Agenda - 1-29-16 Planning Retreat

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i UNC SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT 013 Coates' Canons NC Local Government Law http://canons.sog.unc.edu federal laws. For example, as a condition of receiving state and federal funds, the health director must sign an annual contract with the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services. The contract, called the "consolidated agreement," promises that the county will comply with a number of laws (such as federal non-discrimination laws) and be subject to oversight and monitoring by the state Department. Consolidated human services directors A CHSA is administered by a consolidated human services (CHS) director who is appointed by the county manager with the advice and consent of the CHS board (or the county commissioners, if they have assumed the powers and duties of the CHS board). He or she administers the department as well as exercising powers and duties prescribed in G.S. 153A- 77, the consolidation statute. There are no minimum education and experience requirements for a CHS director in state law; however, the director clearly needs to be someone who is prepared to administer a local agency that carries out numerous state and federal programs and typically has a relatively large budget and staff compared to other local departments. If the CHS director does not have the statutory qualifications to be a local health director, then he or she must appoint a person who has those qualifications and is approved by the county manager [G.S. 153A -77(e)]. If the CHSA includes public health, the CHS director acquires most of the powers and duties of a local health director. More on this in a moment. What happens to the position of local health director in a county with a CHSA? The law has very little to say about this and the practice may vary from place to place. One thing that is clear is that each local public health agency–whether it is a traditional health department or a consolidated human services agency–must have someone who has the statutory education and experience requirements to be a local health director. It may be the CHS director, but if the CHS director does not have the statutory credentials, then he or she must appoint someone who does. What happens to the powers and duties of the local health director in a county with a CHSA? When a CHSA includes public health, the CHS director acquires the powers and duties of a local health director, with the limitation that the CHS director's hiring/firing decisions and executive responsibilities are subject to the oversight of the county manager. This occurs automatically as a result of statutes that transfer local health director duties to a CHS director when a CHSA is created [G.S. 130A43(c); 153A -77(e) . In addition, the CHS director has the powers and duties set out in G.S. 153A -77(e). Some of these appear to overlap with local health director duties, while others reflect the CHS director's role as the administrator of other human services programs carried out by the CHSA. Although the CHS director acquires the powers and duties of a local health director, he or she might not be the person who exercises them. The powers and duties of a local health director that appear in G.S. Chapter 130A may be delegated to another person (see G.S. 130A-6). In many counties with CHSAs, the CHS director has delegated those powers and duties to the person he or she has appointed who has the qualifications of a local health director. However, the law does not require this delegation and it may be that some CHS directors retain some of the powers and duties and delegate others. So who is the local health director in a county with a CHSA? There is a complicated answer and a more practical answer. Starting with the complicated answer: One way of looking at it is to say that the CHS director is the local health director. G.S. 130A-2 defines "local health director" as the administrative head of the local health department, and G.S. 130A-43 specifies that a CHSA that includes public health "shall have the responsibility to carry out the duties of a local health department." On the other hand, G.S. 153A-77 requires the CHS director to appoint someone with the qualifications of a local health director. The statute does not assign that person a role or title, but it seems reasonable to assume the purpose for requiring the appointment is to have someone who has the education and experience requirements for a local health director to serve in the local health director role — and this may be achieved if the CHS director delegates health director powers and duties to that person. The more practical answer is that the North Carolina counties that have formed CHSAs have all identified someone who is serving as the local health director. A full list is available on the website of the North Carolina Association of Local Health Copyright © 2009 to present School of Government at the University of North Carolina. All rights reserved. Page