Travis County Commssioners Court
February 3, 2004
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Item 4
4. Consider and approve designations for Austin Travis County health and human services department, effective February 1, 2004, as follows: a. Adolfo valadez, m.d., M.p.h., As health authority; and b is lindh came williams dooley, m.d., And edward sherwood, m.d., F.a.c.p., As alternate health authority. And facp stands for?
>> [indiscernible] college of physicians.
>> I knew it was a lofty title. That's why I wanted the world to know it.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. As you know we had a person within Austin Travis County health and human services designated as the health authority. Oftentimes that person is not visible, but a lot of the things that the city of Austin does for Travis County and the environmental health unit and some of the other public health programs actually done under the authority of the health authority, so I thought it would be good of you to meet the persons -- the pepper who is actually overseeing those functions, we have david lourie the department director at the health authority designee -- and the health authority designee here for you to be introduced to.
>> thank you judge and Commissioners, it's a pleasure to be here this morning. You may recall about a year ago I introduced dr. Valadez to you as the new medical director within the health and human services department. Also the alternate health authority as stephen pointed out, there's a very important role for the health authority here locally as relates to disease control, reporting communicable diseases to the state, in some instances if called upon to exercise quarantine powers and also is involved in hearings associated with restaurants related to problems or concerns about them complying with various public health rules and so forth. Dr. Sherwood, who served as an interim health authority for us while we were recruiting for the medical director during this interim period has been a very valuable resource for us, particularly been engaged in a lot of bioterrorism planning and improvements in the programs. We have an opportunity for him to consider on as an alternate health authority. In addition to dr. Dooley, I think you haveet over the years, she has been with us for 20 years, serving as an alternate health authority. The action is to reque your approval for the appointment of dr. Valadez, he had been approved for the city, we are seeking a designation for Travis County as well. In addition to that the alternate designations for dr. Sherwood and dr. Dooley. This provides us with an excellent team of public health officials and a lot of depth in terms of the health authority role which I think is particularly critical these days with the various emerging public health issues and threats that all communities need to be well prepared for. So again I guess I would just like to sort of reintroduce to you dr. Valadez.
>> good morning. Thank you for having me.
>> good morning.
>> I'm very pleased to be working with you all to improve the health of Travis County as mr. Lourie and mr. Williams have mentioned, there are many duties that fall under the health authority. I also hope to work with the Travis County or -- our counterparts to not only focus on those disease entities, but a lot of the chronic disease prevention and health promotion that we are currently undertaking in our health department and so we are very excited about that as well. And I think mr. Lourie also mentioned an emerging trend in terms of emergency preparedness, and we continue to work diligently on those efforts to be ready for -- for any type of event that may involve a public health response. And we have been working closely with our Travis County counter parts in that as well. So I'm looking forward to being here and serving you and if I can be of any assistance, please let me know.
>> okay.
>> we know that doctors dooley and sherwood are working hard today, otherwise they wouldn't miss this opportunity to -- [laughter] -- to visit with the court. Move approval.
>> second.
>> of a and b. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Congratulations. We look forward to working with you some more.
>> welcome aboard.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 4, 2004 6:25 AM