Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Livingston County Board of Commissioners met Monday night and again discussed the process to hire a new Health Department director.

Longtime Director Diane McCormick retired July 1st. She previously recommended that the board appoint Deputy Health Officer Matt Bolang to the position, who is also the Director of Environmental Health. He is currently serving as the interim director.

Commissioners have been mostly split on whether to appoint Bolang or hire a firm to launch an “exhaustive” search at a stated cost of around $21,000. At the last meeting, the board voted to table a resolution that would have established a special committee to oversee the appointment process, put forward by Chairman Wes Nakagiri.

Some new items were put forth last night by Nakagiri, who stated he’s had some discussions about not hiring a firm and instead posting the Health Officer position on the county website, as well as changing the job description and “adding some elements”. His suggestions involved changing the description to where the new health officer would be required to initiate a process enabling civil fines to be levied, in addition to criminal penalties, for violations of pandemic rules.

Nakagiri explained an associated appeal process, which would first involve going to the Health Officer. If the person wasn’t satisfied, they could then appeal to the County Board of Health. That is the County’s General Government & Health and Human Series Committee - comprised of four commissioners. The final appeal would be to the courts.

Nakagiri said currently state law only enables criminal penalties to be assessed if citizen doesn’t follow Health Department rules, which is handled in court. He said his rationale is there would be two routes to go depending on the severity of violations and he sees “big advantages” with having the decision of the appeal in the hands of people accountable to voters, who “have the interest of justice in mind”. While as chair he would not be on any specific committee, Nakagiri said they would have the ability as elected officials “to assert their judgment into this whole situation”.

It was ultimately agreed to not establish a new special committee but instead just send the matter to the Personnel Committee for review and recommendations - which would be the appropriate place to talk about the job description and any changes, as well as the appointment process.

Commissioner Jay Gross was in favor of sending to the Personnel Committee. However, he expressed that he was a little concerned that it’s made up of only four commissioners and that within ten minutes of the meeting, concepts of changing the job description and dealing with civil penalties were introduced. Gross said he felt the community has dealt with enough stress on the issue over the last two years and there’s “no way in the world I would agree to civil penalties of any kind going forward” – adding he did think things need to be discussed further and “hopefully the Personnel Committee can do an adequate job”.

Commissioner Doug Helzerman stated the resolution being discussed just set up another committee, when they already have the Personnel Committee to vet ideas and bring something back to the board for more discussion.

Commissioner Carol Griffith commented that that there is now a whole new dynamic they haven’t really vetted and if they’re talking about job descriptions, then it needs to go back to the Personnel Committee.

Commissioner Carol Sue Reader also agreed the matter belongs in personnel, commented that they’re “skirting around” what they have already put together as a protocol to follow and the issues on the table should go through committee before coming to the board.

Although not all commissioners commented on the topic, it appeared the board was in agreement. No formal motion was made and no timeline was established.