To meet state requirements for its health advisory board — a volunteer group of citizens who provide recommendations to the commissioners — the Lewis County Board of Health moved to appoint two new members last week.
In a meeting on Jan. 9, Public Health & Social Services Director Meja Handlen explained for the commissioners to keep what they see as “local control” of the health board, the advisory committee’s makeup must meet “pretty clear criteria,” she said. The law states advisory representatives must be selected based on community or health field background, including tribal members, mental health caregivers, physicians and housing service providers. Seven people applied for the openings, Handlen said.
One of the new appointees, Deb Mizner, is from the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, a quality Commissioner Lindsey Pollock said was important for south county representation as the Cowlitz are very active near Winlock and Toledo. Commissioner Sean Swope said he’d worked with Mizner on the Lewis-Mason-Thurston Area Agency on Aging and would be happy to have her join the advisory board. The other new member, Dr. David Ellis, is a Chehalis-based family medicine physician. The same two commissioners expressed favor for his application. Both new members were appointed with unanimous approval.
Swope and Pollock’s newest seatmate, however, Commissioner Scott Brummer, advocated to reappoint the previous seatholder on the advisory board rather than Mizner, saying he felt the state’s guidelines were discriminatory. He did say Mizner was a good candidate in a later interview with The Chronicle.
“The state of Washington, in a nutshell, is very clear that they are opposed to discrimination against anybody for any reason whatsoever. And then, yet, they like to come out with RCWs that to me, say otherwise. That, ‘We’re going to give preference to somebody just based solely on that particular issue,’” Brummer said in the meeting. “That’s a concern, obviously. I’m not familiar with Miss Mizner and I’m a little bit short on having the full appreciation of the board itself.”
The previous seatholder Brummer argued to reappoint, Elizabeth Rohr, was among those campaigning for Brummer and his endorsers in the 2022 election. She and Greg Rohr, both of Toledo, donated a total of $400 to Brummer’s campaign, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.
Lewis County One of ‘Less Than Five’
Requirements for the advisory board makeup come from legislation Lewis County has been eyeing — and avoiding — since 2021. In the last two years, most counties in Washington have been required to add medical professionals to their boards of health, which were previously made up of elected officials. But not Lewis County.
House Bill 1152, first read on Jan. 12, 2021, made structural changes to county boards of health. One provision in the bill — a last-minute addition in the final Senate version of the legislation — allows counties with health advisory boards to maintain the all-elected board of health. According to Handlen, Lewis County is one of “less than five” in Washington currently operating with this health board structure.
Originally, HB 1152 proposed creating various health districts throughout the state, which proponents argued would centralize health resources and expedite funding for county health crises. Many were opposed, though, including Lewis County’s Board of Health and, at the time, its health department director JP Anderson and health officer, Dr. Alan Melnick, who was based out of Clark County and represented several other health boards at the time.
The county officials argued the bill would remove local control. Pollock said this week, of health policy, “you have to have local management, local buy-in.”
The only change required of Lewis County from the bill was that the advisory board met a certain criteria set meant to ensure diverse representation.
Anderson told The Chronicle this week, “Lewis County had the advisory board before the bill, as did many other counties. … We advocated to keep that structure with advisory boards.”
In previous Board of Health meeting minutes, Anderson discussed the bill as it moved through the Legislature. Pollock said she doesn’t remember a specific request to lawmakers in 2021 to add the provision on advisory boards, but recalled the bill being a concern.
In last week’s meeting, Pollock and Handlen referred to Spokane County, which saw blowback in the last two years for restructuring its board of health to be smaller and include a naturopath, rather than expanding and adding doctors. In reporting by The Spokesman Review, Spokane Democratic Rep. Marcus Riccelli said the commissioners were violating the original spirit of the bill.
Asked why the Lewis County commissioners were reluctant to add medical professionals to the health decision-making board, Pollock said there was already ample representation on the advisory board. In the last year, the Board of Health has not adopted the volunteer group’s proposals for new appointees to the committee nor hired its preferred county health officer applicants.
“Our main interest is to not have the state put us under a microscope,” Pollock told The Chronicle. “We have to show this works.”
Pollock said she had a “neutral” feeling for the advisory board structure in place.
In an interview later in the week, Brummer said he’d done more “homework” on the RCW since the Jan. 9 meeting.
“Certainly I don't have any issues with tribal representation. We had a good candidate who was selected. That was a good thing,” he told The Chronicle.
However, he doubled down on the stance that criteria based on someone’s background was “inherently discriminatory.”
He said he supports having diverse representation on the advisory board, but felt diversity should be defined on the local, rather than state level.
Ultimately, Brummer said he feels the state’s end goal is to regionalize health services, removing local representation in the process.
The commissioner also walked back his comment on lacking appreciation for the advisory board, saying, “I just haven’t had the opportunity to work with them and watch what goes on … I just don’t have the full appreciation for everything they do for Lewis County.”
Why Have an Advisory Board?
While the Board of Health may not have adopted the advisory board’s proposals of late, previous advisory chairman Jami Lund said the group still plays a valuable role. Especially, he said, considering the volunteers meet just once per month for an hour.
The group may not have the time to review every single public health contract, Lund said, but it can provide high-level insight on best practices for the board and the department. Further, as a volunteer citizens’ group, the board members bring a variety of skills, which can include outreach and other tasks to support health efforts in Lewis County.
He disagreed with the suggestion that the group had been “ignored” by the Board of Health.
“These groups are helpful,” Lund said. “They can keep the county from making mistakes.”
