Central District Health corrects open meeting law violation, keeps Ada County in Stage 3
An emergency meeting was held Friday when Central District Health’s Board of Health had to correct an open meeting violation that the board acknowledged took place on June 20.
The move came four days after CDH announced that it would move Ada County to Stage 3, which was supposed to take effect Wednesday.
On Friday, CDH Board of Health attorney Mike Kane publicly said the Board realized, after a resident inquired, that it unintentionally violated an open meetings regulation, which requires an agenda be posted 48 hours in advance, or 24 hours in advance for a special meeting.
Therefore, the board voided the decision made June 20 to move Ada County back to Stage 3. Immediately after that vote, Dr. Ted Epperly made a motion identical to the June 20 motion. The motion was unanimously approved among the board members, and it took immediate effect.
The meeting was held over a teleconference and at times the public could be heard asking if public comment would be taken. Specifically, Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Wayne Hoffman asked if the public could weigh in on the decision.
The Board of Health did not take public comment.
The health district closed bars and nightclubs and banned groups of more than 50 people gathering.
While Ada County remains in Stage 3, the rest of Idaho has been in Stage 4 for two weeks and will remain there for at least two more weeks, Gov. Brad Little announced Thursday, because of rising numbers of coronavirus infections statewide.
CDH’s plan says a county can’t advance from a stage in less than two weeks — meaning Ada County is at least four weeks away from exiting the Idaho Rebounds staged reopening.
When CDH made its decision earlier in the week, it also set up standards by which Ada County could move forward or backward in the staging system. One of those criteria was that the county could move back immediately if the Central District had three straight days with at least 100 new coronavirus cases.
It was left unclear whether probable cases would be included for that metric, but the district reported more than 100 confirmed and probable cases Wednesday, 116 confirmed cases Thursday and 187 confirmed cases Friday.
The Idaho Statesman has inquired about the 100-case situation but hasn’t received a response.
Ada County has added 852 confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 12 days.
Assistant Editor Chadd Cripe contributed.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 4:50 PM.
