June 13, 2008
FRIEDEN POWER GRAB AVERTED
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Planning Council cochairs Jan Carl Park and Soraya Elcock |
At the Ryan White Planning Council of New York's Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, Council members rejected proposed changes to Planning Council bylaws that would have increased the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's (DOHMH) voting power. The changes would also have had a potentially disruptive effect on the Council's Congressionally mandated power to make binding decisions about Ryan White funds.
The Executive Committee rejected changes proposed by the Council's rules and membership committee, which had voted 3-2 to amend the existing Council bylaws to add two DOHMH members to the 40 person council and add the phrase "in concert with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene" to key parts of the bylaws. To see the proposed changes to the bylaws, click here.
Committee members argued the DOHMH, which already has one Council vote, was attempting to upset the balance of power of a body that is supposed to be a consortium of consumers, providers and government officials. All eligible metropolitan areas that receive Ryan White funds have planning councils responsible for allocating and distributing Ryan White dollars. One-third of members are required to be people with HIV/AIDS.
"The reason Congress set planning councils up this way was so the government officials are not making decisions by themselves," said Matt Lesieur, chair of the Planning Council Policy Committee. "Adding two DOH members to the Council would mean there are 10 government representatives on Council." Lesieur, who previously worked for the DOHMH providing staff support to the Planning Council added, "Just as GMHC, for example, wouldn't be allowed three voting members, the DOH shouldn't have this voting bloc."
Priority Setting and Resource Allocation Committee co-chair Eli Camhi agreed. "Collaboration is vital, but this blurs boundaries. You want to maintain the credibility of the council," Camhi said, also noting DOHMH already shapes the agenda behind the scenes. "The origin of these recommendations didn't come from the Council. They came from the city," he said at the Tuesday meeting. No one disputed this claim.
DOHMH getting 'a bit too powerful'?
One reason some Council members opposed the changes—which were largely seen as coming from NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden—was that the DOHMH already plays a significant role in the workings of the Council. Like the health departments of all Ryan White grantees, the NYC DOH provides technical support and meeting materials, reserves and pays for meeting space and, in conjunction with the community co-chair or committee chairs, sets meeting agendas and arranges speakers for presentations.Dr. Fabienne Laraque, Planning Council member and director of the Office of Surveillance for DOHMH's Tuberculosis Control, was the main defender of the changes at the meeting. She claimed that increasing the DOHMH's participation in the council would add essential expertise to the Council's workings. "Currently members of the Department of Health are providing a lot of duties and support, but can't speak unless they are giving a presentation," she said.
That didn't sit right with the Consumer Committee cochair Felicia Carroll. "DOH is already providing information and is doing an excellent job, but they are getting a bit too powerful," she said.
Edward Telzak, chair of the Finance Committee, added, "It's a fairly productive process now. Fabienne and the staff move the direction of the planning council, and can do that without more voting members. It's working without the Department of Health as the single most dominant force."
Members also worried that while the DOHMH is largely on the same page as the Council the new bylaws could be abused in a less friendly administration. "We're lucky we have a real partnership with the Department of Health but in two years the relationship might not be that way," said Soraya Elcock, the Council's community co-chair.
If you have an opinion about these proposed changes, you should go to the Planning Council meeting on Thursday, June 19 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the New York State AIDS Institute, 90 Church Street, 4th Floor Conference Room, and let your voice be heard during the public comment period. The Rules and Membership Committee will take a second look at its rejected changes at its July meeting. Any changes will have to be approved by the Executive Committee, and then the full Council.