The Platte County Health Department director has responded to comments made by Platte County commissioners last week.
In a letter to the commission dated Monday, Feb. 13, health department director Andrew Warlen responded to comments made by commissioners on Monday, Feb. 6 at the regular commission administrative session. At that meeting, commissioners tabled the approval of a warranty deed turning over full ownership of the building to the Platte County Health Department Board of Trustees.
According to the commission, during the sale of the Platte City location to allow for relocation of the health department to a central location near KCI Airport, it was determined the building belonged to the county and not to the health department. Warlen disputes this, stating that the original warranty deed lists the ownership as “the County of Platte, a political subdivision of the State of Missouri, and its, successors, for the use and control of the Board of Health Center Trustees of Platte County, Missouri.”
“My understanding from legal counsel is that it was phrased this way over 60 years ago so that if the Board of Trustees was dissolved, ownership would revert to the County,” Warlen said in the letter. “That apparently was a common practice at the time.”
The property was purchased in 1959 and Warlen said the health department paid for 100 percent of the cost of engineering and constructing the current Platte City building.
“It is my understanding that Platte County has not provided any form of consideration, funding or other funds to operate, insure, maintain or improve the Platte City building since 1960, which belies any construct that Platte County, Missouri has any form of ownership of the structure or land in question,” the letter states. “After communication between legal counsel for the Commission and the Health Department, the Commission was presented the Warranty Deed for signature to clarify that it holds no ownership or property interest in the Platte City Building with the hope that the issue would be dealt with in the most efficient way possible and to avoid unnecessary costs to our taxpayers.”
At the Feb. 6 meeting, presiding commissioner Scott Fricker criticized the health department for purchasing the new central facility during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and for what he considered a “speculative real estate deal.”
“The purchase of the Kansas City building was contractually obligated prior to the COVID-19 response in 2020,” Warlen wrote. “The Board of Trustees had been planning and saving for a unified facility for years, which is why when the building was purchased in April 2020, the building was able to be bought with cash. The new unified building is located within the service area of the City of Kansas City bus service, making the facility more accessible to our agency’s constituents than both the Platte City and Parkville buildings.”
The building near KCI, located off 110th Street, was chosen for purchase in late 2019, the letter states with a contract executed in January 2020.
“At the time of execution, it was unknown what a substantial impact COVID-19 would have,” the letter states. “Shortly after closing, COVID-19 response became the Health Department’s number one priority. This made it necessary to delay improvements to the building, moving, and the sale of existing buildings. These tasks were resumed in late Spring 2022.”
Commissioners called on the health department to open its records to the public, with district commissioner Dagmar Wood stating she felt the health department sought to profit from the pandemic when applying for federal COVID relief funds.
“Every year, without legal obligation to do so, the health department routinely provides various financial reports to the county,” the letter states. “The health department is also required to have a yearly outside financial audit as well as to participate in audits performed by other agencies related to requirements for various grants and contracts. Like the commission, the health department is subject to Missouri Sunshine Law and is legally obligated to produce open documents upon request.”
The letter notes Fricker and Wood both made Sunshine requests of the health department earlier this year, and the department responded with the information requested within 24 hours.