How much of a say the Porter County Board of Health should get in filling board vacancies was the topic of an ongoing debate during Monday's county commissioners meeting. State law currently requires county health boards to come up with a list of five candidates — but doesn't require the board of commissioners to choose from that list.
The commissioners opted to go back to the list of candidates from the last round of appointments in January, voting two-to-one to appoint Dr. Christopher Osan to replace Jessica Jepsen, who they removed earlier this month.
Commissioner Jim Biggs offered a variety of reasons for choosing Osan, saying he wanted a conservative thinker with fresh ideas who, at the same time, isn't particularly political. But above all, he simply wasn't comfortable letting the health board make its own recommendations.
"You don't have to believe me," Biggs said. "I'm just going by experience up here, folks. The worst thing that you could do to a board is let them choose their own members, term after term after term. You are asking for a big, big mistake."
Commissioner Laura Blaney cast the opposing vote. She noted that the health board's list included the opportunity to add a psychiatrist to the board, at a time when Porter County is looking to address mental health.
"The whole purpose of making this change is to settle things on the board of health," Biggs said.
"I don't think it's really great to settle things on the board of health by not picking one of their five," Blaney replied.
A number of residents voiced concern with the selection process during public comment. Some even suggested that Commissioner Barb Regnitz nominated Dr. Osan as a political favor. Regnitz said he wasn't a friend of hers — she had only spoken to him on the phone after she'd gotten several recommendations for him in January.
"If he did contribute to my campaign, I want to thank him, but I had no knowledge that he contributed to my campaign," Regnitz added.
Meanwhile, Jessica Jepsen isn't leaving the board of health quietly. She complained that her fellow members had ignored a number of her concerns. She alleged that the appointment of Interim Health Department Administrator Carrie Gschwind violated Indiana Code since the position wasn't advertised correctly. She also claimed meetings were held in violation of Open Door Law, newly-appointed members weren't fully welcomed to the board and the board attorney did not reply to her emails.
Jepsen has been a vocal critic of mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccines. The county commissioners removed her from the board of health, following comments she reportedly made on social media.
Commissioner Biggs stressed that he didn't disagree with all of her concerns, but he couldn't let one board member hold up the entire board's progress. "Jessica was put on that board to improve that board. Now, there's a lot of different ways that you can do that as a board member. Coming in with the flamethrower's not one of them," Biggs said.
He added that another health board member has announced plans to resign but hadn't officially submitted a resignation letter.
