. This gives us a voice(at least) in what happens. Also, most current employees might be placed within the new system(still at some expense), though there are no guarantees about this. Bennies would have to be re-negotiated within the new system as the carried-over employees would no longer be working for Middletown city. IF WE ARE TAKEN OVER: We pretty much lose voice in everything, and current employees are pretty much on their own unless assimilated into other areas of the Middletown city admin. This is the LEAST desirable approach by everyone currently involved in the system. The County Dept. has not been responsible or co-operative in dealings and issues over the last few years, and imo seems reasonably disfunctional. IF WE STAY AS IS: The preferred action of the current board make-up(imo). Our city staff and director work very well together, and provide LOCAL services far beyond what we would recieve from either option mentioned above. The city health dept. is very frugal, and annually comes in way under budget(and will be WAY under this year--check the stats, Mike P et al), though imo most city dept.budgets are far above necessity. This option will be very hard to pull off, mainly due to the huge grant $$ cuts up-coming from the state and feds. Well--Council, Ms.G, and the health director ALL favor the merger, which may be the only salvageable option. So--I am not sure exactly what power the local health board has. I doubt board members' votes can save this dept., though the votes to do so are there. Since the city has decided to keep Section 8 lhere under local control, and we have such disproportionately large #s of section 8 vouchers. City decided it would be too much of a hardship for voucher holders to communte to Hamilton to do business. So--could they think differently about health care issues for these same individuals, who are most likely to be shut out of the Atrium and local doctors, therefore needing the current local health options? Keep them here for Section 8 to maximize that funding, but freeze them out concerning medical/wellness/preventative measures? Doesn't make sense(especially for children), does it? The up-coming loss of outside funding/grants is a huge hit towards maintaining the status quo. It may not be possible, regardless of local citizen/employee desires. A county takeover would probably be the worst answer, since the county seems to be struggling with what they have currently, and is supposedly not interested in adding the local dilemma to their responsibilities since our demographics are un-favorable and the potential need for services could be beyond their scope. All of this is very un-settling to my thinking. We seem to be sacrificing vital public services now, basically to protect the wage/bennie structure of current municipal employees. This, to me, is totally backwards and a slap in the face to local taxpayers entitled to the basic city services to be performed. Instead, we need to focus on the REAL OVER-POWERING ISSUE of a wage/benefit system dominating our city's financial resources. Why cut all services simply to maintain employee costs? When willl these costs be realistically addressed towards being brought in line with public sector conditions, or at least similar to the cutbacks we are now seeing in local municipalities and throughout the nation? jmo as usual

spiderjohn Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 01 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2749	Post Options Post Reply Quote spiderjohn Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Nov 17 2008 at 4:36pm
	After further study, the fund $$ losses aren't as crushing as I thought. Seems our city manager has never worked in a municipality that had it's own health dept. Ms.G might not fully understand the scope/benefits of what transpires locally. She thinks the money would be much better utilized shoring up other depts. I pretty much disagree. The Econ Development Dept. has been an incredible waste so far. Sending more $$ to Public Safety is only necessary because the city caved to the fire dept.demands(as always-greedy bunch imo). The city will miss the local health dept., and once it is gone, it will never come back. If we can fund Section 8 and various other functions, there should be a priority for health issues also. So---we continue to be overwhelmed with Section 8, welcome a new choke plant with open arms, then axe the local health dept. Maybe SunCoke and the Section 8 income should pick up the health dept.shortfall. It's like the George Bush admin mentality is now running our city. jmo

Middletown News Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Apr 29 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1100	Post Options Post Reply Quote Middletown News Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Nov 17 2008 at 5:20pm
	spiderjohn how you tie George Bush into this is a real stretch. You offer no real arguement why the city should outsource except you say we should also do Section 8. We are no longer a large city. We need to downsize and fast. Or else we also might be asking for another handout.
	Please like our Middletown USA Facebook Page

spiderjohn Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 01 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2749	Post Options Post Reply Quote spiderjohn Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Nov 17 2008 at 6:35pm
	Mr.Haller--are you aware how the Butler County health department operates, as compared to the Middletown Health Dept.? I have worked with both of them for years, though actually I haven't seen anyone from the county in a long while. I also doubt that the county is staffed/prepared to handle the local situation, and given how Middletown gets prioritized in the county scheme of things, I have concerns. You might be reading me wrong. I can be confusing in my script. I do not favor losing this department, though the merger would be the most acceptable other option. I just mentioned the Section 8 situation since Council has chosen to keep that in-house locally to avoid the affected residents from the "hardship" of travel to Hamilton, while expected the same group to make that trip in regard to health care. Maybe these two programs could be somewhat tied together. As far as George Bush--I will be glad to see him gone. He is a Republican in name only. He has spent us into poverty, with the recent financial industry bail-out as his crowning act of buffoonery to date. BUT--he still has two months left to top that one, which scares the hell out of me! Council's/admin's approach towards downsizing is all at our expense regarding loss of services while protecting/prioritizing the main causes of our finaial decline--salaries/bennie and decline in tax revenues. I am looking forward tomorrow night to be meeting with an up-close organizer of the Obama campaign, to hear about the man and his personality. The Obama/McCain meeting today is exactly what we need to start turning the corner from partisanship. So--how do you rate the city admin departments as far as priorities and effectiveness? Which ones are you most involved with? What basic downsizing direction do you favor?

Mike_Presta Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483	Post Options Post Reply Quote Mike_Presta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Nov 18 2008 at 6:57am
	Spider: Probably half of the "republicans" in Butler County are Republican in name only! Just look at the so-called republican city council members, present and recent past, that claim to be Republicans. They are all Tax-and=spenders;they are all anti-school choice (for everyone else's kids); etc, etc, etc. How long has it been since there was an ACTUAL "conservative" on council???