Anti-mask Adams commissioner on health board shows why Idaho’s system needs to be revamped

Idaho routinely lands on national lists for top, best or fastest-growing in the country.

Idaho landed on the front page of the New York Times this weekend for another kind of fast-growing statistic. This one, though, is a dubious distinction: At 1,491%, Idaho has the fastest-growing rate of new cases of coronavirus, faster even than Florida.

One of the biggest hotspots in new coronavirus cases in Idaho right now is Canyon County.

According to the Harvard Global Health Institute, as of Monday, Canyon County had a seven-day rolling average of 47 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 population, the highest in the state. That’s up from 44 on Friday and is well above the 25-case threshold considered a trigger for a tipping point requiring stay-home orders, according to the Institute.

Not far behind is Owyhee County, at 44.7 new cases per 100,000; Minidoka County, at 42.1 new cases; and Ada County, at 39 cases per 100,000.

Recognizing that Ada County is rising quickly, board members of the Central District Health Department voted June 22 to move Ada County back into Stage 3, which has some restrictions, such as gatherings being limited to fewer than 50, teleworking is encouraged and nightclubs are closed.

So why didn’t the Central District Health Department do the same thing for Canyon County, which is right next door and more closely aligned with Ada County than any other county in the state?

That’s because Canyon County doesn’t fall under the purview of the Central District Health Department.

Canyon County is in another health district altogether: Southwest District Health.

And that’s a problem.

The Idaho Legislature in 1970 created seven individual health districts, making them separate, independent entities from state government. Legislators established rules for forming the boards and for the boundaries of the districts.

The 1970 law created the districts with the following counties in their respective boundaries:

• District 1: Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, Benewah and Shoshone;
• District 2: Latah, Clearwater, Nez Perce, Lewis and Idaho;
• District 3: Adams, Washington, Payette, Gem, Canyon and Owyhee;
• District 4: Valley, Boise, Ada and Elmore;
• District 5: Camas, Blaine, Gooding, Lincoln, Jerome, Minidoka, Twin Falls and Cassia;
• District 6: Power, Oneida, Bannock, Franklin, Caribou, Bear Lake, Bingham and Butte;
• District 7: Lemhi, Custer, Clark, Jefferson, Bonneville, Teton, Madison and Fremont.

Note that District 3, now known as Southwest District Health, and District 4, known as Central District Health, split the Treasure Valley down the middle, dividing Canyon and Ada counties into separate districts.

While Ada County was already back in Stage 3, Southwest District Health director Nikki Zogg on July 7 told board members that moving back to Stage 3 was unlikely, as the number of new cases at the time was not overwhelming the health care system in the district, according to KTVB.com.

But the trick with COVID-19 is staying ahead of the curve, which Southwest District Health did not do.

On July 6, Canyon County had 1,300 confirmed cases. Today, just a week later, Canyon County has more than 2,000 cases, an increase of more than 50%, and 11 deaths.

The city of Boise issued a citywide mask mandate starting July 4, and Central District Health board members last week indicated they would issue a countywide mask mandate for Ada County as early as this week.

Twenty states have issued statewide mask mandates, including Kentucky, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan and our neighbors Washington and Oregon, according to NPR.

Similar mandates in Texas and Ohio are limited to counties where the coronavirus case rate surpasses government thresholds, which Idaho could do, as well, focusing on those few counties, such as Ada and Canyon, that have surging numbers of cases.

But Idaho Gov. Brad Little has indicated that he will take a regional approach and allow local health districts to make those decisions.

Which brings us back to the Southwest District Health Department.

Southwest District Health board members consist of county commissioners from each of member the counties: Tom Dale (Canyon); Bryan Elliott (Gem); Kelly Aberasturi (Owyhee); Georgia Hanigan (Payette); Nate Marvin (Washington); and Viki Purdy (Adams).

The last member, Purdy, has come under rightful criticism on social media over the weekend over posts she’s made on Facebook page, disparaging the use of masks. Other posts lean toward conspiracy theories and far-right comparisons of mask requirements to the Stalin regime. She’s compared shutdown measures to the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, and Facebook has removed some content she has shared because it’s false information. (Purdy, of course, claims it’s censorship.)

It would be easy enough to simply call for Purdy’s removal from the Southwest District Health board, which we would support.

After all, the 1970 state law establishing the health districts states requirements for being a board member: “All members shall be chosen with due regard to their knowledge and interest in public health and in promoting the health of the citizens of the state and the public health district.”

Dismissing the use of masks as a public health precaution against the spread of COVID-19 and spreading false information disqualifies Purdy from serving on the board.

However, removing a board member would require a majority vote of all of the county commissioners in all of the counties in the district.

In other words, at least 10 county commissioners in Canyon, Owyhee, Gem, Payette, Washington and Adams counties would need to vote to remove Purdy from the board.

We suspect county commissioners in some of these rural counties would share Purdy’s convictions when it comes to mask mandates.

No, the real problem here is that Canyon County, like it or not, is part of the metropolitan area that is inextricably linked with Ada County and Boise. The two go hand-in-hand. So many people travel between the two counties, live in one county and work in the other, visit relatives in the neighboring county and attend events in each county.

It’s clear that a health board consisting of county elected officials in more rural parts of the state should not be making vital decisions about the health care needs of a larger, more metropolitan county.

As well, such decisions must be made on a unified basis for the Treasure Valley. It’s equally clear that a decision being made in Ada County should be matched in Canyon County.

To put an exclamation point on all of this, Thursday’s public meeting of the Southwest District Health board was one of the most bizarre, embarrassing meetings ever put on by a local government agency. With some 200 people attending via Zoom, the meeting was delayed then canceled when protesters showed up at the district offices. In addition, audio was garbled and barely decipherable. In the meantime, while everyone was waiting, viewers were treated to video views of attendees who did not turn off their video, including one couple apparently butchering an animal at their dining room table. The chat room devolved into a farcical rendition of a Facebook post.

When the Idaho Legislature reconvenes in January, legislators are expected to tackle several issues that have been raised by the coronavirus pandemic.

One major issue that hasn’t come up but ought to be addressed is that of the state’s seven public health districts.

We think it is obvious that the population distribution not only in the Treasure Valley but in other regions of our state has changed dramatically since 1970, and the pandemic has made it clear that redrawing the seven districts boundaries to reflect those changes is a task whose time has come.

When legislators come back into session in January, how the health districts are organized and governed needs to be addressed and remedied.

We don’t want someone like Viki Purdy calling the shots for people in the Treasure Valley.

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM.