A nursing instructor connected to Duke University has been called in for a consult, of sorts, as the newest member of Alamance County’s health board.
Caitlin McArthur got her reception ticket to this 11-member body on Monday when Alamance County’s board of commissioners unanimously selected her over two other candidates to fill a health board position reserved for a member of the general public.
A faculty member at the Duke-affiliated Watts College of Nursing, McArthur was referred to the commissioners this week with an enthusiastic endorsement from the health board’s current membership.
Commissioner Kelly Allen, who represents the county commissioners on the board of health, recalled that the advisory board’s members had conducted interviews with McArthur as well as fellow applicants Paul Brewer and Andrew Wyatt-Younger. Allen, who is herself a retired nurse, added that this face-to-face meeting burnished McArthur’s already sterling credentials in the minds of the health board’s existing members.
The health board’s conclusion received a concurring second opinion on Monday from John Paisley, Jr., the chairman of Alamance County’s commissioners.
“All three [of the applicants] were qualified,” Paisley conceded before he and his colleagues voted 5-to-0 to appoint McArthur to the vacant position, “but this lady is outstanding,”
County to schools: ‘show me the money’
Aside from firming up this appointment, the commissioners also approved a resolution on Monday that will require the Alamance-Burlington school system to post data online to show how it’s spending the funds it receives from the county.
The commissioners have imposed this mandate on the school system as an extension of a similar requirement that already exists for the funds which the schools get from the state. The decision to subject the county’s allocation to the same treatment was ultimately hailed as a win for taxpayers by county commissioner Ed Priola.
“The more information, the better,” Priola declared before the 5-to-0 vote to demand these disclosures.
More funds for in-home aides
In the meantime, the commissioners agreed to expand a contract that the county’s department of social services has in place to provide “in-home aides” for a half dozen adults in protective custody.
The contract’s expansion had originally appeared on a so-called consent agenda of presumably non-controversial or routine items that the commissioners approved en bloc at the start of their regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday. The board’s chairman nevertheless suggested this item’s removal from the consent agenda so he and his colleagues could hear more details about what this contract entails.
Candice Gobble, the county’s social services director, went on to inform the commissioners that this contact allows her department to provide professional care for the relatively small number of elderly, incompetent, or disabled adults who wind up in the agency’s custody due to concerns about their abuse, exploitation or neglect.
“There are times when we become involved with an individual and there is no one able to provide protective services,” the county’s DSS director elaborated. “We do use in-home as a last resort…But we do do our due diligence to find anyone who’s able to provide these services.”
Gobble emphasized that the six individuals who are presently assigned in-home aides represent a small fraction of the 458 reports that adult protective services has investigated this year. She added that her department is nevertheless approaching the fiscal year spending cap in its current contract for in-home aides.
Gobble asked the commissioners to raise the contract’s maximum outlay from $99,000 to $200,000 to ensure she won’t have to return with another request during the current financial cycle. Her proposal seemed reasonable enough to commissioner Kelly Allen.
“We are mandated to do this,” commissioner Kelly Allen declared before the board voted 5-to-0 in favor of the contract’s expansion, “and we have to look after our elderly as far as I’m concerned.”
Closed session
The commissioners ultimately adjourned Monday’s meeting after a 40-minute closed session that allowed the county attorney to brief them on an ongoing federal class action complaint that two of the county’s jailers have filed over a compensation policy that they believe has shortchanged their wages.
A federal judge recently agreed to halt this case to allow the two parties to attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement.
