KEARNEY, Neb. (KGFW) – Two Rivers Public Health Department says there is a smear campaign against it.
“To say I am disappointed is an understatement.” TRPHD Director Jeremy Eschliman told KGFW Friday evening. “It appears there is an intentional smear campaign against Two Rivers Public Health Department distorting the facts to achieve political gain by certain highly political individuals.”
Earlier that day, Kearney Mayor Stan Clouse told KGFW’s “Talk of the Town” that Two Rivers had sought broad control over the City’s health authority decisions, including the Kearney Police Department.
“There was an agreement that came to the City of Kearney, here, a couple months ago,” said Mayor Clouse. “An agreement with Two Rivers where we would turn over our health authority decisions to them. And the City of Kearney refused to sign that agreement because there were statements and clauses within that agreement that said that, essentially if you looked it, we would turn jurisdiction over our law enforcement. [Two Rivers] would have the authority to control what our law enforcement does. And we weren’t willing to give up that authority.”
TRPHD legal counsel and board member Tana Fye has called the Mayor’s comments “bald faced lies.”
“The Memorandum of Understanding specifically references delegation of disease prevention and control authority – makes absolutely no reference to delegation of law enforcement duties,” Fye said Monday on “Talk of the Town.” “The memorandum of understanding has to be read along with the regulations that authorize Directed Health Measures.”
TRPHD adopted those regulations in 2006.
“They specifically state that Two Rivers Public Health Department may seek the assistance of the appropriate quarantine officer to enforce any order,” Fye said that would be Police Chief Bryan Waugh and Sheriff Neil Miller in Kearney and Buffalo County. “So, seeking the assistance of law enforcement – not taking over law enforcement functions.”
Paragraph two of the MOU reads, “agrees to give control over the protection of its citizens against the spread of communicable disease, illness, and poisoning to the Department…”
Section “1” of the MOU agreement reads, “The Municipality hereby delegates control over the protection of its citizens against the spread of communicable disease, illness, and poisoning within the Municipality’s jurisdiction by authorizing the Department to enforce the Department’s Regulations, including isolation, quarantine, or other directed health measures, within the jurisdiction of the Municipality.”
“I certainly understand it giving people pause, but you have to read the language of that particular document in its entirety, and then read it along with the regulations that would authorize the Directed Health Measures itself.”
“Under the current situation, we’ve got directed health measures that have requirements for all citizens to follow and then, of course, we also have directed health measures for people who have tested positive,” using tuberculosis as an example, Fye says the coronavirus crisis differs from previous DHM’s that may have only pertained to one or two individuals. “So, of course, in this situation it’s much broader than what historically has been needed for directed health measures, but the language of the memorandum of understanding is very clear. That it only has to do with prohibiting or protecting citizens against the spread of communicable diseases. And, again, it has to be read in conjunction with the regulations that talk about what law enforcement’s role is in this and what Two Rivers’ role is.”
“The way that law enforcement and county attorneys in our district have chosen to handle this situation is by, essentially, starting with warning people, making them aware of what the Directed Health Measure requires of them, giving them warnings, giving them the opportunity to get in compliance,” Fye expounded. “Ultimately, there penalties, criminal penalties, under state statute for violating directed health measures from the State and from the District.
Violating a State Directed Health Measure could result in a Class V Misdemeanor. The penalty for violating a District DHM is a Class III Misdemeanor.
“Essentially, what the MOU actually does is puts a tool in the toolbox for law enforcement, for county attorneys, to have that option at their disposal if they would choose to prosecute it criminally,” however, Fye says she’s unaware of any current prosecutions.
“The regulations specifically say that Two Rivers may seek the assistance, but there’s nothing that says that Two Rivers can compel law enforcement,” Fye clarifies that county attorneys and local law enforcement retain full discretion.
So far, 21 local governments have adopted the Memorandum of Understanding.
“I think it’s really interesting, that if Mayor Clouse was concerned about the language of the memorandum of understanding and Two Rivers trying to take this kind of control – a memorandum of understanding process that was going on back in March… if they were so concerned about this and honestly believe this to be the case, I’m disappointed that they wouldn’t have brought it to anyone’s attention until after the board of health took a vote that the City of Kearney and Buffalo County was disappointed in.”
That decision was Two Rivers deciding against providing the location information of known positive COVID-19 cases to Buffalo County and the City of Kearney for emergency response. Fye says the board decided that the information wasn’t as useful as authorities might think it would be.
“I think, ultimately there are some hurt feelings there, and I can understand differences of opinion on the particular issue of information sharing… and I think that contributed to the comments that were made.” Fye added that it’s her hope, “and I believe the hope of Jeremy Eschliman from my conversations with him, is that Two Rivers Public Health Department and the City of Kearney and Buffalo County can go back to being good partners like they have been in the past.”
Buffalo County and City of Kearney law enforcement have requested inclusion in the ‘unified command structure’ – consisting of county emergency managers and hospital leaders – heading up the COVID-19 response, according to Fye, and Two Rivers will be recommending that their request is granted.
Additionally, Two Rivers hopes to have more comprehensive COVID-19 data soon. Fye told KGFW that the Department has hired an epidemiologist who started last week.
“The need for an epidemiologist is akin to why can’t we all suture our own lacerations,” says Director Eschliman. “The short answer is we can and some of us do, but the end product is much better with someone with technical competency in the specific area. The work in reporting data goes much beyond simply counting numbers… We want to report disparities, recovery periods, race, ethnicity, employer, etc. in an non-identifiable way protecting anonymity, however the challenges we have in doing so come down to the magnitude of the pandemic and the nontypical testing and reporting pathway (using the National Guard).”
