West Covina is leading the effort to establish local health departments in eastern Los Angeles County cities. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, contributing photographer)
The city of West Covina plans to create its own public health department by the end of the year, more than three years after the idea first emerged amid the coronavirus pandemic and business community backlash against state and county orders. There is a possibility of obtaining approval for the installation.
At issue is whether the city will become one of the state's few municipal health departments, with potentially millions of dollars in funding for the new department.
The West Covina City Council voted 4-1 at its March 19 meeting to approve a contract with the Long Beach Department of Public Health to provide laboratory testing services. This will be one of the first projects the city undertakes when building a new city. Department from scratch.
The initiative comes as some residents called for tighter local regulations to circumvent state orders in 2020 as the pandemic forced businesses to close and students to learn online. It started in the second half. At the time, as lockdown fears neared their peak, West Covina was just one of a dozen cities in the state that were considering running their own public health departments.
Three years later, while most other cities have waned interest, decided the move is impractical, or are taking a wait-and-see attitude, West Covina has added a Department of Public Health to its city ordinance. Added executive positions. has notified the county public health department that the health worker's services will no longer be needed and is working with the state public health department to obtain approval.
City officials expect to get the green light as early as the end of the year, which would make West Covina the fourth city in the state to run its own public health department, joining Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon. .
They hope this will allow the city to be more responsive to local needs after the city's experience working with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health throughout the pandemic.
“During the coronavirus pandemic, we are facing challenges here and pleading with the county to provide resources to West Covina residents,” said City Councilmember Letty Lopez Viado. “Obviously, they're so huge that they cater to other cities as well. But we were begging.”
But West Covina Mayor Brian Tabatabai, the lone opponent, has questioned the entire process, from the necessity to the approach to the budget, and is seeking to block the plan even before it is implemented.
Tabatabai said he believes the city did not follow best practices in the process and described the move as a “catch-up reaction” that has since put the city in a reactive position.
Tabatabai asked whether West Covina residents needed a city-run public health department, or if a city-run public health department would be better, when he directed officials to move forward with establishing the department in 2021. Tabatabai said it was set up without first conducting a study to see if it could provide good service. .
“I can't imagine any municipality moving forward without any commitment or context. It just seems like a non-negotiable,” he said. “Maybe you should do some homework before creating a whole new bureaucracy. You could have studied a little more.”
Tabatabai said the city also did not share preliminary budgets, staffing estimates or data on comparisons with other cities, which was also a red flag for him.
But West Covina Health Director Dr. Basil Vasantachart said Tuesday that it would be irresponsible to provide early estimates to the City Council because the department and even the state regulations surrounding it are still in flux. .
“We have some plans and we have some staffing ratios, but we don't want to release those data until we have a final regulatory package,” Basantachart said. “Releasing these numbers at this time could be incorrectly labeled as misinformation to the City Council, and I don’t want to do that.”
Decades after cities applied to establish their own public health departments (Vernon most recently in the 1980s), the California Department of Public Health is updating its regulations, guidelines and application process.
West Covina will have to wait until the proposed regulations pass through various state departments and be finalized after a public comment period so the city can estimate costs and get the application approved. The county will continue to provide public health services to the City of West Covina until the new department is established.
As part of the steps toward creating this department, the city is conducting a community needs assessment to determine the services West Covina residents need most.
The council also discussed the possibility of creating a public health department that could provide services to the community, although the structure of the department has not yet been determined.
“We feel like the Los Angeles County Health Department is too big to take care of all of us,” said City Councilmember Rosario Diaz. “If our city had a health department, I don't think it would just serve the constituents of our city. I think it would serve this region of the San Gabriel Valley.”
A San Dimas City report provided by Tabatabay estimates that establishing a new public health department would cost between $60 million and $90 million to start up, with annual operating costs of about $10 million to $15 million. There is.
Approximately 1% of West Covina's property taxes are collected by the county for services provided to the city, and approximately one-third of that goes toward funding public health services. If West Covina Public Health is approved, the county will continue to collect them.
If the city can move forward with creating the new department, the city proposes to manage services under two main categories: environmental health management and health services management.
West Covina envisions building a health department through a network of contracted services that provide the necessary services required by the state. To this end, the city used nearly $1 million in American Rescue Plan funds to contract with Transtech and Constant Associates to create a division that would provide consultants, analysts, project managers, inspectors, and staff members.
The department's environmental health section is proposed to be funded by a self-sustaining service fee.
One of the key elements needed to operate a local public health department is to have access to a public health laboratory, and since city-owned laboratories are not practical, Long Beach Public Health This month's agreement with the Bureau is critical.
Supporters of the move, which is made up of four other City Council members, say the changes, which must be approved by the City Council, will make West Covina safer and more responsive to local data. He claims to be deaf. More autonomy over public health decisions.
Councilman Tony Wu, who first proposed the division, said: “This is very important for our future. We all know that a new virus will attack us again.” . “How do we monitor the population and ensure the safety of children and the elderly in schools?”
