Preparations continue to revive health department

By D.a. Wilkinson

The health department would include four part-time positions and one full time.

SALEM — City officials are working to prepare their 2009 spending and to revive the health department.

Councilman Bret Apple of council’s finance committee said the figures should be approved by council by the end of March. City Auditor James Armeni would then put them into the city’s computer by April 1.

The city has been running on temporary appropriations since the beginning of the year.

Armeni said he did not anticipate any problems in completing the work.

Mayor Jerry Wolford said the city’s efforts to revive its health department had taken some turns.

Council called a committee of the whole meeting to discuss the plan because council had not formally discussed it.

The city’s 10-year contract with the Columbiana County Health Department expires May 31. Armeni proposed that the city resume health operations because the county did not provide programs called for in its contract with the city. Former Health Commissioner Robert Morehead recently pleaded guilty to theft in office for improper spending on personal items.

There will be five positions at the health department: a health commissioner, a medical adviser, a health nurse, a registrar and a sanitarian.

Wolford said the plan calls for all the positions to be part-time except for the registrar.

Wolford also said that after research, city law director Brooke Zellers decided that the workers at the new department ,except the medical advisor, would have to be civil service workers.

That would require advertising civil service tests for people seeking the various jobs. The city’s civil service commission would conduct the tests.

The mayor said a meeting is to be held to determine the pay structure for the department. Those recently named to the health board would set the salaries, he said. Council would have to formally approve the new workers.

Armeni said he did not think the civil service appointments would increase pay rates.

Armeni said his previous estimate of fees paid to the health board for various programs will still be able to generate about $100,000 a year. That may leave a small amount to be paid by the city’s general fund for the department, he said.

wilkinson@vindy.com