Northwest Michigan board of health meeting grinds to halt over agenda approval

CHARLEVOIX — Despite a large turnout at the Health Department of Northwest Michigan Board of Health's meeting on May 2, the meeting was adjourned before any discussion or public comment when the board failed to approve the agenda.

After failing to pass an initial vote at the beginning of the meeting followed by a brief recess, during which chairman Scott Hankins and Health Officer Dan Thorell consulted with the department’s attorney, Hankins advised the audience the meeting was adjourned, and no public comment would be allowed.

“I am not going to be a very popular guy, but it is what it is ... on the advice of our attorney, without an approved agenda we cannot conduct a meeting,” Hankins told the crowd.

Commissioners Hankins, Don Mapes, Dawn LaVanway and Josh Chamberlain voted to approve the agenda and commissioners Jarris Rubingh, Rich Ginop, Jonathan Turnball and Henry Mason voted to not approve it. A tie vote signifies a failed motion.

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Many in the audience had turned out to the meeting in order to voice their opinions about a school nutrition grant.

The board’s recently created programs and evaluations committee, spearheaded by Antrim County's Rubingh, recommended the grant not be approved. One of the committee's tasks is to review and offer a recommendation on all non-statutory grants for the health department.

The grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund was a request by health department staff to create a two-year project worth up to $500,000 to improve the quality of nutrition for children in public schools in Emmet, Charlevoix and Antrim counties. It would have funded training for school food service directors and staff on the use of local produce in school cafeterias.

The committee's vote not to recommend the grant for approval took place at their subcommittee meeting on April 17. This meeting was not recorded.

In a post on the Emmet Responsible Government website, Rubingh outlined some of his reasons for opposing the grant. Among his reasons are opposing the expansion of government, stating that the board of health "ought to have a compelling reason to expand the reach of the department — which is an arm of government — by an additional FTE, and an additional half-million dollars. But there is no compelling reason, just a lot of unanswered questions."

Rubingh also listed concerns about the "pass-through nature" of the grant, as the health department had identified the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities as a project partner on the school nutrition initiative.

Rubingh also alleged that the Groundwork Center advocates Critical Race Theory, and opposed the organization's climate change activism and its partnership with FoodCorps.

The Groundwork Center website includes an equity statement which says the organization is committed to anti-racist practices.

Former Emmet County Commissioner and former board of health member Charlie MacInnis has publicly criticized the committee's actions and motivations.

"Grant applications were a routine staff function until the new board of health decided that it needed to insert itself and require that a board committee review certain grant applications with the clear intent of rejecting as many as possible," he wrote in an email.

Charlevoix County Commissioner Chamberlain also spoke about the grant's status in an April 18 Facebook post. He addressed some misinformation surrounding the grant and said he was "truly disappointed with the outcome of this vote."

The committee's recommendation to not approve the school nutrition grant was on the agenda for the board of health's May 2 meeting. The commissioners who voted not to approve the agenda took umbrage with that, as they felt the committee's decision should stand.

"This is the second grant we've looked at," said Rubingh, referring to a marijuana lock-box grant that also didn't pass the committee. "It didn't pass committee so it didn't come to this board ... when are we going to be consistent and follow basic parliamentary procedure?

"If this comes to the full board, then the last one needs to as well and if every one comes to the full board then I don't know why we have this committee," he added. "We might as well just abolish it."

Commissioner LaVanway responded that "If your committee was making a final decision, it should have been under the Open Meetings Act and been recorded."

Health Officer Thorell agreed that the committee did not have the authority to make a final decision.

With the due date for the grant's approval being May 4, the early adjournment of the board of health meeting will result in the loss of the funding. However, according to Chamberlain, schools can still apply for the grant themselves with the assistance of the health department.

“The schools can still go after the grant, the big difference is the public won’t have any oversight over the program now,” said Chamberlain.

— Contact reporter Annie Doyle at 231-675-0099 or adoyle@charlevoixcourier.com

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Northwest Michigan board of health meeting halts over agenda approval