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| County Board Allows Health Grants, But Shows Concern |
Grant money that may become available to the Knox County Health Department was discussed at Wednesday night's County Board meeting.
The Knox County Board of Health approved an increase of more than $25,000 to the salary of Administrator Heidi Britton at their last meeting.
Several County Board members saw problems with the salary increase - which goes along with the grant money, asking to amend an item to approve a special line item for Federally-Qualified Health Center grants.
District three Democrat Pam Davidson says the grant should be put out for more than administration.
"Whoever writes it, they have that administration thing in there, I think she does a fabulous job at the Health Department, that's not the question," says Davidson. "The question is 25,500 onto whatever her salary is even though it's a grant, it could be distributed to different other areas, that's how I feel."
The amendment to change the way federal funding for administrator salaries was allocated, failed 3-11.
Other board members said that because the item had gone through the proper channels of vetting that they were fine with it.
District Two Democrat Paul Stewart says he wants to maintain the relationship.
"I don't think we need any increased strained relationships with the Knox County Health Department, so I would be opposed to any changes at this late stage, I think it's unfair," says Stewart.
Stewart was describing that fact that the Health Department has already submitted the grant for consideration.
At issue with the Board was whether disallowing the salary at a late stage in the grant process could potentially cause the Health Department to lose their grant.
District One Republican Roland Paulsgrove says he doesn't want to take away from the public seeing how much good the grant can do.
"I don't want to take a chance on losing it, and I'm not saying we would," says Paulsgrove. "If the grant is written and the money is dedicated in that position, I'm just not sure we'd be doing the right thing."
The item passed by a vote of 7-4. |
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| 01 30 13 by Newsroom |
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