City, county find common ground on health unit
The consent agenda for next week’s Hot Springs Board of Directors meeting includes a resolution authorizing $35,000 in funding for the Garland County Health Unit next year, an item city and county officials said bodes well for budget negotiations between the two governments.
The city initially proposed appropriating $15,000 for the reimbursement it provides the county for health unit operating and maintenance expenses, or one-third of the $45,000 it’s provided in previous budget cycles, and ending the contribution in 2019.
City Manager David Frasher called the $35,000 a “compromise” reached during discussions he and Mayor Pat McCabe have had with County Judge Rick Davis and District 12 Justice of the Peace Darryl Mahoney.
“We’ve committed ourselves to an ongoing dialogue with these informal meetings,” Frasher told the board at Tuesday’s agenda meeting. “There’s been some really good discussions in those meetings. One of the things we talked about was the shared interest both the city and county have in trying to stabilize that funding amount.”
City Attorney Brian Albright and County Attorney Ralph Ohm said the
meetings Frasher referenced don’t require public notice under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Meetings where more than one member of the same elected or appointed body discuss official business generally require public notice, but the two attorneys said the requirement doesn’t apply to the city and county’s recent discussions.
They explained that while Davis presides over the Garland County Quorum Court and has veto authority, he is not a member of the body.
“The county judge is not a ‘member’ of the legislative body of the county, but rather is the executive branch of the county,” Albright said. “Therefore, the county judge is permitted to meet with any single member of the quorum court on general matters.”
The county provides and maintains the health unit building at 1425 Malvern Ave. It appropriated $146,800 for the health unit this year, which included
$60,000 for a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The state pays for employee salaries and benefits.
Davis said Wednesday that the Arkansas Department of Health reduced the health unit’s
2018 operating and maintenance budget from $90,000 to $70,000, allowing the city to reduce its contribution and still bear half the cost.
The city agreed to the $35,000 reimbursement despite maintaining it’s under no statutory obligation to contribute to the health unit. That insistence led the county to propose a 2017 budget for the health unit that reflected the city’s reduced contribution.
The controversy played out as Health Unit Administrator Chris Rowland informed city and county officials that the Health Department would relocate its staff out of the county if the unit’s budget were cut.
City directors ultimately agreed to fund the full $45,000 contribution at the final board meeting of the year. City administration had said earlier that year that the reduction was needed to offset the budget shortfall caused by the county proposing to withdraw more than $100,000 from intergovernmental cost-sharing agreements.
The $40,000 contribution to the Garland County Department of Emergency Management was cut from the city’s budget to account for the shortfall, which was mostly the result of the county proposing to withhold the city’s $111,000 population-based share of the 65-cent surcharge cellphone providers collect for 911 operations.
The proposal proceeded from the county’s hope that the call center it is building in the former county detention center would be used to dispatch all emergency personnel in Garland County, including the city’s police and fire departments.
The city instead chose to use proceeds from the 2.6 mills it’s levying in support of its Radio Maintenance and Replacement Fund to improve its existing call center inside the Hot Springs Police Department.
The county eventually released the city’s share of the cellphone collections. State law requires counties to provide cities within its boundaries a per capita share of the cellphone fees providers collects for 911 operations. Counties aren’t obligated to share landline fees providers collect for 911 service.
Davis and Frasher said reaching an agreement on the health unit’s 2018 funding should be a harbinger of less contention when the two governments enter budget negotiations later this year. Frasher said adding McCabe, the city’s political leader, to the discussions with the county has created more parity between the two sides.
“I think sometimes it just changes the dynamics a little bit to have a political leader there,” Frasher told the board. “Before Mayor McCabe came aboard, we had political leaders from the county dealing with administrative folks from the city.
“It just changes the chemistry a little bit to have everybody at the table, so I really appreciate the mayor’s participation. We’ve got even bigger things to work on, but we’ll count this as a victory for the relationship.”
Davis said he’s hopeful the detente will hold.
“We’re coming together and trying to work out issues,” he said. “David and I have had some very good conversations. They’ve been very positive. I think it’s the beginning of more good things to come.”