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 environmental investigation, the cutoff is the greater than 10 level, and that's something that's set by the state,” Margolius said.

Margolius and other staff outlined how the program operates: cases above the state threshold prompt telephone surveys and, if appropriate, in-home investigations using XRF instruments to identify active lead hazards; the department then works with property owners on remediation plans that can include full abatement. For lower-level results (3.5–9.9 µg/dL), staff said the department focuses on case management, outreach, cleaning supplies and monitoring of trends; when values are above 40 µg/dL children may require hospitalization and chelation treatment. Officials said blood-lead values decline slowly because lead is stored in bone, and children with elevated results are retested every three months until levels fall.

Committee members and staff discussed enforcement and housing remedies. The department reported roughly 390 placarded properties remain on a public list; the department said affidavits recorded on property deeds have prompted property owners to seek compliance and that the department has filed about 70 court cases against non–owner-occupied landlords. Staff said they will provide an estimate of how many placarded properties are inhabited at the committee’s next presentation in two weeks.

Ordinance 2372025 proposes an amendment to contract CT5001PS2024-364 with the Ohio Public Health Association to provide additional temporary staffing for environmental health inspections and to change the contract term. The association supplied two part-time, experienced inspectors in a prior pilot; over a 10-week pilot the two inspectors completed a combined 132 inspections (one completed 80, the other 52). The ordinance includes a not-to-exceed amount of $100,000 for the contract amendment; staff said that $100,000 is intended to cover need across the current and following year and that the city is simultaneously hiring new environmental health staff — five positions are in process — to reduce reliance on outside staffing over time. The director described the arrangement: “We brought on, 2 extra health inspectors part time… and that was very successful.”

Funding and testing context discussed at the hearing included recent testing volumes, grants and reimbursements. Officials said the city tested about 7,800 children in 2023 and about 8,200 in 2024 (the department noted 11,000 tests in 2019 before testing volumes changed); the council previously allocated $500,000 in ARPA funds to improve screening and testing, and staff said the city also received a $1 million grant from the Ohio Department of Health for prevention campaigns including billboards. The department said reimbursements from the state for conducting lead investigations flow into fund 10SF304 and are used to pay inspectors, contractors and laboratory analysis. On fiscal controls, a council member asked about a not-to-exceed cap; staff responded that state reimbursements cover the investigation costs and that the city has budget lines and other financial controls for professional contracts.

Both ordinances were moved in committee; the transcript records the motions but does not include a recorded roll-call vote. Staff will return with follow-up material, including updated counts of inhabited placarded properties and further data at the committee’s next scheduled report.