Race and Equity Coordinator for County Health Boards

LFC Comments by Brian Massie:

The Lorain County Board of Health is discussing the need for a Race and Equity Coordinator on their staff. We were wondering if the Lake County Health Board was contemplating adding that position to their staff. We sent the following email to Ron Graham, Lake County’s very capable Health Commissioner.

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Hello Ron,

We received the following email from a concerned citizen living in Lorain, Ohio.

We thought you might be interested in this matter, so we are sending this to you. 
Is the Lake County Board of Health contemplating hiring a “Race and Equity Coordinator”, and a “Neighborhood Navigator”?.

Thanks,

Brian Massie
Lobbyists for  Citizens

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Email from concerned citizen from Lorain:

One of the agenda items [January 12, 2022 meeting]  that was discussed but the vote postponed to a future board meeting was the “2022 Organizational Charts”.  There were two new positions drafted into the charts, a “Race and Equity Coordinator” and a “Neighborhood Navigator”, to be funded in part by money coming from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and a grant from the Ohio Equity Institute, respectively.

There were many questions from board members, especially revolving around the job description.

Four photos of the meeting slides are attached.  The job description and preferred qualifications for the race and equity coordinator are included along with a partial image of the proposed org chart.  They are informative.

I suspect that other Ohio county health departments are considering adding a staff person in this position if they haven’t already.  $58,000 is the money earmarked toward this position available from ODH according to responses to my question at the meeting.  They are NOT  required to add this new staff position nor forced to take the money according to the board president.

In answering board member questions, LCHD staff said ODH funding for the race and equity coordinator is available for three years and would not cover 100% of the cost if a staff person is added.

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Concerned Lorain Citizen’s opinion:  A race and equity coordinator would work towards shaping the health department internally and the community at large into being identity-based versus merit-based.  Traditionally, the United States has functioned as a merit-based society.  Naturally, conflict will result the more we become an identity-based society.  Examples of identity categories are:  race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion and socioeconomic status.

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Here is the response from Ron Graham, Lake County Board of Health Commissioner.

Hello Brian,
I have not approved or discussed anything related to the topic yet.

Thank you,
Ron H. Graham MPH Health Commissioner
Lake County General Health District
5966 Heisley Road
Mentor OH, 44060
Office: 440.350.2358

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Categories: Lake, Ohio Counties

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