Geauga Public Health (GPH) - Special Meeting - October 4, 2023
Meeting Details: The GPH Board met in Special Session at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH, on October 4, 2023 at 5 pm. The purpose of this Special Meeting was to discuss the rent that the Geauga County Commissioners have proposed charging Geauga Public Health. Geauga County Automated Data Processing (ADP) live streamed this meeting and it is available here. At publication, the recording has been viewed 56 times. Due to the fact that a video is available, this report will only contain highlights of the meeting. Topics discussed will be noted by the time that they appear in the video for easy reference.
Public Comment Policy: There is no separate written policy, but in practice, “Citizens’ Remarks” are included on the agenda and are permitted as detailed there.
Board Attendance: (as seated, from L to R).
Staff Attendance:
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Adam Litke - Administrator (end of table left)
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Daniel Lark - Environmental Health Director (end of table right)
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Ron Graham, Heath Commissioner (end of table left)
County Staff Attendance:
Legal Counsel: Not present
Others Present: Frank Antenucci, ADP Chief Deputy Administrator, Chris Alusheff, President, Health District Advisory Council and Claridon Township Zoning, Richard Piraino, Past President of the GPH Board, Anastasia Nicholas, Reporter from the Chagrin Valley Times, 6 virtual attendees (names not available), several members of the public (unidentified).
Call to Order: Called to order at 5:06 pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A quorum was declared and delivery of official notices of meeting was certified.
19:38 Min: Review of Discussion about Rent at the New County Office Building:
Mr. Litke gave an overview of space that GPH is currently using, space that could be given to ADP and other configurations. There was a review of the various areas. By giving away space, Mr. Litke said they could get down to a rent of $20,000/year, based on $8/sq. ft. The original rent figure for all of their space was over $50,000/year.
Mr. Litke discussed several different areas - blue (current floor plan), purple (potentially to be used for ADP), and yellow (County would like this space for ADP instead of the purple). See the meeting video for the drawing.
32.08 Min: Mr. Morgan and Ms. Burhenne approached the Board to answer questions.
Mr. Morgan confirmed that the County is looking at additional space in various places in order to clear out 470 Center Street, as they have a purchaser for that property. He said that the County prefers the Yellow space in the current building for ADP.
Ms. Brakey asked what was the cost of rent?
Mr. Morgan stated it would be $8.00/sq foot based on the cost to build the building.
Ms. Brakey asked whether the county could pay off the bond because they have $80 million in unencumbered cash? Observer Note: This was described as a construction bond, and payments had begun at construction. Ms. Brakey’s point seemed to be that if they paid off the bond, there would be no need for rent payments from GPH.
Mr. Morgan said that they did have that much cash, but that it was in a variety of funds.
Ms. Brakey asked how long GPH would have to pay rent?
Mr. Morgan stated that he had used 30 years to figure the cost, but that the bond is for 40 years. He said that not every department is paying rent, as some are under the County general fund. He said that the BMV is a state entity so they had to have their contract in place. They are paying $16/sq. ft. for 5 years with automatic renewal. He said that the only entity not under the general fund that is not paying rent is the Title Agency because they provided $750,000 towards construction costs. Morgan also confirmed that Soil and Water is paying $13.59/sq. ft., which is a carryover rate from what they were paying at their previous location in the Patterson Center. The Veterans Department is not being charged rent since they are under the County. Job and Family Services (JFS), Aging, Water Resources, and Community Development are all paying rent through a cost allocation at about $8/sq. ft. Their rate does not include utilities. Mr. Morgan said the plan is to charge the Health District $8/sq. ft. as well.
43.25 Min: Health Commissioner Ron Graham pointed out that the Cooperative Agreement with Lake Health is a 3 year agreement and their accreditation is for 5 years. He stated that they would have to look at security and make sure safeguards are in place if anything changes.
Ms. Brakey brought up a concern about the generator. She stated that it didn’t cover HVAC
Mr. Morgan concurred with that, although Ms. Burhenne wasn’t sure.
Ms. Burhenne said it would probably cost a million dollars to add HVAC now, so they probably would not be doing that.
Mr. Graham stated that this is on the accreditation list. He said that as part of the criteria for accreditation, you have to have a generator.
Ms. Roman asked if the rent contract would be for 1 year or 5 years?
Mr. Morgan said it would probably be a 5 year contract with automatic renewal
Ms. Roman asked what would happen if GPH runs out of space if they agree to give up space now?
Mr. Morgan said they would work with them to try to find space
Ms. Roman asked about the space BOCC is looking at for building in the future and whether this future space could be more accommodating to GPH needs
Mr. Morgan said that the only building right now being considered is the new senior center, and he said they were looking at an existing building.
Ms. Brakey and others expressed frustration that GPH is just now being given a number for rent with no rationale
Ms. Roman and Mr. Litke confirmed that GPH would have to raise the money for rent via another levy or by raising fees. They also pointed out that the 2024 budget is already submitted and approved.
Ms. Burhenne stated that by taking out the “purple space,” GPH’s remaining space would be 5,300 sq. ft., which would make their rent $42,000/year, not including any utilities. She said that overall for the building the cost of utilities is $2.21/sq ft
Mr. Antenucci was asked about the space needs of ADP. He stated that he was appreciative of the space already provided by GPH. He also talked about the purple space. ADP has 4-6 people at the Annex; he said they would probably keep 2 people there and bring the rest to their new space in the County Office Building. Currently he doesn’t have an office in the new county building.
There was a general discussion of what will be needed in the future for GPH in terms of space and the fact that they have unfunded state mandates that they have to meet, such as the Operations and Maintenance program regarding septic testing, which GPH is rolling out in phases but eventually will cover all septic in the county.
There was a general discussion of finances, and it was noted that GPH has the lowest levy in the county. Reviewer Note: GPH’s total millage is 0.2 Mills according to information provided at their Budget Hearing in April.
Mr. Morgan stated that the amount of rent is negotiable and they are open to discussion about this.
Ms. Brakey asked for a breakdown of the variable costs (utilities, supplies, etc.)
Mr. Morgan said he was working on figuring out those costs
At this point, Mr. Antenucci approached to say that an individual had sent an email saying that he had not been able to get into the building to attend the meeting.
1:18 Min: There was a general discussion about building security and access for after hours meetings.
Mr. Litke said that the present process is to leave the door propped open (admittedly not a good option). There is no Deputy working after hours to provide security. There was no clarity on if this problem will be resolved soon, but Mr. Morgan said they were working on a key card system.
1:21 Min: Mr. Morgan suggested that the committee from the Board that wants to continue to negotiate should contact him through Ms. Burhenne. He stated that the Commissioners would also ultimately decide. Ms. Burhenne asked if the square footage was negotiable. Mr. Litke said that the purple was negotiable but not the yellow.
Ms. Burhenne stated that the County would prefer to have the yellow and have the purple for both ADP and the GPH to use.
There was a discussion about whether ADP needs the space (in purple), and Mr. Antenucci stated that it would be ideal if all their employees could be out of the “Opera House” (on Chardon Square) as the elevator in that building does not really work. He said they have 3-4 employees and storage there (because they don’t have storage in the new county building).
Ms. Burhenne said that to renovate the purple space would cost $45,000, but the yellow space could be used pretty much as is.
Ms. Burhenne also said she had already taken out the purple space from the calculation of space and rent.
Dr. Rood asked what would happen if they gave up the yellow space? He wanted to know how that would work.
Mr. Litke said they would take out a wall, but they would have to have people work from home due to there being no desks for them to work at any longer at the County Office Building.
Dr. Rood said it “doesn’t appear that we could give up the yellow space.“
1:29 Min: Health Commissioner Graham cautioned the Board that the agreement with Lake County is only for three years and that if it didn't work out, GPH would need to rehire a lot of employees and find space for them to work.
1:31 Min: There was a discussion about how much money would be required to renovate the areas so that they would be usable by ADP. Ms. Burhenne said that they had received some quotes through the Maintenance Department - $45,000 for the purple and $5,000 for the yellow space
Mr. Morgan said the county would pay for the adjustments
Ms. Burhenne concluded that the County is glad that GPH is in the Building and expressed her willingness to find a solution.
Ms. Roman said again that the GPH budget has already been approved for 2024
Mr. Morgan said that the County could give them a year of grace.
1:35 Min: Mr. Morgan and Ms. Burhenne left the meeting
Mr. Litke reminded the Board that the original space allocated to GPH was changed, walls moved, etc. to allow ADP to have the extra space. So, currently GPH is down 4 office spaces now from the original plan. Mr. Litke said that it made sense to have IT in the building. However, there could be ongoing security issues as ADP might have access to GPH space. This may be okay because ADP staff are HIPAA (Health Privacy Law) trained, but ADP probably wouldn’t want GPH to have access to their space. He talked about the fact that they only have a key for the medication room. Mr. Litke had requested fob access, but that wasn’t done.
1:39 Min: Discussion of security and cameras. Mr. Antenucci said there are 130 cameras on the complex, but there are spaces outside the building that aren’t covered. He said that ADP had put forward a quote to add the extra cameras.
It was stated that Ms. Roman and Dr. Hendrickson are on the negotiating team. Ms. Roman said that during the development of the space they were at a disadvantage in terms of their input. She said they will know more in a year as O&M (Operation and Maintenance) rolls out, but they need to look ahead.
Mr. Litke stated that if you just subtract the purple space, they are already at capacity.
Ms. Roman stated that they will start working on negotiating this, but it is going to take some time.
The Board discussed the various documents that they would like to review, including the following:
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variable costs
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utility costs
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any draft leases with others who will be paying rent to the County (like Soil and Water)
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financial information on how much the County is presently paying in debt service and how long those payments would continue
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details on the generator
In regards to the generator, Mr. Litke reiterated the importance of having the HVAC system backed up by the generator and noted the cost of doing this now after the building is complete could be as high as $1 million.
The Board confirmed in discussions that they need to have a firm rent number by January as they begin budget preparations for 2025 in January.
Ms. Brakey asked that Mr. Litke send an email to Mr. Morgan and Ms. Burhenne to thank them for coming and to request the documents (listed above).
Mr. Litke also said that there should be an agreement as to whether the rent number can be increased.
1:49 Min: Public Comments
Mr. Piraino delivered some papers to the Board (unknown what they contained)
Woman - unidentified- “Please don’t sign a contract unless you get something on the HVAC settled.” She said that they (BOCC) have “issues because they didn’t ask people ahead of time.”
Chris Alusheff, President, Health District Advisory Council (HDAC), had several comments, including the value of GPH staying in the County and the issue with the HVAC system which needs to be addressed. He wondered what would happen if GPH moved out. He felt that the BOCC “need to get their act together.” He announced the next HDAC meeting will be on December 13th. He also referred to ORC (Ohio Revised Code) and the responsibility of GPH to abate nuisances. He referred to prior correspondence regarding this issue concerning some nuisance areas and said he would wait to hear back from the Board. Observer Note: Nuisance abatement is a role of the GPH by statute and it includes citing property owners for hazardous situations. See Ohio Administrative Rule 3707.01.
Another woman in the public (unidentified) said that GPH should not give back the yellow area and should make sure it is only a 1 or 2 year agreement. She also said they should maybe think of moving out.
Mr. Litke reminded the Board that GPH has made donations of equipment valued at $25,000 - $40,000 (truck and trailer), which has saved the County money.
1:56 Min: Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 pm actual time
Next Regular Meeting: October 25 at 5 pm. All meetings at the Geauga County Administration Building, 12611 Ravenwood Drive, Suite B303, Chardon, OH.
More Information: Geauga Public Health
Observer: Gail Roussey
Editor and Reviewer: Sarah McGlone
Submission Date: 10/7/23
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