Arrived
Will County Public Health & Safety Committee met June 3.
Here is the agenda provided by the committee:
I. CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL
Chair Donald Gould called the meeting to order at 10:04 AM
| Attendee Name | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Donald Gould | Chair | Present | |
| Beth Rice | Vice Chair | Present | |
| Mark Ferry | Member | Present | |
| Amanda Koch | Member | Present | |
| Meta Mueller | Member | Present | |
| Sherry Newquist | Member | Present | |
| Annette Parker | Member | Present |
Present from State's Attorney's Office: K. Meyers
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Mr. Gould led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. WC Public Health & Safety Committee - Regular Meeting - Mar 4, 2020 10:00 AM
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mark Ferry, Member
SECONDER: Meta Mueller, Member
AYES: Gould, Rice, Ferry, Koch, Mueller, Newquist, Parker
IV. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS
1. BOH Minutes February 19, 2020
(Susan Olenek)
2. Approved BOH March 26, 2020 Minutes
(Susan Olenek)
3. Sunny Hill Nursing Home Updates - February, March & April, 2020
(Information)
V. OLD BUSINESS
VI. OTHER OLD BUSINESS
1. Monthly Update from Sunny Hill Nursing Home
(Maggie McDowell)
Ms. McDowell reviewed the attached updated.
Sunny Hill Update for June 3, 2020
(Maggie McDowell)
2. Monthly Update from Will County Health Dept.
(Sue Olenek)
Ms. Olenek stated Illinois has 122,848 positive COVID cases with 5,525 deaths. Will County has 5,683 cases with 282 deaths. As of yesterday, the State Health Department has processed 934,704 tests, with over 60,000 processed in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate is approximately 92%. The Will County EMA is putting together and monitoring the metric the Governor is using to move through the phases. We will continue looking at those as we move forward. We have one COVID positive employee positive and one pending in the northern branch office. We have done all of the appropriate notification there with close contacts. The close contacts of the positive case will be quarantined for 14 days from the date of the last contact. Those who had contact with the pending possible case are also monitoring. We have discontinued moving staff between the offices for this reason. We notified the maintenance staff supervisor and our courier who moves between offices and branches, so they are aware. Approximately 75% of our staff is back in the office. It will probably stay that way for quite some time. Behavioral Health staff and those in other division are still working remote. We are asking those who can work remotely to do that, at least on a part time basis. Our Emergency Preparedness and Response Coordinator is putting together our agency plan to comply with IDPH safety guidelines put out last week, in terms of guidance for offices, both customer and non-customer facing and service counters. The guidance asks we do a lot of things in terms of barriers, temperature taking and signage. That staff is putting all of that together and we will roll out a comprehensive plan to all of our staff at the same time. We will not allow full access of the public until we have the plan in place. We preparing a survey for our staff; a quick 10 to 12 questions. It was brought to our attention, staff is talking amongst themselves, but not necessarily explaining or sharing their fears, concerns or needs with their managers. We are putting the survey out through Survey Monkey and it is confidential. We will be asking some pointed questions and getting feedback. It is important for staff to feel safe here and it is important for us to keep staff as safe as we can. We will take the survey information and make sure we meet as many needs as is reasonable when we roll out our plan. The Environmental Health Division is ready for the enforcement part of the safety guidelines, I think it is mostly going to be notification and guidance. Every day we get calls from the general public, other county offices and businesses in the county about the best way for them to meet these guidelines. It is encouraging that people are trying to do their best to meet the guidelines. COVID will be here for a very long time and everyone needs to be vigilant with wearing masks in public, social distancing, washing hand and disinfecting surfaces. I don’t want people to relax and forget those things are still important, because they are. We don’t have an effective treatment or vaccine. A vaccine has passed the first level of human trials; that is good news. Hopefully, we will have a vaccine by late fall or early winter. Our agency has applied for a little over $6.5 million in COVID grants. Tomorrow we are applying for a $4.9 million grant for contact tracing. We applied for a $272,000 grant for expanding capacity for COVID testing; the program where our medical and dental van is going into the communities and testing congregant settings. They are going into the communities throughout the county two or three days a week. We applied for $288,000 in CARES Act funding for the Health Department staff; $794,000 of CARES Act funding for the Community Health Center; $100,000 for a tele-health grant in Behavioral Health; $10,000 grant for some crisis staffing and $66,000 in the Community Health Center for a COVID grant to expand capacity. These grants will be working through the FY2020 and FY2021. We are separating out the expenses for the two fiscal years and will bring to our Board as appropriations to approve. Most of these grants deal with increasing capacity and getting into the community. The only one that increases our staff is the contact tracing. With the $4.9 million contract tracing grant we will be hiring about 110 contact tracers, 27 clerical support staff, 1 admin support staff, 4 managers, 2 IT specialists and 2 additional communicable disease investigators. The State mandate for contact tracing is to investigate 90% of our cases within 24 hours. We are nowhere near that with the capacity we have with our current staffing and the number of tests that are being performed. We worked with our epidemiologist, his division head and our finance director and have come to the realization we will need this number of staff to comply with that standard. We have a new building, but not a lot of new space. The contact tracers and clerical will mostly be remote. We included in the grant all the remote requirements, including Microsoft licenses, technology, carrying cases, cell phones, mileage and supplies for these staff members to work remotely. They will be temporary staff. We don’t know how long the program will go on or what the need will be in a few months. They will not be FTE, benefitted employees. We have quite a task in front of us. We reached out to a few staffing agencies to see if they will do the hiring for us. None will do the hiring for us; they all want to supply the staffing and receive a cut of the hourly rate, which is pretty steep. I feel you lose a lot of control when you do that. I have a call with Ms. Susan Flessner, our HR Department and Work Force Services Department staff this afternoon. I am hoping Work Force Services can help us with this. We are not hiring all 110 tracers and 27 support staff at the same time, because they are temp staff and they can only work 999 hours. We will hire 30 or 40 the first time; some will probably not work out or will quit and we will continue to backfill. We will hire a second and third wave. It is not as difficult as it sounds, but it will be some work.
Mrs. Parker asked are there testing sites open or do people go to their doctor’s office?
Ms. Olenek replied the community based testing sites are still out there. They were closed Monday and Tuesday because of the civil unrest. They were supposed to reopen today. People can go to their primary care doctor. They can go to our website and see where we are going to be. We have a couple of stops in the community where they can get tested.
Ms. Mueller asked are any of the community health test sites in Plainfield? Plainfield has several senior living communities.
Ms. Olenek replied we have events scheduled in Joliet and New Lenox. My list is from May 20th. I will find out if a revised schedule is available and get back to you.
Ms. Mueller indicated she would be happy to be a connection in the Plainfield area. I understand you will be hiring translators will you have enough PPE?
Ms. Olenek responded we have translators in our agency that come with us. Four of our doctors or nurse practitioners are bi-lingual in Spanish. We have not had to hire translators. We always want to make sure people are getting the right information so we use our own translators. Even if we did use volunteer translators, they would be given PPE.
Ms. Newquist asked are we doing antibody testing?
Ms. Olenek replied no we don’t. Currently, there is no valid, reliable, FDA approved antibody test. I don’t want to even suggest doing it until we have a valid test. Once a test becomes available and it is a valid, FDA approved test, I am all for getting the antibody testing. We will do all we can and it will probably come in the form of a grant opportunity. Without it being reliable, to me the information is not usable.
Ms. Ventura stated on May 12th you sent out a memo about a construction person not wearing a mask. Have you have any follow through with that? I am seeing a lot of people without masks on.
Ms. Olenek answered I sent the information to our senior construction supervisor, Kluber and Mr. Van Essen and I did get a response. The gentleman who would not wear a mask was a foreman with one of the electrical companies for the project.
Mr. Shawn Thompson followed up with the company and let them know it is a requirement and they would not be able to be in the building without a mask. Since then, it has not been a problem. I asked our staff if they see someone, in the workplace, without a mask on to say something polite not assertive. In order to be effective the mask has to be worn over your nose and mouth.
Ms. Newquist asked are there any testing facilities in the eastern part of the county.
Ms. Olenek replied it appears New Lenox is as far east as we are going at this time. I will find out if we have plans to go further east. We have reached out to all of the communities. Some are interested and some are not. Some have a facility to do this and other don’t. We were looking at our branch offices; I can check to see if it has been scheduled.
Ms. Newquist asked who have you reached out to?
Ms. Olenek replied I don’t know, we have clerical staff and outreach people making those calls.
Ms. Newquist stated if you need help reaching out to anyone, please let me know.
Mr. Ferry asked the temporary positions you are looking to fill, is HR working with the temp agencies?
Ms. Olenek answered we will be hiring through our HR Department. All the paperwork and required documents will go to the County HR Department. If you know of anyone who is interested in being a contact tracer, let me know. We will pay $23 per hour with minimal qualifications. The IDPH has a link on their website. If anyone is interested, they can go to the link and provide the information. I asked IDPH when we would receive the list so we can begin our hiring process. They responded but they have not gotten me the list. They have quite a few who are bilingual, which is what we want and were hoping for; we want a quarter of the contact tracers and clerical to be bilingual, Spanish.
Mr. Gould stated Cook County has a map showing the various hot spots. Is that something our GIS Department could do in Will County?
Ms. Olenek replied it depends on how close you want to get. We have images on our website showing hot spots, but they don’t get down to specific neighborhoods or streets. How much more specific do you want us to be? We have cases by zip codes; there are 7 zip codes in Joliet and they all have cases attached to them. We are not going to drill down any further.
Dr. Burke stated there was plan for the substance abuse counseling program to be relicensed once you moved into your new building. Could I get an update?
Ms. Olenek replied last week I reminded Dr. Troiani of our goal to do that. I asked him to put together his plan in the very near future so we can take a look at it. I hope to have it in the next couple of weeks.
Ms. Koch stated regarding the hot spots, we don’t need to black mark a specific neighborhood or building publically, but what is the Health Department doing to get education into those areas? My suspicion is the communities affected are English as a second language or Spanish speaking. One zip code has almost 800 people and that is a lot more than in the Frankfort area. I want us to be proactive and try to stop the slide in those areas. What specifically are we doing?
Ms. Olenek replied those communities seem to take a lot more face to face education. At this time, we don’t have the staffing or the ability to do that. The State is looking at communities they are calling, having inequities. We are not doing anything specific to that right now, I do not have funding or staffing to do that.
Ms. Koch asked what would you need for us to do for staffing in those areas?
Ms. Olenek responded we are looking at additional funding. We put one community health educator in our CARES Act grant for the Community Health Center who would be doing some targeted education. Other than that, I need a funding opportunity to be able to staff it.
Ms. Koch stated we were able to find an additional $60,000 for United Way. I feel that would be a person’s salary for an entire year. I would be interested in funding something like that because I feel we do need this now.
Mr. Gould suggested the person could be hired under the CARES Act funding.
Ms. Koch stated my fear is it could take a long time to get that going. We have a County Board meeting this month, so let’s get this person started. This is an emergency and it should have been done a few months ago when we saw these neighborhoods.
Ms. Olenek stated every one of our positions within the agency are tied to funding. Some are supported strictly by the levy, some by grants, some by fee for service and some by a combination of all those things. The individuals who would do this education and outreach are funded by other grants. I cannot take them off those grants and put them someplace else. That is why I am saying there has to be a funding stream for an additional individual.
Ms. Koch asked could we figure out a way to fund this immediately and for a year or so until this is over? I hear you need more staff and you need it to be funded properly. Is there a way for us to fund it?
Mrs. Parker asked if the funding was in place, how long would it take to get a person hired and do the job?
Ms. Olenek replied we could put up a posting next week for a Community Health Educator. Historically, we don’t have issues hiring this position. They are probably some of the most self-sufficient individuals we hire. They have a lot of experience with outreach, technology, advertising and PR, they are the ones who do a lot of our model programs under Ms. Cindy Jackson. They do an excellent job in the community. We could ramp this up pretty quickly.
Ms. Mueller stated I like the idea. I would like to see us being very assertive in aiding these communities. I think this is a great start.
Mr. Gould asked Ms. Olenek to put together a memo to how this would work and the amount needed. This type of request would go to the Executive Committee. At the Executive Committee meeting I would be glad to bring this person on as soon as possible.
Ms. Olenek stated I will work with Ms. Jackson and send over a memo to carefully explain what this individual would be doing.
Ms. Rice supported the idea.
Ms. Newquist stated my understanding is Behavioral Health is run from the Steger Community Health Center, because we did not have room for it in the Monee Office. Our mayor announced the Steger Community Health Center is going to be closed for the remainder of the year because of budget issues. What are you going to do about relocating that program?
Ms. Olenek replied I have not hear that.
Ms. Newquist indicated she would reach out to the Village for an update.
Opioid Update
(Dr. Kathleen Burke)
Dr. Burke reviewed the attached Opioid Report.
Ms. Summers stated we have a number of people on our pending list. The statistics will not be listed until we have finished with the final cause of death.
Dr. Burke stated we have not had as much of an issue with opioids, based on the current data, but we have had a larger problem with overdoses.
Ms. Summers stated we have 15 pending overdose cases, but it is not all opioids.
Dr. Burke added we have had four suicides and that is a lot. If those 15 are opioid related our numbers will surpass last year’s.
Ms. Summers stated as soon as we get the numbers I will get something to you.
Ms. Ventura asked in light of the increase, are there other things we could be doing? Is there anything the County Board could help with to lower these numbers? Are there resources you are not receiving or is this a matter of personal choices of people in the community.
Dr. Burke replied the CARES Committee allotted only 5% of those dollars to not for profits. The not for profits have been wiped out because of this virus. I would like to see more of those dollars go to the homeless centers and treatment centers. With the COVID requirements, Stepping Stones will have to cut their capacity by one-third. That will hurt them. We should be supplying more resources to not for profit agencies. If we don’t get folks connected to care, then they are not going to launch recovery. My Recovery Coach program is working well and the timing was good for that. I am asking the Board to increase a positon from part time temporary to full time temporary. It would help if I was able to have that person permanently, but I am not asking for that at this time.
Ms. Ventura continued do you feel COVID has increased drug use? Many of my friends are depressed so I can see how it would be an issue for those already struggling.
Dr. Burke stated that is where we have seen the relapses. There were 13 overdoses in one month; that is a lot for one month. People have told me that the inability to have personal contact with their support groups has absolutely impacted their ability to stay in recovery. I would also like to ask that we accelerate being able to provide behavioral health services and substance use through the County. Ms. Olenek has been overwhelmed with responsibilities in her departments, her people have stepped up and are doing a lot for a very minimal amount of staff. The Behavioral Health staff are working from home, but we need substance use. The clinic is providing services and this is an area people can come if they don’t have resources. We need people to open it up and be out there are available for community members.
Ms. Ventura asked is that a decision the Board of Health makes or does Ms. Olenek make that decision? Who makes the decision?
Ms. Olenek replied I would make that decision.
Ms. Ventura asked can you discussion why you made the decision to delay?
Ms. Olenek responded Dr. Burke and I have not discussed this, but I would be happy to talk with her to see what we can work out. I asked Dr. Troiani to bring me his plan regarding how we are going use the addiction and substance abuse piece by next week. He knew we were waiting to do that until we got into the new building. I want to look at his plan. I understand the urgency that Dr. Burke is speaking of and we can certainly talk further about this. The Community Health Center has been seeing the medication assisted treatment individuals. Although we are doing the telehealth on a long term basis, that is not the best thing for the client. It is not the best thing for their recovery or treatment. This is not going to go on forever. At some point, we will be bringing the staff back to do those kinds of services on site.
Ms. Ventura stated my doctors have opened up and are seeing people in person. Could the county move in that direction if people need in-person care? I will look to Dr. Burke and Ms. Olenek to make those decisions, I do appreciate you reporting back to us.
Ms. Koch stated I think the mental health piece is important. Dr. Burke mentioned the CARES Act money and using some of the money for not for profits having a hard time getting funding and affected by the COVID crisis. I would love to get a report of the non-profits you see that really need the help and the type of help they need. I would like to have them at the table at our next CARES Act Committee Meeting on Friday. Dr. Burke could you sit in and bring information or other folks? If there is a need for the piece to be bigger I want to approach that immediately instead of waiting until we have decided how much will go where and then fixing the problem. I encourage you to come to the meeting and bring us that information early and often.
Mrs. Parker stated it does seem like everything is segmented and every agency is doing everything they can with homelessness, substance abuse or behavioral health, but it does not seem like it is all coming together. It seems there is not one informational piece the community is aware of.
Dr. Burke stated as soon as we find out, we are working together. We are not heavily staff and until you find the gap, you can’t fill the gap. That is why I am asking for a perspective of making these links to help everybody. All of the issues are linked; homelessness is linked to substance use, lack of jobs, and lack of housing. When we make a move it is important to talk about the consequences in other arenas is important. It is complicated.
Ms. Mueller stated I am not on the CARES Committee but I want to reiterate inviting these folks to participate in the meeting because I want to hear how we can do better with this.
Monthly Report of Dr. Burkes
(Dr. Kathleen Burkes)
VII. NEW BUSINESS
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT
Ms. Rice stated at the last County Board meeting; the appointments to the Board of Health were removed. There was not an issue with the appointments, but there was a request for a discussion about the role of the Board. I thought there was going to be a Committee of the Whole. I am wondering when this will be coming up for discussion.
Mr. Gould stated Ms. Ventura brought it up and at the last County Board meeting. Since it was a broader issue than just this Committee it was best taken up by at a Committee of the Whole.
Ms. Rice stated I will follow up with Ms. Winfrey. I have no concerns with any appointments. I have an interest, inspired by the recent public health crisis to understand more about the role and makeup of the Board of Health and how the needs of today are in sync with that.
Mr. Gould stated membership on the Board of Health is determined according to statute. The Board Members come from all walks of life. I don’t know when this statute went into effect and perhaps with the COVID experience it could be reexamined. The Board operates under the statute and that is how people are selected.
Ms. Rice asked I know it is statutory and we cannot change it, but I am curious from your perspective, if it is serving the needs in today’s environment?
Mr. Gould replied to me it seems as though it does. Perhaps Ms. Olenek can speak to this. In light of what has been going on over the past few months, you might ask if we need an epidemiologist? They have one who works for the Health Department. Maybe in some situations it is not required a Board Member be that person, but Board Members can direct questions and issues to a staff person who has the qualifications. Dr. Troiani is in Behavioral Health, we spent time these last few years talking about opioids. When we have questions about substance use and behavioral health, we go to Dr. Troiani. There are professionals on staff in different walks of life in the medical community who we can reach out to.
Ms. Olenek stated historically, our Board has been extremely effective. I have been attending Board meetings on and off from 1986 to 1999 and from 2003 to today full time. I have a lot of experience with the Board as a whole and individuals who have served on the Board during those times. There are statutory requirements for certain kinds of individuals to serve on the Board. We are required to have one or two doctors and a dentist; there are certain lines of work required. The current composition of the Board is wonderful. Mr. Zelko is our President, and was the Administrator at the Health Department for 18 years. He is a champion for public health and has a lot of historical background. Mr. John Cicero was my immediate predecessor; he had 33 years in public health experience and very familiar with the operations of the agency, the budgets and grants. He is very attune to what we do and a good component on the Board. We have two or three individuals who have experience with behavioral health, one is a PsyD, Dr. Ramos who is active in treatment. We also have Teena Mackey on the advocate side of behavioral health. We have Dr. Pitsilos and Dr. Lipinski who are medical doctors. Dr. Lipinski is the CMO of St. Joe’s Hospital. So he brings a perspective that is very effective. We have the Health Center and programs like the immunizations programs that is clinical. Dr. Soderquist is a dentist and orthodontist and is helpful with the dental clinic. Mr. Gould and Ms. Winfrey help us and provide a countywide perspective and County Board support. I am not sure what the question or concern is. I feel our Board is very much appropriate for what we do.
Mr. Gould stated I wanted the Committee Members to have background on of the Board of Health. There is also the Community Council which is made up of people from the community organizations.
Ms. Olenek stated under HIRSA guidelines at the Community Health Center we are required to have a Governing Council. This Governing Council is a separate governing body required to operate our Health Center. There is a federal requirement that 51% of the members have to be active patients at the Health Center. They do that so the council members have firsthand experience of what the health center is all about, the challenges, the needs of the community that is another separate piece. Those governing council meetings take place separate from the Board of Health. The Governing Council chair sits in on the monthly Board of Health meetings and myself and Mrs. Elizabeth Bilotta, who sit in on the Governing Council each month to make sure there is continuity. Both bodies have bylaws and we also have an inter-cooperative agreement between the two governing boards it outlines who does what; who is responsible for what, if there is a problem how do we deal with it. It is very structured. Mr. Gould brought up the epidemiologist, in addition to that, we have the Health Department contracts with Dr. Dan Garganera, the infection control doctor at both St. Joe’s and Silver Cross. We contract with him annually and he is available to us on a consultative basis. Through this COVID event we have been working with him. He has been extremely busy at the two hospital, but we have been keeping in touch, he is well aware of what we are doing and we are very aware of what he is doing. He is available. COVID-19 aside, when we don’t have a pandemic we are responding to, he is available to us, if we have questions or concerns that we need him to weigh in on on a countywide basis. This is in addition to our epidemiologist.
Ms. Rice asked as we are deciding when in-person meeting return, I hope Leadership goes cautiously and conservatively. As we are opening up, I feel people feel the COVID threat is over. I know it is not and I hope as a Board we go cautiously and as carefully as allowed by law.
Mr. Gould asked Ms. Dunn to give an update on the Executive Orders regarding in- person meetings.
Ms. Dunn read from the Executive Order moving to Phase 3. It allows meetings with up to 10 people with social distancing and masks. I spoke with Leadership in May and recommended we have meeting virtually in June. It was agreed to and this is how we are proceeding. There has been no discussion on how July meetings will be held. I don’t think we will be in Phase 4 by July. Even if we are, Phase 4 only allows for in-person meetings up to 50 people. We have to assume there will be more than 50 people at our County Board Meeting. There were between 60 and 90 people attending the virtual meetings in April and May. I am sure Leadership is open to suggestions. I would be interested to know the State’s Attorney’s opinion on that. I know they have been bringing in their workers sporadically to follow the social distancing guidelines. I am concerned about the Committee Room. I don’t know how social distancing will work in there. I have had several discussions I don’t have an answer. I am concerned about it.
Mr. Meyers stated Ms. Dunn is correct regarding the Governor’s Phases. The problem we are all going to have is this is a public health issue and we don’t know where we are going. The early estimates versus reality was significantly different. We have had a number of legal challenges against the Governor’s authority. I think you will see more of that coming up. I can’t tell you where we are going in July. I think we need to see what is developing legally. There are both federal and state lawsuits against the Governor’s Orders. As it stands, we are limited to 10 people. There were amendments to the Open Meetings Act to deal with these issues. At the State’s Attorney’s Office each division is doing different things. In the Civil Division we do not have things like speedy trial demands, we are opening up slower as opposed to the Criminal side. We probably need to see where we are in mid to late June before we look at a plan to move forward.
Ms. Rice thanked everyone for their thoughts. I really appreciate Ms. Dunn’s comments about the Committee Room which was what was on my mind and the abilities to do some of the things considered best practice. What is good for our Committees is not part of the State’s Reopening Plan from the Governor but what our rooms look like and what we can do to give everyone the best chance of doing what is recommended. I am pleased to know so much thought is going into it.
Ms. Dunn stated although I have expressed my concerns to Leadership and the Executive’s Office, I am concerned if on June 18th the Board decides to have the July Committee meetings in the Board Room, there will be real scheduling issue if everyone goes back to having their less than 10 people meeting in-person. If we are having a meeting and it will be in-person and our limit is 10 I am concerned about what happens when you get to 10 people, who do you tell they cannot come in. These things are concerning to me. I think we should address them and I am ready to do and help in any way I can.
Ms. Mueller stated I agree with Ms. Dunn. I have a lot of concerns about us coming back together for those same reasons. I just wanted to say those are good points.
Mrs. Jakaitis stated there have been no comments from the public for this meeting.
IX. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT / ANNOUNCEMENTS
X. EXECUTIVE SESSION
XI. ADJOURNMENT
https://willcountyil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=3778&Inline=True
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