During the Southeast Utah Health Department (SEUHD) Board of Health meeting, which was hosted on Tuesday evening in Green River, policies were once again under discussion.
Brady Bradford of the SEUHD stated that there was a series of potential policies to review regarding disciplinary procedures, grievance policies, corrective action, investigations and dispute resolutions. A draft had been presented to the board in January and after the completion of an investigation conducted within the SEUHD, the draft form was presented during an employee meeting.
The staff were invited to comment and question, following which a version of the draft was sent to the board with the series of comments that had been made. Bradford stated that they have not yet had time to make adjustments to the policy based on the employee comments.
With that in mind, he said that they were not necessarily expecting the board to approve the policy during the meeting. He also contacted the attorney the department had worked with to see if he would be willing to weigh-in on the draft and make suggestions, which the attorney is willing to do.
Given some of the questions raised by staff, Bradford believed it to be good to have the attorney involved, though it would cost the health department a bit more. He believed that the attorney would be able to add more nuance.
Currently, a lot of the standard grievances or actions go through a supervisor and then end up at the health officer, who is currently Bradford. “There’s still some work to be done here,” he said.
Bradford wanted the board to review the changes and suggestions that have been brought forth, potentially before the May meeting, and see if it could possibly be approved then. The floor was then opened to suggestions from the board.
Carbon County Commissioner Larry Jensen, who sits on the board, stated that it is very beneficial to ensure that the current legal processes are followed. He stated that having more official assistance in the policies would give a concrete understanding of what the process is, who does what, how to proceed without any repercussions and more.
It was brought up once again that the SEUHD would benefit from bringing in human resources. Bradford said that, as part of the investigation, that was one of the recommendations that was presented from the attorney and there a number of avenues that can be followed.
From there, the board discussed the possibility of incorporating human resources into a current position, creating a position or outsourcing from a different company. Commissioner Jensen also suggested the possibility of contracting with Carbon County.
Ultimately, the suggestion put forth was to put the position out for contract bid while also sending the policies to the attorney for evaluation and input.