Health board to create panels

Subcommittees will oversee compliance of measure, budget

by Garrett Andrews
Herald Staff Writer

Article Last Updated; Friday, July 10, 2009 7:32AM

The San Juan Basin Board of Health agreed on Thursday to create two subcommittees - one for budget and finance and another to oversee compliance with a recently enacted health board reorganization bill.

The board will put the subcommittees in place after a state agency audited the San Juan Basin Health Department two times.

In May, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ordered the audit after discovering "significant findings" in an initial review.

Board members acknowledged the downsides to adding another level to the department's bureaucracy but felt the issues warranted full consideration from members.

Board member Bill Wilson said he didn't want the new subcommittees to distract members from the board's established strategic vision.

"Things here are already so interwoven," he said. "By dividing into subcommittees, I think we might actually take away from the whole. I'm not saying we shouldn't down the road, I'm saying let's address our core objectives first."

Board President Bob Ledger said budget and finance are already being addressed.

"The keystone of any analysis is the budget. It's axiomatic," he said.

The board said establishing the committees would help it do a better job of addressing financial minutiae, and it could be done without generating an obsolete and ineffective layer of bureaucracy. The measure passed unanimously.

"Let's pick a path and execute effectively," said Wilson.

The board also approved the adoption of a subcommittee to oversee compliance with Senate Bill 194. The bill, also known as the Public Health Revitalization Act, was signed by Gov. Bill Ritter in June 2008. The bill's purpose is to ensure a consistent standard of care is available to every Colorado resident and requires local health boards to compile a public health plan to submit to the state by December 2009.

In other business at the meeting:•The board agreed that health department Executive Director Lynn Westberg's years of experience in the health field should be substituted for requiring a master's degree in public health. The degree is a new state-ordered requirement but exceptions are permitted.

Westberg graduated magna cum laude from the University of Iowa in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in nursing. She has also successfully completed master's-level courses in writing behavioral objectives and human genetics and has nearly 40 years of experience in the health field.

•The board listened to recommendations from auditors from local accounting firm FredrickZink & Associates. The auditors recommended the department's finance director modify the budget by closely matching revenues by program and funding source and matching expenditures by department and expenses.

The accounting firm also suggested that the board form a two- or three-person finance committee to periodically review financial operations.

gandrews@durangoherald.com