Ottawa County board tables mental health campaign, declines grant for OCDPH

OTTAWA COUNTY — A pair of initiatives planned by the Ottawa County Department of Public Health are on hold after they failed to receive approval from the county board Tuesday.

During a finance and administration committee meeting Tuesday, July 18, commissioners tabled approval of a social media campaign focused on mental health and voted against accepting a grant to help make an OCDPH clinic more accessible and sensory friendly.

Commissioners said they supported the ideas behind the initiatives, but had issues with other organizations involved. Deputy Health Administrator Marcia Mansaray spoke on the items and answered questions during the meeting.

Later, commissioners approved a budget adjustment of $110,000, transferred from the county’s contingency fund, to cover expenses from Kallman Legal Group.

Mental health campaign

OCDPH requested authorization of an $8,000 contract with GRIT Media to run a social media campaign raising awareness for Man Therapy in Ottawa and Allegan counties. The campaign would be funded by cross jurisdictional funds from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services with no cost to the county’s general fund.

Man Therapy is a website that uses humor to connect working-age men with mental health resources as a method of suicide prevention.

The campaign would run in August and September, as the funds from MDHHS expire by October.

The vote to table the decision until August passed 7-3. Joe Moss, Sylvia Rhodea, Allison Miedema, Gretchen Cosby, Roger Belknap, Rebekah Curran and Lucy Ebel voted “yes,” while Doug Zylstra, Roger Bergman and Jacob Bonnema voted no.

Moss said suicide prevention is critical and should be a county priority, but said the request “seems kind of rushed or last minute” and argued the board is missing information. He also shared concerns about driving people to the website, claiming some resources "are targeting children."

Moss also said the “red phone” feature on Man Therapy’s website, which prompts users to call or text 988, open a live chat or call the veteran’s crisis line, could be an initiative for OCDPH to run separately and long-term.

Miedema expressed concern over promoting a website that could have information inappropriate for children, suggesting they could see a billboard and visit.

There are no billboards outlined in the contract in Tuesday’s meeting packet. Instead, the proposal includes $2,400 for Facebook and Instagram and $5,600 for Google AdWords.

Miedema added she'd “love to see an opportunity that we can (use) to promote men’s mental health in another avenue.”

Bonnema and Bergman pushed back on website concerns. Both viewed the page and weren’t sure what Moss was referring to. Bonnema said he didn’t see “anything that’s more than PG-13.”

Zylstra questioned the need to table the motion, to which Cosby said commissioners wanted more time to look at the website before deciding.

“This may in fact be a good tool for exactly what we’re trying to accomplish here, suicide prevention for men,” she said. “I hear the other commissioners asking for more time. We’re just going to table it, it doesn’t mean the motion fails.”

Zylstra said “the only thing (tabling) does is diminish the effectiveness of the program."

"We’re just taking time away from the campaign," he said.

Moss said he would be “very supportive of looking at a much larger campaign.”

Mansaray said she has no objection to a larger campaign, but that's not currently in the budget for OCDPH in the coming fiscal year. The issue will be discussed again Aug. 1.

Grant declined

A grant for $10,000 from Wayne State University to help an OCDPH clinic meet ADA standards and be sensory friendly was voted down Tuesday.

Ebel, Moss, Miedema, Curran, Rhodea, Belknap and Cosby voted against accepting the grant, while Zylstra and Bergman voted in favor. Bonnema was absent.

Several commissioners were opposed to the grant requirement of providing monthly data on the number of people served, the number of people with disabilities and the number of COVID-19 vaccines, flu shots and other vaccines provided.

Moss asked if it would be possible to remove the data sharing requirements from the agreement and still receive the funds, agreeing that ADA compliance is important. He later said that he felt the grant was using ADA compliance as a way to buy data and increase COVID-19 vaccinations.

“This particular grant is being sold to us as related to ADA compliance,” he said. “The way I see this is money coming down, trickling down through the federal government to the state government to local government and being used by Wayne State and their disability institute to buy data.

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“Is it about ADA compliance? Well, that’s a nice benefit that we should absolutely make a priority as soon as we can. But the goal of this project is to increase the number of vaccinated people. That's what it says on their website.”

Mansaray pointed out that OCDPH is mandated to provide vaccines and said accepting the grant doesn’t “compromise our values.” She also said the data being requested is already something OCDPH collects and would be provided in a way so that people couldn’t be personally identified.

Rhodea was concerned over an “MVP” label that would be put on the department through the grant. Mansaray said MVP stands for Most Valuable Provider, but Rhodea cited a flier from Wayne State that uses that definition as well as Michigan Vaccination Partner, which she took issue with.

“I personally don’t really want our health department to have the MVP logo,” she said. “There seems to be some things connected with that that I don’t necessarily agree with.

“I’m very supportive of us looking at what can we do to be ADA compliant, absolutely we need to be, and how we can be sensitive with sensory needs. We absolutely need to be sensitive with those needs, but this particular grant may not be the way to go about that.”

County Administrator John Gibbs said ADA compliance at several sites is being included for 2025 in the capital improvement plan currently under development. He said work at the health clinic can be moved up if desired.

Mansaray said a remodel at the clinic was previously planned, but was put on hold due to the cost of the project.

Additional funds for Kallman

Several budget adjustments were approved Tuesday, but not without opposition.

Zylstra questioned an adjustment of $110,000 from the county’s contingency fund to pay Kallman Legal Group, hired in January as the county’s corporation counsel. He asked Fiscal Services Director Karen Karasinski about the costs paid to Kallman and the initial estimates when the contract was approved.

Karasinski confirmed the estimated amount to be paid to Kallman for January through September was $210,600, or $23,400 per month. Since January, however, expenses have averaged around $35,000 per month.

Moss said the “needs of the county have changed” and blamed the increase on Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits, specifically mentioning a recently dismissed Open Meetings Act suit against the board. Moss said when “people are making up lawsuits,” it will drive up costs.

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Zylstra pointed out, and Karasinski confirmed, the expenses paid to Kallman as corporation counsel do not include defense for lawsuits, as that comes from the Ottawa County Insurance Authority.

Zylstra added many of the FOIA requests are for online public comments and could be avoided by making those public by default. Gibbs and corporation counsel were instructed to draft a policy on online comments several months ago, but no policy has been presented yet.

Kallman’s Jack Jordan said much of the firm’s time is spent working on contracts, which he said were “quite disorganized,” and FOIA requests. He also said there's been over $125,000 worth of legal services that weren’t billed for.

The budget adjustments passed 7-2, with Moss, Rhodea, Ebel, Cosby, Miedema, Curran and Belknap voting yes and Bergman and Zylstra voting no. Bonnema was again absent.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Ottawa County board tables mental health campaign, declines grant for OCDPH