Good morning,

This is the ordinance that Pierce County Council Rules Committee will consider at their Monday, Dec. 7 meeting. It was presented to the County Council at the end of this week's Council meeting.

An Ordinance of the Pierce County Council Establishing a County Board of Health and Department of Public Health; Terminating the Agreement Creating a Combined County-City Health Department Known as the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department Upon a Date Certain; Amending Chapter 2.06 of the Pierce County Code, "Departments and Organizations"; Directing the Clerk to Take Certain Actions; Requesting that the Executive Take Preliminary or Transitional Steps Necessary to Implement this Ordinance Including Forwarding Draft Legislation to Create an Executive Department to Manage Administrative Functions of the Health Board; Amending Pierce County Code References to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department Consistent with this Ordinance; and Establishing Effective Dates. (Terminating TPCBH Interlocal)

Clearly there are implications for the entire community but I think we need to focus on the homelessness response system. It seems to me that we've had great support from TPCHD during these many months of the pandemic and thus been able to limit the spread of the virus among people experiencing homelessness and front-line staff. I'm not a public health expert but a dramatic change in the structure of public health in the midst of a pandemic simply does not make any sense to me.

I reached out to the City of Tacoma leadership last night and received an early morning response from Linda Stewart, Director of Neighborhood and Community Services. Linda encouraged us to reach out to the County, which I believe we have, and also provided us with Mayor Woodards' statement to The News Tribune. I've thanked Linda and told her we, the Coalition, want to be part of stakeholder conversations going forward.

I've copied this from Linda's email:

Mayor Woodards’ statement made yesterday to the TNT follows:

“I was surprised to hear this news for the first time yesterday afternoon. Given our 30-plus years of partnership, I am disappointed that this came forward in a manner that did not include crucial conversations on how this would impact the pandemic response and many other programs of critical importance to our community, such as health equity and family support centers. I urge the County to take the time to enter into thoughtful discussions with trusted partners including the City of Tacoma, other cities, and stakeholders – like those in the medical and business community – so that we can fully understand their reasons for bringing this forward and what the impacts would be to the community. During a public health and economic crisis of this magnitude and scale, a decision like this should not be rushed. Lives are at stake.”

As you can see from the Mayor’s statement, there is still much to be understood. When there is additional information about this issue, the City will update the entire community.