UPDATED: Proposal to dissolve health department fails in surprise County Council vote
Updated (9:31 p.m.): Pierce County Council failed to pass a proposal to dissolve the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department after Council member Pam Roach, who sponsored the ordinance, voted against it Tuesday night.
Roach had advocated for the ordinance since its inception earlier this month, saying it would lead to more direct representation of Pierce County residents in matters of public health. She, along with two Democrats, council members Derek Young of Gig Harbor and Marty Campbell of Tacoma, sank the effort to create a county-run health department and disband the current city-county health department.
After nearly four hours of public comment, during which comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the bill, council members took their turns to talk.
“One-man one-vote is very important to me,” said Roach (R-Puyallup). “Open government is very important to me.”
In a message with The News Tribune after the vote, Roach said, “Public input is a higher order than one-man one-vote. It was the right thing to do.”
Council members Jim McCune (R-Roy), Vice Chair Dave Morell (R-Lake Tapps) and Chairman Doug Richardson (R-Lakewood) voted to approve the proposal.
McCune said he was in support because his district would finally be represented on the health board as a county health department.
“I always vote what I believe is right,” McCune said.
Morell pointed out that it would take more than a year to merge the health department into county government.
“I think this proposal adds accountability with a new future health department. One that allows proper representation,” Morell said.
Richardson also supported the measure, saying, “I’m all in.”
Democrats Young and Campbell said that they are willing to work with Republicans to meet their demands for more fair direct representation in public health but asked for others to vote against the proposal.
“We need to take a step back from the chaos,” Campbell said.
The measure failed when Roach sided with Campbell and Young.
Council member Connie Ladenburg (D-Tacoma), earlier excused herself from the council meeting, saying she did not feel comfortable being party to any action on the ordinance Inslee wanted to pause.
“I believe it places the county at risk of criminal action against us,” Ladenburg said.
Previous post: The Pierce County Council was poised Tuesday to move ahead with a plan to dissolve the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department despite a proclamation from Gov. Jay Inslee that sought to curtail such a move.
Council Chairman Doug Richardson introduced an amendment that would allow County Executive Bruce Dammeier to start the process of terminating the joint health department and creating one overseen solely by the county once a statewide state of emergency tied to the coronavirus pandemic has ended.
Republicans on the County Council have argued a health department overseen by the county would be more representative and possibly streamline permitting and lead to cost savings, although no study has been done to examine those claims.
Opponents of the move say the County Council Republicans are rushing the vote to take advantage of their current majority, which will end next month when a Democratic majority is seated.
Issued Monday, Inslee’s proclamation to pause any action on terminating health departments statewide during the COVID-19 crisis was based in his authority during a declared state of emergency.
According to state law, the governor can take action to limit or curtail activities “he or she reasonably believes should be prohibited to help preserve and maintain life, health, property or the public peace,” during a declared state of emergency.
Richardson’s amendment is meant to allow the Republican Dammeier to move ahead with a proposal to dissolve the joint health department once the emergency declaration no longer applies to Pierce County.
The amendment passed on a 4-2 vote along party lines, with Vice Chair Dave Morell, council members Pam Roach and Jim McCune voting for the measure while council members Derek Young and Marty Campbell voting against it.
The Republican members passed the amendment with little comment.
The council is expected to make a final vote on the underlying ordinance Tuesday night after hearing public testimony.
Council member Connie Ladenburg, also a Democrat, excused herself from the council meeting, saying she did not feel comfortable being party to any action on the ordinance Inslee wanted to pause.
“I believe it places the county at risk of criminal action against us,” Ladenburg said.
A spokesman for Inslee’s office issued a statement Tuesday after the vote on the amendment agreeing with Ladenburg’s position.
“Yes, we believe this amendment violates the proclamation. The proclamation prohibits taking ‘any action … to terminate or commence or advance the legal process for termination of any agreement to operate a combined city and county health department …, ‘” according to Inslee spokesman Mike Faulk. “At a minimum, this action appears to advance the process for terminating the agreement while the state of emergency is still in effect, contrary to the proclamation.”
An effort by Young and Campbell to stall the vote on the amendment failed.
“What we are doing, in my opinion, is taking action against the governor,” Young said. “I would urge us to, at this point, take a step back not rush this last minute, literally last minute. We didn’t get this until just before this meeting was supposed to commence.”
“I don’t think it’s healthy for our county and our council to go down this path that this amendment sets us on,” Campbell said.
The amendment also requests the executive to draft legislation to make public health organization changes by Dec. 31, 2021, and codifies the County Council as the board of health to oversee an in-house county health department.
Dozens of members of the public called in to the virtual meeting to air their grievances against the ordinance.
Board of Health Chairwoman and Tacoma City Council member Catherine Ushka said now is not the time to rush a vote.
Nancy Sutton, former deputy director of the joint health department, also spoke out.
“The timing of this ordinance is, in one word, is appalling,” she told the council. “This is a solution is search of a problem.”
Pierce County began efforts to dissolve the joint city-county health department earlier this month. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department was created in 1972 in an interlocal agreement between the City of Tacoma and Pierce County.
A positive vote by the County Council would kick start the process of terminating that agreement by providing at least one year’s notice to Tacoma of the dissolution, but the amendment gives Dammeier the power to send a notice of intent once the declared state of emergency is over.
The move comes during the last weeks of a Republican majority council. In November, voters elected Pierce County’s first Democratic-controlled council in 17 years.
Inslee said in a Monday press conference his proclamation was intended to pause efforts to terminate health departments and mentioned Pierce County. He said there needs to be stability in public health during the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Once this emergency is put to rest, then we can reflect thoughtfully with all of our communities about the best ways to ensure a strong public health system for the future,” Inslee said.
In recent weeks, there has been backlash from the public health community, medical professionals, elected officials across the county and some Pierce County residents to the proposal to dissolve the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Following Inslee’s proclamation, the TPCHD issued a statement saying, “We are grateful to the many residents, community partners, health care providers and elected officials who support our agency in remaining an independent, neutral, public health department.”
Dammeier on Tuesday tweeted a response to Inslee’s proclamation, saying it threatens criminal sanctions against council members for talking about health department organizational changes.
“(The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department) has said they will stay focused on COVID no matter what, but apparently Gov. Inslee doesn’t believe them,” Dammeier said on Twitter.
Tacoma has called the move to dissolve the health partnership rash and asked the county to hold discussions with community partners before the vote.
Council member Pam Roach has spoken out against Inslee’s proclamation, calling it an overreach. She has been vocal about the importance of having direct representation on public health, rather than a board of health.
A county health department would answer to the County Council instead of an eight-member board, half of which are Pierce County elected officials, two from Tacoma City Council, one from the Pierce County Cities and Towns Association and one from the Pierce County Medical Society.
“Inslee is using his political power to interject himself, under the cover of COVID, onto the Pierce County Council,” Roach said in a press release. “His priority is to protect the downtown Tacoma liberal establishment which has let us down in fighting COVID.”
Council Republicans have also said an in-house county health department would streamline permitting processes and be more cost-efficient, but there has been no comprehensive study on the fiscal impacts.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:55 PM.
