The rescheduled meeting of the Platte County Health Department’s board of trustees was plagued by technical problems and unhappy public speakers.
Originally scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 19 at the Platte County Resource Center, the meeting was rescheduled just hours before it was set to begin due to concerns about groups of people encouraged through social media to attend the meeting.
The meeting was rescheduled for Wednesday, May 20 via Go To Meeting and was later posted on YouTube.
An hour was set aside for public comments, with 20 people signed up to speak at the Tuesday meeting. Not all speakers turned out for the virtual meeting, with others experiencing technical difficulties. Some portions of the approximately one hour devoted to 15 public comments were indecipherable, with feedback problems and difficulties with unmuted microphones picking up background noise.
Citizens voiced concerns over the pace of the Platte County Health Department’s re-opening plan, as well as criticism of the board’s decision to postpone the meeting and change its venue. The board cited its own order prohibiting public gatherings in the cancellation notice.
Some members of the public viewed this as cowardice by the board.
“Were you afraid of having a group of 20 people in a room?” said Scott Fricker. “We weren’t going to charge the room.”
Fricker called for the board to revoke its current order and allow the county to operate under the Missouri state guidelines. He called the current order a bid to “control the local economy” and said the information provided on the health department website was “useless.”
“Give us the data or we will assume you are trying to hide it,” Fricker said.
A formal response to the public comments given was posted on the health department website at plattecountyhealth.com and included an apology for the technical difficulties.
“The audio problems during the May 20 meeting were caused in part by a desire of several health department officials to utilize their own electronic devices,” the release states. “Too many electronic devices in close proximity to one another caused interference. We’re sorry that happened and we won’t make that mistake again.”
The board said it is considering hosting future meetings outdoors to permit a larger attendance.
A followup work session was scheduled for late Tuesday, May 26, after the Citizen’s weekly deadline.
Fricker’s sentiments were echoed by several speakers, who cited concerns about the delay in authorizing the restart of youth sports programs, getting kids back to school and an alleged lack of transparency in the leadership of the health department.
Board members are elected by the public, but in the event of an uncontested race the health board can hold a non-election, a common practice among some political subdivisions to save the cost of running an election. The Platte County R-3 and Park Hill boards of education are also operating under non-elections this year.
Wes Minder also had complaints about the health department website and information provided, including a lack of information on the board members. He also criticized the length of the public comment process, by which the health department requires members of the public who wish to speak to sign up to do so two weeks prior to the trustee meeting.
“There is a lot of angst and anxiety because of the two-week comment process,” Minder said, suggesting the board post its agendas sooner and shorten that window of public comment.
The board responded that it would review its policies and provide an update soon.
Other public comments touched upon concerns about churches, claiming they have been deemed as unessential. According to the board, churches are defined as essential business in Platte County and are allowed to operate under the same building occupancy limits as retail businesses.
After the close of public comments, the board heard updates on data at the time of the meeting and held a brief discussion on the 2020 Platte County Fair.
The board said it was keeping watch on data and would re-evaluate the current order on Monday, June 1 and keep the Platte County Fair Board apprised of the situation.
“These plans are reviewed constantly,” said board chair Dr. Kent Jackson. “We’re not capable of perfection, but we are trying our best. Each one of those cases is important because each one of those cases is a person.”
Health department director Mary Jo Vernon also said the health department itself is slowly reopening its services. While STD and tuberculosis tests have gone on as usual during the pandemic, the department is working to reopen its vaccination clinics and may relocate COVID-19 testing from the Parkville location to the Platte City office to keep potential COVID cases separated from general patients.