Committee advances emergency ordinances renewing lead-investigation contract and temporary staffing for health inspections

The Health, Human Services and Arts Committee on April 7 moved two emergency ordinances to support the Cleveland Department of Public Health’s lead-investigation work and to extend temporary inspection staffing.

Ordinance 4252025, as amended, authorizes the director of public health to enter into one or more contracts with the Ohio Department of Health to perform environmental lead investigations for Medicaid-eligible and non–Medicaid-eligible children and to contract with outside entities to implement the work. The ordinance was introduced and discussed in committee; a motion to move the ordinance was made on the record but no roll-call vote appears in the transcript.

Director David Margolius described the department’s lead program and its caseload. He said the health department receives referrals for about 250 to 300 children a year with blood lead levels greater than 10 micrograms per deciliter — the state threshold that triggers a full environmental investigation — and that the annual number has remained roughly stable for five years. “The higher it is, the more danger, the more damage it causes to the brain. Our…