I served on the county board of health for six years from 2005 until 2010. Of all the volunteer work I have done, this was the most engaging. When I applied for the position, Johnson County had, and still has, a strong medical community. There were those who felt members of the board should be physicians. I secured my position because I was in fact different from others with my experience in managing rural water and wastewater systems for my home owners association.
Volunteer governmental boards and commissions are what a person makes of them. For example, when I was in my first term on the board in 2006, more than a hundred students from Longfellow Elementary School in Iowa City called off sick with stomach flu symptoms. The department activated its process for disease containment. One way for a board member to handle this is to educate themselves about the situation, study data, and discuss whether any change in process was warranted. My approach was to drive down to the department of health and field phone calls from concerned parents and try to handle their concerns in real time. This hands-on approach characterized my time on the board.
Department members weren’t always used to my approach. After my first year, I requested to get involved with operations, including shadowing the food inspectors at the county fair. After hearing about it, one employee responded, “Would someone please fill me in as to who this person is, what is the goal of the request to shadow…” Being different has consequences. Once I got to know this employee, we developed a good relationship. I found food inspections to be something. Let’s just say, I’m glad the health department does them. This kind of hands-on experience seemed essential to my understanding public health in the community.
I was surprised by the attitudes of some of our staff. For example, one person was opposed to the new casino being proposed in Riverside. They felt it would encourage alcohol and tobacco use, and associated health problems. We don’t hear any of that talk with the new casino today in Cedar Rapids.
The most impactful thing I did during my tenure was to recruit a replacement for the department head. The board supervises this position and writes performance reviews. When a replacement is needed, that job fell to me as board chair. I formed a committee of ten people from different walks of life: elected officials, attorneys, physicians, and people from health-related non-governmental organizations. The committee we recruited included some of the smartest people I have known. The lesson I learned is that if you have talented people doing this work, the job gets done well. The replacement we hired was a keeper who lasted long after my tenure on the board ended.
In my home town, board of health members tend to stay on the board for a long period of time, in some cases, for decades. I didn’t feel that way. My plan was to stay on the board for a single term. Once I dove in and found how important and engaging the work was, I agreed to a second term.
My advice is simple. Find a way to help on governmental boards and commissions. The work is rewarding and needed. Having citizen input to governmental departments is as important now as it was 20 years ago when I began my time on the board of health.
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