GPH Moves to Create New Fiscal Officer Position
Geauga Public Health (GPH) - July 16, 2025
Meeting Details: The GPH Board met in Regular Session at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B334, Chardon, OH, on June 18, 2025. The meeting began at 5 pm. This meeting is in person with no virtual viewing or video. The Agenda is posted on the GPH Facebook page a few days prior to the meeting and then typically is posted on the GPH website. The Agenda can be found here.
Public Comment Policy: There is no separate written policy, but in practice “Citizens’ Remarks” are listed on the agenda and are permitted as detailed there.
Board Attendance:
Staff Attendance:
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Dan Lark, Director of Environmental Health
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Adam Litke, Administrator
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Ron Graham, Lake and Geauga Health Commissioner
Others Present: Allison Wilson, reporter from the Geauga Maple Leaf, and this LWVG Observer were present.
Call to Order: Called to order at 5:01 pm.
Opening of Meeting
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A quorum was declared, as was a Certification of the Delivery of
Official notices of meeting.
Minutes -The Board approved the Minutes of the Regular Meeting held on June 18, 2025. Minutes, once posted, can be viewed here.
Health District Staff Reports
Observer Note: These reports are available with the Agenda on the Geauga Public Health (GPH)
website. See Agenda here.
Dr. Jones noted that Auburn Inn is now open and said she appreciated the quick resolution to the e-coli issue in their water. Mr. Lark noted they have been doing additional water sampling in that area.
In the detailed Agenda, the Population Health Report lists a few key items:
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Staff nurse Melissa Kimbrough hosted informational tables at a number of community events, including the Live Well Festival in Claridon, the Seniors Citizens Fair and UH Health and Safety Days.
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Lydia Castner, the GPH Emergency Preparedness Specialist, is continuing to work on projects in preparation for the new grant year, which begins July 1. Projects include identifying, creating and executing plans to address corrective actions identified in past after action reports and reviewing and updating local and regional plans.
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In June, no communicable disease outbreaks were reported for Geauga County.
Health Commissioner Report
Mr. Graham said Geauga County Community Health Assessment data should be available soon. They will be reporting on the assessment to the Mental Health Board July 24th from 10 to noon.
He also noted he had provided the GPH Board with their re-accreditation report for their information and said he would review it with the emergency preparedness specialist.
Old Business
As noted at last month’s meeting (the June GPH LWV Geauga Observer Report is available here), this resolution reduces some fees (e.g., for Installer Registration and Service Provider Registration, the $200 fee was reduced to $175) and other fees remain unchanged (e.g., Household Treatment System fees remained $800.00 and Household Treatment System Replacement fee remained $800.00).
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Resolution to Increase Certain Fees, Food Service Program, Second Reading - Approved 3-0 without discussion. As noted at last month’s meeting, the State sets the fee maximums, but GPH did not go to the fee maximums. Fees instead generally went up by about a quarter to a third, except for Mobile (food trucks), which went up from $86 to $160.
New Business - The Following Resolutions were approved:
6.01 Resolutions
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6.01.01 Financial Reports, Resolution 25-07-06-01-01 - Approved without discussion
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6.01.02 Permission to Approve Appropriations for Increase/Decrease - Approved
Mr. Litke told the Board he’d discussed with the Budget Commission how best to handle invoices from Lake County. In the past, he said requests were paid out of the General Fund. The plan going forward is to pay invoices out of specific funds for better organization and transparency.
Observer Note: After twice tabling and then denying the GPH 2026 budget since April, the Budget Commission voted 2-1 at their June 30 meeting to approve it by a 2-1 vote. See the June 30, 2025 Budget Commission Observer Report for more information. Reviewer Note: GPH has a number of funds from which they could pay expenses that are related to the fund purpose, such as the Food Service Fund, the Sewage Treatment Fund, and the Injury Prevention Fund.
Discussion on Housing
Mr. Litke and Mr. Lark advised the Board about their visits to two residences that other County agencies had reported to them, each residence presenting serious, health-threatening living conditions. One had not had running water for 20 years and no bathroom or shower for five years, and there also was an extreme hoarding issue. The second residence was a rental property whose sewer line had broken and was dumping into the home’s crawl space. The property owner was unwilling to repair the line. Mr. Litke and Mr. Lark, while expressing sympathy for the residents, wanted the Board to be aware that they were going to condemn both houses the next day. Residents of both homes had already been moved out.
Citizens’ Remarks
This Observer asked if GPH has finalized guidelines for their assistance fund for individuals in financial need to receive funding to help pay for septic repair or replacement. GPH intends to fund the program with surplus fees and the For Sale of Property fund. Mr. Litke said their GPH legal counsel is looking at potential guidelines similar to those for the State’s Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF). Click here for information on the WPCLF. Observer Note: At the June 30, 2025 Budget Commission meeting, GPH’s plan for its own version of a Water Pollution Control Loan Fund was discussed at length. Read the LWV Geauga Observer Report on this meeting at the link above for details.
Executive Session - The Board adjourned to Executive Session at 5:31 pm for the purpose of discussing a potential new job position at GPH.
Observer Note: When contacted the following day about the outcome of the Executive Session, Mr. Litke said that, as a result of the recent resignation of the Finance Director at Lake County General Health District, GPH is going to create the new job position of Fiscal Officer. He noted that the job posting will be for a single position that could be full time or part time. Mr. Litke said they plan to “see what is absolutely necessary and make a decision from there” regarding whether the position will be full time or part time. Reviewer Note: The idea of GPH creating a Fiscal Officer position was discussed at the June 30, 2025 Budget Commission meeting. The Budget Commissioners stressed that the Fiscal Officer should be a Geauga County employee, not a Lake County employee. It was noted that creating this position will require an amendment to the Cross Jurisdictional Agreement with Lake County. Please see the LWV Geauga Observer report on this meeting at the link above for more information.
Next Regular Meeting: August 20, 2025 at 5:00 pm. All meetings are held at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B 167-168, Chardon, OH.
More Information and Board minutes can be found here: Geauga Public Health
Observer: Rooney Moy
Editor: Gail Roussey
Reviewer: Sarah McGlone
Submission Date: July 19, 2025
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