Health Dept. re-appointment causes controversy

By Editor | November 20, 2024 |

By Carmen Ensinger

The reappointment of a Greene County Health Department board member left one Greene County board member in tears and one, for all intents and purposes, threatening to get rid of the entire Health Department board at the December meeting of the Greene County Board when the newly elected board members are seated.
The issue began last month when Greene County Health Department board member Tim Reif was up for re-appointment to the board. His re-appointment failed by a 5-2 margin. The only board members in Reif’s corner at this meeting were Board Chairman Andrea Schnelten and Christi Lake. However, his due-diligence while acting as a member of the board made Health Department staff request his appointment be brought back up for another vote.
County Board member Mark Strang had questioned the legality of bringing Reif’s name back up for a revote. Dr. Daniel Woodlock, who is also a member of the Health Department board, looked into the matter and noted his findings to the board at the meeting.
“I looked it up in Roberts Rules of Order and Mark is half correct,” Woodlock said. “If the motion was not to appoint him and it passed, then you would have to rescind that motion, but that wasn’t the motion made. The motion was to reappoint him so it can be reconsidered.”
Schnelten brought Reif’s name up for reappointment, but before a vote could be taken, Strang commented about absent board member Melissa Mehrhoff, one of the board members who voted against Reif at the previous meeting.
“Are we establishing a precedent here since Melissa is not here,” Strang asked. “Are we going to bring it back and let her vote next month?”
Schnelten said she had spoken to Mehrhoff prior to the meeting.
“I spoke to Melissa about her vote and she indicated to me that she was going to change her vote,” Schnelten said. “Then she remembered that she wasn’t going to be here tonight. So, I did speak with her about it.”
When the vote was taken, Schnelten, Lake, Earlene Castleberry and Rick Ross all voted to reappoint Reif to the board. Strang and Rob Hall both voted no. The motion passed 4-2 to reinstate Reif to the Health Department board.
Hall had a comment to make about the re-vote.
“I will just say that we have set a precedent here,” he said. “If someone doesn’t like what the board comes up with – just bring it back to us again.”
Strang’s comment was a little more threatening.
“I know next month we are going to have a totally different board and actions have consequences, so keep that in mind,” he said. “We might vote the whole Health Department board off next month.”
Schnelten could not believe the vindictive nature of the comment and the total disregard for the people of Greene County who depend on the Health Department.
“Really unbelievable,” she said with tears welling up. “I don’t think a lot of people realize just how valuable a resource our Health Department is. When you are sitting in a hospital in St. Louis and they come in and tell your family you are going home with home health and that you will get to have local people take care of you – it means a lot.”
It is a very personal subject to Schnelten because she works in a related healthcare field.
“This touches my heart because this is what I do,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think people understand the value that this is to our community and we should be thanking them (Health Department workers) because their loved ones might be going home with IV’s or open wounds and when the nurses come in and say you can have a nurse take care of you from Greene County – it means a lot.”
Schnelten said she knows someone who just brought home a child who is using the services of Greene County Home Health.
“They didn’t want people coming in from Springfield coming in and taking care of their child, which is what a lot of other counties have because they don’t have the services that our Health Department offers,” she said. “Some of you talk like the Health Department is chopped liver and I don’t think you understand what this means to the people in our community.”
Perhaps if they had to use their services, they might see just how valuable a resource they are.
“If you haven’t experienced an illness where you needed them, you are very lucky,” Schnelten said. “But when you have a family member who is sick, they just want a nurse who they know and trust to come to their house and take care of them. It is a huge service and it is probably one of the best things that we spend our taxpayer dollars on. We can’t do without home health.”