Explanation
BACKROUND:
Infant mortality rates are a globally accepted measure of a community's well-being. And, while Columbus is widely considered to be one of our nation's more prosperous, well-educated and progressive communities, we have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. Consider:
Every week in Franklin County, more than three families experience the death of a baby before his or her first birthday.
Franklin County's infant mortality rate for 2013 is as high as the national rate from the early 1990s.
The infant mortality rate for black babies is two-and-a-half times that of white babies in Franklin County.
The leading causes of infant mortality are being born prematurely, congenital anomalies, sleep-related infant deaths, and maternal complications of pregnancy. Racial disparities persist for all causes of infant death, especially those due to prematurity or sleep-related causes.
More broadly, however, we know that our infant mortality rates, and our persistent disparities, are largely affected by the differential distribution of conditions that support health - known as the social determinants of health - which include factors such as adequate income; access to healthy foods, transportation, jobs, stable housing and quality schools; strong social networks and access to health care. Families whose situations present barriers to these life-enhancing resources are at an increased risk of losing a child before his or her first birthday. We know that in our community, black families are disproportionately, and negatively, affected by high rates of poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment.
Our City has come together to tackle this tough issue. Columbus City Council President Andrew Ginther, with the support of Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the Franklin County Commissioners, charged the Greater Columbus Infant Mortality Task Force (GCIMTF) to develop a community plan to reduce Columbus' Infant Mortality by 40% and the cut the racial disparity in half by 2020. The GCIMTF was comprised of executive leaders in health care, social services, businesses, the faith community and community representatives. Based on what they learned about the evidence, best practices from other communities and key needs in this community, the GCIMTF has issued its plan delineating 8 community recommendations to achieve these goals.
City Hall leaders and the Executive Committee launched a new name and logo that will serve as the brand for the implementation of the Task Force's recommendations over the next five years. CelebrateOne was selected to serve as a reminder of our goal - that we reduce our infant mortality rate and celebrate the first birthdays of more children in our community. It's meant to engage everyone in our community, because it will take all of us working together to meet our ambitious goals.
Overall, the CelebrateOne plan for 2015 takes a life course approach which recognizes that in order to have healthy babies, we must first have healthy families and neighborhoods that set the foundation for opportunity. To successfully address infant mortality and such racial disparities, and achieve the community goal, Columbus must implement a strong neighborhood-based (place-based) strategy. Studies show that the social determinants of health (or the neighborhood conditions in which our residents live) play such a big role in our infant mortality crisis, many activities and resources will be targeted to the highest risk neighborhoods. These "hot spot" neighborhoods (by geographic analysis) had infant mortality rates up to three times higher than that of the community overall. The 8 neighborhoods comprise less than 10% of Franklin County births, but account for nearly 1 in 4 infant deaths and 1 in 3 non-white infant deaths in Franklin County (Meaning that these areas have infant mortality rates that are up to three times that of Franklin County overall). They also had higher rates of poverty, food insecurity, neighborhood crime, unemployment, housing instability and transportation barriers. These 8 "hot spots" or zones for more intensive work were identified in the plan.
Each of the Task Force's recommendations delineates specific strategies, action steps, and a designated lead entity to ensure successful implementation. The City is specifically charged as the lead entity for executing the following Greater Columbus Infant Mortality Task Force recommendations.
#1 Improve Social and Economic Conditions Across our Community and in Highest Risk Neighborhoods. (Public Health and Development)
#7 Promote Safe Sleep (Public Health)
#8 Create a Collective Accountability Structure to Support Strategy Implementation and Goal Attainment. (City Leaders)
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funding for this ordinance is made available from the city's Neighborhood Initiative Fund, Fund No. 018.
EMERGENCY DESIGNATION:
It is requested that this ordinance be handled in an emergency manner to avoid delays in the implementation of services.
Title
To authorize and direct the appropriation of $468,762.00 within the Neighborhood Initiatives Fund to Columbus Public Health for the implementation of the Greater Columbus Infant Mortality Task Force recommendations and further the CelebrateOne initiative in 2015; to authorize and direct the appropriation of $27,550 within the Neighborhood Initiatives Fund to the Planning Division in the Department of Development for the same purpose; to authorize a contract with the Access Health Columbus for an amount not to exceed $190,000.00; and to declare an emergency. ($496,312.00)
Body
WHEREAS, $150,000.00 will be allocated for the CelebrateOne Director, this role is necessary to continue the efforts of the CelebrateOne work and to oversee system-wide accountability and progress. The Director will be responsible, under the direction of the Executive Committee, for the coordinating and supporting the successful implementation of the Recommendations and Key Activities. This position will be funded through the Access Health Columbus contract and supports GCIMTF Recommendation #8, Create a Collective Accountability Structure to Support Strategy Implementation and Goal Attainment; and,
WHEREAS, $40,000.00 will be allocated for administrative support for the CelebrateOne Director. This role is necessary to provide extensive support to the CelebrateOne Project Director. This position will be full-time and be housed at the Columbus Foundation. The position will be funded through the Access Health Columbus contract. The position description includes but is not limited to scheduling, planning meetings and communications. This position supports GCIMTF Recommendation #8, Create a Collective Accountability Structure to Support Strategy Implementation and Goal Attainment; and,
WHEREAS, $27,550.00 will be allocated for a Planner II part-time position. The Planner II will be assigned to support the CelebrateOne initiative and be housed in the Department of Development. This position will provide programmatic service to the city's program manager, including data gathering and research, mapping, community organizing, public engagement and project management, as well as other duties and responsibilities as assigned. This position will also represent the Development Department as part of the initiative and will serve as a coordinator to link Development programs and services to the Infant Mortality priority neighborhoods. The position will be assigned to the Neighborhood Planning Section within the Planning Division. This position supports GCIMTF Recommendation #1, Improve Social and Economic Conditions Across our Community and in Highest Risk Neighborhoods; and,
WHEREAS, $40,000.00 will be allocated for administrative support for the CelebrateOne Community Strategies Director. This role is necessary to provide extensive support to the Community Strategies Director. This position is full-time and will be housed in Columbus Public Health. The position description includes but is not limited to scheduling, planning meetings and communications. This position supports GCIMTF Recommendation #1, Improve Social and Economic Conditions Across our Community and in Highest Risk Neighborhoods; and,
WHEREAS, $46,801.00 will be allocated for an Infant Safe Sleep Public Campaign Manager. This will be a part-time position housed in Columbus Public Health. This role will manage, develop, implement and evaluate an infant safe sleep educational campaign for the City of Columbus, including community efforts, radio, television and social media announcements and other media platforms. This person will also collaborate with internal and external partners for content development to educate the public and health professionals regarding infant mortality and infant safe sleep. This position leads and supports GCIMTF Recommendation #7, Strategy 1, implement a comprehensive public awareness and education campaign to improve safe sleep practices; and,
WHEREAS, $68,000.00 will be allocated for a strategic communications, public affairs and public relations position. This service is necessary to communicate messages that will engage the public and change behaviors contributing toward infant mortality and infant safe sleep. Columbus Public Health will contract with a firm to provide counsel in the areas of strategic communications, public affairs, public relations, social media and fundraising to support the recommendations of the GCIMTF assigned to CPH and the City of Columbus. The position will support GCIMTF Recommendation #7, Strategy 1, Implement a comprehensive public awareness and education campaign to improve safe sleep practices; and,
WHEREAS, $43,961.00 will be allocated for Epidemiologist. This position is part-time and will be housed in Columbus Public Health. This role will lead analysis of infant birth and death reports for the production of the monthly and quarterly reports, work with the GCIMTF team, the South Side Network for Healthy Families and Babies, and provide data support for the Infant Safe Sleep Task Force and Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR). (The position will support 50% of a FT Epi.) By contract, Needed oversampling or specialized analysis will be secured of the Perinatal Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data set for Columbus / Franklin County. This position and resource supports GCIMTF Recommendation #8, Strategy 2, Develop an infant mortality report card and implementation plan metrics; use the report card to drive ongoing improvement and prioritize resource needs; and,
WHEREAS, $40,000.00 will be allocated for efforts to reduce maternal smoking. A part-time position within Columbus Public Health. Smoking during pregnancy accounts for 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of pre-term deliveries, and about 10 percent of all infant deaths. The effort to reduce maternal smoking will include initiatives to reduce tobacco use and will provide an opportunity for multiple community partners to target tobacco cessation messages, health-related activities, and grassroots engagement in ways that account for regional and cultural differences. The effort is in line with the state budget proposal to reduce infant mortality in our communities by focusing evidence-based strategies to reduce maternal smoking. Additionally, CPH will partner with the City's Housing Division to adopt smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing facilities and other housing settings for high-risk women and families. This effort supports GCIMTF Recommendation #6, Reduce Maternal and Household Smoking; and,
WHEREAS, $30,000.00 will be allocated for promotional services which will provide strategic advising on different issues within the CelebrateOne initiative. It will primarily focus on community engagement and engage community partners to get involved in the community-wide effort to reduce infant mortality. This service supports GCIMTF Recommendation #1, Improve Social and Economic Conditions Across our Community and in Highest Risk Neighborhoods; and,
WHEREAS, $10,000.00 will be allocated for an establishment of a CelebrateOne Community Fund. The establishment of a CelebrateOne Community Fund at The Columbus Foundation would create a vehicle for tax deductible contributions to be collected and managed to support the work of CelebrateOne and its community partners and projects. This fund supports GCIMTF Recommendation #8, Create a Collective Accountability Structure to Support Strategy Implementation and Goal Attainment; and,
WHEREAS, this ordinance is submitted as an emergency so as to allow the financial transaction to be posted in the City's accounting system as soon as possible. Up to date financial posting promotes accurate accounting and financial management; and,
WHEREAS, an emergency exists in the usual daily operation of Columbus Public Health in that it is immediately necessary to transfer and appropriate said monies and to authorize a contract with Access Health Columbus for the immediate preservation of the public health, peace, property, safety and welfare; Now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the City Auditor be and is hereby authorized and directed to appropriate and transfer $468,762.00 from the Neighborhood Initiatives Fund, Fund No. 18, Object Level One - 10, Object Level Three - 5501, OCA - 500118, to the Health Special Revenue Fund, Fund No. 250, Object Level One - 80, Object Level Three - 0886, OCA - 501618.
SECTION 2. That from the unappropriated monies in the fund known as the Health Special Revenue Fund, Fund No. 250, and from all monies estimated to come into said fund from any and all sources and unappropriated for any other purpose during the twelve months ending December 31, 2015, the sum of $468,762.00 is hereby appropriated to the Health Department, Division 50-01, as follows:
OCA No. 501618, Object Level One 01, Amount $170,762.00
OCA No. 501618, Object Level One 03, Amount $298,000.00
TOTAL APPROPRIATION: $468,762.00
SECTION 3. That the City Auditor be and is hereby authorized and directed to appropriate $27,550.00 within the Neighborhood Initiatives Fund, Fund No. 18, as follows:
Division 44-06
Object Level One- 01
Object Level Three - 1112
OCA - 441500
SECTION 4. That the monies appropriated in the foregoing Section 2 shall be paid upon the order of the Health Commissioner, and that no order shall be drawn or money paid except by voucher, the form of which shall be approved by the City Auditor.
SECTION 5. That the Board of Health be and hereby is authorized and directed to enter into a contract and authorize the expenditure with Access Health Columbus to administer efforts to decrease infant mortality in the City of Columbus, for the period of February 23, 2015 through February 22, 2016, in an amount not to exceed $190,000.00.
SECTION 6. That this contract is being made in accordance with the relevant provisions of the City Code Chapter 329 relating to awarding not-for-profit service contracts exceeding $20,000.00.
SECTION 7. That the funds necessary to carry out the purpose of this ordinance are hereby deemed appropriated, and the City Auditor shall establish such accounting codes as necessary.
SECTION 8. That for reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which is hereby made a part hereof, this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval by the Mayor, or ten days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.