MOUNT VERNON – The Knox County Board of Health dove into its August meeting on Wednesday, but found themselves treading water over the topic of racism.
The board approved minutes from July and various financial reports, approved the hiring of Hannah Oliver, and accepted the resignation of Ashley Philips. A memorandum of understanding with Mount Vernon Nazarene for health referrals was also approved. However, the bulk of the meeting revolved around the recent drafting of a health inequity statement.
"In public health, you have to become comfortable with uncomfortable conversations," Miller said, prefacing the nearly 50-minute long conversation.
"As an agency, I think we have to be more all-encompassing."
"We're here to discuss this statement, and then I guess, whether or not we as a board feel it necessary to make such a statement," Board President Eric Siekkinen responded.
Board member Jeff Harmer wanted to take another look at the department and clinic policies and brought a motion to the floor to establish a policy committee, but the motion didn't pass.
"I would love to re-look at and make sure we're not just putting words on paper but we have harmony in all of what we talk about." Harmer said.
"Why do we need to do this now?" Siekkinen added, "Why is it important that the Knox County Board of Health make a statement like this? Since we already have a number of policies that say we're not going to discriminate."
"This statement isn't just about us, as an agency," Miller replied. "I think we need to be role models. I think we should do a bit better job. One of our core functions; outside of prevent, promote and protect; is to assure people have access and we don't do that. I want us to help lead other organizations."
Siekkinen, Miller and the board covered the moral issues, generational poverty, systemic and structural racism, cultural differences, political differences, socio-economic status, the data and facts presented in various media articles for over 20 minutes, but made no decision or language changes to the statement before the motion to adjourn was approved.