Board of Selectmen Vote No to Health District
Their chief concerns included cost effectiveness, fearing large towns would make decisions for small towns like Westbrook, and believing district services are already being provided locally.
Selectman Tony Palermo argued at the July 20 Board of Selectmen meeting that the town would save a considerable amount of money and receive better services if it joined up with the health district serving the towns of Old Saybrook, Clinton, and Deep River.
Palermo said he told the Board in advance he would be on vacation and unable to attend the August 3 meeting.
However, Palermo said both decided to discuss and vote on the issue in his absence.
Raffa said at the meeting that the cost of membership is $2.97 per capita and questioned where the funds would go and what benefits the town would receive.
Palermo, an original proponent of joining the district, said it would allow the town access to a large staff that would work with the town in case of a health emergency, Palermo said.
According to the minutes, Raffa said the town already “has its own police department, public health nursing department, and flu clinic,” some of the same services the district would provide.
The Westbrook 2004 Annual Report states the town does not have its own municipal police department.
“Police services to the Town of Westbrook are provided under the supervision of the Connecticut State Police,” the report states, although the salaries of the three full-time resident state troopers and eight part-time constables is paid for by the town.
Palermo said the police department is not related with the health district and the town would gain access to a full-time health director and two sanitarians, on busy days, if it joined the district, Palermo said.
Currently, Westbrook has a part-time health director who is paid $16,000 annually, part of a 2006-07 health department budget consisting of $443,888, which also includes costs associated with public health nurses and a sanitarian.
Joining the health district would save the town between $8,000 and $10,000, Palermo said.
According to the Connecticut Department of Health, joining a health district would strengthen health services for a town as outlined in the Connecticut States Statues Section 19a-76-2.
These services include public health statistics, health education, nutritional services, maternal and child health services, communicable and chronic disease control, environmental services, community nursing services, and emergency medical services.
“He (Raffa) added that if Westbrook were to join, the town would be locked in for five years,” according to the August 3 Board of Selectmen minutes.
Mulvihill questioned at the meeting whether the $5,000 in state funding would always be available since state funds have a tendency to dry up which could result in increased rates for each participating town.
Palermo said state funding would only partially fund the district with funds coming from each of the towns in the district pulling their money together.
“It would be a way to form a district the way we want it,” Palermo said, adding state legislation has been proposed to require every town in Connecticut to join a health district.
Losing control of its own sanitation and health issues was another concern Mulvihill expressed at the meeting, adding he believes decisions could be made by the larger towns that have more voting power.
At the meeting, Raffa agreed and explained smaller towns would have one vote while the larger towns in the district, such as Old Saybrook and Clinton, would have two.
Palermo admitted that district towns with more than 10,000 residents such as Old Saybrook and Clinton would have two votes while less populated towns such as Deep River would have only one.
However, Palermo said, towns in the area have a history of working together based on his experience as the former first selectman of Westbrook.
Mulvihill questioned whether requests would be processed in a timely matter and whether it would be cost efficient for the services gained.
The “larger economy of scale lends itself to saving money,” said Pamela Kilbey-Fox, the Branch Chief of the Office of Local Health Administration for the Connecticut Department of Public Health,
According to a February 2006 map from the Department of Public Health, 67 towns, about 40 percent, out of a total of 169 towns, do not belong to a health district.
