By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city has no interest in merging its health district with Mahoning County’s, though officials with both say they share services and are interested in further collaborations.

The city health district will move from the county-owned Oakhill Renaissance Place in late 2017 to space in the city hall annex to be built for about $750,000 to $800,000.

The move will save $173,000 in annual rent the city pays to the county.

The city opted last month to build space for the health district at the annex as part of a project to turn that structure into the municipal court.

There were discussions between 2011 and 2013 to merge the two health districts when Charles Sammarone was mayor. They pushed for consolidation of governmental agencies to save money.

But the city health district killed any plans for a merger in February 2014, a month after John A. McNally took over as mayor.

“There isn’t financial data to show a cost savings for the city,” McNally said. “My discussions were the savings is minimal. There’s no tremendous savings.”

City Health Commissioner Erin Bishop also said, “Through past discussions and review of preliminary financial data from both agencies, it was not shown that there would be a tremendous cost savings to the city of Youngstown.”

When asked for an approximate amount that could be saved by a merger, Bishop repeated the same statement.

There’s no interest in a merger because it would leave Youngstown with a satellite office and no local control, McNally said.

“Our city health district works directly with me, city council and neighborhood groups,” he said. “We’re continuing that relationship and adding to it by bringing the health department into a city-owned building downtown.”

The city district deals directly with its residents on issues such as “mosquitoes, rats, nursing, sanitary and city restaurant inspections, and vital statistics,” McNally said.

County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti “would love to see” the city and county health agencies merge and be located at Oakhill, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center.

“That’s not my call, but we are offering that space for them to utilize,” he said.

Traficanti added a merger has “been on the table for years with the board of health, and it’s something that we’ve wanted to see, a combined board of health, because there are a lot of crossovers and similarities” between the two.

McNally said he wants the city health district to be downtown and not paying rent to the county once the annex work is done.

The county health board is based in Austintown with no plans to move to the city, said Patricia Sweeney, its commissioner.

“Our location is truly ideal,” she said. “We’re in the same building as the planning commission and building inspection department. That location has been helpful to builders who deal with our environmental health division. We’re quite happy being located in Austintown. We’re on a bus route. We serve out to Sebring and all over the county, so we’re centrally located.”

Mahoning County has 49 workers in its health department with an annual budget of $5,698,379. Youngstown has 21 full-time workers and three part-timers with an annual budget of $2,219,727.

Sweeney acknowledges most residents don’t know there are two health districts, which can lead to confusion.

“People don’t know who to call on dog bites,” she said. “If it’s in the city, it’s Youngstown. If it’s elsewhere in the county, it’s us. It would be nice to be combined. For example, diabetes doesn’t stop at the border. But it’s not a decision a health commissioner can make.”

The two districts share services, saving money, though the exact amount is unclear.

The county handles all septic, plumbing and private water-systems oversight, and tuberculosis services. The city handles the HIV/AIDS programs for the entire county and houses the Women, Infants and Children food and nutrition program.

The two work together on the My Baby’s First Infant Mortality Coalition program.

“Shared services has demonstrated that services can be provided to the community throughout different demographics without having to necessarily merge entities completely,” Bishop said.

The city is saving about $160,000 annually by not having a sanitarian and a full-time nurse on staff, Bishop said.

“We do more things together than ever,” Sweeney said. “We collaborate on grants and share services. We’re more closely aligned than ever before.”

The city health district occupies 17,000 square feet at Oakhill and pays $173,000 in rent to the county.

The location at the annex would be only 8,000 square feet.

The city is able to use less space at the annex than at Oakhill, a former hospital, because of the layout of the latter, McNally said.

“Everybody’s rooms [at Oakhill] are too big,” the mayor said. “It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. We couldn’t reduce the amount of space at Oakhill based on the layout. It’s an issue of hospital space vs. space we can use at the annex. We couldn’t have cut down the space at Oakhill.”