Monroe County health board drafts public comment policy, seeking public input

The Monroe County Board of Health has drafted a policy for governing public comment at its meetings. The initial draft received discussion at the board’s regular meeting on Thursday (June 26).

A meeting will be held on July 11 for the sole purpose of hearing public input about the policy.

Elements of Thursday’s discussion about the draft policy included speaker sign-ups, speaking time, speaker guidelines, and grounds for punishment. Members also emphasized the importance of accessibility when it comes to public participation at board meetings.

Some of the topics were considered in a lot of detail, like whether speakers need to sign up in advance. The board discussed the timeframe for public comment sign-ups—whether they should occur just before the meeting or hours or days in advance—as well as how to handle sign-ups for remote participants. While in-person speakers can fill out a sign-in sheet, members questioned if and how people attending a meeting via Microsoft Teams should sign up, and whether the planned topic of a comment should be collected during the process.

Board member George Hegeman helped write the draft policy. Board chair Dawne (Aurora) DiOrio wrote in an email to The B Square Friday (June 27) that she has revised the draft based on suggestions and feedback from the board during the meeting, and will send that revised version to the board for “one last look” before making it available to the public. The B Square will link to the draft from this article when it is released.

For Thursday’s meeting, the board piloted an online sign-up form for remote participants. However, no online or in-person public comment was given at the meeting.

Board member Lee McKinley said, “I think the general tenet of this should be, we welcome—we want comments.” He said that while there is some negativity surrounding the matter, “we’re not trying to find ways to not get comments.”

Board member Stephen Pritchard said, “We realize that not everybody’s happy with everything we do, or I do—since I’ve been singled out a few times—or Aurora does.” Later he said, “I can’t wait to hear what people have to say about this.”

Also at the Thursday (June 26) meeting, member Lisa Hanner-Robinson called on the board to create a statement to be read to the Monroe County council regarding the closing of the Futures Family Planning Clinic. [Partial timeline of Futures Clinic history]

In August last year, citing “continued staffing challenges,” the Indiana Family Health Council (IFHC) terminated its contract with Futures Family Planning Clinic for Title X services and assumed responsibility for the clinic under its Indiana Family Planning Centers structure.

“We are continuing to be asked by members of the [county] council, ... and there’s concern over Futures, etc.,” said Hanner-Robinson. “And I think in an effort to, kind of, put that to rest, I would like to come up with a statement” with the executive committee of the board “that gives, sort of, a timeline.” She said she hopes that with a public statement, the board can then move forward with its current business.

DiOrio responded, “And your hope with this would be that it is successful and that we never have to address it with council again because they actually listen to it and accept it. Because,” she continued, “we’ve done this. We’ve done this so many times.”

The board decided that Hanner-Robinson would draft the statement with DiOrio’s help. A motion passed unanimously, authorizing the board’s executive committee to make a statement to be read at a county council meeting “in an effort to satisfy the Futures topic” so it can be put to rest.

Monroe County health officer Sarah Ryterband, who attended Thursday’s board meeting, said about the topic of the Futures Family Planning Clinic, “I’m happy to sign the death certificate personally.”