During a special-called meeting of the Ohio County Fiscal Court, after much discussion, a motion to give the Ohio County Family Wellness Center (FWC) $50,000 failed.
At a prior fiscal court meeting in February of 2012, the court decided how it was going to spend the county’s anticipated coal severance money over the next few years.
The court made a list of projects to be funded by coal severance money in 2013 and 2014 which were listed in numerical order by priority. When the county received coal severance money, the money was spent on each project by how they were ordered on the priority list. Ohio County Judge-Executive David Johnston designed the list after listening to suggestions from the magistrates, as well as State Representative Tommy Thompson and State Senator Jerry Rhoads.
During the February 2012 meeting, there was some discussion of giving the Ohio County Family Wellness Center $100,000. Johnston told the magistrates Rhoades wanted the $100,000 to go to the FWC. A number of the magistrates were hesitant to give the FWC this money due to its long-term future being uncertain. In the end, the court agreed to earmark the $100,000 on the coal severance priority list as Wellness. By doing so, the court could use those funds for other wellness or health related expenses.
During the Aug. 13 fiscal court meeting, representatives of the FWC came to the meeting to give a status report on how it has “cleaned up its act” over the last year or so. Dr. Janna Pathi told the fiscal court of the improvements that have been made at the FWC.
During the past year, the FWC has had issues with the pool, but has the issue fixed and purchased new equipment to keep the same problem from happening in the future.
Over the past year, the FWC’s membership has increased by 15 percent and it has made new hires and updated the billing software.
When it comes to finances, the FWC decreased its long-term debt by $30,000 this year and have made payments on its loan without borrowing money. According to Pathi, the FWC increased revenues by about $90,000 while lower expenses by about $10,000 over the past year.
The FWC is still about $4.1 million in debt, but after meeting with representatives of Ross, Sinclaire & Associates, an investment firm to which the $4.1 million is owed, the FWC was informed that for every $1 million paid on the loan, $250,000 would be forgiven.
After the Aug. 13 meeting and the FWC’s presentation, the Ohio County Fiscal Court had a special-called meeting on Aug. 27 before its regular meeting.
The main reason for the special-called meeting, was to make a possible change to the coal severance priority list.
To view a PDF of the coal severance priority list, click here.
Johnston introduced this item on the agenda by saying he wanted to find a way to move some of the money earmarked for the “wellness center” up on the priority list.
Johnston and Second District Magistrate Jason Bullock met with representatives from the FWC, the school system, the Ohio County Hospital and Ross, Sinclaire & Associates to discuss the long term future of the FWC.
As a result of that meeting, Johnston and Bullock would like to see the FWC get some of the $100,000 earmarked for Wellness.
Bullock said he spoke with county treasurer Anne Melton and she believes there will be a shortfall of money projected for the county from coal severance. In fact, the county could lose as much as 30 percent of the $648,887 it was to spend on 11 projects over the next fiscal year. The shortfall could mean those projects lower on the priority list may not receive funding. The line item marked as "Wellness" is in the number eight slot of an 11 item list. It’s a possibility there won’t be any coal severance money when it comes up on the list.
Bullock had an idea to break up the $100,000 and take $50,000 and move it up the list so the FWC would at least get something.
First District Magistrate Michael McKenney said he had no problem moving some projects up on the list, but he reminded the court the money was not earmarked "Wellness Center," it was to be marked "Wellness." McKenny thought the $100,000 would be used to help other county entities that could be categorized as wellness.
“I guess where my big problem is, this discussion started today where the word ‘center’ is missing off line item eight, but we’re saying ‘wellness center,’” McKenney said. “Now it’s been said three times and I have a big problem with that because some of us negotiated other things to lose the word ‘center.’”
McKenney was referring back to the February 2012 meeting in which the coal severance priority list was approved.
“It’s always intended to be ‘wellness center,’ I think we (marked the line item Wellness) to make it palatable or something of that nature,” Johnston said. “That has always been for the ‘wellness center,’ that’s the way it was set out in the (House Bill 265 coal severance) money. Myself, Jerry Rhoades and Tommy Thompson agreed on these projects.”
Johnston said Rhoades and Thompson had two mandates for the coal severance priority list and the giving of $100,000 to the FWC was one of them.
Third District Magistrate Brandon Thomas said the fiscal court had to decide if it is going to move the Wellness money up the priority list, before deciding where the money would go.
Thomas felt the court members all made concessions to pass the coal severance priority list and after passing the list, he didn’t believe they needed to make changes to the list unless there is an emergency or a “dire need.”
Bullock again stated his case for the money to go to the FWC and Thomas, again, said the court needed to decide if it was moving the money up the priority list, then discuss where the money would go.
“Unless it’s for the (FWC), I don’t want to reprioritize it,” Bullock told Thomas.
Johnston reiterated the money was for the FWC because he, Rhoades and Thompson “were the ones who made the list.”
“I spoke with Tommy Thompson today and he did not give me the impression that was earmarked as ‘wellness center” or that was earmarked as Wellness,” McKenney said. “He had a consensus that it was wellness in the county and it specifically didn’t say ‘center.’”
McKenney went on to state he would never have voted to accept the coal severance priority list if the county was to give $100,000 to a privately owned entity.
“I would not agree to the list, nor vote on it, until the word ‘center’ was taken off,” McKenney said.
Fourth District Magistrate Larry Keown weighed in, saying he’d like to see the Board of Education, the Ohio County Hospital, the fiscal court, the FWC and Ross, Sinclaire & Associates all come together and try to save the FWC. He doesn’t want to take the taxpayers money and “throw it in the wind” until the FWC’s financial situation is greatly improved, meaning lowering its debt of $4.1 million.
Bullock believes the $50,000 is needed now by the FWC to update the building, for pool repairs and to buy new equipment.
Thomas thought other projects were too important to be moved down the list to give $50,000 to $100,000 to an entity with over $4 million in debt.
There was continued discussion over whether the money was earmarked for Wellness or “wellness center.” Fifth District Magistrate Kenny Autry said he believed it was for the FWC, while Keown wasn’t sure what was agreed upon in the February 2012 meeting.
Thomas then told the court he spoke with Rhoades that day about the line item marked Wellness.
“(Rhoades) never said anything to the effect, even near that either (he or Thompson) ever mandated any part of any of this (coal severance) money,” Thomas told Johnston.
“Well, in the meeting with me, the three of us and someone from the (FWC), they did (mandate the money go to the FWC),” Johnston told Thomas.
Bullock made a motion to move $50,000 from line item eight (Wellness), for the FWC, up the priority list into the number five position behind the Firefighters Radio Project. Johnston seconded the motion.
McKenney wanted to know if the court would be voting on moving the money up for Wellness or the FWC. Bullock said he wanted the motion to read the $50,000 line item will be marked “wellness center.”
Melton informed the court they could not add or take away from the words of a line item.
“We know what we want it for, we know what it was originally there for,” Bullock said. “We can sit here and say, ‘Wellness. Did it have center, did it not? Where did it go?’”
McKenney asked Keown if he thought the money was for Wellness or the FWC. Keown said he wasn’t against giving the $100,000 for Wellness to several entities or even a portion to the FWC, but he wanted the FWC to negotiate its debt down to a more manageable level before giving them taxpayer money.
Bullock reminded the court there was a motion with a second that needed a vote. Johnston read back the motion for the court clerk and a roll call vote was taken. The motion failed after a 3-3 vote. McKenney, Thomas and Keown voted no on the motion.
After the vote, Keown continued to explain his position, saying he wasn’t against the FWC, he was against giving it taxpayer money to a private entity with $4.1 million of debt. Keown believed that until the FWC handled its financial situation, giving them money now would be “throwing good money after bad.”
Johnston told Keown he was expecting the investment company that owned the loan to come back with a plan to make the debt more manageable. To hear audio from the meeting of the discussion of FWC funding, see the audio player below, or click here. [audio mp3="http://www.ocmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/FCSpecialCalledWellness8-27-13.mp3"][/audio]