Commissioner threatens hiring freeze for Tri-Cities health district amid coronavirus pandemic

A Franklin County commissioner is threatening to freeze hiring at the Benton Franklin Health District.

Commissioner Clint Didier said he’s concerned the district may hire new people to patrol construction sites for workers not following coronavirus safety guidelines.

Didier is also worried the district is spending too much money as it works to control the spread of the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

“If they want to hire people, we should be all voting against it,” Didier said at a recent commission meeting. He is one of six members of the Benton Franklin Health District Board.

Health district officials say dealing with the pandemic could cost $3 million more this year than its annual budget if work continues at its current pace.

The district’s annual budget is $10 million to $11 million.

A recent statewide analysis of health departments shows the bicounty department is the 22nd lowest of 39 counties for money spent per person.

Didier told the Tri-City Herald he plans to raise budget and staffing issues at the health district board meeting being held via the internet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 20.

The board is made up of the three commissioners from each of the two counties.

Didier questions spending

Last week marked the 100th day since the health district opened an emergency operations center to respond to the pandemic.

Benton Franklin Health District says 75 in the Tri-Cities area have died of complications of COVID-19 and there have been 1,379 known cases.

Statewide, there have been more than 1,000 deaths.

Didier said at a May 5 Franklin County Commission meeting that the district board needs to take a close look at spending.

He is concerned that the local health district might hire new employees to “police” Gov. Jay Inslee’s requirements to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus as more construction work in the state is resuming.

The new requirements require social distancing, personal protective equipment, sanitation, maintaining a log of workers and visitors, and screening of workers for COVID-19.

Local health officials say they are not enforcing construction orders in the Tri-Cities. That would be the responsibility of the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries or possibly the state Department of Health.

But Didier is also concerned that health district costs are rising as county sales taxes and other revenue are falling because of the state closures.

“They are asking us, to make it up, the two counties,” he said at the May 12 Franklin County Commission meeting.

He said that salary spending of the health district is going up $40,000 a month.

And the health district has a backlog of about 100 applications for septic systems, he told the Herald.

Health district workers that should be doing inspections instead may be assigned to tracing contacts of COVID-19 patients, said Didier who also is spearheading a federal lawsuit with tax activist Tim Eyman claiming Inslee’s orders are unconstitutional.

No budget for hiring

Among the questions Didier will be raising Wednesday is whether the agency plans more hiring for contact tracing to find the close contacts of people infected with the new coronavirus, he said.

When the district receives notice of a positive test result for COVID-19 in a Benton or Franklin county resident, it calls the patient to try to identify their close contacts who also may be infected.

Close contacts may be asked to self quarantine for 14 days to stop the spread of the disease.

Health officials tell the Herald the district has about 90 employees, all of them trained in emergency preparedness, with 83 of them assigned at some point during the pandemic to work related to COVID-19.

“We have pulled everyone we can,” said Carla Prock, a senior manager.

About 50 to 55 employees are assigned to COVID-19 work weekdays and about 20 on weekends. Some workers are eligible for overtime pay and are receiving that pay.

The district has no money to hire more people at this point, said Rick Dawson, a senior manager.

It already is using volunteers to supplement staff work, particularly in contact tracing.

“We have a group of people who have dedicated their lives to public health,” Dawson said. “We couldn’t expect any more from any group of people to serve this community.”

Managers are working to control staff burnout and fatigue as employees work long days, including by restricting workers to only working five days a week even though COVID-19 work continues seven days a week, said Prock and Dawson.

Health district budgets

Crosscut, a Seattle-based online news outlet, compiled a database of county of spending per capita on public health that showed the Benton Franklin Health District with about $35 per person.

Twenty-one counties spend more and 16 counties spend less per person. At the top is San Juan County spending $259 per person and at the bottom is Whitman County spending $13 per person.

The state’s most populous county, King, spends $108 per person, according to information compiled by Crosscut.

It cautioned that jurisdictions are structured differently and have varying degrees of responsibility.

The Benton Franklin Health District receives money from the counties and also from state and federal grants and fees for services.

Required inspections

As restaurants reopen, the health department’s focus there will be on its mandate to prevent food-borne illnesses by inspecting for food safety, said Dawson.

If they see a practice that could increase the spread of the new coronavirus, such as tables too close together, an inspector might offer some suggestions, he said.

But the district will only be enforcing issues to prevent food-borne illnesses, not the spread of coronavirus.

He agreed the district has a backlog of applications for new septic systems.

The order banning most construction work also affected the health district, which could not go on construction sites to inspect systems or to observe work such as the excavation of test pits.

But in the meantime, builders have been filing paperwork, including applications for approval of septic systems, Dawson said.

With some construction rules eased, health district officials are working through the backlog.

Dawson said local health officials could pull its inspectors from construction sites if they see that measures required to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus are not in place, but will not order improvements.

District’s staffing needs

The district has continued to permit repairs or replacement of failing sewage systems, with about 60 applications processed since March 1.

The health district is not able to provide some services, such as immunization clinics, and others are restricted, such as food safety inspections.

Some food establishments have closed and at others it may be difficult to maintain social distancing during inspections.

Other services, such as nutrition assistance to women and children, have seen a large increase in caseloads as people in the community are laid off or furloughed.

As more activities are allowed in the Tri-Cities area, the health district will need to start pulling staff from COVID-19 work to resume their normal duties, Prock said.

The local health district might get some help from the state as the governor is assembling a team of contact tracers for COVID-19 that include members of the Washington state National Guard.