GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Ottawa County's Administrative Health Officer released a proposal Thursday of what could happen to the department if its budget gets cut to $2.5 million— warning the department would likely close within weeks of the start of fiscal year 2024.
Adeline Hambley says, after accounting for administrative expenses, the health department would only get $585,011 from the general fund— an 88% reduction from the initial draft of the FY2024 budget.
Hambley believes a cut this significant will come with serious consequences.
She says the health department won't get any federal or state funding because it won't be able to meet requirements.
According to Hambley, a dozen programs would also close by October 1, 2023, including Children's Special Health Care Services, the Maternal and Infant Health Program, Family Planning and Women's Health Services and the Suicide Prevention Coalition, among others.
In her reduction proposal posted on social media, Hambley lays out two paths for the health department if the budget is cut by 88%:
- Run only minimum essential services and mandated public health administration. Under this plan, the health department would close within four weeks.
- Apply all general fund dollars to five essential services that can not charge fees. Under this plan, the essential services would only be able to operate for seven weeks. Programs that charge fees would remain, but fees would be doubled or tripled to cover the full cost of operation.
"Every public health program will be at risk under the unreasonable general fund budget allocation requested by Administrator Gibbs on behalf of the Board of Commissioners," Hambley wrote. "While the impact of the Board of Commissioners' actions may not be felt immediately, these actions will have lasting and long-term effects on individuals, businesses, organizations and the entire community as they risk the health of each person who lives or works in Ottawa County."
Adeline Hambley has responded to Administrator Gibbs’ request to produce a revised budget. Upon analysis, these revisions amount to an 88% reduction in general funds for services, which will almost certainly close the health department within weeks of its implementation. pic.twitter.com/vhFhBNkzDY
— Ottawa County Health (@miOCDPH) August 24, 2023
This proposal comes after budget downsizing discussions during Monday's Finance Committee meeting. Commissioners talked about reducing the overall county budget by five percent.
At the time, County Administrator John Gibbs noted that likely wasn't possible until 2025. But Hambley says his request to downsize the Public Health budget came the next day.
Commission Chair Joe Moss also said Monday he'd like to see the Public Health budget closer to historic levels, referencing the decade between 2009 and 2019— pre-COVID.
"I'd love to see that budget go back to kind of what it has been historically, maybe put it down towards 2.5 [million dollars] in the general fund allocation," Moss said.
In her proposal, Hambley pushed back against this, writing, "at no point in the last 20 years has the total general fund allocation to Public Health been $2.5 million."
She posted the graph below, which shows that between 2009 and 2019, the general fund dollars for public health operations never dropped below $2.6 million.
"The significant and retaliatory cuts requested on behalf of Commissioner Moss are an attempt to achieve political victory over COVID-19 at the expense of Ottawa County citizens," Hambley wrote.
In January, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners voted to demote Hambley from Health Officer to an interim position. She filed a lawsuit, which is still pending in court.
READ MORE: 'Interim' Ottawa County health officer sues commissioners over demotion, alleged interference
Hambley has called this budget reduction effort retaliation for her lawsuit.
FOX 17 reached Administrator Gibbs and Chairman Moss Thursday for comment on this proposal, but has not heard back.
Earlier this week, Moss wrote on his personal blog: "It is time for Ottawa County to rein in the out-of-control expenditures and augmented influence of the public health department."
There is a public budget hearing scheduled for September 12. The budget is expected to be adopted on September 26.
