Yakima health board divided over how a new law will influence its composition - wenatcheeworld.com
YAKIMA — Disagreement over how a new state law could shape membership on the Yakima Health District's Board of Health continues to stall its implementation.
After lengthy discussion last week, the health board narrowly rejected a motion calling for the immediate implementation of the new law that requires an equal number of elected and non-elected members on the board.
Controversy over the response to the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the new law, which aims to eliminate politics from public health decisions and policymaking.
"It's a very difficult law to interpret," he said. "It's convoluted and procedurally there's a lot of problems with the law."
On Friday, Brusic and Yakima Health District attorney James Elliott discussed the matter. Brusic said he wanted to share that discussion with Yakima County commissioners before making it public.
One problem health board members are grappling with is whether the new law prohibits the health board from eliminating some elected members, which would reduce the overall number of board members.
Yakima County Commissioner Amanda McKinney said interpretations of the law differ across the state, and points to a recent changes in Spokane County. Spokane County commissioners reduced the size of their health board from 12 to eight (four elected and four unelected representatives) and cut the five seats representing the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley.
Elected members are county commissioners Ron Anderson, McKinney and LaDon Linde, Yakima City Council member Patricia Byers and Toppenish City Council member Naila Duval. Citizen members are Dr. Sean Cleary and Dr. Dave Atteberry.
Some health board members say the board only needs to select three more citizen members to meet the law's requirements. Others say the board can limit elected membership to commissioners only and select three citizen members.
Byers, McKinney, Linde and Atteberry rejected the motion while Cleary, Duval and Anderson voted in favor of it.
Cleary said the new state law was intended to expand, not shrink, health boards and urged his motion be approved to avoid missing the law's July 1 deadline.
Part of the board's division stems from an ordinance commissioners approved in January 2021 that set term limits and gave commissioners more power on the health board. Those changes were not fully implemented because of the new state law.
Cleary said he feared further delay in implementing the new law would result in commissioners making decisions on the matter without including the full health board.
source: https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/yakima-health-board-divided-over-how-a-new-law-will-influence-its-composition/article_453ed3c4-82c8-11ec-a4bd-db5b9fee12bb.html
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