Arapahoe County Board of Health - Regular Meeting

You ready, Jennifer?

I'm ready. Yes. Good

afternoon. I'd like to call the Arapahoe County Board of Health business meeting to order. Miss Banks, will you please call the roll?

Director? Here. Director Sean Pickett?

Here.

Director Christine Brown? Director Mark Wazee? Here. Director Mark McMillan?

Also her.

Director Karen Blunker.

Absent in oh, he's gonna be online.

I think I'm here.

I'm here. Oh, I

was in the.

In the ceiling. Yeah.

He's in the cloud.

Director Michelle. I'm here.

I would now like to ask the directors in the room to introduce the staff that are present today. Michelle?

Great. Once again, Melissa Roscoe, disease epidemiology manager, along with Connor Herkin, environmental health supervisor with the water program.

Okay. Welcome. You. The next item is to approve this.

Have a good side. Penny? Hi. Anthony Sotelo is our safety and security coordinator. Okay. He's here today to talk. Welcome. And I've made you all know Leslie, but I want to introduce Doctor. Levine again,

our one resident community health nutrition specialist.

Right? Okay. The next item is to approve the January meeting minutes. Mhmm. Can I get a motion to approve the January 2026 meeting minutes as

presented? So moved. So moved. Second? Second. Second.

Thank you. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. Next is our public comment period. You're invited to speak to the board of health about any topic related to public health. And I do understand we have somebody who's who would like to speak to the board of health today.

Just give me one second.

Sure. Athena, you can unmute yourself in just a second.

And just so everybody understands, she will have three minute time period, and the time will begin after she states her name and address for the record. And then we do wanna communicate while the board does not respond to individual comments during this section of our agenda. Please note that we do listen to these concerns and take note of the issues for resolution and follow-up as appropriate.

Everyone

you'll see great. There. Does that work for everyone? There we go. Yes. That works. Okay. Then, Gao, you are ready to go.

Alright. My name is Fiona Gao, and I live in Centennial on 6298 South Niagara Boulevard. And thank you for this opportunity to speak today. I wanted to address the fact that according to Colorado's core public health services operations manual, communications with the public are a foundational capacity of public health agencies. With local public health agencies assigned a responsibility to increase the visibility and understanding of public health issues through consistent strategic communications.

When you speak to the state public health department, they make clear that it is local public health's role to warn the public about rising trends in communicable diseases in their communities, not CDPHs. I'm here as a community member to say that in my estimation, Arapahoe County Public Health is not meeting this requirement, and I'm gonna use influenza as a key example. The flu is a primary improvement focus of the state's 2025 state health improvement plan, so it's reasonable to assume that communication about the flu should be part of a local public health agency's efforts to communicate with the public. Unfortunately, this flu season, the department has made zero Twitter or X posts containing the word flu or influenza. On Facebook, the words flu or influenza were last mentioned in March 2025.

There are zero results this season for a Google News search with the words Arapahoe County Public Health and flu or influenza, and your website indicates you have not made a news post there with the word flu in it since 2024. Nextdoor shows only a single passing mention of influenza immunization on September 12. For context, in the same time frame in 2019, Tri County Health Department made seven Twitter posts about the flu, and in 2017, a similar flu year, they made 13. And comparing to Adams County Public Health this season, which is the same age as this agency and has faced the same rebuilding struggles as Arapahoe County Public Health, they have made four Facebook posts about flu risks and countless more encouraging vaccination. While I understand that since the COVID pandemic began speaking to the public about the risks of prevention strategies for communicable disease is fraught with the risk of blowback, it remains part of the department's mandate.

So figure out how to communicate with the public effectively about the risks of infectious diseases because currently, the failure is leading to a significant increase in risk in our community. The flu is dangerous. It needs to be talked about. Our community needs to hear from you when cases are rising so community members can do their part to prevent spread. It's all particularly frustrating because it's clear listening to you all that you have the data.

You're aware of the about the high amount of influenza that's circulating, and it's just not reaching the public in a meaningful way. You have zero data about illness outbreaks and trends on your website. You're not sharing them via social media, and you're not working with local media either to inform the public. So please, for the well-being of our most vulnerable residents, people like my mom who is stage four breast cancer, it would be great if you guys were communicating this out to the public. Thank you.

Thank you, Fiona. We appreciate your input. Thanks a lot. Next, we are going to move into the director's comment. At this time, Directors are invited to share insights from community leaders and partners to gauge the current state of the community, and we're gonna start left to right. So we're gonna start with you, Christine.

Put me on

the spot. Yeah.

Awesome. I'm late. Hi, everybody. The big thing that's on my mind right now is the obviously, legislative session is in full swing. And so I'm doing a lot of work around making sure that we can keep an well, keep an eye on the budget as best as possible. I can't it's out of my control at this point, but try to do my best to keep things as as functional as possible. Also, thinking about the second year of multi sector plan on aging, we're starting to develop and push out our year two initiatives. And so hoping that we could get some more Krappow County involvement in that. So yeah. Thanks.

I just had a lovely short break with visiting family in Southern California where my son is an emergency physician. And he was bragging about a program that they have put together at the county level in San Diego about community based CPR, training people in the community to be able to respond to out of hospital cardiac arrest, not only with CPR, but also the proper use of the automatic external defibrillators that are now in public buildings all over the place. And I've I've done a little bit of homework to see if it is something that is actually beneficial. It increases rates of recovery two to four times, and it's a something that happens in The United States. For every ten thousand people in one year, you can expect thirteen out of hospital cardiac arrests and increasing that survival rate by two to four times sounds like something that we should be paying attention to and an opportunity to really improve community health.

So I would just like to pass on that observation and something maybe that we should be considering as evolving. Now I understand that there are pros and cons. It it it ain't cheap for one. You need to have the right experts to be able to do the trainings in an appropriate manner. So I'm not recommending that we do it, but I am recommending that we think about it and maybe do a cost benefit analysis and see if it's something that fits in either now or in the immediate future that could potentially help the community.

Well, as everyone knows, I've been gone. I'm back two days.

So you look at this picture.

I don't wanna what

I really wanna say is how grateful I am for all the people that are in my life that

have supported me through this whole thing And just how grateful I am to be surrounded by people who care so much about the work, being community, making a difference. And when you're in it every day, you kind of forget to look around. When you when you step back, you look back and go, there's a ton of people who want this to be better. And so I'm just grateful that I get to play in the world where people wanna make the world better. So so that's really otherwise, I don't wanna have, except for it's in the newspaper. I don't

Yeah. I don't know what's going on.

Yes. In my yeah. Real similar to similar to what Christine said, looking a lot at the state budget and what's going on primarily Medicaid. And similar to, you know, what Bibi said, I was in DC and having a conversation, and they were like, you know, what do you do? And so explaining a lot of my board different board responsibilities.

And when I mentioned public health, the first thing they said is, wow. You guys are really under attack currently. And so similar to you, it gave pause to say how many times do we really stop to say it. So I would just like to say thank you to all of the all of our staff at Arapahoe County for the great job y'all doing, and we understand how hard it's been for y'all. I think us as boards, we do our best to support y'all, but, you know, sometimes we can probably under appreciate how hard it is to be living that on a day to day where you're worried about your job, where you're worried about whether or not the program is gonna be cut or whether or not some other change is gonna happen.

And so I just use this as an opportunity to say no matter what happens, the board has your back, and we will always make decisions in the best interest of the staff first and foremost.

Excellent. And a big focus for me this last month is very quickly increasing interest in data centers and the impact that those facilities can have on on communities. There is a a public meeting next to you here that I've been invited to. And we wanna talk about air quality, water quality, energy noise, and I think it's gonna be in a high energy meeting for for sure. And so prepping myself for that, you know, sympathizing with the community and some of the challenges of this facility is in a known disproportionately impacted community.

You know, it's already been cited and permitted and is under construction. I'm not quite sure where it'll go live, but it definitely has caught the attention of many. And so I'm hoping that my role there can help allay some of the concerns, share what I know, let folks know what I don't know about it. But this is definitely growing interest not only here, but seeing it nationally as well. And so I don't know. I think I've heard Revoken is dealing with some issues, or we've been pulled in from a public health standpoint or environmental health standpoint, but this one's gonna be pretty pretty interesting.

Sir? How many data centers are there in in Colorado now, and how many are in development?

So the estimate and they've got this sort of secondhand. They're probably 15 to 20 data centers per week. And I think there's strong interest for Colorado to be a leader in this space. Mhmm. Know?

Like, it's like around DC or Virginia. Originating to, you know, more facilities that we have here, but there's there's strong interest in bringing more. So I think it's just the tip of the iceberg of of interest, but now without some challenges. And then in terms of how we're gonna come to know, you know, how that that process starts usually at the very local level in terms of land use. And so it may be a while before, say, environmental permitting agency, say, health funding, or our office is even where such things come down the point.

Do can you share the information about the public meeting? Can we what's in it?

I can share. I don't know if one can listen in. Don't know if it's not our meeting.

Oh.

We've been invited in by the this is council person. I can I can check though?

Yeah. I can

provide details on, like, the when and where. I just

don't know if will

they have it online or what have you, so but I can look into that.

Is that tied in with the the data center bill that's coming in? I I think I was wondering It's just I was just doing some googling. The past bill ten thirty is introducing is, like, learning data centers, and I know there is a big hubbub about it. So

So I don't know the answer to

that question, but I'm gonna look into it. Mhmm.

Maybe as well prepared if I can. I'm no subject matter expert. Again, I wanna be a resource in the community, but also recognize sort of limitations of my knowledge and awareness. I think that we're really quickly in this space. The things that we know today are different than we know, respectively, I think six months ago or a year ago and definitely several years ago when some of these things were being

discussed. Thanks. Thank

you. Sue?

Hi, everybody. I'm focusing on bright spots. I think it's really important in our work and in our world right now. One bright spot I wanna share is that I was I was speaking to we had a professional learning day yesterday with staff, and I got to speak to about 500 registered nurses, school psychologists, school social workers who will learn together. One one day a year, they come together to learn together, and we try to make it very purposeful so it's not all physical health.

It's not all emotional and mental health, but it's together. And we were talking a lot about the legislation before the state, but also about the budget in terms of the JBC and the fact that it appears to be decision making between k 12 funding, public education funding, and Medicaid funding. And I find that to be abhorrent, and I find that to be on purpose. And so when you have two amazingly important things that I truly believe are the the only solutions to affecting institutional racism and institutional poverty, to put them against each other is untoward. And so in that time together, we developed personal plans among the 500 folks to make a determination about how they wanted to advocate, and whether that meant calling their state reps or their state senators, whether that meant protesting and marching peacefully, utilizing their First Amendment rights.

And I it was really heartening to see 500 people who spend their days serving students and community to develop that plan outside of their work. So I really want to highlight that. Another highlight I want to celebrate is the FDA's turnaround this morning to review the Moderna vaccine for the mRNA vaccine for influenza. I think that will change the way that is administered, designed, administered, and I think people have had enough good experiences with the COVID-nineteen vaccines that they now see the benefit of that technology in science. And then the last thing I'll celebrate is that according to the Children's Hospital Colorado Bub Watch, influenza A has been decreasing mightily in the pediatric population since 12/07/2025, continues to decrease, and Influenza B has never risen above almost a measurable threshold for the pediatric population.

So I just want to celebrate that and and put that onto the record.

Thank you for that.

Thank you, John.

Peritz, do do you have anything you would like to share?

Q one is a really busy travel time for me, which is hence why I'm in in Tampa. It's at a trade show, but not a lot going on for me. Just getting ready for new launches coming for the coming towards end of the year. But that's really it. Happy Black History Month.

That's what I was gonna say. You said you put on these amazing events and make me look bad. I was like, oh,

man. I'm

so happy. So thank you for not doing nothing. Yeah.

I'm sharing this as private citizen and as a board of health member if you're one the employer of the Department of Public Health and Environment. Just private citizen. I had the pleasure of attending a gubernatorial panel last weekend and to keep in one of those forums, there's oftentimes to ask questions of the candidates. And I I pressed one of our gubernatorial candidates on his perspectives on public health and what more we can do there. And I mentioned that to some of the e h environmental health directors earlier this week, and I do think there's an opportunity and obligation whatever role we are and whether in that case, I get it as a private citizen or in other roles to ask our elected officials about what they're doing to prioritize public health and to, frankly, try to get on the offense when it comes to funding or or otherwise because it feels like we're on defense, you know, left and right.

And so it was a pleasure to be there. It was a pleasure to ask the question. I didn't get a detailed response, which is okay, but I will be persistent in that space to have those elected officials thinking about public health in the significance of the work that you all do, you know, is just critical importance. So I wanna share that that story. Thanks, Shame.

And I would just say we've had amazing support from our board of county commissioners here in Arapahoe County. So they've been really good supporters of ours. So I will let the rec record reflect that. So So we're gonna move into our first general business item, discussion on the tobacco retail license ordinance and board of health letter of support, and Jennifer's gonna present on that.

Thank you. And we did print a coffee just because we sis an item to vote on in case you hadn't had an opportunity or just to see a different. So it's in your. The Arapahoe County Public Health Tobacco Program is a partner with Aurora partner for youth, which has really been leading the effort in in working with council, Aurora City Council, on a tobacco retail license ordinance. This would require all tobacco retailers to have a different a separate license.

There's a lot of reasons to do this, and youth have access to buying tobacco, and things one and four admit to being able to buy tobacco without getting carded. So retail license allows for more frequent checks of, you know, who they're selling to. It ups makes it harder to sell to Google if they have to check. There's more compliance checks. It also has a graduated civil penalties for what they sell to minors.

And the council has finally moved this forward. There was a study session. The work has been in place for probably a year and a half and just kept getting postponed, postponed. And they had a study session, moved it forward. The next the first reading is next week, and then second reading would be the following week.

The city staff have been really great to work with. The youth have been showing up at city council giving public comment for for a while, which is really inspiring to see our youth get involved. And, you know, when you tell the story about going back to what you were Phoebe earlier saying, you know, nothing about us without us. Like, this is being driven by the youth, that they are concerned about this. And so we thought it would be powerful to send a letter of support for the ordinance in favor of health and for our youth coming from the board of health as opposed from health department.

So the letter takes information from some information, the fact sheet of Pfizer, some other things that we've seen. So it's a lot of it's been vetted facts. And if you look in favor of that, it will sign by Sean and Vivi, and then we'll send we'll PDF it and send it off to Martin in time for their study session or, yeah, first reading.

Any questions or objections from other board members? Christine, you'll say? We're gonna have before we take a note, we all have to approve. I don't wanna I wanna make sure everybody's on record

is closed.

Is this

I guess I

I am not totally I mean, besides this letter, I don't totally understand, like, what that entails for the rest of the population besides kids. Like, is there I guess I I would love for everybody to just not smoke and to reduce that access, but I also recognize that we target a lot of, like, low income Yeah. Minority populations. And so I wanna make sure that we're not doing harm on the other side too.

Do you wanna address? Sure. So the the emphasis of the ordinance absolutely is to decrease access for for youth across the board. We want to make sure that they are responsible retailers in Aurora, not just when it comes to selling tobacco and nicotine products. Aurora in September also passed a ban on unscheduled psychoactive substances, like big, huge nitrous oxide tanks and paraphernalia that is used for illicit drugs.

So this ordinance will add compliance checks locally, so two compliance checks per year. It also will have inspections to make sure that the stores do not have those products on the shelves. They have removed them. Once that initial ordinance was implemented, we wanna keep them out of the out of the stores. I mean, this is just across the board, trying to keep our youth away from these substances. Right? We know that it's so much easier for them to get addicted. We want them to be able to stay in school, learn in school, and graduate. And so that would be my response about how we are just trying to

protect all of our all of our youth.

I guess. Thank you. That's helpful.

Mark, you're welcome. Is it likely to drive the youth more into vaping? And is there any way that we can mitigate that aspect?

So it is all tobacco and nicotine products. So it is anything that a a grocery store, a convenience store, a vape shop, any of the products that they would be selling that have tobacco or nicotine in them.

So it includes

nicotine other than tobacco?

So vape pouches. Okay. I don't even know all of the things

You bet.

Right. Coming down, you know, nicotine drinks and, you know, whatever is to come in the future. The way that the language and the ordinance is written is that it's projecting the the products that will be coming down the line.

Okay. So it's not just tobacco? Correct. Yeah.

Would it would it be helpful like, I read this whole article about I'm get the name on Xim. Xim. Xim. Xim. Xim. Mhmm.

Okay. Because it doesn't I don't know

if being more specific so people understand what you just said in terms of anything that has nicotine or tobacco in it. And Aurora has the largest manufacturer in the country. Like, 70% of its products are made in Aurora.

So I'm sure there's

some pushback from them. But I I don't know if when I read the letter, it I don't know if people need to have to be more specific, you know, because we're not knowledgeable.

Yeah. So a lot of what the youth are talking about when they are speaking to at city council meetings, they're talking about the vapes. There's not that many. It is increasing, unfortunately. There are not that many youth who are smoking traditionally, we call them combustible, tobacco products, cigarettes, etcetera. So they are really focused on the vapes and the nicotine pouches. So that information is out there to at city council meetings. There's been a lot of news coverage both on television as well as in the newspapers, and they're mostly focused on the vapes as well since that's where the surge has taken place with the youth. Okay.

Yeah. Do you put feedback on?

I do. Thank you. Thank you for putting the lab together. I I think it's sends a strong message coming from from you too, so so thank you. Kinda curious, like, in engaging, for example, with the the city council of Aurora, if providing the citations for the data had value. So it's sort of the scientists in me that saw the statistics. They're like, interesting where it could come from. And so I don't know if there's experience. Like, it's probably better to to cite maybe a five week letter

Agree.

Where that that came from because it may it's making it's it's it's more than just sort of making an emotional argument. I would love to see some citations on those data if we could provide them.

Okay. In the slide materials that they have received from us previously so I think in the study session packet, again, Jennifer mentioned, we've been delayed several times. So we were supposed to originally get in front of them in November. They have received the citations with the research, but if that's something that you want to include in the letter, we can certainly pull that from from the study packet. We talk a lot about the Healthy Kids Colorado data. And so we cite that we're not necessarily verbally citing, you know, different research articles, but there is a lot of discussion about Healthy Kids Colorado since that's the voices of our kids.

Yeah. They could just be a powerful Mhmm. Addition. It really does, like, perhaps compile things that you previously shared with him in in one spot. And so somebody wants to go deeper, city council person, for example, she or he can do so. Thank you. Michelle?

No. I'm good. Okay.

So are we all in favor? Any any opposed?

One questions. Of What kind of impact will this have on Arapahoe Public Health in terms of compliance? I mean, who's doing like, people can get fined, but who's like, is law enforcement sending people out dressed up as teenagers and, like, know?

So it comes out of the licensing office. I would say public health and death practice is we don't want community having any negative perceptions with police. Right? We want them, obviously, to feel safe going to police. And so it's the licensing office that coordinates the compliance checks where they have the underage youth going in Okay. And trying to see if the retailer is selling to them. Okay. And the licensing office director in Aurora has been amazing. An amazing partner. He's very passionate about this. I don't know how replicable this will be in other cities, but he is an absolute champion for making sure that our business owners are being good stewards in the community.

That's good.

Thank you.

So there's no direct impact from a capacity perspective or expectation of public health. We do have our team, and we are funded through amendment 35 funds to provide technical assistance, signage, assist you know, be a continue to be a partner, but we won't be doing the checks. We won't be it it's resides within the city. Repeat it. Good question.

Well, I will make a motion. I move I make a motion I move to approve for the letter as presented today to be sent on behalf of the Arapahoe County Board of Health to the city of Aurora to express our support for the city's proposed tobacco retail license ordinance. Can I get a second? Second. Second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Aye. Thank you, Terrence. Here, motion passes.

And just to clarify with with the suggested edits.

Yeah. Yeah. The suggested edits of the citation.

Thank you.

With the.

Yes, sir. Thank you for that one.

We're now going to move into our study session time. The first study session is our core presentation by Penny.

Hi. Brooke was going to be a co presenter, but she is out of this. So Okay. I am presenting. We do have a PowerPoint video, so you'll see that. But just, I mean, I'll give you highlights. Yeah. This is the the of the work that we did last year, and we finally have a full year of data, which is so exciting. It's a lot of a lot of work has been done by I really wanna shout out Brooke, Grace, and Alexa who really have been championing this project, but then also their representation from each division as well to make sure that we have this. You have all received a big huge packet of data and then also a link for questions because you probably you probably will have questions.

It's just in this form, it will be too hard. So once you put that link in, we'll know which program you're asking. We'll get you guys questions back. You have seen some of this data. So all throughout 2025 when our staff came and presented, they were using that data. And we were calling it the RAFT team, and now we are moving to core performance. So that's our our refresh for '26. So we'll continue to collect the data, and then really this next phase is moving into the QI pieces. How what are we using this data? What do we need to change?

What do what can we do? And really focusing on that equity piece that was all built on the core framework, which is to be looking at equities. So what can we learn from this data now that we have a full year's worth? And I think without further ado, we'll take a look at the presentation. So that's our last slide.

You guys do have all of the slides. It was kind of Yeah. But Yeah.

I was gonna say to Blake, if you showed us all those slides, I Yeah. Read them.

Yeah. There's a lot of information about that. What what it plays in that. But if you

have questions, let us know.

Yeah. Any questions?

Where's the dance floor?

Yeah. I'm still.

I know. What?

Mark? Thank you, sir. Is Rebel County Public Health using things like story maps? Is that a you know, like, a way is that data information be be presented?

I don't know. We're using a ClearPoint to

collect this data, but I

don't know what I'll let Heather and let the not so far. Not so far. If you got some samples that you really like, we'd love to take a look at it. I think part of what we'll see this coming year is not only a lot of consistency and much more visibility and transparency with the ClearPoint data, but also incorporating other ways to show our quality improvement efforts.

We've been since we opened, we've been playing around with different ideas, and it it you know, once you get it built and then building out the platform and the you know, trying to balance just the data and the stories, I've seen really amazing story maps. Mhmm. And we've talked about it, but just I mean, hopefully, we'll progress to that point. Another thing that we're really working toward is also aligning our performance management with the county's dashboard, which is evolving and moving into their their strategic priorities, which match that of our chip priorities, or there's great alignment. I wouldn't say it matches with their their alignment.

So in the background, you know, we're we're trying and wanting to display and have dashboards and data that is meaningful for you all and tells the story while we're also trying to balance and work through that what that looks like on the asset. We're a bigger account to even just as the We'll mature into that or something.

You kinda follow-up with that. City of Canada, Denver, like, Department of Public Health is sort of moving in inspection with with story maps, and that's been pretty intriguing. But one of the big reasons, I sense that we've gotten that away is around accessibility and some of the the challenges in that space. So the story maps has helped us overcome a little bit for broader accessibility. The work was pretty new in in stepping into this.

We've been moving in from, like,

the traditional dashboards and putting the other reports and picking up and stuff. We don't a lot of experience there yet, but it's it's about needing to see how it's it's coming along. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Ruth. Thanks.

I know Brooke participates in some regional learning communities with folks in similar roles at other agencies. Hopefully, we'll be hearing about those types of endeavors at Denver and other places. But, yeah, if if you end up developing something you really like, we'd love to receive them.

And I thought out there, don't if it's the the gold standard. It's just it's interesting to see how our agency is coming coming to production.

The link for the survey in your email.

So now we're going to welcome Steve for our second study session.

Alright. Well, thank you. So

while I've got the floor, I'm gonna use a second to promote our Lowry Superfund site community engagement meeting tonight. So if you don't get enough environmental health information for me in the next sixty minutes, you're welcome to join us from five hundred days out at the fairgrounds. It's a good opportunity to learn about the Superfund site that we are contracted with the waste settlement dependence to help provide outreach and understanding around site as well as some technical advisory too. So we've got a bunch of stuff going out there today. And if you're interested, you're more than welcome to come in and learn about the Superfund site.

So thanks. Diving into on-site wastewater treatment systems, our regulation revision update, I gave you a heads up about this at our last Board of Health meeting. And the purpose for the study session today is to really dive into some of those changes that CDPHE made as part of their master regulation. And then as I mentioned before, we then have to revise our regulations to either meet or exceed some of those standards. So here's the proposed agenda for today.

So we'll go over our regulatory structure, those new requirements from CDPHE that were included in this last round of provisions. The opt ins at ACPH will continue. So the things that we've pulled over from Tri County Health Department and continued here at Arapahoe County. The opt ins that we propose to adopt in 2026 for your consideration. And then I'll dive into those in a little bit more detail.

We'll talk about the stakeholder engagement opportunities that we had and then opportunities for questions, but feel free to interrupt me along the way as we go. So this is similar slide you you saw last time too, but your responsibilities as a board is to hold a public hearing, which we'll do next month to officially adopt the regulations. And during that time, we'll review and consider any public comment if the public shows up at that meeting and has any comment. And then at the end adopt those OWTS regulations. These responsibilities that come directly from the OWTS Act and statute, and that's not something that can be delegated.

So it's definitely a responsibility. These upcoming dates. So Monica was kind enough to help us to get a circular posted for our hearing notice for next month. And so the proof is approved and on its way. So that's one check mark that we've got done and one of the requirements that we have in that OWTS Act and as part of the regulation 43, the state regulations.

Then next month we'll do the hearing and adoption. May 7, that has to be the effective date of local regulation because it has to be forty five days past adoption to be aligned statute. And then June 15 is the CDPHE deadline for local adoption since they adopt their version in 06/15/2025. We have one year from that date to adopt ours. So we're we're ahead scheduled just in case anything pops up.

We have some buffer there. So these regulations are grounded, as I mentioned, in the OWTS Act, which requires every local board of health to adopt OWTS regulations. They're at least as stringent as regulation 43 which are the state regulations. And then that that kind of statutory alignment isn't something that's optional. It's something that we have to do.

And then in that purpose section it's to protect groundwater, prevent contamination, and ensure consistent and safe wastewater treatment in areas that aren't served by central sewer. So as I mentioned, CDPHE completed their update in 2025 to that regulation 43, and then we are required by this 06/15/2026 to update ours. And doing this will help to ensure consistency and maintain our local permitting authority if if we don't adopt, then CDPHE takes over and they implement their their rules. So here's some of the new requirements from CDPHE. There's a a requirement for a secondary safety feature installed below the septic tank lid.

So just in case that lid gets compromised in any way, there's a secondary device to keep people and pets from from falling in the septic tank. They do have updated rock and soil tables. A

lot of

these changes don't really impact us here in Red Bull County. It's more of the rockier soils that we see in the mountain areas, which this regulation applies to as well. They did add another type of higher level treatment options, so they added in an opportunity to apply disinfection to the effluent and that can in effect help to reduce the footprint of that system. So if you need if there's site constraints, this is another way that you can reduce the size of the system. The squirt bait residual or residual head test requirement for all pressure dose distribution systems inspections.

More or less, this is just making sure that the affluent is getting all the way to the end of the line depending on how long that field is and it's matching up with the designers calculation that is gonna have x head pressure at the end. This is something that we hadn't been checking in the field before and systems weren't functioning like they were supposed to. And so this will help to ensure that at the time of final inspection that that these systems are are gonna operate for a long period with the design that was required. And then also if you're interested, believe I included this in the board packet too. Within regulation 43, the 43.26 goes over all of the summary changes that CDPHE made in their regulation.

I'm not gonna go over those today because it's like pages and pages of changes. But if you're interested, they are there for you. So here's some of the opt ins that we have that we've implemented in the past and we intend to include for this next round as well. We're not taking any of these out. So we do license our our contractors, our installers, cleaners, and pumpers.

That's something that helps us to ensure the integrity of the work that is being done on the systems. And if we need to do any kind of enforcement action, we can use these licenses to prevent future work from individuals that aren't operating in an ethical way. There is also a requirement for industry certification for system maintenance providers and transfer title inspectors. Right now, we're not doing a license program for them, but we are requiring some kind of a certification for them. It follows an industry standard and it's certifying agency is one of the leaders in the industry.

If we were to start seeing issues with some of these inspectors around quality of work or any ethical issues then at that time I think we can take up with the board consideration for a licensing program. This isn't something that we're seeing in our county but other counties are. So some are taking advantage of this opt in. We do intend to continue to allow variances with procedure and regulations. If you recall a few months back, we had one of those variance hearings and we did decide to shift that a little bit.

I'll get that into that in the next slide. So we intend to continue that. For wastewater flows, something that we do here instead of having two people per bedroom for x number of bedrooms that you have in a home, we are using the option to do two people per bedroom up to four bedrooms. And then after that fourth bedroom, we calculate flows for one person per bedroom in addition. So we're using some of that some that buffer there for two people per bedroom.

We know there aren't two people per bedroom in a four bedroom home and it adds some additional capacity. But beyond that, it just becomes excessive. And so as a county, we've decided to continue on with this. We do also have a higher level treatment oversight programs. One of those higher level treatment systems is like that disinfection system option that I had in the last slide.

When a local county decides to allow higher level treatment as an option, have to have an oversight program with it. And that's something that we have set up and it's already in our regulations. And we do an annual use permit process for that where we require inspections and require maintenance providers to provide the inspection results to ensure that the systems are continuing to function how much those do. And then finally, we do have a use I'm sorry, a title transfer inspection for any homes that are are selling and also a a use permit program. If there's a change in use, they're adding number they're adding bedrooms to a remodel to ensure that the systems will are are meeting current standard, and they'll continue to function for a long period of time.

So here's the opt ins that we're proposing to adopt in 2026. Nothing controversial here. And, of course, if you have any questions on this, please let me know. So as I mentioned before, we are wanting to continue the ability to allow for variances, but we would like to shift that a little bit and do that administratively rather than bring it to the board for a hearing. It just it seems like it takes up a lot of the board's time or it's something that I can do from my desk.

If there is any issue where if there seems to be some kind of contention there, then I'll discuss it with Jennifer and Monica and and we can bring it to the board for further consideration. But this just helps to relieve that administrative burden from the board. It's like I mentioned, it's something that I can do.

Is this related to when we did review that one with the property line and that and so does this impact the other property? Not the property of the people who have the system, but meaning there's just it could be up to just minimum of three feet from another property. It's gonna 10 feet?

Yes. So that's something that we we look at during that variance is is how is it gonna impact the other property owner, and then we have to get them to to sign an an affidavit saying that they're they're okay with that. When it gets down to that that three foot minimum so not to get into too many technical details, but there's a six foot setback from system to system.

Yeah.

So if you have a three foot minimum on this side, three foot minimum on this side, you're still maintaining that six foot setback between the systems, allowing the systems to function how they should. At that three foot minimum, I believe in the CDPHE regulations that is something that we have to bring to the board. I believe the cut off is five feet from those property lines. That's something that we can do administratively beyond that benefit you have to bring it to the board.

Because if a system is failing, three feet is not much room

It's not. To be

impacting your neighbor next door.

Yes.

It's pretty close.

Yes. Absolutely. And and so we we look at how it's seated in on the property and what those elevations are, where where is it gonna roll to if it does fail. So, yes, there's there's a lot of considerations that go into that.

But usually in the rural areas, there are bird. It'd be that close to you. Maybe even far, like, we have to 50 feet apart. So, yeah, I'm trying to imagine how the properties would be that close together out

there in rural areas. Those types of things.

Yeah. And and the intention of this too isn't to do it retroactively. So some an installer installs a system that's encroaching on their setbacks, you're not supposed to be using this variance process to try to relieve that. The relation shifting the the whole system. And again, I'm sure that would create contention, and then they would have to bring it to the board.

And then we also there's a option for us to consider increasing design flows for number of veterans for unfinished areas and bunkhouses during permitting. So in in the past, and this is during in Tri County, there were some builders that were providing us with permits for systems like a three bedroom home. And then a couple months later, we find out that they've been in four bedrooms there. We So if we start to see that with, some builders or property developers, then we'll start tapping on those additional bedrooms if if we find that's necessary. I I don't anticipate us using that very often. Another option that we can just do you know yes.

I'm sorry. Is that specifically for builders or is that like if we find out that somebody finished their basement and added another bedroom and bathroom, like, then we would check that on?

I don't know how

we find I mean, we'd have full permits, but

Yeah. So typically, don't find out about that until the house sells. Gotcha. But unless they're they're working with a septic company that will proactively call us and say they're adding another bedroom, What do we need to do? Gotcha. That that's more common. We've got some great subject consultants in our county that they they do reach out to us quite often. But Usually, if it's done on notary, we don't find out until after it sells, and then it's too late. Thank you. We we have other processes to to scoop that up where we have a requirement for them to expand the system to meet that current veteran account or during a real estate transaction because they're happening so quick.

We have an agreement to forego expansion that the both the buyer and the seller can sign and they can agree to that recognizing that the system is likely undersized and could fail. Thank you, Rebecca. Another option that we can choose is requiring joint soil profile pit evaluations. So usually when we go out to the sites to do the initial site visit, we are checking to see where they've done the soil profile pits. Almost always they're filled back in.

But when we are looking at those soil results and assessing the design of the system, we might have questions about it or there's conflicting information. And so we might require an additional soil evaluation to ensure that the system that's going in in the ground is is gonna be appropriate for that soil type. This is something again, this is we do this already. It's just we're gonna codify it now. This is one of the larger changes, but we seem to have industry backing on this is to require effluent filters on all new tanks and all tanks that are replaced.

So repairs. These effluent filters will help to keep that more fine particulate matter from going out to the field and then clogging up the pore space. That pore space is necessary to ensure infiltration of of the effluent. And over time, when those porous spaces fill up, the system starts to fail. So instead you put a effluent filter in front and that will catch a lot of the particulates just require some maintenance from the property owner.

And so we'll have to do some outreach to ensure during permitting that the property owner knows what they're what they're getting into and what they'll have to do. As part of this, for systems that are pressure distribution, so pressurized by a pump because the pump will not function and it will burn out if it's pushing against an effluent filter that is full. It will have an alarm on it. So it'll notify the homeowner that they either need to clean it out or have a maintenance provider come out and and help them with that. Another option that we are considering is for non pressurized drip dispersal systems.

This is another type of septic system that was really common back when I first started about twenty years ago. And now it's starting to fall out of favor. It takes up a huge footprint, so you need a lot of land to be able to use this. But typically, it's used with soils that just aren't capable of accepting a lot of well, it's a lot of clayey soils. But with these, it is imperative that that they function appropriately and that the pump is functioning appropriately.

And so we had two choices. We could either prohibit these NDBS systems under the CPT regulation, or we could include them in an oversight program similar to our higher level treatment systems. And that's what we've opted to do here. So we'll just we'll wrap wrap any of those new ones that come in into an oversight program. And then we have two prohibitions that we're proposing to.

So prohibiting pit freeze. So basically, a a toilet over over a open pit and require abandonment of existing pit prairies. So if those come in through our easement program, we'll require the abandonment of those and and documentation along with that. And then split trenches. So it's just essentially a split that is dug into the the ground and that's where the offload goes. So we you see these more commonly like in campsites up up in the mountains. We don't see them here, but, again, we just wanted to codify that it was prohibited just in case

Not when we used to put PVC pipe pipe and then split it, you know, like, we cuts in it and then they leaked that they didn't you say that they leaked, but that's really what they were doing. It's a old system. Yep. So there's so they didn't have to pump the system as much.

Yeah. It it's it's a really non really low technology way to get rid of effluent. Yeah. And it's it's great, like I mentioned, for short term campground use.

Right.

But for home to be on it, it doesn't work. Any questions before I move on to the next slide? Alright. So just diving into the different options here. So, again, we're gonna continue to license our system with installers and pumpers.

We are proposing a new type of license. It's a conditional licensure, and this is to address a gap that we have between a requirement to get certification to go along with their license that's that that we are requiring. But sometimes they don't offer that certification class. And so we were depending on installers or cleaners to provide us that certification after we've already licensed them, and sometimes that doesn't happen. So we're we're gonna do a conditional licensure to ensure that they're going through the certification as they are required.

And then I believe by opening a hundred and eighty days to to complete that after that period, the pre prohibition for conducting work on septic systems will start, and they would have to get licensed appropriately from that point on. As I mentioned, those those variances, just a proposal to allow allow me to do a a desk review of these, and then anything that's less than five feet, I would bring it to the board. And this is also something that I've gone over already too in some details, so ensuring that any unfinished spaces that have the potential to to be a bedroom where we're seeing some common threads that we have this ability to be able to permit for those that potential veteran count. And then also we have I'm sorry. Think I might be on the next slide.

Yep. We have the option here to add in the requirement for additional capacity in the system for properties that would be used for, like, vacation rentals where they've got bunk beds and they're trying to cram four people in there that again, we wanna make sure that the system is gonna be sized appropriately. We don't see a lot of these down in the county, but we just wanna have the provision for it. This is the effluent filter that I was talking about. We're requiring we're wanting to require these on new and repairs I'm sorry.

New tanks and and I think that's the repair. And that's an example of what those f one filters look like. Basically, it's just you pop them out, hose them down inside the tank, and then you pop them back in and it it doesn't take a lot of maintenance. And they need a system that is gonna be pressurized. We're requiring alarm on those to ensure that they are maintained as needed.

And here, right now, we're not requiring soil test pits to be left open. This was some debate that went on during the CDPHE stakeholder process. Some counties wanted to see them left open. We are deciding not to do that or sorry. We are proposing not to do that in Arapahoe County just because of the safety concerns. If we have any questions around the the type of soils, we we do have that option to do a joint soil evaluation along with the the engineer if needed. Steve, you're about, like,

a like, if the site collapses, like, in the worker, is it if you're purchasing for them again?

Yeah. So that's definitely something to consider too. We just we wouldn't want any anybody or anything falling in to those pits because sometimes it could be months between the time that they take those pits and then they submit an application for permit. So we just it's not worth it to us. Thank you.

And, again, here's our proposal for nonpressure restricted disposal systems just to add it into our oversight program and for recurring use permits. We'd like to continue doing this transfer transfer of title inspections. We're we're getting a lot of good progress with this program and helping to ensure a longer life of the system and identifying maintenance needs during these inspections and hopefully helping the homeowner that is buying or the the buyer to save some money in that process and and wrap in any kind of repairs during that real estate process. And this is our proposal to continue the use permits for use of OWTS. So this is for our ongoing maintenance and oversight program for those higher level treatment systems and NDDS, the non pressurized or disposable systems.

So we we could have this. Here's an example of a higher level treatment system that we have wrapped into the ease permit program. And on the right hand side, there's an advanced treatment unit with filters. So it's basically a big box that the upland goes through and helps to helps to filter out some of that that uplink.

As for a house?

Mhmm. Yeah.

Yeah. So we're seeing some oops. I'm sorry. Some pretty intricate systems going especially where there's site constraints. So, like, in the Estancia development. Oh. Big right down

the street

from my house. Yeah. So they're they're not on central sewer. Oh, there's some huge tones Yeah. With some very tiny septic systems. So they some of the

I think systems.

Some of those homes use these type of systems. Oh, goodness.

You have to change that filter?

No. But you have a maintenance provider that comes out and helps you

helps clean it.

How much do one of those systems cost like that? The one on the right, miss Brunson?

So one of those systems, we've heard that had six beds with the sand And then, also, the filters was, like, a $120,000.

Okay.

Huge investment. Yeah.

Yeah. But you're putting

a new several million dollar house.

Yeah. 3 yeah.

Yeah. Million. Yeah.

Just wanna be able to, like, see the 120,000.

I don't like that.

Really nice brand.

That's right. Just clear it up to where you

want Yeah.

You're I don't know.

Like Yeah. Your though. Yeah.

And if you ever wanna go on to the section to to see one of those, they're not actively being used. So they're they're in pretty pristine condition. Just let us know and and you can see it. Some of the commercial systems are really cool. There's a Circle K out in on Manila Road that has a a huge higher level of treatment system that was put in almost 200 sorry, 2,000 gallons per day.

And it's a pretty techno how should I say that? Technology advanced technologically advanced system that's that's in there. So our team got to go out and and take a look at that. Pretty cool. For soil evaluations and design, again, this is something that we can opt into but require a professional engineer or a competent technician.

So having some soil coursework behind them or having a degree in some kind of a a soils related field allows them to be that competent technician and they can do that soils work and submit it as a part of their the application. And then also require a professional engineer to stamp for systems that are requiring an engineer design and then allowing a a competent designer to have design that doesn't require an engineer stamp. So there's basically two types of systems that can go in engineered and non engineered. And it just depends on the soil conditions or any kind of higher level treatment that would be required for those those sites. Vaults, we would like to continue to allow vaults.

We don't see a lot of these, but think of, like, RV parks or city parks that are connected to the central sewer. Most likely they're on vaults and they just require a lot of maintenance and pumping and there's some additional oversight that comes along with those. As mentioned before, we'd like to we for a bit of privies and require the management of those. And then something that didn't mention before is composting or incinerating toilets. These are starting to gain a little bit of traction for homes that are looking to reduce their impact on water quality.

And we're proposing not to allow reduction in the required size of the septic system just because people can it's just as easily that as they put them in, they can take them out. So we just don't want that to have an impact on the size. Okay. Before I move into stakeholder engagement, any questions on our proposed opt ins?

What was the feedback on the licensing?

For the conditional licensing?

Just like it the oh, shoot. It was licensing for like, the the conditional licensing and then there was, an additional requiring the certification. Like, what is that I'm I'm just curious what the industry is saying because, like, obviously, we want really good people doing this work. But, like, is there a barrier to entry with that too?

So I think it's the certification piece came in a while ago. So it's been on iBooks for a while. Initially, was some some pushback on that because especially with the industry and individuals that had spent a lot of time in the field and they don't feel like they need an additional certification. The great thing about this this certification course, it's this provider threw not National Association of Wastewater Transporters. And they can do it through our state association which is CPO, so Colorado professionals and outside wastewater.

Not only does it help them connect with other people in in the field and in the industry, but it helps to pull them along as the industry standards start to shift. So it gives them more up to date information. But to your question, yes, I think there's some initial hesitancy there. And it does require them to be out of the field and not doing work for three or four days depending on the certification class. And so that's pulling money from their pocket.

But I I think the the good there outweighs the the bad. And I I haven't heard any negative responses from installers in in that. Even even new ones that are coming to our our county and getting licensed. That's just something else, another check the box that they've got to do.

How rapidly is the field evolving? Is recertification something that will eventually need to be considered? Yes. So with most

of the certifications, I believe they're they're three year cycles two year cycles. Thank you. That they're required to get recertified. And as part of that, they have to have continuing education. So they either can they can attend a certification course that is the same one that they've done before or they can do one that's adjacent.

So if an installer had a went and did an installer certification, they could get an inspector certification and count that credit towards their installer certification. But that makes sense. So in terms of the field evolving, it is slow here, especially in The United States. And we got to see some really cool systems at our industry conference at the January to see where where the progress is going. But all the focus and all the money seems to go towards central sewer systems and not as much towards decentralized systems.

So that has an impact as well. We haven't seen any kind of really innovative products for a while other than the higher level treatment systems, which I think that that's the area that's expanding and and starting to evolve.

Thank you.

So stakeholder engagement and communication. So we we posted our draft regulation on on December 2, and then we opened up our public comment period from the fifth through the fourth. During this time, we developed a Qualtrics survey that we posted on our website along with the draft to collect any feedback from all our stakeholders and also made updates to our web page to link our our draft at that time and also all the resource materials that that came along with it. So we had I believe I included this in the board packet. You're like, here's here's a a one pager of what our our opt ins were considering and here's all the CDPHE changes.

We also blasted out social media posts with the help for our comms partners. And then internally, we sent emails to our industry representatives as well as realtors. So we were trying to hit everybody, homeowners through our social media posts, industry, and then adjacent industry with the realtors and transfer of title inspections to let them know all these changes that we're proposing. So we held stakeholder meetings on the sixth virtually, and then the seventh here in Lima. We had one person attended our virtual meeting on the sixth and nobody attended our meeting on the seventh.

Now it's not super surprising to me. I mean, in comparison, here's why. Our our staff were active and engaged with our installers and cleaners in the field. Also, through email, letting them know that this process is coming and the opportunity to take look at the regulations. We weren't getting a lot of feedback there or any concern with the options that we were considering, so that was great.

Also, this is part of an almost three year long process, including CDPHE stakeholder process, which took almost a year and a half. And then all the work that we were doing after that time to get us ready for this date. So not super surprising. I I would have loved to have seen at least one person at our meeting.

So many donuts.

We love hearing

from you, Steve. Go ahead. Bring the public.

Was there any feedback from CDPHE's stakeholder engagement?

There there was a lot. Okay. So they that's and that's that's part of the issue too is really all the changes that they are making, those are the controversial ones. Okay. And then we didn't get to adopt them. Okay. So yeah. They they handled a lot of that. Then they broke it into sections. I I forget how many there were. I think there was eight different stakeholder sessions that they had each on different sections. And then there's follow ups from each of those. So big process. And then through our our survey to collect comments on draft, we didn't get any comments. Again, not surprising.

Adams County, their regulation mirrors ours really closely. They didn't get any comments either. So that's kind of what I was anticipating. So that's where that's where we landed on stakeholder engagement. We did our due diligence and tried to connect with people in different avenues and that was the result that we got.

That is the bid for my presentation for the study session today. Like I mentioned, following next month, there will be a final draft for your consideration. I don't anticipate any large changes from where the draft is now. We're going through and trying to clean up bits and pieces in it. We have one thing that we're looking to add in there, and that has to do with the extendable coupling between a sewer line that we want to prohibit just because it can it can develop a belly in the line.

It can grab stuff and and cause clogs. So we wanna be able to prepare for that. We're we're trying to get our language around that before we put in our draft. So just heads up on that, but I I don't anticipate any other any other changes beyond that.

Any questions?

Steven or Brianna were the customers present. So Are we able to collect fees on this on a set of statute, or we

get to choose? So we we collect fees, and that would be part of our our fee calculation process that we'll be bringing forward to the board as well. And the statute allows us to set fees for services rendered. Will

you share with us what others are collecting now so we have, you know, basis of understanding, like like, what other counties are collecting.

Oh, sure. Yeah. Absolutely. I can I can get that information? I think you will be really surprised about the diversity of fees that the counties are are charged.

Oh, yeah. Thank you, Steve.

Thank you. You.

We need make more

Yeah. And

then the next. And then the next.

Our third study session is a legislative update by Jennifer.

Yeah. So as I mentioned, from starting, and this is new this year, having a specific agenda item what we are tracking in as Arapahoe County Public Health or what the county has identified and we're watching. And that we've really advanced our big p policy group, which is what we call it. And we've got a great smart sheet tracker, which this report is from that. And I apologize that it isn't all on one page, but if I did that, you wouldn't be able to read it.

So we'll if this is helpful for you, we can reprint this for every meeting or we could PDF and email it. We just we instead of putting it in the packet the week before, we're printing it out the day before because so much changes Yes, indeed. In a day. This is the most recent. And, actually, no.

I do have an update even from when I printed this this afternoon. But we are there are 10 bills that we're actively tracking, but I will say that we have identified and reviewed almost just under 65 bills that could have some kind of impact on public health. Most of them are don't have a direct impact or we're we're just aware of it. So just know that, like, of all the bills, like, we're watching a lot, and we have quite the extensive tracker. But there are only a handful that we are very active with because of the direct impact to us.

One being the cottage food expansion bill. So CALFO took an actively opposed position and is working with the sponsors on amending certain language. It the the update that I have to this is it has been scheduled for hearing on the twenty sixth, so next week. The county the BOCC took an opposed position based on my recommendation. And then CCI, which is Colorado Counties Incorporated, it's the commissioner, the county's professional organization group, took an amend position.

There were a lot of things in that bill that public health there was a work group over the summer. Dylan was a part of that And work a lot of work over the summer to try to come to resolution of, you know, balancing entrepreneurship and supporting small business while protecting the public's health, none of that language showed up in the bill. And so there was a a shift, and we didn't want to have to oppose it as a public health industry, but we did. So we'll have not seen what amendments, if any, have been made. It's still very much in the works.

We'll learn more next week when CALFO meets and we hear from the lobbyists for progress that they've made. The other bill that CALFO so that's the only bill that the commissioners have taken an a vote position on that I felt lobbyists then register and take action on. They have supported, and we talked about a lot of different bills, but that's the one that has the biggest impact on us.

Okay. Can I ask Jennifer? Yeah. If it was passes, then additional work, will it I mean, you're not gonna

be funded to do additional work, but you'll have to do additional work. It could result in additional work because they're not cottage food is not licensed. Right. So They're going to people's homes. Right. What happens is that there's an illness. Like, if somebody reports to us that they are got sick from eating something, then we have to investigate. It will be hard to track down because they're not licensed. They're not in one place. It's only as good as the information that we get from the individual who called us who is sick. So

and

if it turns out to be an outbreak, outbreaks are very, very expensive. It involves Melissa's team, Dylan's team, state lab expenses. So it can cost, you know, anywhere from a thousand dollars to a $100,000 depending on how large and how widespread it is. And there's no limits. The way that the bill is currently written, there are no limits as to what can be part of this expansion. Originally, it was supposed to be just, like, one item, a refrigerated item, like tamales. It's really how the bill was termed, was the tamale bill.

Yeah.

It's limitless. And so the opportunity for illness is much greater. There it does require education. So right now, if you want to be savage food, you go you take classes to learn how to do that safely, but it would expand that, which is the responsibility of CSU extension, which is Mhmm. Across from them.

So it would be added work for them. And if there's no limit, then that that curriculum would look pretty crazy. It does set up a fee structure, but it, by no means, would cover any of the costs that we would incur from any kind of investigation if we had to do one. It just would be hard. So I don't know if you have would have anything to add for Michelle. Nothing additional. I think, though, what we've been talking about is the the impacts to to illness and outbreak response, and Dylan and I have tried to pull together some resources to to support what that could look like.

And then I think, like you were saying, just the economic impacts of businesses closing, the economy, people out of school, people out of work, like, all the other unintended consequences when we don't have those guardrails to help keep things safe.

It's like farmer's market food. Need

more than that, but that It'd eat more than it. Home restaurant.

A home restaurant. Beautiful. Not really, but

and there should be. But wait August. And cottage food has a a revenue limit. You can earn $10,000 up up to $10,000 for each cottage food item that you sell. So if you Mhmm. Have let's say you sell bread, jam, and Tea mozz. Well, not right. You can't write out cookies. Like, the current bill, you could, you know, up to $10,000 a year for each item. This has is limitless, which basically, we if it's a restaurant in their kitchen.

So we have a lot of concerns. We also, you know, do want to support the ability for people to have an income and do this, but there there needs to be to it for the public safety and because we we can't license fees for the. Right. So that one, we're very actively tracking. The other one that we are actively tracking

May I ask a quick question?

Yes.

So is cottage foods considered retail in that sense of a freezer set when there's no additional coffee?

The couch food's not licensed. Right.

So, like, we we get no no fees Correct.

And we don't inspect, which is this expansion. Same thing. There is no fee. Like, we're not we see zero revenue unless we charge a fine for something. But the fines have not been defined, and it would not cover the cost of the work that would be required.

Yeah. Thank you.

The other one that we're watching is immunization access. We the commissioners didn't take a position. CALPHO is actively supporting this bill. It ensures access to immunizations, makes it easier, allows pharmacists to provide vaccine, allows the state health department to use funding to purchase vaccine. There is no direct impact on public health if it passes or doesn't in this county.

And so that's why commissioners did not take a position. But through CALFO, we support this bill. And Doctor. Urbina is going to be testifying in favor of the bill next week. And why Arapahoe County is different than any other cap? It's it's more the philosophy of how the commissioners decide what to take a position on or not. No.

I mean, you said

that said something like it doesn't impact UFO County.

It doesn't impact our operations. Yeah. It would impact, like, thank you for my clarification. It would provide better access for our residents. It doesn't impact how we operate. It wouldn't change how we operate. We will still be able to provide vaccine itself accessible. It's a good bill, but from the commissioner's perspective, like, it doesn't impact our day to day operations if it passes or doesn't. So they didn't they chose not to take a position because in the lobbyist, have to do something. That's why we go through CALFO and provide our support that way.

But it could allow for more funding before the purchase of vaccines. I wouldn't say more funding. It allows for them to move funding to be able to purchase vaccine that we can use. It and it what it does is it it's a little bit of a shield for the state depending on what the federal government does. Yeah. That's

So, Patricia, can I comment? Yeah. Please. The so it solidifies our role. You're looking at all local health departments, CDPHE, say we're gonna use the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, you know, liability coverage, maintaining pharmacists' abilities to provide vaccines. So it it it's like we wanna do the same thing and not impede the flow of getting kids vaccines. So it's it clearly states all of those. We will still do what we're doing, but I think collectively, it's it's it's a

good thing to call them to make

a statement. Does that help?

Yeah. You know?

And it also sends a nice message. Absolutely.

Yes. Absolutely. Yeah.

And then also took position of amend on a child care bill. Thanks to Steve who was ran through it. We identify it. Staff provide their content expertise. Triggered that it could, the way written, could increase the amount of work that we do at the local level. They I believe the language that we asked for was amended. I think last I heard, that the sponsor was on board. Eliza was working with drafting, and drafting was back up. I have not Okay. Heard or seen an update, but there was no opposition.

Okay. And it is scheduled for hearing next week as well. So next week will be a busy week with the bills that we're watching. There are some others that are on the radar that were that we've just learned about that haven't been scheduled yet or

that work. You can get an eye on it.

So there will be more next month. Mhmm. And if there are any if there is any bill that triggers, like, asking doctor Aravina to testify that we would find a role or would ask for board help, support or testament, we'll let you know in time to get there. But oftentimes, it's like you know, thankfully, this with this one, we have at least a week's notice, which was good because we the first hearing, it was we

had not even a full day.

Yeah.

And upon adjournment. So whenever that may be. Exactly.

Hate to wait all day long. He is waiting. Yeah.

Yeah. So Any other questions? A book. Yeah.

That's question.

Been there, done that. Yeah. So now we're gonna move this to the fourth study session item, which is the February director support by Jennifer.

Thank you. So

we have two fun mission moments

She's here.

This month. One, it really it's very internal, but it's a it's an incredible resource that staff took initiative to build. So we use the Teams platform, and it's been quite the journey when we moved switched over to Arapahoe County and what you know, most of us were used to try counting and trying to learn teams and sharing documents and all of sudden, have all these channels. And it's I think by now, like, we feel pretty confident. But they create team got together and created what they call the collaborative resource hub.

And it's a team's channel where we share resources that are in the community for like, today, I needed for one of our commissioners who reached out and asked needing resources for low cost eye exams and for children. And so I just typed in there and got a response from one of our nurses or one of our team members right away, a resource guide that was created when we moved over for resources in the community for our vision. And so that's what it is. It's just it's a hub where things get posted. Here's a cool resource.

Here's what's happening. And then from that, they also created a resource finder, which was really incredible. But the particular with this was about a camp that was posted. Staff went to learn about it, found out that it was really appropriate for one of their clients who's able to make the referral and get this child connected. So it took a lot of work to get that going, but it's really cool what is and if, you know, track and follow, like, all the things that get shared in that resource hub of things that, you know, it's not what we're doing, but what's happening out in the community and then being able to connect our clients because that's so much of the work that we do.

So it's just a fun win and mission moment for the staff to be able to share that and then connect a family to that resource. And then the next one is since in February, celebrating Black History Month, one of our staff members in the sexual health program took the initiative to build out how celebrating Black History Month was looking at the contributions because so much of the work that we do was founded by black leaders and oftentimes is not celebrated or considered and looked at. So they created a bingo. I think it is. Is Black History Month bingo.

And the goal is to, you know, try to get as many squares as you can to really by the end of

the

month recognize and have a, you know, a full bingo card of things that have how we hear music, the music that we hear, the science behind things that have, you know, inventions, like, all of the things that we tend to or we typically don't care about. So it's just a way to recognize and have fun at it and to so wanted to share that. That fun. And then we only think I wanted to bring to your attention two things, and then just open it up to any questions that you have about the report. And then Melissa is here if you have any specific questions about clinical disease report.

We added something new this month, and we're playing around with this, but it's the community health improvement plan headlines. So we've been embedding in the report updates that are related to the community health improvement plan, but I think they could get lost. So we put them with, like, doing headlines as in a newspaper. You know, here's these are the three or four activities in from the, you know, January until this time frame that are relevant or related to a chip priority. So we put them up front, and then throughout report, you can if you wanted more information specific to that, then you can go you can find it in the report.

But we just wanted to highlight these are the chip activities to make a front to center and then more information's in the report. But I felt like it was getting lost, and we don't report on the chip every single like, we don't have a presentation on it. There's just not enough time. So I wanted to highlight it that way. So just bringing that to your attention. We're open to ideas of things that might make the report easier to read or information that you would want in it or quick highlights, summaries. Hannah and I are playing around with some ideas to, you know, make it more readable. But oftentimes makes it longer, and that matters to you.

Timber, is is this usually the audience for trip guidelines? Is this internal staff, or is it is that something that's being shared outside the agency?

Say that again?

For the the chip updates and the headlines, is that really for the internal audience or or broad?

We're doing it for you.

That's been a forward Our board packet.

Thank you. Yes. Front and center in the board packet. Thank you. Yes.

I was thinking, Heather, why you start with

that headline so we can launch?

But now that's really just like like how these things came in. Here.

Yes. Thank you.

Oh, that's what we've just turned in. We do update like, we provide updates, and we celebrate priorities with, you know, internally. And we are looking at how we are more visible with a dashboard, but it's just it takes time and resources to build those out, but we do want it to be more visible. But this this is specific just for you all. Thank you.

Yeah. Because this is one of the few statutory requirements that a board of health has is that can be out of. So we wanna make sure that you we keep you posted on it, and we're we continue to look for ways that we can make it more visible and front and center in the community. Right now, that's we don't have a dashboard. And then there was one other handout that you had in front of you, and that was just a graphic of what was in here about the ambassador program.

So we did present about the ambassador program a while a little while back. But we did our Q4 Pulse survey. We asked a couple of questions about the public health ambassador program, of our staff. We got those results back, and it's very positive. And we did see an increase in knowledge and comfort in being an ambassador for public health.

So we, you know, feel that we continue to grow that program and provide more opportunities for growth in that program. And looking to make sure that we support staff in feeling that they are the public health leader even if their their job isn't that, that they are ambassadors of public health. So I wanted to share that in the graphic because it's it's a little bit easier to see than in narrative form. That was I said, all that. You know? But any questions on the report or anything you saw now that you wanted to ask the funeral.

Do have a question. Since I've been gone for several months, and unless doctor Abena changed his mind, which is gonna be the best forever,

I didn't know if there was an update on.

Do you wanna give him update on where we are?

So we did I see he changed his mind. He changed his mind. Did not change. He's trying. Okay. And he's I'm sure you will. He has to retire. So we we are keep trying, though. We did the survey, the survey, got all of those details, and then I was able to create a job description. I've reviewed it. It's at it's out with directors right now. Oh. And then I will update the r f because we've done this before. We just can't update what we have, and then we'll get floated. So early March, we're hoping to float the the RF. So I'll work with purchasing and do the process from there. Thank you.

And, also, you know, I'm very supportive of what how will we make that transition? Yeah. You know, as long

as it takes. So You

say that out.

Even three years? No. I with a it stopped it.

I did stopped dead day. Okay. That's okay. But he's leaving early. Perfect.

No. And and I think that just to be frank about it, I think you're gonna have some repentance. It's okay. So

It will not fill his shoes.

No. Absolutely. And

we've been very fortunate and very grateful for it. So it's important to build on a solid foundation. Right. And really, Doctor. Arvin has been so supportive of the staff and really empowering them to use their expertise, which was really important coming over from working at the top of their scope and everybody just having the confidence that they can make those decisions.

So we'll see. When the RFP comes out, we'll make sure you all get a copy of that and a link to that. So please share widely with those that you know casting a wide net. I just have another question.

I can give.

Oh my god. Just

Oh, welcome back. Yeah.

You know, really? Not all back. She upset the whole time. Do

we have to go in the second session? We do.

No.

Oh, good.

Looking at it. Good. This

is a good board meeting.

I'm not

Be there no other business before this board, we are adjourned early. Oh, alright. Now

I was gonna write. Yeah.

You don't need to