Cambria’s health board elects officers, hires clerk

Health district trustees voted to elect new officers, hire a new part-time administrative clerk and change their regular meeting date during their November meeting Tuesday afternoon.

On a 4-1 vote, Cambria Community Healthcare District trustees elected current Vice President Bob Putney to serve as board president, current Secretary Mary Anne Meyer to serve as vice president Jerry Wood as secretary for the coming year.

Trustee Barbara Bronson Gray voted no, after arguing that the vote should be delayed a month to allow for newly elected board member Shirley Bianchi to be part of the selection process and suggesting that she would nominate Bianchi to serve as president at that time.

The board also voted 4-1 to follow Administrator Bob Sayers’ recommendation to hire a part-time administrative clerk to assist with such items as invoices, agendas, billing, correspondences and answering phones.

Sayers said the clerk would work 10 to 12 hours a week at a monthly cost to the district of $800. He said the money was nonbudgeted but would fit into the district’s current budget.

Putney spoke out in favor of the move, saying that the district is “behind in administrative filing and records” and adding that a new clerk would assist in “succession planning” in the event that another member of the staff were to resign. Board President Kristi Jenkins added that some district records are still in DOS format and that she supported the move “wholeheartedly.”

Bronson Gray voted against the motion, saying she preferred to wait until the board had a better idea of costs involved in dealing with potential upgrades to its ambulance station at 2535 Main St., based on a pending inspection report. The district is considering renovating the 60-year-old building or moving the ambulance station to a new location.

CHC leases

In another vote regarding that facility, the board instructed Sayers to begin negotiations with tenant Community Health Centers on a pair of leases about to come up for renewal in December.

Gray suggested that the district explore terminating one of those leases, on the former Lindberg lease with CHC on the section of the building that previously housed the Limberg Eye Surgery office, saying that it has remained vacant and could be put to better use by the district. She suggested that the district could either move its administrative offices into the space from their current location at 1241 Knollwood Circle; recruit another optometrist; or using the space as temporary sleeping quarters for staff during renovation or relocation.

Some board members questioned whether the 775-square-foot space would be adequate to house the district’s administrative staff. Sayers said it would, but that there would be no room for exercise equipment owned by the district.

The board directed him to consult with CHC on determine its intentions for the space while beginning negotiations on a new lease.

Crisis Intervention Team

In other business, the board voted 5-0 to remove references to the inactive Cambria Crisis Intervention Team from its website to avoid any implication that it is a service currently operated by the district. Jenkins said the team, which started in 1994, disbanded two years ago, even though the district still has $2,000 in its budget for its operation.

Jenkins called the CIT “extremely valuable,” but said, “I think we really need to stop advertising that we’re doing it.”

She and other board members indicated support for the prospect of reviving the team in some form and directed staff to report back on how its purpose might be clarified. Putney said previous members of the team might be amenable to returning but had indicated that they wouldn’t be involved in picking up patients from Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and transporting them home.

Trustees also voted to change their meeting dates to the third Thursday of each month, beginning in January, to facilitate local press coverage of those meetings. The board voted 3-1, with Wood opposed and Jenkins abstaining, to make that change.

Also Tuesday, the board voted 5-0 to send a letter from the district to the grand jury addressing the issue of consolidating services with the Cambria Community Services District.

In the letter, Sayers writes that the two agencies serve different jurisdictions and “cannot simply ‘merge’” but adds that the CCHD board “intends to further consider the possible combined organizational approaches going forward and continue to coordinate with CCSD regarding joint services.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Cambria’s health board elects officers, hires clerk."